[News] AI Chip Testing Capacity Tightness Prompts Customers to Lock In 1-Year-Plus Deals; Sigurd Hikes Prices

What happened

According to STAR Market Daily, semiconductor testing demand is surging as increasingly complex AI chips require more intensive processes, tightening available capacity; OSAT provider Sigurd Microelectronics has posted monthly revenue above NT$2 billion for three consecutive months, and customers are increasingly signing long-term agreements to secure testing capacity — most have signed capacity agreements lasting more than a year, others have reserved capacity through dedicated equipment, and some memory customers are even willing to pay premiums to lock in capacity. On pricing, Sigurd said it could not speak for the industry but confirmed that it has already begun raising its own prices. Per TechNews, AI, CPUs, GPUs, ASICs, and silicon photonics generated about NT$3.7 billion in revenue for Sigurd in the first nine months of 2026, up from roughly NT$2.5 billion a year earlier, with their share of total revenue rising from 20% to 24%, and the company expects the share to exceed 30% in 2027. Silicon photonics is also a key growth driver: Sigurd has expanded its optical communications testing capabilities to cover EICs, PICs, and optical engines, spanning testing technology, R&D engineering, and volume production. Strong demand is accelerating capacity expansion: Sigurd's second Hukou plant began production in July, with about 40% of capacity online as of October and already locked in by customers; Zhongxing Plant 3 is scheduled for completion in the fourth quarter of 2026 and volume production in the first quarter of 2027. Sigurd has raised its 2026 capex to NT$8.8 billion, 48% above its original plan, focused on advanced testing equipment, and is in discussions with several key customers and could raise capex again in the coming months. As background: per Seoul Economic Daily citing Nomura Securities, NVIDIA Blackwell's final test time is estimated at four times that of Hopper, while Rubin could require seven times as long, with testing's share of GPU manufacturing costs projected to rise from 1.9% for Hopper to 2.5% for Blackwell and 3.3% for Rubin; per ETNews, Digital Frontier and UniTest have secured a combined KRW 283.94 billion in HBM4 wafer tester orders from SK hynix this year, and as HBM complexity increases, more test items and longer testing times could drive testing equipment demand to grow faster than HBM output itself.

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Source: TrendForce · 10/7/2026 · View original source