Tokyo Electron's Research, in One Segment

Section 6 of 第２ 事業の状況 in Tokyo Electron Limited's annual securities report for its 63rd fiscal year, April 2025 to March 2026, filed on EDINET on June 22, 2026, is headed 研究開発活動, research and development activities, and fills most of page 26 of 156. Its last sentence carries the number a reader comes for: 当連結会計年度の研究開発費は、277,866百万円(前連結会計年度比11.1%増)であり、連結売上高に対する比率は11.4%(前連結会計年度比1.1ポイント増)であります — research and development expense for the year was 277,866 million yen (US$1,696.4 million), up 11.1 percent on the prior year, at 11.4 percent of consolidated net sales, up 1.1 points. Its second sentence answers the question of segments before it is asked: 当社グループは「半導体製造装置」の単一セグメントであるため、セグメント情報の記載を省略しております — the group is a single segment, semiconductor production equipment, so segment information is omitted. What the section prints instead of a segment table is prose: a paragraph beginning 半導体製造装置事業では, on the equipment business, a paragraph beginning 基礎・要素研究関連では, on basic and elemental research, and a closing paragraph on partners and evaluation. This piece reads that prose.

The same amount appears three more times in the report. The consolidated income statement on page 81 prints 研究開発費 as a line of 販売費及び一般管理費, selling, general and administrative expenses, at 250,017 and 277,866 million yen (US$1,526.4 million and US$1,696.4 million) for the two years, marked ※３; the other lines of the block are 給料及び手当, salaries and allowances, at 50,969 and 55,915 million yen (US$311.2 million and US$341.4 million), and その他, other, at 147,981 and 149,162 (US$903.4 million and US$910.6 million), and the printed total of the block is 448,967 and 482,944 million yen (US$2,740.9 million and US$2,948.4 million). Note ※３ on page 93 gives the line its definition: 一般管理費及び当期製造費用に含まれる研究開発費, research and development expense included in general and administrative expenses and in manufacturing cost for the year, 250,017百万円 (US$1,526.4 million) and 277,866百万円 (US$1,696.4 million). The third place is the management analysis on page 24, in 億円, read next. The section's figure and the statement's figure are one number under that definition.

The management analysis on page 24 prints the increase in yen rather than as a ratio. 研究開発費の総額は、前連結会計年度から278億4千9百万円増加(前連結会計年度比11.1%増)し、2,778億6千6百万円となりました — total research and development expense rose by 278億4千9百万円 (US$170.0 million) from the prior year, 11.1 percent, to 2,778億6千6百万円 (US$1,696.4 million). The sentence before it ties the spending to the margin: gross margin was 45.3 percent, down 1.8 points, and 半導体の技術革新を支えるべく積極的な研究開発活動を推進した結果、営業利益率は25.6%(前連結会計年度比3.1ポイント減) — as a result of pursuing active research and development to support semiconductor innovation, the operating margin was 25.6 percent, down 3.1 points. Net sales on page 81 are 2,431,568 and 2,443,533 million yen (US$14,844.7 million and US$14,917.8 million) and operating income 697,319 and 624,936 million yen (US$4,257.1 million and US$3,815.2 million). The 11.4 percent in the section is the report's ratio; nothing in this piece is divided.

The 62nd report, filed June 16, 2025, printed the corresponding section on page 27 of 157, with that year's figure: 250,017百万円 (US$1,526.4 million), up 23.2 percent, at 10.3 percent of consolidated net sales, down 0.8 points. Its income statement on page 87 also carries the line for the year to March 2024, 202,873 million yen (US$1,238.5 million), and its page 25 analysis prints the increase for the year to March 2025 as 471億4千3百万円 (US$287.8 million) and that year's operating margin as 28.7 percent, up 3.8 points. Three printed values, then: 202,873, 250,017 and 277,866 million yen for the years to March 2024, 2025 and 2026 (US$1,238.5 million, US$1,526.4 million, US$1,696.4 million), against net sales in the five-year table on page 2 of 1,830,527, 2,431,568 and 2,443,533 million yen (US$11,175.4 million, US$14,844.7 million, US$14,917.8 million). The chart plots the three expense values and, beneath them, the parent company's own line, read further down.

