Amkor Technology Q4 2025 Earnings Call - 2026 front-loaded CapEx to fuel HDFO-led computing ramp
Summary
Amkor closed 2025 with a beat, reporting Q4 revenue of $1.89 billion and EPS of $0.69, and full year revenue of $6.7 billion, driven by record computing and advanced packaging revenue. Management framed 2026 as a heavy investment year: CapEx is guided to $2.5 billion to $3.0 billion, front-loaded into facilities and equipment to support HDFO, test, Korea/Taiwan expansions and phase one of the Arizona campus.
The company expects computing to accelerate more than 20% in 2026 as HDFO and 2.5D programs ramp, with two data-center HDFO programs in final qualification and meaningful second-half volume expected. Vietnam reached break-even in Q4 and will absorb SiP capacity to free Korea space for advanced packaging. Management flagged timing of government incentives and customer commitments as material to funding and emphasized near-term margin pressure from ramp-related costs, but forecast strong revenue growth and improved flow-through as ramps mature.
Key Takeaways
- Q4 2025 results beat guidance: revenue $1.89 billion, EPS $0.69; FY 2025 revenue $6.7 billion, up 6% year-on-year.
- Computing and advanced packaging set records in 2025, with computing exiting the year at about 20% of revenue and advanced packaging up 7% for the year.
- Management is front-loading CapEx for 2026, guiding $2.5 billion to $3.0 billion, with 65%-70% targeted to facility expansion, including phase one of the Arizona campus.
- About 30%-35% of 2026 CapEx is equipment spend focused on HDFO and test, plus 300 mm capacity in Taiwan; equipment is front-end loaded in 2026.
- Two additional HDFO programs supporting AI/data-center CPUs are in final qualification; Amkor expects one to ramp steeply and another to contribute meaningfully, with the bulk of volume in the second half of 2026.
- Vietnam reached break-even in Q4 2025; management plans further SIP migration to Vietnam to free Korea capacity for HDFO and test expansions.
- Q1 2026 guidance: revenue $1.6 billion to $1.7 billion (about +25% YoY at midpoint), gross margin 12.5% to 13.5%, and EPS $0.18 to $0.28; full-year computing expected to grow >20%.
- Gross margin for 2025 was 14.0%, which included a 90 basis point headwind from the Vietnam ramp; Q4 gross margin benefited from approximately $30 million of asset-sale proceeds.
- Management expects full-year effective tax rate to normalize around 20% in 2026 after a lower rate in Q4 due to discrete tax benefits.
- Liquidity is strong heading into 2026: $2.0 billion cash and short-term investments, total liquidity $3.0 billion; total debt $1.4 billion and debt/EBITDA ~1.2x.
- Government incentives and investment tax credits for the Arizona project will arrive with a lag; 2026 guidance includes minimal offsets for those benefits because receipts come after spending.
- Management cited customer commitments and prepayment/loading agreements as part of funding visibility for the Arizona build, without disclosing specifics.
- CFO expects depreciation pressure from front-loaded equipment and facility spend in 2026, but forecasts 30% incremental flow-through on incremental revenue once ramps scale, excluding one-time asset-sale effects.
- Even if debt increases to fund buildout, interest expense could decrease in the near term due to capitalized interest during construction; Amkor says it can operate comfortably with about $500 million of cash on the balance sheet.
- Operational constraints called out were prioritized R&D and NPI capacity, cleanroom/space expansion in Korea, and equipment delivery timing; Korea space is expected to be ~20% larger by year-end 2026 versus start of 2025.
Full Transcript
Diego, Conference Facilitator: Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Amkor Technology fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings conference call. My name is Diego, and I will be your conference facilitator today. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker’s remarks, we will conduct a question and answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Jennifer Jue, Head of Investor Relations. Ms. Jue, please go ahead.
Jennifer Jue, Head of Investor Relations, Amkor Technology: Good afternoon, and welcome to Amkor’s fourth quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Joining me today are CEO Kevin Engel and CFO Megan Faust. Our earnings press release was filed with the SEC this afternoon and is available on the investor relations page of our website, along with the presentation slides that accompany today’s call. During this presentation, we will use non-GAAP financial measures, and you can find the reconciliation to the comparable GAAP financial measures in the slides. We will make forward-looking statements today based on our current beliefs, assumptions, and expectations. Please refer to our press release for a disclaimer on forward-looking statements and our SEC filings for a discussion of the risk factors and uncertainties that may affect our future results. I will now turn the call over to Kevin.
