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One of the most critical companies in the chipmaking industry is seeing its stock price drop precipitously today. Dutch semiconductor company ASML Holding N.V. (Nasdaq: ASML) reported its second-quarter 2025 results, beating on its most critical metrics, but its stock price is still declining in premarket trading. The reason? Executives made comments about its upcoming 2026 fiscal year that have investors concerned. Heres what you need to know. The most important non-chip company in the chip industry ASML Holding N.V. is headquartered in Veldhoven, Netherlands, and is arguably the most important technology company within Europes borders. Given that ASML is critical to the worlds chipmaking supply chain, the company is also one of the most important tech giants in the world. ASML is not a chipmaker itself. However, it produced the machines that make the chips inside your devices. These machines are known as extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) photolithography machines, and they use light to etch patterns into the silicon wafers used in chipmaking. While the world has several photolithography machine companies, ASML is the worlds only maker of EUV photolithography machines. EUV technology is critical in the worlds most advanced chips, including those made by Apple for its Apple Silicon chips and the chips produced by Nvidia, which are crucial for artificial intelligence servers. ASMLs customers include Nvidia and TSMC, the maker of Apples chips. The Dutch company sells its EUV machines to these companies, enabling them to produce their own chips. As noted by CNBC, ASMLs most advanced photolithography machines can be the size of a double-decker bus and cost as much as $400 million each. Without ASMLs machines, the world’s semiconductor manufacturing capability grinds to a halt. ASML beats, but 2026 comments worry investors Thanks to the rise of artificial intelligence, chipmakers are pumping out more advanced chips than everchips that require the EUV photolithography machines that ASML offers. Given that, its little surprise that ASML exceeded investor expectations in its most recent financial quarter. Today, the company announced its Q2 2025 results, in which it reported: 7.7 billion (about $8.9 billion) in net sales 2.3 billion (about $2.6 billion) in net income Gross margin of 53.7% Earnings per share of 5.90 (about $6.85) To put those net sales and net income figures into greater perspective, CNBC notes that analysts were expecting net sales of 7.52 billion (about $8.7 billion) and net income of 2.04 billion (about $2.3 billion). In other words, ASML handily beat expectations. The company also reported net bookingsa metric that indicates customer demandof 5.5 billion (about $6.3 billion), of which 2.3 billion (about $2.6 billion) is for its most advanced EUV photolithography machines. Analysts had been expecting net bookings of 4.19 billion (about $4.8 billion). Why is ASML stock falling? However, despite the welcomed Q2 results, ASMLs stock price has plunged in premarket trading after the company announced its latest financials. That fall has to do with two main factors. First, ASMLs Q3 forecast disappointed investors. The company said it expects to post total net sales of between 7.4 billion (about $8.6 billion) and 7.9 billion. It also expects its gross margin to be between 50% and 52% for the period. The company also said it expects its full fiscal 2025 total net sales to equate to an increase of 15%. As noted by CNBC, analysts had been expecting Q3 net sales to be around 8.3 billion (about $9.1 billion). ASMLs 15% growth forecast for full-year sales was also lower than what it had previously forecast. However, the second factor may be the primary reason for ASML’s share price decline this morningcomments made by ASML executives regarding its 2026 outlook. Announcing its Q2 results, ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet touched on expectations for 2026. Looking at 2026, we see that our AI customers’ fundamentals remain strong, Fouquet said. At the same time, we continue to see increasing uncertainty driven by macro-economic and geopolitical developments. Therefore, while we still prepare for growth in 2026, we cannot confirm it at this stage. In other words, ASMLs CEO is admitting he does not know if the company will grow in 2026. His comments suggest that the main uncertainty surrounding its growth potential are related to President Trumps tariffs. ASML is a foreign company that sells a significant amount to American companies, yet it does not have widespread operations in America, making it a potential target for retaliation from Trump and his goal to bring manufacturing back to the United States. Fouquet did not say there would not be growth, but given the tariff uncertainty, he seems to feel it’s more prudent to prepare investors for that possibility. But thats a cautionary message investors have not taken well. As of the time of this writing, ASML shares are down over 7% in premarket trading to $764 per share. Yesterday, shares had closed above $823. As of yesterdays close, ASML shares were up over 18% since the beginning of the year.
