Key points
- Camtek shared third-quarter sales ahead of schedule
- Its fourth-quarter forecast would set another record
- Management's first look at 2027
- A new long-term revenue goal
Camtek (CAMT) expects record sales in both the third and fourth quarters and gave its first revenue outlook for 2027: more than $800 million. The Israeli chip-inspection equipment maker released the update Wednesday, ahead of an investor breakfast at SEMICON West in San Francisco.
Preliminary third-quarter revenue is $160 million to $161 million, up about 27% from a year earlier and at or slightly above its August forecast of $158 million to $160 million. Full results are due in early November.
Camtek expects about $180 million in fourth-quarter revenue, up 40% from a year earlier. That would bring full-year sales to about $595 million.
The forecasts also support management's earlier growth outlook. Camtek reported $254.9 million in first-half revenue. The new figures put second-half sales at $340 million to $341 million, about a third higher, consistent with its August forecast for growth of more than 30%.
Where does the 2027 outlook come from?
Camtek ties it to orders. The company says it has received more than $800 million in orders since the start of the year, with deliveries scheduled through 2026 and into 2027. In its August report, that count was more than $600 million.
Orders are what customers have agreed to buy. Camtek counts them as revenue once the systems are delivered and the customer's conditions for accepting them are met, which can be well after the order. Some of those orders already have 2027 dates on them. On June 2, Camtek announced a $55 million order from a large outsourced chip assembly and test company, plus more than $50 million in orders for its Hawk systems from a leading maker of HBM, the stacked memory used in AI chips. All of it is expected to be delivered in 2027. Camtek didn't name either customer.
The company describes the 2027 outlook as growth of more than 35% over 2026. CEO Rafi Amit said in the release that this year's orders were "driven by the very strong demand for advanced packaging for AI applications," and that growth will be "led by the Hawk and the Eagle G5," its next-generation products.
Advanced packaging is the step where several chips, like a processor and stacks of HBM memory, get joined into one package. It has been a bottleneck for AI chip supply. Camtek's machines check wafers for defects and measure chip features along the way. In August, Camtek forecast that its advanced packaging revenue would grow about 70% between the first and fourth quarters of 2026.
In its presentation for the breakfast, Camtek set a new goal of about $1.2 billion in yearly revenue within about three years, not counting acquisitions. That replaces its earlier $750 million target.
Camtek is a smaller company than the big chip equipment makers, and its shares have moved a lot this year. They closed 2025 at $106.35 and traded as high as $215.99 in mid-May. Tuesday's close of $142.78 was up about 34% for the year. On Wednesday, the stock opened up 3.6% at $147.97, then turned lower. It was at $131.79 at 10:33 a.m. ET, down 7.7%.
