ASML's Besi Tie-Up Is a Precision Play, Not a New Business Line

ASML is working with Besi to sharpen the accuracy of chip placement, according to comments from Besi chief executive Richard Blickman reported by media outlets on Thursday. The same remarks drew a line under what the partnership is not: Blickman said Besi does not regard ASML as a competitor in hybrid bonding.

That framing matters more than it might first appear. ASML has not confirmed a rival bonding tool of its own, so the disclosure evidences collaboration rather than a validated push into a new competitive market. For investors, Blickman's comments describe the working relationship from Besi's side — they are not a product launch by ASML, and no confirmed additional revenue stream can be inferred from joint work on chip placement.

Deliveries Speed Up, Capacity Does Not

Separate news concerns the shipment of existing equipment. Bloomberg reported on Tuesday on remarks by Elon Musk, who said ASML and other toolmakers were accelerating deliveries for the Terafab project run by Tesla and SpaceX. SpaceX is targeting high-volume chip production there in the third or fourth quarter of 2028 — a start date Musk himself called highly ambitious.

That distinction — a faster schedule on one project versus the ability to serve the whole customer base — is where ASML's own guidance comes in. Roughly two weeks ago, management said planned shipment volumes would not fully cover customer demand in 2027 and 2028. Some customers were already enquiring about orders for the two years after that, with Reuters reporting on 15 October that buyers had expressed interest in advanced tools for 2029 and 2030. Chief executive Christophe Fouquet said the planned capacity increases would not be enough to meet demand.

The two strands sit side by side without contradicting each other. Individual deliveries can move faster while overall planned capacity stays behind what customers want.

A Record Quarter as the Backdrop

The financial picture underneath that debate is a strong one. In the third quarter of 2026, ASML posted record revenue of EUR 11.7 billion and net profit of EUR 5.0 billion, with a gross margin of 57.5%. For the fourth quarter, the company guided to revenue of EUR 14.2 billion to EUR 15.2 billion. The full-year forecast, raised about two weeks ago, points to EUR 44 billion to EUR 45 billion in sales and a gross margin of around 56%.

Those figures form the operating counterweight to skepticism about longer-dated growth expectations. The guidance describes the company's expectations for current business and should be kept apart from long-run assumptions about the AI buildout.

Why the Stock Came Under Pressure

ASML shares came under pressure yesterday in a global selloff of artificial-intelligence-related equities. The Associated Press attributed the broader market weakness to concerns about AI stocks and rising oil prices. Reuters had reported on 15 October on doubts surrounding the lofty expectations for 2028 and 2029, alongside worries about the financing of AI projects and bottlenecks in data-center capacity.

Those factors bear on how quickly expected growth can be executed — not on whether customers want ASML's machines. Strong demand and a weaker share price are therefore entirely compatible. Interest in future tools does not by itself answer how fast the projects behind them can be realized, and the same caveat applies to Terafab: Musk's statement is not an ASML announcement of a confirmed order.

What counts in reading the latest flow of headlines is the separation between confirmed collaboration, accelerated project deliveries and unconfirmed product plans. The Besi cooperation does not automatically widen ASML's business model, and the Terafab remarks do not remove the supply limits management has described.