Amtech (ASYS) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Thursday, May 7, 2026 at 5 p.m. ET

Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email pr@fool.com

Continue reading

​Image source: The Motley Fool.Thursday, May 7, 2026 at 5 p.m. ETNeed a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email pr@fool.comContinue reading 

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Thursday, May 7, 2026 at 5 p.m. ET

Call participants

• Chairman and Chief Executive Officer — Bob Daigle
• Interim Chief Financial Officer — Mark Weaver

Takeaways

• Revenue — $20.5 million, up over 30% year over year and up 8% sequentially from the previous quarter.
• Adjusted EBITDA — $2.5 million, representing 12% of sales, an increase of $1.1 million sequentially and $3.9 million year over year.
• Gross margin — 47.7%, an increase of nearly 300 basis points from 44.8% in the prior quarter.
• Cash position — $24.4 million in unrestricted cash, rising by $2.3 million sequentially, and up $11 million year over year.
• AI-related revenue — Accounts for over 30% of Thermal Processing Solutions (TPS) segment sales, with bookings described as “very strong.”
• TPS parts & services growth — Segment revenue rose 10% sequentially and 56% year over year.
• Semiconductor Fabrication Solutions (SFS) revenue — $5.7 million, up 15% sequentially and year over year.
• IDI Chemicals revenue — Increased by 15% year over year.
• Intrepix parts & service revenue — Rose approximately 40% year over year.
• GAAP net income — $1.2 million, or $0.08 per share, versus $0.1 million, or $0.01 per share, in the prior quarter.
• Inventory — Inventory rose $0.9 million sequentially to accommodate higher order flow.
• CapEx and manufacturing model — The semi-fabless model and consolidation to four facilities enables scaling output with minimal capital expenditures.
• AI server board and advanced packaging equipment — Management highlighted “differentiated capabilities” such as TruFlat technology and market-leading temperature uniformity supporting high yields in complex products.
• Third quarter guidance — Revenue expected in the range of $20.5 million to $22.5 million, driven mainly by AI-related equipment sales projected to reach up to 40% of TPS segment sales.
• Adjusted EBITDA margin guidance — “Low double digits” expected for the coming quarter based on continued top-line growth and cost improvements.
• Share repurchase activity — No shares repurchased under the $5 million authorization since implementation on December 9.
• CFO appointment — Tom Sabol named as CFO, joining May 14, bringing over two decades of finance leadership experience.
• President and COO appointment — Guy Shechter to join in a newly created role on May 19, bringing extensive industry management experience.
• Geographic demand expansion — CEO Daigle noted broadening packaging infrastructure investments across Southeast Asia and new AI-related activity emerging in North America.
• Capital allocation priorities — CEO Daigle emphasized that “growth is number one,” with organic investments prioritized over share repurchases; potential M&A remains under consideration if value-accretive opportunities arise.
• Inventory write-down note — Prior-year second quarter included a $6 million non-cash inventory write-down, making year-over-year margin comparability not meaningful.

Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email [email protected]

Risks

• CEO Daigle cited weak sales of PR Hoffman products due to reduced demand from major silicon carbide customers, which offset segment gains.
• Management warned that changes in the value of foreign currencies in relation to the United States dollar could cause actual results to differ from expectations, as recent quarters saw foreign currency exchange losses.
• CEO Daigle noted price pressure on memory components, stating, “everyone is talking about memory being more expensive and obviously that is the same for us, and we have to adjust our cost and pricing accordingly if memory becomes more expensive.”

Summary

Amtech Systems (ASYS +0.08%) reported that demand from AI infrastructure buildouts drove a significant increase in both revenue and gross margin expansion, with AI-related bookings and revenue playing a central, growing role in the company’s performance and guidance. Leadership announced new executive appointments and outlined a continued focus on organic growth, next-generation product development, and manufacturing model efficiencies designed to maintain margin leverage without significant capital spending. Management cautioned that foreign exchange volatility and softness in legacy silicon carbide product lines present ongoing risks to results.

