Tokyo Electron Unsp/Adr

It's time for us to start Tokyo Erasmus Financial Announcement for the second quarter of fiscal year ending March 2025. Thank you very much for joining us today despite your busy schedule. I am Yatsuda of our department, serving as a moderator for today's session. I'd like to introduce today's attendees. Mr. Toshiki Kawai, Representative Director, President, and CEO. I am Kawai, Mr. Machio. Next, Mr. Hiroshi Kawamoto, Senior Vice President, General Manager, Division Officer of Finance Division. Before starting the presentations, let me explain the flow of today's session. First of all, Kawamoto and Kawai will make presentations. After that, until 6.30 Japan time, we will have a question and answer session where we entertain questions from the audience. This meeting uses two channels of Webex for the simultaneous interpretation between Japanese and English. As we explained in our email, you are kindly requested to use apps on PCs or mobile terminals if you plan to ask questions, but if you are not going to ask questions, you can use telephones. Since this conference is intended for institutional investors and analysts, We appreciate your understanding that we receive questions only from institutional investors and analysts as usual. We will post the audio contents of this conference in Japanese and English on our website within a couple of days. It will be appreciated if you also visit our website. Now Mr. Kawamoto will present the consolidated financial summary. Mr. Kawamoto, please. Once again, good afternoon. I am Kawamoto, Finance Division. I'd like to present the consolidated financial summary of the second quarter of fiscal year ending March 2025. This slide shows quarterly financial summary. I will mainly refer to the figures in the blue box. In the second quarter, we generated net sales of 566.5 billion yen, 2.1% increase from the previous quarter. Gross profit was 259.9 billion yen, 1.5% decline from the previous quarter. Gross profit margin was 45.9%, dropping by 1.7% due to one-off inventory disposal and changes in product mix. Operating income was 148.1 billion yen, 10.6% decline from the previous quarter. Operating margin was 26.2%. dropping by 3.7 percentage points from the previous quarter due to the decrease of the gross profit margin that I mentioned earlier and increased ownership and aid-to-sales ratio, mainly including R&D expenses. Income before income taxes decreased by 8.2% to 153.6 billion yen. Net income attributable to owners or parents was 117.7 billion yen. 6.7% decline from the previous quarter. The capex in the second quarter mainly comprises development buildings, both in Tokyo Electron Miyagi and Tokyo Electron Kyushu, which are under construction right now. This is a graphic representation of the financial summary shown on the previous page on the chronological basis. As shown here, net sales have been recovering after hitting bottom in the first half of the previous fiscal year. This shows the financial summary on the semi-annual basis. The figures in the blue box are the financial results in the first half of the fiscal year. The following column shows the financial estimates for the first half of this fiscal year we announced on August 8. As you can see here, in every item we have achieved the guidance we announced on August 8. In comparison with the second half of the previous fiscal year, we generated more net sales and profits. driven by strong customer demands. Compared with the first half of the previous year, our financial performance has grown significantly along with the recovery of our customers' WFE spending. Net sales in the first half of this fiscal year hit the second highest level on the half-year basis. This shows SBE new equipment sales by applications. In the second quarter, from the bottom of the chart, sales to non-memory customers accounted for 71%, non-blockline memory accounted for 3%, and DRAM accounted for 26%. The competition is comparable with that in the previous quarter. The new equipment sales slightly dropped in this quarter, partly because recognition of some sales was pulled forward through the previous quarter. Inquiries from our customers, however, remain strong. This slide shows the field solution sales. In the second quarter, field solution sales were 139.5 billion yen, increasing by 21.4 billion yen, driven by modifications. Also, sales of parts and services rose, along with the recovery of utilization rate in the customer's class. This slide shows net sales by region. In the second quarter, proportion of China dropped by 8.6 percentage points to 41.3%. Proportions of the other regions generally showed an increase. Proportion of China is expected to decline from the first half to the second half of this fiscal year. This slide shows balance sheet. The total assets were 3,517.8 billion yen. Cash and cash equivalents were 525.5 billion yen, rising by 87.0 billion yen from the previous quarter. Notes and accounts receivable were 371.7 billion yen, increasing by 12.8 billion yen quarter over quarter. Inventories were 742.2 billion yen, declining