Kevin Engel, CEO, Amkor Technology: Thank you, Jennifer. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Before I get to results, I want to begin by saying how honored I am to speak with you for the first time as the CEO of Amkor. I’m grateful to the board for placing their confidence in me to lead the company into the next phase of our journey. I want to acknowledge Giel for his leadership and vision, which guided us to where we are today. Having spent more than two decades with Amkor, I’ve seen firsthand the strength of our people, the trust of our customers, and the ability to evolve with the industry, adapting with agility and executing through market transitions and periods of uncertainty. Amkor is an exceptional organization with a team dedicated to delivering customer value and advancing leading-edge technologies.
My leadership approach is grounded in transparency, disciplined execution, and a strong customer focus. I’m energized to lead Amkor as we enter the next chapter of growth. I’ll turn to our fourth quarter performance. Amkor delivered strong fourth quarter results to close out a dynamic year. Q4 revenue was $1.89 billion, and EPS was $0.69, outperforming the high end of our guidance. All end markets exceeded expectations, with the largest upside coming from communications, driven primarily by strong iOS demand. For the full year, revenue grew 6% to $6.7 billion. Computing continued its multi-year acceleration. Automotive delivered strong advanced content growth. Consumer demand improved, and communication stabilized with a key socket gain. Our team executed exceptionally well, navigating shifts in the market conditions, a fluid geopolitical environment with agility and precision, which enabled us to deliver strong fourth quarter results.
As we look back on 2025, it was a year marked with meaningful progress across each pillar of our strategy. We delivered record advanced and computing revenue, driven by deep customer engagements across AI and HPC. We successfully ramped our first high-density fan-out programs into high volume production, expanding across multiple customers and positioning our platform for strong tailwinds in 2026. Operationally, we made solid progress in Vietnam, reaching break-even in Q4. We also broke ground on our Arizona campus, with construction of phase one now underway. Collectively, these accomplishments strengthened our strategic position, expanded our global footprint, and reinforced our alignment with the fastest-growing megatrends shaping the semiconductor industry. Now let me share an update on our strategic initiatives. Our strategy remains firmly grounded and well aligned with current market dynamics.
As we move into the next phase of growth, we see opportunities to further strengthen our execution while staying anchored in our three strategic pillars. First, elevate our technology leadership. Second, expand our geographic footprint. And third, enhance strategic partnerships in focus markets. These pillars have been central to our progress and will continue to shape our path forward as we support accelerated demand for advanced packaging and deliver greater resiliency, flexibility, and value to our customers. On technology leadership, we will continue to invest in advanced packaging platforms, including HDFO, Flip Chip, and test, which are critical to next generation AI and high-performance computing. In 2026, our focus is on launching new programs across these platforms. We have two additional programs in final qualification for HDFO supporting AI data centers, in addition to the two HDFO PC devices we’ve discussed previously.
Our Korea team is preparing for launching both programs into high volume in the second half of the year. The majority of our 2026 equipment investment is focused on HDFO and test. As AI and HPC demand continues, we are well-positioned to enable the next wave of advanced products. We are expanding our footprint to provide customers with diversified regional options for advanced packaging and test. Our presence across Asia, Europe, and soon the U.S., gives customers meaningful supply chain flexibility. In 2026, our priorities include: meeting construction milestones of our Arizona facility, expanding advanced packaging capacity in Korea and Taiwan, and continuing to scale in Vietnam. The ongoing ramp in Vietnam, including the migration of SIP products from Korea, is expected to free up manufacturing space in Korea for HDFO and test growth. This provides needed flexibility until our Arizona facility comes online.
We’re also working closely across the ecosystem with foundries, fabless companies, IDMs, and OEMs to align technology roadmaps and scale capacity. In 2026, our focus is on enhancing these partnerships with clear milestones and investment commitments. For example, one of the HDFO CPU devices ramping this year includes customer commitments to support our capacity investment, demonstrating how tightly our three pillars come together to support AI market expansion. Across all three pillars, we remain focused on margin improvement, driven by operational excellence, optimization in Japan, Vietnam ramp-up efficiencies, a more favorable pricing environment, and a sustained mix shift towards high-value advanced packaging. We look forward to sharing more details at the Investor Day in May. For full year 2026, we expect revenue growth to be driven by continued acceleration in computing, with expected to grow over 20%, and continued strong growth in advanced automotive.
