Cutting-edge ASML is holding all the chips in international AI boom

THE tide has officially turned for ASML as it delivered a blockbuster set of results last week. The Netherlands-based company is the market leader in lithography machines used to make semiconductor chips.

- AARIN CHIEKRIE SENIOR ANALYST Hargreaves Lansdown www.hl.co.uk

Without these, you wouldn't have the chips that power the latest phones, computers and Al data centres. It continues to push the boundaries of the most advanced tech, and competitors look a long way off catching up.

This tends to be a cyclical sector. There are peaks and troughs as companies look to match multiyear hardware investments with shifting demand.