Serenity: XFAB upgraded to 'Buy', AI and photonic chips may open up long-term growth space.

BlockBeats news, July 6, Serenity forwarded Kelper's latest research report stating that it has upgraded the rating of semiconductor wafer foundry XFAB to 'buy.' The report believes that demand from Melexis is continuously improving, and the demand for silicon carbide (SiC), gallium nitride (GaN), and photonic chips driven by AI is expected to offset cyclical fluctuations in the automotive industry, while Western scarce specialty wafer foundries are gaining higher valuation premiums. Data shows that XFAB's current 2027 EV/EBITDA is only 4.8x, significantly lower than the peer median of 14.5x.

Serenity stated that this means XFAB's core fundamentals are improving, but it is more optimistic about the growth potential of photonic chips that the market has not yet fully priced in. It pointed out that XFAB leads the EU PhotonixFAB project, which aims to build a European silicon photonics industry chain and promote large-scale manufacturing of photonic chips. In the future, it is expected to benefit from the growth of data center optical communication demand driven by AI giants such as Nvidia. However, since related commercial orders have not yet been placed on a large scale, traditional valuation models still struggle to reflect this long-term growth logic.