• CEO Daigle stated, “Demand has been very strong for our advanced packaging equipment and AI server board assembly equipment due to our differentiated capabilities that include TruFlat technology and market-leading temperature uniformity,” emphasizing technology as a core competitive advantage.
• The company confirmed that a previously delayed AI customer equipment order was fulfilled, improving near-term visibility and creating a smoother sales trajectory as new facility bookings extend beyond the current quarter.
• Initiatives integrating AI software with ERP and CRM systems have begun to support both customer service and internal sales processes.
• Direct geographic market commentary detailed a shift from Taiwan-centric packaging investment to a broader Southeast Asian and emerging North American footprint for AI-driven capital equipment demand.

Industry glossary

• TruFlat technology: Amtech Systems’ proprietary vacuum-assisted process to maintain substrate flatness during high-temperature reflow, enabling higher yield in advanced packaging.
• OSAT: Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test; companies that focus on packaging and testing semiconductor devices for customers.
• 2.5D and 3D stacking: Chip packaging architectures integrating multiple dies side by side (2.5D) or stacked vertically (3D) to boost performance and bandwidth.
• System-on-package: Multiple integrated circuits and components assembled in one package to deliver greater functionality and system performance in compact form factors.
• Panel-level packaging: Advanced packaging technique processing multiple semiconductor devices simultaneously on a large panel, increasing throughput and lowering per-unit cost.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Bob Daigle, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Mark Weaver, Interim Chief Financial Officer. After the close of market today, Amtech Systems, Inc. released its financial results for the fiscal 2026 second quarter. The earnings release is posted on the company’s website at amtechsystems.com in the Investors section. To begin, I would like to remind everyone the Safe Harbor disclaimer in our public filings covers this call and the webcast. Some of the comments to be made during today’s call will contain forward-looking statements and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to those contained in our SEC filings, all of which are posted in the Investors section of our corporate website.

The company assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements and cautions you not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of today. These statements are not a guarantee of future performance, and actual results could differ materially from current expectations. Among the important factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements are changes in technology used by customers and competitors, changes in volatility and the demand for products, the effect of changing worldwide political and economic conditions including trade sanctions, and the effect of overall market conditions, including equity and credit markets and market acceptance risks, ongoing logistics, supply chain and labor matters, and capital allocation plans.

Other risk factors are detailed in our SEC filings, including our Form 10-Ks and Form 10-Qs. Additionally, in today’s conference call, we will be referencing non-GAAP financial measures as we discuss the financial results for the fiscal second quarter. You will find a reconciliation of those non-GAAP measures to our actual GAAP results included in the press release issued today. I will now turn the call over to Amtech Systems, Inc.’s Chief Executive Officer, Bob Daigle.

Bob Daigle: Thank you, Jordan. Revenue for the quarter was $20.5 million, which was up over 30% from the same quarter last year and up 8% sequentially. Our adjusted EBITDA was $2.5 million, or about 12% of sales, an increase of $1.1 million from the prior quarter and $3.9 million from a year ago. While reported revenues were at the high end of our guidance range, our adjusted EBITDA margin was a significant beat, as we had guided to high-single-digit EBITDA margins. Higher gross margins contributed to our improved profitability and cash generation. Gross margin approached 48% in the second quarter, up from 45% in the first quarter.

Cash on hand at the end of the quarter was $24.4 million, an increase of $2.3 million from the prior quarter and $11 million from a year ago. AI-related sales accounted for over 30% of our Thermal Processing Solutions segment revenue in the second quarter and bookings were very strong. Momentum for AI-related demand continued to build in the second quarter. Advanced packaging has emerged as a critical bridge between silicon innovation and the escalating demands of artificial intelligence infrastructure. As traditional Moore’s law scaling slows, the ability to pack more computing power into a single footprint now relies less on shrinking individual transistors and more on how those chips are interconnected.

By enabling high bandwidth memory integration, reducing data latency through 2.5D and 3D stacking, and allowing for massive system-on-package architectures, advanced packaging provides the physical foundation necessary for generative AI and large language models to thrive. In short, packaging is no longer just a protective housing for chips; it is a primary driver of the performance, power efficiency, and scale required to fuel the next generation of AI processors. Capital equipment which can deliver high yields and throughput is vital to support this AI revolution. As broadly reported, semiconductor OEMs and OSATs continue to increase investments to expand capacity to support the massive AI infrastructure buildouts.

