Raspberry Pi’s early memory buy pays off as first-half revenue rises 90%
Profit more than tripled as the Cambridge hardware maker sold boards built with memory bought in 2025. That cheaper stock has now been consumed, and a growing share of its volume bypasses its licensee
- Revenue of $256.9m in the first half of 2026, up 90%; profit before tax of $19.6m, from $6.2m
- Units up 17% to 4.2 million; order backlog doubled to 2.6 million units
- Direct channel share of units: 81%, up from 75%
- One major distributor: 23% of revenue
Treating a scarce component as a strategic bet rather than a routine purchase gave Raspberry Pi both margin and availability, a trade other hardware leaders can copy if their balance sheet can carry the stock. The next test is whether customers keep accepting prices that track memory costs. Moving the largest customers direct while one distributor still carries a large share of sales risks friction with the channel it still relies on.
“The decision in FY 2025 to build significant strategic memory inventory has allowed us to maintain product availability at a time when smaller competitors have struggled to secure allocation.”Eben Upton, chief executive, Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi Holdings reported revenue of $256.9m (£194m) for the six months to 30 June 2026, up 90% on $135.5m (£102m) a year earlier, in unaudited results on 24 September. Profit before tax rose to $19.6m (£14.8m) from $6.2m (£4.7m).
Chief executive Dr Eben Upton says much of the profit came from a decision in 2025 to buy memory in volume ahead of the price rise. The average cost of the memory it held rose from $3.6 (£2.72) per GB at the end of December 2025 to $13.3 (£10.04) at 30 June, and the company says the unusually strong per-board margins of the first half have moderated as the cheaper stock was used up.
Much of the growth is price rather than volume. Units rose 17% to 4.2 million, while the average selling price per board rose 42% to $65.9 (about £50) as memory costs were passed on. Gross margin slipped to 23% from 25%.
The route to market is shifting as well. Units sold through Raspberry Pi’s own direct channel, as opposed to its licensee, rose 26% to 3.4 million, or 81% of the total, above the 70–80% share management expected. The company wants closer direct relationships with its biggest original equipment manufacturer (OEM) customers, leaving Approved Resellers and authorized distributors to serve the wider industrial and embedded market. One major electronic component distributor accounted for $57.9m (£43.7m), or 23%, of revenue.
The order backlog doubled in the half to 2.6 million units. Raspberry Pi says it has enough memory in hand and on order for its 2026 production goals and expects second-half volumes to exceed the first.
Sources
- Raspberry Pi Holdings, “Record first-half revenue and profitability; continued strong growth in unit shipments”, RNS 0590W, 24 September 2026. https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/raspberry_pi/news/rns/story/rm9l48x
