Aixtron’s GaN Dominance Fuels Record Orders, but a Top Shareholder Trims Ahead of the Q2 Verdict

Bank of America reduced its Aixtron stake from 5.47% to 3.05% near the stock's ten-year high. Despite strong AI-driven GaN orders and market leadership, revenue fell sharply and SiC segment struggles.

Just as Aixtron shares touched a fresh ten-year high of €59.30 on 28 May, one of its biggest institutional backers was quietly stepping back. Bank of America slashed its stake from 5.47% to 3.05%, a move disclosed on 1 June after the threshold breach on 27 May. The new position comprises 0.79% held directly and 2.26% via derivatives such as call options, swaps and recall rights. Such filings reveal only the crossing of notification levels, not the underlying strategy, but the timing pits seller caution against an otherwise buoyant stock.

The shares closed last week at €55.70, up roughly 4% over five sessions and just 6% shy of the May peak. That peak capped a staggering twelve-month run — the stock has nearly quintupled from around €12 a year ago, propelled by a dominant position in gallium-nitride (GaN) equipment for AI data centres. Bank of America itself has estimated Aixtron controls over 90% of that market, and its G10-AsP platform has become the standard for the optoelectronic lasers and transmitters that power hyperscale computing. The same dominance applies to optoelectronics more broadly, where Aixtron supplies tools for optical components used in data-centre interconnects.

That market leadership is translating into hard orders. In the first quarter of 2026, order intake surged 30% year-on-year to €171.4 million, boosted by multi-tool wins from several customers. The order backlog climbed to €359.1 million by the end of March, up from €257.8 million at the close of 2025. Aixtron has guided for full-year revenue of €560 million, plus or minus €30 million, with a gross margin of around 42% and an EBIT margin between 17% and 20%.

Yet the operational picture is not uniformly bright. The silicon-carbide (SiC) segment, in which Aixtron holds roughly a 40% market share, remains in the doldrums as customers work through overcapacity. GaN tools are stabilising at a low level. First-quarter revenue fell sharply to €59.4 million from €112.5 million a year earlier, a drop management attributes to the mix shift towards lower-margin systems and the delayed timing of larger shipments.

Those shipment delays are partly structural. Some customers lack available fabrication floor space and have pushed deliveries into 2027. Aixtron has pegged second-quarter revenue at around €110 million, a figure that will test whether the production bottlenecks can be overcome. The next major checkpoint comes on 30 July, when the company publishes its half-year report and investors will look for confirmation that the optoelectronics momentum can sustain the margin targets.

In the meantime, analysts remain divided. Jefferies reiterated a buy recommendation on 1 June, citing strong AI demand and a cyclical upturn in European semiconductors, as well as improved visibility into customer orders. But the wider consensus is more cautious. Of ten analysts polled in May, five rated the stock a buy and five a hold, with an average price target of €49.19 — well below the recent market price. Deutsche Bank, after a meeting with Aixtron’s finance chief, kept its hold rating and a target of €43, implying a discount of more than 26% to last Friday’s close of €58.70.

The valuation gap explains much of the wariness. The current price-to-earnings ratio stands at roughly 110, while the forward P/E of about 18 already prices in steep earnings growth. The shares trade more than three standard deviations above their long-term revenue average — a level that historically has proved difficult to sustain without flawless execution. The relative strength index of 40.3 suggests a neutral-to-slightly-oversold reading, while the annualised volatility of 64% underscores the stock’s tendency to swing on every data point.

For now, Aixtron is caught between two forces: a powerful operational wind from AI-driven optoelectronics and the reality that even after a record order book, some of its biggest shareholders are taking profits. The 30 July report will be the first real test of whether the buy side can reconcile that tension.