Demand has been very strong for our advanced packaging equipment and AI server board assembly equipment due to our differentiated capabilities that include TruFlat technology and market-leading temperature uniformity, which enables high yields when producing these very complex and expensive products. Although we have limited visibility due to our short lead times, our channel checks support our belief that demand will remain very strong for the foreseeable future. Based on bookings and quoting activity, we expect the percentage of revenue from AI applications in our Thermal Processing Solutions segment to exceed 40% in the third quarter. We are also seeing increased quoting activity and bookings for panel-level packaging.

These more demanding packaging technologies are serving more mainstream semiconductor applications, but their process requirements align very well with our differentiated capabilities. To accelerate growth, we are continuing to invest in next-generation equipment to support higher-density packaging to address emerging customer requirements. We plan to launch the first products for higher-density packaging at the SEMICON trade show in Taiwan in early September. We believe the capabilities provided by our next-generation equipment will significantly increase our addressable market and help drive growth beyond 2026. Growth of our Thermal Processing Solutions parts and service business was also a highlight in the quarter. Customer outreach initiatives have helped drive growth, with revenue up 10% sequentially and 56% year over year.

I should note that while we are benefiting from demand for our products to support the AI buildout, we are also beginning to use AI software integrated with our ERP and CRM sales tools to help support customers and streamline our sales process. For our Semiconductor Fabrication Solutions segment, we continue to leverage our foundry service and technical capabilities to pursue applications and customers not well supported in the industry. We have built a strong opportunity pipeline and are expanding efforts to replicate successes and grow sales of legacy products. Overall, our IDI Chemicals business revenue was up 15% year over year.

We have also made significant improvements in the service levels we provide and have driven outreach initiatives to grow our parts and services business at Intrepix. Revenue for parts and service at Intrepix was up about 40% year over year. I am very encouraged by the early results from our customer-centric growth initiatives. Unfortunately, much of the success from these initiatives in our Semi Fab Solutions segment has been masked by weak sales of our PR Hoffman products due to weakness in demand from our major silicon carbide customers.

As I have stated before, 2026 will be an investment year for our SFS business as we execute on our strategy to over-serve the underserved, but we believe that our customer-centric growth initiatives will deliver recurring revenue streams with meaningful profits beyond 2026. The operating leverage and working capital efficiency across the company resulting from our product line rationalization efforts and a migration to a semi-fabless manufacturing model over the past two years helped deliver improved results for the quarter and should result in continued strong cash flow and further increases in gross margins and EBITDA margins as revenues increase.

Our semi-fabless model, which includes the consolidation of our manufacturing footprint from seven facilities to four, should also allow us to significantly increase revenue with minimal capital expenditures. We ended the quarter producing nine reflow systems per week and have the capacity and supply chains to accommodate the growth we expect with little or no CapEx. In summary, growth opportunities driven by AI infrastructure investments and our customer-centric strategy, combined with strong operating leverage that results from our asset-light semi-fabless business model, position us very well to deliver meaningful shareholder value. Before I hand the call over to Mark, I have two organization announcements to share.

First, as we announced last week, Tom Sabol has been appointed as CFO and will be joining Amtech Systems, Inc. on May 14. Tom brings more than 20 years of CFO experience across publicly traded and private equity-backed organizations, with deep expertise in developing and leading finance teams, driving financial performance, investor relations, and SEC reporting. His background spans several industries, including financial services, software, and advanced manufacturing. I look forward to working closely with Tom as we continue to drive growth and profitability. I would like to take a moment to recognize and thank Mark Weaver for stepping in as Interim CFO.

Mark came out of retirement to help us with this transition, and I greatly appreciate his support and his leadership. I am also pleased to announce that Guy Shechter will be joining Amtech Systems, Inc. on May 19 in a newly created President and Chief Operating Officer role. Guy has held various commercial and general management positions with equipment and advanced packaging equipment companies. The extensive experience, customer relationships, and leadership skills that he brings to Amtech Systems, Inc. will be critical as we expand our portfolio solutions for AI applications to accelerate growth. I am looking forward to having Guy join the Amtech Systems, Inc. team.

