ASML Photo: VCG

Netherlands-based lithography toolmaker ASML saw stronger-than-expected demand in 2025, with stronger-than-expected growth in the Chinese mainland market, the company said in its annual financial report released on Wednesday.

For the whole year, the company posted total net sales of 32.7 billion euros ($38.55 billion), of which 28.1 billion euros were generated from Asia. 

The lithography market showed double-digit growth, where China remained stronger than initially expected, not only for lithography but also for the full wafer fab equipment market, according to the annual report.

The Chinese mainland remained ASML's biggest market in the fourth quarter of 2025, accounting for 36 percent of the company's net system sales, Chief Financial Officer Roger Dassen said in a call with reporters, Bloomberg reported in January. The Chinese market is expected to fall to about 20 percent of revenue going forward.

A Chinese analyst said that the results from the Chinese market were achieved amid restrictions banning certain ASML products from being sold to the Chinese mainland, underlining the significance of China's vast market. It also showed that the Chinese market remains open to mutually beneficial, win-win trade, reflecting the nation's long-standing commitment to opening-up and cooperation.

"The annual report highlighted the strategic significance of the Chinese mainland market to the lithography toolmaker, in terms of both product sales and services. Even as the more advanced versions of machines are banned for sales, Chinese clients still purchased large number of deep ultraviolet, or DUV, lithography systems, in relation to an ongoing artificial intelligence (AI) boom in China," Chen Jing, a vice president of the Technology and Strategy Research Institute, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

The results also showed the resilience of the global semiconductor industry in face of the US export controls, Chen said.

China's AI chip market is expected to exceed 1 trillion yuan ($140 billion) by 2028, accounting for about 30 percent of the global market, driven by strong domestic demand, the Science and Technology Daily reported in January.
More broadly, the Dutch company noted that in 2025, geopolitical volatility remained high, and AI dominated the news and spending in the semiconductor ecosystem.

A slowdown in global GDP growth is typically not a tailwind for a strong semiconductor cycle. However, the very high growth of demand for AI chips drove the overall semiconductor market in 2025 to double-digit growth, ASML said in its annual report.

Toward the end of 2025, both DRAM and NAND demand increasingly outstripped supply, leading to a strong pricing environment and a good basis for further capacity expansion in 2026, the company noted.

The company also noted US export control measures against China and commented on their effects.

"While this rule would have affected a limited number of our business partners, its implementation has been suspended for one year, until November 10, 2026, as part of a trade agreement with China. As a result, the rule currently has no impact on our business operations," the company said.