This story appears in the June 2024 issue of Forbes Asia. Subscribe to Forbes Asia
Yuichiro Chino/Getty Images
This story is part of Forbes’ coverage of Japan’s Richest 2024. See the full list here.
Amid Japan’s push to reboot its global standing in semiconductors, Tokyo-based Disco, which makes equipment to slice, grind and polish chips, has become a red-hot stock.
ss
Thanks to Disco’s soaring shares, the Sekiya family, which owns a minority stake, is this year’s biggest gainer in percentage terms; their net worth shot up nearly 150% to $7.4 billion. Under CEO Kazuma Sekiya, the grandson of founder Mitsuo Sekiya, who started the firm in 1937 to make grindstones, the company’s net profit edged up to almost $550 million for the fiscal year through March 2024. Sales grew over 8% to almost $2 billion from a year earlier.
A weak yen also helped: Disco generates nearly 90% of its revenue from overseas. The company doesn’t give revenue forecasts beyond the next quarter because demand can change quickly but in an April earnings presentation, it predicted that shipments of equipment used to produce chips for generative AI applications and electric vehicles “are expected to remain high.”