GSI Technology (GSIT) Q2 FY2027 Earnings Call: Margin Pressure and Plato Progress

GSI Technology (NASDAQ: GSIT) reported fiscal second-quarter 2027 revenue of $6.0 million and a net loss of $7.0 million. Manufacturing constraints weighed on shipments and gross margin, while the company continued investing in Gemini-II commercialization, the GRINN software platform and its next-generation Plato APU.

Key Takeaways

• Fiscal Q2 2027 revenue was $6.0 million, within management’s guidance range but slightly below its midpoint, as inventory shortages and extended manufacturing lead times delayed some shipments.
• Gross margin fell to 48.5%, below the company’s 53%–55% guidance, primarily due to higher wafer, outsourced assembly, burn-in and testing costs.
• GSI recorded a $7.0 million net loss, or $0.18 per diluted share. Operating expenses rose to $10.4 million, including Plato development costs and non-routine legal and professional fees.
• For fiscal Q3 2027, management guided for revenue of $5.0 million to $6.0 million and gross margin of approximately 38%–40%.
• The initial stage of Phase I of Taiwan’s Smart Guardian Eye project was accepted after quarter-end. The Gemini-II-based system is providing live AI video monitoring and incident reporting across approximately 20 cameras.
• Plato remains scheduled for tape-out in March 2027, with first-spin chips targeted for initial sampling by late summer 2027. The chip is designed to run AI inference at less than 10 watts.

Key Financial Data

Military and defense customers represented 46.7% of fiscal Q2 shipments, up from 31.3% in the preceding quarter and 28.9% a year earlier. KYEC accounted for 19.7% of net revenue, compared with 16.1% in fiscal Q1, while GSI recorded no shipments to Cadence during the quarter.

Business and Operating Performance

Gemini-II and Smart Guardian Eye

The accepted initial stage of Taiwan’s Smart Guardian Eye Phase I project covers approximately 20 cameras. The platform combines image interpretation, event detection and natural-language capabilities to support public-safety monitoring and incident response.

Management plans to pursue Phase II, which is expected to expand deployment to approximately 80 cameras and add automatic speech recognition. Any additional work remains subject to a competitive government procurement process and the county’s final decision.

GSI intends to use completed proof-of-concept and early deployment work as reference applications, reusing software and engineering across similar surveillance and smart-infrastructure opportunities.

GRINN Software Platform

GSI named its AI-assisted software development kit GRINN, short for GSI Runtime Infrastructure for Neural Networks. Management said GRINN can adapt some existing models from platforms such as Hugging Face and GitHub to the APU within hours.

Development work that previously required approximately one person-year had already been reduced to less than a month. Some tasks can now be completed in less than one week, although timing varies by model and application complexity.

The company expects to release GRINN to initial customers before the end of December 2026, followed by a commercial release in the first half of calendar 2027. Management views the platform as critical to enabling customers and system integrators to develop models without relying on GSI’s limited internal engineering resources.

Defense and Space Programs

Under the Sentinel program with G2 Tech, GSI completed its early-stage chip and software deliverables. Laboratory testing of the Gemma-3 12B model produced a time to first token of approximately 2.4 seconds. A field demonstration led by G2 Tech could occur in the first half of calendar 2027, depending on the partner and participating defense agencies.

GSI is also developing a ruggedized Gemini-II-based edge AI node under a U.S. Army Phase I SBIR award, with completion expected in summer 2027.

For the Space Development Agency program, the company completed radiation testing on a standard Gemini-II device. Management described preliminary single-event latch-up findings as encouraging and said they indicate radiation tolerance, while the final interpretation of total ionizing dose results remains pending.

Plato Development

Plato remains scheduled for tape-out in March 2027, with first-spin chips targeted for initial sampling by late summer 2027. The APU is designed to deliver local AI inference at less than 10 watts for applications including battery-powered cameras, small autonomous drones, mobile robots and remote industrial sensors.

Management said potential strategic partners have shown interest in Plato. Such partnerships could provide hardware and software development resources and access to markets that GSI does not currently address independently. No agreement had been signed at the time of the call.

Management Guidance

Management said manufacturing cost pressures and product mix will continue to affect fiscal Q3 gross margin. GSI plans to raise prices immediately for new orders and from January 1 for existing backlog. The company expects these actions, together with improved inventory availability, to support a revenue and gross-margin recovery beginning in fiscal Q4 2027.

Plato-related external design costs are expected to continue through the planned March 2027 tape-out. Quarterly cash usage may vary with development milestones and other program activity.