The remainder of our business is expected to grow in the single digits. We continue to monitor export control and trade policies, as well as dynamics around substrates, advanced silicon, and memory supply. We have considered these items in our guidance for Q1. With a strong technology roadmap, targeted capital investments, and deep customer partnerships, Amkor is well positioned to enable the industry’s next wave of innovation. I will now turn the call over to Megan to provide more details on our fourth quarter performance and near-term outlook.
Megan Faust, CFO, Amkor Technology: Thank you, Kevin, and good afternoon, everyone. Fourth quarter revenue was $1.89 billion, down 5% sequentially and up 16% year-on-year. The sequential decline reflected typical seasonal trends in communications and consumer, following strong Q3 builds, partially offset by continued strength in advanced automotive. In communications, revenue grew 28% year-on-year in Q4, and 1% for the full year, reflecting a stronger footprint in the current generation of iOS phones and healthy demand across both iOS and Android ecosystems. Computing revenue increased 6% year-on-year in the fourth quarter, and 16% for the full year, driven by strength in AI-related PC devices and networking infrastructure. Automotive and industrial revenue increased 25% year-on-year in Q4, and 8% for the full year, driven by strength in advanced automotive content for ADAS applications.
Mainstream automotive continued a gradual recovery in Q4, marking the third consecutive quarter of sequential growth. In consumer, revenue declined 10% year-over-year in the fourth quarter, reflecting the product life cycle of a high-volume wearable product introduced in the second half of 2024. For full year, consumer grew 9%, with growth driven by both a full year of the wearable product and a broad improvement across traditional consumer applications. Gross profit for the quarter was $315 million, which included a benefit of approximately $30 million from asset sales, as noted in guidance for the quarter. Gross margin was 16.7%. Operating expenses for the quarter were $130 million. Operating income was $185 million, and operating income margin was 9.8%.
Our effective tax rate for the quarter was 4.8%, primarily due to discrete tax benefits related to the recognition of deferred tax assets. Net income was $172 million, resulting in EPS of $0.69. EBITDA was $369 million, and EBITDA margin was 19.5%. Now let’s turn to our full year performance. 2025 revenue increased 6% to $6.7 billion. All end markets grew, and we achieved record revenue in the computing end market. Advanced packaging revenue also set a new record, growing 7% year-on-year, driven by growth in computing, automotive, and consumer. Full year gross profit was $939 million, and gross margin was 14%, which includes a 90 basis point headwind from the ramp-up of our Vietnam facility.
Operating income was $467 million, and operating income margin was 7%. Our full year effective tax rate was 15.4%, lower than anticipated, due to the discrete tax benefits recognized in the fourth quarter. Net income for the year was $374 million, resulting in EPS of $1.50. EBITDA was $1.16 billion, and EBITDA margin was 17.3%. Capital expenditures for 2025 were $905 million, lower than our guidance, due to the timing of cash payments for our Arizona facility. These investments remain in our plan and will shift into 2026. Full year free cash flow was $308 million. Throughout 2025, we proactively positioned our balance sheet, which added strength and flexibility, meaningfully enhancing liquidity.
At year-end, we held $2 billion in cash and short-term investments, and total liquidity was $3 billion, a 30% increase from the prior year. Total debt was $1.4 billion, and debt-to-EBITDA ratio was 1.2 times. Now, turning to our outlook. Q1 2026 revenue is expected to be between $1.6 billion and $1.7 billion, representing a 25% year-on-year increase at the midpoint. We see strong growth year-on-year in communications, computing, and the automotive and industrial end markets. Gross margin is projected to be between 12.5% and 13.5%. We expect operating expenses to increase to approximately $135 million as we continue to invest in R&D for anticipated growth. Our full year effective tax rate is expected to be around 20%.
