Sumco Corp. (SUOPY) Stock Price & How to Invest
Last updated July 2026
Short answer
SUOPY is the unsponsored American Depositary Receipt for SUMCO Corporation, the Japanese company that is one of the world's two dominant makers of the polished silicon wafers every chip is built on. Each ADR represents 2 ordinary shares of SUMCO, which trades on the Tokyo Stock Exchange under code 3436, and the ADR itself changes hands over the counter in the US rather than on the NYSE or Nasdaq. SUMCO reports in Japanese yen: fiscal 2025 net sales were ~JPY 409.6B (roughly US$2.6B at ~JPY 158 per US dollar), not US dollars. The business is in an unusual split state, with 300mm wafers for AI logic and memory running hot while 200mm and smaller wafers stay depressed, which is why the company posted a Q1 2026 operating loss of ~JPY 5.2B on ~JPY 101.4B of sales.
SUOPY stock price
As of 2026-08-05, Sumco Corp. (SUOPY) last closed at $47.30, up 191.6% over the past year. Over the past 52 weeks it has traded between $14.73 and $66.86.
Prices are daily closing prices from Yahoo Finance and may be delayed. For the live quote, check your broker or Sumco Corp.'s investor relations page. Walnut is informational, not investment advice.
What does Sumco Corp. (SUOPY) do?
SUMCO Corporation makes the monocrystalline silicon wafers that semiconductors are printed on. It pulls single crystal ingots, slices them, and polishes the surfaces to a flatness measured in fractions of a nanometer, then ships them to foundries and memory makers who turn them into logic and DRAM and NAND. Together with Shin-Etsu Handotai, SUMCO forms the top tier of a market where roughly five suppliers control about 85% of global 300mm capacity, and where the two Japanese leaders account for more than half of worldwide volume. SUMCO's estimated share is around 21% of the market. That position exists because wafer making is a multibillion-dollar capital game layered on decades of proprietary crystal-pulling know-how, and because qualification at a leading-edge customer runs for years, so incumbency compounds. Customers include TSMC, Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron, Intel and Kioxia, mostly under long-term supply agreements that fix volume and pricing over multi-year windows.
The current cycle is genuinely two cycles at once. AI data center demand has pulled 300mm wafers for advanced logic, high bandwidth memory and increasingly power management devices, and SEMI counted worldwide shipments of ~3,275 million square inches in Q1 2026, up ~13.1% year on year. Everything else stayed weak: PCs, smartphones, autos and industrial chips all lean on 200mm and smaller diameters where inventory correction and soft pricing persisted, and SUMCO has said it will end 200mm production at its Miyazaki plant by late 2026 to concentrate on high-end 300mm. The financial result of that split is thin. Fiscal 2025 net sales came in at ~JPY 409.6B with operating profit of only ~JPY 1.3B, an operating margin near 0.3%, down from ~JPY 36.9B of operating profit in fiscal 2024. Q1 2026 brought ~JPY 101.4B of sales, an operating loss of ~JPY 5.2B and a net loss of ~JPY 8.4B, with guidance for a narrower ~JPY 2.5B operating loss on ~JPY 112B of sales in Q2. Management under new president Jiro Yuta has responded by pausing greenfield expansion, shelving the timing of the two new fabs announced in 2023, and redirecting spending into equipment upgrades at the existing Imari site.
What's driving Sumco Corp. (SUOPY)?
1. AI-grade 300mm wafer demand
Advanced logic at sub-3nm nodes and high bandwidth memory both consume more wafer area per unit of compute, and AI data center construction has kept that demand growing while consumer electronics stagnated. Industry shipments rose ~13.1% year on year in Q1 2026 to ~3,275 million square inches, and SUMCO has pointed to firm long-term agreement pricing on advanced 300mm product with early signs of recovery in spot pricing. Because AI-grade wafers carry tighter flatness and defect specifications, they also sit at the premium end of the price band, so mix can move margin even when total volume is flat.
2. A capital cycle that has shifted from building to upgrading
SUMCO announced a ~JPY 225B plan in 2023 to build two new fabs, one inside the existing Imari site in Saga Prefecture and one in Yoshinogari, with Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry approving subsidies of up to ~JPY 75B. In 2026 the company revised those plans, left the Yoshinogari greenfield paused, and said it would decide groundbreaking timing only after assessing market conditions. The stated logic is that the physical shell already built at Imari leaves enough room for capacity growth, so upgrading equipment there is more economically rational than adding new buildings, which lowers near-term capital intensity and depreciation drag.
