Hello, everyone. I am Matsutoni, your moderator today. I am from the Investor Relations office. Thank you very much for joining despite your busy schedules. Let me introduce today's speakers. Representative Executive Officer, President and CEO, Mr. Nakamura. President and Representative Director, Ajinomoto Fine-Techno Company Inc., Mr. Mago. Those are our two speakers. We also have with us four other people, Executive Officer and Vice President, General Manager of Bio & Fine Chemicals Division, Mr. Arashida, Executive Officer and Vice President in charge of Finance, Mr. Mizutani, Executive Officer in charge of Investor Relations, Kaji, and Corporate Fellow, Deputy General Manager, Research Institute for Bioscience Products and Fine Chemicals, Mr. Narahashi. We have four attendees other than the speakers. After Mr. Nakamura's opening remarks from Mr. Mago, we will deliver a presentation about the growth strategy of electronic materials business, including a virtual factory visit, and we will conclude with a Q&A session. The materials are available on Ajinomoto's investor relations section on our website. Please refer to the materials where necessary. We will be taping this session, including the Q&A session, and will be updated onto our investor relations site on a later date. We would like to now start. Mr. Nakamura, please. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining despite your busy schedules. I am Nakamura, Representative Executive Officer, President and CEO. There are three key messages I would like to convey today. First, regarding the ICT sector, this is an important area that continues to grow sustainably against the backdrop of increasing data volumes and the spread of AI. Staying ahead of these technological advances and leveraging our high-speed development system, we are achieving growth centered around Ajinomoto Build-Up Film, ABF. Moving forward, we will continue to stay ahead of technological advances so that our products remain the de facto standard in both the creation of social value and sustainable business growth. Today, I will explain the growth strategy of the electronic materials business and offer a virtual tour of our new plant in Gunma Prefecture that began operations in 2025. First, let me talk about the group's growth strategy. Based on our unique strength, AminoScience, we are focusing heavily on areas where we can achieve both growth potential and the creation of social value. Specifically, we have designated four areas: healthcare, food and wellness, ICT, and green as our key growth areas, where we are concentrating resources such as R&D for medium to long-term growth. Today, I will discuss the ICT sector and explain our electronic materials business. Regarding the market environment for the ICT sector, demand for data processing is expanding rapidly, driven by the spread of generative AI and IoT, further accelerating the transition toward higher semiconductor performance and density. In addition to the evolution of individual chips, system integration via advanced packaging technologies is moving forward. On the other hand, the surge in data processing volume is causing an increase in power consumption, making the improvement of power efficiency a critical challenge. Amid these structural changes, the sophistication of substrates is becoming increasingly crucial, creating expanding and sustainable growth opportunities for relevant materials. In this external environment, our electronic materials business, the core of our ICT sector, centered on Ajinomoto Build-Up Film, or ABF, continues to evolve and expand in response to the growth of the semiconductor market. By FY 2025, it is projected to account for about 30% of our total business profit, making it one of the key businesses driving our growth. As we explained previously, we have established a high-speed development system that integrates and rapidly executes all phases from product development and mass production to customer support. Under this system, starting from customer needs, we rapidly explore multiple solutions such as material design, prototyping, and evaluation in parallel, while consistently incorporating feedback even after mass production, thereby accelerating the cycle from development to improvement. This allows us to transform speed and quality into competitive advantage and achieve sustainable growth based on the trust relationship with our customers. In the ICT field, the pace of technological evolution is accelerating further with advancement in generative AI and AI agents and is expected to continue. We are not only responding to the growing demand for HPC and AI but also anticipating technology areas likely to become mainstream in the future, such as new packaging technologies like photonic-electronic integration for power saving and next generation sensing, and advancing development with companies across the value chain. In response to these technological advancements and shifts in demand structures, we will expand our competitive advantage by proactively delivering value starting at the materials level, maintaining our position as a de facto standard in ICT sector, and achieve sustainable growth in the future. The foundation of this competitive advantage lies in our intangible assets, technology, human assets, customers, and our organization. We regard these as the source of our competitiveness and are enhancing their value through continuous investment and strengthening. In the electronic materials business as well, we will continue to strengthen our intangible assets to sustainable enhance our competitive advantage and achieve business growth while maintaining and reinforcing our de facto standard. Today, we will explain our growth strategy for the electronic materials business, including a virtual tour of our new Gunma plant, which began operations in 2025. Next, Genjin Mago, President of Ajinomoto Fine-Techno Co., Inc., the core group company for the electronic materials business, will provide further details. Mago-san, over to you. Hello, everyone. I am Genjin Mago, President and Representative Director of Ajinomoto Fine-Techno Co., Inc. Thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedules to join us today. There are four key points I would like to explain to you today. Since its launch in 1999, ABF has maintained a market share of over 95%, establishing an overwhelming position. With our high-speed development system, we anticipate customer needs from the early stages of product development and build a competitive advantage through collaboration across the entire value chain. Building on this solid foundation, we are advancing the sophistication of ABF by improving performance and co-creating value in step with semiconductor evolution, capturing the expanding demand for AI and HPC to accelerate our growth. For FY 2026, the robust demand from the previous year has continued, resulting in a strong performance since the beginning of the period. We have no concerns regarding our supply system across the entire supply chain. Over the medium to long term, in addition to expanding capacity up to 2030, we will steadily build up our supply capabilities by establishing new production bases while continuing to develop new generation of ABF