Risks and Areas to Watch

• Inventory shortages and longer wafer, substrate, assembly, burn-in and testing lead times are delaying customer shipments.
• Larger customers have not consistently placed backlog far enough in advance, increasing uncertainty for higher-volume products.
• Manufacturing cost pressure is expected to continue into fiscal Q3 2027, contributing to the projected 38%–40% gross margin.
• Smart Guardian Eye Phase II depends on competitive procurement and the county’s final award decision.
• The Sentinel field demonstration depends on G2 Tech and participating defense agencies; future funding and orders require subsequent program decisions.
• Initial Plato silicon may require software workarounds, and management said it remains uncertain whether another chip revision will be needed before commercial production.

Analyst Q&A Highlights

Management attributed supply constraints to a combination of extended substrate and assembly lead times and insufficient advance orders from larger customers. Smaller customers have generally placed backlog, but higher-volume products remain more exposed.

On strategic partnerships, management said discussions are intended to bring GSI into markets it cannot currently address alone. A partner could provide both hardware-system and software development support. The company indicated that an agreement could potentially emerge by the end of 2026 or in early 2027, but emphasized that nothing had been signed.

Management described GRINN as essential to scaling Gemini-II commercialization because customers and integrators will be able to develop their own algorithms and models rather than depend on GSI’s internal team.

For Plato, management said interest spans battery-operated devices, industrial PCs, enterprise servers and data centers. GSI is seeking partners for larger markets where it lacks the resources to develop applications independently.

Full Earnings Call Transcript

Complete Earnings Call Transcript

Management Remarks

Operator

Good day, and welcome to GSI Technology's Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2027 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

Before we begin today's call, GSI Technology has requested that I read the following safe harbor statement. The matters discussed in this conference call may include forward-looking statements regarding future events and the future performance of GSI Technology that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These risks and uncertainties are described in the company's Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Additionally, I have also been asked to advise you that this conference call is being recorded today, November 5, 2026, at the request of GSI Technology. Lee-Lean Shu, the company's Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, will be hosting the call today.

With him are Douglas Schirle, Chief Financial Officer; and Didier Lasserre, Vice President of Sales.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Shu. Please go ahead, sir.

Lee-Lean Shu

Thank you, operator, and thank you all for joining us today. In the second quarter of fiscal 2027, we made progress on our projects and plan to bring our APU technology to market. We recently announced that the initial stage of our Smart Guardian Eye Phase I project in Taiwan was accepted. The system is now providing live AI video monitoring and incident reporting, confirming Gemini-II can perform in real-world applications. We plan to leverage these projects into repeatable business and revenue.

In addition to securing design wins for Gemini-II, we are advancing 2 important initiatives to grow our APU business: our AI-assisted software development kit, or SDK, and the Plato, our next-generation APU. Our team continues to test and improve our AI-assisted SDK, and I will update you on that progress.

Plato, our next-generation APU, remains on schedule for tape-out in March 2027. We expect to have the first-spin chips ready for initial sampling by late summer of calendar 2027. Plato is designed to run AI inference at less than 10 watts of power. We believe its low-power capability will open new market opportunities for GSI. We are also seeing interest from potential strategic partners who could help us to expand our capabilities to enter new markets.

For the remainder of fiscal 2027, we have 3 main goals. We plan to pursue Phase II of the Smart Guardian Eye project, finalize our AI-assisted SDK for commercial release in the first half of calendar 2027, and complete Plato's tape-out by seeking strategic partners as we prepare to bring it to market.

Didier will now provide more detail on our business and technology progress, followed by Doug, who will review our financial results and outlook. Afterwards, we will be happy to answer your questions. Didier over to you.

Didier Lasserre

Thank you, Lee-Lean. As we discussed on our last call, our Gemini-II commercialization strategy is to focus our resources on a small number of proof of concepts and early deployment programs. Our goal is to turn these projects into reference applications and apply the software and engineering work to similar opportunities. This approach will allow us to pursue new applications more efficiently without significantly expanding our internal engineering resources.

I'll begin with Smart Guardian Eye in Hsinchu County, Taiwan, where shortly after the quarter end in early October, we achieved our first most visible commercial milestone to date. As Lee-Lean mentioned, the county accepted the initial stage of Phase I, and the system is now providing live AI video monitoring and incident reporting.

As a reminder, the Phase I program covers approximately 20 cameras and demonstrates that Gemini-II can support real-world applications where timely detection and response are crucial to public safety.

