Applied Materials CEO Backs 40% Growth Forecast With Eight-Quarter Order Book

Onto Innovation reported second-quarter revenue of $343.1 million, a 35.3% year-over-year increase, sending shares up 14% the following day as analysts raised estimates and price targets. The full-year EPS consensus jumped 13% from $7.11 to $8.04, representing 63% annual growth versus 2025, while next year's consensus vaulted 17% from $10 to $11.72 for a potential advance of 46%. Non-GAAP gross margins expanded to 57.0% from 54.5% a year earlier, non-GAAP operating margins reached 30.0%, and non-GAAP diluted EPS came in at $1.93, with the company holding $1.88 billion in cash and short-term investments. On August 17, Goldman Sachs analyst James E Schneider initiated coverage with a Strong Buy rating and a $400 price target, matching the Street high set by Jefferies' Blayne Peter Curtis, while Needham's Charles Shi raised his target to $360 from $330 and Evercore ISI's Mark Lipacis lifted his to $390 from $350. In August 2026, Onto completed a $710 million strategic investment for a 27% equity stake in Rigaku, targeting the estimated $1 billion hybrid metrology market, and the company said demand for its Dragonfly G5 packaging inspection platform is projected to grow over 50% through 2026.

SUSS MicroTec SE has entered the wafer-level cleaning market with the launch of its new GreenTec Solutions product line and its first system, the GT200. The company said the wafer-cleaning market it is targeting represents an addressable market of approximately EUR 5.4 billion, driven by advanced packaging, heterogeneous integration and rising semiconductor demand from AI and high-performance computing. The GT200 is designed for research and development, process qualification and production in 200 mm manufacturing environments for MEMS, RF, Power Device and CMOS applications, and combines the company's TurbulenStrip and CrustBuster process technologies in a single platform. SUSS said the GT200 is the first member of a scalable GreenTec platform and that it will expand toward high-volume manufacturing with a dedicated 300 mm HVM platform in 2027, pulled in from its original schedule due to strong customer interest, followed by a 200 mm HVM platform in 2028. Chief Executive Officer Burkhardt Frick called the launch an important milestone in the execution of the company's Ambition 2030 strategy, while Senior Vice President Photomask Solutions Yuta Nagai said the product line represents its vision for a next generation of semiconductor manufacturing where sustainability and process excellence go hand in hand.