1 No-Brainer Semiconductor Stock to Buy In 2023

When deciding what stocks to buy, investors often look for strong secular trends. Put another way, owning companies within industries that have long runways for growth ahead of them can be a smart place to put investing dollars.

Few industries have a brighter future than semiconductors. It is almost impossible to imagine a world that won't need more and more semiconductors as time goes on.

Within the semiconductor space, ASML (NASDAQ: ASML) plays a vital role, and yet it occupies its niche entirely alone. A closer look reveals several other reasons ASML is a no-brainer buy for 2023.

An incredible moat

ASML provides chipmakers with the hardware needed to produce chips using lithography. Essentially, lithography is a way to mass-produce patterns on silicone that increases the value and lowers the cost of a semiconductor chip.

ASML sells extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography systems and deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography systems, and it is the only company in the world that makes EUV systems. Taking into consideration its market share of DUV machines and its monopoly on EUV machines, ASML has what amounts to an unassailable moat. The semiconductor industry simply cannot function as it does today without ASML.