On October 30, foreign media reported that Japan's Tokyo Electron issued an annual earnings forecast exceeding market expectations, signaling that chipmakers are ramping up capital expenditures to meet demand for AI hardware, with investment intensity potentially surpassing earlier projections. The company, which supplies chipmaking equipment to Samsung Electronics and TSMC, expects operating profit of 1.17 trillion yen (roughly US$7.4 billion) for the fiscal year ending next March—well above analysts' average estimate of 1.03 trillion yen and implying year-on-year growth of 64%. Tokyo Electron's operating profit for the third quarter (July to September) had already surged to 295.4 billion yen, topping the market consensus of 256.1 billion yen. As the world's largest chipmakers successively raise their capital spending plans and Elon Musk accelerates construction of the Terafab plant to produce chips for his companies, Tokyo Electron's order volume continues to rise.