ASML's European revenue share dropped to 0% in Q1 and Q2 2026, down from 1% in 2025 and 5% in 2024; ASML is urging EU authorities to create demand for EU chips
Context & Ripple Effects
ASML’s customer mix had already tilted away from Europe: China accounted for 49% of its first-half 2024 sales in a four-quarter stretch as ASML’s largest market. The company’s 2024 quarterly results also showed how sharply equipment demand and bookings can move with customers’ investment cycles.
The 2026 figures turn that geographic imbalance into a policy argument. With no European revenue recorded in the first two quarters, ASML is asking EU authorities to focus on demand for chips made in the bloc, not solely the equipment needed to manufacture them.
First-order effects
- ASML’s Q1 and Q2 2026 revenue mix contains no European sales, leaving the company without a home-region customer contribution in those periods.
- EU authorities face a direct call from ASML to stimulate purchases of EU-made chips, tying the bloc’s semiconductor ambitions to end-market demand.
Second-order effects
- European chipmakers and prospective fab operators gain a stronger case for policies that steer public and private procurement toward locally made chips, because capacity needs committed buyers to sustain equipment orders.
- ASML’s regional sales dependence becomes more exposed to demand outside Europe, following the earlier period in which China represented nearly half of its first-half 2024 revenue.
Third-order effects
- If EU policy responds chiefly by building demand, semiconductor industrial strategy shifts from subsidizing production assets toward connecting local fabrication with local buyers.
- The episode points to a semiconductor-capacity gap in which equipment leadership alone does not guarantee a regional customer base for the chips that equipment enables.
The trend: European semiconductor policy is moving from a supply-capacity focus toward the harder task of creating durable local demand for locally produced chips.