3. The 200mm wind-down and mix shift
Legacy diameters serve autos, industrial and analog chips, all of which have been working through inventory. SUMCO has said it will end 200mm production at Miyazaki by late 2026 and redirect the site toward high-end 300mm output. That removes a structurally lower-margin revenue line and concentrates the company on the segment where AI demand is, though it also means the blended results carry restructuring effects and shrink the diversification that legacy wafers previously provided.
4. Duopoly structure and long-term agreements
Roughly five suppliers control about 85% of 300mm capacity, and Shin-Etsu plus SUMCO deliver more than half of worldwide volume. Multi-year long-term agreements with TSMC, Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron, Intel and Kioxia set volumes and prices ahead of time, which cushions revenue in a downturn but also caps how fast pricing can be repriced upward in a shortage. The industry-wide move toward three-to-five year memory contracts among SUMCO's customers extends that visibility further up the chain.
What are the risks to Sumco Corp. (SUOPY)?
SUMCO is a cyclical materials supplier whose results swing with a semiconductor capital cycle it does not control, and the current split market has already pushed it from ~JPY 36.9B of fiscal 2024 operating profit to an operating loss in Q1 2026. Customer concentration is real: a small set of foundries and memory makers accounts for most leading-edge wafer demand, so a single large customer deferring a fab ramp reshapes SUMCO's volume outlook. Chinese domestic wafer suppliers are scaling 300mm capacity with state support, which could compress pricing at the commodity end even if the leading edge stays protected by qualification barriers. Because the company reports in yen and translates dollar-denominated sales, a stronger yen reduces reported revenue and profit, and for a US holder of the ADR it also reduces the dollar value of the underlying shares. On top of the operating risks, the ADR structure itself adds exposure: SUOPY is unsponsored and trades over the counter, so liquidity is thinner, quoted spreads are wider, prices go stale when Tokyo is closed, and the depositary can change the ratio, charge fees or terminate the program without the company's involvement. Dividends are declared in yen, taxed at source in Japan, and reduced by depositary fees before reaching a US brokerage account.
Is SUOPY a buy or a sell?
We give no verdict on Sumco Corp.. Both cases are real, which is why the question is contested at all, so here is the strongest version of each.
The case for buying. AI-grade 300mm wafer demand. Advanced logic at sub-3nm nodes and high bandwidth memory both consume more wafer area per unit of compute, and AI data center construction has kept that demand growing while consumer electronics stagnated.
The case against. SUMCO is a cyclical materials supplier whose results swing with a semiconductor capital cycle it does not control, and the current split market has already pushed it from ~JPY 36.9B of fiscal 2024 operating profit to an operating loss in Q1 2026.
Read the full bull and bear case on SUOPY, including what would have to change to break either one. Walnut is not an investment adviser.
How is Sumco Corp. (SUOPY) valued? (approximate, August 2026)
A simple financial snapshot. These are approximations and refresh quarterly; for current figures see Sumco Corp.'s investor relations page or your broker.
- Revenue (FY2025, TTM basis): ~JPY 409.6B (roughly US$2.6B at ~JPY 158/US$)
- FY2025 operating profit: ~JPY 1.3B (~0.3% margin, down from ~JPY 36.9B in FY2024)
- Q1 2026 net sales: ~JPY 101.4B, operating loss ~JPY 5.2B, net loss ~JPY 8.4B
- Q2 2026 guidance: ~JPY 112B sales, operating loss narrowing to ~JPY 2.5B (assumes ~JPY 160/US$)
- H1 2026 company forecast: ~JPY 213.4B sales, ~JPY 7.7B operating loss, ~JPY 15.4B net loss
- Market cap: ~JPY 1.3T (~US$8.3B), ADR ~$8.3B equivalent
Every figure SUMCO reports is in Japanese yen, so a headline like 409.6B is roughly US$2.6B, not US$409B, at an exchange rate near JPY 158 per US dollar. With operating profit compressed to near zero in FY2025 and losses in the first half of 2026, trailing earnings multiples are not meaningful right now, which is normal for a wafer maker at the bottom of its cycle and is why the market tends to look at price to book and mid-cycle earnings power instead. The interim dividend was maintained at ~JPY 10 per ordinary share (~JPY 20 per ADR before Japanese withholding and depositary fees) while the year-end dividend was left undecided.
Who competes with Sumco Corp. (SUOPY)?
