What Makes ASML Exceptional?
Some companies compete. Others define an industry. ASML does both.
The company builds the world’s most advanced lithography machines, essential for manufacturing cutting-edge semiconductors.
Its technology is so complex that no competitor has been able to replicate it successfully.
This gives ASML an extraordinary competitive advantage.
But technology alone doesn’t make a great investment.
What impresses me most is the company’s ability to combine innovation, profitability and long-term vision.
Its customers invest billions of euros in equipment because they have no real alternative.
That creates a business with exceptional pricing power, high barriers to entry and strong recurring demand.
Of course, ASML is not immune to economic cycles or geopolitical tensions.
No business is.
But when I think about businesses that are likely to remain essential over the next decade, ASML is always near the top of my list.
Exceptional companies are rare.
ASML is one of them.