Strong momentum across all end markets helps NXP’s profit surge

Dutch chipmaker NXP Semiconductors N.V. more than doubled its total profit as it saw strong growth across all four of its major business segments in the first quarter.

The company today reported earnings before certain costs such as stock compensation of $3.05 per share, surpassing Wall Street’s forecast of $2.98 per share. Revenue for the period came to $3.18 billion, up 12% from a year earlier and edging past the $3.16 billion analyst consensus. All told, its net income came to $1.22 billion, up from just $455 million in the year-ago period.

NXP designs chips for multiple industries, including the automotive, industrial “Internet of Things,” mobile and communication infrastructure markets.

President and Chief Executive Rafael Sotomayor (pictured) said the company delivered “broad-based improvement” across all four of those end markets, thanks to its sustained investment, disciplined execution and rising customer adoption of its products. “The momentum we have built is expected to accelerate through the remainder of 2026, with progress increasingly extending across the core of our business,” he added.

NXP’s biggest segment by far is the automotive business unit, which did sales of $1.78 billion in the quarter, up 6% from a year earlier. According to Sotomayor, if the results were adjusted for the sale of its MEMS sensor business unit, the segment’s growth would have been 10%. The fastest-growing segment was Industrial IoT, where sales were up 24% to $628 million, near the high end of the company’s guidance. Communications infrastructure also saw solid growth of 21%, with revenue reaching $380 million, while Mobile revenue came to $391 million, up 16%.

Sotomayor told analysts on a conference call that automotive growth could be attributed to customer’s accelerating software-defined vehicle programs and “continued momentum in radar and connectivity.” Meanwhile, in the Industrial IoT sector, the growth was driven by increased momentum in “factory automation, data centers, and energy storage,” and the longer-term opportunity in “physical AI.”

The chipmaker is also making progress in the data center, which is an area it has not previously emphasized, Sotomayor said. In fiscal 2025, the company generated around $200 million in data center-related revenue, split across the Industrial IoT and communications infrastructure businesses, but believes this could grow to “north of $500 million” by the end of the year, with a similar end-market split. In particular, NXP has strong and growing positions in areas such as “system cooling, power supply, board management and control plane switching applications,” before adding that customers are choosing its products for its “processing depth and security capabilities.”

Looking to the second quarter, Sotomayor said the outlook is “better than we anticipated 90 days ago.” He said the company is guiding for sales of around $3.45 billion at the midpoint of its range, which would represent growth of 18% annually. He also forecast earnings of between $3.29 and $3.72 per share. Wall Street is looking for earnings of just $3.21 per share on sales of $3.27 billion.

All told, Wall Street was delighted with what it saw, and NXP’s stock shot up more than 14% in late trading. The stock is now up just over 6% in the year to date.

Photo: NXP