TOKYO :Japan's Advantest on Tuesday hiked its operating profit forecast for the year ending March 2026 by 25 per cent to 374 billion yen ($2.48 billion) as spending on artificial intelligence drives demand for its chip testing equipment. "We have grown confident that the favourable business environment, supported by the ongoing build-out of global AI data centre infrastructure, will continue," CEO Douglas Lefever told an earnings briefing. Operating profit rose 71 per cent to 108.4 billion yen