Rambus Inc (RMBS)
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Rambus (Nasdaq: RMBS), the memory-chip and patent company from Silicon Valley, ranks fourth in our in-house Terry Smith quality scanner (U.S. selection, as of July 18, 2026): a 37 percent operating margin, essentially no debt, and a record 2025 with $707.6 million in revenue. We read the annual report (10-K) for 2025 and the quarterly report (10-Q) as of March 31, 2026 — and they also tell the other story: 66 percent of revenue hangs on five customers, nearly half on contracting parties in South Korea, the patents expire between 2026 and 2044, and growth has cooled from 41 to 8 percent within four quarters. Not investment advice — just the question of which drawer fits this time.
Appears in These Scanners
This stock currently matches 9 of our scanner strategies — each hit links to the scanner.
Only genuine hits from verified scanners count; pure ranking metrics (P/E, P/S, and similar, which just sort the whole universe) don't count as a hit. View all scanners
Basics
Performance
Valuation
Profitability
Balance Sheet & Safety
Growth
Quality & Screener
AI Rating
Sells AIRambus verkauft Chips und Silizium-IP, die laut 10-K ausdrücklich als Produkte für KI-Infrastruktur positioniert und Umsatzquelle sind: Das Business Overview (Item 1) definiert den Konzern als Anbieter von Chips und Silizium-IP „focusing on data center and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure“; die MD&A (Item 7) führt den Rekord-Produktumsatz 2025 (347,8 Mio. US-Dollar, +41 %) auf Speicher-Interface-Chips für KI-Rechenzentren zurück und nennt die Expansion in KI-PCs (komplettes Client-Chipset) sowie HBM4-/GDDR7-/PCIe-7.0-IP als „key enabler of next-generation data center and AI architectures“. Vorrang-Regel: verkauft vor nutzt.
View the full file — quotes, sources, reviewed filings
„Rambus is a global semiconductor company providing industry-leading chips and silicon IP for data-intensive computing systems, focusing on data center and artificial intelligence (“AI”) infrastructure."
Rambus ist ein globales Halbleiterunternehmen, das branchenführende Chips und Silizium-IP für datenintensive Rechensysteme anbietet, mit Fokus auf Rechenzentrums- und Künstliche-Intelligenz-(„KI“)-Infrastruktur.
„We also expanded into high-performance and AI PCs through the launch of our complete client chipset. In addition, we achieved strong customer momentum across our HBM4, GDDR7, and PCIe 7.0 digital IP families, as well as our security IP, reinforcing our position as a key enabler of next-generation data center and AI architectures."
Wir sind zudem durch den Start unseres kompletten Client-Chipsatzes in Hochleistungs- und KI-PCs expandiert. Darüber hinaus haben wir starke Kundendynamik bei unseren HBM4-, GDDR7- und PCIe-7.0-Digital-IP-Familien sowie unserer Sicherheits-IP erzielt und damit unsere Position als zentraler Wegbereiter der nächsten Generation von Rechenzentrums- und KI-Architekturen gefestigt.
„The ongoing proliferation of AI is placing unprecedented demands on computing infrastructure, requiring massive amounts of processor performance and extremely high memory bandwidth. As workloads grow in size and diversity, system performance becomes memory bound, making the memory interface technology a critical determinant of overall throughput."
Die fortschreitende Verbreitung von KI stellt beispiellose Anforderungen an die Recheninfrastruktur und erfordert enorme Prozessorleistung und extrem hohe Speicherbandbreite. Mit wachsender Größe und Vielfalt der Arbeitslasten wird die Systemleistung speichergebunden („memory bound“), womit die Speicher-Interface-Technik zu einem entscheidenden Faktor für den Gesamtdurchsatz wird.
Filings Reviewed: 10-Q 2026-04-28 · 10-Q 2025-10-28 · 10-Q 2025-07-29 · 10-Q 2025-04-29 · 10-K 2026-02-18 · 10-K 2025-02-24
Rated on July 18, 2026 · How the Rating Is Built
Highlighted are things our editorial team noticed: green = stands out as strong, red = deserves a closer look. No single metric is a verdict on its own — always read it in context.
Quarterly Figures
| Quarter | EPS (Earnings Per Share) | EPS YoY (%) | Sales ($M) | Sales YoY (%) | Net Margin (%) | OCF ($M) | FCF ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024: Q4 | 0.57 | 7.20 | 161 | 31.80 | 38.60 | 59 | 53 |
| 2025: Q1 | 0.56 | 85.70 | 167 | 41.40 | 36.20 | 77 | 70 |
| 2025: Q2 | 0.53 | 61.30 | 172 | 30.30 | 33.60 | 94 | 88 |
| 2025: Q3 | 0.44 | -1.00 | 179 | 22.70 | 27.10 | 88 | 83 |
| 2025: Q4 | 0.58 | 2.00 | 190 | 18.10 | 33.60 | 100 | 93 |
| 2026: Q1 | 0.55 | -1.70 | 180 | 8.10 | 33.20 | 83 | 72 |
- EPS (Earnings Per Share):
- Quarterly profit divided by the total share count — how much of the profit works out to a single share.