Our next opportunity in this project will be Phase II, which is expected to expand the deployment to approximately 80 cameras and introduce automatic speech recognition. We are preparing to submit a proposal once the government issues its quote request. Any additional work we receive on this project will depend on the competitive procurement process and the county's final decision.

The Smart Guardian Eye platform combines image interpretation, event detection, and natural language capabilities that identify relevant activity and help operators respond more rapidly. We are pursuing opportunities to apply these capabilities to other surveillance and smart infrastructure applications, leveraging the software and integration work developed for this project.

This is the model we intend to use: develop a solution for a specific application, demonstrate its performance in the field, and reuse the technology across future deployments.

Let me switch gears now to talk about the AI-assisted SDK that we are now calling GRINN. GRINN. GRINN which stands for GSI Runtime Infrastructure for Neural Networks, is expected to play an important role in our Gemini-II commercialization strategy.

Our software engineers are now using GRINN for model and algorithm development. They can take existing models from open source platforms such as Hugging Face and GitHub and adapt them to run on the APU within hours. GRINN is designed to support a broad range of neural networks, significantly reducing engineering efforts previously required to bring models onto our architecture.

On our last call, we reported that GRINN had reduced development work previously requiring approximately 1 man-year to less than a month. Since then, we have made further improvements, with some development tasks now completed in less than a week. While development times vary depending on the complexity of the model application, these improvements demonstrate GRINN's growing capabilities.

Beyond reducing development time, GRINN has developed an ability to understand the APU architecture and apply that knowledge to optimize how AI models are implemented on our chip. We believe that this hardware-aware approach is an important differentiator from conventional software development tools.

By simplifying model adaptation and reducing engineering effort, GRINN should make it easier and faster for customers and system integrators to evaluate Gemini-II, while allowing GSI to support more simultaneous evaluations. Our development team is incorporating feedback from internal users to further refine GRINN's performance. We expect to release it to initial customers before the end of December 2026, followed by a commercial release in the first half of calendar '27.

Turning to our Sentinel program with G2 Tech. We have completed our chip and software deliverables for the early phase of the project. Laboratory testing demonstrated a fast first to -- I'm sorry, time to first token of approximately 2.4 seconds for the Gemma-3 12B model, meeting the low latency and power efficiency requirements of this drone and perimeter security applications.

The next step is a field demonstration under G2 Tech's leadership. The timing depends on our partner and the participating defense agencies. We currently anticipate that this demonstration could take place in the first half of calendar 2027. A successful demonstration would represent another important validation of Gemini-II, along further funding and commercial orders will depend on subsequent program decisions.

We also continue to advance our government-funded Small Business Innovation Research, or SBIR programs. Under the U.S. Army Phase I SBIR award, we are developing a ruggedized Gemini-II-based Edge AI node designed for demanding military environments. This program is valuable because government funding supports the development of the hardware and software that could potentially be adapted by us for other defense applications.

It also allows us to demonstrate the APU's capabilities and systems that operate reliably under difficult field conditions. We expect this project to be completed in summer 2027. In our work with the Space Development Agency, we completed radiation testing on a standard off-the-shelf Gemini-II device. We received and reviewed the single event latch-up test results and are awaiting the final interpretation of the total ionizing dose results.

The preliminary findings based on the single event latch-up test results are very encouraging and indicate that Gemini-II is radiation tolerant. This implies that an off-the-shelf Gemini-II chip can be suitable for certain space and harsh environment applications. We look forward to sharing the information once the final reports are available.

As Lee mentioned, Plato remains on schedule for tape-out in March 2027. We are targeting our first-spin chips for initial sampling by late summer of calendar '27. Plato is designed to deliver AI inference at less than 10 watts, making it suitable for AI processing that takes place locally with limited power, cooling, or access to electricity.

Examples would include battery-powered cameras, small autonomous drones, mobile robots, and remote industrial sensors. To put that into perspective, Plato utilizes about the same amount of power as an LED bulb in a desk lamp. We believe this combination of low power consumption and fast response times would open up a large market for GSI in autonomous systems, robotics, intelligent cameras, and other edge AI applications.

As we experienced with Gemini-II, initial silicon may be suitable for evaluation with software workarounds while additional testing and refinement continue. However, it remains to be seen whether a subsequent chip revision will be necessary before commercial production.

Plato's preliminary performance and power efficiency targets are also attracting interest from potential strategic partners. Partnerships are an important part of our commercialization strategy for Plato. They could provide the resources, software expertise, and market access to pursue new opportunities that we cannot address independently today.