by 22.5 billion yen from the previous quarter. Investment and other assets were 386.5 billion yen, declining by 84.9 billion yen from the previous quarter because of such factors as decreased market value of shares we own. For liabilities and net assets shown on the right-hand side, liabilities were 742.2 19.4 billion yen, decreasing by 3.0 billion yen from the previous quarter. Net assets were 1,798.3 billion yen, increasing by 25.3 billion yen from the previous quarter. This change is primarily attributed to increase of assets due to recognition of net sales and decrease of assets due to decline of other securities valuation difference. The equity ratio was 70.8% for your information. This slide shows the cash flow. The cash flow from operating activities in the second quarter was 148.6 billion yen. The cash outflow from investing activities was 54.4 billion yen, mainly due to acquisition of fixed assets. The cash outflow from financing activities was 600 million yen, The free cash flow was 94.1 billion yen. This concludes my presentation on the consolidated financial money of the second quarter of the fiscal year ending March 2025. Now, Mr. Kawai will present the business environment and financial estimates. Mr. Kawai, please. This is Kawai. I will present Business Environment and Financial Estimates. Thank you so much for joining us despite your very busy schedule. I will present Business Environment and Financial Estimates. Let me start with Business Environment. We expect calendar 2024 WFE market will be $100 billion plus in size, just as we expected in August 2024. Though partially, customers' investment for advanced logic has been slow. Thanks to the support of more overwhelming strong AI demand, WFE market is gaining momentum, surpassing the original guidance. At present, customers continue active investment for AI servers. Capital spending for AI services accounts for about 15% in the entire WFP spending, growing as much as 1.5 times year-over-year. About half of that is for HBM applications. In parallel, customers are activating advanced investments to prepare for full-fledged spread of AI-mounted PCs and smartphones, which also accounts for about 15% in WFP-marked investments. Driven by extremely robust AI demand, investment for DRAM, in particular for HVM, is very, very active. In advanced logic boundary, in addition to investment for scaling to 4nm, 3m, and 2nm nodes and investment for their mass production, advanced packaging and testing needs are growing rapidly. In calendar 2025, in addition to strong demand for AI servers, AI content in PCs and smartphones is expected to grow. All in all, proportion of tools for AI semiconductors will go up to 40% in the WFP market. One research company say proportion of AI semiconductor in the semiconductor devices will grow to 70%. And accordingly, AI presence will also rise gradually in the WFP market. Following the recovery of investment for DRAM, investment for NAND is also expected to resume as the inventory adjustment proceeds. A further recovery of WFP spending in the Advanced Logic Foundry is expected to offset the low in investment for matured nodes. We expect that these factors will drive double-digit growth in calendar 2025 WFE market. For AI applications, cutting-edge semiconductor technologies are essential. Toward the realization of semiconductor devices featuring large capacity, auto high-speed, and low power consumption, technology innovation is moving forward. Along with evolution of such technologies as GAA, BACSEC, PDN, and high stocking memories, our business opportunity will expand more and more. This shows business progress in second quarter of fiscal year ending March 2025. Regarding financial performance, as Mr. Kawamoto presented earlier, net sales, profit, and all other indicators achieved our guidance. Toward full implementation of investment for high-volume manufacturing advanced devices, we are receiving increasing inquiries for tools for advanced logic, DRAM for HVM, and advanced packaging, which pushes up the proportion of our new products. This trend is expected to raise our full-year net sales and profit to a record high. I will show you an entire picture later. We are steadily winning PORs with our high-value added strategic products in this fiscal year as well. We have won PORs with high-tech film deposition system for DRAM capacitor and also single-ware cleaning system with 24 chambers for NAND featuring high controllability and productivity. For bonders, which are expected to grow more in the future, we have won PORs from new customers with temporary border for HVM, for which we have already gained high market share among the major customers. Another highlight is that we have one POR with fusion border for backside PDN used in advanced logic and development POR for SOC in advanced packaging. For the provers, we have an overwhelming share in advanced worship customers, and our provers sales in fiscal year is growing rapidly, likely to be doubled year over year. We have won high-volume manufacturing POA with provers for DRAM as well