to meet growing demand. Furthermore, looking to future technologies, we will take a proactive approach to address developments such as co-packaged optics. In addition to evolving ABF, we will extend ABF technology into next generation packaging and other fields to realize sustainable business growth. First, let me address the general outlook of the semiconductor market. According to WSTS, which compiles world semiconductor trade statistics, the growth rate of the logic IC market within the broader semiconductor industry is projected to be around 37% in 2026 and roughly 27% in 2027, driven by advancements in AI, pointing to an expectation of continued high growth. Growth in the semiconductor market is being driven by AI-related demand. AI is expanding in scope from existing learning to inference. Learning is the process of training a pattern from data, whereas inference is the process of using those trained results to actually output an answer. Currently, backed by the rapid spread of AI agents, AI is evolving into a daily use infrastructure. Along with this inference, which requires processing every time AI is utilized, is gaining greater importance, significantly increasing data processing volumes. At the same time, requirements such as response speed and power efficiency are becoming increasingly critical, requiring not only performance improvements in the chips themselves, but also efficient processing across the entire system. Reflecting these changes, the configurations of AI semiconductors are also changing. In addition to the conventional demand growth centered on GPUs, the role of CPUs, which control overall processing, is being re-evaluated due to the expansion of inference applications and the spread of AI agents, raising expectations for growth in CPU demand for data centers. In addition, ASICs, chips optimized for specific applications, are also expanding. Furthermore, as the trend toward combining multiple chips to function together advances, package substrates are becoming larger and having more layers, making the overall system configuration increasingly complex. From this point forward, I'll explain our electronic materials business and our growth strategy for Ajinomoto Build-Up Film or ABF. Our electronic materials business operates globally centered on Ajinomoto Fine-Techno Co., Inc., AFT, with sites in the U.S., Taiwan, and Shanghai, meeting the semiconductor development needs of customers worldwide. The main product of our electronic materials business is ABF. It is an interlayer insulating material used in substrates for logic ICs such as CPUs, GPUs, and ASICs, and is utilized across a wide range of applications, including PCs, network equipment, servers, and AI. ABF is not a commodity product, but rather custom manufactured and optimized for each individual customer. When proceeding with development, we simultaneously adjust performance and price with the customer, design the optimal performance specification tailored to their applications and needs, and develop the product through collaboration. As a result, ABF goes beyond being a mere material and is integrated as a part of the customer's own product design, leading to continuous adoption and the building of long-term relationships of trust. Regarding pricing, our basic approach is individual pricing based on required performance and applications. One of the factors increasing the average selling price of ABF is the change in the product mix, accompanied by a shift toward higher performance and higher added value. In the event that we must request unit price adjustments due to rising raw material and fuel costs or other reasons, our policy is to explain the situation thoroughly to all of our customers to gain their understanding and implement appropriate price pass-throughs. Let me explain how this business is linking into structural changes along with the evolution of the market. In line with higher performance in semiconductors, package substrates are becoming larger and having more layers. Driving this trend is the advancement toward chiplet technology, moving from a conventional single-chip configuration where a single chip is mounted on a substrate, to a configuration where multiple chips are high densely mounted and connected on a substrate. The adoption of advanced packaging technologies such as 2.5D mounting, where chips are connected side by side, and 3D mounting, where chips are stacked and connected vertically, is progressing. This has brought about a structure where substrates are becoming larger and having more layers, leading to an increasing amount of ABF used per substrate. In addition to the structural change, the amount of ABF used in AI servers is increasing dramatically. A single server contains a large number of various types of system substrates, and each of these substrates is mounted with large multi-layered semiconductor package substrates for components like CPUs and GPUs, all of which use ABF. Inside hyperscale data centers, the number of servers themselves is growing significantly. As a result, the multiplication of the increased amount used per unit and the increasing number of units will drive a dramatic expansion in demand for ABF alongside the spread of AI. Along with the evolution of substrates, the performance requirements for ABF are becoming more sophisticated. With more layers, it is necessary to form finer and higher density wiring, and securing insulating reliability between layers has become crucial. In addition, properties such as dimensional stability and warpage suppression are strongly required in step with increasing substrate sizes. As signal transmission speeds increase due to advancements in AI and high-speed communications, requirements for electrical properties such as low dielectric dissipation factor and low loss are intensifying. Products capable of meeting these sophisticated and complex requirements present a high level of technical difficulty, leading to an expansion of higher value-added domains. We have built our business foundation against these requirements by providing ABF for our high-performance applications. We will continue to address this growing sophistication moving forward. In tandem with these performance improvements in ABF, our product mix has also changed. From 2018 to 2025, our business profit margin improved from approximately 30% to over 50%, driven by an increasing share of higher value-added products that address the higher performance needs of ABF. We will continue to invest solidly for medium to long-term growth and continue to develop new and higher value-added products. This page shows our growth trajectory heading toward 2030. Going forward, we expect growth driven by increased amounts used due to larger sizes and more layers in package substrates, and improvement in product mix due to an increasing share of high-performance applications. With the expansion of HPC and AI, higher performance and the structural evolution of substrates are expected to continue, which we believe will lead to an expansion in both the shipment volume and added value of the corresponding ABF. We will address these shifts in demand and aim to grow our sales and business profit through the evolution of our products. Regarding our progress