Employees move semiconductor testers on the assembly line of the Advantest Corp. plant in Ora, Japan on Aug. 10, 2012.
Tomohiro Ohsumi | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Shares of Japanese semiconductor equipment maker Advantest jumped as much as 14% Thursday after the company posted record quarterly sales, before paring gains to about 7%.
Operating profit for the October-December quarter surged 64% year on year to 113.6 billion yen ($741.8 million). The company also raised its operating profit forecast for the year ending March 2026 by 21.4% to 454 billion yen on Wednesday.
Growth was driven primarily by its Test System Business, where sales surged 51.1% to 723.1 billion yen as demand surged for system-on-a-chip testers used in high-performance and AI semiconductors.
Advantest also cited continued strength in memory testers for high-performance dynamic random-access memory.
Its core business is semiconductor test systems, which verify that chips function properly and meet performance and durability standards before they are shipped.
As chips used in artificial intelligence and high-performance computing become more complex, demand has grown for more advanced testing equipment to ensure quality and reliability.
While Advantest’s management said it does not currently expect tariffs to have a major impact, it flagged ongoing risks from geopolitical uncertainty and currency volatility, even as it sees strong tester demand to persist into the fourth quarter.