SEMIFIVE Accelerates Growth with 97% YoY Revenue Surge in H1 2026, Powered by ASIC Turnkey, Mass Production, and IP

• H1 bookings reach KRW 118.9 billion with revenue at KRW 94.7 billion, achieving 78% of full-year 2025 revenue in just six months
• Expanding ASIC turnkey bookings, accelerating mass production, and recurring IP revenue drive SEMIFIVE's scalable growth

SEOUL, South Korea, Aug. 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- SEMIFIVE, a leading global provider of custom AI semiconductor (ASIC) solutions, announced bookings of KRW 118.9 billion and consolidated revenue of KRW 94.7 billion for the first half of 2026. In just six months, the company achieved 71% of its full-year 2025 bookings (KRW 168.4 billion) and 78% of its full-year revenue (KRW 120.9 billion), sustaining strong growth momentum.

A key highlight of the first half results was balanced growth across SEMIFIVE's three core businesses: ASIC turnkey, mass production, and IP. Expanding ASIC turnkey bookings with strong visibility into mass production, continued purchase orders (POs) backed by exclusive production rights tied to the mask set, and recurring low-power IP licensing revenue from a growing customer base spanning Big Tech and data center operators combined to drive the company's strong performance.

ASIC Development: Strengthening the Revenue Model through Production-Driven ASIC Turnkey

SEMIFIVE's ASIC development business generated KRW 54.1 billion in revenue in the first half, more than doubling year over year. The performance reflects the company's long-term strategy of building a high-value ASIC turnkey business model designed from the outset with a clear path to mass production.

Conventional design services and back-end-focused turnkey models typically engage after fabless customers complete front-end design, with service providers handling back-end implementation and product delivery. In contrast, a growing number of OEMs and service providers that traditionally purchased off-the-shelf chips are now seeking to develop custom silicon optimized for their own products and services.

Many of these companies, however, lack the in-house semiconductor design teams and experience required to manage the entire chip development process. Since its founding, SEMIFIVE has built an end-to-end solution spanning chip specification and IP selection, logic and physical design, packaging, testing, and software development. This comprehensive capability has enabled the company to expand its customer base beyond traditional semiconductor companies to a broader range of businesses seeking to develop their own custom silicon.

For OEMs and service providers, the customers themselves are often the end users, providing strong visibility into mass-production demand and expected volumes from the early stages of development. As SEMIFIVE continues to build a portfolio of projects designed for mass production from the outset, its growing ASIC turnkey pipeline is positioned to become a key driver of sustainable mass-production revenue in the years ahead.

Mass Production: Global Production Pipeline Ramps Up on Overseas Demand

Mass production bookings reached KRW 42.3 billion in the first half, nearly twice the KRW 21.2 billion recorded for the full year of 2025. Quarterly bookings climbed approximately 71% from KRW 15.6 billion in the first quarter to KRW 26.7 billion in the second quarter. Overseas customers accounted for approximately 45% (KRW 12.1 billion) of second-quarter bookings, signaling that SEMIFIVE's global production pipeline is gaining momentum as overseas production volumes ramp up.

SEMIFIVE's mass production business generates recurring and stable revenue throughout customers' product life cycles, supported by the company's exclusive mask ownership. With customers increasingly moving into mass production on accelerated timelines, SEMIFIVE's secured production roadmaps and development projects are expected to provide a strong foundation for sustainable long-term growth.

IP Business: H1 Revenue Already Surpasses Full-Year 2025

SEMIFIVE's IP business, led by its subsidiary Analog Bits, generated KRW 32.5 billion in first-half revenue, already surpassing its full-year 2025 revenue (KRW 30.5 billion). Bookings reached KRW 32.1 billion, equivalent to 77.3% of its full-year 2025 bookings (KRW 41.5 billion).

The growth comes as power efficiency and thermal management become increasingly critical competitive factors for AI chips, driving global demand for low-power mixed-signal IP, an essential building block for high-performance AI ASICs.

Analog Bits has established a virtuous cycle that turns custom IP development into a growing source of recurring revenue. When a Big Tech customer requests custom IP tailored to its data center, Analog Bits develops the IP to meet those requirements and completes silicon validation. Once silicon-proven, the IP is added to Analog Bits' portfolio and can be licensed to other customers as an off-the-shelf (OTS) solution without requiring additional development. By licensing these proven IP products to a broader base of data center customers, Analog Bits has rapidly strengthened its recurring licensing revenue model. Revenue from advanced-node IP at 2 nm and 3 nm has also continued to grow on the back of proactive technology investments, further driving the IP business.

Improved Profitability and Growth Outlook

Alongside strong topline growth, SEMIFIVE delivered a significant improvement in profitability. Gross margin rose 18.7 percentage points year over year, from 11.9% to 30.6% in the first half of 2026, while operating margin improved by 47.0 percentage points to -11.5%, substantially narrowing operating losses.

SEMIFIVE's mass-production business is entering a full-scale ramp-up phase, supported by continued follow-on POs for vision AI, on-device AI, and data center AI chips. At the same time, the company is expanding its new ASIC development pipeline, with rapidly growing demand from customers across North America, Europe, and Asia for high-performance AI semiconductor projects based on 3D-IC technology.

"Our first-half performance demonstrates that SEMIFIVE's scalable business model spanning ASIC turnkey, mass production, and IP licensing has delivered tangible results," said Brandon Cho, CEO and co-founder of SEMIFIVE. "With our backlog and production volumes progressively translating into revenue, along with an expanding pipeline of new ASIC development opportunities, we expect our growth momentum to strengthen further in the second half of the year."

SOURCE SEMIFIVE