Leading-edge silicon wafer makers
Shin-Etsu Handotai is the direct peer and the largest wafer supplier globally, and it is part of Shin-Etsu Chemical rather than a pure play. GlobalWafers of Taiwan, Siltronic of Germany and SK Siltron of South Korea complete the top five, a group that together holds about 85% of world 300mm capacity. Competition here turns on qualification rather than price lists: a foundry that has certified a supplier's crystal and surface specification for a given node does not switch casually, so share moves slowly and mostly at capacity-expansion moments. GlobalWafers is pressing a geographic angle with a roughly US$5B Texas plant aimed at customers who want US-based supply.
Emerging Chinese wafer suppliers
National Silicon Industry Group (Shanghai Silicon), Zing Semiconductor and other domestic Chinese producers are adding 300mm capacity with state backing, targeting the localization of a supply chain that has historically run through Japan, Taiwan, Germany and South Korea. They compete first at mature nodes and commodity specifications where qualification barriers are lower, which puts pressure on the same 200mm and legacy 300mm segments already suffering from soft end demand. Their progress at the leading edge is the variable that determines whether the incumbent duopoly economics hold over the next decade.
Other semiconductor materials and equipment suppliers
SUMCO is often held alongside the broader chip materials complex, including Shin-Etsu Chemical in photoresists and specialty materials, JSR and Tokyo Ohka Kogyo in resists, and Entegris in filtration and advanced materials. These are not direct wafer competitors but they share the same demand driver, wafer starts, and they behave similarly through the capital cycle. Investors comparing SUOPY with equipment names such as Tokyo Electron or ASML should note the difference in cadence: equipment sales track capacity additions, while wafer sales track how much of that installed capacity is actually running.
What stocks are similar to Sumco Corp. (SUOPY)?
Other names that sit close to SUOPY: same theme, named as a direct competitor, or held beside it in the same funds. Each entry says which. Worth a look if you are thinking about diversification within a thesis rather than concentration on one ticker.
How to invest in Sumco Corp. (SUOPY)
There are three common ways to get SUOPY exposure. Buy shares (or fractional shares) directly at any major broker. Hold an ETF that includes it, which spreads the position across many companies. Or build it into a focused thematic portfolio, so SUOPY sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.
Walnut takes the portfolio route. Describe a thesis where SUOPY fits (for example “AI infrastructure” or “dividend-growth large-caps”) and the AI proposes 5 to 6 constituents with target weights. You review the plan and fund it through your own broker when you're ready.
New to this? Start with how to invest in stocks, see how to analyze a stock with AI, or compare the best AI stock analyzers.
The bottom line on Sumco Corp. (SUOPY)
SUOPY gives US investors over-the-counter access to a duopoly supplier sitting one layer beneath the AI buildout, with the trade-offs that come with an unsponsored ADR: no NYSE or Nasdaq listing, thinner volume, wider spreads, Japanese dividend withholding, depositary fees, and a yen exposure baked into every dollar quote. The operating story is a wafer market splitting in two. AI-grade 300mm demand is strong enough that industry shipments rose ~13.1% year on year in Q1 2026, while legacy 200mm and smaller diameters remain in inventory correction, leaving SUMCO's blended results near breakeven despite the AI headline.
More on Sumco Corp. (SUOPY)
Whether SUOPY is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, what would have to go right, and the risks in is SUOPY a buy or a sell?, and where the stock could go from here in the SUOPY stock forecast.
For income investors, whether SUOPY pays a dividend and how the payout looks is covered in does SUOPY pay a dividend? And to weigh SUOPY against a peer, read the full side-by-side comparisons: SUOPY vs SLAB and SUOPY vs ENTG.
Wondering how SUOPY fits the portfolio you already own? Walnut is an AI investing app that connects your brokerage read-only and answers questions like that about your actual holdings: overlap, concentration, and how each position tracks the S&P 500. Compare the best AI portfolio analyzers or see the best AI investing apps in 2026.
Investing in Sumco Corp. with AI
Connect the broker you already use and ask Walnut's AI how SUOPY fits what you actually hold: whether you own it already through a fund, what it would do to your concentration, and how it has tracked the S&P 500. Read-only by default, and you approve anything before it reaches your broker.
FAQ
What exactly is SUOPY and what does one ADR represent?
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SUOPY is an American Depositary Receipt for SUMCO Corporation, and each ADR represents 2 ordinary shares of the Tokyo-listed company (Tokyo Stock Exchange code 3436). The receipt is issued by a US depositary bank, Citibank, which holds the underlying Japanese shares through a local custodian. That 2-to-1 ratio is the mechanical link between the two quotes: the fair dollar value of one ADR is roughly two times the Tokyo share price converted at the current yen-to-dollar rate, before any spread. With SUMCO trading near JPY 3,700 per ordinary share and a rate around JPY 158 to JPY 160 per US dollar, that arithmetic puts the ADR in the mid-$40s.
