SEOUL — November 13, 2026 -- SEMIFIVE, a custom AI semiconductor (ASIC) provider, booked KRW 178.4 billion in new orders in the third quarter of 2026. That is up 437% from KRW 33.2 billion a year earlier and about 2.8 times the KRW 63.3 billion of the second quarter.
The consolidated order backlog rose 75% from KRW 140.3 billion in the previous quarter to a company record of KRW 245.5 billion. By FairsOnline's calculation, that is about 1.7 times the KRW 146.1 billion of revenue SEMIFIVE reported for the first nine months of 2026.
ASIC Service orders rise about eightfold to KRW 136.9 billion
The ASIC Service segment booked KRW 136.9 billion in the quarter, up 705% from KRW 17.0 billion in the third quarter of 2025. The segment accounts for roughly 77% of total new orders. The company attributes the increase to advanced-node turnkey projects, including a major high-performance computing (HPC) win in North America.
The other segments grew more slowly. Orders outside ASIC Service, covering mass production and intellectual property (IP), work out to KRW 41.5 billion, against KRW 16.2 billion a year earlier, an increase of about 156%. The company also reports traction in the sovereign AI markets of South Korea and Japan.
The company did not disclose the value or customer of the North American HPC project.
Backlog covers 1.7 times nine-month revenue while the operating margin stays negative
Nine-month revenue of KRW 146.1 billion is up 62% year over year, which implies about KRW 90 billion in the same period of 2025. The cumulative gross margin reached 28%, up 11 percentage points. The operating margin improved by 25 percentage points to -14%, so the company is still loss-making at the operating level. The inputs imply a margin of about -39% a year earlier.
Product revenue rose 167% quarter over quarter to KRW 12 billion from KRW 4.5 billion, as shipments of AI chips increased. SEMIFIVE expects the backlog to convert into revenue at a faster pace in the fourth quarter, supported by higher mass production volumes. It did not give a conversion schedule or a revenue target.
SEMIFIVE shifts mass production from legacy-node chips to advanced-node AI devices
The company says it is moving its mass production portfolio away from smaller chips on legacy process nodes for domestic customers. The new focus is advanced-node AI devices and dedicated AI HPC chips. It points to its 4nm design and production experience as the basis for capturing demand for AI inference chips. It expects stable shipments, backed by exclusive mask production rights, to drive revenue growth from 2027.
In IP, SEMIFIVE reports additional orders for silicon-validated IP that it first developed for specific customers and now supplies to others. It says it is building an IP portfolio on Samsung Foundry's 2nm and 3nm processes.