in fiscal year 2026, our initial forecast called for a 10% sales growth rate, but the strong demand momentum from the previous year has sustained, and we are tracking at a pace above expectations from the beginning of the year. From this page, I will explain in detail the development and production structure that supports the growth of ABF. Our ability to adapt to these market changes is supported by our high-speed development system, which integrates everything from R&D and technical verification to mass production under close collaboration with customers. We maintain continuous relationships across the entire value chain, including raw material, equipment, and chemical solution manufacturers, as well as package substrate manufacturers and end users. In particular, based on relationships of trust with end users, they share information with us regarding next-generation products and future needs at an early stage. Using this information as a starting point, we deeply engage with our customers' development and manufacturing processes, optimizing even equipment and process conditions to reliably deliver the required performance. In addition to research and technology, the entire organization, including production, sales, quality assurance, and management departments, supports this in a unified system. For new applications or highly challenging products in particular, it's vital to launch mass production with stable quality, and quality assurance plays an extremely critical role in that process. This unified development structure and execution capability involving the entire value chain is our core strength, enabling us to maintain a high share in ABF. Furthermore, to support the high-speed development of ABF, we have established a structure that faithfully reproduces our customers' manufacturing and evaluation processes in-house. This allows us to run development cycles from prototyping to mass production at high speed, differentiating ourselves from competitors through development speed. This slide illustrates the steps in ABF development on the upper portion and the customers' manufacturing and evaluation processes on the lower part. We possess the same environmental equipment as our customers, so that we can reproduce and evaluate the reliability and warpage of substrates through various steps, such as embedding, processing, and wiring. In particular, as packaging becomes larger and has more layers, addressing micro wiring has become the key to new substrate development, making processing and wiring compatible with micro wiring essential. Grounded in the system, our track record, and relationships of trust, substrate design premised on our ABF progresses at our customer sites from the early stages of development, which also serves to create high entry barriers. Next, I will discuss the ABF production system that supports the growth of the semiconductor market. We have adopted asset-light business model and specialize in the production of varnish, the raw materials for ABF. Meanwhile, we outsource processes such as application to films, storage and freezer, and shipping, thereby establishing a system that enables flexible responses across the entire supply chain. At Gunma Plant, we leverage our proximity to our outsourcing partners to ensure efficient operations. Furthermore, based on longstanding cooperation relationship with each of our outsourcing partners, we coordinate closely with them based on ABF production plans. In particular, with the contractors for the coating process, we share our future demand forecasts, and they are already strengthening their production systems and expanding their production lines to ensure thorough production capacity across the entire supply chain. As a result, we are fully capable of meeting current robust demand with ample capacity to spare and firmly prepared to respond to expanding demand in the mid to long term. Currently, we manufacture varnish for ABF at two sites, in Gunma Plant and at the head office plant in Kawasaki, operating on a single shift system for eight hours out of every 24-hour day. Kawasaki handles everything from R&D to prototyping and mass production ramp-up, while Gunma performs mass production, dividing roles between them. With each complementing the other, we have established a system that provides integrated support from development through mass production, enabling us to respond flexibly and stably to fluctuations in demand. In May this year, we announced the acquisition of land for a new plant in Kani City, Gifu Prefecture. Over the mid to long term, we have established a system that ensures a stable supply through a decentralized and complementary production structure, enabling us to fully meet expanding demand. Regarding production capacity, we're proceeding with phased investments to increase production through 2030, centered on the Gunma Plant. As shown on the left, a new facility at the Gunma Plant began operations in 2025. As you can see in the photo, we have secured space for future expansion. This will enable us to flexibly expand production capacity in response to demand. Furthermore, to meet the growing demand beyond 2030, we plan to establish a new production facility, our third base in Kani City, Gifu Prefecture, and we will steadily build up our supply capacity over the mid to long term. We will also promote DX at the new plant to achieve even greater productivity improvements than our existing plants. By gradually increasing capacity in this way over the mid to long term, we are securing a supply system capable of fully meeting expansion of robust demand. This is the new plant that began operations in Gunma last year. It is designed to manufacture ABF varnish for cutting-edge applications and achieves both high quality and efficiency through the introduction of labor-saving and automation technologies. It has become a key facility supporting the strengthening of our supply capacity and competitiveness. Now, to give you a first-hand look at the production system we've been discussing, today we'll take you on a virtual tour of the manufacturing floor at this new Gunma Plant. Please enjoy this six-minute video. 皆さま、こんにちは。本日はAjinomoto Fine-Techno Companyの群馬工場より、ABFの生産現場をご紹介します。群馬工場は、関越自動車道昭和インターチェンジから車で2分の場所にあり、ABFの製造に用いられるvarnishを製造しています。本日は、2025年10月に稼働を開始した新工場を中心にご覧いただきたいと思います。ABFは、ICチップとマザーボードをつなぐ半導体パッケージ基板に使われる絶縁材料です。ABFは、パッケージ基板のここに使用されています。ABFはフィルム上の製品で、基材フィルムにvarnishと呼ばれる液状の配合物を塗布、乾燥させた後、カバーフィルムを貼り合わせて製造します。群馬工場では、このvarnishの製造を行っております。ABFは、CPUやGPUをはじめとする高性能半導体用いられるパッケージ基板に採用されています。PCやサーバー、ネットワーク機器など、様々な分野で使用されており、95%以上という非常に高いシェアを有しています。また、近年はAIやハイパフォーマンスコンピューティングの進展に伴い、半導体パッケージ基板の大型化・高性能化が進んでいます。それに伴い、層数の増加や基板面積も拡大し、ABFの使用量が増加しています。こちらの新工場では、最新のABF varnishを生産しています。新工場は、高品質と生産性の両立をコンセプトに設計しており、自動化、省エネ化設備導入により、生産効率の向上と生産キャパシティーの拡大を実現しています。製造エリアはクリーンルームとなっており、オペレーターはエアシャワーでクリーンアップしてから入室します。工場に搬入される原料についても、同様にクリーン化を行っており、自動清掃装置の導入によって作業の効率化も図っています。こちらは原料の計量工程です。これまでの工場では、原料の計量を手作業中心で行っていました。新工場では自動計量装置を導入し、作業の効率化を図っています。これにより、作業者の負荷軽減と安定した品質の両立を実現しています。こちらでは、先ほどの工程で計量した原料を投入し、混合、分散を行っています。10種類以上の原料を均一に分散させ、varnishを製造します。新工場では、分散後、varnishとして仕上げる工程までを一貫して行う新たな製造プロセスを開発しました。この抜本的な製造プロセスの見直しにより、従前より工程数を削減し、生産性を大きく向上させることができました。こちらはvarnishを別のタンクへ移送する工程です。従来はタンクで移送していましたが、新工場では配管による密閉移送を採用しています。