The first quarter of fiscal year 2026 is now over, and Soitec appears to be adopting a cautious approach grounded in cost discipline and portfolio optimization.
www.eetimes.eu/, Jul. 25, 2025 –
After two years of record performance, Soitec experienced a sharp slowdown in its growth trajectory in fiscal years 2024 and 2025. This was mainly due to the weakening of the smartphone market and the buildup of massive inventories across the supply chain since 2021. The first quarter of fiscal year 2026 is now over, and Soitec appears to be adopting a cautious approach grounded in cost discipline and portfolio optimization.
For fiscal year 2025, Soitec reported revenue of €891 million, down 9% on both a reported basis and at constant exchange rates and scope. For the first quarter of fiscal year 2026, Soitec posted revenue of €92 million, down 16% year-on-year on an organic basis, slightly better than the guidance. In light of these financial results and to gain a better understanding of the group’s market dynamics, EE Times Europe attended the group’s analyst conference call this week.
“Everyone is being more cautious across the board to say the least, despite the fact that the need for new functionalities for semiconductors brings a high level of demand for new products at the engineered substrate level,” said Steve Babureck, Soitec’s executive VP of strategy and investor relations. “But in the near term, caution is the name of the game.”
No full-year guidance
For the second quarter of 2026, Soitec expects its revenue to grow by about 50% sequentially on an organic basis. This gradual improvement nevertheless represents a significant decline compared with the second quarter of 2025, mainly due to the ongoing correction of radio-frequency silicon-on-insulator (RF-SOI) inventories, the persistent weakness in automotive, and the planned phaseout of its Imager-SOI product.
Revenue in Soitec’s mobile communications division is expected to remain weak despite nearly doubling compared with the first quarter of 2026, as customers continue to clear their excess RF-SOI inventories.
“There is a clear cautiousness from our customers on RF-SOI, not compensated by FD-SOI [fully depleted SOI] or POI [piezoelectric-on-insulator],” CEO Pierre Barnabé said. “This cautiousness is making our customers accelerate the depletion of the inventories they have in excess. That’s the reason why the decrease in RF-SOI is stronger than what we experienced last year.”
The automotive & industrial division is expected to see a sharp decline compared with the previous year, as end-market demand remains weak and the second quarter still reflects anticipation of Power-SOI volumes in the fourth quarter of 2025.
“In automotive, while we start to hear some positive comments among our peers, the situation remains challenging,” Barnabé said. “Automotive FD-SOI sales remain low, but ecosystem development continues to progress, supporting future adoptions across radar, microcontrollers, and wireless connectivity.”
Regarding Soitec’s SmartSiC technology, he said, “The combination of slower EV market dynamics and extended qualification cycles continues to delay the production ramp-up as previously communicated. Beyond automotive, we are seeing early signs of interest in adjacent applications, such as AI infrastructure and renewable energy, where SmartSiC could bring meaningful performance benefits. We are in the process of assessing the real events and timing of these opportunities.”