Camtek Projects 45% Advanced Packaging Growth on AI Chip Inspection Demand

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 is heading into its upcoming earnings report with analysts projecting earnings per share of US$0.98, up from the same quarter last year, after the stock closed its most recent session at US$138.59. The company has guided for Q3 2026 revenue of US$158 million to US$160 million, implying about 20 percent sequential growth, supported by large Hawk and Eagle G5 orders tied to AI and HBM applications. Camtek's narrative projects US$821.7 million in revenue and US$367.0 million in earnings by 2029, requiring 18.1 percent yearly revenue growth and roughly a US$319 million earnings increase from US$48.1 million today, with a fair value estimate of US$187.25, a 35 percent upside to the current price. The most cautious analysts assume revenue of about US$762 million and earnings near US$375 million by 2029, underscoring how sharply expectations can differ. The core risk remains that demand from a concentrated set of HPC and Asia based customers could prove more volatile than expected.

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.