Rambus Inc
🔔 Watch stock
Assessment
Our Rating
A journalistic assessment by our editorial team at the time of the deep dive — it rates the company, not the entry point. Not investment advice and not a solicitation to buy or sell.
The business works in principle, but one material question is open. As long as it stays open, our findings do not carry a quality verdict.
Why this colour
Whoever buys today pays roughly 55 times earnings for the assumption that the AI memory cycle brings the growth rate back — and receives in return a highly profitable, essentially debt-free technology leader at a genuine chokepoint of the data center. Whoever waits can check three gauges in the coming quarterly reports (10-Q): product revenue growth (is the DDR5/AI cycle carrying?), the royalty trend (are the renewals holding?), and the revenue share of "Customer A" (is the concentration still growing?). The decision is yours.
What the thesis turns on
Assessment: Opportunities & Risks
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.
Profitability & balance sheet
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).
Product business & AI tailwind
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).
Customer concentration & geography
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").
Royalty base & patent expiry
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).
Pace & valuation
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).
Worth Noting
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.
Stock Watch
This analysis is as of August 26, 2026. Stock Watch will tell you what's changed at RMBS since then.
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Price history
Chart
Interactive price chart (TradingView).
52-week range: 79.70 $ to 170.70 $ · Last price: 85.90 $ (As of: September 17, 2026)
Key figures
Key figures at a glance
Every figure we hold for this stock, grouped by topic. The question mark next to a label explains what the number means.
Basics
Performance
Technical Indicators
Calculated from the price history · as of 09/18/2026
Valuation
Profitability
Balance Sheet & Safety
Growth
Dividend
This stock currently pays no dividend.
Quality & Screener
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.
Comparison
Industry comparison
The stock alongside the largest companies in the same group. The median row is the middle value of the companies shown above — not of the whole industry.
Industry: Semiconductors
| Company | Market cap ($B) | P/E | EV/EBITDA | Gross Margin % | EBIT Margin % | Sales Growth (Year) % | Perf. 1Y % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rambus Inc RMBS | 9.3 | 37.5 | 24.1 | 80.4 | 34.3 | 27.1 | -12.0 |
| NVIDIA Corporation NVDA | 5,540.3 | 30.4 | 22.4 | 74.7 | 65.6 | 65.5 | 29.1 |
| Broadcom Inc AVGO | 1,652.3 | 55.2 | 33.7 | 75.5 | 49.0 | 23.9 | 1.1 |
| Micron Technology Inc MU | 1,269.8 | 20.7 | 15.8 | 72.6 | 80.4 | 48.9 | 512.0 |
| Advanced Micro Devices Inc AMD | 943.2 | 177.7 | 77.8 | 55.7 | 14.4 | 34.3 | 242.5 |
| Intel Corporation INTC | 546.8 | – | 145.4 | 38.9 | 6.9 | -0.5 | 337.0 |
| Arm Holdings plc ARM | 282.9 | 267.6 | 221.2 | 97.5 | 7.6 | 22.8 | 58.6 |
| Texas Instruments Incorporated TXN | 234.9 | 39.7 | 26.1 | 58.3 | 37.8 | 13.1 | 46.9 |
| Marvell Technology Group Ltd MRVL | 232.5 | 79.7 | 45.0 | 52.2 | 14.5 | 42.1 | 239.9 |
| Median of companies shown | 546.8 | 47.4 | 33.7 | 72.6 | 34.3 | 27.1 | 58.6 |
Based on the most recently reported figures. Only stocks from the same trading venue are lined up, so the market caps are counted in one currency. Compare in a chart →
Fiscal years
Annual Figures
Fiscal years from the audited annual reports, oldest first. EBIT is the operating profit before interest and taxes; total assets are everything the company owns.
Revenue, operating income and net income per fiscal year $M
Revenue Operating income Net income
| Fiscal Year | Revenue ($M) | EBIT ($M) | Net Income ($M) | EPS ($) | Operating Cash Flow ($M) | Equity ($M) | Total Assets ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 337 | 48 | 7 | 0.06 | 93 | 553 | 784 |
| 2017 | 393 | 57 | -23 | -0.21 | 117 | 572 | 891 |
| 2018 | 231 | -85 | -158 | -1.46 | 87 | 1,012 | 1,361 |
| 2019 | 224 | -84 | -90 | -0.82 | 129 | 975 | 1,343 |
| 2020 | 246 | -42 | -40 | -0.36 | 185 | 913 | 1,251 |
| 2021 | 328 | 30 | 18 | 0.16 | 209 | 862 | 1,233 |
| 2022 | 455 | 80 | -14 | -0.13 | 230 | 779 | 1,013 |
| 2023 | 461 | 92 | 334 | 3.01 | 196 | 1,038 | 1,258 |
| 2024 | 557 | 179 | 180 | 1.65 | 231 | 1,121 | 1,343 |
| 2025 | 708 | 260 | 230 | 2.10 | 360 | 1,364 | 1,530 |
Quarters
Quarterly Figures
Each bar is one quarter, the last one is the most recent. Use the switch to step through the individual figures.
Revenue & Profit
Cash Flow
Balance Sheet
Margins
Per Share
Click the chart or tab into it, then use ← and → to step through the periods.
None of the selected stocks reports this metric. Pick another metric or switch between annual and quarterly.
· Total · per year
These companies report in different currencies — switch on “Indexed” or pick a margin for a fair comparison.
The figures could not be loaded right now.
Source: fundamental data
| 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 |
What Do These Terms Mean?
