ASML Hands Out €20,000 Stock Bonuses to All 45,000 Employees After AI-Fueled Record Sales

The Dutch lithography giant ASML has had a year that most companies only dream about. AI demand pushed its second-quarter sales to €9.3 billion, up 21% from a year ago. Profit margins hit 54%. So the company is doing something unusual — it’s splitting a piece of that success with every single one of its 45,000 employees.

ASML announced this week that it will issue a one-time restricted stock award worth €20,000 (about $22,000) to all eligible staff globally. The grant date is set for January 1, 2027, but here’s the catch: the shares don’t vest until January 1, 2030. Employees who leave before then forfeit the award.

“The company is sharing its success with the people who built it,” ASML’s management committee said in an email to staff, as reported by Bloomberg.

The timing is no accident. ASML raised its full-year sales forecast for the second time this week, driven by demand for its extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines — the multi-million-dollar systems that are essential for manufacturing the world’s most advanced AI chips. The company has been racing to expand production capacity to keep up with orders from TSMC, Samsung, and Intel, all of whom are building new fabs to feed the AI boom.

ASML posted net income of €2.9 billion for the second quarter on revenue of €9.3 billion. The gross margin of 54% reflects the pricing power the company enjoys as the sole supplier of EUV lithography equipment.

The stock grant joins a growing trend among chip industry leaders. TSMC, NVIDIA, and other semiconductor giants have all distributed bonus programs to retain talent in a fiercely competitive hiring environment. By tying the payout to a three-year vesting period, ASML is effectively locking in its workforce through 2030 — a critical window as the company scales production of its next-generation High-NA EUV machines.

For an ASML engineer in the Netherlands, the award represents roughly one-third of the average annual salary. For employees in lower-cost regions like Taiwan or South Korea, it’s proportionally larger — a powerful retention tool in a market where experienced lithography engineers are some of the most sought-after talent in the world.