The desk set the two years' sections side by side, character by character, after removing line breaks from the extracted text. Apart from the figures in the last sentence, the 63rd report's section differs from the 62nd's at one point, inside the sentence on digital transformation: where the 62nd's sentence ended 管理部門の生産性の改善にも取り組んでおります, the 63rd's continues 取り組んでおり、新たに装置生産性とフィールド生産性向上に向けたDXソリューションの新コンセプト「Epsira™(イプシラ)」を策定し、開発を進めております — the group has newly formulated Epsira, a new concept for DX solutions aimed at raising equipment productivity and field productivity, and is developing it. Everything else in the extracted section, from the list of equipment to the list of core technologies, is the prior year's text carried forward.

The paragraph beginning 半導体製造装置事業では, on the semiconductor production equipment business, names the demand the group is developing for and the machines it is developing. The demand: AI、5G、IoT、自動運転などに向けて次世代デバイスの高速化・大容量化・高信頼性・低消費電力 — next-generation devices for AI, 5G, IoT and autonomous driving that must be faster, larger in capacity, more reliable and lower in power consumption. The machines: コータ／デベロッパ、エッチング装置、成膜装置、洗浄装置、先端パッケージ向けプロセス装置、ウェーハプローバ等 — coater/developers, etch systems, deposition systems, cleaning systems, process equipment for advanced packaging, and wafer probers. The development aims attached to them run as one string: equipment and process development to next-generation device requirements, higher process precision, higher equipment reliability, higher productivity, cost reduction, standardisation of equipment specifications, and common parts and software.

Three more themes follow in the same paragraph. Digital transformation, DX, is to raise equipment performance, development efficiency and the productivity of administrative departments, and now carries the Epsira concept. Energy saving is framed as one of the group's material SDG issues and pursued through E-COMPASS, a supply-chain initiative whose full name on page 8 is Environmental Co-Creation by Material, Process and Subcomponent Solutions, with 装置の省電力化技術等、CO2排出量の削減, lower-power equipment technology and reduced CO2 emissions, as the examples. Scaling is the third: EUV露光による超高解像パターニングや3次元積層メモリ等複雑化する構造 — ultra-high-resolution patterning by EUV exposure and increasingly complex structures such as three-dimensional stacked memory — where the section says development across multiple process steps has become ever more important and that the group uses its development sites for process development and integration development.

The paragraph beginning 基礎・要素研究関連では, on basic and elemental research, includes one item with a ten-year horizon: 10年先を見通しての新しいデバイス構造や新しい材料に対応する為のプロセス技術開発, process technology development for new device structures and new materials looking ten years ahead. Its list of process technologies is 高NA(解像度)EUV向けレジスト材料技術, resist material technology for high-NA EUV, マルチパターニング, multi-patterning, and deposition, etch, thermal processing and cleaning technologies for new materials. Beneath those the section names the core technologies it calls the foundation of the equipment: プラズマ技術, plasma, 熱制御技術, thermal control, シミュレーション技術, simulation to raise development efficiency, and コンタミネーション制御技術, control of particles and impurity contamination — described as 重要かつ他社との差別化を図る各種コア技術, core technologies that are important and that differentiate the group from other companies.

The last prose paragraph of the section is about partners and evaluation. Open-innovation development is with 国内外の有力大学・各種研究機関, leading universities and research institutes in Japan and abroad, and with partners in materials and in important parts and components. The section then says that verifying leading-edge process development with electrical characteristic data has become indispensable, and that the group has strengthened its capacity for プロセスインテグレーションの評価, evaluation that integrates several process steps, across the whole process module — in its words, トランジスタ工程から配線工程までの, from the transistor steps to the wiring steps — to obtain data that is more useful and valuable to customers.