because of its advantage in temperature controllability from a major customer in this fiscal year. For cryo-edging, which attracts attention in the market, we have confirmed a significant progress toward high-volume manufacturing POA at multiple customers. This diagram shows focus data presented by Tech Insights, which represents science of the WFE market and test and assembly market. As shown here, both WFE and test assembly markets expected to grow strongly. And it is AI and advanced devices that drive this growth. Various development items shown on the right-hand side are currently underway, leading-edge welfare process tools to be delivered in massive volume, and tools for advanced packaging and testing, which are rapidly growing. In both of these two fields, we have formed significant numbers of high-volume manufacturing PORs and development PORs, all of which will provide us with growth potential for the future. In this fiscal year, AI-related sales alone will be more than 600 billion yen by leveraging our broad product portfolio will embrace growth potential as much as possible in both scaling and packaging. Toward the achievement of the mid-term management plan, our business is advancing steadily right now. In next fiscal year, we expect The application shown in the table will account for about 70% of our sales. We will hold IR Day February 26, 2025, where we'd like to talk about Tokyo Electron's growth potential. We will announce more detail about this event. Please join us in this event. Next, I will present the financial estimates for fiscal 2025. As I described earlier, driven by the strong demand for AI-related devices, WFE market is currently in recovery. Toward calendar 2025, full-fledged WFE spendings are expected to start to advance memory and advance logic. We have revised the financial estimate upward by reflecting past health results and latest market trend. Fiscal 2025 4-year net sales estimates are ¥2,400,000,000, which represents 31% positive growth year-over-year. We expect to considerably outperform the market growth. We estimate ¥1,129,000,000 for gross profit, ¥680,000,000 for operating income. and 526 billion yen for net income attributable to owners of parents. In order to capture future growth opportunity as much as possible, we plan to invest 254 billion yen for R&D. Net sales, gross profit, gross profit margin, operating income, net income, and EPS are expected to hit record high. This slide shows SPE new equipment sales focus in fiscal 2025. As shown here, sales are recovering after bottoming out in the first half of previous fiscal year. For the second half of this fiscal year, we expect record high half-year sales. This shows our plan for R&D expenses and topics. In fiscal 2025, As presented before, we expect R&D expenses of 254 billion yen, capex of 170 billion yen, and depreciation of 63 billion yen, all of which are expected to hit record high. This slide shows the dividend forecast. Based on revision of fiscal 2020 financial estimate, full-year dividend per share is expected to be 571 yen, surpassing the record posted in the fiscal year ended March 2023. In the Board of Directors meeting held today, we decided to implement share repurchase of up to 70 billion yen. Back in February 2024, we announced our plan to spend R&D expenses of 1.5 trillion yen and topics of 700 billion yen for five years to come starting from this fiscal year. This share repurchase has been decided by comprehensively taking into account various factors, including investment for our expected growth beyond next fiscal year, enhancement of our cash generation ability and our cash position, as well as improvement of capital efficiency. Looking ahead toward our expanding business opportunities, cash generation ability and cash efficiency improvement, we are going to manage balance sheet flexibly. This is my last slide showing total return amount over the past few years. The total return amount in this fiscal year totaling the dividend per share and additional share repurchase that I presented earlier is expected to be 413.9 billion yen established in the new record, beating the record in the previous fiscal year ended March 2024 by more than 100 billion yen. We are planning to essentially cancel the shares we plan to repurchase during this fiscal year. Thank you very much. This concludes my presentation. We will have question and answer session until 6.30 Japan time. You can ask questions either in Japanese or English, but our speakers are on the Japanese channel. Please allow us to take audio questions only in Japanese. If you ask a question in Japanese, please click the raise hand button on the Webex. For details, please refer to the instructions attached to the invitation email. I will put a name of the person who asked the question one by one. Our Secretariat will contact you in advance, so please check the Webex chat box. When asking a question, you are kindly requested to unmute your microcontroller for yourself When your question is answered by our attendees, please hit the raise hand button again to remove raise hand