Recently, ASML, a leading photolithographic company, revealed at the investor's day meeting that it will expand its production capacity. By 2026, the company's annual EUV output will reach 90 units, and it will launch a 12 billion euro stock repurchase plan.
At the investor day meeting, ASML disclosed the latest views of ASML on the demand outlook to its headquarters in Feldhofen, the Netherlands, as well as to investors and major stakeholders attending the meeting online. ASML President and CEO Peter Wenlink and ASML Executive Vice President and CFO Roger Dassen discussed ASML's long-term strategy, general trend, demand, capacity plan and business model to support the company's future growth.
In terms of future expectation, ASML has raised its performance expectation, which is expected to have a revenue of 30 billion to 40 billion euros in 2025. ASML believes that although the current macro environment has brought short-term uncertainty, the market's long-term demand for it and the company's capacity will develop steadily. The expanding application space and industrial innovation will continue to drive the growth of the semiconductor market.
As for specific measures, ASML plans to expand the production of flagship EUV equipment. From 2025 to 2026, the annual output will be 90 EUV (extreme ultraviolet light) lithographies and 600 DUV (deep ultraviolet light) lithographies. From 2027 to 2028, 20 systems of High NA EUV lithography will be increased.
At the same time, ASML simultaneously announced the launch of a stock repurchase plan up to 12 billion euros. ASML said that it planned to issue cash to shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases that continued to grow, effective immediately. The company plans to use up to 2 million shares for employee dividends and cancel the remaining repurchases, which will be implemented before December 31, 2025.
Public information shows that ASML, Nikon and Canon occupy more than 90% of the global semiconductor lithography market. In addition to ASML, the leader of lithography machine, Nikon and Canon, two major Japanese lithography machine enterprises, announced their production expansion plans earlier.
The new business development goal of Nikon lithography equipment is that by March 2026, the annual shipment of lithography equipment will more than double the current three-year average.
In terms of Canon, on October 4 this year, Canon announced that it would invest more than 50 billion yen (about 2.46 billion yuan) to build a new semiconductor equipment factory in Tochigi, eastern Japan, with the goal of doubling the current semiconductor equipment capacity. The plan will start construction in 2023 and start operation in the spring of 2025.