What is the company's revenue guidance for the first quarter of 2022 
ntinue at these unprecedented levels for the foreseeable future. With semiconductor supply constraints pervasive and ongoing, most major device manufacturers have provided multiyear visibility into their heightened levels of investments, which are being put into place to support ever-increasing demand forecast.
Companies across the supply chain are working to increase capacity, and so are we. Earlier in the year, we talked about our plans to increase capex in order to add the capacity that will enable Ichor to retrieve quarterly run rates in excess of $400 million. We continue to aggressively drive these efforts ahead of a very strong 2022. We continue to believe that 2021 is just the second year of the multiyear growth cycle, propelled by the conversions of multiple demand drivers, such as 5G, IoT, AI, high-performance computing, and autonomous vehicles, in addition to more recent initiatives in support of domestic semiconductor supply self-sufficiency.
Together, all of these drivers are resulting in increased capital intensity for the semiconductor industry and higher levels of investments in fab technologies capacity. And in this extremely healthy business environment, Ichor plays a critical role, especially as the greater intensity of etch deposition and EUV lithography plays into our focus on fluid delivery for these critical applications for leading-edge devices. Now I'll update you on the progress the team has made on our strategy to leverage our engineering capabilities and IP portfolio to develop new products that will result in longer-term expansion of our share-served markets, as well as drive the operating model toward increased levels of profitability. We continue to make progress on our proprietary next-generation gas delivery solution, as well as with our other components we have developed, as part of these overall R&D efforts.
Our first fully configured next-generation gas panel was shipped and will start qualification this quarter. The qualification process is expected to take at least six months. We continue to work with two additional customers. And given the current demand on their engineering resources during this robust period of WFE investments, we currently expect to ship our second beta systems in early 2022.
In our chemical delivery business, we shipped a beta chemical delivery system to a North American customer in the third quarter. We expect this qualification period to extend through this year, with first revenues occurring in early 2022. Additionally, we expect to ship another beta unit for an additional application in early 2022. We completed the qualification of our first evaluation unit of our proprietary liquid delivery subsystem to a Japanese customer in the third quarter.
As I noted on our last call, the scale of this first opportunity is relatively small but an important step in penetrating the Japanese market, which is the largest portion of the web processing SAM, as well as continue to quote opportunities at other OEMs that are larger in scale. In our precision machining business, the two qualifications we highlighted last quarter will begin to see first revenues beginning later in the fourth quarter. These qualifications will both increase our proprietary content on a gas panel and be accretive to our gross margin profile. In summary, in a very challenging operating environment, the team is working extremely hard to ramp the business to address the customer demand we are experiencing.
And we expect to return to record-setting revenue levels for the forthcoming quarters. Our fourth quarter revenue guidance of $275 million to $305 million indicates our expectation for sequential growth above Q3 and our target to achieve a new revenue record for the company. Given the supply chain challenges, our current forecast for Q4 is not quite as high as we expected a quarter ago, but we have strong visibility for at least six months and anticipate continued sequential growth as we move into 2022. At the midpoint of Q4 guidance, our expected growth in 2021 will be below WFE growth.
However, we
ntinue at these unprecedented levels for the foreseeable future. With semiconductor supply constraints pervasive and ongoing, most major device manufacturers have provided multiyear visibility into their heightened levels of investments, which are being put into place to support ever-increasing demand forecast.
Companies across the supply chain are working to increase capacity, and so are we. Earlier in the year, we talked about our plans to increase capex in order to add the capacity that will enable Ichor to retrieve quarterly run rates in excess of $400 million. We continue to aggressively drive these efforts ahead of a very strong 2022. We continue to believe that 2021 is just the second year of the multiyear growth cycle, propelled by the conversions of multiple demand drivers, such as 5G, IoT, AI, high-performance computing, and autonomous vehicles, in addition to more recent initiatives in support of domestic semiconductor supply self-sufficiency.
Together, all of these drivers are resulting in increased capital intensity for the semiconductor industry and higher levels of investments in fab technologies capacity. And in this extremely healthy business environment, Ichor plays a critical role, especially as the greater intensity of etch deposition and EUV lithography plays into our focus on fluid delivery for these critical applications for leading-edge devices. Now I'll update you on the progress the team has made on our strategy to leverage our engineering capabilities and IP portfolio to develop new products that will result in longer-term expansion of our share-served markets, as well as drive the operating model toward increased levels of profitability. We continue to make progress on our proprietary next-generation gas delivery solution, as well as with our other components we have developed, as part of these overall R&D efforts.
Our first fully configured next-generation gas panel was shipped and will start qualification this quarter. The qualification process is expected to take at least six months. We continue to work with two additional customers. And given the current demand on their engineering resources during this robust period of WFE investments, we currently expect to ship our second beta systems in early 2022.
In our chemical delivery business, we shipped a beta chemical delivery system to a North American customer in the third quarter. We expect this qualification period to extend through this year, with first revenues occurring in early 2022. Additionally, we expect to ship another beta unit for an additional application in early 2022. We completed the qualification of our first evaluation unit of our proprietary liquid delivery subsystem to a Japanese customer in the third quarter.
 As I noted on our last call, the scale of this first opportunity is relatively small but an important step in penetrating the Japanese market, which is the largest portion of the web processing SAM, as well as continue to quote opportunities at other OEMs that are larger in scale. In our precision machining business, the two qualifications we highlighted last quarter will begin to see first revenues beginning later in the fourth quarter. These qualifications will both increase our proprietary content on a gas panel and be accretive to our gross margin profile. In summary, in a very challenging operating environment, the team is working extremely hard to ramp the business to address the customer demand we are experiencing.
And we expect to return to record-setting revenue levels for the forthcoming quarters. Our fourth quarter revenue guidance of $275 million to $305 million indicates our expectation for sequential growth above Q3 and our target to achieve a new revenue record for the company. Given the supply chain challenges, our current forecast for Q4 is not quite as high as we expected a quarter ago, but we have strong visibility for at least six months and anticipate continued sequential growth as we move into 2022. At the midpoint of Q4 guidance, our expected growth in 2021 will be below WFE growth.
However, we