Who does the work is spread across other sections. ３【事業の内容】 on page 5 assigns next-generation technology development to 当社及び連結子会社TEL Technology Center, America, LLC等, the parent and the consolidated subsidiary TEL Technology Center, America, among others, while manufacturing sits with 東京エレクトロン テクノロジーソリューションズ㈱, 東京エレクトロン九州㈱ and 東京エレクトロン宮城㈱. Risk item (2) 研究開発 on page 16 describes the structure as コーポレートイノベーション本部・コーポレート技術本部, a corporate innovation division and a corporate technology division, set up to fuse innovative technology development with the products and technologies of each business unit, plus joint research with research institutes worldwide and 最先端顧客との間で複数世代にわたる技術ロードマップを共有, sharing multi-generation technology roadmaps with leading-edge customers. The risk the item names is the mirror image: a new product that arrives late, misses customer requirements or is beaten to market by a competitor's technology, making development cost hard to recover.

Two figures on page 7 sit beside the research programme. The medium-term plan paragraph describes the product line-up as resting on 業界最大の出荷実績(累計100,000台以上)及び業界最大の特許保有数(26,000件以上), what the report calls the industry's largest cumulative shipments, at least 100,000 units, and the industry's largest patent holding, at least 26,000. Risk item (9) 知的財産 on page 18 says the group runs its intellectual property strategy 事業戦略及び研究開発戦略と三位一体で, as one with its business strategy and its research and development strategy, and monitors other companies' patents in coordination with the business and research departments.

The plan the expense is spent under is on page 7, in ④ 中長期的な成長を見据えた取り組み. Beside the medium-term targets — 売上高3兆円以上、営業利益率35%以上、ROE 30%以上, net sales of at least 3兆円 (US$18.3 billion), an operating margin of at least 35 percent and ROE of at least 30 percent, with the year to March 2027 as the target year — the report prints a five-year growth investment plan from the year to March 2025: 研究開発投資：1.5兆円以上(5年累計), research and development investment of at least 1.5兆円 (US$9.2 billion) cumulative over five years; 設備投資：7,000億円以上, capital investment of at least 7,000億円 (US$4,274 million); and 人材採用：グローバルで約10,000人, about 10,000 hires worldwide. Page 75 repeats the first and the third as 1.5兆円以上の研究開発投資 (US$9.2 billion) and 1万名規模の新規採用. The plan's word is 研究開発投資, investment; the income-statement line is 研究開発費, expense. The desk sets the two expense figures for the plan's first two years, 250,017 and 277,866 million yen (US$1,526.4 million and US$1,696.4 million), beside the plan and does not add them against it.

Research also shows up in the plant section. １【設備投資等の概要】 on page 27 says the year's capital investment was made 売上拡大にともなう増産への対応と革新的な技術を備えた高付加価値の製品創出のため研究開発用機械装置等, for added production capacity as sales grow and for research and development machinery to create high-value products with innovative technology, and totalled 2,160億円 (US$1,319 million), against 1,621億円 (US$990 million) in the 62nd report. It records that 新開発棟, new development buildings, were completed at the head offices of 東京エレクトロン宮城㈱ and 東京エレクトロン九州㈱, and the analysis on page 24 attributes the year's rise in property, plant and equipment mainly to those development buildings in 宮城県大和町 and 熊本県合志市 and to a production and logistics centre in 岩手県奥州市. The 62nd report's plan table on page 30 had carried the two buildings as 研究開発施設 with budgets of 52,000 and 43,000 million yen (US$317.5 million and US$262.5 million), begun in June and September 2023 and due in April and August 2025. The main capital investment by company for the year to March 2026: 当社 175億円, 東京エレクトロン宮城㈱ 822億円, 東京エレクトロン テクノロジーソリューションズ㈱ 335億円, 東京エレクトロン九州㈱ 313億円, Tokyo Electron Korea Ltd. 262億円 (US$107 million, US$502 million, US$205 million, US$191 million, US$160 million).

