Monolithic Power Systems (NASDAQ:MPWR) used its fourth-quarter 2025 earnings webinar to highlight another year of revenue growth, a dividend increase, and improving visibility in data center demand, while also announcing a leadership transition in its finance organization.
Leadership transition: CFO retirement and interim successor
The company said Chief Financial Officer Bernie Blegen will retire after 15 years at MPS, including 10 years as CFO. Blegen noted the Q4 2025 call was his 40th earnings call as CFO and said he expects to remain with the company to support the transition.
2025 results: record quarterly revenue and 14th straight year of growth
In prepared remarks, management said MPS posted its 14th consecutive year of growth with full-year 2025 revenue of $2.8 billion, up 26.4% from 2024. Fourth-quarter 2025 revenue was a record $751.2 million, up 1.9% from Q3 2025 and 20.8% from the year-ago quarter.
Tony Balow, vice president of finance, attributed the performance to “consistent execution, continued innovation, and our customer focus.” He also said the company’s non-enterprise data end markets grew by over 40% year-over-year in 2025, which management framed as evidence of a diversified model.
Later in the Q&A, Blegen added context on the year’s mix, stating that enterprise data—what he called the company’s largest revenue end market—declined 2% in 2025 even as the company grew 26% overall. He said the company’s results reflected execution across multiple end markets rather than any single “rabbit out of a hat.”
Dividend increase and capital returns
MPS announced its quarterly dividend will increase 28% to $2 per share. Balow also said that over the three years ending December 2025, MPS returned over 72% of free cash flow to stockholders through share repurchases and dividends.
Demand trends: stronger bookings and growing backlog
On the outlook into early 2026, Blegen said Q4 showed a “good step up” in ordering patterns, with a book-to-bill ratio “well in excess of one.” He said backlog was beginning to extend into Q2 and Q3 of 2026, while channel inventory remained at the low end of the company’s range—leading management to believe it is “servicing real demand.”
He said strength in Q4 was particularly notable in enterprise data and communications, and that those trends—along with automotive—were expected to continue into Q1 and through the year.
Management also discussed the challenge of distinguishing between end demand and potential double-ordering. Blegen said the company is now trying to assess “what’s real demand and what may be…some double ordering” as customers seek to secure capacity, adding that MPS has experience adapting to such situations based on what it navigated in late 2020 and early 2021.
Data center and product roadmap: enterprise data outlook, vertical power, and 800V sampling
Several analyst questions focused on the company’s enterprise data opportunity. Blegen said the change in ordering patterns increased his confidence and revised his view from a prior “30% to 40%” range to a conservative “floor of 50% growth” (as stated on the call). Hsing interjected that he believed the company could do “a lot more,” citing multiple large customers, numerous design wins, and available capacity to meet demand.
Management said visibility improved because ordering patterns are lengthening. Blegen contrasted prior quarters—when the company was seeing short lead times and limited backlog—with the current environment, in which customers are placing longer orders due to concerns about capacity constraints “not necessarily with us, but just in general.”
Other data-center-related themes included:
- Broad pull-through: Management said strong data center demand has also supported growth in areas such as storage, optical modules, switches, and related applications.
- Vertical power: Hsing said the market is moving to vertical power as a “natural evolution,” framing it as an energy-efficient solution for high-current environments. When asked if that could drive revenue in 2026, he responded affirmatively.
- 800-volt solutions: Balow said MPS sampled an 800-volt power solution for data centers as part of a shift toward solutions. Hsing said the related revenue is not expected “for this year, not even for next year,” suggesting it could be “end of the next year,” while adding that MPS was the first company to sample it. He also noted MPS develops both silicon carbide and GaN devices and said the company has been adapting to changes in what the market demands.
- CPU vs. GPU power architectures: Management said the lines between AI GPUs and traditional CPU servers are increasingly blurry, with overlapping power supply approaches. Hsing said the majority of servers still use 12V, though he is aware some models use 48V and believes those remain a small portion.
On packaging, management responded to a question about a prior Investor Day innovation aimed at doubling module current density to about 3 amps per millimeter squared. Hsing said the company has started sampling products and expects shipping in “this quarter or next quarter,” with Balow adding “this quarter,” and Hsing noting customers had already gone through qualification.
In automotive, Balow highlighted product launches aimed at 48-volt and zonal architectures, including what he called the first fully integrated 48-volt eFuse and a kilowatt-level zonal controller. In the Q&A, Blegen said automotive grew 43% year-over-year in 2025 and described diversification beyond ADAS into broader content opportunities. Management said 2026 growth will depend on the pace at which automakers implement new technologies like zonal and 48V, while noting macro uncertainties such as tariffs, potential changes to EV subsidies, and other factors.
On margins, management reiterated the company’s long-term gross margin model of 55% to 60%. Blegen said recent gross margin performance has been on the low end (citing a range of roughly 55.5% to 55.8% over the past 4–6 quarters) and said improved backlog visibility could help the company resume a historical cadence of incremental sequential gross margin improvement of roughly 10 to 20 basis points quarter over quarter.
MPS said its next earnings call, covering the first quarter of 2026, will likely be held in late April.
About Monolithic Power Systems (NASDAQ:MPWR)
Monolithic Power Systems (NASDAQ: MPWR) is a fabless semiconductor company that designs and supplies high-performance power management solutions for a broad range of electronic systems. Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Kirkland, Washington, the company focuses on analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits that convert, regulate and monitor electrical power with an emphasis on efficiency, integration and power density.
MPS’s product portfolio includes DC‑DC switching regulators, power modules, power management ICs (PMICs), LED drivers, battery-management ICs, motor drivers, and AC‑DC power solutions.
