BE Semiconductor Industries reported third-quarter order intake of €342.6 million, exceeding market expectations as artificial intelligence data-centre investment accelerated demand for advanced chip-packaging equipment.
Orders increased 17% from the second quarter and 96% from a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha had expected approximately €298 million. The Dutch equipment manufacturer also announced a new €100 million share-repurchase programme.
Besi is a leading supplier of hybrid-bonding systems, which connect stacked semiconductor dies directly to produce faster and more energy-efficient links. The technology is becoming increasingly important for advanced logic processors and high-bandwidth memory used in AI accelerators.
Orders for Besi’s hybrid-bonding equipment during the first nine months of 2026 were more than double the company’s total for all of 2025. The company has reported 23 customers for the technology and cumulative demand exceeding 215 systems.
Chief executive Richard Blickman also rejected suggestions that ASML was preparing to compete directly with Besi in die-to-wafer hybrid bonding. He said the companies were working together on placement accuracy and that ASML’s reported research interest concerned longer-term three-dimensional transistor stacking inside individual chips.
Investor concern over possible competition and the pace at which memory producers adopt hybrid bonding had contributed to a substantial decline in Besi’s share price from its June peak. Blickman said the pressure to prepare hybrid bonding for high-volume memory manufacturing was continuing to increase.
The company expects fourth-quarter revenue to remain broadly level with third-quarter revenue of €283.4 million, allowing for a 5% movement in either direction. That guidance was below the €291.5 million analyst consensus. Management attributed the outlook to the timing of customer production-line readiness rather than project postponements.
The results provide another demand indicator for the Asian semiconductor supply chain, where high-bandwidth memory, advanced packaging and manufacturing equipment have become central to AI infrastructure. Singapore’s established semiconductor manufacturing and equipment ecosystem forms part of this regional capacity network.