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E-Commerce
Stage fright is not a term youd associate with Elvis Presley, but in 1968 he was all shook upwith nerves. Ahead of his make-or-break comeback special after years floundering in Hollywood, the King had cold feet. He told the specials director, Steve Binder, he was terrified, adding, “I dont know if I can do this . . . just me and a guitar in front of people?” He half-joked to his entourage about retreating to Hawaii. Apart from a few close confidants, no one has ever witnessed these intimate moments of reservation. But starting July 17 in London, guests at Elvis Evolution will see an AI-generated Elvis play out these fears, and other key moments of his life. The immersive event will be powered by various types of tech, but the creators want to ensure that none of them get in the way of the magic of being transported back in time. Layered Reality puts on experiential events comprising three layers: tech, theater, and physical elements. The tech is multifaceted, from augmented reality to 3D audio effects; the theater comprises traditional sets and live actors; the physical elements are sensory stimulants like touch and taste. Thats a really intoxicating combination, says founder and CEO Andrew McGuinness. Often they’re kept in separate worlds. We firmly believe they belong together. The company has deployed this mix of elements for Londoners three times before, including in retellings of War of the Worlds, and The Gunpowder Plot, hosted in the eerie vaults below the Tower of London. The new endeavor is far from a 17th-century plot against a kingthough, this one also has a king, or rather, the King. Elvis records the soundtrack to Love Me Tender in a Los Angeles studio in August 1956. [Photo: Courtesy of Elvis Presley Enterprises, LLC/Layered Reality] Back in time with theater and tech Guests will be escorted through a story-based experience of Presleys life, from a young boy, through the rebellious leg shakes of the 50s, through the opulent Vegas years, all on purpose-built sets at Immerse LDN, a new immersive entertainment complex on the River Thames waterfront. Groups will walk through scenes like a 50s diner and a dressing room. At times, walls and sets will move around them. Theyll take on different points of view. You are literally going to walk in his shoes at one point, says Simon Reveley, head of studios, not indicating if those shoes are blue suede. [Image: Courtesy of Layered Reality] Different scenes will employ different tech tactics. We are very deliberately technology agnostic, McGuinness says, stressing that tech is simply a tool to enhance the experience. When it’s at its best, the technology gets out of the way. In past Layered Reality shows, tech ranged from subtle to sensory: in one scene in The Gunpowder Plot, for example, guests hide in pitch dark from priest hunters, with spatial audio and LED floor lights simulating creeping footsteps; in another, a VR-enhanced boat ride layers motion effects with water sprays, cool air, and the salty scent of the seablending physical cues with digital immersion to trick the brain into believing the experience. [Image: Courtesy of Layered Reality] For Elvis, they dont want to give away too much to ruin the element of surprise. Of course, music will be central. Through it all, artificial intelligence helps to remaster sounds, and upscale fotage quality. AI Elvis But AIs starring role is in AI Elvis himself. Guests will come face to face with the recreation of Presley. Layered Reality trained the AI on hours and hours of footage, feeding an algorithm concert clips, Cine 8 films, and thousands of photos. AI Elvis has been done before in 2022, on Americas Got Talent. An actor served as Elvis deepfake double, creating movements to make it look as if Presley were performing Devil in Disguise (with a deepfake Simon Cowell). Reveley explains that with more advanced facial generative AI, you can now tune the algorithm to lean more into the original source material than the human actor. AI can pick up on minute nuances, vital for someone whose expressions, like the lip curl, were so iconic. We all know them so well, and so does the machine learning algorithm, Reveley says. Much of the purpose of AI Elvis is to unearth footage that happened but wasnt capturedlike the nerves before the 68 TV special. Ethics and delays Recreating imagined scenes raises ethical questions, of whether a person no longer living would want to share their most intimate moments with the world. But the team insists its project is different from the Simon Cowell duetor the AI Anthony Bourdain that was controversially made to narrate part of a documentarybecause they arent fabricating something that never happened. AI [is] being a digital archivist rather than an originator, McGuinness says. The Presley estate is also heavily involved, and granted the team access to all the footage. (The Presley estate did not respond to Fast Companys request for comment.) Still image from Singer Presents ELVIS, known as the Kings 1968 comeback special. [Photo: Courtesy of courtesy of Elvis Presley Enterprises, LLC/Layered Reality] To create AI Elvis, Layered Reality partnered with the Mill, a visual effects agency that won an Oscar for bringing Oliver Reed back to life in Gladiator. The Mill was a subsidiary of the postproduction giant Technicolor Group, which since 1915 set the industry standard for color entertainment. But in February, after years of financial struggles, Technicolor went bust. (Fast Company reached out to the Mill to confirm it was also affected, but didnt hear back.) That caused delays; though Layered Reality had ownership of AI Elvis, it had work to finish. They scrambled to hire artists from The Mill on contract to complete the final phases. They pushed back the start date twice, from the original planned date of March. A post-pandemic events boom Its now on course to welcome guests, to experience what McGuinness views as part of a live entertainment revolution. It views its competitors not as other tech or AI companies, but anything else you could be doing that night, from a musical, to mini golf, to that Italian restaurant on the corner of your street [where] youll end up spending 130 pounds. Given that comparison, McGuinness thinks 75 pounds ($102) for a standard ticket is fair. Were in the memory business, [and] too much of our money is still spent on immemorable things, he says. The business banks on a rising demand for these types of events. The term experience economy has existed since 1998, when it appeared in Harvard Business Review, but COVID-19 accelerated the allure, boosting the popularity of experiences like Cosm in Los Angeles and the Sphere in Las Vegas. With that backdrop, Elvis Evolution hopes it can usher in a modern-day comeback. Of course, the 68 one turned out to be a tour de force, full of raw vocals and black leather. Nerves dissipated, and gave way to humor. “I sang to turtles and palm trees for years, Elvis told the audience about his movie career. This is a lot better, dont you think?”