これにより、異物混入の防止に加え、安全性の向上にもつながっています。また、遠隔でのモニタリングも可能となり、自動化、省人化を進めています。こちらがvarnishの濾過工程です。濾過を行うことで、varnishから規定以上のサイズの粒子を取り除き、粒度を管理しています。この工程は品質管理をより確実にするため、クリーンルーム内でも特にクリーン度の高い環境下で実施しています。濾過を行った後は、varnishをドラム缶に充填します。充填量の管理や充填するドラム缶の切り替えも自動化されており、高品質と効率性を両立しています。充填されたvarnishは、こちらのコンベアにセットします。その後、冷蔵庫へ自動搬送され、品質を維持したまま冷却します。冷却されたvarnishは自動倉庫で管理され、出荷指示に応じて出荷されます。その後、隣接する協力会社へ無人で自動搬送され、塗工工程を経てABFが完成します。以上、新工場における生産の様子をご覧いただきました。安定供給体制のもと、さらにABFの成長を加速させてまいります。 Thank you for watching the video. We aim to achieve dramatic growth that surpasses our previous growth trends. I will explain our expansion into business areas around ABF peripheral materials and our initiatives for next-generation packaging. Peripheral ABF areas. Building on the technology that we have cultivated through ABF, we are expanding into peripheral materials such as adhesive materials, ABF RCC, molding, and magnetic materials. Albeit for different applications, they function as materials that support advancement of substrates, enabling higher performance, miniaturization, and power saving. For example, adhesive materials, which can bond even heat-sensitive parts and provide impact resistance, and ABF RCC, which supports higher performance and miniaturization, are expected to drive business expansion in the mobile sector, including smartphones and tablets. Magnetic materials contribute to power saving and are expected to be adopted in semiconductors for PCs, servers, and 5G base stations, where even higher performance is anticipated. With ABF at the core, we provide a combination of peripheral materials to meet the expanding needs of various applications, expanding our business scope accordingly. Regarding our response to next-generation packaging. In the future, in addition to substrates becoming larger with more layers, we anticipate that co-packaged optics, or CPO, and higher integration will lead to increased adoption of built-in parts and high-performance substrate materials. As a result of these technological progresses, inter-chip connections will become even more integrated and faster. Challenges such as signal loss and heat generation in electrical wiring will become more apparent, while the use of optical transmission will advance to complement that, making it increasingly important to have electrically and optically enabled materials technologies. This page shows an example of next generation package. Given diverse future technological advancements, we will not only further enhance the performance of ABF, but also maximize our strengths based on the material technologies and manufacturing infrastructure cultivated through ABF to date. Specifically, by providing a combination of optical waveguides, adhesives, and molding materials on top of ABF, we will comprehensively cover the material domain, supporting both electrical and optical applications. By delivering value that only we can provide, we will maintain and strengthen our indispensable position in the future packaging and further solidify our status as a de facto standard. This page illustrates the evolution of technologies. The current status. With the widespread adoption of AI, data volumes and communication demand is surging, rapidly driving up the need for high-speed, high-capacity communication both in and outside data centers. In this context, a key issue in conventional electrical signal transmission is power consumption increase as transmission distances grow. To address this, the adoption of technology that converts portion of the signals into light and transmits the long-distance segments via light is progressing. Since light suffers minimal loss even over long distances, it is effective for improving electrical efficiency. Looking ahead, the use of CPO, co-packaged optics, is anticipated, in which the interface that performs photo-electrical conversion is placed close to ASICs, thereby minimizing electrical transmission and expanding the area of optical transmission. Configurations evolve towards this electrical and optical combination, the materials required will also change significantly. We believe that this shift will lead to business opportunities in the materials sector on top of ABF. In preparation for the communication of CPO, we are moving forward by leveraging our strengths, including the evolution of ABF and the technologies and manufacturing infrastructure cultivated through ABF. In CPO, not all wiring will be replaced by optical signals. Electrical circuit formation will remain near the chip. Therefore, it is crucial to further enhance the performance of ABF as electrical wiring material capable of supporting higher speed and higher integration signals. In addition, since areas of optical communication will be incorporated into the package, we are developing materials suited for the optical domain, such as optical waveguides, that serve as pathways for optical signals, as well as adhesive and molding materials used to connect to optical devices. Thus, in next generation packages where electrical and optical elements coexist, it is crucial to combine and optimize the various materials. We are collaborating with various global materials manufacturers, spanning the entire supply chain from upstream to downstream, who are conducting research for next-generation packages. We have already provided material samples so as to contribute to the development of these packages. Leveraging the network we have established as de facto standard, and the strengths of our ABF technologies, we will expand into materials that support both electrical and optical domains, maintain our indispensable position in the next generation, support the ICT industry, and achieve business expansion. Finally, I would like to explain the organizational structure, corporate culture, and human resources, the intangible assets that support our electronic materials business, and our high-speed development system. The source of our competitiveness lies in our globally successful talent, who practice our core competencies every day. Guided by our vision of creating comfort in living through unseen materials, we are honing three key capabilities, the ability to see the future, ability to solidly engage with customers, and technical capabilities. By applying these capabilities at our sites around the world, we are achieving business operations that win before the competition even begins. To realize this vision, in order to implement core competence, cross-departmental collaboration is essential. With quality as our core, we are fostering company-wide culture that prioritize quality from R&D to manufacturing, sales, and back-office operations. Personnel from each department collaborate under our high-speed development system, and R&D personnel even visit customers themselves to understand on-site challenges and needs. This is also being leveraged for future product development. In the culture where anyone can share their opinions, regardless of position or seniority, we are strengthening our organizational capabilities to meet increasingly sophisticated customer demands through customer-centric talent development and cross-departmental collaboration. The competitiveness of our electronic materials business lies in the fact that our personnel who share what we value