News: Suppliers
1 August 2025
Aehr enters quarterly loss as revenue falls 23%
For fiscal fourth-quarter 2025 (ended 30 May), semiconductor production test and reliability qualification equipment supplier Aehr Test Systems of Fremont, CA, USA has reported revenue of $14.1m, down 23% on $18.3m last quarter and 15% on $16.6m a year ago. Full-year revenue fell by 10.9% from $66.2m in fiscal 2024 to $59m in fiscal 2025.
On a non-GAAP basis, full-year operating expenses have risen from $20.2m in fiscal 2024 to $23.2m for fiscal 2025. However, quarterly operating expenses have been cut from $6.3 last quarter to $5.4m.
Quarterly net loss was $0.25m ($0.01 per diluted share), compared with net income of $2m ($0.07 per diluted share) last quarter and $24.7m ($0.84 per diluted share) a year ago. Full-year net income fell to $4.6m ($0.15 per diluted share) from $35.8m ($1.21 per diluted share) in fiscal 2024.
Cash used in operating activities was $7.4m for fiscal 2025 (compared with cash generation of $1.76m in fiscal 2024). During the quarter, total cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash fell further, from $31.4m to $26.5m.
Order bookings were $11.1m, up from $4m a year ago. Order backlog (as of 30 May) was $15.2m, up from $7.3m a year ago. Effective backlog (including bookings since 30 May) is $16.3m.
“Fiscal 2025 was a transformative year for Aehr Test Systems, marked by significant progress on our strategic initiatives to expand our total addressable market, diversify our customer base, and enhance our product portfolio,” says president & CEO Gayn Erickson. “We expanded into new markets for test and burn-in, including artificial intelligence processors for both wafer and package level, gallium nitride power semiconductors, data storage devices, and silicon photonics integrated circuits for optical chip-to-chip communication, unlocking substantial growth opportunities beyond our concentration in silicon carbide last fiscal year,” he adds.
“A major milestone was the successful launch and adoption of our first production wafer-level burn-in (WLBI) system specifically for artificial intelligence (AI) processors. This breakthrough validates the feasibility and cost benefits of WLBI testing for high-power AI devices, attracting strong interest from leading processor companies considering high-volume adoption,” Erickson continues.
“One of these companies has asked us to move forward with an evaluation for wafer-level testing of one of their current high-volume processors. Based on their feedback, we believe that, if this evaluation is successful, they intend to transition to high-volume production wafer-level testing, which would represent a significant opportunity for Aehr. We also expect to move to evaluation phases with additional AI companies during this fiscal year and believe we can capture a meaningful share of the total production burn-in market for AI processors with our FOX WLBI systems and proprietary WaferPak Contactors.
“We also expanded into packaged-part qualification and production burn-in for AI processors this year through the acquisition of Incal Technology, enabling us to offer both wafer-level and packaged-part reliability burn-in and test solutions. Since the acquisition, we’ve achieved record shipments of packaged-part burn-in (PPBI) systems and secured a major hyperscaler as our first production AI customer in this space. This customer is one of the premier large-scale data-center hyperscalers that is developing its own AI processors and significantly expanding this capacity. They have indicated plans to ramp this device over the next year and have already begun discussing their next-generation processors with us to ensure we can meet their production capacity needs. Aehr is the only company on the market that offers both a WLBI and a PPBI system for both qualification and production burn-in of AI processors.
“In gallium nitride (GaN) power semiconductors, we secured the first production order from a leading automotive semiconductor supplier for our FOX-XP high-power multi-wafer production system with high voltage for volume production of GaN devices. We are in discussions and engagements with multiple other potential new GaN customers, highlighting the growing adoption of WLBI for GaN devices and signaling future opportunity as this market expands.
“GaN offers a wider range of applications than silicon carbide and is poised for significant growth in the next decade. While about 70% of silicon carbide’s largest market segment is for electric vehicles (EVs) and EV charging infrastructure, GaN is more diverse and not focused on a single application. With more uses, there are more potential customers and a larger market for GaN compared to silicon carbide.
“We are also making significant progress in the hard disk drive market. This past year, our lead customer began ordering multiple FOX-CP solutions for burn-in and stabilization of new devices in hard disk drives, representing follow-on orders to the first production order we received from them back in 2019. This customer is one of the top suppliers of data storage devices worldwide. In addition to the multiple systems we have in backlog, they have indicated they will be purchasing additional systems both in the short term and over time.
“We saw solid momentum in the silicon photonics market this year with the adoption of optical chip-to-chip communication and optical network switching. Several companies, including AMD, Nvidia, Intel, TSMC and GlobalFoundries, have announced product roadmaps for devices that utilize optical chip-to-chip communication. We have several customers in this market, including the largest supplier of silicon photonics integrated circuits in the market. We have seen a significant number of new WaferPak designs from our installed base of systems for new designs that they use for qualification and development work on their FOX wafer-level test and burn-in systems. We also now offer a new system with higher-power 3500W per wafer configuration to meet the needs of new high-power wafers for optical I/O and chip-to-chip communication devices. This is also available as an upgrade to our FOX-NP systems for low-volume production and product qualification, as well as our FOX-XP nine-wafer production systems. This system can also be configured with our new integrated WaferPak Auto aligner, which provides fully hands-free factory automation of silicon photonics integrated circuit wafers. We expect to see not only revenue from system upgrades and WaferPaks but also for incremental FOX-XP system and WaferPak orders to meet the capacity needs of the silicon photonics market this year… We see this as a significant market opportunity for our products.
“While the silicon carbide market growth has slowed due to a slower growth in EVs, we remain confident in its long-term opportunity for Aehr and our leadership in WLBI solutions for this sector. EVs are still growing significantly worldwide, and we believe the silicon carbide market continues on a robust long-term growth trajectory. Demand for silicon carbide remains significantly driven by battery EVs, but silicon carbide devices are also gaining traction in other markets, including power infrastructure, solar, and various industrial applications. This quarter, we shipped our first high-voltage configuration of the FOX-XP, which can test 18 wafers simultaneously, extending the capabilities of our proven nine-wafer high-voltage configuration. We believe we are well-positioned in the silicon carbide market with our industry-leading solution for WLBI.
“We are also collaborating with a global leader in flash memory to demonstrate our FOX-XP platform for high-volume production wafe- level test and burn-in of flash memory wafers, aiming to provide a competitive, cost-effective alternative to traditional testing methods. New technologies in NAND are driving new requirements for WLBI to address the manufacturing and negative yield implications of testing these NAND devices at the package or system level, and we believe our FOX WLBI solution is positioned to be a very competitive low-cost alternative to packaged-part or alternative wafer-level test and burn-in solutions for this market.
“Looking ahead, we are well-positioned to capitalize on strong demand across various semiconductor applications. The strategic investments we made this past year have built the infrastructure and capacity needed for significant growth, and we plan to boost our research and development efforts to add more capabilities and resources for our expanding customer base,” says Erickson. “Nearly all the opportunities and market verticals we serve will experience order growth in fiscal 2026. The one exception may be silicon carbide, as customer forecasts for this market are back-half loaded, with stronger growth expected in our fiscal 2027.
“While we remain confident in Aehr's long-term growth prospects, we continue to experience some timing-related delays in order placements due to tariff-related uncertainty, particularly in our first quarter. Accordingly, we are maintaining our cautious approach and are not reinstating specific guidance beyond what we have already stated, which is that we anticipate order growth across all our segments this fiscal year with the possible exception of silicon carbide. Overall, we are very optimistic about our growth opportunities in the diverse markets we serve and our ability to meet increasing demand.”
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