- 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.
Screening
Appears in These Scanners
This stock currently matches 15 of our scanner strategies — each hit links to the scanner.
Growth
Quality & Balance Sheet
Breakout & Setup
- Gap-Up (≥3%)
- Oliver Kell: Gappers
- Pradeep Bonde: $ Breakout Bullish
- Pradeep Bonde: 4% Breakout Bullish
Momentum & Trend
- High ADR (≥5%)
- Kathy Donnelly: Liquid Movers Up
- Mike Webster: Swing Trading List
- Oliver Kell: Strength on Down Day
- Richard Moglen: Gaps and Strong Moves
- Stan Weinstein: Stage 2
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
Outlook
Analysts & Price Target
Combined picture of the price targets and recommendations of every analyst covering the stock. Price targets are expectations for the next 12 months, not promises — and they often follow the price rather than predict it.
Distribution of Recommendations
Estimates by Fiscal Year
| Fiscal Year | EPS Estimate ($) | EPS Range ($) | Revenue Estimate ($M) | Expected Growth | Analysts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12/31/2026 | 3.04 | 3.00 – 3.08 | 825 | 23.6% | 7 |
| 12/31/2027 | 3.72 | 3.20 – 4.27 | 989 | 22.6% | 8 |
Average of the analyst estimates for the coming fiscal years. The range shows how far the most optimistic and the most cautious estimate sit apart — the wider it is, the less certain the expectation.
Valuation
What is priced in?
Instead of guessing what the stock is worth, we turn the question around: what free cash flow growth has to happen for today’s market value to add up? The assumptions behind it can be moved.
Today’s market value implies roughly 13.7% growth in free cash flow per year over ten years (assumptions: discount rate 10.0%, terminal growth 2.5%).
| Free cash flow (last twelve months) | $299.5M |
|---|---|
| Market cap | $9.29B |
| Free cash flow in year ten | $1.08B |
| Terminal value as a share of market value | 61.2% |
For comparison: over the past five years free cash flow grew by 16.4% per year.
It shows which assumption is built into today’s price, not whether that assumption will hold. Every assumption can be changed with the sliders; the figures move with them.
A simplified model calculation — not a forecast and not a recommendation.
AI classification
AI Rating
Rambus 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.
10-K · 2026-02-18 · View SEC filing
„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.
10-K · 2026-02-18 · View SEC filing
„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.
10-Q · 2026-04-28 · View SEC filing
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
Growth
Growth Score
Ten checks against the annual reports — each one passed counts a point.
- Revenue grows by more than 15% a year over three years 15.9%
- More than 10% revenue growth is expected for the coming year 20.3%
- Share count grows by less than 3% a year 0.1%
- Revenue growth plus cash-flow margin add up to at least 40 ("Rule of 40") 74.2%
- Gross margin at 40% or higher and without meaningful erosion 76.0%
- Goodwill from acquisitions does not grow faster than revenue 18.8%
- Net debt below twice EBITDA 718 m net cash
- Operating cash flow covers the profits of the last three years 42 m
- Return on capital at 15% or higher, or up versus two years ago 18.5%
- Insiders hold at least 10% or are net buyers 0.8%
A criterion without figures counts neither as passed nor as failed; a score is only produced from 7 judgeable criteria upwards. Source: fundamental data. All ten criteria in detail
Quality check
AAQS
8/10The AAQS (AlleAktien Quality Score) checks 10 quality criteria on growth, profitability, and balance-sheet strength — per the methodology developed and published by AlleAktien, calculated by us from our own fundamental data. A stock counts as a quality stock from 9 out of 10 points. Where a company has a shorter listing history, we calculate over the fiscal years available (at least five).
- Sales growth 10Y > 5% 8.6%
- Exp. sales growth 3Y > 5% 18.2%
- EBIT growth 10Y > 5% 20.8%
- Exp. EBIT growth 3Y > 5% 33.1%
- Net debt < 4x EBIT -2.8x
- EBIT positive, 10Y straight 7
- Max. EBIT decline < 50% 100.0%
- Return on equity > 15% 21.6%
- ROCE > 15% 18.5%
- Expected return > 10% 37.9%
View stocks with the full AAQS score · Read the methodology at AlleAktien
Source: fundamental data
Insiders
Insider Transactions
Reportable transactions by officers and major shareholders from SEC Form 4 filings. "Other" includes things like stock grants and option exercises without a buy/sell character.
| Date | Person | Role | Type | Shares | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 7, 2026 | Kissner Charles | Director | Sell | 5,000 | 100.92 | 504,600 |
The company
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
- Address
- 4453 North First Street, 95134 San Jose, United States
- Phone
- 408 462 8000
- Website
- rambus.com
- IPO Date
- 05/14/1997
- ISIN
- US7509171069
- Stock Split
- 4:1 on 06/15/2000
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.
Filings
Company Filings (8-K)
An 8-K is the filing a US company must use to disclose material events immediately — takeovers, changes at the top, major contracts or payment troubles, for instance. The links open the original document at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
- 09/04/2026 RAMBUS INC (RMBS): Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers: Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers SEC ↗
- 08/05/2026 RAMBUS INC (RMBS): Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement; Creation of a Direct Financial Obligation or an Obligation under an Off-Balance Sheet Arrangement of a Registrant; Financial Statements and Exhibits SEC ↗
- 07/27/2026 RAMBUS INC (RMBS): Results of Operations and Financial Condition; Financial Statements and Exhibits SEC ↗
Data as of: September 17, 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.