Jan 28 (Reuters) – ASML reported stronger-than-expected bookings on Wednesday as the world's largest supplier of computer chip equipment received more orders thanks to larger investments in artificial-intelligence chipmaking capacity. Fourth-quarter bookings, the most watched metric in the industry, were 13.2 billion euros ($15.8 billion), compared with 5.4 billion euros in the previous quarter. That compared with analyst expectations of 6.32 billion euros according to researcher Visible Alpha. "In the last months, many of our customers have shared a notably more positive assessment of the medium-term market situation, primarily based on more robust expectations of the sustainability of AI-related demand," ASML's Chief executive Christophe Fouquet said in a statement. The orders beat comes as several of ASML's chipmaker customers raise investment plans amid surging demand for AI logic and memory chips needed by cloud computing giants such as Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet's Google. The Dutch company also hiked its outlook for 2026, It now expects full-year sales of between 34 billion and 39 billion euros, compared with analysts' expectations of 35 billion euros, according to LSEG data. It has previously forecast flat-to-lower sales than in the previous year, which came in at 32.7 billion euros in 2025. "We expect 2026 to be another growth year for ASML's business", Fouquet said. Analysts had expected the Dutch giant to benefit from the stronger demand of top customers such as TSMC and Samsung, as chipmakers increase capital spending to expand capacity for AI-related chips amid tight global supply of memory, and AI-accelerator chips. ($1 = 0.8339 euros) (Reporting by Toby Sterling in Amsterdam and Nathan Vifflin in Gdansk; editing by Matt Scuffham and Christian Schmollinger)
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