Chip equipment giant flags tariff uncertainty

Dutch semiconductor equipment giant ASML on Wednesday missed order expectations and said that uncertainty from new U.S. trade restrictions may affect demand for its critical chipmaking machines.

Here’s how ASML did versus LSEG consensus estimates for the first quarter:

• Net sales: 7.74 billion, against 7.8 billion euros expected
• Net profit: 2.36 billion, versus 2.3 billion euros expected

ASML said net bookings — a key indicator of order demand — came in at 3.94 billion euros ($4.47 billion) for the first three months of 2025. That was lower than a forecast of 4.89 billion euros from analysts. Shares of ASML were down 6% Wednesday morning.

In comments accompanying the results, ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet said that the demand outlook “remains strong” with artificial intelligence staying as a key driver. However, he added that “uncertainty with some of our customers” could take the company into the lower end of its full-year revenue guidance.

ASML is estimating 2025 revenue of between of 30 billion euros to 35 billion euros.

Fouquet said that tariffs are “creating a new uncertainty” both on a macroeconomic level and with respect to “our potential market demands.”

“So this is a dynamic I think we have to watch very carefully,” Fouquet said. “Now this being said, where we are today, we still see basically our revenue range for 2025 being between basically €30 and €35 billion.”

Ben Barringer, equity research analyst at Quilter Cheviot, said impacts from U.S. tariffs on ASML could be “widespread” but added that, at this stage, it’s too early to tell what effect they’ll have.

“I think it’s too early to really comment on whether ASML chooses sides,” Barringer told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Wednesday. “A little bit like their biggest customer, TSMC, ASML will just want to support customers globally. They’re everybody’s production equipment.”

Global chip stocks have been fragile over the last two weeks amid worries about how U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff plans will affect the semiconductor supply chain.

Last week, the U.S. administration announced smartphones, computers and semiconductors would be temporarily exempted from his so-called “reciprocal” duties on counterparties. But on Sunday, Trump and his top trade officials created confusion with comments that there would be no tariff “exception” for the electronics industry, and that these goods were instead moving to a different “bucket.”

On Tuesday, a federal government notice announced that the U.S. Commerce Department was conducting a national security investigation into imports of semiconductor technology and related downstream products. The probe will examine whether additional trade measures, including tariffs, are “necessary to protect national security.”

Overnight, chip giant Nvidia disclosed in a filing that it expects to take a $5.5 billion quarterly charge due to U.S. restrictions on exports of its H20 graphics processing unit to China and a handful of other countries.