The Financial Post reports in its Wednesday edition that earnings from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and ASML Holding this week could shed light on issues affecting investor confidence, as both companies have faced declines in their valuations. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post reports that TSMC and ASML are down 18 per cent and 12 per cent this year, driven by U.S. tariff threats and concerns over future artificial intelligence demand. TSMC's forward price-to-earnings ratio recently hit a two-year low, while ASML reached its lowest level since COVID. Concerns over a potential slowdown in AI demand, coupled with tariff uncertainty, have intensified scrutiny on the market for AI chips. The two companies' tech dominance remains unshaken. Quilter Cheviot analyst Ben Barringer says: "Both ASML and TSMC are quite heavily discounted [and] a lot of risks have clearly been priced in. But with uncertainty around what tariffs are going to look like for semiconductors, it is hard to see a rerating without more concrete news to go off." ASML's advanced lithography tools are essential for the making of all cutting-edge chips. TSMC's foundry services are crucial to Nvidia and Apple's chips, as Intel and Samsung lag behind.