Net income is forecasted to be between $45 million and $70 million, resulting in EPS between $0.18 and $0.28. A strong start to the year. 2026 CapEx is expected to increase to a range of $2.5 billion-$3 billion. 65%-70% is projected for facility expansion, including phase one of our Arizona campus. About 30%-35% is projected for HDFO, test, and other advanced packaging capacity. The remaining spend is projected for R&D and quality programs. In closing, our fourth quarter and full year 2025 results reflect Amkor’s focus and discipline on executing our strategic pillars. We enter 2026 with strong momentum, a clear strategy, and an investment agenda to enable our next chapter of growth. This concludes our prepared remarks. We will now open the call up for your questions. Operator?
Diego, Conference Facilitator: Thank you. At this time, we’ll conduct our question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate that your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment please, while we poll for questions. Your first question comes from Charles Shi with Needham & Company. Please state your question.
Charles Shi, Analyst, Needham & Company: Hi, thanks for taking my question, Kevin, Megan, especially Kevin, welcome on board. I’m looking forward to working with you, going from here. Maybe the first question regarding your CapEx guidance, obviously that’s well above what we thought. And so when Amkor announced the plan, Arizona, that was a $7 billion total CapEx investment. So we automatically thought that was like more incrementally, you’re going to do that over multiple years. But if we kind of have to guess that the embedded in your pretty large CapEx guidance, a good amount of that investment can gonna be a little bit more front loading than we thought. So wonder, is there something we kind of missed, or what has changed over the last three or four months?
I didn’t notice you mentioned that there was a customer commitment for a data center HDFO project that feels like that has played a role there. Mind if you give us some sense on why the CapEx numbers are so high, and what’s the reason for that? Thank you.
Kevin Engel, CEO, Amkor Technology: Yeah, sure. Thanks, Charles. Good to hear from you. So I think you kind of have to break it into two pieces. If you look at the CapEx projection, again, what Megan highlighted in her prepared remarks, is about 65%-70% of that is for facilities. So then you take that percentage, and let’s talk about the US spend. So when we talk about the US, the $7 billion, we talked about two-phased approach. You know, phase one is, you can think of that about half of that $7 billion, and then the construction is about 60% of that. So, and then if you think about the construction timeframe that we talked about, we talked about the building being completed in 2027, you know, the basically around middle of the year.
So if you kind of overlay that together, you can imagine that between this year and the first half of next year, you get an idea of that capital spending for the phase one build-out. You know, in general, if you talk about the other portion of the CapEx, the 30%-35%, that’s equipment, you know, I think there’s a couple key things to highlight there. Obviously, that’s not equipment for U.S. manufacturing. That’s all in support of Korea, supporting the HDFO and test, as well as 300 mm capacity expansion in Taiwan. That is an increase year-on-year, pretty significantly, about a 40% increase on equipment, and that just, you know, highlights the strong demand that we’re seeing in this advanced packaging area. On the commitment side, let me touch on that.
You know, so obviously, we’re not going to talk about the details of commitments, but, you know, in general, that comes in multiple forms. There could be, you know, items like a prepayment agreement or loading agreements, other things that give us confidence that we’re going to have, you know, high utilization in that facility once it’s ready.
Charles Shi, Analyst, Needham & Company: Thanks. Maybe a follow-up question on the CapEx. So, for at least your Arizona facility, you do have a 35% investment tax credit. You may also have that, the CHIPS Act, the direct funding that’s available to you. We know that there are U.S. companies benefiting from those programs, that there’s a little bit of variance in terms of how they guide CapEx. Some were guiding gross CapEx, some were guiding net CapEx. So, Megan, this is a question for you. What’s that number, CapEx number? Is it the gross or is it the net? And if it’s gross, how should we think about or how to flow through the benefits, government subsidy, subsidies into the numbers, into our models? Thank you.
Megan Faust, CFO, Amkor Technology: Yeah, great question, Charles. So those government incentives, as well as the investment tax credits, as well as the grants, those are going to come in on a lag. So you’re highlighting a really good point that the Arizona CapEx is going to be front-loaded, and so our Arizona investment most likely could peak in 2026, because we’ll start to have those benefits come through subsequent to the investment periods. So to come around to your original question, there’s really minimal offsets in our guide with regards to investment benefits. And going forward, we will net those. But this is a net position, but there’s really minimal in the 2026 guide.