practice it every day in the field. Taking on challenges in the unknown, engaging in dialogues with customers, and consistently acting, assuming changes underpin the evolution of our business and competitiveness. Finally, we'd like to share a video showcasing our talent active on the global stage and young professionals who will lead our next generation business as they take on challenges at the frontline. Please take a look. Here in Silicon Valley, at the forefront of innovation, we stay ahead of the semiconductor market in real time. By engaging closely with our customers via meetings and discussion, we turn insights into immediate value. The most advanced needs we identify are fed directly back into the organization, where they are combined with our technologies and transformed into next-generation solutions. This continuous cycle of insight, innovation, and delivery enables us to lead the next wave of competition. In Taiwan, we value building trust relationships face-to-face and in person. We have quickly captured customer problems and needs through everyday communication. We are now moving from Taiwan to Japan and are working to further strengthen cooperation with all our global locations, including Taiwan. Our strength lies in our ability to face customers as a group. We not only provide products, but also understand our customers' processes and how they are used, leading to problem solving and co-creation of value. The most rewarding part is the moment when my judgment or improvements directly lead to results on the ground. For example, when improvements to increase work efficiency are adopted and productivity improves, I can feel that I am moving the scene. The products we create every day are used not only in Japan, but also by people around the world. It is a great honor and a driving force for further challenges to feel that our work is connected to the world. We would like to continue to make products that are trusted by customers around the world by honing our quality and technology. In the design stage of the manufacturing process at the new factory, it was most difficult to imagine potential problems while I did not have actual equipment. Based on drawings and lab data, we discussed repeatedly and verified the details. There was a great sense of achievement the moment the factory actually started operating. I feel that I have grown myself because I was able to challenge myself without being bound by precedent, despite the fact that I was able to discuss across departments and have a breadth of mind to express my opinions even as a young person. That concludes my presentation. Thank you very much for your attention. Mr. Mago, thank you very much. We would like to start the Q&A session. If you have a question, please press the Raise Hand button on the screen. When your name is called, please unmute and go ahead with your question. You can also ask questions in English through the English line. We would like to ask you to only ask up to two questions each at a time. If there are too many people who want to ask a question, please understand that we might not be able to call on you during the call. I'd like to get started. The first question is from Mr. Saji from Mizuho Securities. Thank you. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. I have a question on page 14 in the presentation. HPC AI applications, the mix has been increasing in contribution. That is what you have been saying. My question is, on the right-hand side, where you talk about timeline. For example, where in FY 2026 and beyond FY 2031 that you have been referring to. What is the image you have according to the timeline? The conventional PC application has been declining, AI, HPC with a higher mix. Profitability has been increasing and excluding FX impact, you have been saying that ASPs have been increasing. Going forward, upon talking about timelines, how far of profitability improvement can we expect? Can you talk about or give us some food for thought with respect to product mix improvement? For HPC weight, I think it is going to decline somewhat. For AI, if that were to increase, and let us say it were to reach 60% or so, when you look at profitability trends over the course of the last one year, more than HPC, there should be more products that have higher margins. That is the image I have in mind with respect to progress that you are likely to make. Can you talk about timeline as well as outlook on profitability? That is my first question. Thank you, Mr. Saji, for the question. Mr. Mago, can you respond? Yes. Thank you for the question. First, regarding timeline, there has been generational changes at an early pace for semiconductors. We have about one or two years as an image, but that is just an image. After 2025, we do not mean it is going to be 2027 and then 2029. It is just a mere image. For ASPs or unit prices, as you have asked in your question for high-end applications. What's going to happen beyond HPC? We are not really thinking about that yet. GPUs, network switches, high performance, large area packages, they're all called HPC right now. Going forward, we expect that the ratio is going to continue to rise. Like we've been communicating, due to mix improvement, profitability will either be maintained or be greater. That's what we hope to achieve. I hope that answers your question. For AI applications, the more we see that happen compared to what you've been communicating, isn't your profitability going to be greater in value? With agentic AI or physical AI and its adoption, I think it was on page six or something. With its higher penetration, isn't there more upside to unit prices and profitability? Yes, we hope that happens and yes, we do believe so. For AI-related applications, looking at page 14's chart, how are we supposed to think about it? For new product developments, is that AI related? For ABF, when you look at customer adoptions, advanced products are used for advanced AI. Yes, that's the right way to look at this. My second question briefly is about your production. I think that was on pages 20 and 21. Thank you for concisely explaining. For Gunma, you were saying that you were going to expand capacity next to Gunma, and you can also do three shifts plus alpha. My question is, for Kawasaki and when you go to three shifts for Gunma, how much is the production portion going to look like? If you were to build a new factory right next door, then is it going to be like the new factory you just built in Gunma times two? Regarding the magnitude of capacity expansion, can you talk about the production mix as much as possible? Right. Thank you for the question. Unfortunately, I am not able to share specific numbers with you. However Can you repeat your question, please? Kawasaki versus Gunma. Currently, you're working one shift. If you enable three shifts at full capacity or full utilization, what would the mix look like? Then for additional capacity expansion opportunities. Basically, for volume or sales with logic IC, we believe that it's going to triple by 2030. Before Gifu is established, you have been saying you will have sufficient capacity available. I just want you to give me a better image. Well, I'm not able to give specific numbers, but we are working