What does 'unsponsored' mean, and why does the ADR trade OTC instead of on the NYSE or Nasdaq?
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An unsponsored ADR is created by a depositary bank on its own initiative rather than by the company, so SUMCO neither established the program nor maintains it. Because there is no company-sponsored listing agreement and no US exchange registration, the receipt trades over the counter on the OTC Markets rather than on the NYSE or Nasdaq. Practical consequences follow: SUMCO does not file US-style annual reports for this program, so disclosure comes from its Japanese filings and English investor relations materials, and the depositary can change the ADR ratio, levy fees, or terminate the program without the company's participation. None of that changes the underlying business, only the wrapper around it.
How are dividends taxed for a US holder of SUOPY?
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Dividends are declared in yen by SUMCO, taxed at source in Japan, converted to dollars by the depositary, and then reduced by a depositary service fee before landing in a US brokerage account. Japan's statutory withholding on dividends from listed companies paid to non-residents is 15.315% including the reconstruction surtax, and the US-Japan tax treaty provides a lower 10% rate for portfolio investors who file the required documentation, though claiming it through an unsponsored ADR is often impractical in retail accounts. Withheld foreign tax may be creditable or deductible on a US return, subject to the usual limits. This is general information about how the mechanics work, not tax advice, and individual situations differ.
How does liquidity in SUOPY compare with an ordinary US listing?
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It is meaningfully worse. Over-the-counter ADRs typically trade a small fraction of the volume of the home-market line, so bid-ask spreads are wider, order books are thinner, and a modest order can move the quote. The ADR also goes quiet when the Tokyo Stock Exchange is closed, which means the US session often prices off a stale Japanese close plus whatever the yen and the semiconductor tape have done since. Many brokers support the symbol but some restrict order types or charge a foreign-security fee. Anyone comparing the ADR with the ordinary Tokyo line should be aware that the price difference at any moment can reflect the spread as much as the underlying.
What does SUMCO actually make?
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It makes monocrystalline silicon wafers, the polished discs that semiconductors are fabricated on. The process starts by pulling a single crystal ingot from molten polysilicon, then slicing, lapping, etching and polishing it into wafers whose surface flatness and defect density are held to atomic-scale tolerances, sometimes with an epitaxial layer grown on top. SUMCO produces mainly 300mm wafers for leading-edge logic and memory, plus 200mm and smaller diameters for analog, power and automotive chips, a legacy line it has said it will wind down at its Miyazaki plant by late 2026.
Who are SUMCO's largest customers, and how concentrated is that?
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SUMCO supplies premium 300mm wafers to TSMC, Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron, Intel and Kioxia, largely under long-term supply agreements that set volume and pricing over multi-year windows. Concentration is high by construction, because leading-edge wafer demand exists at only a handful of companies worldwide, and a single customer deferring a fab ramp or pushing out a node transition can shift SUMCO's shipment outlook. The agreements cushion the downside during a correction but also limit how quickly pricing can reset upward when supply tightens.
Why is SUMCO losing money if AI wafer demand is strong?
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The wafer market has split. AI-driven 300mm demand for advanced logic and high bandwidth memory is strong, and industry shipments rose ~13.1% year on year in Q1 2026, but 200mm and smaller diameters remain weak on soft PC, smartphone, auto and industrial demand plus continuing inventory correction. Blended across both, SUMCO reported FY2025 operating profit of only ~JPY 1.3B on ~JPY 409.6B of sales and then a Q1 2026 operating loss of ~JPY 5.2B. Fixed costs in wafer manufacturing are high, so utilization at the legacy plants matters more to reported profit than the AI headline suggests.
How does the yen exchange rate affect SUOPY?
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In two directions at once. SUMCO reports in yen while selling a substantial share of its wafers in dollars, so a weaker yen flatters reported revenue and profit, which is why the company's Q2 2026 guidance explicitly assumes a rate near JPY 160 per US dollar. Separately, the ADR is a dollar claim on yen-denominated shares, so if the Tokyo share price is unchanged and the yen strengthens, the dollar value of the ADR rises, and if the yen weakens, it falls. Those two effects can offset each other, meaning a US holder's return is not simply the Tokyo share price move.
Walnut is informational, not investment advice. Financial figures on this page are approximations; always verify current numbers with Sumco Corp.'s investor relations page or your broker before making investment decisions.