Now I will turn the call over to Mark for more details concerning our Q2 results.

Mark Weaver: Thank you, Bob, once again, and it has been a pleasure working with you and the folks at Amtech Systems, Inc. I have truly enjoyed my time here. Now I will review the financials for the fiscal 2026 second quarter. Following the two-year-plus transformation led by Bob, the company is finally at a place where year-over-year revenue comparisons are meaningful. The one consistent characteristic of our revenue comparisons over the past two years has been the positive impact of AI product demand within the TPS segment. In the 2026 second quarter, AI revenues accounted for more than 30% of TPS segment revenue.

Bookings for AI applications remain strong, and we are experiencing both book-and-ship in the same quarter as well as book-now-and-ship-later. This has led to the second consecutive quarter of company-wide bookings exceeding sales for the period. Other areas of TPS and SFS sales are also contributing growth on a consolidated basis, which is being partially offset by weakness in select product lines as Bob discussed in his remarks. Total SFS revenues were $5.7 million in the second quarter, up 15% from approximately $5 million in both the prior sequential quarter and the prior-year quarter.

Moving on to gross margins, the company’s product line rationalization and our focus on growing higher-margin product lines, including AI advanced packaging solutions as well as our recurring parts and services business, are delivering their intended results, particularly as we are benefiting from greater scale. Gross margin as a percentage of sales increased to 47.7% in the 2026 second quarter, up nearly 300 basis points from 44.8% in the 2026 first quarter. Comparison to the prior-year period is not meaningful since that quarter included a $6 million non-cash inventory write-down as part of our broader turnaround and transition, which took margins into negative territory in the 2025 second quarter.

Selling, general and administrative expenses increased $0.3 million sequentially from the prior quarter and were relatively flat as compared to the 2025 second quarter. The increase is primarily due to expanding business activities, tax and IT consulting fees. Research, development, and engineering expenses were relatively flat compared to prior periods. The company continues to invest with a measured yet opportunistic approach to R&D, including next-generation products targeting the AI supply chain and our specialty chemicals business. GAAP net income for the 2026 second quarter was $1.2 million, or $0.08 per share.

This compares to GAAP net income of $0.1 million, or $0.01 per share, for the preceding quarter and a GAAP net loss of $31.8 million, or $2.23 per share, for the 2025 second quarter. During the 2025 second quarter, the company recorded significant non-cash inventory write-downs and impairment charges, which make the year-over-year comparisons for profitability not really meaningful. The company’s 2026 second quarter GAAP net income includes $0.3 million of foreign currency exchange losses versus $0.2 million in the prior quarter, primarily driven by a weakening United States dollar against the Chinese renminbi.

Unrestricted cash and cash equivalents at 03/31/2026 were $24.4 million, compared to $22.1 million at December 31, $17.9 million at September 30, and $13.4 million a year ago. The increased cash balances are due primarily to the company’s focus on operational cash generation, working capital optimization, strong accounts receivable collections, and accounts payable management. The increase in cash from the first quarter of this year is even more meaningful since we are carrying an additional $0.9 million in inventory to accommodate higher order flow. The company continues to have no debt.

As for the $5 million stock repurchase program, the company did not use any cash for this, as no shares were repurchased since the plan was put in place on December 9. Now turning to our outlook. For the third fiscal quarter ending 06/30/2026, the company expects revenue in the range of $20.5 million to $22.5 million. At the midpoint of this range, our guidance is a meaningful year-over-year and sequential quarter increase. AI-related equipment sales for the Thermal Processing Solutions segment are anticipated to drive the majority of our revenue growth and account for as much as 40% of the segment sales in the 2026 third quarter.

With the benefit of continued top-line growth and the sustainable improvements in structural and operational cost reductions, Amtech Systems, Inc. expects to benefit from its operating leverage to deliver adjusted EBITDA margins in the low double-digits range. The outlook provided during our call today and in our earnings press release is based on an assumed exchange rate between the United States dollar and foreign currencies. Changes in the value of foreign currencies in relation to the United States dollar could cause the actual results to differ from expectations. And now I will turn the call over to the operator for questions.

