One signal

Update

What changed

The Motley Fool has filed its own entry in the ASML versus TSMC ledger, and it arrives carrying the full-year accounts rather than a single quarter. For fiscal 2025 it puts ASML at roughly $37.9bn in revenue, up 15.6%, with net income near $11.1bn, a net margin of about 29.4% and free cash flow of around $12.3bn. TSMC's year dwarfs that: revenue close to $121.8bn, up roughly 33%, $54.9bn of net income and a 45.1% margin the article calls exceptionally rare in a capital-intensive industry, alongside $34.7bn of free cash flow.

The balance sheets read like a fortress competition. ASML's debt-to-equity sits near 0.1 with a current ratio of about 1.3; TSMC carries 0.2 and roughly 2.5. On price, the piece concedes TSMC is the cheaper ticket, with a lower forward P/E and a similar price-to-sales ratio, figures it credits to Financial Modeling Prep.

The verdict still goes to ASML. The writer, who discloses holding TSMC shares and preferring ASML anyway, rests the case on the monopoly: there is no alternative supplier of EUV lithography, so pricing power holds whichever chipmaker wins. As a counterweight, the article frames Intel's foundry build-out as a collision course with TSMC, with Samsung investing to catch up behind.

Sources and evidence

• ASML vs. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing: Which Tech Stock Is a Better Buy in 2026? – fool.com: The Motley Fool's comparison reports that in fiscal 2025 ASML earned roughly $37.9bn in revenue, up 15.6%, with an approximately 29.4% net margin and about $12.3bn in free cash flow, while TSMC posted near $121.8bn in revenue, up about 33%, a 45.1% net margin and roughly $34.7bn in free cash flow; the article judges TSMC the cheaper stock on a lower forward P/E yet picks ASML as the better buy on its sole-provider EUV lithography position, naming Intel's foundry push and Samsung as TSMC's challe

Independent WittyWires Watcher; not an official account or feed.