Super Micro’s $65 Billion AI Guide Meets Founder Sales

Super Micro Computer guided fiscal 2027 sales to $65 billion to $72 billion, then the founding family sold 200,000 shares near $40. The San Jose server maker closed fiscal 2026 on June 30 with $39.1 billion of sales, up 78% from $22.0 billion, and told investors AI racks would carry the next year even harder. Shares closed at $40.26 on September 8, 2026, a $26.4 billion value that still prices the company at 0.72 times trailing sales.

The demand is not the dispute. The extra profit is. Fourth-quarter gross margin hit 17.5%, and the same call guided the current quarter back to 10.4% to 10.8% as mix normalizes and deferred AI shipments return.

Super Micro Guided Fiscal 2027 Sales to $65 Billion

On August 11, 2026, Super Micro posted fourth-quarter and full-year 2026 results for the period ended June 30. Net sales were $11.1 billion, up 93% from $5.8 billion a year earlier and up from $10.2 billion in the third quarter, yet near the low end of the company’s own $11.0 billion to $12.5 billion range. GAAP net income was $1,178 million, or $1.62 a share. Non-GAAP earnings were $1.70 a share, against $0.41 a year earlier.

Founder, president and CEO Charles Liang pointed to more than $60 billion in new orders in the fourth quarter and a record backlog heading into fiscal 2027. Chief financial officer David Weigand said nine customers each bought more than $1 billion of product in fiscal 2026, up from four the year before, and that one large data-center customer still accounted for 28% of the year’s sales.

THE QUARTER AGAINST THE GUIDE

The company expects GAAP diluted earnings of $0.89 to $0.98 and non-GAAP earnings of $1.01 to $1.10 in the first quarter, on 745 million GAAP shares and 761 million non-GAAP shares, after a $4.2 billion mandatory convertible preferred issue. The official account posted the print the same night.

Supermicro announces Fiscal Year 2026 Q4 financial results.

Highlights:
▸Net sales of $11.1 billion versus $10.2 billion in Q3'26 and $5.8 billion in Q4'25.
▸Gross margin of 17.5% versus 9.9% in Q3'26 and 9.5% in Q4'25.
▸Net income of $1,178 million versus $483 million in… pic.twitter.com/vwK9rNoSiw

— Supermicro (@Supermicro) August 12, 2026

The 17.5% Margin Already Has an Expiration Date

Traders treated the margin as proof Super Micro had become more than a box assembler. Weigand walked that back on the same call. Non-GAAP gross margin was 17.6%, against company guidance of 8.2% to 8.4% and 10.1% in the third quarter, a 750 basis-point sequential jump. He said about 75% of that gain came from customer and product mix, including contracts deferred from the fourth quarter into the first quarter of fiscal 2027, and that lower tariff costs and lower inventory reserves supplied the other 25%.

This margin expansion mainly came from our strategic focus on balancing customer mix and product mix while having few one-time positive contributions for the quarter.

Charles Liang, Founder, President and CEO, August 11, 2026 earnings remarks

Enterprise and channel sales were $5.6 billion in the fourth quarter, 50% of revenue, up from 28% in the third quarter. OEM appliance and large data-center sales were $5.5 billion, also 50%, down 26% from the prior quarter as big AI ramps slipped. AI solutions were about 60% of fourth-quarter sales, versus more than 80% in the third quarter. Weigand said the backlog still implies more than 80% of future sales will be AI-related, which is why the mix, and the margin, is built to reverse when those racks ship.

THE MARGIN PATH MANAGEMENT JUST DREW

• Q4 actual: Non-GAAP gross margin 17.6%, after a quarter when lower-margin AI deals were deferred.
• Q1 guide: Gross margin 10.4% to 10.8%, which Weigand tied to expected customer and product mix for the quarter ending September 30, 2026.
• Full-year floor: Fiscal 2026 GAAP gross margin was 10.8%, down from 11.1% in fiscal 2025, even as sales jumped 78%.
• FY26 non-GAAP EPS: $3.63, up from $2.06, on non-GAAP net income of $2.5 billion.

