Chip makers need highly complex production equipment as they race to build more advanced semiconductors to power artificial-intelligence features in everything from smartphones and laptops to data centers, putting suppliers like ASML at the forefront of the AI-spending bonanza.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's largest contract chip maker, and South Korean memory-chip maker Samsung Electronics are among ASML's largest clients. The two companies face added pressure from their own customers to churn out more capable chips that tech giants like Microsoft and Google owner Alphabet need to upgrade their data centers.
But while demand for AI semiconductors keeps booming, chip makers are still confronting an inventory glut as manufacturers of consumer devices such as smartphones, laptops, electric vehicles and industrial equipment stockpiled the chips they needed years back and aren't placing as many orders now.
