The closing price of ASML on the Amsterdam stock exchange was 686 euros on Thursday. With 388.4 million outstanding shares, this results in a market capitalization of 266 billion euros. In Frankfurt, one SAP share was worth 219.50 euros on Thursday evening. With 1175 million shares of SAP in circulation, this is at a total market value of 258 billion euros.
The fact that ASML has become the most valuable company in Europe is due to the enthusiasm among investors about artificial intelligence (AI). The American company Nvidia, specialized in AI-Halfsteiders, is the world leader with a market capitalization of 3.7 trillion euros.
Richest person
On Wednesday, the shares of the technology company Oracle rose by no less than 43 percent, because investors celebrated the increasing demand for AI data centers. Co-founder and major shareholder of Oracle, Larry Ellison, briefly became the richest person in the world and took over from Tesla boss Elon Musk.
Larry Ellison passes Elon Musk and is the richest man in the world thanks to Ai-Hunger Tech Giants
ASML plays an important role in the development of AI. The company is building very complex lithography systems that are used for the production of advanced chips. AI chips from Nvidia are also used. Being dependent on ASML machines.
SAP replaced by AI
Whether SAP benefits from the AI-Haussse, investors are increasingly asking themselves, according to Wirtschaftswoche. The shares of SAP have been falling steadily since June. There is a fear that powerful AI could replace the SAP software in the medium to long term. That is why SAP has now had to make way for ASML.