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Advantest's AI chip-testing boom beats its own forecast, again
Advantest just raised guidance for the second time this year because AI chip-testing demand keeps outrunning its own models, while TEPCO and ANA are finding out fuel bills don't care how busy the business looks.
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Advantest's AI Chip-Testing Boom Outruns Its Own Forecast
Advantest Raises Full-Year Profit Forecast 42% as AI Chip Testing Demand Outruns Its Own Guidance
Advantest raised its full-year operating profit forecast by 34.8% to ¥846bn and lifted its sales guidance by 20.7% to ¥1.714tn, the second upward revision this year for the Tokyo-listed chip-testing equipment maker. Net profit guidance climbed 41.8% to ¥660bn. The company said demand to test chips that run AI inference workloads has already outpaced what it assumed in April, when it last updated its guidance.
What changed: Advantest's own three-month-old assumptions went stale as customers ordered more testers for inference-class AI chips than the company had modeled.
Why it matters: Advantest's testers sit near the top of the chip supply chain, so a guidance beat this large is also a read on how fast AI chip production is actually running, not just how fast forecasters think it is running.
What to watch: Whether the July raise holds through the October quarter, or whether Advantest needs a third revision if inference-chip orders keep outrunning its models.
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Earnings Season Diverges
Komatsu Lifts Full-Year Profit Forecast as Tariff Bill and Middle East Slump Prove Smaller Than Feared
Komatsu's construction and mining equipment business had a stronger opening quarter than a year earlier: net sales for the three months to June rose 14.7% to ¥1.04tn and operating profit rose 8.0% to ¥151.6bn, even as the operating margin slipped 0.9 percentage point to 14.5% on rising costs.
The catch: Komatsu used the results to raise its full-year operating profit guidance 9.3% to ¥555bn, saying it now expects a ¥25.8bn hit from US tariffs this year, down from the ¥37.8bn it estimated three months ago, and smaller-than-feared demand losses in the Middle East.
TEPCO Swings to Operating Loss as Fuel and Grid Costs Bite
Tokyo Electric Power Holdings booked an operating loss of ¥34.3bn for the three months to June, reversing a ¥64.7bn operating profit a year earlier, even as revenue rose 3.9% to ¥1.48tn. Ordinary income, the measure Japanese companies watch most closely, fell 89% to ¥11.4bn from ¥101.3bn.
Why it matters: Fuel and wholesale power costs outran revenue growth at Japan's largest utility, and management still hasn't issued a full-year profit forecast, leaving investors without a read on how long the squeeze lasts.
Hitachi Raises Full-Year Profit Guide by ¥100bn After Energy-Led Quarter
Hitachi posted record first-quarter sales after growth across all four operating segments, led by a 37% jump in Energy-division revenue that the company attributed to backlog conversion and favorable currency swings rather than new orders. It raised its full-year profit forecast by ¥100bn on the strength of the quarter.
The catch: Quarterly net profit still dipped 1.4% year-on-year, a decline management linked to a tough comparison against a dividend-related item booked in the prior-year quarter.
ANA's Quarterly Profit Falls 43.5% as Fuel Costs Outrun a Travel Boom
ANA Holdings' revenue rose 22.6% to ¥672.7bn in the June quarter as inbound tourists filled international seats and cargo holds carried more semiconductor-related freight. Fuel costs erased most of that gain at the profit line: operating profit fell 43.5% to ¥20.8bn and net profit slipped 15.4% to ¥19.4bn.
What to watch: Management held its full-year targets steady despite the quarterly hit, and plans to merge ANA Cargo, NCA and NCA Japan into one cargo operation on April 1, 2027.
Tokuyama Raises Dividend Even as Chemicals Profit Collapses 81%
Tokuyama's core chemicals business absorbed higher manufacturing costs and weaker sales volumes, with group operating profit falling 22.9% to ¥6.1bn on sales of ¥85.7bn, up 4.7%. Net profit still rose 6.0% to ¥5.2bn, helped by gains from selling down cross-held shares.
The catch: The company is raising its dividend for a fourth straight year even as the underlying chemicals business absorbs the cost pressure, betting the payout signal outweighs the near-term margin damage.
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Ownership And Oversight In Motion
Future Corp Chairman's Buyout Vehicle Bids ¥2,451 a Share to Take Company Private
Keywest Network, a holding vehicle wholly controlled by Future Corporation's own chairman, Yasufumi Kanemaru, launched a tender offer on July 30 for all outstanding shares of the Tokyo Prime-listed IT consultancy it does not already own, at ¥2,451 per share. Future's three-member special committee of outside directors voted unanimously, with Kanemaru recused, to recommend shareholders tender.
Why it matters: The company will cancel its year-end dividend once enough shareholders tender, part of a plan to take the IT consultancy private and off the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
FreeBit May Seek Extension on Annual Report Amid CountUp Acquisition Probe
FreeBit said it is weighing a request to the Kanto Local Finance Bureau to extend the July 31 statutory deadline for filing its annual securities report for the year ended April 2026, because a special committee investigating its 2025 acquisition of CountUp may not finish in time for the company to get its audit report signed off.
Why it matters: An unresolved acquisition probe delaying a mandatory filing is a governance flag for a Prime-listed company, independent of what the investigation ultimately finds.
Arealink Lifts Profit Guidance, Raises Dividend, and Bids for a Tokyo-Area Storage Rival
Arealink, the Tokyo-listed operator behind the Hello Storage self-storage brand, posted 19% first-half operating-profit growth and used the momentum to raise its full-year profit forecast and lift its dividend.
The move: The company is also spending about ¥2.6bn, a 42% premium at ¥1,340 per share, on a tender offer to take full control of a smaller Tokyo-area self-storage rival.
quick hits
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Read moreShinkin Central Bank's consolidated net profit rose 25.8% to ¥13.5bn in the June quarter on foreign floating-rate bonds and corporate lending, while a separate disclosure showed gross unrealized losses on its held-to-maturity bond book at ¥594bn, more than ten times last year's annual profit before interest-rate hedges are applied.