Prediction: After Micron and AMD, This Will Be the Next Tech Stock to Join the $1 Trillion Club - The Globe and Mail

This article analyzes the trend of tech stocks entering the trillion-dollar market cap club, with a focus on ASML. Following Micron and AMD, ASML is considered the most likely candidate to join the tr... Read original →

ASML’s path to a $1 trillion valuation isn’t speculative hype—it’s the structural outcome of the AI compute arms race. Its High-NA EUV systems are now the sole enabler for sub-3nm nodes, effectively dictating TSMC, Samsung, and Intel’s capex allocation for years. This dominance cascades through the supply chain: materials, inspection, and cleaning equipment vendors like KLA and Lam must urgently upgrade, raising their R&D costs. Geopolitically, U.S. export controls shield ASML short-term but risk accelerating China’s SSMB-EUV alternatives, threatening long-term supply chain stability. Nikon lacks the optical integration capability to compete, though Tokyo Electron could capture Low-NA share if U.S.-Netherlands policy eases. Over the next 18 months, as AI inference chips migrate to edge applications—robotics, autonomous driving—tool utilization will stay elevated. Yet cyclicality in client capex remains a real threat; crossing the trillion-dollar threshold is less a finish line than a stress test.