GSI Technology (GSIT)

GSI Technology is fabless, meaning it designs chips and hires others to make them, and it runs two businesses. The established one sells high-speed synchronous SRAM, a fast memory chip, in four families (SyncBurst, NBT, SigmaQuad and SigmaDDR) spanning about 10,000 part numbers, for networking and telecom gear, test and measurement equipment and military, defense and aerospace systems, including radiation-hardened parts for satellites and missiles. Substantially all revenue comes from these SRAMs, and the company says they fund the second business: the associative processing unit (APU), a chip that computes inside its own memory, sold as the first-generation Gemini and its successor Gemini-II for AI and search at the edge. APU revenue has not been material. 24252627282930

How it operates

GSI Technology is fabless, meaning it designs chips and hires others to make them, and it runs two businesses. The established one sells high-speed synchronous SRAM, a fast memory chip, in four families (SyncBurst, NBT, SigmaQuad and SigmaDDR) spanning about 10,000 part numbers, for networking and telecom gear, test and measurement equipment and military, defense and aerospace systems, including radiation-hardened parts for satellites and missiles. Substantially all revenue comes from these SRAMs, and the company says they fund the second business: the associative processing unit (APU), a chip that computes inside its own memory, sold as the first-generation Gemini and its successor Gemini-II for AI and search at the edge. APU revenue has not been material. 24252627282930

It sells mostly through distributors, 93.3% of revenue in fiscal 2026, above all Avnet Logistics, which alone accounted for 63.7%; Holystone took 14.2% and Nexcomm 8.9%. The buying decision sits with the equipment makers behind them. KYEC was the largest end user, at about 14% of revenue, followed by Cadence Design Systems at 12% and Nokia at 6%, down from 21% two years earlier. Other makers that bought more than $500,000 of its SRAMs in the year include BAE Systems, General Dynamics, IBM and Rockwell. 3132333435363738

By where it ships, the United States brought in 12.3 million dollars, 48.9% of revenue in the fiscal year that ended in March 2026, up 50.8%; Germany 4.6 million, 18.3%; China 4.2 million, 16.8%, down 20.6%; Singapore 2.2 million, 8.9%; the Netherlands 575.0 thousand; and the rest of the world 1.2 million. 39

TSMC makes all of its SRAM and APU wafers under individual purchase orders, with no long-term supply contract. The APUs use 28 and 16 nanometer processes; most SRAMs use 0.13 micron to 40 nanometer processes. ASE in Taiwan tests and packages most of its wafers, Wistron NeWeb in Taiwan builds the APU boards, and Silicon Turnkey Solutions near Sunnyvale assembles and tests the radiation-hardened parts. A master die method lets one mask set yield several product families, so a common pool of wafers can be finished to order. 4041204243

The specifics

GSI was incorporated in California in 1995 as Giga Semiconductor, took its present name in December 2003 and reincorporated in Delaware in June 2004. It bought Sony's SRAM product line in July 2009 and, in November 2015, MikaMonu Group, a developer of in-memory computing and storage technology co-founded by Akerib. It sold its Sunnyvale headquarters building and leased it back in June 2024. In fiscal 2026 it raised about $50 million in a registered direct offering and $14.3 million through at-the-market share sales, ending the year with $67.2 million in cash and no debt. 449104546474849

It holds 147 US patents, 59 on memory and 88 on associative computing. It names NVIDIA and new, well-funded entrants as its principal competitors in associative computing, and Infineon Technologies, Integrated Silicon Solution and Renesas Electronics in SRAM, some of which run their own fabs. It says it is the only SRAM maker offering monolithic 288Mb densities. The networking market for external SRAM is shrinking as equipment makers build more memory into their own chips, and the filing believes Nokia is replacing GSI's SRAM with memory of its own design. 505152535455

