SkyWater Technology, Inc. (SKYT): History, Ownership, Mission, How It Works & Makes Money

SkyWater Technology, Inc. (SKYT) is a critical piece of the U.S. semiconductor puzzle, but with its stock price surging 114.30% to $17.60 per share by November 2025, are you truly positioned to understand the forces driving this massive upswing? As the largest exclusively U.S.-based, pure-play semiconductor foundry, the company's trajectory is no longer just about its trailing twelve-month revenue of $346.59 million; it's about the transformative June 2025 acquisition of Infineon's Fab 25. That single move is expected to add at least $300 million in annual revenue and fuel over 30% growth in their quantum computing-related Advanced Technology Services (ATS) this fiscal year, which is the clearest signal of their strategic shift from a niche player to a major onshoring force. We need to look past the noise of quarterly volatility and map out exactly how SkyWater Technology's unique Technology as a Service (TaaS) model works and where the real money is being made right now.

SkyWater Technology, Inc. (SKYT) History

SkyWater Technology's history is less about a garage startup and more about a strategic rescue and revitalization of a critical U.S. semiconductor asset. The company was born from a spin-out, transforming an existing manufacturing facility into the nation's only exclusively U.S.-owned, pure-play foundry, a move that fundamentally changed its business model.

You need to understand that this was a deliberate pivot from a captive manufacturing unit to a 'Technology as a Service' (TaaS) model, blending research and development with production. This shift is the core reason for its current strategic relevance in the defense and emerging technology sectors, and it's why you see the aggressive expansion in 2025.

Given Company's Founding Timeline

Year established

SkyWater Technology became an independent company in March 2017, following its acquisition from Cypress Semiconductor Corporation.

Original location

The company is headquartered in Bloomington, Minnesota, where the original wafer fabrication facility was located.

Founding team members

The company was formed through an acquisition backed by private equity. Key players in the formation of the independent entity include:

• Oxbow Industries, the Minnesota-based private equity firm that acquired the facility.
• Thomas Sonderman, who joined as CEO in 2017 to drive the new pure-play foundry business model.
• Dr. John Ferguson, who had previously driven the custom foundry business and Trusted Foundry accreditation while the facility was under Cypress.

Initial capital/funding

The initial funding came from Oxbow Industries, which acquired the wafer-fab facility from Cypress Semiconductor for approximately $30 million.

Given Company's Evolution Milestones

Given Company's Transformative Moments

The company's trajectory has been shaped by three core, transformative decisions-all focused on maximizing its unique position as a domestic, trusted foundry.

The most critical shift was the adoption of the Technology as a Service (TaaS) model at its founding. This wasn't just a catchy phrase; it meant blending early-stage process development and prototyping with volume manufacturing in one facility. This provides a dual revenue stream: R&D-driven revenue that helps buffer fixed costs, and long-term wafer-production revenue as customer processes mature.

The 2025 acquisition of the Texas fab from Infineon Technologies AG for about $93 million is the most recent game-changer. This move is expected to nearly double the company's annual revenue base once fully integrated, with analysts projecting full-year 2025 revenue to climb to $431 million.

Here's the quick math on the Texas impact:

• Q3 2025 total revenue was $150.7 million, which includes $86.6 million from the new SkyWater Texas operations in its first full quarter.
• The acquisition immediately diversified their Wafer Services business, which is forecast to become the primary revenue driver by 2026, up from just 8% of total sales in 2024.
• Quantum computing is a defintely a high-growth area, with ATS revenues from quantum customers on track to exceed 30% growth in fiscal 2025.

SkyWater Technology, Inc. (SKYT) Ownership Structure

SkyWater Technology, Inc. (SKYT) operates as a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ exchange, meaning its ownership is distributed among a diverse group of institutional, retail, and insider stakeholders. This structure, which includes a significant portion held by major institutions, means the company's strategic direction is heavily influenced by the interests of large investment funds, but also by its key founders and executives who retain substantial insider stakes.

SkyWater Technology, Inc.'s Current Status

SkyWater Technology is a public company traded under the ticker SKYT on the NASDAQ Stock Market. As of November 2025, the company commands a market capitalization of approximately $0.67 Billion USD, positioning it as a key player in the specialized semiconductor manufacturing space. This public status subjects the company to rigorous reporting requirements from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), ensuring a high level of transparency for investors, which is defintely a plus for due diligence.

