Chip machine maker ASML, Nvidia, popular with Dutch investors in 2025

Stock market trading during the 2025 calendar year has been dominated across Europe by artificial intelligence (AI), with the attention of investors primarily focused on the major American tech companies. While AI also played a role among investors in the Netherlands, Dutch investors mainly had eyes on semiconductor machinery manufacturer ASML, and not necessarily the American tech giants, according to an analysis of more than a million Dutch investment accounts at brokerage firm DeGiro.

Headquartered in Veldhoven and an anchor to the Eindhoven area's Brainport region, ASML topped the list of the most traded stocks in the Netherlands in 2025. Of the Magnificent 7 tech companies in the United States, only Nvidia and Tesla cracked the top twelve in the Netherlands.

Nvidia ranked second among investment trades in the Netherlands behind ASML, while the automaker placed in eighth. The other Magnificent 7 firms include Google parent Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook parent Meta, and Microsoft.

"In a European context, it is somewhat surprising that we did not see more U.S. technology stocks on the list of most traded stocks. In many other European markets, other AI and tech heavyweights from the U.S. were significantly represented in stronger figures. On the other hand, in the Netherlands, there's a clear preference for domestic stocks in the trading statistics," said Frans Kuijlaars from DeGiro.

Besides ASML and Nvidia, the world's leading AI chip vendor, Dutch chip companies ASM International and Besi, and American chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) are also among the top twelve most traded stocks in the Netherlands. Other Dutch stocks in the ranking include fintech payment processor Adyen, banking giants ABN Amro and ING, and Leiden pharmaceutical company Pharming.

Another trend in the 2025 stock market year was the popularity of military contractors and defense stocks. This was due to geopolitical tensions and increased weapons spending by European governments.

In that context, it was not surprising that the German defense company Rheinmetall was among the top twelve most traded stocks in the Netherlands. British oil and gas company Shell, which has also has long ties to the Netherlands, was also on the list.