In summary, our recent progress provides further evidence that Gemini-II can perform in real-world customer applications. Going forward, our focus remains on completing existing programs, turning successful projects into additional commercial opportunities, and delivering GRINN to support a broader ecosystem for customers and system integrators. At the same time, we are keeping Plato's development program on schedule and pursuing strategic partners to support its commercialization.

With that, I'll turn it over to Doug. Doug, go ahead, please.

Douglas Schirle

Thank you, Didier. In my comments, I will provide additional context around the second quarter financial results included in the earnings release we issued today after the market close. Revenue for the second quarter of fiscal 2027 was $6 million, within our guidance range but slightly below the midpoint.

During the quarter, some inventory levels were insufficient to fulfill certain customer orders, and extended manufacturing lead times made it more difficult to replenish inventory. As a result, some customer shipments have been delayed, which is also affecting our revenue outlook for the third quarter.

Overall, our SRAM revenue has remained relatively stable over the past 6 quarters, although customer ordering patterns have become more variable in this fiscal year. As we have discussed previously, these fluctuations in customer order patterns can affect quarterly revenue and gross margin.

For example, we had no shipments to Cadence during the second quarter, while sales to KYEC represented 19.7% of net revenues compared to 16.1% in the preceding quarter. Despite the variability in quarterly orders, we continue to anticipate shipments to our customers supporting AI chip design and semiconductor manufacturing.

Shipments to military and defense customers accounted for 46.7% of total shipments in the second quarter, compared with 28.9% in the year-ago quarter and 31.3% in the preceding quarter. This proportion is consistent with historical levels before the recent increase in sales to customers supporting AI chip design and semiconductor manufacturing.

Second quarter gross margin was 48.5%, below our guidance range of 53% to 55%, primarily reflecting higher manufacturing costs related to constraints affecting wafers and outsourced assembly, burn-in, and testing. These cost pressures are continuing into the third quarter. Together with the anticipated product mix, they are affecting our gross margin outlook.

As stated in today's earnings release, we currently anticipate third quarter fiscal 2027 revenue of $5 million to $6 million with gross margin of approximately 38% to 40%. To address higher manufacturing costs, we plan to implement customer price increases immediately on new orders and effective January 1 on existing backlog. We're also working with our manufacturing partners to improve inventory availability, while the replenishment will take time given current manufacturing lead times. We anticipate that these measures will support a recovery in revenue and gross margin beginning in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2027.

Turning to operating expenses. Total operating expenses increased to $10.4 million compared with $6.7 million in the year-ago quarter and $8.8 million in the preceding quarter. Two factors contributed to this increase. The year-over-year increase in R&D this quarter was primarily driven by external design services related to Plato.

As I've stated on our prior earnings calls, we expect these development costs to continue through the planned tape-out in March 2027. The increase in R&D expenses was partially offset by higher government funding under our SBIR programs. These offsets totaled $556,000 during the quarter compared with $279,000 a year ago and $336,000 in the preceding quarter.

As a reminder, SBIR funding offsets certain development expenses and varies quarterly based on project milestones and the timing of reimbursements. Our software development costs can also be affected by fluctuations in the Israeli shekel relative to the U.S. dollar.

The second factor affecting operating expenses this quarter was an increase in selling, general and administrative expense, primarily related to approximately $2 million of non-routine legal and professional fees associated with an internal assessment of certain vendor matters within our foreign operations. These fees were partially offset by a $600,000 gain from assets received in the vendor settlement, resulting in a net impact of approximately $1.4 million. The internal assessment was concluded during the quarter, and we do not expect significant additional expenses related to these matters.

Further information is included in our earnings release and SEC filings. Operating loss for the second quarter was $7.4 million compared to $5.4 million in the preceding quarter. Our net loss was $7 million, or $0.18 per diluted share.

Turning to the balance sheet, our cash and our cash flow. We ended the quarter with $69.2 million in cash and cash equivalents compared with $77 million at June 30, 2026. Net cash used in operating activities was approximately $8 million during the quarter, reflecting spending on Plato development, Gemini-II commercialization, and the internal assessment discussed earlier. You can find the detail of the cash flow in today's earnings release.

Our operating cash usage this quarter exceeded our previously discussed expectation of approximately $4.0 million per quarter, primarily for the reasons I just reviewed. Despite the higher cash usage this quarter and based on our current operating plan, we continue to anticipate quarterly cash usage of approximately $4 million, or $16 million annually, as we complete Gemini-II software development and advance Plato toward tape-out. Actual cash usage may vary depending on the timing of development milestones and other program activities.

