Onto Innovation revenue hits $409.7M as backlog tops $1.3B

By Grace Kim

Onto Innovation reported third-quarter revenue of $409.7 million, up 87.8% from $218.2 million a year earlier and 19% from $343.1 million in the second quarter. The Wilmington, Massachusetts supplier ended the period with more than $1.3 billion in backlog. It also guided fourth-quarter revenue to $430 million-$450 million.

What drove the record quarter?

Onto said revenue, operating margin and earnings per share all finished above the top of company guidance ranges. Advanced Nodes, Advanced Packaging and Specialty Devices each posted record revenue.

The Advanced Nodes result reflected adoption of the Atlas G6 optical critical-dimension (OCD) system. The Advanced Packaging and Specialty Devices records came mainly from the Dragonfly G5 and Firefly inspection systems.

Onto sells inspection, metrology and lithography tools that chipmakers use to detect defects and measure features.

Why do AI architectures matter?

Chief Executive Mike Plisinski said: "Demand remains robust as increasingly complex device architectures for next-generation AI and high-performance computing drive greater process control requirements." He added that Onto has visibility into customer investment plans "extending out multiple years."

Advanced packaging for AI accelerators stacks memory and logic dies and joins them with dense interconnects. Dragonfly and Firefly inspect those structures. Their adoption drove the packaging record.

What did margins and cash show?\n

GAAP gross margin rose to 54.8% from 50.7% a year earlier. Operating income quadrupled to $95.4 million, equal to a 23.3% margin, while GAAP net income reached $46.8 million, or $0.95 per diluted share.

Net income rose from $28.2 million a year earlier but fell from $60.1 million in the second quarter. Onto attributed the sequential decline to a $40.8 million unrealized loss on its investment in Rigaku.

Onto closed its purchase of a 27% stake in Japanese X-ray metrology company Rigaku in August. Non-GAAP earnings per share reached $2.44, excluding amortization, acquisition costs and similar items.

Measure	Q3 2026	Q2 2026	Q3 2025
Revenue	$409.7M	$343.1M	$218.2M
Gross margin	54.8%	53.4%	50.7%
Operating income	$95.4M	$63.6M	$23.7M
Operating margin	23.3%	18.5%	10.9%
Net income	$46.8M	$60.1M	$28.2M
Diluted EPS	$0.95	$1.21	$0.57

Onto generated about $79 million of operating cash during the quarter. It ended with $1.25 billion of cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, against $1.47 billion of 2031 notes on the balance sheet.

How did revenue progress across seven quarters?

MLQ.ai's series, compiled from SEC-derived financial data, records revenue of $267 million in Q1 2025, $254 million in Q2, $218 million in Q3 and a derived $267 million in Q4. Revenue then reached $292 million in Q1 2026, $343 million in Q2 and $410 million in Q3.

The Q4 2025 figure was calculated from fiscal 2025 revenue less the first nine months. It is a derived value rather than a separately reported quarter in the series.

What does the outlook require?

For Q4, Onto guided revenue to $430 million-$450 million, GAAP gross margin of 57.7%-58.3% and GAAP diluted EPS of $1.95-$2.07. Its non-GAAP EPS range was $2.59-$2.79.

The revenue range would be 61%-69% above the roughly $267 million year-ago quarter, according to MLQ's calculation. That same calculation puts full-year 2026 revenue at about $1.47 billion-$1.49 billion.

Plisinski expects 2026 revenue growth above 45%. He also said Onto is "well-positioned for a strong 2027." Those growth and 2027 statements remain management forecasts rather than reported results.

The commercial test is whether multiyear AI process-control investment converts Onto's $1.3 billion backlog into its guided 2026 growth and stronger 2027 performance.