Operator: Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw it, please press star then 2. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. And today’s first question comes from Scott Buck with Titan Partners. Please proceed.

Analyst: Hi, good afternoon, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. Bob, I was hoping to get a little more granularity on gross margins in SFS. Looks like it was up about 800 basis points sequentially. So any kind of added color on what is going on there would be great.

Bob Daigle: Yes. Again, I think the additional revenue contributed a bit to that, and I think the balance would really be mix-related. There was not anything really structurally different quarter to quarter in that segment. It is more reflective of the mix of products through that business and the incremental revenue. We have a lot of operating leverage, as you might imagine, with the structural changes we have made over the past couple of years. We have positioned ourselves where we do get very solid flow-through of any incremental revenue to our overall results.

Analyst: Great. That is very helpful. And then I want to ask about kind of geographic mix and how you are seeing demand trends across regions?

Bob Daigle: Yes. So as you might imagine, Asia is really the hotbed for AI infrastructure buildouts. Traditionally in the packaging area, it has been almost exclusively Taiwan, but what we are seeing is a significant buildout of packaging infrastructure in other parts of Southeast Asia—Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, for example. So we are seeing a broadening of geographic footprint in terms of major investments in the packaging area, almost all driven by AI infrastructure. And I would say more recently, we are seeing quite a bit more activity in North America as well. It was pretty quiet, but we are starting to see some investments being made.

I would say more so on the enterprise-level board assembly at this stage than chip packaging, but it is nice to see some increased AI activity in North America as well.

Analyst: That is helpful. In terms of Asia, should we be keeping an eye out on any kind of trade policy, tariff, or supply chain dynamics?

Bob Daigle: Yes. Specific to the tariffs, we positioned ourselves pretty well there. If you go back a year ago, any equipment coming into the U.S. was basically being manufactured in China, and obviously there were very meaningful tariff impacts as a result of that. But we did establish a partner where we now manufacture equipment for the U.S. in the Singapore/Malaysia area. So we have kind of insulated ourselves quite a bit from the U.S.–China stress levels. And beyond that, there really have not been a lot of cross-Asia issues.

Back to your supply chain question, everyone is talking about memory being more expensive and obviously that is the same for us, and we have to adjust our cost and pricing accordingly if memory becomes more expensive. We really have not seen any shortages; I would say it is more that there is a little bit of price pressure that we need to deal with and pass along on the memory side.

Analyst: Okay, great. And then last one for me. Cash continues to improve. How should we be thinking about capital allocation? Or I should say, how are you thinking about capital allocation? You have the $5 million repurchase authorization out there. Is that a priority? Or is it more R&D in new products or even potentially M&A?

Bob Daigle: Yes. I would say growth is number one, because back to the operating leverage discussion, as we grow with the strong margin leverage we have in our portfolio—and I should mention with all the product lines that we cut from the portfolio rationalization efforts, I would say across the board we have very healthy margins across the entire portfolio right now—so any of the product lines that grow are very meaningful in terms of improving cash generation, gross margins, and EBITDA. From an investment standpoint, we are making those investments. We have been increasing our R&D efforts around next-generation equipment. There could be a little bit of incremental investment needed to drive that home.

We are investing in resources to develop the pipeline for SFS in terms of trying to build out our IDI portfolio and the recurring revenue streams. We will continue to incrementally invest in that and do not see that having a meaningful impact on cash needs. And then the other factor I think we want to point out is with our semi-fabless model, we have the ability to scale without meaningful CapEx. As I mentioned in my comments, even looking out a year in terms of high growth and demand for the equipment used for AI packaging, we do not really see the need for deploying meaningful cash for CapEx.

The semi-fabless model and our supply chain can handle that growth. So having said all that, long story short is if we find inorganic opportunities, we would deploy cash accordingly. But as I have said to many people, I spent over a decade doing corporate development in a prior life, and I would say we need to be prudent, cautious, and make sure that what we do is generating real meaningful value. So when people ask me, are you going to acquire, I always answer the question with “maybe,” because if we find acquisitions that can create real value, we are going to do those to accelerate growth.

