IN Brief:
- Semiconductor & Advanced Manufacturing revenue increased 10.2% to €230.4 million in the first half of 2026.
- Order intake in the unit rose 85.3%, driven by demand across lithography and inspection.
- Jenoptik plans additional optics capacity in Jena while targeting a 20% to 21% group EBITDA margin for 2026.
Jenoptik has reported an 85.3% increase in order intake at its Semiconductor & Advanced Manufacturing business during the first half of 2026, with demand strengthening across lithography and inspection. Revenue from the unit also rose as semiconductor equipment activity improved from a weaker comparative period.
Semiconductor & Advanced Manufacturing revenue reached €230.4 million in the six months to 30 June, up 10.2% from €209.1 million a year earlier. Improved capacity utilisation in the business contributed to a wider increase in group profitability, with Jenoptik reporting EBITDA of €98.9 million, up 25.5%, and an EBITDA margin of 19.7% compared with 15.8% in the first half of 2025.
Orders moved considerably faster than revenue. Group order intake increased 53% to €723.4 million, while the book-to-bill ratio reached 1.44 compared with 0.95 a year earlier. The group order backlog consequently increased to €824.8 million from €590.8 million at the end of 2025.
The semiconductor unit’s 85.3% increase includes a major order already disclosed during the first quarter, but Jenoptik also attributed the improvement to broader demand across its lithography and inspection activities. Those businesses sit upstream of finished semiconductor production, supplying optical and micro-optical technologies used by equipment manufacturers to expose, measure and inspect increasingly fine structures during wafer processing.
That places precision optics among the less visible constraints on semiconductor manufacturing capacity. Lithography and inspection systems depend on tightly controlled materials, coatings, geometry, alignment and optical performance, and those requirements become more demanding as device structures shrink. Capacity at specialist suppliers can therefore become important when semiconductor equipment manufacturers need to increase system output.
Other parts of Jenoptik’s portfolio remain less uniform. Metrology & Production Solutions revenue declined to €79.7 million from €92 million amid continued weakness in automotive markets, while Smart Mobility Solutions increased revenue by 10.7% to €68.3 million. Biophotonics revenue fell 4.5% to €113.9 million, although order intake in that business rose strongly.
The semiconductor improvement is feeding into Jenoptik’s manufacturing plans. First-half capital expenditure was €19.7 million, below the €32.6 million spent during the comparable period of 2025, but the company expects full-year investment to remain only slightly below 2025’s €77.4 million. It specifically plans to expand optics capacity at its Jena site.
The additional capacity follows substantial investment in semiconductor-related production in Germany, including the company’s Dresden factory for micro-optics and sensors. Expanding Jena adds another element to the manufacturing base required to support equipment customers whose own production schedules can run several quarters ahead of new wafer-fab capacity coming online.
Jenoptik has also raised the lower end of its profitability expectations. The company now expects 2026 revenue growth to fall in the upper half of its previous single-digit percentage range, while the EBITDA margin is forecast between 20% and 21%, compared with the previous 19% to 21% range.
The order intake should not be extrapolated mechanically across the remainder of the year because large contracts can make individual periods unusually strong. Even so, an €824.8 million backlog leaves Jenoptik with substantially more work in hand than it carried into 2026, while the planned Jena expansion gives the semiconductor equipment business additional optical capacity against which that demand can be converted into production.