signal. For questions in English, please use WebEx chat box and give your affiliation and name as well as your question in text and send it to our secretariat. We will refrain from answering questions if your name or affiliation are not given. On Japanese channel, we will translate your English question and I will read it out in Japanese. And speakers will answer in Japanese on the English channel. Question and answer will be simultaneously interpreted into English on the real-time basis. As we'd like to take questions from as many participants as possible, we'll take one question per person. If time allows, we'll take additional questions. Now the first question is from Mr. Yoshioka from Nomura Securities. Thank you very much. So I have one question. One question per person, is that correct? Yes, thank you. Could you let us know about The WFE market in 2025, you said double-digit growth is expected on page 13. So I think there should be no changes from the previous financial announcement in terms of the statement given. However, over the past three months, there have been many changes, I believe. Are there any changes in the degree of double-digit growth? What's the nuance in the growth potential in the WFE market? Thank you. In principle, double-digit growth is expected. And we haven't changed our idea for calendar 2025 WFP market. Logic is very strong at present. The investment for memory, especially for HBM, has been growing significantly. So leading-edge logic, almost the same. Level of the investment is expected as this year. And for DRAM, memory area, the investment is expected to grow further near. For HBM, the investment is expected to grow. NAND investment is also recovering. Because of those factors, double-digit growth is expected. This year, proportion between the logic and memory are 7 to 3. But next year, the proportion should be 6 to 4. So memory proportion will go up next year. So logic WFP is almost comparable to this year, but WFP spending for memory increases. As a result, proportion between logic and memory will become 6 to 4 next year. That's the reason why expect double digit growth next year. Thank you very much. I understand your point, but what about China? How do you view China market? Next year, the proportion of China will be changing. How do you think about that? For WFE as a whole, the China proportion is expected to decline to 30% level. So in the second half of this fiscal year, it's below 40%. But next fiscal year, the China proportion should be about 30%, going back to the previous level. There are two reasons. Number one, the leading edge investment is increasing. That's one thing. Number two, many new emerging customers in China are now focusing on enhancement of yield rather than investing for capacity enhancement. Because of those two reasons, China's proportion will be declining. I think competitors are having a very similar view on China. So maybe the proportion of China will become about 30% next year. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for your answer. Mr. Yoshioka, thank you very much for your question. Next question is from Mr. Yoshida of CLSA Securities. Mr. Yoshida, please. I am Yoshida from CLSA Securities. Thank you very much. For SPE new equipment sales, your company are outgrowing the WFE market. Which product is driving your sales? good performance and next month you said you are winning POR and application mix will be shifting to memory so byproduct what is the driver I wonder there might be some changes in driver byproduct so I want you to give us the information about driver for this year and next year in terms of product fortunately the scaling and patterning and packaging and testing In those areas, our company's product portfolio is rather growing. One page, this slide showing the data from Tech Insights. So by application, shown over here, Dakota developer, etching system, film deposition systems, and cleaning systems. These areas are to be delivered in massive volume, and they are growing, especially for HBM applications. This is high-volume zone, including HBM and AI-related advanced logic. For DRAM, DDR5, so these areas are showing the growth. So testing and assembly market, on the other hand, compared with WFE market, the size of the testing assembly market is smaller in size. The blue squares in the right table, they are representing testers and assembly. The purple squares are for WFE market. related equipment so testing and assembly process you can see China increasing the bonding and progress alone compared with previous year we can see the increase more than 100 billion yen actually growth is almost doubled in this fiscal year contributing to record high results so probably the provers and bombers, compared with exposure to the entire market, rather small. Therefore, etching system, quota developer and film deposition system, in those three applications, which product is growing most next year? Are there any changes in terms of driver? So it depends on the market size. For etching, this is a big portion. GAA nano sheet investment is expected to grow