The One Tech Company Cashing In on the AI Gold Rush—Selling Picks and Shovels to the Future

Silicon Valley’s latest gold rush isn’t about mining AI—it’s about selling the tools to those who think they can.

While startups burn cash chasing the next ChatGPT, one company quietly dominates the infrastructure game. No hype, no hallucinations—just cold, hard compute.

The Real AI Arms Dealers

Forget flashy chatbots. The real money’s in the unsexy backbone: GPUs, cloud clusters, and the glue code holding this circus together. Our unnamed champion sells the picks and shovels while others dig for fool’s gold.

Wall Street’s already placing bets—because nothing screams ‘bubble’ like VCs funding AI-powered toaster startups at $50M valuations.

One question remains: When the hype dust settles, who’ll be left holding the actual shovels?

Image source: The Motley Fool. 

ASML's crucial role in keeping AI on the cutting edge of innovation

Technology revolves around microchips, pieces of silicon packed with tons of transistors -- tiny semiconductor devices that manipulate electrical signals. You could think of transistors as the cells that make up organic tissue.

Making technology more powerful and efficient requires packing microchips with an increasing number of transistors. For example,'s Blackwell GPU AI chip contains 208 billion of them! That's up from the 80 billion transistors in its predecessor, the H100.

However, it's not easy fitting billions of transistors onto a piece of silicon you can hold in your hand. It requires a specialized process, known as extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light lithography. ASML is the world's only company that builds these EUV machines, making it a critical player in artificial intelligence and other emerging high-tech applications, such as autonomous vehicles and humanoid robotics.

Looking into why the stock is down

Despite the excitement surrounding AI and its potential, ASML's stock has lagged. Shares have slumped by over 15% in the past 12 months, while the tech-heavyhas surged by over 20%.

Unfortunately, the Dutch company has faced some turbulence related to global economic tensions. Tariffs have increased the costs of equipment, components, and supplies imported into the United States. Furthermore, the U.S. government has reportedly continued to pressure the Dutch government to limit ASML's business with China.

The company's management noted on ASML's Q2 2025 earnings call that the disruptions were causing some customers to hesitate, potentially slowing or delaying equipment purchases, which resulted in ASML issuing a cautious growth outlook for 2026.

ASML also sells to a small customer base. Since there are only a handful of prominent companies that manufacture chips, just three customers account for the majority of ASML's sales. One of those,, has struggled. It's naturally riskier to have most of your eggs in just a few baskets, which has potentially weighed on investor sentiment as well.

Why ASML could be an excellent buy right now

Given the risks, it's understandable that the stock has performed as it has. That said, investors have the opportunity to step back and assess the broader picture here.

Although tariffs and other issues may cloud ASML's short-term outlook, the long-term trend is clear: AI and other applications will demand more advanced chips. ASML's position as the dominant provider of lithography and EUV lithography systems will likely drive long-term growth.

Additionally, ASML's dominance helps mitigate customer concentration risks, as chip foundries are heavily dependent on these machines and cannot easily purchase them elsewhere. That could be why analysts still anticipate ASML growing earnings by an average of over 17% annually over the next three to five years.

The stock has slumped to a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 26. That's in line with its lowest P/E ratio over the past few years, and its lowest since 2019. In other words, ASML doesn't fall to these levels very often, especially given the market's focus on AI opportunities.

If there were no question marks, ASML probably wouldn't be this cheap. However, ASML should continue selling its ultra-important EUV systems for as long as the AI gold rush persists. Investors may well look back in hindsight and wish they had scooped up shares on the cheap.