Diego, Conference Facilitator: Thank you. Another reminder to the audience, to ask a question, press star one, and please limit yourself to one question plus one follow-up question, so we can get through all the questions today in the time allotted. Your next question comes from Craig Ellis with B. Riley Securities. Please state your question.
Craig Ellis, Analyst, B. Riley Securities: Yeah, thanks for taking the question. I wanted to follow up on some of the full year-end market color, which was very, very helpful. And as I do, Kevin, welcome. Good luck in the role, and I look forward to working with you. So I’ll start with computing. In the 20% year-on-year growth, can you help us with color on how the potential size of the 2 data center HDFO programs might compare to the existing PC-related programs? And as you look at the data center contribution in 2026, would you expect those programs to be at full volume by the time we exit the year, or are they still ramping up as we exit the year? Just some additional color on how that plays out will be helpful.
Kevin Engel, CEO, Amkor Technology: Okay. Hey, Craig, and, and thanks, thanks for the remarks. You know, when we think about the compute segment, you know, maybe I’ll focus on the Q1 color first. You know, when we talk about 20%, year-on-year growth for the year, you know, what we’re talking about there is, again, you need to remember that compute is obviously PC as well as data center. If we look at the PC market, you know, in general, that’s showing some headwinds, so I’d say that’s relatively soft compared to data center. And if we pivot that over to onto the technology side, when we look at the 2.5D and HDFO platforms, we’re expecting that to nearly triple over the course of this year. Commenting on the devices that are ramping, we would expect one of those to be in very high volume.
It’ll be a pretty steep ramp. The other one is also ramping. Hard to project if it’ll really be full volume towards the end of the year, but definitely meaningful revenue contribution.
Craig Ellis, Analyst, B. Riley Securities: ... Got it. That’s helpful. And then, Megan, going back to one of the questions Charles asked just on investment, it certainly seems like you’ll have a lot of help from credits and government funding next year. But to the extent that you would need to augment your current cash balance with supplements, are you able to take advantage of debt markets that historically have been very attractive, such as Japan, to provide any additional cash as we work through this first phase of increased investment?
Megan Faust, CFO, Amkor Technology: Hey, Craig. Yes. So as we have mentioned, a significant portion of funding will come from government incentives on the total project. So that could be upwards of $2.85 billion. I also want to comment before we talk about the debt capacity, that we do have, I would say, commitments from customers. Also, we have some that have already been executed and others that are in discussion. So we expect that that will also contribute to funding. And then as it relates to the Amkor finance piece, we have been preparing for this for some time to give us, I would say, the flexibility on how to manage that. So yes, we do have access to debt capacity in various forms, especially being at only 1.2 times debt to EBITDA.
So we are evaluating those options carefully, and we will manage that in order to optimize that return to shareholders.
Craig Ellis, Analyst, B. Riley Securities: That’s very helpful. Thank you.
Diego, Conference Facilitator: Your next question comes from Randy Abrams with UBS. Please state your question.
Randy Abrams, Analyst, UBS: Yes, hi. Thank you. Yeah, my first question wanted to just touch more on the outlook outside of the advanced packaging, the other segments, for the single-digit growth. Could you talk about the puts and takes within that for comms, the iOS versus Android, and also the SiP programs, if you expect much on the consumer or communication SiP, and, and then into the auto industrial. I just want to see a bit more color on what you’re seeing across the other, other markets outside the compute.
Kevin Engel, CEO, Amkor Technology: Hey, hey, Randy. So let me have a couple comments here. You know, so some of this will be more market-driven data rather than what we’re seeing internally, but let me give you some color, at least. On comms, you know, obviously, you know, market data would project that the phone units are roughly flat. You know, I think there’s some potential benefits there, you know, as there continues to be more of this shift towards premium tier, and typically that would benefit Amkor due to our content and the more premium phones.
When we think in compute, again, the PC market, you know, projected to be slightly down on units, so you know, that’s a little bit of a headwind, but then we continue to expect the shift to AI applications as well as more Arm-based, where again, that, that benefits Amkor a little bit. Basically, because we’re moving from a vertically integrated, you know, kind of IDM model versus a outsourced, or sorry, outsourced, fabless company type model with Arm. Then on auto and industrial, you know, again, expected, you know, overall unit sales in cars to be roughly flat, you know, continued migration over to hybrid and EVs. That’s helping to continue to increase the semi content per car. So, you know, we basically are seeing on the mainstream side, you know, very slow recovery.
