ONTO · Onto Innovation Inc.

Onto Innovation's $710 million investment in Rigaku represents a significant strategic move to strengthen its position in semiconductor process control. The transaction combines a substantial minority equity stake with a formal strategic partnership, allowing Onto Innovation to deepen its collaboration with a leading X-ray technology provider while avoiding full consolidation of Rigaku's financial results. The companies have already been collaborating to integrate Onto Innovation's Ai Diffract analysis software with Rigaku's CD-SAXS platforms, with two key customers already selecting this combined offering. Management cites the growing complexity of advanced logic and memory designs, along with advanced packaging architectures, as creating increased reliance on novel materials that drive demand for both optical metrology and X-ray solutions. The $500 million bridge financing from Goldman Sachs provides committed funding for the transaction, though the company will need to arrange permanent financing or use other sources to complete the acquisition. The investment is positioned as accelerating joint intellectual property development and supporting a coordinated go-to-market strategy for next-generation opportunities in advanced logic and memory applications, with management expecting the investment to be accretive by year-end 2026.