Raspberry Pi shares jumped nearly 20% on Thursday after the British computer maker reported record first-half revenue and profit, doubled its customer order backlog and said full-year earnings should exceed market expectations. The London-listed stock closed at 755 pence, up 19.6% from Wednesday’s 631.5p close, extending a rally that had been much smaller earlier in the session.
Revenue increased 90% from a year earlier to $256.9 million for the six months ended June 30, while adjusted EBITDA rose 108% to $40.3 million. Gross profit climbed 79% to $59.4 million and profit before tax more than tripled to $19.6 million, although gross margin slipped to 23% from 25% as higher memory costs were passed through to customers and expanded the revenue base faster than gross profit.
The earnings outlook provided another lift. Raspberry Pi said full-year adjusted EBITDA is now expected to come in above market consensus, without providing a specific forecast. Before Thursday’s results, company-compiled analyst consensus stood at $57.8 million, with estimates ranging from $55 million to $64.3 million, meaning the first half alone generated roughly 70% of what analysts had been expecting for the entire year.
Higher Prices Drove Much of the Revenue Surge
The scale of the revenue increase requires some context because shipments did not grow at anything close to 90%. Raspberry Pi shipped 4.2 million units during the half, up 17%, while direct shipments excluding its licensee channel increased 26% to 3.4 million. Average selling price per board rose 42% to $65.90 as the company raised prices to offset sharply higher memory costs and sold a richer mix of higher-memory products.
That combination was unusually profitable because Raspberry Pi entered 2026 holding memory purchased before industry prices climbed. Gross profit per single-board computer and Compute Module increased 53% to $12.20, even as the overall gross-margin percentage declined. The company said the benefit from that lower-cost opening inventory has now been largely consumed, and profit per board had already fallen to $10.80 by June as newer, more expensive memory entered production.
That creates an important distinction between the first-half results and the earnings profile investors are likely to see during the remainder of 2026. Raspberry Pi still expects shipments to increase in the second half, but management explicitly warned that the “exceptional” unit economics achieved earlier in the year have moderated. Higher volume therefore does not necessarily mean another sequential increase in EBITDA.
The Backlog Is Growing, but So Is the Working-Capital Bill
Demand nevertheless appears strong. Raspberry Pi’s order backlog doubled during the first half to 2.6 million units from 1.3 million at the end of 2025, with direct sales of Compute Modules up 57% and sales of Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 5 boards increasing 69% and 47%, respectively. Management said demand has been particularly strong in smart-home applications and aerospace and defence, while the company is adding manufacturing capacity with Sony to help work through outstanding orders.
Securing enough components to satisfy that demand has required a much larger commitment of cash. Inventory reached $262.7 million at the end of June, up from $145.3 million at the end of 2025, with component inventory accounting for most of the increase. Raspberry Pi held 5.8 million gigabytes of LPDDR4 memory at an average cost of $13.30 per gigabyte at June 30, compared with 4.4 million gigabytes costing an average $3.60 six months earlier; by the end of August, its memory holdings had increased further to 8.3 million gigabytes.
That inventory build helps protect production but has changed the balance-sheet picture. Operating activities generated only $2.2 million of cash during the half despite $40.3 million of adjusted EBITDA, as a $117.2 million inventory increase and higher receivables absorbed cash and were partly offset by a $101.9 million rise in payables. Raspberry Pi finished June with $28.4 million of cash and $10 million drawn under its revolving credit facility, leaving net cash of $18.4 million; the company subsequently expanded its committed borrowing facility from $80 million to $140 million and expects to continue using it while securing memory for future production.
That spending should not be confused with weakening demand. Management says the inventory already held and ordered is sufficient to meet planned 2026 production, with additional purchases intended to carry the business into 2027. But it does mean the quality of future earnings will depend partly on how quickly the enlarged inventory position can be converted into shipments and cash rather than simply on reported EBITDA growth.
Second-Half Margins Become the Next Test
Jefferies raised its 2026 forecasts following the results, putting revenue at $655 million and adjusted EBITDA at $64 million, compared with the company’s pre-results EBITDA consensus of $57.8 million. The broker also lifted its estimate for annual board shipments to 8.8 million, while expecting second-half profitability to fall from first-half levels as the benefit of inexpensive memory purchased in 2025 disappears.
A $64 million full-year EBITDA result would imply roughly $23.7 million in the second half after the $40.3 million already earned through June. That would still represent a strong full-year result, but it illustrates why the headline first-half growth rates should not simply be extrapolated through the rest of the year.
Longer term, Raspberry Pi is increasingly positioning itself as an industrial computing supplier rather than primarily a platform for hobbyists and education. The company highlighted growing demand for edge-AI applications and has been pursuing larger OEM opportunities, including through a program that has generated discussions with more than 50 senior corporate decision-makers and identified 26 potential projects, with an increasing focus on defence contractors and national militaries. Those opportunities remain a pipeline rather than committed backlog, however, and management said larger projects generally involve longer lead times and more engineering support.
Thursday’s rally reflects a meaningful improvement in the near-term earnings picture: demand has remained resilient despite price increases, backlog has expanded and management now expects to outperform the profit expectations that were in place before the results. The next test is whether Raspberry Pi can turn higher second-half production into sustained earnings as lower-cost memory disappears from the cost base. Progress on the 2.6 million-unit backlog, gross profit per board and the amount of borrowing required to carry memory inventory into 2027 will show how much of the first-half performance can be repeated once the inventory windfall is gone.