Liang said inference and agentic-AI products, plus Data Center Building Block Solutions, the company’s rack-scale bundle of servers, storage, switches, and cooling, should support healthier margins over time. The printed year still ended at 10.8%. That is the number the $65 billion target has to beat, not the 17.5% snapshot.

A $2.2 Billion Profit Consumed $6.8 Billion of Cash

Fiscal 2026 net income was $2.2 billion. Operating cash went the other way. The annual report shows cash used in operating activities of $6.81 billion, after $1.66 billion of operating cash generated in fiscal 2025. Inventories absorbed $8.88 billion. Receivables rose $3.92 billion. Accounts payable added back $0.96 billion, and deferred revenue added $1.88 billion, which did not close the gap.

WHERE THE CASH SAT ON JUNE 30, 2026

Weigand said the fourth quarter itself produced $747 million of operating cash and that the cash conversion cycle stretched to 149 days from 106 days, with inventories at 119 days as the company built stock for fiscal 2027. Net debt shrank to $1.2 billion from $7.5 billion a quarter earlier after the June financing Liang put at $5.6 billion, including the preferred. Cash of $7.5 billion against $8.7 billion of bank debt and convertibles is a funded balance sheet, not a free one. The racks on the floor are the working-capital bill for a $65 billion year.

That is the objection that keeps a 0.72 sales multiple on a company growing 78%. The AI bid is not in doubt; the conversion cycle is. GPU servers have to be bought, cooled, and staged before the customer’s site is ready, and Super Micro is the party holding the inventory while that clock runs.

Sara Liu Sold 200,000 Founder Shares Into the Rally

Director and 10% owner Liu Liang Chiu-Chu Sara, Liang’s spouse, sold 200,000 common shares on September 3 and 4, 2026, according to a Form 4 filed September 8. Liang reported the same lot as an indirect sale. It is one block of stock, not two. The trades were broker-assisted sales under a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan adopted May 26, 2026, during an open window, months before the August print.

THE SEPTEMBER SALES

1. May 26, 2026: Sara Liu adopts the 10b5-1 plan in an open window.
2. September 3, 2026: 42,565 shares sell at a $36.60 weighted average (prints $36.00 to $36.99) and 57,435 shares sell at $37.62 (prints $37.125 to $38.025).
3. September 4, 2026: 100,000 shares sell at $40.00 (prints $40.00 to $40.01).
4. September 8, 2026: The Form 4 is filed; she reports 437,506 shares left directly, plus 40,426,120 held by her spouse and 25,332,520 in a joint account.

Gross proceeds were $7,718,584. A related Form 144 described the September 4 tranche as founder shares acquired on August 29, 2008. After the August 11 report, the stock had already run from a $31.60 close on August 11 to $37.61 the next session, a 19.02% jump, and it traded through the $36 to $40 band where the plan executed. The remaining stake is still a control block. The sale is small against 40 million-plus indirect shares, and it was scheduled. It is also the opposite of a buy, printed into the first rally the 17.5% margin produced.

Why SMCI Still Trades Below One Times Sales

At $40.26, Super Micro changes hands at 12.35 times trailing earnings and 0.72 times fiscal 2026 sales, with 656.97 million shares outstanding and 91.22 million shares sold short. Fiscal 2027’s $68.5 billion midpoint would be 75% growth if delivered. Hold is still the Street’s default, and the targets sit in a tight band around the print rather than a re-rating to a software multiple.

WHERE ANALYSTS SPLIT AFTER THE PRINT

• The buy tape: Needham’s Quinn Bolton kept a Buy at $46, and Rosenblatt’s Sajal Dogra lifted a Buy target to $51, both leaning on the $60 billion order book.
• The middle: Barclays’ Tim Long kept Equal Weight and moved to $39. Mizuho’s Vijay Rakesh stayed Neutral at $35. Citigroup’s Asiya Merchant went to $39, Wedbush’s Matt Bryson to $40.
• The sell: Goldman Sachs analyst Katherine Murphy kept a Sell and raised her target only to $34, a mark below the September 8 close.

