Onto Innovation Partners with Rigaku to Advance Semiconductor Manufacturing Control Solutions
The company states: "Onto Innovation announced a strategic collaboration with X-ray technology leader Rigaku Holdings Corporation to advance next-generation process control solutions for semiconductor manufacturing. Rigaku, a leading manufacturer of X-ray related technologies, is engaged with customers across a wide range of markets, including a growing presence in process control for semiconductor fabrication. The evolving complexity of advanced logic and memory design, as well as the advanced packaging architectures used for tighter integration is creating an increase in reliance on novel and exotic materials. While this drives greater demand for process control solutions such as optical critical dimension metrology it's also creating emerging opportunities for the capabilities inherent in X-ray technology."
Trade with 70% Backtested Accuracy
Analyst Views on ONTO
About ONTO
About the author


- Customer Win: Onto Innovation announced that its DragonFly G5 product has been qualified by a leading foundry customer, marking a significant penetration into the high-end market and is expected to drive future revenue growth.
- Earnings Guidance: The company pre-announced its Q1 2026 results to exceed market expectations and guided for growth in Q2, primarily driven by advanced nodes and advanced packaging technologies, indicating robust market demand.
- Revenue Growth Potential: Advanced packaging business is projected to grow over 30% in 2026, reflecting strong demand from customers like TSMC and Amkor, and demonstrating the company's adaptability in the context of surging AI demand.
- Analyst Rating Upgrade: Needham raised Onto Innovation's price target from $275 to $320, reflecting confidence in the company's future growth potential, which further propelled the stock price increase in premarket trading.
- Strategic Investment: Onto Innovation has announced the acquisition of a 27% stake in Japan's Rigaku for approximately $710 million, which not only deepens their partnership but also facilitates joint IP development and coordinated market efforts, enhancing competitiveness in semiconductor manufacturing.
- Technology Integration: This collaboration will combine Onto Innovation's optical metrology and AI-driven analytics, particularly its Ai Diffract software, with Rigaku's X-ray technologies, including CD-SAXS platforms, to deliver hybrid metrology solutions for advanced logic and memory devices.
- Market Positioning: The two companies are targeting increasingly complex semiconductor architectures such as advanced packaging, V-NAND, and DRAM, leveraging X-ray capabilities to provide deeper structural insights that traditional optical techniques cannot achieve, thereby enhancing product performance.
- Industry Outlook: Through this strategic partnership, Onto Innovation not only enhances its technological capabilities in the semiconductor market but also positions itself more favorably in the rapidly evolving semiconductor industry, driving future business growth.
- Significant Market Opportunity: Onto stated that external analysts estimate the market opportunity for its X-ray solutions in semiconductor manufacturing, developed in collaboration with Rigaku, could exceed $1 billion within five years, indicating strong growth potential.
- Record High Stock Price: Following the acquisition of a 27% stake in Rigaku for approximately $710 million, Onto's shares hit record highs in after-market trading, with the transaction expected to close in the second half of 2026, further solidifying its position in the semiconductor industry.
- Integration Advantage: Onto's integration of its Ai Diffract analysis software with Rigaku's CD-SAXS platforms has already been selected by two key customers, highlighting the importance and market demand for this solution in the semiconductor manufacturing process.
- Analyst Optimism: Following the launch of Onto's Dragonfly G5 platform, analysts from B.Riley, Evercore, and others raised their price targets by an average of 22%, reflecting a positive outlook on Onto's future performance, with expectations that it will exceed revenue forecasts in its earnings report on May 6.
- Strategic Collaboration: Onto Innovation has announced a strategic partnership with X-ray technology leader Rigaku Holdings Corporation to develop next-generation process control solutions for semiconductor manufacturing, which is expected to unlock over $1 billion in market opportunities and enhance the company's competitiveness in the semiconductor sector.
- Innovative Technology Integration: The collaboration integrates Onto Innovation's Ai Diffract™ analysis software with Rigaku's CD-SAXS platforms, already selected by two key customers, showcasing the new technology's potential to meet the demands of complex logic and memory designs, thereby improving customer production efficiency.
- Equity Investment Plan: Onto Innovation plans to acquire 27% of Rigaku's shares for approximately $710 million, which will not only grant Onto Innovation a board nomination right but is also expected to positively impact the company's financials by December 31, 2026, further solidifying the strategic alignment between the two companies.
- Optimistic Market Outlook: As optical metrology technology advances towards the 1nm process node, demand for Onto Innovation's Atlas® OCD technology continues to grow, and the integration of X-ray technology is set to provide customers with deeper data analysis capabilities, driving future market growth.

Company Announcement: RIGAKU HOLDINGS CORP has issued a notice regarding capital and business alliances with ONTO INNOVATION.
Strategic Changes: The notice highlights significant changes and innovations involving the largest principal shareholder and other affiliated companies.
- Market Rally: The S&P 500 rose 1.20% and the Nasdaq 100 increased by 1.29%, reaching all-time highs, reflecting investor optimism regarding US-Iran peace talks, which may enhance risk appetite in the markets.
- Oil Price Plunge: WTI crude prices fell over 11% to a five-week low after Iran announced the Strait of Hormuz is fully open, easing inflation concerns and causing the 10-year T-note yield to drop 7 basis points to 4.24%.
- Strong Earnings Season: The earnings season started robustly, with 81% of the 48 S&P 500 companies reporting Q1 earnings exceeding estimates, projecting a 12% year-over-year increase in earnings, providing strong support for the stock market.
- Airline Stocks Surge: Airline stocks surged as fuel costs decreased, with Alaska Air Group (ALK) rising over 10% and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (RCL) up more than 7%, indicating market confidence in the recovery of the airline industry.









