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Despite carrying the aura of being the "first listed company in China's probe station industry", Silicon Power (301629.SZ) revealed a "sluggish performance" in its first annual financial report after listing, with both revenue and net profit declining by double digits in 2025.
In the first quarter of 2026, Silicon Power Corporation even shifted from profitability to loss, rapidly losing its aura as a star enterprise. What happened to this company?
The core product has nearly been "cut in half"
The deterioration of financial reporting data is the most direct manifestation of the difficulties faced by Silicon Power. In 2025, the company's operating revenue was RMB 419 million, down 17.52% year-on-year; net profit attributable to shareholders was RMB 52.8278 million, down 42.50% year-on-year; net profit after deducting non-recurring gains and losses was RMB 48.8575 million, down 44.08% year-on-year - all core profitability indicators showed double-digit declines, and the decline in net profit far exceeded that in operating revenue, indicating weakening profitability.
In the first quarter of 2026, the company's operating conditions further deteriorated, and its performance decline accelerated. Data showed that the company's revenue in the first quarter was 31.38 million yuan, down 66.03% year-on-year, equivalent to one-third of the same period last year; the net profit attributable to shareholders was a loss of 10.39 million yuan, turning from profit to loss, down 190.39% year-on-year, and the loss exceeded market expectations.
Upon analyzing the revenue structure of Silicon Power Corporation, reporters from Jiemian News found that the core issue behind the decline in performance lies in the collapse of revenue from its core products. Silicon Power Corporation's business primarily consists of three major segments: die probe stations, wafer probe stations, and other businesses. Among them, die probe stations are the company's core pillar business, contributing the majority of revenue. In 2025, revenue from this product fell from RMB 281 million in 2024 to RMB 154 million, a year-on-year decrease of 45.28%, nearly halving, directly dragging down the company's overall revenue.
Data source: Company announcements, Jiemian News Research Department
The revenue from wafer probe stations, another core product of Silicon Power, remained basically flat, achieving a revenue of RMB 182 million in 2025, with a slight decrease of only 1.24%, which had a minor drag on overall revenue. Although the revenue from other businesses increased by 93.84% year-on-year to RMB 83.41 million, due to the low base of RMB 43.03 million in 2024, the increase was limited and could not offset the decline in core business, making it difficult to reverse the downward trend of the company's revenue.
Regarding the decline in the performance of the wafer probe station, Silicon Power explained that it was due to "the downstream being in the stage of selecting technology routes, resulting in a phased slowdown in capital expenditure.".
The main downstream application area of the crystal grain probe station is the LED industry. On the one hand, LEDs used for lighting have shown a mature and stable development trend, with relatively mature technology. On the other hand, Mini LEDs/Micro LEDs used for displays are widely regarded as the "growth engine" of the LED industry. The market for LEDs used for lighting is relatively saturated, with little demand for expansion. However, Mini LEDs/Micro LEDs still have a demand for expansion, but their prospects are unclear. This is also the fundamental reason for the slowdown in capital expenditure, and the so-called "technology selection" may just be an excuse. By comparison, the current optical module industry also has multiple technological paths such as indium phosphide monolithic integration and silicon-photonic CMOS integration, but the industry growth rate has not been affected by "technology selection".
Deterioration in accounts receivable turnover
Amidst declining revenue and escalating operational pressure, the "counter-trend staff increase" by Silicon Power has garnered attention.
By the end of 2025, the number of production personnel in the company had increased from 130 in 2024 to 149, representing a year-on-year growth of approximately 14.6%.
Generally speaking, when a company faces declining revenue and shrinking market demand, it typically adopts measures such as cost control, optimizing personnel structure, and reducing redundant positions to alleviate operational pressure and enhance operational efficiency. However, Silicon Power Corporation took the opposite approach, significantly increasing production personnel in the face of plummeting demand for its core products, which directly led to a decline in production efficiency - in 2025, the company's per capita output value saw a notable decline compared to 2024.
The decline in production efficiency is also directly reflected in the profitability indicators of Silicon Power. According to the annual report, the company's gross profit margin in 2025 was 36.55%, a decrease of 1.76 percentage points year-on-year. The decline in gross profit margin is attributed to two factors. Firstly, the weakening of scale effect due to the decline in sales of core products. Secondly, the increase in labor costs brought about by the increase in production personnel, which further squeezes the profit margin and exacerbates the already declining net profit.
In addition to the decline in production efficiency, the profit quality of Silicon Power Corporation is also a concern. The most prominent issue is the deterioration in the turnover efficiency of accounts receivable. By the end of 2025, the company's accounts receivable turnover days had climbed from 101.85 days in 2024 to 137.6 days, an increase of 35.75 days. This means that the period for collecting payment has been extended by nearly a month, and funds are heavily tied up by downstream customers.