We have seen three quarters of positive direction in mainstream, and we expect to continue that, that slow progression out of the trough. And then on the advanced side, again, think about things like, you know, computing in the car, ADAS, infotainment. That’s an area we’re seeing very strong growth for, for this year, so very, very positive momentum there. So I think overall, and then on the consumer side, you know, again, I think that’ll be heavily driven by consumer sentiment and, you know, new, new product launches potentially. But, but in general, what we see across that, that kind of non-AI-
Randy Abrams, Analyst, UBS: The color on those. If I could follow up, then it might be a question more for Megan on the outlook for the margins. I think first, just into first quarter, is that the leverage effect and the one-time coming out for the lower guide for Q1? And then as we go through the year with the mix more toward the advanced packaging, which I think you’ve said is accretive, but want to see as it ramps in the ramp-up phase, if you’re at the point it’s accretive, how to think about the incremental leverage with the stronger growth out of the compute segment.
Megan Faust, CFO, Amkor Technology: Thanks, Randy. Yeah, so for Q1, the guide at the midpoint of 13%, there is the, I’m gonna say, asset sale that happened in Q4 that’s gonna impact that flow-through. Without that, the sequential flow-through would pretty much be in line with our 30%, model. Sequentially, there is some favorable product mix, and then that’s being offset by some incremental costs. When I look year-over-year, you know, there is a, I would say, material content impact, as well as some potential, currency headwinds that are impacting that. So Q1 is typically our seasonally lowest top line, but also bottom line.
As it relates to the full year, you know, we’re able to see good progression in the profit initiatives that Kevin had outlined in prepared remarks, such that we would anticipate, you know, being able to achieve that 30% incremental flow-through, absent that, the, you know, the one-time asset sale.
Randy Abrams, Analyst, UBS: Okay, great. Thanks, Kevin and Megan.
Diego, Conference Facilitator: ... Your next question comes from Ben Reitzes with Melius Research. Please state your question.
Ben Reitzes, Analyst, Melius Research: Yeah. Hi, how are you doing? Welcome, Kevin. Good to be talking with you. I wanted to ask about comms again, because I know it was mentioned in a prior question, but be a little more specific, because Qualcomm’s guidance obviously, you know, indicated too much a pretty severe decline in the Android, and you tend to have much higher exposure to the, you know, to your large customer and the premium tier. So I was just wondering if you could be a little more specific about the guide for the quarter and the year in terms of comms. It would seem like it’d be significantly meaningfully better than flat, just given those premium tier and who you’re exposed to, but I just wanted to be sure. Thanks.
Kevin Engel, CEO, Amkor Technology: Yeah. Thanks, Ben. So, you know, a couple of things. I think when we think about iOS, obviously, and I’m talking more about Q1 at this point, I think about iOS, we’re exiting a pretty solid, you know, cycle in the phone launches. So I’d say that we’re pretty positive on what we’re seeing for Q1. For Android, you know, you’re right. I think what we’re seeing is that, and maybe this is related to memory and other things, but we’re continuing to see, you know, relative strength in Android and, you know, maybe a little bit of a step down, but in general, nothing that’s concerning for us. And again, that could be related to the shift to more premium, where we participate a little more heavily.
Ben Reitzes, Analyst, Melius Research: Okay, got it. Thanks. And then, with regard to the Arizona project, do you mind just clarifying a little bit more on your partnership with TSMC? How’s that progressing? What, you know, how does that impact that CapEx guidance of yours, and how’s the partnership going? Obviously, significant shortages being reported out of them, or at least some, and it seems like they really need your help. So just hoping for a bit of an update there on them. Thanks.
Kevin Engel, CEO, Amkor Technology: Yeah, thanks for the question. I obviously, U.S. manufacturing is still a couple of years away, you know, so when we think about the constraints today, slightly different dynamics. You know, we’re trying to support those dynamics, you know, out of our Korea facility, a little bit out of Taiwan as well. You would think about the partnership with TSMC, I’d say that discussion continues. We have a very strong ongoing relationship on technology as well as what type of manufacturing is going to be needed in the U.S. And then you can imagine that collaboration also kind of spirals down to the end customers that are going to ultimately benefit from that U.S. supply chain. You know, if I think about the overall interest level for the U.S., is continuing to increase.