The company's governance is anchored by its Board of Directors, with Timothy E. Baxter poised to take over as the new board chair following the Annual Meeting in May 2025, signaling a planned leadership transition in the governance structure. If you want to dive deeper into the firm's financial standing, you can check out Breaking Down SkyWater Technology, Inc. (SKYT) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

SkyWater Technology, Inc.'s Ownership Breakdown

The company's ownership is a mix of professional money managers and individual investors, with institutional holders controlling the largest segment of shares. The table below provides a clear breakdown of the shareholding structure as of late 2025, which helps you understand who is driving the decision-making and where the primary stakeholder interests lie.

SkyWater Technology, Inc.'s Leadership

The executive team steering SkyWater Technology is a blend of long-tenured leaders and recent, strategic hires, reflecting the company's push into advanced technology services (ATS) and manufacturing expansion. The average tenure for the management team is about 2.2 years, showing a relatively fresh but experienced group at the top.

The key executives responsible for day-to-day operations and long-term strategy as of November 2025 include:

• Thomas Sonderman: Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Director, who has been instrumental in transforming the firm from an Integrated Device Manufacturer (IDM) to a pure-play foundry.
• John Sakamoto: President and Chief Operating Officer (COO), overseeing all day-to-day business and manufacturing operations since September 2023.
• Steve Manko: Chief Financial Officer (CFO), focusing on driving profitability and enhancing organizational value.
• Chris Hilberg: Chief Risk and Compliance Officer, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, managing legal and governance functions.
• Dr. Percy V. Gilbert: Senior Vice President of Engineering, appointed in April 2025 to lead the expansion of the engineering organization, especially as the company integrates its Fab 25 acquisition.

This leadership structure, with a CEO focused on long-term vision and a COO driving operations, is designed to scale the business effectively. The CEO's total yearly compensation is approximately $1.91 Million, with a significant portion (71.6%) tied to bonuses, stock, and options, aligning his interests directly with shareholder returns.

SkyWater Technology, Inc. (SKYT) Mission and Values

SkyWater Technology's core purpose is to revolutionize how technology is realized, moving beyond a simple foundry model to become a true co-creation partner. This mission is grounded in a deep commitment to strengthening the secure, domestic semiconductor supply chain, which is a key national priority right now.

SkyWater Technology's Core Purpose

You're not just buying chips from SkyWater Technology; you're buying into a process called Technology as a Service (TaaS), which is their unique model for bringing complex ideas to life. Their mission and vision defintely show this focus on partnership and global impact, not just volume production.

Official mission statement

The mission is centered on a collaborative approach, emphasizing security and quality in the development and manufacturing of advanced microdevices.

• Co-create technology solutions that bring our customers' ideas to life.
• Provide an ecosystem of agile development and trusted IP (Intellectual Property) security.
• Deliver quality manufacturing services.

This is why they are a DMEA-accredited Category 1A Trusted Supplier, a critical designation for working with the Department of Defense (DOD).

Vision statement

SkyWater Technology's vision is straightforward but ambitious: to fundamentally change the technology landscape for the better.

• Improve the world by revolutionizing technology realization.

This vision is backed by concrete action, like their June 2025 acquisition of Fab 25 in Austin, Texas. That move significantly expands their 200-millimeter foundry capacity by more than 4x here in the U.S., directly supporting the goal of a secure, U.S.-based supply chain.

SkyWater Technology slogan/tagline

The company consistently positions itself with a tagline that speaks directly to its role in the industry, which is a great sign of a focused strategy.

• The trusted technology realization partner.

This trust is essential, especially when you consider their fastest-growing segment: Quantum-related Advanced Technology Services (ATS) revenues. This segment is on track to exceed 30% growth for fiscal 2025, which shows their commitment to future-forward, secure technologies. Also, the launch of their proprietary ThermaView platform in January 2025, which drove strong Q1 2025 revenue growth, proves they are innovating, not just fabricating. For a deeper dive into how these strategic moves impact the bottom line, you should check out Breaking Down SkyWater Technology, Inc. (SKYT) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors. Fab 25 is expected to contribute at least $300 million in annual revenue, which will be a massive boost to their overall top line.

SkyWater Technology, Inc. (SKYT) How It Works

SkyWater Technology, Inc. operates as a specialized, U.S.-based pure-play semiconductor foundry, using a Technology as a Service (TaaS) model to move customers from initial research and development (R&D) to volume manufacturing faster than traditional foundries.

The company essentially sells two things: the expertise and time of its engineers to develop new process flows (Advanced Technology Services, or ATS), and the physical capacity to manufacture the resulting chips at scale (Wafer Services). This co-creation approach allows them to capture revenue from the development phase, which is less capital-intensive, before transitioning successful projects into high-margin production runs.

