As of the close of the US stock market on October 15th local time, the stock price of AI chip star company NVIDIA fell 4.69%, with a stock price of $131.60 per share. Overnight, the market value evaporated by $158.71 billion (approximately RMB 1129.57 billion).
Photolithography giant lowers performance expectations, affecting semiconductor stock market
On the news front, global lithography machine giant ASML recently announced its financial results in advance and predicted that due to continued weakness in some areas of the semiconductor market, sales and orders in 2025 will be lower than expected. According to the company's financial report, the orders for the third quarter of this year were only 2.6 billion euros, which is nearly half of the market's expected 5.4 billion euros. The company expects that by 2025, the total net sales will increase to between 30 billion and 35 billion euros (previously guided at 30 billion to 40 billion euros), which is in the lower half of the previous forecast range. The gross profit margin ranges from 51% to 53%, which is lower than the range provided at that time.
ASML executives stated that the sluggish chip market is expected to continue until 2025, leading customers to remain cautious. Due to the downward adjustment of performance expectations, as of the close of the US stock market on October 15th local time, ASML's stock price has fallen by more than 16%.
Despite strong demand for chips related to artificial intelligence, ASML points out that other parts of the semiconductor market have been sluggish for longer than expected, causing companies manufacturing logic chips to postpone orders and companies manufacturing storage chips to only plan for "limited" new capacity growth. According to the data, ASML's clients include TSMC, Intel, Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix.
Industry insiders believe that as an important player in the chip industry, Nvidia, despite being in the hottest field of artificial intelligence and being a "leader", is still inevitably impacted. Due to ASML lowering market expectations, people are more concerned about the uncertainty of the technology stock market. However, recently, Nvidia CEO Huang Renxun and other senior executives continued to reduce their holdings of the company's stock. Although most analysts expressed optimism about Nvidia's future, the combination of external factors has once again raised doubts about whether the stock price of this star company can continue to remain high.