next year already started this year so you can expect the investment more and maybe two years from now the full flex investment will start for two nanometer and etching grow further more quarter developer based on the high market share i think you can see strong growing and fulfilling the position system we are winning POR steadily. So these are the current conditions. So for those applications shown on this page, the dots and blue portion, they are representative examples and they are related to our application and we have started evaluation of those applications together with our customers. These areas will become by 2025, it accounts for 70% or more than 70%. So the product portfolio over here drives our growth potential. This is how I would like you to understand the situation as you can see. The diversified major products are delivered by our company. And for packaging, bonding, testing, in other words, progress, are growing steadily as well. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for your question. Mr. Yoshida, thank you very much for your question. Next question is from Mr. Nakamura from Goldman Sachs, Japan. Mr. Nakamura, please. Thank you very much. This is Nakamura. Can you hear me? Yes, I can hear you well. So, earlier Mr. Kawamoto said, your sales to China will be declining in proportion from the first half to the second half of this fiscal year. 6% should be the actual proportion of China in the first half of this fiscal year. What is the percentage or proportion of China in the second half of this year and next year? How about this absolute value of sales to China? Let's go here. Could you share your idea with us, please? So this is Kawamoto. Let me answer to your question. The first half of your question. In the first quarter, we had a very high proportion of sales to China. But second quarter, maybe declined. So 45% should be the proportion of China in the first half of this fiscal year, as you said earlier. For the second half of this fiscal year, as Kawai said earlier, the proportion of China will go down to the 30% level. For next fiscal year, again as Kawai said earlier, the leading edge for the funds note will increase. So proportionally, there is a kind of law for China customers. Therefore, the proportion of China sales will go down to 30% the previous figures. For the first half of this fiscal year, the China proportion should be 45%. The second half will decline by nearly 10%. And next fiscal year, Further decline is expected, so the China proportion will go down to the 30% level in next fiscal year. The investment for advanced node, including investment for 2nm, and investment for 2nm will start in a full-plated manner two years from now. Therefore, the China proportion will go down to the 30% level. Thank you very much. I have one follow-up question for this fiscal year. Now you have revised your sales focus by 100 billion yen. So what is the proportion between China, sales to China and sales to other regions in your upward revision? That runs logic area. We have additional inquiries in the field of advanced logic. On the other hand, there are some revision of the customers' advanced devices. The proportion between advanced mode and mature mode should be 50-50. These are the factors which made us to revise our estimate downward. Thank you very much, Mr. Nakamura. This question is from Mr. Yasui of UBS Securities. Mr. Yasui, please. I am Yasui of UBS Securities. Once again, I have one question. For the second half of this year, you have up 47.3% of the gross profit margin. On the other hand, China's proportion goes down. I think the China sales feature high profitability, so why the gross profit margin goes up, although the China proportion goes down in the second half of this fiscal year. So, as I said earlier in my presentation, the leading edge area, the high value added area business are growing steadily. as I said earlier in my presentation so we have some advantage in that area and that advantage is recognized by the customer and we can provide high value added to the customer that's the reason why the gross profit margin goes up in other words HVM logic and packaging testing in these areas the technology advancement is going on and accordingly our technology advantage is recognized and that leads to high value added products of our products and the main drivers Because of high value we can provide, although the proportion of China goes down, we are able to increase gross profit margin in the second half of this fiscal year. I have one additional comment. From the first quarter to second quarter, the gross profit margin went down because of the product mix. So we have high market share. product whose profit margin is rather high, that proportion goes down. Another one is one of inventory, disposal. Because of that, the gross profit margin goes down from the first quarter to second quarter. So this is a major reason. We are just talking about the second half of this year. The question is about second. Yes, I wanted to know both. for the second half of this year, and the difference between