ASML's Earnings Prove the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Supercycle Isn't Slowing Down. Here Are the Best Growth Stocks to Buy Now.

ASML raised 2026 revenue guidance to €36B-€40B from €34B-€39B after first-quarter revenue rose nearly 14% year over year to €8.8B, signaling continued strength in AI-related chip demand. The article argues this is positive for AI infrastructure beneficiaries Vertiv and Celestica, which posted 2025 revenue growth of 28% each; Vertiv guided to $13.5B revenue and $6.02 EPS in 2026, while Celestica guided to 37% revenue growth and 45% EPS growth to $8.75. The overall read is that AI capex remains robust and supports further upside across the semiconductor and data center supply chain.

Analysis

The read-through is not just “AI demand is healthy” but that the bottleneck is moving down the stack. If leading-edge wafer capacity stays tight, incremental spend cascades into the enablement layer first: power, cooling, interconnect, and contract manufacturing should see better order visibility before chip vendors do. That favors CLS and VRT because both monetize the buildout intensity per rack rather than the end-demand unit count, which tends to make them less exposed to semis inventory digestion and more exposed to hyperscaler capex cycles.

The second-order implication is that the market may be underpricing operating leverage in the infrastructure layer. When customers pull forward capacity, suppliers with constrained manufacturing footprint and backlog can re-rate twice: first on revenue upgrades, then on margin expansion as utilization improves and pricing holds. That creates a cleaner earnings revision path for CLS/VRT than for ASML, whose near-term upside is more dependent on shipment cadence and lithography mix.

The main risk is that the AI spend impulse is increasingly concentrated in a small number of hyperscalers, so a pause in capex by even one or two buyers would hit the ecosystem quickly. Another risk is that the “good demand” narrative becomes crowded, compressing multiple expansion before the earnings inflection fully shows up. Near term, watch whether backlog conversion turns into guidance raises over the next 1-2 quarters; if not, the stocks can de-rate even with intact long-term AI demand.

Consensus is probably still too focused on the chip layer and not enough on the plumbing. The better asymmetry is in picks-and-shovels suppliers that benefit from each incremental dollar of AI capex, especially where capacity additions are still catching up to demand. In that context, a relative-value long in the infrastructure names versus the more fully-owned AI leaders looks more attractive than chasing the headline semiconductor winners.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Go long CLS vs short ASML on a 2-3 month horizon: thesis is that infrastructure suppliers get faster estimate revisions from capex reacceleration, while ASML’s upside is more already reflected in the stock. Target 10-15% relative outperformance for CLS if hyperscaler capex commentary stays firm.
• Initiate a long VRT position into any 3-5% pullback over the next 1-2 weeks; use a 2-3 month hold for backlog-to-revenue conversion. Risk/reward is attractive because order visibility plus manufacturing leverage can drive another leg of margin expansion.
• Add a smaller tactical long CLS/VRT basket against a short of slower-growth hardware names in the same ecosystem over the next earnings season. This is a cleaner way to express ‘AI capex is real’ without overpaying for the most crowded semis exposure.
• Buy upside exposure via call spreads in VRT or CLS for the next 90 days rather than outright equity if implied volatility remains elevated. The options structure limits downside if the market has already priced in the next guidance raise.
• Do not chase NVDA/INTC on this tape; use them only as sentiment indicators. The incremental alpha is more likely in the second-order suppliers until the market re-prices infrastructure scarcity.