But we do have a great pipeline of organic growth that I think can push us forward. And then back to your question about capital allocation, obviously, the priority is growth. If we did not have better uses for that, then of course we would look at providing the cash back to shareholders in some form.

Analyst: Perfect. Well, I appreciate all the added color, guys. Thank you very much, and congrats on the strong results.

Bob Daigle: All right. Thank you, Scott.

Operator: And as a reminder, if you do have a question, please press star then 1 on your touch-tone phone. The next question comes from Craig Irwin with ROTH Capital Partners. Please proceed.

Analyst: Good evening. Thanks for taking my questions, Bob. Last quarter, the small delay in one of your AI customers in taking some packaging equipment had a big impact in your stock. Did we maybe see the delivery of that equipment in this current period, or is it expected over the next couple of months? And do you expect the linearity or the overall business to have sort of a smoother trajectory given the size and scale that you are gathering over the next couple of quarters?

Bob Daigle: Yes, we did ship that particular equipment during the quarter. And I would say that the visibility—I would not say it is great—but it is getting better because there is a lot more activity in terms of new facilities being put in. And so we are seeing more bookings with deliveries out a quarter, and in a couple of cases, actually a couple of quarters now, which is very unusual for our business because, as I have mentioned before, we have very short lead times, we have a very efficient supply chain, and we turn equipment around very quickly. So we have typically been a book-and-ship, even in this large-scale capital equipment space.

But having said that, because people are actually building new facilities now and do not necessarily need all the equipment immediately, we are seeing better visibility, which I think will translate to smoothing things out a bit, frankly, as we get better visibility and bookings that are not just current quarter, but out a ways.

Analyst: That definitely makes sense. The next question is one that I get asked fairly often, right? It is more of a big-picture question, Bob. So can you talk a little bit about Amtech Systems, Inc.’s moat in advanced packaging and AI? What has allowed you to dominate this space? There are others that would like to do business in here, but you have maintained a really strong reputation on technology that has allowed you to have those long-term customer relationships and supplier relationships too. What is different about what you are doing that gives you this moat?

Bob Daigle: Generally, we win when it is a demanding application, and there are actually three components that usually come into play. In advanced packaging, that TruFlat technology—and unfortunately we do not have graphics in front of you—but these are large conveyorized pieces of equipment, almost half the length of a tractor-trailer bed, that are doing the reflow operations for these packages. You are raising things to very high temperatures; most materials, most substrates, tend to bow and twist and deform as you are heating them up. We have technology which allows us to pull a vacuum and hold the substrates down flat against the belt so things do not basically shift during the assembly process. What does that mean?

That means high yield. So in applications where you are trying to process something that is very expensive, you are not going to sacrifice yield; you have to have equipment that is going to be robust. The other thing I would say is temperature uniformity. I think we have a significant advantage in being able to provide uniformity across our reflow—across the belt, within zones. Our latest equipment actually has reconfigurable zones that can be customized by customers. So we have provided capabilities that really are enabling for high-yield, high-throughput processing of these things.

And I would say the last thing—which I think I have mentioned before—like our AccuScrub technology, for example, where we can remove the contaminants from the processing fluxes out of the gas stream so that it reduces downtime in the ovens and reduces the risk of contaminating the product. So it is not just one thing; we have a portfolio of capabilities and IP around some of these capabilities that put us in a position where if you are trying to process an AI package, an AI enterprise board, it is expensive. We are worth it, which is why we have captured the strong market position that we enjoy today.

Analyst: Definitely makes sense. Well, congratulations on the strong quarter and the strong long-term positioning there. We will hop back in the queue.

Bob Daigle: Alright. Thank you, Craig.

Operator: And this concludes today’s question and answer session. I would now like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks.

Bob Daigle: All right. Thank you, operator. In closing, I want to thank you for joining our earnings call today. We look forward to seeing some of you later this month at the B. Riley Annual Investor Conference and then in June at the Planet MicroCap Conference. We hope you can join us at either of these events. Thanks again for your continued support of Amtech Systems, Inc., and have a good evening.

Operator: The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation, and you may now disconnect.