ONTO Innovation (ONTO) X - Ray Chip Teknolojisine 720 Milyon $ Bahis Yaptı

Onto Innovation (ONTO) Bets $720M on X-Ray Chip Technology

Mon, September 7, 2026 at 7:33 AM GMT+3 3 min read

• ONTO +6.16%
• 268A.T +4.98%

On August 10, Onto Innovation (NYSE:ONTO) closed its purchase of a 27% minority stake in Rigaku Holdings Corporation for roughly $720 million, buying the shares from Atom Investment, L.P., an affiliate of Carlyle. The deal builds on a collaboration the two companies first announced in April to develop X-ray-based tools for controlling chip manufacturing processes. It also lands four days after Onto reported a record quarter, on August 6, with revenue up 35.3% year over year. Together, the two announcements show a company spending aggressively while its core business accelerates.

A Backlog That Keeps Growing

On August 6, Onto Innovation reported second-quarter revenue of $343.1 million, up from $253.6 million in the second quarter of 2025 and nearly 18% higher than the prior quarter. Revenue, gross margin, operating margin, and earnings per share all came in above the high end of the company's own guidance. Advanced Nodes revenue grew 50% sequentially to a new record, powered by broader demand from logic and memory customers, while the Specialty Devices and Advanced Packaging business also hit an all-time high on demand tied to 2.5D logic, high-bandwidth memory, and silicon photonics. Backlog crossed $1 billion for the first time in company history, a sign customers are locking in orders well ahead of delivery.

The Rigaku investment fits that same demand story. Chief executive Mike Plisinski said customers are wrestling with more complex 3D chip architectures and exotic materials, and that the deepened partnership should let Onto offer more complete process control tools as those chips move into high-volume production. Onto backed that confidence with third-quarter guidance of $380 million to $400 million in revenue and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $2.18 to $2.38, and said it expects demand trends to extend into 2027.

Growth With Thinner Margins

Not everything is expanding as fast as the headline growth. For the first six months of 2026, net income actually fell to $93.9 million from $98.0 million a year earlier, even as revenue rose 22.1% to $635.1 million. GAAP operating margin for the first half came in at 15.3%, down from 18.3% in the same period of 2025, which means costs climbed at least as fast as sales. The Rigaku purchase adds another variable. Onto is paying about $720 million for a stake it will not consolidate, booking the position instead under the fair value option method, and getting one board seat to show for the capital committed. That is a large sum to tie up in a minority position with limited operating control, even if the technology rationale makes sense.

What The Numbers Say

Hedge fund ownership climbed from 67 funds in the prior quarter to 75 in the most recent one, pointing to accumulating institutional conviction. Short interest stands at 6.63% of float, modest enough that organized skepticism looks limited for now. The stock carries a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 21.41 as of September 4, a multiple that already assumes the current growth pace continues.

The Tension Still Unresolved

Onto Innovation heads into the second half of 2026 with a growing backlog, record segment results, and a freshly enlarged bet on X-ray technology it believes chipmakers will need next. Margins still narrowed even as revenue climbed, and the company just committed hundreds of millions of dollars to a stake it cannot fully control. The backlog and the demand commentary stretching into 2027 are the strongest argument that the spending will pay off.

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