Takeru Hanaya

Questioned the rationale behind the forecast for NAND investment to double in CY2025, given that vendors are cutting production volumes, and asked about the outlook for 2026.

Answer

The forecasted doubling of NAND investment is for brownfield technology migration, not new greenfield capacity. Customers are investing to migrate to newer nodes to reduce their unit costs and improve profitability. For 2026, the company tentatively assumes the current investment level will continue, with cutting-edge NAND customers expected to increase investment.

Questioned the company's strategy for partnerships in the hybrid bonding space, particularly for HBM, and asked for the expected timeline for hybrid bonding for NAND and backside PDN to become significant.

Answer

The executive explained that the company sees opportunities in die-to-wafer bonding and is exploring possibilities within its supply chain rather than doing everything in-house. The timeline for adoption is: NAND flash bonding in 2-3 years, backside PDN in 3-4 years, with die-to-wafer bonding being a more future-oriented technology.

Asked for a deeper explanation of the significant gross margin improvement in the new guidance. Questioned if the improvement was driven more by a change in the product mix *within* the SoC segment (i.e., a higher proportion of high-margin HPC/AI testers) rather than the overall SoC vs. memory mix.

Answer

The company confirmed the analyst's suggestion was correct. A major driver for the margin improvement is the favorable mix within the SoC business, as HPC-related test systems have richer configurations and higher average selling prices. Additionally, they have successfully executed on margin improvement initiatives for the memory business and benefited from a favorable mix within memory products as well.

Takeru Hanaya from SMBC Nikko Securities inquired about the significant improvement in the gross margin guidance, from 48% to 52%. He suggested that the improvement might be driven more by a favorable mix shift within the SoC segment (HPC/AI vs. automotive) rather than just the overall SoC vs. memory mix.

Answer

Executive Douglas Lefever agreed that the favorable SoC mix was a key factor but also highlighted successful margin expansion initiatives in the memory business, including value-added features and economies of scale. An executive added that HPC-related business requires richer, higher-ASP test systems, which carry better margins, confirming the analyst's hypothesis about the mix within the SoC segment.