TSMC and ASML both feature in our 10 Best AI Infrastructure Stocks to Buy for the Long Term. Buying ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) instead of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM) changes the form of geographic exposure. A toolmaker can supply factories in several countries, but those sales remain exposed to export rules and customers’ construction decisions.
Image: Courtesy of ASML
Factories abroad take time to become protection
TSMC’s Arizona expansion illustrates the difference between announced investment and operating capacity. Its first Arizona fab entered N4 volume production in the fourth quarter of 2024. The company targets N3 volume production at its second fab in the second half of 2027, with N2 and A16 production at the third planned by the end of the decade. Future factories cannot replace current output before they are equipped, qualified and running.
The bullish case is that more operating locations improve resilience and bring manufacturing closer to customers. The cost is a longer construction and execution program. TSMC’s own risk disclosures identify geopolitical tensions, natural disasters and interruptions to water and power among the threats to operations. Geographic expansion reduces some dependencies only as usable capacity arrives.
That expansion also consumes cash. Investors need both the geographic benefit and its investment burden when evaluating the strategy.
The supplier trades location risk for sales restrictions
ASML can benefit when customers build additional fabs across regions, because those plants require lithography equipment. Yet equipment demand is not the same as permission to supply it. In its July second-quarter management transcript, ASML expected China to represent about 20% of 2026 total net sales. That was a dated management expectation, not a guarantee or a measure of unrestricted sales.
Export restrictions can change which systems and services reach particular customers. A shift toward permitted destinations may offset part of that risk, but replacement orders need not arrive on the same timetable or with the same product mix. ASML’s advantage is participation in several customers’ expansion plans; its vulnerability is that geographically diversified demand still passes through regulatory and spending decisions.
On October 16, trailing earnings multiples were near 27 for TSMC and 42 for ASML. Different growth prospects can justify different valuations, but paying more for the supplier is not free protection. Our return analysis explores how a lasting valuation premium can reverse the five-year comparison.
Q2 2026 hedge-fund holders rose to 249 from 234 for TSMC and to 140 from 133 for ASML. Fisher increased shares 2% and 3%, respectively. The tracked fund population changed; these counts do not measure net fund inflows. September 30 short interest was 30.49 million TSMC shares and 1.45 million ASML shares.
ASML offers a different geographic risk profile, rather than a complete escape from it. Favor its exposure if permitted equipment demand across regions can sustain growth at the price paid. Favor TSMC’s manufacturing economics only with confidence that overseas execution and existing operations can support durable cash generation. Neither choice eliminates geopolitical uncertainty.
