The company posted fourth-quarter orders well above analysts’ expectations as chip makers scrambled for machinery to produce increasingly sophisticated semiconductors.

ASML Holding NV booked more than twice as many orders as analysts expected in the fourth quarter, as the artificial intelligence boom drove demand for its chipmaking machines.

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,