first quarter and second quarter. So, the regional mix changes, but because of the product mix, you can see some improvement. Therefore, for this fiscal year, if the gross profit margin is as planned, next year, you may see further increase in gross profit margin. Or do you think there is no change in gross profit margin next year? I think If we can keep balanced business, and we are doing business in a balanced manner, so 2027 fiscal year, there's 3 trillion yen or more is to be achieved in fiscal year ending March 2027, the OPM of 35%. or more, and ROE of 30% or more. That's part of our mid-term management plan. And our new progress in this fiscal year will help us to improve our business performance so we can add more PORs for high-volume production in addition to 70% that I mentioned earlier. So we have a steady progress toward the achievement of the mid-term management plan. So this is how our business is going on in a balanced manner. The semiconductor manufacturing industry is capitalized by the very rapid changes but very fast technology innovation. So we need to continuously have the world's leading technology innovation. That's the reason why we are investing more than 1.5 trillion yen for R&D and 700 billion or more capex for five years to come. We are going to implement those five-year plans steadily for R&D expenses and capex. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Mr. Yasui, for your question. Next question is from Mr. Wadaki of Morgan Stanley, MUFG Research Japan. For next fiscal year, so it depends on China. We don't know what happens next year depending on China's situation. By 2025, the China WFE market growth. What is your assumption for memory and non-memory, especially for memory? I think I saw the similar thing in COXI Electric. Many of the customers are playing forward their orders. So they have some concern for next fiscal year's performance. So China as a whole, what sort of growth do you expect in the China WFE market? And what is the breakdown between memory and non-memory? There are numerous customers in China. Therefore, in my mind, there is no breakdown between memory and non-memory. But when it comes to China sales or WFP market in China, the China WFP market is expected to decline. You said earlier WFP market shows double-digit growth while the proportion of China will go down by 40%. That means Chinese market size will decline by 20%. Is that correct? I don't think 20%. So I think decrease by double-digit. That's our expectation for China market. So I have one follow-up question. This focus is based on the export control by the American government. How do you factor in the export control? So geopolitical issues and regulations are to be watched closely. That's what I always say. Already, there are various information coming in So regulations will be imposed, and even after regulations are imposed, we need to get the permit from Meiji. There are some products which we may get permits, and there are some other products which we may not be able to get permits from Meiji. Based on that assumption, we report those fears. Thank you very much. That was very clear. Mr. Wadaki, thank you very much for your question. Next question is from Mr. Hirakawa of BLV. Mr. Hirakawa, please. My question is very similar to the previous question. So when you see the competition by application, I got information for the past quarter result. I think there have been no changes. So I think the RAM, non-rata memory, non-memory, all of them are growing. January, but by region. Which region is the major driver to make you revise your forecast upward? The primary driver is Taiwan. So in terms of upward division of our estimates, the mature node Customers in China are added. There are additions in the mature node customer in China, but major driver is the leading edge factories. By region, Taiwan followed by Korea and China. Partially United States. including memory area, advanced memory, and advanced logic, as well as the mature node in China are the major drivers. Thank you very much. That's right here. Mr. Hiragawa, thank you very much for your question. Next question is from Mr. Damien Tong of Macaulay Capital Securities. Damien Tong, please. Can you hear me? Yes. Yes. On page 8, now you can see the field solution sales for the second quarter. You hit the record high. And QOQ, quarter over quarter and year over year, you can see drastic increase. What is the reason for this drastic increase? And what will happen in this third quarter, fourth quarter and next fiscal year? Are there any special factors to raise the field solution? sales or now utilization rate is increasing right now what one knows so can you see some tailwind next year as well so as you pointed out in your question the customers feature higher utilization rate accordingly the part sales has been growing steadily installed base is growing and also the customer first utilization rate is increasing because of these factors service and part sales as well as the sales are increased because of the growing installed base so these are major reasons