Helped by the rapid buildout of AI infrastructure as well as accelerating recovery in core business segments, NXP posted a strong start to the year. The Eindhoven-based chipmaker reported first-quarter revenue of 3.18 billion dollars, up 12 percent year on year. Looking ahead, the company is confident about double-digit revenue growth in both 2026 and 2027.
During the Q1 earnings call, management highlighted a relatively new contributor to growth: data center revenue. Chief executive Rafael Sotomayor said revenue from data center applications should exceed 500 million dollars this year, more than double the 200 million dollars posted in 2025. NXP’s addressable market in data center control-plane applications is growing 10-11 percent annually, while the company expects to outgrow that rate.
NXP isn’t supplying GPUs or AI accelerators. Its role is in the control plane: system cooling, power supplies, board management and switching. Products include its Layerscape processors, I.mx application processors and microcontrollers for root-of-trust and cooling functions. The business is split roughly evenly between industrial and IoT and communications infrastructure business units.
Revenue in NXP’s traditional stronghold, automotive, rose 6 percent to 1.78 billion dollars, or 10 percent excluding the divested MEMS sensors business. The chipmaker said growth was driven by software-defined vehicles, electrification, radar and connectivity. Industrial and IoT revenue rose 24 percent to 628 million dollars. NXP cited strength in factory automation, energy storage and data centers.
Communications infrastructure and other revenue increased 21 percent to 380 million dollars, helped by digital networking for data centers and RFID products. Mobile revenue grew 16 percent to 391 million dollars.
