Camtek Eyes US$0.98 EPS as Q3 2026 Revenue Guidance Points to 20% Growth

KLA Corporation is benefiting from accelerating artificial intelligence infrastructure spending, which is driving higher investments in leading-edge foundry and logic technologies and boosting demand for its process-control solutions. In fiscal 2026, the Semiconductor Process Control segment's revenues increased 12% year over year, and overall fiscal 2026 revenues rose 12% year over year to $13.58 billion. During the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, management raised its calendar 2026 wafer-fabrication equipment market estimate, including advanced packaging, to the low-$150 billion range, up from its previous $140 billion-plus view and approximately $120 billion in calendar 2025. KLAC expects second-half 2026 revenues to be approximately 20% higher than the first half, aided by high-performance computing, high-bandwidth memory, increasing extreme ultraviolet adoption in DRAM and advanced packaging technologies such as hybrid bonding, and said backlog was expected to reach about $12.5 billion. The company faces intensifying competition from Applied Materials, which expects its process diagnostics and control business to grow more than 50% in calendar 2026, and from ASML, which expects advanced foundry and logic revenues to rise about 25% in 2026 and extreme ultraviolet revenues to increase roughly 45%.

Camtek, the dominant player in advanced packaging inspection and metrology with about 60% market share, is positioning itself for strong growth as AI chip demand expands. In its most recent quarter, roughly 80% of orders were for advanced packaging inspection, driven by memory chip manufacturers transitioning to HBM4 chips and expanding production amid the memory shortage. Camtek's Q2 revenue rose 8% year over year to a record $133 million, and third-quarter revenue is expected to rise about 20% sequentially to around $159 million, with second-half revenue projected to grow 25% over the first half. CEO Rafi Amit said on the Q2 earnings call that the company's leading position in advanced packaging is expected to drive approximately 45% growth in that business in the second half of 2026 compared with the first half. The broader advanced packaging inspection industry is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 11% over the next five years to $6.2 billion, up from $3.7 billion in 2026, and most orders coming in now will be executed in 2027. Camtek stock is up 25% year to date and 52% over the past 12 months, though it has fallen about 35% from its May peak, leaving its trailing P/E around 184 and its forward P/E at 27, with analysts holding a median price target of $190 per share.

Bank of America raised its growth forecast for the US semiconductor industry, projecting an 18% compound annual growth rate between 2026 and 2030, up from its previous estimate of 14%. The bank attributed the revision primarily to higher expectations for memory chips and server-related components, and now forecasts the industry's total addressable market will reach $3.2 trillion by 2030, up from its previous estimate of $2.7 trillion. BofA said the industry took approximately 50 years to reach $1 trillion in sales but could double its current estimated market size of $1.7 trillion within four years, citing customer orders and capacity commitments across the data-centre and AI sectors. Separately, the bank raised its forecasts for the wafer fabrication equipment market, expecting spending to reach $156 billion in 2026, a 33% increase from the prior year, and $210 billion in 2027, representing projected annual growth of 34%, with the revisions reflecting higher expected spending on memory manufacturing equipment, particularly for DRAM production. BofA forecasts DRAM equipment spending of $61 billion in 2026 and $85 billion in 2027, and estimates the overall wafer fabrication equipment market could reach $360 billion by 2030, a compound annual growth rate of approximately 23% between 2026 and 2030.