EnSilica Posts Record FY26 With 53% Revenue Growth, But Space ASSP Payoff Is a 2030 Story and Cash Burn Rises Before It Falls
Final results call for the year ended May 31, 2026, held October 13, 2026
EnSilica reported fiscal 2026 revenue of GBP 27.8 million, up 53% year on year, and EBITDA of GBP 5.9 million, a swing of GBP 5.9 million from break-even a year earlier. Operating profit reached GBP 2.9 million. The fabless mixed-signal chip designer reconfirmed FY27 guidance of GBP 32 million to GBP 34 million in revenue and GBP 5.5 million to GBP 6.5 million in EBITDA. The more consequential message for investors is about timing. Management is deliberately steering the company toward a space and satellite communications ASSP franchise that it says will not contribute meaningfully until 2030. Cash consumption is set to rise in FY27 to fund it.
The space ASSP bet: large, real, and distant
CEO Ian Lankshear said the company will now "very much lead with space." EnSilica is building a full end-to-end chipset for satellite user terminals, comprising RF millimeter-wave chips, a hybrid beamformer and a modem, with reference designs aimed at operators that are not vertically integrated like Starlink. Four of these ASSPs now exist in silicon and are being evaluated by customers. The company is engaged with three major operators and has already announced a $50 million design-in for its modem ASSP with a European satellite operator, part-funded by that customer and part by the UK Space Agency. Over $30 million of lead customer and space agency funding has supported ASSP development to date.
Management sizes the user terminal semiconductor market at around $650 million today, dominated by Starlink, growing to more than $3 billion by 2030 as constellations such as IRIS squared, Amazon, Telesat, Blue Origin and sovereign and automotive-oriented systems come online. Lankshear said future design-ins could be worth similar amounts to the $50 million win, "if not, they could be in the hundreds of millions." The caveat is timing. Asked for a pathway from design win to volume, he was direct: revenue follows launches and subscriber build-up, with test terminals in 2029 and real volume "2030 and beyond." The company's own revenue illustration treats the ASSP contribution as a conservative layer that appears after 2030. Investors are therefore underwriting a four-year gap between spending and payback, with constellation launch schedules outside EnSilica's control.
Margin and cash flow: the investment shows up in the numbers
Gross margin fell to 35% from 40%. CFO Kristoff Rademan attributed this to ASSP development costs sitting in cost of sales, while the offsetting income is split between revenue from the European satellite customer and grant income from the UK Space Agency booked in other income. He argued that with the grant included in revenue, gross margin would be similar to FY25. That is a fair framing, but the reported figure is what it is, and the accounting split will continue to obscure underlying profitability as ASSP spending rises.
Cash consumption improved sharply to GBP 1.4 million from GBP 5.3 million, helped by upfront and milestone payments on development contracts pulled forward, and a higher R&D tax credit. That flatters the picture. Rademan guided that FY27 cash consumption will increase alongside larger intangibles and capex investment, fall again in FY28 as supply revenues scale, and reach monthly operating cash flow breakeven toward the end of FY28. Full-year free cash flow positivity is targeted for FY29. Year-end cash was GBP 7.6 million, up 280%, before a GBP 14.9 million July placing, part of GBP 25 million raised across two oversubscribed fundraisings. Management said it considers the company fully funded to operating cash flow breakeven, and said it does not plan to repay loans early. Dividends have not been considered.
Intangible assets rose to GBP 27.3 million, reflecting co-investment in ASICs and in-house IP. Management says the balance is comfortably covered by $375 million of lifetime supply visibility and is reviewed for impairment every six months. The balance is a growing share of the capital base and depends on the delivery of customer forecasts.
Supply revenue: a soft FY26, a better FY27 and FY28
Chip supply revenue was GBP 6.7 million, up only GBP 1 million. Rademan called this "a little bit disappointing," citing a cybersecurity incident at the UK automotive customer that depressed volumes. That customer is back running, with volumes expected to return to pre-incident levels and grow modestly in FY27. The industrial chip that entered supply in FY24 is running 15% ahead of forecast, and management expects supply revenue growth of around 30% in FY27. First orders are anticipated in the second half from a second industrial chip, the Edge AI device, and from the German automotive customer. Because those chips will deliver only partial-year volumes in FY27, Rademan said FY28 should be "even better" for supply growth.
The company now has 5 chips in long-term supply and 14 in design. It completed 2 tape-outs in FY26, has completed 3 so far in FY27 and expects 2 more. Tape-out to first customer revenue typically takes around 12 months, and up to 18 months, because customers must qualify the part in their own products. Lifetime supply visibility reached $375 million, up 50%, after $125 million was transferred from the pipeline. The remaining pipeline is $600 million, of which management expects to win only 25% to 33% over 12 to 18 months. An investor challenged that the pipeline figure is "meaningless unless it is qualified and weighted." Management said it weights internally but that the figure swings widely, and that large opportunities are capped to avoid distortion. It is a loosely defined KPI, and the stated conversion rate is the more useful number.
NRE and consultancy: treadmill, not growth engine
NRE revenue jumped to GBP 15 million from GBP 5.9 million in a weak FY25. Management guides to roughly 10% growth in FY27, built on 4 to 5 new ASIC contract wins per year. Consultancy is expected to stay flat as engineers are pulled into development programs. FY27 growth therefore rests mainly on supply revenue. Management's 30% EBITDA margin target is described as achievable in the short to medium term, though no date was given. The recent mix of $40 million and $75 million automotive wins, and Siemens as an industrial customer, supports the annuity-like character of the ASIC book, with chip lives of 7 to 15 years.
Photonics and security: options, not yet earnings
EnSilica is developing a photonics controller ASIC for Oriole Networks, which has announced a tie-up with AMD. Management was careful to say EnSilica has no relationship with AMD and would not say when volume production would begin, only that the market would be notified. It is pursuing other photonics and quantum computing controller customers and hopes to sign some within 12 months. Lankshear noted the controllers could address several qubit types, whether excited photonically or by RF. Space-based optical inter-satellite links were flagged as a potential application, though without any commitment. Management stressed that space remains the main investment priority, with photonics investment selective.
On security, the eSi-CRYSTALS block integrates three post-quantum cryptography algorithms to save silicon area and allow use on more mature nodes. It has been licensed once and is under evaluation elsewhere, but Lankshear said its prime purpose is to differentiate EnSilica's own products rather than become a licensing business. A GBP 5 million Innovate UK program is funding a CHERI-based PQC secure subsystem and microcontroller, which may emerge as a stand-alone device. A fully funded healthcare chip feasibility study has concluded, with the customer considering a full ASIC program, and news is possible in coming months.
Legacy issues and what management would not say
On SIAE Microelettronica, which entered extraordinary administration in Italy in May 2026, EnSilica has fully provided for the GBP 1.6 million debt and removed the program from forecasts. Rademan said management does not expect it to restart in the short or medium term and cannot comment on recovery. Management also declined to comment on AST SpaceMobile launch profiles or follow-on orders for its beamformer payload chip. Staff attrition is reported at 5% or less, which is notable in a talent-constrained sector.
EnSilica's FY26 results demonstrate that the ASIC-funds-IP, ASSP-scales-margin model can produce profit, but supply revenue was weak in the year and the larger prize now sits at the end of a multi-year funding gap. FY27 and FY28 delivery on automotive, industrial and Edge AI supply ramps, and the pace of additional ASSP design-ins with major constellations over the next 18 months, will determine whether that gap is bridged without further capital.