ASML gives every employee a €20,000 share award

ASML will give each of its roughly 45,000 employees a one-time €20,000 ($22,862) share award, as demand for AI infrastructure drives record semiconductor sales. The award vests on January 1, 2030, provided recipients remain with the company for the entire period.

The payout adds to a wave of AI-related bonuses across the chip industry. Samsung offered average bonuses of $340,000 to chip workers after reporting record profits, while SK Hynix made similar payouts. TSMC has committed to increasing profit-sharing by more than 30% on average this year.

ASML’s sales forecast and capacity expansion

Companies benefiting from AI infrastructure spending are facing pressure to share more of their earnings with employees. South Korea’s deputy prime minister warned in May that AI-driven labor conflicts would continue to emerge as “super-large companies” grow.

ASML raised its annual sales forecast for the second time this year on Wednesday, targeting €43 billion to €45 billion. It also outlined plans to expand production capacity by 30% for 2027, cut extreme ultraviolet (EUV) machine build time by a third, and said it is nearly sold out through 2028.

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As the only manufacturer of EUV lithography machines, ASML supplies equipment used for every advanced chip made by TSMC, Samsung, and Intel.

The award also serves as a retention tool. ASML is restructuring by reducing management layers while hiring and retaining the engineers who build some of the most complex machines in the semiconductor supply chain. The 2030 vesting date ties employees to the company for nearly four years, covering its most aggressive capacity expansion period.

With a total value of roughly €900 million, the payout is one of the largest single employee awards in European tech history.