Goertek: "High volume but no pricing power" in the Apple supply chain, where is its growth engine?
Goertek Inc. released its Q2 2026 financial report and 2026 interim report (ending June 2026) after the A-share market closed on the evening of August 20, 2026 Beijing time. The key points are as follows:
1. Overall Performance: Goertek Inc. recorded a total revenue of 21.4 billion yuan in the second quarter of 2026, a year-on-year increase of 0.7%, slightly lower than market expectations (21.7 billion yuan). Almost all of the company's growth in the first half of the year was contributed by Q1. Affected by tight supply of storage and other components in Q2, the market performance of electronic terminals such as mobile phones was relatively sluggish.
The company's gross profit margin for this quarter was 15.2%, up both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter, which was mainly driven by the elimination of labor disturbance factors in Vietnam and the recovery of share from key clients.
The gross profit margin of smart acoustic complete units once dropped to 0.4% in the second half of 2025, which was mainly affected by the "Sino-US tariff policy". The company transferred relevant production capacity to factories in Vietnam. The "high price scramble for workers" (a large number of peers went to Vietnam to build factories) led to a sharp increase in labor costs, which pulled down the company's gross profit margin during that period.
2. Smart Hardware Business: Revenue in the first half of 2026 was 19.9 billion yuan, down 2.2% year-on-year. The shrinking shipments of the company's old product lines (PS5 at the end of its product lifecycle, sluggish Quest sales) led to a decline in revenue, while AI glasses have not yet achieved large-scale sales.
3. Traditional Hardware and Components
① Revenue of smart acoustic complete units reached 11.3 billion yuan in the first half of 2026, a year-on-year increase of 36%, which was mainly affected by the low base in the same period of last year and the product iteration cycle.
AirPods 4 (two models) were released in September 2024; AirPods Pro 3 was released in September 2025. In the first half of 2025, the initial large-scale shipment of AirPods 4 had passed, and AirPods Pro 3 had not yet been put into production. The first half of 2026 is the first full production year for AirPods Pro 3, which follows the normal mass production rhythm.
The gross profit margin of smart acoustic complete units that the market pays attention to was 9.7% in the first half of 2026, down 0.2 percentage points year-on-year. With revenue increasing by 36% year-on-year, the gross profit margin declining again indicates that $Goertek(002241.SZ) is still facing price pressure from Apple Inc.
② Revenue of precision components reached 7.76 billion yuan in the first half of 2026, a year-on-year increase of 2%. Affected by factors such as tightening subsidies, the revenue growth rate of the company's precision components business dropped sharply (from 20% to 2%).
4. Expenses and Operating Conditions: The total of three core operating expenses of the company in this quarter was 1.94 billion yuan, among which the core expense ratio was 9%, basically stable year-on-year. The company's inventory in this quarter was 18.6 billion yuan, an increase of 5.1 billion yuan quarter-on-quarter. The ratio of inventory to revenue is 0.87, the inventory level has risen steadily, which is mainly due to the increase in reserves of raw materials and finished goods.
Dolphin Research's Overall View: The "Vietnam Pit" Has Been Filled, But The Growth Pit Still Exists
Goertek's financial report this quarter is "relatively mediocre". The growth rate on the revenue side has slowed down, affected by the sluggish electronic terminal market; the increase in gross profit margin is mainly driven by the "easing" of labor recruitment factors in Vietnam and the recovery of share from key clients.
Specifically:
a) Smart Hardware Business: Declined year-on-year again, and is currently in the shift period of "transition between old and new drivers". Among smart hardware products, the company's largest revenue comes from game consoles and VR/MR, and it is also the main supplier for PS5 and Meta Quest. Meta Quest is currently underperforming; PS5 has entered the end of its product lifecycle, and PS6 is not expected to be launched until 2027; the AI glasses that the market expects have failed to achieve explosive sales to support the growth of the smart hardware business;
b) Smart Acoustic Complete Units Business: Rebounded sharply. The smart acoustic complete units business achieved 36% growth in the first half of the year, which is mainly driven by the AirPods product cycle, after all, it is the first full year of AirPods Pro 3 (the previous product AirPods Pro 2 was released in 2022).
Combined with the gross profit margin of smart acoustic complete units (slight decline) and precision components (growth rate falling back to 2%), Dolphin Research believes that the company has only "returned to the game table" in the AirPods field, and has not "grabbed a large amount of share", which is mainly driven by the client's product cycle.
c) Precision Components Business: Growth rate dropped sharply. The precision components business has always been the most stable business of the company. However, the growth rate dropped sharply in the first half of the year, which is mainly due to the rising prices of raw materials such as storage squeezing the demand in the electronic terminal market, leading to a sharp decline in the business growth rate.
From the perspective of the company's current three core businesses: ① The continuous price increase of storage has directly affected the electronic terminal market, and indirectly affected the growth rate of the company's precision components ; ② MR/VR is no longer the mainstream of the market, and game consoles are still in the product transition stage. We can only pin our hopes on AI glasses, but no "hit product" has appeared so far; ③ The smart acoustic complete units business sees revenue growth without profit growth, which is mainly driven by AirPods product iteration, while the company's "bargaining power" is quite weak, and the gross profit margin has declined again year-on-year.
This interim report reflects that the "problem of increased labor costs in Vietnam encountered by the company last year has been digested", and the company's gross profit margin has rebounded. But the company has not solved the growth problem. The precision components and smart hardware businesses are underperforming, and the smart acoustic complete units business also sees "revenue growth without profit growth", which is also the main factor why the company's current valuation is suppressed at a relatively low level.
Although all the problems faced by the company have been "reflected one by one", the key is that there is still no confidence in the "bottom recovery" of the company: especially the uncontrollable storage price increase and client product cycle. As the financial report reflects that the company is still facing price pressure from Apple in the AirPods business, its "bargaining power" is still weak. Before the industry/product cycle truly picks up, Goertek's stock price may continue to hover in a relatively low range.
