Thank you very much for joining Advantest Corporation's financial briefing despite your busy schedule.
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I would like to introduce today's speakers.
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From the left side of the slide on the screen, Mr. Douglas Lefever, Group CEO, Mr. Koichi Tsukui, Group COO, Mr. Sanjeev Mohan, CCRO, and Ms. Hisako Takada, CFO.
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I'm Semba from the IR Department, serving as the moderator of today's session.
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Before we begin, we would like to remind you that today's briefing contains forward-looking statements, all of which are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ from those forward-looking statements.
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Please note that today's financial briefing is being recorded for the purpose of accurate record-keeping and distribution on our corporate website.
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Now Douglas will present the summary. Doug, please go ahead.
Okay. Hi, this is Doug. Thank you everyone for joining us today.
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Before we begin today's presentation, I would like to express our deepest condolences to all those affected by the earthquake that struck Kumamoto Prefecture in Japan on July 28th.
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At this time, we have not identified any material impact on our employees and their families or our business operations. Should any material developments arise, we will disclose them in a timely manner.
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Let me now begin by sharing what I believe are the most important takeaways from this quarter.
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Q1 delivered record quarterly highs in sales, operating income, and net income, marking a very strong start to our fiscal 2026.
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More importantly, I would like to focus on the structural shift in demand that is driving these results.
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The AI market is entering a new phase of growth.
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The rapid adoption of inference AI is becoming an increasingly important driver of semiconductor demand. This trend is benefiting a broad range of devices, including ASICs, CPUs, and DRAM.
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Production volumes of AI-related semiconductors continues to grow. While devices are becoming increasingly complex, advanced packaging, high-speed I/O, power management, thermal optimization, and many other technologies are advancing simultaneously.
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As a result, semiconductor testing requirements have changed significantly compared to just a few years ago.
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While semiconductor unit volumes often attract the most attention, we believe the more important driver of future test demand is not just unit volumes alone, but the continued growth in test content and test insertions with each new device generation.
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Against this backdrop, we now expect the 2026 tester market to be larger than previous expectations. For both SoC and memory testers, we see market growth exceeding our expectations from April.
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In particular, tester demand for inference AI-related ASICs, CPUs, and DRAM is growing faster than we previously expected.
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Advantest remains very well positioned for this growth.
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Our leading SoC test platform, the 93K, has been widely adopted across a broad range of customers in the increasingly complex AI semiconductor markets, where advanced packaging technologies, including GPUs, ASICs, and CPUs are being adopted. It serves as a key foundation that underpins our competitive advantage.
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Reflecting both the market environment and our Q1 performance, we have raised our FY 2026 outlook. We now expect revenue, operating income, and net income to reach new record highs, and EPS is also expected to reach a record high.
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This outlook reflects not only our recent performance, but also our current view of the demand environment.
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Given this, we continue to focus on reliable delivery at scale to respond to the demand.
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We have been actively investing in capacity expansion, given the recent surge in demand, we are accelerating those efforts and pulling forward our original plans. This goes far beyond simply increasing production volumes. It involves strengthening our entire supply chain, deepening collaboration with production partners, securing critical components, maintaining quality, and ensuring timely delivery to customers.
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Looking further ahead, we believe the future of semiconductor testing will continuously require a more integrated approach that encompasses not only test systems, but also software, automation, data analytics, and adjacent solutions. We continue to evolve from a test equipment company into a comprehensive solutions provider.
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Therefore, we continue to increase investments in R&D, software development, automation, AI-enabled test technologies, and strategic partnerships. This broader strategy also extends to areas such as silicon photonics and advanced packaging. These investments are intended not only to drive short-term growth, but also to further strengthen and expand our competitive advantage over the medium to long term.
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In summary, this quarter's performance demonstrates that structural growth opportunities driven by AI continue to materialize through this elongated and durable cycle.
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Supported by our strong market position and broad customer base, we are accelerating capacity expansion and investing for the future. Beyond meeting current demand, we are investing and strengthening our competitive position to support the next stage of growth for the semiconductor industry.
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That concludes today's highlights.
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