The company posted orders well above analysts’ expectations for the fourth quarter as chip makers scrambled to get their hands on machinery to produce increasingly sophisticated semiconductors.

The low-cost techniques used by the Chinese company to create a breakthrough new AI model suggested that big advances could be made without the need for the vast investment in chips and computing power that US rivals such as OpenAI,

Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML on Wednesday reported better-than-expected net sales and profit results for the fourth quarter.