SkyWater Technology's Product/Service Portfolio

The company's revenue streams are split between development and production, with a significant shift in scale following the mid-2025 acquisition of Fab 25, which dramatically boosted their Wafer Services capacity.

SkyWater Technology's Operational Framework

The core of SkyWater's operation is its unique 'Technology as a Service' model, which is a departure from the standard foundry model. This framework is built on a capital-light approach where customers often co-invest in the tools and development process, which helps SkyWater manage risk and capital expenditure.

Here's the quick math: the Q3 2025 results showed a GAAP gross profit of $36.2 million, representing a gross margin of 24.0% of total revenue, which is a strong indicator of this model's profitability when development programs accelerate.

• Co-Creation and Development (ATS): Customers come with an idea, and SkyWater engineers develop the custom process flow and intellectual property (IP) for that specific chip. This segment brought in $54.2 million in revenue for the legacy SkyWater business in Q3 2025.
• Transition to Production (Wafer Services): Once the technology is silicon-proven, it moves into the manufacturing phase, or Wafer Services. The acquisition of Fab 25 in Texas-a $93 million deal-is a game-changer here, as it is expected to contribute between $75 million and $80 million in Wafer Services revenue in Q3 2025 alone.
• Multi-Fab Strategy: Operations span three key sites: the Minnesota fab (specializing in advanced technology development), the Florida fab (focused on advanced packaging), and the Texas Fab 25 (providing high-volume, foundational node capacity). The Texas acquisition alone increased the company's share of U.S. 200mm foundry capacity from 4% to 17%.

The integration of the Texas facility, which adds approximately 400,000 wafer starts per year, is defintely the biggest operational focus right now.

SkyWater Technology's Strategic Advantages

In a global market dominated by Asian foundries, SkyWater's competitive edge is not about making the smallest, most cutting-edge chips, but about being the most reliable, specialized, and secure partner for critical U.S. technologies.

• Trusted U.S. Supply Chain: SkyWater is the largest exclusively U.S.-based, pure-play semiconductor foundry and holds the DMEA-accredited Category 1A Trusted Supplier status. This is crucial for securing high-value contracts in the aerospace and defense markets.
• Niche Technology Leadership: They are a key player in high-growth, specialized segments like quantum computing, where they are a foundry partner of choice, and in radiation-hardened (rad-hard) integrated circuits (ICs) for space applications.
• Capital Leverage Model: The TaaS model and government/customer co-investment mean SkyWater can expand its capabilities with less of its own capital expenditure. For example, the Fab 25 acquisition was funded by a credit facility, and it's projected to nearly double the company's annual revenue base once fully integrated.
• Scale in Foundational Nodes: The Fab 25 acquisition allows SkyWater to meet surging demand for silicon-proven analog and mixed-signal chips for the automotive and industrial sectors, which rely on mature, foundational nodes (like 65nm). This move is expected to drive Wafer Services to become the primary revenue driver by 2026.

If you're interested in the capital flows and institutional backing behind this growth, you should check out Exploring SkyWater Technology, Inc. (SKYT) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

SkyWater Technology, Inc. (SKYT) How It Makes Money

SkyWater Technology, Inc. makes money by operating as a specialized, pure-play semiconductor foundry, primarily through its unique Technology-as-a-Service (TaaS) model, which involves co-developing advanced process technology with customers for a fee, and then transitioning that technology into high-volume, secure domestic manufacturing (Wafer Services).

SkyWater Technology, Inc.'s Revenue Breakdown

The company's revenue profile has been dramatically reshaped by the acquisition of the former Infineon Fab 25 in Texas in 2025. As of the third quarter of fiscal 2025, total consolidated revenue hit a record high of $150.7 million, a 61% year-over-year increase, with the majority of the revenue now coming from high-volume manufacturing.

Here's the quick math: Wafer Services revenue, which includes the new SkyWater Texas operation, totaled approximately $92.8 million in Q3 2025 ($86.6 million from Texas plus $6.2 million from Legacy SkyWater). ATS development revenue was $54.2 million, and Tools revenue was $3.7 million.

Business Economics

The core of SkyWater Technology's business model is its Technology-as-a-Service (TaaS) offering, which is a key differentiator from traditional foundries. This model creates two distinct, but connected, revenue streams with different economic fundamentals.