You know, if you go back to our, as an example, our groundbreaking in October last year, that groundbreaking had many customers that attended that, you know, just again, reinforcing their interest. And it was really across all of the markets that we support. So it was communications, comms, automotive, as well as even, you know, customers that support consumer products. So we feel really good about the momentum from the customer perspective and expect that to increase as we start to build out the facility.
Ben Reitzes, Analyst, Melius Research: Okay, thanks, Kevin.
Diego, Conference Facilitator: Your next question comes from Steven Fox with Fox Advisors. Please state your question.
Charles Shi, Analyst, Needham & Company0: Hi, good afternoon. First question, Megan, I’m kind of struggling with the plan for the balance sheet for the coming year. Fully recognizing that obviously you’re going to have government benefit inflows after you put the cash out, but relative to, you know, doing $200 million of free cash flow in 2025, and I assume excess cash on the balance sheet, can maybe help us maybe prepare for how much of a debt increase you’re going to have to do during the year, the timing, and how quickly you would then deleverage after that, maybe in 2027? And then I have a follow-up.
Megan Faust, CFO, Amkor Technology: Yeah, great question. So as it relates to our approach for funding, we are, you know, I would say, pursuing various different mechanisms. I’d mentioned earlier that we’re in discussions with customers, and so we’re evaluating that in parallel with what, you know, if any, we would need to do this year with respect to the balance sheet. So there’s not any updates on timing or magnitude at this time. As you mentioned, we do have significant liquidity that exists today, so we are confident in how we’ll be able to manage, you know, the balance sheet and that CapEx need for 2026.
Charles Shi, Analyst, Needham & Company0: I guess just a couple of things maybe you could help with. Can you give us a sense for what you can run the business on? Like, how much cash you need to run the business in 2026? And should we be thinking of a better material increase in interest expense later in the year? And then just to follow up on the business in general.
Megan Faust, CFO, Amkor Technology: Sure. I’ll answer your second question first, because I think it’s important to note that we’ll actually expect a decrease in interest expense, even in the event where we may increase debt, and that’s associated with capitalizing interest as far as the construction project. And then the first part of your question, you know, really centers around the amount of cash that we would say we’d be comfortable having on the balance sheet. And I would say we can operate with $500 million on the balance sheet. That’s a comfortable level for us.
Peter Peng, Analyst, J.P. Morgan: ... Great. That explains a lot. And then just from a bigger picture, with the expansions that are going on in Korea, and I guess more broadly, with the advanced packaging, I know you mentioned sort of a 3x increase year-over-year. I like, how do we think about sort of that flowing through, in terms of a curve of ramping and, you know, whether there’s any kind of income statements, income statement impacts or margin impacts that we should consider as you ramp? Thank you very much.
Kevin Engel, CEO, Amkor Technology: So I’ll start with the profile, then Megan can talk a bit more about the other financial aspects. So if you look at the ramp profile, you know, again, we have these PC-related products that are ramping earlier in the year, one already in production today. Then, as we get into the second half of the year, there’ll be a pretty sizable step up in the CPU data center-type devices. So I would expect it to definitely be back in second half loaded related to revenue growth. And, Megan, can you add anything on that?
Megan Faust, CFO, Amkor Technology: Sure. So those investments that we’ve been putting in place, even second half of 2025, and I would say the equipment will be front-end loaded in 2026. That is going to put pressure on depreciation expense, and as we ramp those, as Kevin mentioned, in the second half of the year, we will see efficiencies such that we will be able to get some accretive outcome from those products.
Diego, Conference Facilitator: Thank you. And your next question comes from Steve Barger with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please state your question.
Steve Barger, Analyst, KeyBanc Capital Markets: Thanks, and I’ll echo the congratulations to you, Kevin. Maybe first for Megan. As you think about revenue growth and mix for 2026, do you expect to recover the 90 basis point headwind from ramping Vietnam last year, meaning you can get gross margin back in line or better to 2024’s 14.8%, or will something in mix make that hard to get all the way to?
