ADI sees sales above Wall Street estimates, boosts chipmaking

Reuters- Analog Devices Inc forecast fiscal first-quarter sales above Wall Street estimates, as it said hundreds of millions of dollars in investments would boost its chipmaking capacity.

Wilmington, Massachusetts-based ADI makes chips that go into industrial robots, 5 G telecommunications equipment and more automobiles. According to IBES data from Refinitiv, the company expects to see fiscal first quarter sales and adjusted profits with midpoints $2.6 billion and $1.78 per share, versus analyst estimates of $2.49 billion and $1.70 per share.

ADI, which sources chips both from outside factories and its own network of locations, delayed the closure of a California chip factory earlier this year to meet customer demand during the global chip crunch. It said on Tuesday that it had spent $340 million in fiscal 2021 to expand internal production capacity.

Much of that will happen at a factory in Beaverton, Oregon, that ADI acquired in its $21 billion purchase of Maxim Integrated.

We are putting a downpayment to build out capacity at an existing facility in the Western U.S. Chief Executive Officer Vincent Roche, who told Reuters in an interview. It's taking an existing footprint, building it up further, and bringing more critical capacity internal to ADI.