Defense is a growing part of its story. Four Department of Defense research contracts, with the Space Development Agency, the Air Force Research Laboratory through AFWERX and two with the US Army, pay for APU work for military and space uses; in March 2025 a North American prime contractor placed a first production order for its radiation-hardened SRAM; and it is working with G2 Tech, an Israeli AI company, on Sentinel, a perimeter security system backed by the US Department of War and a foreign government agency. Some of its products may be classed as dual-use under the Export Administration Regulations or, depending on use, the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. 5657585960616263

What drives growth, line by line

SRAM products. Substantially all of revenue. Net revenues rose 22.4% to $25.1 million in fiscal 2026 as the average selling price of units shipped rose 16.3% and units shipped 5.7%. The filing credits strong SRAM sales to chip design and simulation customers: purchases by Cadence Design Systems rose to $3.1 million from $1.6 million, while KYEC's fell to $3.6 million from $4.6 million and Nokia's to $1.5 million from $2.5 million. Test and measurement rose to 38% of shipments; networking and telecommunications fell to 16%. 2864656667

APU products. Revenue from the APU has not been material. Its sales remain in research and academic settings and move through proof-of-concept stages that take time; the first-generation Gemini is in full production and Gemini-II in pre-production, with boards and chips delivered. Government money helps pay for it: the defense research contracts paid about $1.6 million in fiscal 2026, up from $557,000, though none has yet led to a production contract. 30682969

Gross margin widened to 54.5% from 49.4%, which the filing ties to the mix of products and customers and to fixed overhead spread over more shipments. Research and development rose 24.6% to $19.9 million, including $3.2 million for intellectual property bought for Plato, the next-generation APU, and the net loss widened to $13.2 million from $10.6 million. 70717273

What comes next, in the company's own words: follow-on orders for the radiation-hardened SRAM are expected in fiscal 2027, a sale with a significantly higher gross margin than its traditional SRAM; Plato is sized for applications under 20 watts such as humanoid robots, delivery vehicles and drones; and a local government agency in Taiwan awarded it the first phase of a smart city project, its first such deployment of Gemini-II. It expects sales to Nokia, KYEC and Cadence to keep fluctuating significantly from quarter to quarter. 61747576

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What the desk infers Inferred

1. Inferred

   The chip design and simulation customers behind fiscal 2026's growth are, above all, Cadence Design Systems: it was the only one of the three largest end users whose purchases rose.

   Because

   • The filing credits the year's revenue growth to strong SRAM sales to chip design and simulation customers. 65
   • Purchases by Cadence Design Systems rose to $3.1 million from $1.6 million, while KYEC's and Nokia's each fell by $1.0 million. 66
   • Cadence's share of revenue rose to about 12% from 8%. 36
   Confidence 70 of 100Wrong if A filing naming another customer as the main source of the chip design and simulation sales, or showing that Cadence buys the SRAMs for some other use.
2. Inferred

   The SRAM business has moved from networking gear to a few niche buyers, test equipment, chip-design hardware and defense, whose orders swing sharply from year to year, so revenue turns on the timing of a handful of programs rather than on a broad market.

   Because

   • The filing says networking demand for external SRAM has been declining as makers embed more SRAM in their own chips. 54
   • Test and measurement made up 38% of shipments and networking and telecommunications only 16%. 67
   • KYEC went from about 3% of revenue to 23% and then 14% in three years, and Nokia from 21% to 6%. 3537
   • Its larger buyers include the defense makers BAE Systems, General Dynamics and Rockwell. 38
   Confidence 70 of 100Wrong if Two years in a row in which no end user's share moves by more than a few points and networking regains the lead in shipments.
3. Inferred

   The SRAM business no longer pays for the APU on its own: operations have used cash every year on the record, and share sales, not SRAM profits, now fund the APU's development.

   Because

   • Operating cash flow was negative in every fiscal year from 2021 to 2026, with 15.9 million dollars used in fiscal 2026. 77
   • The filing says the legacy SRAM business funds the APU's development. 24
   • In fiscal 2026 financing brought in $49.7 million from new shares and warrants and $14.3 million from at-the-market share sales. 48
   • APU revenue has not been material. 30
   Confidence 85 of 100Wrong if A fiscal year in which operating cash flow turns positive while APU revenue is still immaterial.