We ended the quarter with no debt and a cash balance of $69.2 million, above the $67.2 million we reported as of the end of fiscal 2026. Our debt-free balance sheet provides the financial resources to continue our planned investments in Gemini-II commercialization, including software development and ongoing development of Plato, while maintaining a disciplined approach to capital allocation. This concludes our prepared remarks.

Operator, at this point, please open the call to Q&A.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question will come from David Williams of Needham.

Question-and-Answer Session

David Williams

I guess maybe first, maybe around the constraints that you mentioned and maybe some of the order patterns. And if you can maybe give us a little more color around where you're seeing the constraints and the magnitude of those and where you think you might have an opportunity to overcome some of that in the next couple of quarters?

Douglas Schirle

Well, we have issues with customers, particularly the larger customers, that as much as we tell them that they need to place backlog given the manufacturing constraints that we're seeing and lead times we're seeing, that hasn't happened yet. A lot of our smaller customers have placed backlog, and that's probably okay. But the real issue has been with the larger customers with the higher volume products.

Didier Lasserre

Yes. And that also is coupled with the extension on the lead times, substrate lead times, assembly lead times have all gone out as well. So it's between those 2, it's affected -- that's the constraint.

David Williams

Okay. Great. And then maybe, Didier, I think you had mentioned the strategic partners in your script. And just wonder if you can elaborate a bit more on those strategic partners, what that could look like and maybe when you expect to be able to announce something more solid there.

Didier Lasserre

That's a good question. We can't discuss anything yet because nothing is signed at this point. We are having discussions and as we discussed, it would be to bring us into a market or markets that we are currently not addressing ourselves.

And so it's certainly interesting for us for that to have somebody else do the development, both on the hardware system side along with the software to support those. And so we've been negotiating for some time now. There might be something by the end of this year or into early next year.

David Williams

Okay. Great. And then maybe just any color on the SDK, like the GRINN, I believe, is what you've named that. But maybe just talk about that expectation. Obviously, it's doing better today. You said 1 week versus a month in terms of how quickly that's accelerating. But it seems like that platform opens a lot of opportunities and really gets you close to that commercialization. And one, I guess, is that fair? And then what maybe are you most encouraged by from -- that you've seen from GRINN so far?

Didier Lasserre

Yes, absolutely. We need the software tools. Up until now, we've been completely reliant on our Israeli team for all of the models and algorithm development. And as you guys know, it's -- we have limited resources within the company. And so in that respect, it limits what we can do. And so what we're doing now, and we kind of discussed this, is to try and different POCs.

We've done a drone. We're in a smart city. We're looking at other POCs. And that shows that we're viable for a certain market. But then in order to attract customers and integrators to really address all the customers within those markets, they're going to need the tools.

And so with GRINN, it's going to allow them to develop their own algorithms and models without us helping them. And because, again, we just can't scale that way the way we're doing it now. So GRINN is going to be critical for us to be able to build the ecosystem for all the customers along the markets.

David Williams

Great. Fantastic. And then maybe just lastly, you talked a little bit about seeing some interest in Plato. Can you talk a little bit about the different platforms and where you're seeing the interest between Gemini and Plato and maybe just the size of the magnitude of that interest today? And that's all for me.

Lee-Lean Shu

Yes. We -- we are seeing all kind of use cases for Plato from the battery operator, operation to industrial PC to enterprise server, even to the data center. So we can almost see the whole spectrum of the AI application with Plato. That's why we are talking about we are talking to strategic partners to take part in some of those larger markets because we don't have that much resource to go into each market to develop the application for that, yes. So pretty much that's what we are seeing right now.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] This concludes our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the call over to Lee-Lean Shu for any closing remarks.

Lee-Lean Shu

Our goals for the coming quarter -- upcoming quarter are straightforward: execute on the customer programs now underway, continue advancing GRINN development, and deliver the next milestones in the road map while pursuing the strategic partnership that can support its commercialization. We appreciate the continued support of our shareholders and look forward to reporting on our progress.

One final note, I'd like to remind listeners that Didier will attend the Roth Technology Conference on November 18. Please contact your ROTH representative to book a meeting. We are also participating in the annual Needham Growth Conference in January 2027, and we encourage you to reach out to your Needham representative to book one-on-one meetings. Thank you again for joining us today and for your continued interest in GSI Technology.

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation, and you may now disconnect.