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E-Commerce
When he was 38, Fast Company senior editor Jon Gluck was diagnosed with an incurable blood cancer, multiple myeloma, and given just 18 months to live. Unbelievably, he has survivedand managed to thrivefor more than 20 years. In his new book, An Exercise in Uncertainty: A Memoir of Illness and Hope, Gluck details how he has lived with chronic illness for the past two decades. Gluck joined the Most Innovative Companies podcast to discuss getting diagnosed, how working helped him cope with his illness, and the workplace accommodations that enabled him to keep going. Your book follows your journey with a rare type of blood cancer. What is the condition? I have a blood cancer alternately referred to as a bone marrow cancer called multiple myeloma. It’s an incurable cancer but one that has fortunately, in my case, been treatable. I will never not have it, but fortunately I’ve been in a position where my doctors have been able to manage and control it quite nicely. There have been times when I’ve been very sick and then I’m treated and I go into a remission and then I’m sick again and I go into a remission. That’s been the story of the last 20 years. A portion of my book proceeds are going toward multiple myeloma research. In the book, you mention that the first person you called after your initial diagnosiswhen you were given less than two years to livewas your boss. Why? I think I was trying to create a sense of normalcy for myself. I think part of it was denial. I just didn’t want to really admit that anything was so wrong that I had to do anything differently than I normally would. Part of it was just the strange sense of duty I have sometimes as an individual. I was like, well, I better report to the boss that I won’t be there today, even though I’ve just received life-changing information. Its very Boy Scout behavior. I was also avoiding calling people for whom it would be a much bigger deal. You write that you encounter three types of responses when you disclose your cancer diagnosis. Some say they know someone who died from the same condition. Others immediately try to help and find solutions. Then theres a third type who just listens to you and is empathetic. What advice do you have for people whose friends or relatives share a diagnosis with them? It’s a tricky thing. Most everybody is well intentioned, and so whatever people say or do I understand. That said, I’m going to give a never, sometimes, always answer to your three buckets. So the never is, Boy, I just knew somebody who had that and they died yesterday. I think it’s pretty unhelpful. Probably the person who just told you they’ve been diagnosed with the same disease is not the best person to talk to about that. Sometimes I think wanting to help is complicated. The criteria I’d use there after 20 years of dealing with this is . . . are you offering something that’s genuinely helpful and that the person probably hasn’t already heard? If you are, then go for it. I think there’ve been people I know who said, Listen, I happen to know my wife’s uncle is really close friends with an amazing myeloma doctor at such and such a hospital. If you ever want to reach out to them, I can put you in touch. That’s helpful. Then the always category of basic empathy or sympathy. I’ve been really struck over the years by how powerful just somebody simply saying, I’m really sorry to hear that [can be]. Honest to God, those words alone are wonderful and more powerful than you think they are. One of the first people I told in my office, a colleague I remember very vividly simply said, You poor guy. I am really sorry. That was so moving and it wasn’t even someone I was particularly close with. It was just somebody who knew the right thing to say. While many people, when they get a diagnosis like this, rethink their whole lives, you looked back on your life and realized you were pretty happy with your job and your situation. How has work helped you throughout your illness? I have been working this whole time. I’ve hardly missed a day of work, even when I’ve been hospitalized, [thanks to] remote work and Zoom. Sometimes people say, That’s so brave or courageous or wonderful of you to have worked the whole time. Believe me, it has nothing to do with bravery in my case, its just an incredibly great distraction. The pressure and deadlines we deal with in our business were great for me because it was like whatever the problem is here at work, it’s not as big as that [cancer] problem. People often talk about getting that kind of perspective when they’ve received a diagnosis like mine. That’s absolutely been true in my case. I really came to see that I love what I do, and so there was just pleasure and enjoyment in doing the work. When you’re sick and not feeling well all the time or getting treatment and feeling even worse, pleasure and enjoyment are in short supply. You can still get burned out though. You wrote about leaving New York magazine after a while because you needed a break. I happened to be working at a place that was extremely demanding and