Megan Faust, CFO, Amkor Technology: Hi, Steve. Great question. So we are seeing great ramp in 2026 as far as our visibility today. So yeah, I want to reiterate Kevin’s remarks that we did have, I would say, break even in Q4, which was a significant milestone for us in Vietnam, and we see that continuing in Q1, which usually is the lowest quarter, so that’s really good foundation. As it relates to the whole year, you know, if you think about with or without, I think you’ve nailed it. There will be a product mix story in Vietnam related to the products that we have there, which is SIP. But what we will have is, I would say, good fall through to the bottom line as it relates to that business.
So we are going to have, I would say, not meaningful gross margin impact, and it’s more about product mix at that point going forward.
Steve Barger, Analyst, KeyBanc Capital Markets: Got it. Thank you. And Kevin, with compute showing the strongest growth this year, can you just help nail down what you expect for AI-related packaging revenue this year? Or maybe what AI-related advanced packaging revenue as a percentage of total revenue is. We get this question a lot from investors, and just any light you could shed on that would be great.
Kevin Engel, CEO, Amkor Technology: Yeah, not a whole lot more color I can give there. I can, you know, obviously, computing in general, it exited 2025 at about 20% of revenue, so you can take that. And then, obviously, you know, there have been some estimates that we’ve given in the past related to the growth rate for the advanced, you know, going back into last year. That’s about all I want to show. I mean, but definitely we’re going to see, continue to see accelerated growth in that, that AI data center slash, you know, even PC area.
Diego, Conference Facilitator: Thank you. And your next question comes from Peter Peng with J.P. Morgan. Please state your question.
Peter Peng, Analyst, J.P. Morgan: Hey, thanks for taking my questions, and congratulations, Kevin. Looking forward to working with you more closely. Just on your computing, you guys are ramping pretty aggressively and talked about three times. I guess, maybe if you can talk about whether, you know, there’s any constraints and how much capacity you have to capture additional opportunities. Yeah.
Kevin Engel, CEO, Amkor Technology: Yeah. Thanks, Peter. So, you know, when we think about limitations, I, I won’t say necessarily constraints, but limitations on, on growth, I’d say there’s, there’s a couple things there. So obviously, labor in general, and this is predominantly on the R&D side. We think about, you know, the amount of NPIs that customers want to run, making sure the quals are successful, and, and that is creating some constraints where we’re prioritizing larger opportunities, specifically in Korea. I think another, another dynamic is, is space. You know, in the prepared remarks, we talked a little bit about how SiP is migrating over to Vietnam. That helps to free up space in our Korea facility. Also, over the course of 2025, we, we basically converted some of our existing building space into cleanroom area, so we saw a little bit of an increase in space in 2025.
We’re continuing to build out a new building where we had the groundbreaking last year, and that new building will come online as we exit 2026. So overall, by the time we exit 2026, we’ll basically be increasing our Korea space around 20% since the beginning of 2025. So space is definitely an area that we’re accelerating, and then obviously, the equipment delivery. You know, as Megan said, that will be more front-end loaded in the year to make sure that we’re able to support these second-half launches.
Peter Peng, Analyst, J.P. Morgan: Got it. And then in your prepared remarks, you also talked about, you know, two additional programs in final qualification. Can you maybe provide some color whether this is existing customers for new products, these are new customers? Any color on that?
Kevin Engel, CEO, Amkor Technology: Well, they’re existing customers, but they’re... One of them is new to the HDFO platform, so I’ll say that. You know, they’re both, we’ve mentioned before, they’re both CPU related. And yeah, so, you know, a lot of positive momentum that we’ve been working with these customers for quite some time on rolling out that next generation technology to them.
Diego, Conference Facilitator: Thank you. At this time, I’m showing no further questions. I would like to turn the call back over to Kevin for closing remarks.
Kevin Engel, CEO, Amkor Technology: Thank you. Now let me give a quick recap of our key messages. 2025 was a pivotal year for Amkor. We delivered strong results, advanced our strategic initiatives, and we positioned—we strengthened our position in the fastest-growing areas of the semiconductor industry. As we enter 2026, we are doing so with strong momentum, a clear strategy, and deep engagements with partners across the ecosystem. Our first quarter guidance is $1.65 billion, reflecting a 25% year-on-year growth rate. I’m confident in our ability to execute with discipline and for Amkor to enable and capture the next wave of advanced packaging growth. Thank you for joining the call today.
Diego, Conference Facilitator: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s conference call. You may now disconnect.