South Korea becomes ASML's largest market as AI drives memory demand

South Korea ranked first among ASML's markets in the first quarter of 2026, displacing China as memory makers sharply increased equipment purchases. The shift is an important signal for the market: the investment cycle set off by the artificial intelligence boom is increasingly moving demand toward companies that make memory for AI servers and accelerators. ASML is the key supplier of lithography systems for the most advanced semiconductor fabs, so its quarterly sales geography often shows where the industry's main capital spending is going.

According to the company, South Korea accounted for 45% of ASML's net system sales by shipping region in the first quarter of 2026. In the previous quarter, that share was 22%. China, which was still the largest destination in the fourth quarter of 2025 with a 36% share, fell to 19%. Taiwan took 23%, the US 12%, and other Asian markets 1%.

In monetary terms, South Korea accounted for roughly 2.84 billion euros in net system sales, a category that totaled 6.3 billion euros for the quarter. By comparison, China accounted for about 1.2 billion euros and Taiwan for about 1.45 billion euros. This is not all of ASML's revenue, only system sales, but those figures best reflect chipmakers' current investment activity. The company's total quarterly revenue reached 8.8 billion euros, net income was 2.8 billion euros, and gross margin was 53%.

The main reason for the shift is memory. The memory segment made up 51% of ASML's system sales in the first quarter, versus just 30% a quarter earlier. The logic is simple: AI infrastructure needs not only more powerful GPUs and specialized accelerators, but also huge volumes of fast memory, above all DRAM and HBM. South Korea is the home market of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, the two largest memory players, which are expanding capacity and speeding up the move to more complex process nodes. For ASML, that means higher demand both for EUV systems and for upgrades to the installed base.

The quarter's technology mix shows the same trend. EUV accounted for 66% of net system sales, versus 48% a quarter earlier, even though fewer EUV units were sold than mass-market KrF and ArFi machines. The reason is that EUV equipment is far more expensive and is used where customers move to the most advanced production nodes. A rising EUV share usually signals not just capacity expansion but a move toward more complex, more capital-intensive processes. This matters especially for memory, because manufacturers are trying to raise output while keeping performance at the level AI workloads demand.

China offers another important contrast. In 2024–2025, Chinese customers were one of the main drivers of ASML orders, partly because of accelerated purchases ahead of export restrictions. But the picture changed in early 2026: China's share dropped noticeably, and the center of gravity temporarily shifted to Korea and other markets where AI demand directly pushes production expansion.

ASML itself stresses that chip demand still outpaces supply and that customers are accelerating capacity expansion plans for 2026 and beyond. The company also raised its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to 36–40 billion euros and noted separately that this range already factors in uncertainty around export controls.

For the industry, this means the next phase of the AI boom will be determined not only by compute chips, but also by who clears bottlenecks in the memory supply chain faster. If the current trend holds, South Korea will cement its role as one of the main centers of semiconductor capital spending, and ASML's results will continue to serve as an early indicator of where the next shortage is forming.