13F filings compiled by Quiver Quantitative show Jane Street Group added 24,367,577 shares in the second quarter of 2026, a $715 million-scale bet at the firm’s reported value, while other large holders cut. That is a trader’s inventory trade as much as a multi-year compounder call. The 2024 hangover still sits in the multiple: Ernst & Young resigned as auditor on October 24, 2024, the fiscal 2024 10-K arrived months late, and the August 11 release still says the board is reviewing certain export-control transactions. A special committee in 2024 said it did not find fraud. The discount did not fully leave with that sentence.

Power and Cooling Held Q4 at the Low End

Liang’s explanation for the revenue miss was not cancelled demand. He called $11.1 billion a timing story, driven by short-term customer delays in power, cooling, and networking. Weigand said those delayed contracts should be recognized in later quarters, which is also how a low-margin AI mix slipped out of the fourth quarter and lifted the percentage that quarter.

The company is selling the delay as a product pitch. DCBBS is meant to be a one-stop rack: GPU and CPU servers, storage, direct liquid cooling rack solutions, coolant distribution units, switches, and management software, so a customer can stand up an AI hall in months instead of years. Liang said Super Micro is shipping GB300 NVL72, HGX B300, B200 NVL4, and RTX 6000 Pro systems with Nvidia, plus AMD Helios and MI450 gear, and that factory capacity is on a path to more than 6,000 racks a month, including more than 3,000 direct liquid-cooled racks, with lines sized for 250 kW platforms. A new 32-acre DCBBS campus in Silicon Valley takes the U.S. footprint to nearly 4 million square feet, with plants in Taiwan, Malaysia, and the Netherlands also ramping.

The constraint the quarter actually printed is on the customer’s side of the fence. If the site lacks power, water, or the network fabric, Super Micro’s rack sits in inventory or in deferred revenue. U.S. sales were 71% of the fourth quarter and grew 259% from a year earlier; Asia fell 50%. The geographic mix is now a U.S. buildout story, which is also where grid and cooling queues are longest.

Fiscal 2027 Still Has to Pay for the Inventory

The $65.0 billion floor is 66% above fiscal 2026. The $72.0 billion ceiling is 84% above. Hitting even the floor means converting a record order book while Q1 margin is guided back to the low 10s, while $12.9 billion of inventory is worked down, and while one customer is still 28% of the prior year. Liang said the company has no present plan to use its at-the-market equity program. The preferred and the convertibles are already in the diluted share count the guide uses.

WHAT THE $65 BILLION YEAR HAS TO CLEAR

• Mix: Enterprise sales juiced the fourth-quarter rate; the backlog Weigand described is more than 80% AI, which is the mix that just compressed the printed margin when it slipped a quarter.
• Sites: Power, cooling, and networking readiness have to catch the factory, or revenue stays at the low end of ranges again.
• Cash: A second year of $6.81 billion-style working-capital drain would force more paper or more debt even with $7.5 billion of cash on the June 30 sheet.

Management said its quiet period begins at the close of business on September 11, 2026. The first quarter of fiscal 2027 ends on September 30. That print is the first test of whether 10.4% to 10.8% is the run rate and whether the deferred AI racks actually ship. Until then the company is a $39.1 billion-a-year supplier with a $65 billion target, a 17.5% quarter it already dated, and a founding family that sold 200,000 shares on the way up.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting and analysis of Super Micro Computer’s public filings, earnings remarks, and market data, and it is for information only. It does not constitute investment advice, a recommendation to buy or sell SMCI or any other security, or a forecast of future returns. Readers should consult a licensed financial adviser or registered investment professional who can review their own objectives, risk tolerance, and tax situation before acting on any figure in this piece. Share prices, guidance, insider holdings, short interest, and financial results reflect the cited company documents and market data as of the dates named above and can change without notice.