Amkor Technology

Sales held steady at about 2 billion dollars, yet profit jumped 50 percent from a year ago to 191 million dollars. Amkor now keeps about 18 cents of every sales dollar after production costs, up from 14 cents, and expects 18 to 19 cents next quarter. That means it's winning better-paying work, not just more work.

Computing chips, which power data centers, AI systems, and laptops, hit record sales and grew to 26 percent of the business from 19 percent a year ago. Car and factory chips also set a record, rising to 22 percent from 16 percent. That shift makes Amkor less dependent on phones, and its top ten customers now make up 66 percent of sales, down from 73 percent.

Phone and tablet chips fell to 37 percent of sales from 51 percent a year ago, and management said it expected that weakness. A shrinking phone business is why total sales barely moved from about 2 billion dollars. Next quarter's outlook of 1.9 to 2 billion dollars suggests no quick rebound, and Amkor still leans heavily on Apple, its largest customer.

Amkor plans to spend about 2.5 billion dollars on new factories this year and has already spent 1.24 billion through September, more than double last year's pace. Its day-to-day business brought in 868 million dollars of cash over that time, so it borrowed 1.15 billion dollars to fill the gap. Total debt is now 2.5 billion dollars, slightly more than its 2.4 billion in cash, which leaves less room for error if chip demand cools.