for the increase of the fuel solution sales thank you very much so this level of Field Solutions South, you said double-digit growth is expected next fiscal year, including products and service. But when you just look at the service, what sort of growth rate do you expect for next fiscal year? So IR department will answer to your question. As of today, we don't work on next fiscal year's budget, but customers' utilization ratio is improving. especially for NAND. The first half of this fiscal year, the utilization ratio of NAND processes is rather low, but it's growing. Maybe the investment for NAND will be doubled next year. Therefore, we can see growing install base. Accordingly, the utilization rate is increasing. DLAM is also active, and LOGIC is also very active. But when it comes to matured nodes, there are some weak nodes. utilization rate for matured nodes. I hope this answers your question. So you can see strong inquiries for the trans-logic and advanced memory. But when it comes to matured nodes, you can see some slowing trend. So the growth rate expected for next year, actually we haven't calculated the expected growth ratio for next year. I have one follow-up question. For next fiscal year, Chinese WFE market is declining. However, when it comes to service or field solution service in China, the utilization ratio is expected to grow further more by improving the yield rather than capacity enhancement. So field solution sales in China Although WFE market difference slightly, are there any possibility that field solution sales in China increase next year? This year, China is stronger because of the active investment by the emerging customers in China. And they are working on the yield enhancement. And utilization ratio is not so high. So when yield is enhanced, We can expect a further increase in utilization ratio. However, we don't see such kind of trend yet among the Chinese emerging customers. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Tan Yantong, for your question. Next question is from Mr. Shimamoto of Okasan Securities. I am Shimamoto of Okasa Securities. For WFE for 2025, the memory should be the swing factor. In the previous meeting, DRAM increases by 20 to 30% and NAND will be increasing two times. Do you have the same idea for DRAM and NAND still now? For NAND, compared with DRAM, the NAND market is rather small, but NAND market is to be doubled. And DRAM growth is expected as well. So as you said, we haven't changed our idea for the market trend for DRAM and market. You can give us some qualitative comments. Are there any enhancing trend or declining trend for NAND? I think the recovery might be delayed in this area. Do you see such kind of trend in NAND market? So far, we haven't seen any significant changes. I have one follow-up question. For cryo-etching, POR. So significant progress is achieved. I want to know specifically. It's so difficult for us to imagine what happens. Maybe you can tell something. What sort of progress has been achieved for cryo-etching? And how much sales do you expect for next year? if some cells are recognized for cryo-etching. Let us know whatever you can say now. So multiple customers and the applications of cryo-etching has been increasing slightly. So the characteristics are now being evaluated. and verified right now. So if the customer didn't enjoy the desired characteristics, maybe we can have a negotiation with the customer for the mass production POR. 10 micron depth can be etched without boring or tilt. At the same time, environmental performance, which is very important, is really good. We don't use carbon gas, so 400 layers will be introduced in the future. Then we will see more and more applications for this cryo-etching. The etching is rather big in area. The volume zone etching should be around 2026 2025, the cryo-etching will have some contribution to ourselves, but volume zone will come in 2026. Do we have any specific amount for the size of the market? Too early to say. I reported some figures in the past, I believe. the size of the market? No, we haven't publicly announced any signs of the potential market of prior edging. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. As for the market size, we haven't presented in the report. So, maybe you can see the drastic increase, or sudden increase, of the application of the priority model in the future. But one thing, maybe two years from now, the priority will start contributing to ourselves. 