AI Chip Testing Capacity Tightens as OSATs Lock Customers Into Year-Long Deals
Testing has become a binding constraint on AI chip output, with OSAT providers signing capacity agreements longer than a year, raising prices and lifting capital spending well above plan.
Sigurd Microelectronics has posted monthly revenue above NT$2 billion for three consecutive months as increasingly complex AI chips require more intensive test processes. Most customers have now signed capacity agreements lasting more than a year, others have reserved capacity through dedicated equipment, and some memory customers are willing to pay premiums to lock in slots. The company confirmed it has already begun raising its own prices, though it declined to speak for the industry.
The revenue mix shows where the demand is coming from. AI, CPUs, GPUs, ASICs and silicon photonics generated about NT$3.7 billion for Sigurd in the first nine months of 2026, up from roughly NT$2.5 billion a year earlier, lifting their share of total revenue from 20% to 24%. Management expects that share to exceed 30% in 2027. Silicon photonics is emerging as a separate growth driver, with the company extending optical communications testing across electrical integrated circuits, photonic integrated circuits and optical engines.
Capacity is being added but remains spoken for. Sigurd's second Hukou plant began production in July with about 40% of capacity online as of October and already fully committed, while Zhongxing Plant 3 is scheduled for completion in the fourth quarter of 2026 and volume production in the first quarter of 2027. The company has raised 2026 capital spending to NT$8.8 billion, 48% above its original plan, concentrated on advanced test equipment, and could raise it again in coming months.
The economics are shifting because test time is growing faster than unit output. Estimates cited by analysts put Blackwell's final test time at four times that of Hopper and Rubin at seven times, with testing's share of GPU manufacturing cost rising from 1.9% for Hopper to 2.5% for Blackwell and 3.3% for Rubin. That is pulling equipment orders forward: two Korean suppliers have booked a combined KRW 283.94 billion of HBM4 wafer tester orders this year, while imported equipment still accounts for more than 80% of China's installed base across back-end testing, leaving domestic vendors such as TBSTest targeting roughly 15% of that market in 2026.