An employee moves a semiconductor tester on an assembly line at an Advantest factory in Oura, Japan, on August 10, 2012.
Tomohiro Osumi | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Stock prices of Japanese semiconductor manufacturing equipment manufacturers Advantest Shares rose as much as 14% on Thursday, when the company posted record quarterly sales, but have since risen only about 7%.
Operating profit for the October-December period soared to 113.6 billion yen ($741.8 million), a 64% increase from the same period last year. The company on Wednesday raised its operating profit forecast for the fiscal year ending March 2026 to 454 billion yen, an increase of 21.4%.
Growth was mainly driven by the test systems business, with sales increasing 51.1% to 723.1 billion yen as demand for system-on-chip testers used for high-performance semiconductors and AI semiconductors increased sharply.
Advantest also noted that memory testers for high-performance dynamic random access memory continue to perform well.
Its core business is semiconductor test systems that verify that chips function properly and meet performance and durability standards before shipping.
As chips used in artificial intelligence and high-performance computing become more complex, there is a growing demand for more sophisticated test equipment to ensure quality and reliability.
Advantest management said it does not expect tariffs to have a significant impact at this time, but warned of continued risks from geopolitical uncertainty and currency fluctuations, although it expects strong demand for Tester to continue into the fourth quarter.
