APAC Wrap: 9 April 2026
I had planned to send you this update every week on Friday but this is coming early as I received a full boat of contributions for this week’s email.
Please keep the DMs and emails coming - we like hearing from you.
In particular, if you have any questions about the Funda AI platform, I am happy to address them. This week, we have had two examples of readers surfacing new ideas from the Funda AI chatbox.
AMAT: UBS says management talking about incremental SAM capture opportunities from the industry’s shift to more vertical structures.
Gate-All-Around (the vertical structures in question) was described by management as a “monster” node.
This is one of the transitions driving the adoption of x-ray inspection, i.e. Rigaku.
UBS’s PT of $430 is unchanged.
Micronics: Profiled by Bernstein today
Bernstein moving in on our Japanese small cap turf!
This report is part of a series of reports on Japan semi small cap companies, which we don’t cover but occupy unique positions in the supply chain and potentially benefit from the technology shifts. Investors may find them interesting as the small caps generally trade at lower multiples than large caps, but the growth profile is not necessarily inferior.
Can we replace Micronics with JEM in the whole document:
We note four factors shaping Micronics’s revenue outlook: (1) increased HBM contribution driving up probe card content per wafer, (2) DRAM capacity expansion across all three major players, (3) Samsung HBM exposure as a concentrated but large revenue driver, and (4) Micronics’s own manufacturing capacity expansion as the primary historical constraint.
… we believe the underlying probe card demand potentially can grow growth 32% / 27% in CY26/27, respectively, accelerating from 27% growth in 2025.
Below the paywall:
JEM’s consensus numbers (which are likely too low) compared with peers.
MS updates us on one of their top picks in Taiwan.
New bottleneck: a game of whack-a-mole.
Micro/small caps in Singapore.
Some articles on Digitimes that caught my eye.