- YoY (Year over Year):
- Change versus the same quarter a year ago — this is how you compare without seasonal distortion (e.g. the holiday shopping season).
- Sales:
- All revenue for the quarter, before any costs are deducted — the top line of the income statement.
- Net Margin:
- What percentage of sales is left over as profit in the end. Negative means the company is posting a loss.
- OCF (Operating Cash Flow):
- The cash that actually flows into the till from the core business during the quarter — harder to dress up than book profit.
- FCF (Free Cash Flow):
- Operating cash flow minus capital expenditures — the money that's genuinely free to use, say for paying down debt, buybacks, or dividends.
Assessment: Opportunities & Risks
Fortress quality: a 36.8 percent operating margin and $230.5 million of net income in fiscal year 2025, $360.0 million of operating cash flow (a record), $786 million in cash and securities against essentially zero financial debt and an equity ratio around 90 percent (10-K FY 2025, 10-Q as of March 31, 2026).
The strategic pivot is working: product revenue up 41 percent to a record $347.8 million in 2025, new fields from AI PC chipsets to HBM4/GDDR7/PCIe 7.0 IP; AI systems are, per the 10-K, increasingly "memory bound" — exactly Rambus's specialty (10-K FY 2025, Item 1 and Item 7).
Top five customers = 66 percent of 2025 revenue, "Customer A" alone 29 percent in Q1 2026, one customer with 35 percent of receivables; roughly 47 percent of revenue runs through contracting parties in South Korea — the narrowest point of the business model appears in no quality metric (10-K Item 1A, 10-Q note "Segments and Major Customers").
40 percent of revenue is patent royalties whose renewal, per the 10-K, is never guaranteed and whose base — patents with expiration dates from 2026 to 2044 — must be continuously and expensively renewed; in Q1 2026 royalties already fell 5.9 percent (10-K Item 1A, 10-Q MD&A).
Growth cooled from +41 to +8 percent within four quarters, net income flat in Q1 2026, Piotroski down from 9 to 4 — at a price-to-earnings ratio around 55 and price-to-sales around 18.5 after the stock doubled; insiders sold 13 times and never bought (fundamental data, as of July 18, 2026).
Per the SEC filings, Rambus is an excellent niche business: record revenue, record cash flow, a balance sheet essentially free of debt, and a double business model of a growing chip business plus contractually fixed patent royalties, right in the middle of the AI memory boom. But the three load-bearing pillars sit in the fine print: 66 percent of revenue hangs on five customers and nearly half on South Korea, the royalty pillar must be renegotiated on schedule, and the patents expire between 2026 and 2044 — while growth has cooled from 41 to 8 percent and the market keeps paying 55 times earnings for perfection. Not investment advice.
- RMBS reached the research list via rank 4 in the in-house Terry Smith quality scanner (U.S. selection, as of July 18, 2026); additional hits in momentum filters (Stage 2, institutional accumulation). A quality scanner measures financials, not customer structure, license terms or patent expiries — it never replaces the cross-check in the SEC filings.
- Valuation figures deliberately anchored evergreen: the price anchors are the average buyback prices Rambus itself reported ($88.41 in November 2025 per 10-K Item 5; ~$86 in Q1 2026 per the 10-Q statement of stockholders' equity); P/E and P/S from the scanner data cut of July 18, 2026. Analyses are evergreen, daily prices are not a buy argument.
- Identity verified via EDGAR submissions (CIK 0000917273, Delaware, Nasdaq: RMBS, domestic filer 10-K/10-Q, no Form 15, no former names). Fiscal year ends December 31.
About the Company
Rambus Inc. fertigt und verkauft Halbleiterprodukte in den USA, Südkorea, Singapur und international.
| CEO Insider Trades (12 Mo.) | selling own stock |
|---|---|
| Employees | 791 |
| Headquarters | San Jose, CA |
| Website | rambus.com |
| IPO Date | 14. May 1997 |
| Next Earnings | 27. Jul 2026 |
Management
| Name | Title | Birth Year |
|---|---|---|
| Luc Seraphin | CEO, President & Director | 1964 |
| Xianzhi Fan | EVP & COO | 1966 |
| John P. Shinn J.D. | Senior VP, General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer & Secretary | 1969 |
| Sumeet Gagneja | Senior VP & CFO | 1970 |
| John K. Allen | VP of Accounting & Chief Accounting Officer | 1964 |
| Shyam Ramachandran | Senior VP & Chief Information Officer | – |
| Kit Rodgers | Senior Vice President of Technology Partnerships & Corporate Development | – |
| Cliff Burnette | Senior VP & Chief Human Resources Officer | – |
| Simon Blake-Wilson | Senior VP & GM of Silicon IP | – |
| Jeffry Moore Ph.D. | Senior Vice President of Global Operations | – |
Executives per the latest required filings; titles kept in their original language. Source: fundamental data.
Chart
Interactive price chart (TradingView).
Data as of: July 20, 2026 · Source: fundamental data & SEC filings (annual and quarterly reports, 10-K/10-Q)
Note: pure fact-based analysis, not investment advice and not a solicitation to buy or sell. All figures without guarantee.