Global investors are increasingly optimistic about artificial intelligence developments and AI infrastructure construction progress. European stock markets, home to global lithography giant ASML Holding NV - often called the "pinnacle of human technology" - are poised to achieve six consecutive trading days of strong gains driven by this AI investment boom, heading toward the strongest weekly performance since May.

As of 1:40 PM London time, the benchmark STOXX Europe 600 index rose 0.3%. The index has been reaching new historical highs since September and is moving toward record-breaking gains. The semiconductor sector, led by European semiconductor equipment giants including ASML Holding NV, continues to outperform the broader European market. Banking and mining sectors are outperforming the broader market, supported by strong gold gains and a positive interest rate environment, while food and chemical sectors are among the worst performers.

French markets, constrained by a divided parliament, have become the primary drag on European stocks. The French CAC 40 index gave back earlier gains to trade flat after the Socialist Party said budget proposals were insufficient, hampering Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu's efforts to end the political deadlock.

In Friday's key individual stock movements, Barry Callebaut shares fell 2% after earlier gains, following reports that major shareholders of the Swiss company had previously considered taking the chocolate manufacturer private. Global electrical and intelligent building systems leader Legrand rose as much as 2.4% to a new record high after the electrical equipment manufacturer agreed to acquire Avtron Power Solutions in a deal valued at approximately $1.125 billion.

**Core Driver of European Stock Market Highs: ASML and Semiconductor Equipment Giants**

European stocks opened the fourth quarter strongly, primarily driven by pharmaceutical stock gains following Trump's drug tariff policy implementation and bets on Federal Reserve rate cuts, as well as massive capital inflows into AI infrastructure construction. This is expected to significantly boost profits for semiconductor equipment giants that hold significant weight in European markets, leading strong gains in European technology stocks.

"This year's strong gains reaching new highs in European markets have been essentially contributed by valuation multiple expansion driven by the AI boom," said Maud Giese, Swiss and global equity investment specialist at Union Bancaire Privée. "Sentiment may remain constructive in the short term, but could quickly reverse if macroeconomic risks materialize."

The STOXX 600 index has repeatedly hit new historical highs since September this year, with core contributions undoubtedly from Europe's semiconductor sector, particularly top-tier semiconductor equipment suppliers headquartered in Europe, including ASM International and BE Semiconductor.

Against the backdrop of surging AI chip demand in Europe and globally, chip manufacturers like TSMC and Samsung Electronics, whose 5nm and below advanced processes continue operating at full capacity, have been forced to accelerate chip factory construction in Germany, the United States, and Japan to increase AI chip production capacity. Memory chip leaders like SK Hynix have had to expand enterprise storage chip capacity, meaning they must spend heavily to procure ASM International's proprietary atomic layer deposition equipment, ASML Holding NV's EUV lithography machines, and broader core semiconductor equipment including chip yield monitoring machines and etching equipment, as well as BE Semiconductor's "hybrid bonding" advanced packaging high-end semiconductor equipment.

ASML Holding NV's stock price has entered a significant upward trajectory since last week, catalyzed by "High-NA transitioning from laboratory validation to deployment in chip manufacturing" and investment in Mistral AI. Currently trading around €880 per share in European markets, the stock has surged nearly 30% since September. In U.S. markets, ASML's ADR (ASML.US) has risen over 40% since September, with cumulative gains of 10% over the past seven trading days, hovering around $1,030 per share, approaching closer to the historical high of $1,096.95 set in July 2024.

**Chip Architects Embrace "Bullish Frenzy"**

Recent significant price increases in global DRAM and NAND memory products, along with Oracle's contract backlog of $455 billion far exceeding market expectations, and global AI ASIC chip "super leader" Broadcom's strong recent performance and future outlook have significantly strengthened the "long-term bull market narrative" for AI infrastructure sectors including AI GPUs, ASICs, HBM, and data center SSD storage systems.

AI computing demand driven by generative AI applications and AI agents in inference represents a "vast ocean of stars," expected to drive exponential growth in the artificial intelligence computing infrastructure market. "AI inference systems" are also what Jensen Huang believes will be NVIDIA's largest revenue source in the future.

Wall Street financial giants Citigroup, Loop Capital, and Wedbush believe the global AI infrastructure investment wave centered on AI computing hardware is far from over and is only at the beginning. Driven by an unprecedented "AI computing demand storm," this AI investment wave could reach $2-3 trillion in scale. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has predicted that AI infrastructure spending will reach $3-4 trillion before 2030, with project scale and scope presenting significant long-term growth opportunities for NVIDIA.

International bank UBS issued a research report after news emerged of NVIDIA investing $5 billion in Intel and collaborating on PC and data center chip development, stating this move represents significant long-term benefits for semiconductor equipment manufacturers. Undoubtedly, NVIDIA partnering with long-time rival Intel represents an alliance pushing "CPU+GPU platformization" to higher dimensions: NVIDIA gains stronger x86-side synergy and AI PC sales channels, while Intel leverages this to enter AI's core area - AI data center infrastructure construction. On the industry chain side, EDA software/equipment/packaging/interconnect are the first to benefit.

Changes in foundry patterns remain a long-term observation item, but still represent short-to-medium-term positive catalysts for "foundry king" TSMC. European semiconductor equipment companies like ASML Holding NV, ASM International, and BE Semiconductor currently hold important influence in the global chip industry chain.

Current global AI chip demand is extremely strong, and this explosive demand is expected to continue until 2027. Therefore, chip manufacturers including TSMC, Samsung, and Intel will comprehensively expand capacity, while memory giants like SK Hynix and Micron expand HBM capacity, all requiring large-scale procurement of semiconductor equipment needed for chip manufacturing and advanced packaging, with some core equipment needing upgrades.

AI chips have higher logic density, more complex circuit designs, and higher power and precision requirements for equipment, potentially leading to higher technical requirements in EUV/High-NA lithography, etching, thin film deposition, multilayer interconnection, and thermal management, requiring customized manufacturing and testing equipment to meet these demands. Therefore, European semiconductor equipment giants like ASML Holding NV and ASM International hold the "lifeline of chip manufacturing."

Semiconductor equipment has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the unprecedented AI wave since 2023 and is expected to benefit long-term from the AI boom. With NVIDIA partnering with Intel, the unprecedented product combination of x86 + NVIDIA GPU will inevitably surge demand for x86 architecture CPUs and NVIDIA AI GPU computing clusters in the future chip industry chain, potentially bringing even stronger demand for semiconductor equipment and packaging equipment.

Compared to chip giants like NVIDIA, Broadcom, and TSMC that global investors are focusing on, leaders in the semiconductor equipment field can be considered the "low-key winners" benefiting from this unprecedented wave of global enterprise AI deployment enthusiasm.