on it as we speak. For Gunma, it will be quite advanced or state-of-the-art. For the new factory that we're operating, like explained, it's for advanced ABFs. When a product comes out, the growth has been higher than before, we would like to ensure that we are able to keep up with that demand. For Gifu, we are planning it to ramp up or become established after 2030. We will have a line that fits the type of ABF that is going to be manufactured. In any case, we would like to ensure that we will be able to keep up with demand. What about the mix between Gunma and Kawasaki? Is that no comment? No comment, please. Okay. Thank you. We look forward to it. Thank you very much, Mr. Saji. Mr. Igarashi from Daiwa Securities, please. Thank you very much for calling upon me. I am Igarashi from Daiwa Securities. I have one question. The first question is about production system. Isn't there any problem about the workforce because there is competition in hiring also intensive? Ajinomoto Fine-Techno Company, can you secure the required number of workforce? Is that something that you can envision? Thank you very much for your concern. Well, in this day and age, it's very difficult to hire talent. So far we have been increasing our headcounts steadily. You don't have to worry about that. Thank you. The next question, second question. It's a very rudimentary question, I'm sorry for that. On page 11, as you saw, the larger size and multilayer and higher layer count, it is expected to make progress as. Your electronic materials, most of them are following this trend or part of that like a pink portion is for cutting-edge applications. Probably it's represented by 20% or so. Is it the portion where you see this growth? Well, we're talking about ABF, right? Yes. As you said, in ABF, there are higher performance ones with substrates larger or more layers. ABF that can satisfy those requirements are the cutting-edge ABF. The one in the right for high performance, high layer count ABF. The cutting-edge ABF will be used. What about the ones that are not cutting edge? How do you see the growth rate going forward? Well, not amongst the cutting-edge ones. For example, there is a solid demand for PCs applications, so there's not going to be a large increase, but we can secure a decent level of demand. Thank you. Just for clarification, when you say cutting edge, is it about 20% of your product mix? Well, we're not in a position to disclose that, but it is increasing. That is for sure. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much for the question. Next is an English question from Bernstein. Mr. McLeish. Hi, it's Euan McLeish from Bernstein here. Thanks for taking my question. Could you maybe talk a bit more about the R&D relationships that are so important to your process? I'm interested in especially the sort of earlier stage R&D and how you work with the chip designers versus working with the substrate manufacturers. When you're looking at these very new specifications, what's the relative importance of your relationship with the chip designers versus the substrate manufacturers, please? Thank you very much for the question. The substrate manufacturers are the direct customers, we do directly align with them. Globally, around the world, especially in the U.S., we have subsidiaries available. We go through our subsidiaries and regularly working with our customers to talk about next generation and hearing out their specifications and requests. We reflect that and feed it back to our development people, so that we could propose new types of materials to the substrate manufacturers at a high speed. That's what we do. I hope that answers your question. Yeah, wonderful. That's very helpful. My second question is around the timeline for your next-generation materials. You've talked for a long time about your adhesive materials, ABF, RCC, and the magnetic materials. Can you maybe talk a bit more about the timeline for these to become meaningful in terms of your business profit? What the kind of key milestones we should be looking for that's going to help us to understand that these materials are likely to start growing? Thanks very much. Well, we deal with specific customers, it's really hard to guide you on specific volumes and timelines going forward. For each and every theme we have, we closely communicate with our customers as we develop the materials, especially for magnetic materials, as explained earlier. For AI servers, it consumes a lot of power, and that is a challenge. In order to suppress the power consumed, our magnetic materials may have an advantage, and our customers are aware about that. I'm not able to talk about business opportunities and specifics, but we will continue to well communicate with our customers so that we can respond to their demand and well supply them. I hope that answers your question. Are you able to give a little bit of color around which one you think is likely to come first, second, third, fourth? What is the ranking of the best prospects at this stage based on what you know? Narahashi can take that question. Thank you very much. First, on the very right, for magnetic materials, this is for semiconductor packaging related. It's a material that efficiently is able to transmit power. For this material, it's already being adopted. I would say the first contributor is already magnetic materials, to answer your question. Looking at adhesive materials and ABF, RCC, and molding materials, together with our value chain customers, we are working with them to develop the materials. Right now, we are still in the development stage for these materials. I hope that answers your question. Many thanks. Appreciate that. Thank you very much, Mr. Makish. Mr. Kinoshita, your company name is not shown. Mr. Kinoshita, please. UBS Securities, Kinoshita speaking. Thank you. It is related to what was really referred to earlier, the AI servers and other semiconductors applications. The ABF or your materials, the ones that your materials are not used, you're about to enter or have the intention to enter any such applications like high-end packages, especially anything that you're keeping an eye on. The areas where ABF is not used, high-end package areas, how we will see the demand for our materials? That was the question. Thank you for the question. At the moment, the areas where ABF is not used currently, but what is the expectation that we can have in terms of entering having ABF incorporated? As for high-performance computing packaging substrate, especially for 2.5D interposer on top of ABF substrate, there is another substrate, and then on top of that, there is a chiplet, many chiplets. There are three layer structure. That is what we are calling interposer. What is called silicon interposer or interposer uses silicon currently, and that is the mainstream right now. This silicon, as the packages are becoming larger, then a larger silicon interposer cannot be produced efficiently. Why not using organic materials? That is what many of the customers exploring. Our ABF or peripheral materials that we can provide based on ABF could be used, and we are communicating with many customers for that. In terms of one step upward for the material development, I think that is the area