Disco posts record 1,239億円 in quarterly shipments, up 60.0％増

Disco is a global leader in cutting and grinding equipment for critical semiconductor components, and it discloses shipment figures as a preliminary indicator because it books machine revenue only when customers accept delivery—making shipments a better read on actual market conditions. The July–September quarter's 123.9 billion yen in individual shipments beat both the company plan and analyst consensus on a consolidated basis, with estimated consolidated shipments of 149.1 billion yen and sales of 143.9 billion yen. The prior quarter's shipments were 116.5 billion yen, and the year-earlier figure was 77.4 billion yen, underscoring the scale of the increase.

The results come as the market debates HBM specification changes. TrendForce indicated in August 2026 that NVIDIA was considering alternatives to a 12-layer HBM4e configuration for its next-generation 'Rubin Ultra' AI chip, including 8-layer stacks, though final specs remain undecided. Disco argues this would not reduce total production or wafer counts, and could instead increase HBM package counts—lifting demand for its molding and singulation equipment. The company also said the consolidated-to-individual ratio should hold near its usual roughly 1.2x, though a higher-than-expected consumables mix could push shipments to the upper end of the range.

Whether the AI-driven demand translates into sustained earnings growth hinges on whether the back-end processing demand that lifted Disco's shipments persists as HBM specs evolve, and on how the finalized results compare with these preliminary figures when Disco reports on October 22. For equipment investors and HBM supply-chain watchers, the key question is whether this quarter's record marks a durable broadening of AI capex into back-end steps or a one-off spike already reflected in share prices.