Wah Li Q2 EPS Hits NT$3.46, High-End PCB Exposure Equipment Orders Booked Through 2030

Materials and equipment supplier Wah Li (3010-TW) released its second-quarter financial results today (11th), reporting robust growth driven by simultaneous expansion in its semiconductor and PCB businesses. Pre-tax net profit reached NT$1.29 billion, up 86.9% year-on-year, with earnings per share (EPS) at NT$3.46—the second-highest monthly record in company history. The company's high-end exposure equipment continues to gain strong customer traction, with current order backlog extending through 2030, reflecting sustained high demand.

Wah Li's Q2 consolidated revenue reached NT$23.84 billion, up 17.9% YoY and setting a new quarterly record. Gross margin stood at 8.3%, operating margin at 4.2%, pre-tax net profit at NT$1.29 billion (up 86.9% YoY), and EPS at NT$3.46.

For the first half of the year, revenue totaled NT$45.68 billion, up 17.7% YoY. Gross and operating margins were 8.3% and 4.0%, respectively. Pre-tax net profit reached NT$2.26 billion, up 59.2% YoY, with EPS at NT$5.93—significantly higher than NT$3.59 in the same period last year.

Wah Li stated that AI-related demand remains strong, with semiconductor customers and end-market cloud service providers (CSPs) maintaining confidence in future outlooks. This has driven significant sales growth in photoresists, advanced packaging materials, specialty gases, and bulk chemicals, forming a key profit driver in the first half.

Supported by growth in both semiconductor and PCB segments, Wah Li's July consolidated revenue surged to NT$8.54 billion, a new monthly high. With customer orders remaining strong, capacity expansion ongoing, and some raw material prices rising, market sentiment remains positive on the company's sustained growth momentum and potential for further scale expansion.

The company noted that its semiconductor-grade specialty gases business performed exceptionally well in the first half. Tungsten hexafluoride (WF6) benefited from rising raw material prices, allowing Wah Li to adjust pricing while maintaining stable supply and successfully onboarding new wafer fabrication customers. Internationally, the company successfully entered South Korea’s memory supply chain and expanded shipments. It also plans to actively pursue supply opportunities with U.S.-based foundry giants’ overseas facilities. Additionally, Wah Li is expanding its gas equipment business, offering integrated material-and-equipment solutions to enhance customer value and strengthen its competitive edge.

Global AI infrastructure expansion is accelerating AI server development. Leveraging its strengths in automation and smart manufacturing integration, Wah Li has delivered comprehensive solutions for AI server assembly and testing automation. Production lines have been implemented for NVIDIA’s (NVDA-US) GB200, GB300, and next-generation Vera Rubin platforms, with ongoing expansion to other AI server customers. As project scales steadily increase, the division has maintained multi-fold year-on-year growth in recent years.

Meanwhile, next-generation AI servers are adopting liquid cooling architectures across the board, significantly increasing demand for Wah Li’s high-end thermal interface materials. The company has successfully entered the supply chain for high-wattage thermal adhesives used on motherboards, expected to become a new growth contributor.

In the PCB sector, demand for high-end copper-clad laminates (CCL) remains strong, driven by AI servers, high-speed switches, and ASIC chips. Supply shortages for key materials such as low-loss glass fabric and high-end copper foil are expected to persist through 2027. Backed by strong support from suppliers, Wah Li has secured stable sourcing and continues to benefit from rising demand, maintaining a favorable price-volume growth trend.

Customer pre-stocking has improved order visibility through the second half of this year and into early next year. Related product revenues in the first half doubled YoY. Wah Li is also collaborating with customers to enter the next-generation AI server motherboard supply chain for U.S.-based CSPs, with mass production expected to begin contributing revenue from next year onward.

Beyond materials, PCB equipment demand is entering a new growth cycle. Wah Li’s high-end exposure machines continue to win strong customer adoption, with order books now filled through 2030—highlighting long-term capacity expansion needs for high-end PCBs and substrates. The company also offers comprehensive solutions in drilling, inspection, and dry/wet process equipment. With customers’ capital expenditures rising, all product lines are delivering significant growth.

Growing AI compute demand is driving data center interconnect upgrades, accelerating 800G optical module adoption and marking the commercial launch year for 1.6T products. As optical module penetration increases, so does demand for high-density connectors. The next-generation SN-MT connector, designed for miniaturization and higher density, is further boosting demand for high-performance engineering plastics.

Wah Li’s high-performance engineering plastics have been successfully integrated into the optical communication components supply chain, used in fiber optic connectors (FOC) and fiber optic lens elements (FOL). Driven by high-speed optical communication growth, related revenues achieved high double-digit growth in the first half, with second-half performance expected to exceed the first.