Compare moats
Up to three covered companies, band by band. Every call is a curated editorial judgment, never a disclosed figure — and every band carries its cited basis.
| Macronix International | Pegatron | |
|---|---|---|
| Moat rating | none Macronix has real niches, but its returns show no durable edge. It lost money through the last downturn, and in its largest market it trails two rivals. Its 2025 annual report shows a net loss of NT$3.3 billion (loss per share NT$1.77) on revenue of NT$28.9 billion, at an average gross margin of 17.8%. The year before, the net loss was NT$3,212,284 thousand. NOR Flash was 61% of 2025 revenue. In that market TrendForce (2026-09-14) names Winbond the 'market leader' and GigaDevice 'second-ranked', and Macronix gives its own share as 'approximately 16.9% in 2025'. Today's profits come from an industry-wide shortage. Gross margin rose to 64.4% in 2Q26 from 15.6% a year earlier. The Taipei Times (2026-07-30) reports that Macronix cited 'sharp price increases in NAND and NOR amid supply constraints'. | none The 2025 annual report (English version filed with TWSE on 2026-05-08) shows scale without a protected position. Consolidated revenue was NT$1,117.2 billion, down from NT$1,125.3 billion, at a gross margin of 3.80%, while DigiTimes put the top 20 EMS/ODM vendors' combined 2025 revenue up 23.4% in US dollars (cnyes, 2026-02-02). One coded customer ("A Company") took 57.34% of 2025 net sales (59.34% in 2024) and a second ("B Company") 9.14%, and the report lists "Intense Competition and Pricing Pressure" and "Customer Concentration and Product Cycle Risks" among its disadvantages. A DigiTimes analysis of the 2024 top 20 (2025-01-27) found Pegatron's net-profit rank six places below its revenue rank, and its net margin at 1.5% or less since 2018 with no clear sign of improvement. A large assembler whose own report and independent data describe no protected return: no moat is claimable. |
| Moat type | none The evidence does not support any of the candidate moat sources strongly enough. Scale: in NOR, TrendForce (2026-09-14) names Winbond 'market leader' and GigaDevice 'second-ranked', ahead of Macronix. Its capacity is 'effectively capped at around 25,000 wafers per month' (TrendForce News, 2026-04-28). IP: it holds 9,911 patents (2025 annual report), but they did not keep it profitable through the downturn. Niche position: TrendForce (2026-01-07) says Macronix 'has a competitive edge' in MLC NAND. That niche opened because Samsung, 'formerly the largest supplier', is exiting. TrendForce also warns that improved TLC solutions or a NAND downturn could pressure MLC prices. ROM: the company says it holds over half the market, but the line is shrinking. ROM revenue fell to NT$4,625,353 thousand in 2025 from NT$5,403,832 thousand in 2024. | none The report's listed competitive advantages are operating capabilities that rivals also have: 4,997 R&D engineers, manufacturing sites in China, the USA, Mexico, the Czech Republic, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, India and Taiwan, a diversified product and customer base, global logistics, an experienced management team, and vertical integration across materials from metal stamping and plastic injection to light-metal technologies. R&D was 1.44% of 2025 revenue, and the supplier table notes that "partial major materials are purchased by major customers and resell to the Company for manufacturing and system assembly". Its seat in Apple's supply chain has proved contestable: DigiTimes (via Global SMT, 2025-07-24) says Chinese vendors, "most notably Luxshare, have gained ground through acquisitions and key contract wins, including major entries into Apple's supply chain via asset purchases from Merry Electronics, Lite-On, Wistron, and Pegatron". DigiTimes' analyst wrote (2025-01-27) that Pegatron, Wistron, Compal and Inventec all began as computer-system makers whose component businesses and degree of vertical integration can hardly match those of Chinese makers. |
| Leadership | fast follower In NOR Flash, TrendForce (2026-09-14) discusses 'market leader Winbond', 'second-ranked GigaDevice' and MXIC among 'major NOR Flash suppliers'. Macronix puts its own NOR share at approximately 16.9% in 2025, up from approximately 16.1% in 2024 (annual reports). Its claims to lead narrower markets rest on weaker evidence. The 2025 annual report says its ROM products 'account for more than 50% of the global market', which is a company claim. The Taipei Times (2026-07-30) says Macronix 'dominates the market for low-density multi-level-cell NAND used in eMMC'. | behind DigiTimes' July 2025 ranking (via Global SMT, 2025-07-24) says "Pegatron had long held the second spot" until Quanta overtook it in 1H24, that "Luxshare displaced Pegatron to become the No. 3 EMS/ODM vendor in the second half of 2024", and ranks it fourth in 1H25 after Wistron's surge. DigiTimes' 2025 full-year ranking (cnyes, 2026-02-02) lists the top five in order as Foxconn, Wistron, Quanta, Luxshare and Pegatron. In notebooks, market research cited in the annual report puts Pegatron fifth of the five Taiwanese ODMs it lists, at 9.1 million units or 4.96% of worldwide volume. Its 2025 revenue fell 0.73% in NT dollars (annual report) while DigiTimes put Foxconn's up 22.4% and Quanta's up 55.6% in US dollars (cnyes), and 1H26 revenue fell again, by 3.9% to NT$518,553 million (2Q26 business review): losing ground to peers, so behind rather than at parity. |