Wang Qiang, an accountant, told Jiemian News that the continuous increase in the turnover days of accounts receivable is usually closely related to enterprises relaxing credit policies and extending payment terms to stimulate sales. "The decline in revenue and the increase in accounts receivable instead of decrease indicate that the company may have adopted a more aggressive sales strategy, attracting customers and maintaining market share by extending payment terms. However, this approach will further exacerbate the company's financial pressure and increase the risk of bad debts."
Wang Qiang also stated that for enterprises that have been listed for a short time, such abnormal financial data often indicates a "turnaround" in performance before and after listing. Before listing, they may beautify their performance by optimizing financial indicators and compressing payment terms. After listing, as performance pressure emerges, they can only maintain revenue through aggressive sales strategies. This situation warrants high vigilance from investors, as they may subsequently face a series of problems such as tight capital chains and increased bad debt provisions.
Disclosure of R&D expense ratio is misleading
As a semiconductor equipment enterprise with technology at its core, R&D investment is a key indicator for measuring core competitiveness. In 2025, Silicon Power invested RMB 64.3628 million in R&D, with an R&D expense ratio of 15.37%. The company stated that this figure is "significantly higher than the average level in the semiconductor equipment industry, and the proportion of R&D investment has been increasing year by year", attempting to convey to the market the signal that "the company attaches great importance to R&D and has strong innovation capabilities".
However, after dissecting the data, reporters from Jiemian News found that there was more to this statement than meets the eye.
The increase in the R&D expense ratio of Silicon Power Corporation is not due to an active increase in R&D investment, but rather the "denominator effect" caused by the decline in revenue scale. Simply put, the R&D expense ratio = R&D expenses ÷ operating income. In 2025, the company's revenue decreased by 17.52% year-on-year, and the absolute amount of R&D expenses not only did not increase but actually decreased - the R&D expenses in 2025 were 64.3628 million yuan, a decrease of 5.49% or 3.7371 million yuan compared to 68.0999 million yuan in 2024. That is to say, the increase in the R&D expense ratio is a passive rise brought about by the "shrinking denominator", rather than the result of the company actively increasing its R&D investment.
Data source: Company announcements, Jiemian News Research Department
Furthermore, Silicon Power claims that its R&D expense ratio of 15.37% is "significantly higher than the industry average", but there is still a gap compared to its peers in the A-share semiconductor testing equipment industry. Taking the data from 2025 as an example, Changchuan Technology's R&D expense ratio reached 17.69%, while Huafeng Measurement & Control's was 19.74%.
Li Yao, an investment banker, told Jiemian News that simply attributing the increase in R&D expense ratio to "increased R&D investment" is a common misguidance in information disclosure. "The correct statement should be: the absolute amount of R&D expenses decreased by 5.49% year-on-year, and the R&D expense ratio was passively increased due to the decline in revenue. If the increase in R&D expense ratio is presented as evidence of the company's increased R&D efforts, it is easy to mislead investors and affect their judgment of the company's true innovation capability."
Interface News reporters further analyzed the R&D personnel structure of Silicon Power and found a set of more contradictory data. By the end of 2025, the number of R&D personnel in the company was 188, a year-on-year increase of 12.57% compared to 167 at the end of 2024.
Data source: Company announcements, Jiemian News Research Department
However, correspondingly, the employee compensation expenses in research and development (R&D) costs did not increase with the growth of personnel, but actually decreased - the employee compensation in R&D costs in 2025 was 53.97 million yuan, while it was 56.2 million yuan in the same period of 2024, a decrease of 2.23 million yuan year-on-year.
Data source: Company announcements, Jiemian News Research Department
Human resources expert Chen Jing analyzed for Jiemian News that the increase in the number of R&D personnel but the overall decrease in salary usually reflects two possibilities: First, the newly recruited R&D personnel in the company have lower ranks and lack of experience, resulting in lower per capita salary, which pulls down the overall salary level; second, the company has reduced the salaries of core R&D personnel and compressed R&D labor costs. "For semiconductor equipment enterprises with technology as the core, R&D personnel are the core assets of the company. The stability and professional ability of core R&D personnel directly determine the company's technological innovation capability and product competitiveness. If there is an overall salary reduction or a decline in the quality of R&D personnel, it may lead to the loss of core technical personnel, affecting the company's subsequent product iteration and technological breakthroughs."
Regarding the aforementioned issues, our reporter from Jiemian News contacted Silicon Power for an interview, but received no response by the time of publication.
