ASML Chief Rules Out Price Gouging as Buybacks, Bullish Calls and a Quiet European Market Shape the Story

ASML CEO Fouquet says he won't weaponize market dominance on pricing, as Anthropic's AI spending plans lift chip stocks and ASML closes up 3.8%.

Christophe Fouquet has no appetite for squeezing customers simply because he can. In an interview with the Financial Times, ASML's chief executive made clear the Dutch lithography giant will not weaponize its dominant market position to push prices higher for the sake of profit maximization. The reasoning is partly practical: tangled global supply chains put hard limits on how quickly the company can expand manufacturing capacity, making aggressive pricing a risky game when it cannot simply ramp output to match.

Fouquet paired that restraint with a warning about the longer term. China's independent development of DUV (deep ultraviolet) machines could, in the medium term, turn the country into a direct competitor rather than merely a customer.

AI Spending Plans Lift the Whole Sector

Investor sentiment, however, was focused elsewhere on the day. News that Anthropic, the AI company, had flagged a sharp increase in planned spending on cloud, computing and infrastructure capacity in its stock market prospectus gave European semiconductor names a clear lift. ASML rode that broader equipment-sector rebound, climbing 3.8% to close at EUR 1,616.20.

The advance extends a recovery that has been building for months. Even after the latest gain, the stock sits 7.5% below its 52-week high of EUR 1,748.00, a level reached at the end of June.

Two Banks, One Direction

Analyst support arrived from more than one corner. UBS's Francois-Xavier Bouvignies reiterated a buy rating with a EUR 2,350 price target, naming ASML a favorite heading into the upcoming reporting season and singling out the company's long-term capacity and revenue goals for 2027 and 2028. Barclays had already reaffirmed its own overweight stance and EUR 2,400 target on September 22, citing the durable outlook for chipmaking equipment demand.

Market attention is now turning toward October 14, 2026, when ASML will publish its full third-quarter results, according to media reports.

Buybacks Keep Ticking Along

Alongside the operational story, ASML continues to lean on its own balance sheet. The company disclosed earlier in the week that it repurchased 165,200 of its own shares between September 21 and 25 under its existing buyback program, a transaction worth roughly EUR 248.2 million.

A Geopolitical Headache and a Home Market That Has Gone Cold

The company is navigating a demanding political landscape at the same time. Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten urged Washington on September 25 to refrain from imposing additional export restrictions on ASML's China business, warning that further curbs could make it harder to sell advanced systems in the Far East.

Asia remains a vital pillar for the equipment maker, but demand closer to home is telling a different story. Executive Vice President Frank Heemskerk said on September 24 that ASML has not sold a single system in Europe so far in 2026, and he called on European policymakers to create targeted incentives for demand for domestically produced chips.