AIXTRON SE (FSE: AIXA, ISIN DE000A0WMPJ6) announced an upward revision to its fiscal year 2026 guidance, citing stronger-than-expected demand for optoelectronics equipment in the first quarter. The company reported preliminary order intake for Q1 2026 grew approximately 30% year-over-year to around EUR 171 million, with over 65% of equipment orders coming from the optoelectronics segment. However, preliminary revenues came in at approximately EUR 59 million, within the guided range of EUR 65 million plus/minus EUR 10 million, compared to EUR 112.5 million in Q1 2025.
Gross profit for the quarter was negatively impacted by a mid-single-digit million euro one-off charge related to personnel measures, resulting in preliminary gross profit of about EUR 11 million and a gross margin of approximately 18%, down from 30% in the prior year. The preliminary operating result (EBIT) totaled approximately EUR -22 million, translating into an EBIT margin of about -38%, compared to a positive 3% margin in Q1 2025. The company attributed the low margins to negative operating leverage due to low volume, in addition to the one-off expenses.
Despite the lower earnings, AIXTRON maintained a positive cash flow trajectory, with preliminary cash and cash equivalents including other current financial assets rising to approximately EUR 273 million at quarter-end, up from EUR 224.6 million at the end of 2025.
Based on current market developments and an exchange rate assumption of 1.20 USD/EUR, AIXTRON now expects full-year 2026 revenues of around EUR 560 million in a range of plus/minus EUR 30 million, up from the previous guidance of EUR 520 million. The company also raised its EBIT margin forecast to 17%-20% (previously 16%-19%) and expects a gross margin of approximately 42% (previously 41%-42%).
“The significantly stronger-than-expected demand from the Optoelectronics sector in the first quarter is a very encouraging development. We expect this trend to continue and have therefore raised our guidance for the year. With our G10-AsP system, we have the tool of record for the next generation of photonic components, which are the basis for chip-to-chip, rack-to-rack and datacenter-to-datacenter communications in the AI era,” said Dr. Felix Grawert, CEO of AIXTRON SE.
The full Q1 2026 report will be published on April 30, 2026. For more information, visit www.aixtron.com.