I had been there for more than 10 years. As my disease became more complicated and my treatment became more aggressive and the side effects therefore were more debilitating, many people said to me, Do you really want to work this hard? Stress is bad for you. I was like, well, stress is bad for you if it’s bad stress or if it’s an excessive level of stress, but as I was saying a minute ago, a certain amount of stress I found really good in the sense that it kept my mind off of my illness. But that reached a tipping point somewhere in my 10th year of working. I realized I need a job that’s not so demanding minute to minute, day to day. There are constant layoffs in the media industry, which can be stressful when your medical insurance is tied to your job. What kind of insurance battles have you had? I’ve become an unwilling example of this new category of people I call cancer zombies. And what I mean by that is people who are half sick and half well. Theres a growing number of us because of the advancements in biomedical research and the treatments for many kinds of cancers. Instead of either you’re treated and you survive and you’re good to go for the rest of your life, or you’re treated and unfortunately the treatments don’t work and you pass away, there’s this whole cohort of us who are living for really long periods of time with varying degrees of illness and debilitation. Unless you’re independently wealth, that means you need to work for a lot of years and you need insurance for a lot of years, even while you’re struggling with your illness and your treatments. I learned that the leading cause of personal bankruptcy is unexpected medical expenses. Because of all that [my wife and I] felt like we really needed a sort of belt-and-suspenders approach, and for both of us to have insurance in case either of us got laid off because we were both in the media business and layoffs had been happening for many years at an alarming rate. In terms of dealing with insurance companies, it’s maddening. The system is so broken that what it comes down to is just getting lucky. What I mean by that is getting somebody on the other end of the phone who’s a human being, not a machine, and who actually cares and wants to help solve your problem. Whether that happens or not is just a crapshoot. You just have to keep going at it. What was the pandemic like for you? It was tough. Part of both my illness and my treatment have left me quite immunocompromised. We were in the city and we had no other logical place to go. We didn’t want to move in with family and expose them to extra risk. We followed all the precautions to a T. But then oddly enough, we went back to living the way most people were living. At some point I just decided, what’s the point of staying alive if you don’t live your life? One of the interesting things that happened toward the end of the first, most serious wave of the pandemic is that I wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post. The title was something like, It’s great that everybody’s getting back to normal. Now, please keep in mind that there are some of us who are immunocompromised who still need to take these precautions. Most of the comments I got were lovely and supportive, but [it was also] met [negatively] by some people. One of the comments I think was, That’s the luck of the draw. We don’t owe you anything, stop whining. How important are accommodations, like the ability to work remotely, for you? It’s been tremendously important. One of the other things that is interesting about the pandemic is that in some ways, people sort of sympathize more with everybody who has ever been through [illness] and has to worry constantly about germs. That was normalizing in a strange way. The best part was being able to work remotely. It allowed me to keep my job without going on disability. It allowed me to keep the constant distraction of working in place so that I didn’t lose my mind. It became a lifeline. Have you experienced any workplace discrimination? It’s a really tricky question. I’m not the kind of person to knee-jerk see that sort of thing everywhere, but I’ve had glimpses of it. When I was getting ready to leave New York magazine and interviewing for jobs at other places, a recruiter said to me, I read the story you wrote [about your illness] in New York magazine. How are you doing? On the one hand, she seemed like an extremely nice person and I’m the kind of person who’s inclined to give people the benefit of the doubt. On the other hand, I wondered, Is she fishing for information about my health status so she can figure out if Im a wise hire? I’ll never know. I’m not here to give people advice [about] whether or not they should share information about their illness. I will say once you do decide to, there’s no putting it back in the bottle. So just be super sure that if you want to share this information, you are potentially opening yourself up to what can be a very serious problem. [Photo: Oscar Gluck]
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E-Commerce
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