AEM’s H1 net profit rises 10 times to S$30.8 million on stronger AI chip demand

AEM Holdings reported a net profit of S$30.8 million for the half year ended Jun 30, up from S$3.1 million a year earlier, driven by stronger demand from an artificial intelligence chipmaker. Revenue rose 30% to S$247.2 million, and the company raised its FY2026 revenue guidance to S$630 million–S$680 million. CEO Samer Kabbani said the company continues to see sequential growth.

AEM’s H1 net profit rises 10 times to S$30.8 million on stronger AI chip demand Earnings per share come in at S$0.0979 for the half-year, from S$0.0098 in the first half of 2025 SINGAPORE Semiconductor test-equipment maker AEM posted a net profit of S$31 million for the half year ended Jun 30, up from S$3.1 million in the previous corresponding period, on the back of stronger demand for its test equipment from artificial intelligence chipmakers. The growth was driven by the company’s fabless AI and high performance computing HPC customer, which became its largest contributor for the half-year as production ramped up, said the mainboard-listed company in a bourse filing on Wednesday Aug 12 . This was the group’s fourth consecutive quarter of net profit growth and third consecutive quarter of revenue growth in a performance led by its test-cell solutions segment, where demand intensified for highly parallel test solutions with leading thermal-control capabilities. Revenue for the half year grew 30 per cent to S$247.2 million, from S$190.3 million in the first half of 2025, driven by revenue from the group’s AI and HPC customer. Earnings per share stood at S$0.0979 for the half-year, from S$0.0098 in the first half of 2025. The board declared an interim dividend of S$0.024 a share, to be paid on Sep 8, 2026. The company did not declare a dividend for the corresponding period in the year before. Segment performance Revenue from the test-cell solutions segment grew 52.5 per cent to S$180.9 million, representing 73.2 per cent of overall revenue. The contract manufacturing segment continued to support the scale-up of the group’s flagship AMPS test-equipment platform. Revenue between AEM’s own business units rose more than four times, as the contract-manufacturing segment shifted its focus to help ramp up production of its test-cell solutions equipment. External revenue from contract manufacturing fell 5.7 per cent to S$63.2 million, mainly due to softer demand from oil and gas customers. The instrumentation segment posted revenue of S$3.1 million, down from S$4.6 million the year before. The group also flagged growth in its device-specific configurables and collaterals business, which reached S$72.3 million in the second quarter of 2026, up 12.6 per cent from the first quarter. Under what the group describes as a “razor-razorblade” model, one-time sales of test and automation equipment generate recurring follow-on sales of configurables and collaterals that must be refreshed as customers introduce devices with new test requirements. AEM said it expects this recurring revenue stream to become an increasingly important contributor to margin resilience and earnings as product ramps mature. Outlook AEM raised its FY2026 revenue guidance to a range of S$630 million to S$680 million, from its previous guidance of S$550 million to S$600 million. The group said the revision was supported by the ramp-up of its fabless AI and HPC customer, a personal computer and foundry customer’s adoption of the AMPS platform for future test requirements, and the planned shipment of its first memory final test handler in the fourth quarter of 2026 – ahead of a production scale-up in 2027. The group is guiding full-year earnings per share of between S$0.245 and S$0.275. AEM said orders received for its AMPS platform from its AI and HPC fabless customer and its personal computer and foundry customer’s adoption have brought the platform’s backlog to more than S$400 million as of Wednesday. Citing industry data, AEM said global test equipment sales are projected to rise to US$15.3 billion in 2026, and hit US$20.8 billion by 2028, with test accounting for about 9 per cent of total semiconductor equipment spending over the forecast period. This rise is driven by rising test intensity in AI accelerators, memory stacks and heterogenous chiplet architecture. Chief executive officer Samer Kabbani said: “We continue to see sequential growth in both revenue and profit before tax, reflecting the strength of our offerings as AI and HPC reshape the requirements and economics of test.” He added that as devices become more complex, more power-dense and harder to test, customers are increasingly turning to precise thermal control, highly parallel testing and full-stack integration, capabilities in which AEM holds a competitive advantage. Kabbani said the group is advancing its growth strategy in five areas: personal computers and foundries, AI and high-performance computing, memory, outsourced semiconductor assembly and test providers, and contract manufacturing. He said that with meaningful contributions from the first two areas and AEM’s long-term partnership with Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, the group is positioned to drive growth through the remainder of 2026 and beyond. Shares of AEM rose 0.9 per cent S$0.09 to S$9.63 on Wednesday before the announcement. Decoding Asia newsletter: your guide to navigating Asia in a new global order. Sign up here to get Decoding Asia newsletter. Delivered to your inbox. Free. Copyright SPH Media. All rights reserved. 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