The contact resistance and thermal stability of NiGe(Au)W ohmic contacts are reported as a function of their Au content. The contact resistance, measured by the transmission line method, is found to decrease monotonically from a maximum of ∼0.8 Ω mm for the Au‐free NiGeW contacts, to less than 0.15 Ω mm for NiGe(Au)W containing ∼60 Å of Au. The low Au content contacts are also found to be more stable than their Au‐free counterparts when stressed at 400 °C for a number of hours. Possible mechanisms to explain these results are proposed.