Gauchi Surhan

Gauchi Surhan's representative inquired about the pricing and margins on outsourcing layers from captives relative to traditional mainstream IC, whether customer conversations indicate improving sentiment and long-term planning despite geopolitical issues, the concentration of high-end IC growth in Q4, and the commercial model in Korea compared to the U.S. given capability extensions.

Answer

Chris Progler, CTO, stated that high-end outsourcing from captives generally yields higher ASPs and better margins, as captives typically pay a fair price. He also noted a slight easing in export restrictions and tariffs, allowing customers to plan better, and Frank Lee, Head of Asia Operations, confirmed that U.S. and Korea expansion projects are based on robust longer-term customer dialogues. Chris Progler clarified that Q4 high-end IC growth was broad-based across existing core memory and foundry logic customers, with some new additions, and is sustainable. Frank Lee added that in Korea, advanced logic foundry customers continue their outsourcing policy for high-end nodes, driving expansion, even if not always through formal long-term agreements.