The plan table for what comes next, ３【設備の新設、除却等の計画】 on page 29, has eight rows, six of them for evaluation or development machinery. Read with pdfplumber's table extraction, the six are: the parent, 山梨事業所他, 開発・評価用機械装置他, development and evaluation machinery, 17,841 million yen (US$108.9 million), April 2026 to September 2028; 東京エレクトロン宮城㈱, プロセス評価用機械装置他, process evaluation machinery, 56,031 million yen (US$342.1 million), April 2026 to December 2028; 東京エレクトロン テクノロジーソリューションズ㈱, the same description at 44,943 million yen (US$274.4 million), April 2026 to August 2028, and プロセス評価用設備他 at 16,300 million yen (US$99.5 million), of which 13,515 (US$82.5 million) already paid, November 2024 to October 2026; 東京エレクトロン九州㈱, 43,021 million yen (US$262.6 million), April 2026 to March 2028; and Tokyo Electron Korea Ltd., 事務所、研究開発施設、デモ・評価用機械装置他, offices, a research and development facility and demonstration and evaluation machinery, 51,318 million yen (US$313.3 million), April 2026 to June 2028. The other two rows are buildings: 東京エレクトロン九州㈱'s 物流施設, logistics facility, in 合志市, 10,000 million yen (US$61.1 million), spring 2027 to spring 2028; and 東京エレクトロン宮城㈱'s 生産・物流施設, production and logistics facility, 104,000 million yen (US$634.9 million), of which 31,834 (US$194.3 million) already paid, June 2025 to August 2027. All eight rows are funded by 自己資金, own funds; seven print − in the column 完成後の増加能力, added capacity after completion, and the one that prints a figure is the 宮城 production building, 生産能力 250%増加.

Where the laboratories are can be read from the book-value tables. For the parent, page 27 lists 山梨事業所 in 韮崎市, described as 事務所、研究所、工場用地等, offices, laboratory and factory land, at a book value of 22,101 million yen (US$134.9 million) with 201 employees, and 府中テクノロジーセンター, described as 事務所, offices, at 1,025 million yen (US$6.3 million) with 487. Among overseas subsidiaries on page 28, TEL Technology Center, America, LLC's 本社 in Albany, New York is 事務所、研究所 at 14,941 million yen (US$91.2 million) with 232 employees; Tokyo Electron Korea Ltd.'s 本社他, head office and other locations, in 華城市 and elsewhere, is 事務所、倉庫、研究所, offices, warehouse and laboratory, at 66,819 million yen (US$407.9 million) with 2,179; and Tokyo Electron Taiwan Ltd.'s head office and other locations, in 新竹市 and elsewhere, carry the same three functions at 29,600 million yen (US$180.7 million) with 2,055. The employee counts are for the sites as the table groups them, and the book values are by asset class — buildings, machinery, land, other — not by function.

The parent company's own statements print a smaller figure under the same label. On page 141, among the principal items of the parent's selling, general and administrative expenses, 研究開発費 is 55,918百万円 and 69,581百万円 (US$341.4 million and US$424.8 million) for the years to March 2025 and 2026; the 62nd report's page 143 prints 38,776百万円 and 55,918百万円 (US$236.7 million and US$341.4 million) for the two years before. The two lines differ in scope: the group line, by note ※３, takes in manufacturing cost as well as general and administrative expense, across a group whose business description places manufacturing and part of development in subsidiaries, while the parent line is one company's selling, general and administrative expenses. The desk does not compute the share.

Beyond its own laboratories the report names one external research programme twice. Page 8 and page 13 record participation in 半導体の人材育成と研究開発に関する未来に向けた日米大学間パートナーシップ, UPWARDS, the U.S.-Japan University Partnership for Workforce Advancement and Research & Development in Semiconductors, which page 13 dates to the year to March 2024. The five-year table on page 2 gives 20,236 employees at March 31, 2026, against 19,573 a year earlier; the plan's hiring line, about 10,000 over five years, is in the same page 7 list as the research investment.

Method. The desk retrieved the 63rd report (S100YEOO, 156 pages) and the 62nd (S100VX9R, 157 pages) as PDFs through the EDINET API and read page 26 of the first and page 27 of the second for the section; pages 81, 93 and 141 of the first and pages 87, 99 and 143 of the second for the income-statement line, its note and the parent's line; and pages 2, 5, 7, 8, 13, 16, 18, 24, 27, 28, 29 and 75 of the first and pages 25, 28 and 30 of the second for the plan, risks, analysis and facilities, with pdfplumber. The page 29 and page 30 plan tables and the page 27 and page 28 book-value tables were read with table extraction, keeping whitespace. The two sections were compared after removing line breaks. Every figure is as printed, in the unit printed, and ratios, increases and percentages are the reports' own; the only arithmetic is the conversion of yen to US dollars at ¥163.8 = US$1, for reference.