• Advanced Technology Services (ATS) Pricing: ATS is essentially a non-recurring engineering (NRE) model. Customers pay for process development, tool installation, facility access, and security services on a time-and-materials or cost-plus-fixed-fee basis. This revenue is high-margin, sticky, and often government-funded, but it can be lumpy; for example, federal budget delays impacted ATS growth expectations in 2025. Quantum computing-related ATS, however, is a major growth driver and is expected to exceed 30% growth in fiscal 2025.
• Wafer Services (Production) Pricing: This is the traditional, high-volume manufacturing revenue stream, now dominated by the SkyWater Texas facility. The pricing is based on a supply agreement for foundational node wafers, which provides a more stable, recurring revenue base. The acquisition of Fab 25, which contributed $86.6 million in Q3 2025, immediately shifted the revenue mix toward this high-volume, lower-margin but more predictable stream.
• Tools Revenue Volatility: Tools revenue comes from procuring and selling equipment to customers for use in the fabs. It is highly volatile, dropping 88% year-over-year in Q3 2025, and negatively impacts gross margin. You should treat this as a pass-through cost, not a core business driver.

The goal is to convert ATS development programs, where the intellectual property (IP) is co-created, into long-term, high-volume production contracts in the Wafer Services segment. That's the entire growth engine.

For a deeper dive into who is investing in this model, you can check out Exploring SkyWater Technology, Inc. (SKYT) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

SkyWater Technology, Inc.'s Financial Performance

The company's financial health in 2025 reflects a business in a major transition, moving from a development-heavy model to a balanced development-and-production model. The Q3 2025 results show a significant increase in scale and a temporary boost in net income due to the Fab 25 purchase.

• Gross Margin Improvement: GAAP gross profit for Q3 2025 was $36.2 million, resulting in a GAAP gross margin of 24.0%, up from 21.6% in the same quarter last year. This improvement, despite the inclusion of the lower-margin Texas operations, shows strong execution in both the legacy and new segments.
• Net Income Distortion: GAAP net income for Q3 2025 was a massive $144.0 million. What this estimate hides is a one-time, non-cash 'bargain purchase gain' of $110.8 million related to the Fab 25 acquisition. The non-GAAP net income, which strips out such one-time items, was a more realistic $11.5 million, or $0.24 per diluted share.
• Near-Term Revenue Outlook: Management's guidance for Q4 2025 projects total revenue between $155 million and $165 million, indicating continued sequential growth and a strong finish to the fiscal year. This defintely sets a high baseline for 2026.
• Operational Leverage: Adjusted EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) for Q3 2025 was $25.8 million. This is a huge jump from $2.3 million in Q2 2025 and demonstrates the immediate, positive operating leverage gained from the high-volume Texas facility.

SkyWater Technology, Inc. (SKYT) Market Position & Future Outlook

SkyWater Technology is in a transformative phase as of late 2025, strategically shifting its market position from a niche domestic foundry to a significant player in the U.S. foundational semiconductor supply chain. The recent Fab 25 acquisition and momentum in quantum computing are the primary drivers, setting the stage for projected 2026 revenue of over $600 million, a substantial jump from its fiscal 2024 annual revenue of $342.3 million.

Competitive Landscape

You need to understand that SkyWater doesn't compete head-to-head with the giants on leading-edge process nodes (like 3nm). Instead, its battleground is the specialized, domestic, and mature-node market, which is critical for defense and industrial applications. The table below shows its position relative to the global leaders, noting the difference between SkyWater's niche capacity share and the competitors' global revenue share.

Opportunities & Challenges

The market is sending mixed signals, so you need to keep your eye on execution. The Fab 25 acquisition is a game-changer, but integrating a facility expected to generate at least $300 million in annual revenue starting in Q3 2025 is defintely a heavy lift. Here's the quick map of what's ahead:

Industry Position

SkyWater's position is unique-it's a critical strategic asset for the U.S., not just a commercial foundry. It is the largest exclusively U.S.-based, pure-play semiconductor foundry, which matters immensely to the aerospace and defense sector where a secure supply chain is non-negotiable. This niche focus, or Technology-as-a-Service (TaaS) model, allows it to co-create specialized solutions, like radiation-hardened (rad-hard) chips and superconducting integrated circuits, which the global giants don't prioritize.

The Fab 25 deal significantly boosted its standing in the mature node space, a segment that still accounts for about 36% of global foundry revenue in 2025. This capacity expansion, coupled with the tailwinds from the CHIPS Act, solidifies its role as the go-to partner for reshoring critical U.S. manufacturing. For a deeper dive into the company's core principles, you should review the Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of SkyWater Technology, Inc. (SKYT).

• Dominant in U.S. 200mm foundational capacity.
• ATS segment (development) drives high-value revenue.
• Quantum computing is a key long-term growth engine.