2027, the market size is up to a billion. That's what we said earlier. But that's two years from now. So far, we haven't changed this prospect. Drastically. Thank you very much. Mr. Shimamoto, thank you very much for your question. Actually, we have four more questions. Four more people raising hands. I'd like you to limit your question to one per person. Next question is from Mr. Yamamoto from Musical Securities. I have a question regarding Sherry Purchase. So 80 billion yen, and now we have additional 70 billion yen. You said you have the flexible implementation of the share repurchase, and I think that's true. So I don't think that there's no major change in the policy for share repurchase, but are there any particular reason or trigger that you have decided to do some additional share repurchase and are there any indicator to do another share repurchase next fiscal year, if any? So now we are going to do the appropriate balance sheet management. That's what we always say. In particular, In terms of ROE, around 30% level of ROE is our constant target. So that's part of our consideration to decide the additional purchase of shares. Of course, we are watching the market trend, our cash position, as well as ROE of about 30%. So we are doing the share purchase so that we can achieve the ROE about 30%. Thank you very much. Mr. Yamamoto, thank you very much for your question. Next question is from Mr. Hanaya of SMBC Nikko Securities. Can you hear me? I think I am Hanaya. The Taiwan is really strong. I know that. but other advanced logic manufacturers are not doing so well. I mean, those circumstances, ASML has revived their focus for next year downward. You have 100% market share for EUV. Does the downward revision of ASM sales for next fiscal year have some negative impact on your financial estimate for your next year? As far as we are concerned, our orders are increasing steadily. Therefore, in terms of quarter developer, there have been no major changes in quarter developer business. And there is no big volatility in our business of quarter developer. That business is growing. Mr. Yes, do you have additional comments? For next fiscal year, DRAM and NAND are drivers, especially DRAM, for scaling. So not only AUV, but also the existing emerging lithography demand is increasing. So not only AUV, but also the emerging lithography, we do have high market share in accordance with the market growth ourselves expected to grow next year steadily. Mr. Hanaya, thank you very much for your question. Thank you very much. The last question is from Mr. Shibano of Citi Group Global Markets Japan. Mr. Shibano, I have a simple question, just a clarification, and a very simple follow-up. For 24 and 25 WFE market focus, you used the same sentence as the previous question. financial announcement, but how about reality? Are there any changes? You can just give me one word answer. Should you record to detect insight, information, and strong growth is expected for the future? According to Mr. Kawai's understanding, earlier this year, you presented R&D expenses, headcount enhancement, and capex enhancement. You are going to increase it by 1.5 times, but do you need further enhanced budget for the future, or do you just follow the initial plan for R&D headcount and topics? The business opportunities are expanding. The service available market is growing right now. So, we are given the great opportunities. In the sense, 1.5 trillion or more or 700 billion or more expenses. So we cannot give you any quantitative additional expenses for R&D expenses and CAPEX as of today, but we may need more expenses for R&D and CAPEX. And we are now preparing the plan for the future. For WFE market-focused Double-digit growth is expected for next year. Page 13 shows some information. So AI servers investment, the proportion of that for next year accounts for 20% in total WFE. And AI-mounted PCs and smartphones accounts for 20% within WFE market and conventional devices. PC is in conventional. Smartphones accounts for 30%. So these are the major drivers. For this year, 15%, 15%, and 35%. Therefore, 65% are driven from the leading edge node. But next year, that 65% will be increased to 70%, especially driven by AI-related demand. So market itself is expected to grow. on the double-digit basis, but AI-related servers and PCs and smartphones are expected to grow further more. In the future, AI area is expected to grow further more. According to our perspectives, there have been no major changes in our idea for the future market trend. So, there have been no major changes from the previous financial announcement. Yes, that's correct. Thank you very much. Under the new area, we are winning POR. Also, we have started some evaluation. Therefore, we are making steady progress toward the mid-term management plan.

Mr. Shibano, thank you very much for your question.

So now it's time for us to close the financial announcement. Before closing, however, I'd like to make one announcement. As Kawai announced in his presentation, we will hold IR day at 4 o'clock in the afternoon of February 8th. 26 Wednesday, 2025. In this event, we plan to present our business opportunities expanding along with the growth of WFE and test assembly tool market. Our initiative to embrace opportunity investment is possible. So we'd like very much appreciate your participation. We will inform you of the details of this event. We'd like to continuously improve our R&D activities based on your precious feedback, so we would appreciate your kind cooperation in filling out the questionnaire before you accept the WebEx. Thank you very much for taking time to join this conference despite your busy schedule. Thank you very much.