Netlist (OTCMKTS:NLST) reported record quarterly revenue for the first quarter of 2026, citing strong demand for memory products, tight industry supply and higher DRAM pricing as key drivers of its performance.
Chief Executive Officer Chuck Hong said the company delivered “a strong first quarter performance,” with record revenue and a significant improvement in profitability. He said demand remains healthy across Netlist’s key end markets, while supply remains tight across OEM and distribution channels.
Revenue rises sharply as margins improve
Chief Financial Officer Gail Sasaki said first-quarter revenue was $104.9 million, up 262% from the first quarter of 2025. She said results reflected tight memory supply, accelerating demand and rising DRAM prices, which supported both revenue growth and gross margin improvement.
Netlist posted operating income of $8.6 million, an improvement of $18 million compared with the prior-year quarter. Sasaki said operating expenses declined as a percentage of revenue while the company continued investing in research and development and sales, general and administrative activities to support growth.
In response to a question from Roth Capital Partners analyst Suji DeSilva, Sasaki said the company’s revenue mix was similar to the prior quarter, with about 80% from resale products and a little under 20% from Netlist products.
Sasaki also said Netlist received $10.5 million in proceeds after the end of the quarter from the cash exercise of issued and outstanding warrants. As of May 8, 2026, the company estimated cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash of $37.5 million. She said Netlist also had a $10 million working capital line of credit and approximately $74 million available on an equity line of credit.
The company’s cash cycle remained below 30 days, at 16 days during the quarter, while days sales outstanding improved by 3.5 days year over year, Sasaki said.
Memory demand tied to AI remains a central theme
Hong said the outlook for memory remains favorable, with analysts expecting prices to rise through the rest of the year, though at a slower pace than in recent quarters. He said Netlist’s Lightning portfolio of overclocked, low-latency DDR5 RDIMM and UDIMM products continues to ramp, with qualifications progressing at OEMs, particularly in high-frequency trading and high-performance computing.
He added that Netlist continued supporting industrial and networking customers with DDR4-based custom solutions, which accounted for a major portion of first-quarter revenue.
Hong also discussed next-generation products, including CXL, NVDIMM and low-power MRDIMM solutions. He said the company’s CXL NVvault is a CXL Type 3 persistent memory product designed to extend memory-class storage beyond the CPU socket while preserving low latency and data durability. Netlist continues to sample NVvault with major OEMs on next-generation platforms, he said.
On low-power MRDIMM technology, Hong said Netlist is working to bring the benefits of low-power DRAM into servers, where power concerns are significant for data centers. In the Q&A session, he said low-power DRAM is already used in laptops and mobile phones but does not include error correction, making additional work necessary for server-grade reliability.
“It takes a lot of work to make those DRAMs more robust, using ECC technology, which we have,” Hong said, adding that Netlist has been working on the technology for several years and is working with some hyperscalers.
Patent enforcement remains a major focus
Hong also reviewed Netlist’s intellectual property litigation and enforcement activity. He said the company continues to defend its patents and pursue appellate processes following multiple favorable jury verdicts.
Netlist is seeking exclusion and cease-and-desist orders at the International Trade Commission against Samsung, Google and Supermicro. Hong said a favorable ruling would block importation of Samsung products that infringe Netlist patents and stop certain commercial activities by Google and Supermicro involving Samsung memory products.
The Markman hearing in the ITC case was held April 21, and Hong said Netlist’s legal team “performed very well.” He said the company is awaiting the Markman order and expects trial to begin this fall. The patents asserted at the ITC include the 366, 731, 608, 523, 035 and 087 patents, which Hong said cover products including DDR5 memory modules such as RDIMM, UDIMM, SO-DIMM and MRDIMM, as well as high-bandwidth memory.
Hong said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in 2025 affirmed the validity of the 608 and 523 patents, upholding Patent Trial and Appeal Board inter partes review decisions. He also said the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently denied Samsung’s IPR and PGR challenges to Netlist’s 366 patent, which covers DDR5 module power management technology.
Hong noted that the 366 patent is also asserted in Netlist’s 2025 Eastern District of Texas action against Samsung, Micron and Avnet.
Appeals expected through the year
Hong said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit heard oral arguments on March 6 regarding Samsung’s appeal of a 2023 Eastern District of Texas jury verdict that awarded Netlist $303 million for willful infringement of five patents. The court also heard Netlist’s appeal involving IPR challenges to several patents asserted in that case.
In Netlist’s breach of contract case against Samsung, Hong said briefing is expected to conclude this summer, with a hearing before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit expected later this year. He also said the company expects Fifth Circuit oral arguments related to IPRs of the 912, 417 and 215 patents in the coming months.
Hong also referenced an April public interest comment filed by the U.S. Department of Justice in Samsung v. Netlist in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. He said the statement addressed standard-essential patents, antitrust and market power issues and supported Netlist’s positions.
During the Q&A session, Hong said several appellate cases are expected between now and year-end, and that the ITC case against Samsung, Google and Supermicro is progressing smoothly. He also said Netlist is evaluating other parties that may be using its patents without a license, particularly in AI memory technologies.
About Netlist (OTCMKTS:NLST)
Netlist, Inc is a technology company specializing in the design and development of high-performance memory and storage subsystems for enterprise and data center applications. The company’s product portfolio encompasses advanced memory modules, nonvolatile memory express (NVMe) solid-state drives and intelligent memory expansion systems. These solutions are engineered to boost memory density, bandwidth and overall system performance in hyperscale, cloud computing and high-performance computing environments.
Headquartered in Irvine, California, Netlist serves customers across the Americas and Asia through a combination of direct sales and channel distribution partners.