that we can look at. Thank you. Thank you, Kinoshita-san. Mr. Morita from Nomura, you are next. This is Morita from Nomura. Can you hear me now? Yes. Thank you. Apologies. I have two questions. My first question is about Regarding competitive products like polyimide and glass, can you talk about the advantages that ABF has as well as the differences? Can you walk us through one more time? Regarding the second question, technology can improve even more, and you talked about RCC for PCB and shipment timing for RCC. What is the timing you have in mind? What kind of applications or sales expectations do you have? Can you share with us your thoughts on that as well? Thank you. Going back to glass and polyimide, your question on that. For polyimide, in the previous question, we were talking about interposers, and actually polyimide is being considered as a material, and we are aware about that. The interposer, there's two types of customers right now, especially if they use polyimide in the front-end process, which is more. Often people call this the middle-end, but the front-end technology, if you use it into the middle-end process, polyimide might turn into a competitive material. As you rightly said, the interposer that's in the mid-end process, by using ABF, you could do it in the back-end process as well, and that kind of development is underway too. Talking about the future, that may be one way of expanding our business. For glass substrates, we often get questions on that too. Even if we switch to glass substrates, I think people will continue to use ABF because for ABF, FR4 or glass epoxy substrates, we will have it on both sides, ABF, but the glass cloth material is just going to change into glass substrates. Even under that structure, ABF will continue to be used. We're not that concerned. The last question about RCC timing. Well, we are talking with specific customers, so it's hard to talk about timing, but smartphones, mobile devices, the requirements are becoming for lighter and thinner. If there is an option of utilizing ABF, we would like our customers to proactively adopt our materials. I have another question. In the case of RCC, miniaturization or because we're talking about mobile, I guess area shipments is not going to be that large, meaning the scale of the business. What should we look at? I think it is going to become decent. You mean sales volume, right? We should be able to expect a decent level, although I cannot share any numbers with you. I see. Thank you. For the photosensitive polyimide and glass substrates, thank you for answering my question. For polyimide, you were talking about new areas where you might be competing with interposers. So far you are not that concerned about the competing product becoming a threat. Also, do you have any examples of in which situations people will choose photosensitive polyimide and other cases where they will choose ABF so that we can deepen our understanding? One is for polyimide, they have spin coater. They have liquid materials. They are going to drip it to create a thin film. That is what they have strength in. In our case, our materials are coated in a thicker way, evenly at about 10 microns in a panel format. It is able to form insulation. When it comes to circles, the yields are not that great, which means that if it is going to become more panelized, we believe ABF has an upper hand. Great. Thank you. You are not really afraid of competitive risk. It is more about interposers. Yes. I think we should continue to be able to go with ABF. We would like to ensure that we are able to get that space for interposers. Thank you. I see. Thank you very much, Mr. Morita. Once again, from English webinar, there is one question. Mr. Maklish from Bernstein, please. Hi. Thanks for taking my other question. I just wanted to talk about the growing demand for CPU substrates that you flagged in the presentation. Is the growth of this part of the business going to be materially mix negative compared to the ASIC ABF? Can you talk a bit about the ABF intensity for the latest CPU substrate specifications? Maybe a second and related question is just around the impact of TSMC's CoWoS and CoPoS technology. How would that interplay with ABF usage or disrupt your ABF business? Thanks very much. Thank you very much for your questions. The first question, the CPU question, if you can elaborate more on that. I think- I was not clear on what you were asking about. Sure. Obviously the amount of ABF used for ASIC substrates is getting bigger and bigger and is very large, and you've indicated that the pricing of the specifications for ASIC substrates are very high. If we see a significant growth of CPU substrates within your mix, should we expect to see lower pricing and lower margins as a result of that? Thank you very much. For CPU substrates, if CPUs are used for PCs, old type ABF is used. What we are focusing on as CPUs are those that are used for AI agents, the CPUs that are used together with GPUs. For those CPUs, like in GPUs, large size and higher layer count is the name of the game. I think this will be quite advantageous for our business. The CoWoS and CoPoS technologies, the 2.5D package substrates technology names were asked about. Basically, this uses interposer 2.5D package structure. Interposer that uses wafers or the rectangular interposer that uses panels, that is the difference. What you would actually get after the production is the same. As I answered in the previous question, on the rectangular panel, if there is an insulating layer created or CoPoS, our opportunities for our materials to be used will be increased. We are expecting to supply if there is a chance for ABF to be used, we would like to cope with that. Does that answer your question? Yeah. That's wonderful. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Maklish. Next is Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities, Mr. Hasegawa. This is Hasegawa from Morgan Stanley Securities. Thank you for taking my question. My first question is about, you talked about the comparison against polyimide and thickness of ABF. You shared the thickness. Going forward, for interposers or middle end, don't you have a disadvantage if your product has to be thicker and layer? At the end of last year, a film company was talking about miniaturization processing, that they would like to go into the space. When it comes to further miniaturization, what are your perspectives, solutions, et cetera? Thank you. As you rightly said, in some instances, the thinner would be better, but in other cases, you need to have some level of thickness due to the structure of the package itself. It depends on what kind of design the customer wants. Thick but high-performing may be an option of the customer. In that case, we will be able to continue to deliver ABF. When it's thin, the via needs to be small so that you can enable high density. For via formation and higher density together, we have a relationship and alliance with various manufacturers, and we also have been working with Tokyo University, the University of Tokyo, to be able to poke very small holes with ABF. We are preparing so that we will be ready, whichever path were to be adopted. The next question is about