Advantest Shares Surge 22% on AI Spending Boom and Share Buyback

Advantest Corp. shares jumped by the most on record after the maker of AI chip testers lifted its profit outlook on what it expects to be a multi-year spending boom and announced a stock buyback.

The Tokyo-based supplier of tools that catch defects in Nvidia Corp. chips before shipment jumped as much as 22% on Wednesday after executives forecast surging demand from chipmakers and elevated sales of testers for high-bandwidth DRAM, essential to Nvidia AI accelerators. The company also announced a plan to buy back as much as ¥150 billion worth ($988 million) of its shares, or about 2.5% of shares outstanding.