Raspberry Pi has posted a record first half after a well-timed memory stockpile helped it ride out soaring prices and shortages.
The Cambridge-based company reported revenue of $256.9 million for the six months ended June 30, up 90 percent from $135.5 million a year earlier, while pre-tax profit more than tripled to $19.6 million.
Raspberry Pi shipped 4.2 million boards during the six-month period, up 17 percent year-on-year, while its order backlog doubled to 2.6 million units.
Behind some of those rather healthy numbers is a bet Raspberry Pi made last year, when it built up a sizeable stash of memory before the market tightened.
"The decision in FY 2025 to build significant strategic memory inventory has allowed us to maintain product availability at a time when smaller competitors have struggled to secure allocation," CEO Eben Upton said. It also meant Raspberry Pi spent much of the first half burning through memory bought at considerably friendlier prices.
Gross profit per board climbed from $8 a year ago to $12.20, helped by price rises on R Pi's products as well as cheaper memory inventory acquired during 2025. Overall gross profit rose 79 percent to $59.4 million.
That particular party is winding down. Raspberry Pi said the "exceptional unit economics" seen in the first half have since moderated as the cheaper memory bought during 2025 has been used up.
It hasn't stopped stockpiling – it's just paying a lot more to do it. The average cost of memory in its inventory stood at $13.30 per GB at the end of June, up from $3.60 per GB at the end of 2025.
At the end of June, Raspberry Pi was holding 2.4 million LPDDR4 devices representing 5.8 million GB of memory. By the end of August, that had grown to 8.3 million GB – around three months of sales for the products that use it.
Between that stockpile and confirmed orders, Raspberry Pi said it has enough memory to meet its production targets for the rest of 2026, with further purchases planned to ensure it enters 2027 with significant inventory.
However, the shortage hasn't left it entirely unscathed. Pi Zero sales fell 9 percent after production congestion at a Taiwanese company packaging one of its core components restricted supply. Demand hasn't disappeared: Raspberry Pi has about 1 million Pi Zero units sitting on back order.
Elsewhere, customers appear willing to swallow the higher prices forced by rising memory costs. Direct sales of Raspberry Pi 4 and Pi 5 boards increased 69 percent and 47 percent respectively, with the company reporting continued demand for the pricier 8GB variants.
OEM customers are also becoming an increasingly important part of the business. Direct shipments rose 26 percent to 3.4 million units, with Raspberry Pi pointing to particularly strong demand from the smart home and aerospace and defense sectors.
The company expects to ship more units in the second half than the first, despite the ongoing squeeze on memory supplies.
For Raspberry Pi, planning for the great memory squeeze has so far been rather more lucrative than painful. Buying the RAM before everyone desperately needed it turned out to be a useful trick. ®