Hua Hong Semiconductor disclosed its financial results! Q4 revenue hits another record high

Recently $SMIC (00981.HK)$ has already disclosed its preliminary earnings report for 2025, drawing widespread attention.

On February 12th after market close, another chip foundry giant — which won two awards at the 2025 Hong Kong Wealth Management Forum and the 12th 'Top 100 Listed Companies' award ceremony — $HUA HONG SEMI (01347.HK)$ also announced its Q4 2025 performance, showing impressive results.

How did the fourth-quarter performance turn out?

Based on core financial data for the full year of 2025, Huahong Semiconductor achieved revenue of $2.402 billion, a year-on-year increase of 19.9%, with steady growth in scale; gross margin was 11.8%, up 1.6 percentage points year-on-year, showing continued improvement in profitability.The profit attributable to the parent company's owners for the whole year amounted to $54.881 million, a year-on-year decrease of 5.6%.

In terms of individual quarters,Revenue in the fourth quarter reached $660 million, not only increasing by 3.9% quarter-on-quarter but also achieving a year-on-year growth of 22.4%, setting another new high for revenue.This was mainly due to an increase in the number of shipped wafers and higher average selling prices.；The gross margin for the quarter rose to 13.0%, down 0.5 percentage points quarter-on-quarter but up 1.6 percentage points year-on-year.Profit attributable to the parent company's owners during the period was $17.454 million, compared to a loss of $25.199 million in the same period last year and a profit of $25.725 million in the previous quarter.

By comparison, SMIC’s performance remains stronger across multiple indicators. Data shows that in the fourth quarter, SMIC achieved revenue of $2.489 billion, a quarter-on-quarter increase of 4.5% and a year-on-year increase of 12.8%, reaching another new high for a single quarter; the gross margin was 19.2%, down 2.8 percentage points from 22.0% in the third quarter of 2025; profit attributable to the company's owners was $173 million, a quarter-on-quarter decrease of 9.9% but a significant year-on-year increase of 60.7%.

Bai Peng, Chairman and President of Huahong Semiconductor, commented: 'Huahong Semiconductor's revenue in the fourth quarter of 2025 hit another record high, with a quarterly gross margin of 13.0%, both in line with guidance expectations. For the full year, the company achieved revenue of $2.402 billion, with a gross margin of 11.8%, both growing year-on-year and meeting management's expectations. Amid the global semiconductor market being driven by AI and related product demand, coupled with a recovery in domestic consumer demand, the company's capacity has remained at a high operational level, leading among wafer foundries.'

These figures are also worth noting.

In terms of shipment volume, the total shipments of 8-inch equivalent wafers for the year reached 5.384 million pieces, a year-on-year increase of 18.5%; in the fourth quarter, the shipments of 8-inch equivalent wafers reached 1.448 million pieces, a year-on-year increase of 19.4% and a quarter-on-quarter increase of 3.4%.

Capacity is the core competitiveness of foundry enterprises.Huahong Semiconductor's capacity utilization rate remained at an industry-leading level in 2025, with an annual capacity utilization rate of 106.1%, an increase of 6.6 percentage points compared to 2024. The capacity utilization rate in the fourth quarter was 103.8%.

By comparison, SMIC’s average capacity utilization rate for the whole year of 2025 was 93.5%, rising to 95.7% in the fourth quarter.

Although both companies are known as the 'two giants of foundry,' Huahong Semiconductor achieved higher capacity utilization through its differentiated specialty process layout, reflecting strong demand for its products in niche markets.

Continuous upgrading of the product mix has been the core driver of Huahong Semiconductor’s performance growth. In particular, in the fourth quarter of 2025,Revenue from the 65nm and below process increased by 44.7% year-on-year, driven by growing demand for flash memory, MCUs, CIS, and RF products.Revenue from the 90/95nm process grew by 54.0% year-on-year, fueled by increasing demand for MCU and smart card chips. The rapid growth of these two core processes has driven continuous upgrades in the company's product structure.

By technology platform, in the fourth quarter of 2025, sales revenue from analog and power management products increased by 40.7% year-on-year; revenue from embedded non-volatile memory products rose by 31.3% year-on-year, mainly due to increased demand for MCUs and smart card chips. Revenue from standalone non-volatile memory products increased by 22.9% year-on-year, primarily driven by growing demand for flash memory products.

Bai Peng, Chairman and President of Huahong Semiconductor, stated in the announcement: 'By optimizing our product mix and reducing costs while improving efficiency, all our specialty process platforms have shown strong performance, especially in standalone flash memory and power management platforms, which have strongly supported the company’s earnings growth and margin improvement.'

In terms of capital expenditure, the company's capex reached USD 633 million in the fourth quarter of 2025, providing solid support for capacity expansion and process upgrades through continuous capital investment.

The outlook for the next quarter remains robust.

For the first quarter of 2026, Hua Hong Semiconductor provided a stable earnings guidance.The projected revenue for the first quarter is between USD 650 million and USD 660 million, maintaining a high level for a single quarter; gross margin is expected to remain between 13% and 15%.Earnings are expected to continue their steady growth trend.

Bai Peng, Chairman and President of Hua Hong Semiconductor, also stated: 'Through innovation and rapid iteration, the company will remain highly focused on building a world-class specialty process technology platform and deepening cooperation with strategic clients both domestically and internationally. The company is confident in capturing growth opportunities amidst changes in the global semiconductor industry and aims to meet shareholders' long-term expectations.'

Overall, Hua Hong Semiconductor’s disclosed full-year results for 2025 and its guidance for the first quarter of 2026 appear relatively robust.

As for market feedback, as of press time,its A-shares rose slightly by 1.8% on February 13, while its Hong Kong shares increased modestly by 0.85%, showing a muted performance.However, looking at the performance since 2025, its A-shares have risen over 180% cumulatively, and its Hong Kong shares have surged nearly 360%, outperforming SMIC.

Author: Mingxi

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