Advantest lifts full-year profit forecast by about 14% as AI chip testing demand grows

Advantest, the Tokyo-based maker of equipment used to test semiconductors, raised its earnings guidance for the fiscal year ending in March 2027 after markets closed on October 28. The company attributes the revision to AI: chips for data centres are being produced in larger volumes and are more complex to test.

The new figures

According to Investing.com, Advantest now forecasts operating profit of 967 billion yen, up from 846 billion yen previously, an increase of roughly 14%. The revenue outlook moves to 1.863 trillion yen from 1.714 trillion yen, and the net profit forecast to 741.5 billion yen from 660 billion yen.

The upgrade follows a strong first half. In the six months to September, revenue rose 60.5% year on year to 845.2 billion yen, operating profit climbed 96.5% to 456.8 billion yen and net profit more than doubled to 368.1 billion yen. Besides AI demand, the company pointed to higher data centre investment, a weaker yen and valuation gains on strategic investments booked in financial income, the latter being a factor unrelated to its operating business.

Why testers matter for AI

Advantest sells the automated systems that check chips before they ship, and it links its growth both to higher production of AI processors and to their rising complexity, which makes testing more demanding. The company says demand for testing high-performance AI semiconductors is growing faster than it had anticipated, and it expects the market for chip testers to reach a record level as AI inference workloads expand. It plans to speed up capacity expansion to keep pace.

Market reaction and caveats

Investors welcomed the update. Advantest shares rose as much as 9.1% in Tokyo trading on October 29, and Business Recorder reported that the stock alone accounted for more than the Nikkei 225's entire net gain in the morning session.

Forecasts remain projections. Part of the improvement depends on currency movements and investment gains rather than equipment sales, and Advantest's fortunes are closely tied to capital spending by a small group of AI chip designers and data centre operators. The company also said it expects the direct effect of tensions in the Middle East to stay limited, although logistics costs have risen.