You’ve led FormFactor for over a decade, and you have a background in aeronautics. What drew you to semiconductors, and what keeps you motivated as a leader?
I was trained as a technologist and engineer, so I’ve always loved technology and product development. The semiconductor industry attracted me because of the relentless pace of innovation.
The idea of creating products that become obsolete every 12 to 18 months may sound daunting, but to me it’s exhilarating. That constant change is part of what makes this work so exciting.
There’s also the impact. Take generative AI, for instance: semiconductors are at the heart of it. Our fastest-growing business is probe cards for high-bandwidth memory, a key semiconductor memory that enables the complex computations of Large Language Models like ChatGPT. This business jumped from just a few million dollars to a rate of over $100 million annually in 18 months. Looking forward, we’re investing in technologies like silicon photonics and co-packaged optics that will reduce the massive energy consumption of AI data centers. Along with many others, FormFactor plays a role in enabling these advances in computing and communication, as well as in making them more energy-efficient, and this is what drives me.
FormFactor is on track for $850 million this year, yet the stock fell 16 percent. How do you account for that?
The market values companies on several elements — revenue growth, of course, but also profitability. If you look at our Q2 results and Q3 outlook, our revenue was solid and we remain on track for the $850 million target. However, profitability has lagged. That’s where we fell short.
Operational inefficiencies, tariffs, and inflation have all been headwinds. Ultimately, the stock market judges us on earnings per share. You can post strong revenue, but if profitability doesn’t meet expectations, you’ll see pressure on the stock price. That’s exactly what happened in late July: strong revenue, but weaker bottom-line performance.
What are the biggest opportunities and challenges you face given tariffs, export controls, and geopolitical shifts?
It’s a very fluid situation that is still evolving. For most of my career, the semiconductor industry has operated without much thought to borders, tariffs, or export controls. That has changed completely. For example, as a US-based manufacturer, export controls played a role in our decision to exit direct operations in China. We still serve that market, but through distribution rather than ownership.
At the same time, we’re investing heavily in the US, particularly with our new Texas expansion. None of our major competitors are US-based, so we believe a stronger domestic footprint could be an advantage as the US re-establishes itself in semiconductor production. Still, this remains a global industry. Most advanced chips are made in Taiwan and Korea, so we must maintain and grow our strong global operating and support structure even as we expand at home.
How do you view California versus Texas as ecosystems for semiconductors, and what will the $55 million Farmers Branch, Texas factory investment mean?
That investment is about preparing for growth. FormFactor is the market leader in probe cards and engineering test systems — both segments that are expected to grow faster than the overall semiconductor industry, which itself is forecast to surpass $1 trillion early next decade. To capture that, we need additional capacity, and the Texas expansion is central to that plan.
In terms of ecosystems, cost remains critical. The semiconductor industry has always advanced by making transistors cheaper, smaller, and more powerful. For governments, helping us manage operating costs — labor, utilities, taxes — is essential. But perhaps the biggest challenge is workforce development. The pipeline of mechanical and electrical engineers is shrinking as more students gravitate toward software and AI. Universities like the University of Texas are working to reverse that trend, but without talent, cost advantages won’t matter.
What does the life of an employee at FormFactor look like, and why should someone pursue a career in hardware engineering?
It’s driven by the same motivations that excite me: working on fascinating technical problems that shape the world. Take our probe cards — they may seem like simple connectors, but each carries hundreds of thousands of tiny, specialized connections, often the width of a human hair, transmitting high-speed currents with precision. The complexity is astounding.
Beyond the technical challenge, the work has real impact. Semiconductors enable everything from generative AI to mobile devices. For engineers who want to be at the forefront of solving global problems while working on cutting-edge hardware, this field offers both intellectual challenge and meaningful purpose.
You mentioned photonics and data center energy use. How close are you to scaling this technology, and what impact could it have?
From what I’ve read, moving to optical-electrical systems could reduce data center energy consumption by double-digit percentages. That’s enormous. We can’t realistically build nuclear plants next to every data center, so we need more practical solutions delivered on a faster timeline. This is one of them.
At FormFactor, we’ve worked closely with leading customers worldwide for years to develop systems that test chips both electrically and optically. Data centers of the future will use both, so the ability to validate performance across both domains is critical. Co-packaged optics has been discussed for years, but only now, driven by pressing energy needs, it is moving into pilot production. It’s a perfect example of technology aligning with business necessity.
FormFactor collaborates with companies like Advantest. Can you share more about your partnerships?
Yes, collaboration is essential in this industry. The Advantest partnership has drawn attention because of press releases and other publicity, but in reality we work closely with many companies, including Advantest’s competitors like Teradyne. Our technologies must integrate with the testers built by both Advantest and Teradyne, so cross-company collaboration between R&D teams is a key part of our operating model.
Beyond that, we partner with customers, universities, and research institutes. The industry’s ability to bring out new products every 18 months, or even faster, depends on this shared effort. We all understand that while we compete, we also share a common destiny. Progress happens only if suppliers, customers, and partners align resources to solve the right problems at the right time.
