Netlist and Micron have reached a settlement in their patent‑litigation dispute, under which Micron signed a five‑year licence for Netlist memory‑related intellectual property and will pay USD 600 million in licensing fees.
Under the terms, Micron remits USD 30 million each quarter through the third quarter of 2031, and has additionally purchased USD 1 million worth of Netlist common stock. With this deal closed, Netlist has secured favourable outcomes in IP conflicts versus Micron, Samsung and SK hynix for its memory innovations, bringing aggregate related fee proceeds to USD 1.54 billion.
Chun K. (Chuck) Hong, Netlist’s founder, chairman, president and CEO, commented: “The agreement with Micron further validates the value of our AI‑oriented memory technologies. We stay focused on safeguarding our IP alongside sustained investment into next‑generation product development.”
Back in August of this year, Samsung settled with Netlist, committing to USD 897 million in licensing fees spread across five‑year term for server DIMM and high‑bandwidth memory technology. Samsung also became a Netlist shareholder by acquiring ten million common shares for USD 1 million. That arrangement included an upfront patent‑licence payment of USD 239 million (roughly USD 200 million net after Korean withholding tax), plus gross quarterly instalments reaching as high as USD 32.9 million up until Q2 2031.
The contract also granted Netlist an option to procure up to USD 1.5 billion‑worth of DRAM and NAND goods over five years.
Back in April 2021, Netlist won a patent‑infringement action against SK hynix, securing a USD 40 million settlement together with cross‑licensing rights and a product‑supply framework.
Netlist still maintains an ongoing legal claim dating back to 2008 against Google concerning US Patent No. 7,289,386, which covers rank‑multiplication techniques used within memory modules.
Footnote
Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Irvine, California, Netlist supplies high‑performance modular‑memory subsystems to leading global OEMs. Its wholly‑owned production and test site in Suzhou, China holds ISO and OSHAS certifications. The firm also develops NVMe SSDs. Netlist owns an extensive patent portfolio including foundational work for hybrid memory, storage‑class memory, rank multiplication and load‑reduction technology.
The company listed on Nasdaq during November 2006 and has posted mostly net losses across most years since going public.
Looking at Netlist’s historical revenue and profitability up to 2025: revenue hit its highest level close to the IPO, fell sharply after 2008 and troughed near USD 8 million in 2015. The 2021‑2022 revenue surge reflected SK hynix licence income combined with improved product sales; figures fell again in 2023 before rebounding in 2024‑2025. Quarterly sales for H1 2026 stood at roughly USD 105 million and USD 110 million respectively, putting full‑year 2026 results on track to outperform 2025, though final numbers remain incomplete. Important Samsung and Micron licence payments from August and October 2026 sit outside the 2006‑2025 financial dataset.
Mounting product‑margin pressure and substantial legal‑action costs expanded losses from 2022 through 2024, followed by shrinking deficits in 2025. Netlist turned profitable across H1 2026 (Q1: ~USD 8.6 million; Q2: ~USD 1.4 million), prior to receiving the large‑scale licence settlements from Samsung and Micron.
Beijing Qianxing Jietong Technology Co., Ltd.
Sandy Yang/Global Strategy Director
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