pricing. Of course, you are impacted by inflation, and you are going to expand your capacity. The coding company right next to Showa, the office site. You were talking about increasing capacity. They were talking about expanding capacity so that they can well support you, but this will also take some cost. I think it's not just your pricing, but you have to also consider your procurement cost when you think about improving your profitability. Will you be able to do so? Well, I know it's delicate. Yes, it's delicate, so we can't talk about everything, but that's the right way of thinking about it. We would like to ensure that we can achieve what we intended. Finally, just wanted to confirm about your production. For the production time, is it pretty short? You're able to manufacture in eight times? Will you be able to expand capacity if you adjust the timing or the reaction time? Yes. As a process, we have certain orders so that reaction doesn't happen, but it's hard to give you the actual quantitative numbers. Yes, your way of thinking is correct. The actual time for production, how much does that take? I'm so sorry, I can't give you that. I thought that you don't have to go through a continuous manufacturing process. Actually, that's the part where we are able to leverage our strength and our expertise. Okay, thank you very much for your commentary. Thank you. Mr. Hirata from UBS Securities, please. Hirata from UBS Securities. Thank you very much. Technological advancement direction is what I'd like to ask about, especially the miniaturized wiring is very important. That's what you said. Compared to the past, what are the changes that you're observing? If possible, quantitatively if you can share with us, that would be appreciated. Miniaturization is important. As you go into interposers you have to reduce the thickness of the wires. Is that why it is important? Or silicon rich building parts or panel type or is that the reason why the miniaturization is important? Well, rather than panels or wafers or processes, structurally, if you have to use chiplets, then you have to have more signals, a number of signals to be translated from chips to chiplets. In order to have more information translated, then the via should be smaller and the wires have to be thinner. If you want to have more chiplets in structure, then on the substrate side, that's what you have to do. Does that make sense? Well, quantitative explanation, would that be impossible? Well, we can't really do that. In the chiplets, in the semiconductor chiplet what was handled by wiring will have to be now performed by substrates. That's what we're talking about in chiplets. In the chips, with various combinations of various different chips, we can have more functions, but integrating them is on the substrate side. Now the substrate side has to take the role of wiring. With the miniaturization substrate, you have to cope with that. Structurally speaking, that is unavoidable. Thank you. Additional question. As for interposers, in my understanding, the organic interposer interconnect, I think it's very thin. For ABF, if you use ABF, is it possible to what organic interposer can do with ABF? Well, you use the ordinary ABF or for interposer the thinner films ABF and specialized ABF is possible. We're talking to customers what would be the best for performance and cost in selecting ABF. That's what we're discussing with customers. That's what also the potential that ABF has. Thank you. Thank you very much for your question. The next person is from JPMorgan Securities. Fujiwara-san. Thank you for taking my question. This is Fujiwara from JPMorgan Securities. I have two quick questions. The first one about production. In Gifu, you are preparing to build a new factory, several years ago, during Fujii's stays as president, from a BCP point of view, he was saying that you will consider building capacity overseas as well. What are your thoughts right now in your plans? That's my first question. My second question is about utilization. This might overlap with the previous question, eight hours a day, that's a very wide or proper production base. If you are able to secure people, will you be able to go to two shifts or three shifts? Is it possible, or are there any obstacles to shift to more production shifts? Regarding international capacity, yes, it's true that we considered in the past. Although I am not able to talk about the specific reasons, that has been canceled. That is why we acquired new land in Japan. For working time or working hours, if we are able to hire well, it is possible to increase our shifts to two or three. We would like to ensure that we are able to build an organization that can cater to increased production. Regarding maximum production levels, even at the current levels, do you still have opportunity to make more? Yes. Please feel assured. You still have opportunity to increase production, and you will be building new factories, so you will be able to meet up to future increased demand. The risk not being able to cater to that demand is very low. We are working on it so that we can minimize the risk. Thank you. That's all from me. Thank you very much, Mr. Fujiwara. There's about five minutes left. We can still take questions. You can ask questions for the second time. If you have any questions, please push raise hand button. Thank you very much. Mr. Suzuki, you who just asked question, please go ahead for the second time. Suzuki from SMBC Nikko Securities. Thank you. Thank you. Go ahead. On page 14, ABF product mix change is what I'd like to ask about. At the outset of the QA, I think there was one person who asked this question, but on the right, the representative image of the bar chart. Can you talk about the timeline once again, please? Well, depending on the applications, the generational change timing would be different. You can't really say and generalize it's one year or two years, but it's not about five years or 10 years. It's not that order of magnitude. The former is what we are looking at. The second question, the new product mix on the far right accounts for about half in this bar chart. The darkest red ones to the lighter red portions, I think that would mean that a bit older version of the new products. As you go by year by year, what used to be the unit price or margin for the new products would be lower, or in terms of ABF, those prices would not be reduced but maintained, and the even newer products have even higher margin. Would that be correct understanding? Yes, the latter is correct. Thank you. That's all that I wanted to ask. Thank you. Thank you, Suzuki-san. Thank you very much for your questions. We have reached the hour, we would like to conclude the Q&A time. Finally, Mr. Nakamura would like to extend some closing remarks. Hello. Thank you very much for participating over a long period of time today. For the electronic materials business, it's our core business, and we would like to ensure it goes through continuous growth so that we can sustainably enhance the corporate value of Ajinomoto. We would like to ask you for your further support, as well as please look forward to our future. Thank you very much. That concludes today's webinar. Thank you very much for participating.