(Oct 30): Shares of semiconductor linchpin Lasertec Corp surged 21% after Nvidia Corp hit a US$5 trillion market capitalisation that’s spurring hopes for more spending on bleeding-edge chipmaking to develop artificial intelligence (AI).
The jump, Lasertec’s biggest in over a year, comes a day before the company reports quarterly results, with analysts expecting a 27% increase in revenue. An essential tech provider for advanced chip design, Lasertec was seen as a beneficiary on Thursday following word from President Donald Trump that he’ll discuss Nvidia’s most advanced Blackwell AI chips in trade talks with China.
The potential for Nvidia to sell more of its hardware in the world’s biggest semiconductor market drove up shares across the industry. Trump later indicated that the Blackwell line was not discussed during his meeting with Xi Jinping, adding the two talked about the chipmaker’s access to the China market broadly.
Lasertec’s stock price rose by the most in more than a year to close at its highest since August 2024.
Fabricating the industry’s most advanced transistor patterns with ASML Holding NV’s extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography requires Lasertec’s equipment to verify chip designs. The Yokohama-based company’s stock was also raised to a buy recommendation by Aletheia Capital analyst Warren Lau a day earlier.
Lasertec works with the world’s leading contract chipmaking providers, from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) and Intel Corp to Samsung Electronics Co. Orders for sector-wide production equipment have swelled alongside demand from chip designers from Nvidia to Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
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Samsung, which has struggled to catch up to industry leader TSMC, on Thursday said its foundry arm received record orders in the September quarter and it plans to ramp up 2-nanometer mass production. South Korea’s most valuable company also intends to boost usage rates of its foundry production lines in the three months to December.
Founded in 1960, Lasertec’s sales have grown in tandem with ASML’s development of EUV lithography machines. While contract chipmakers account for the bulk of the Japanese company’s revenue, its mask-related equipment is also used to process high-bandwidth memory, which is paired with AI accelerator chips to train AI models and handle calculations and large datasets.
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