Record design wins and a multi-year high book-to-bill ratio gave the wireless IoT chipmaker a strong March quarter. But with a Texas Instruments merger pending, it stayed quiet on the outlook.
Silicon Labs reported on Monday that its revenue for the first quarter ended April 4 rose 20% from a year earlier to $214 million, helped by a sharp pick-up in industrial orders and back-to-back quarters of record design wins.
The Austin-based chip designer saw bookings accelerate as distributors and customers worked through excess inventory, pushing its book-to-bill ratio to a multi-year high.
Industrial and commercial revenue jumped 33% to $128 million, with demand driven by electronic shelf labels and smart metering. Home and Life revenue edged up 5% to $86 million, though medical applications within that segment grew 21%.
The company suspended financial guidance because of the proposed acquisition by Texas Instruments, leaving investors without an official view of the quarters ahead.
The numbers signal a business shaking off an inventory correction. Gross margin held near 60%, and non-GAAP operating income flipped to an $18 million profit from a year-ago loss.
The design win streak suggests Silicon Labs is defending its turf even as the TI merger approaches. For TI, the attraction is obvious: a wireless IoT portfolio with growing sockets in factory automation, smart meters, and medical devices. With no official guidance, the market will read these operational cues as a near-term health check.
Silicon Labs, like many chipmakers, spent much of 2025 dealing with bloated customer inventories after the pandemic-era rush faded. The first quarter’s industrial rebound suggests demand is returning.
Design wins hit a record in 2025, and Q1 exceeded that pace, adding weight to the recovery narrative. The announced TI deal now hangs over the company. Regulators will probably examine how merging the two low-power wireless portfolios affects competition.
The next marker will be any regulatory updates on the TI transaction, while the book-to-bill trend tells us if the order pipeline stays robust.