| Pricing power | weak Supply, not Macronix, has set prices across the cycle. Gross margin was 17.8% for 2025 (annual report) and 15.6% in 2Q25, then rose to 40.8% in 1Q26 and 64.4% in 2Q26 (Taipei Times, 2026-07-30). During the shortage Macronix has raised NOR Flash and SLC NAND prices and 'shifted to a monthly negotiation model' (TrendForce News, 2026-04-28). It expects gross margin to reach 80 percent 'in the foreseeable future' (Taipei Times, 2026-07-30). These gains follow an industry-wide shortage: TrendForce (2026-09-14) reports that NOR contract prices rose by a cumulative average of 100–120% in 1H26. | weak The annual report gives a 2025 gross margin of 3.80%, with gross profit down 7.67% on net sales down 0.73%; the 2Q26 business review shows 1H26 gross margin of 4.4% against 3.4% a year earlier. Among its disadvantages the report says "increasing competition may place pressure on pricing and profitability". DigiTimes (2025-01-27) counted Pegatron among Taiwanese makers whose net margin had been 1.5% or less since 2018, with no clear sign of improvement. |
| Summary | Macronix is a Taiwanese integrated maker of non-volatile memory. It makes NOR Flash, SLC NAND, eMMC built on 2D MLC and 3D TLC NAND, and mask ROM, and runs a small foundry business. In 2025 NOR was 61% of revenue, ROM 16% and NAND 16% (annual report). The mix is shifting fast. TrendForce (2026-01-07) reports that Samsung's exit from MLC NAND leaves a niche in which Macronix has 'a competitive edge'. It also reports that Macronix 'has already scaled down some of its NOR Flash capacity' to make more MLC NAND. By 2Q26 NAND was 43% of revenue and NOR 48% (Taipei Times, 2026-07-30). TrendForce (2026-09-14) adds that Macronix is putting its new 12-inch capacity into NAND and eMMC, so its NOR bit growth trails its overall capacity growth. Its largest customer, a related party, accounted for 16.16% of 2025 revenue. The upcycle has turned results around. Revenue reached a record NT$19.13 billion in 2Q26 at a 64.4% gross margin, after net losses in 2024 and 2025. The verdict is no moat. Macronix is well placed in tight markets but trails Winbond and GigaDevice in NOR, and its recent profits come from a shortage that its rivals share. | Pegatron is a Taiwanese EMS/ODM whose 2025 annual report describes three segments: computing (notebooks, desktops, motherboards, servers), communication (cable modems, set-top boxes, smartphones, switches, routers, gateways, 5G O-RAN) and consumer electronics (tablets, game consoles, wearables, smart home devices, automotive electronics). Communication remained the largest segment in 2025, and one coded customer took 57.34% of net sales. Revenue was NT$1,117.2 billion at a 3.80% gross margin. Servers are the growth line: the report cites large-scale shipments of NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 and HGX B300 systems in 2025, and the 2Q26 business review (2026-08-12) says computing revenue rose 84% year on year, "driven mostly by greater shipment from Server business", taking computing to 23% of revenue while communication fell to 52% after a double-digit decline. Independent rankings show it losing ground: DigiTimes says Pegatron "had long held the second spot" among EMS/ODM vendors by revenue until Quanta passed it in 1H24, and its 2025 full-year ranking puts it fifth behind Foxconn, Wistron, Quanta and Luxshare, with 2026 AI server and rack orders expected to concentrate in Foxconn, Wistron and Quanta. Gross margin improved to 4.4% in 1H26 from 3.4% a year earlier, still thin. A large, diversified assembler without a protected position. |
| Chain position | Upstream supplier of NOR Flash, SLC NAND, eMMC and ROM to makers of automotive, industrial, communication, server, medical and game products. Foundry services were 6.43% of 2025 revenue. | Contract designer-manufacturer for brand customers in computing, communication and consumer electronics; America took 41.18% and Europe 38.79% of 2025 sales, and some major materials are bought by major customers and resold to Pegatron for assembly (annual report). |
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| Long-horizon vote | -0.06 at weight 0.20 · swarm neutral Editorial prior, not backtested. | -0.20 at weight 0.20 · swarm bearish Editorial prior, not backtested. |