Netlist, Inc. (NLST) Stock Price & How to Invest
Last updated July 2026
Short answer
Netlist is a small Irvine, California memory company with two very different halves: a fast growing, thin margin business reselling third party DRAM and NAND, and a server memory patent portfolio that Samsung agreed in August 2026 to license for up to ~$750 million over five years. Shares change hands on OTCQB rather than a national exchange, and the ~$1.96 billion market value leans far more on the intellectual property than on the ~$332.69 million of trailing revenue.
NLST stock price
As of 2026-08-18, Netlist, Inc. (NLST) last closed at $6.28, up 613.6% over the past year. Over the past 52 weeks it has traded between $0.5400 and $6.28.
Prices are daily closing prices from Yahoo Finance and may be delayed. For the live quote, check your broker or Netlist, Inc.'s investor relations page. Walnut is informational, not investment advice.
What does Netlist, Inc. (NLST) do?
Netlist designs memory subsystems and, more importantly for the share price, owns patents covering how server memory modules are built. Its inventions include the distributed buffer architecture the industry adopted for DDR4 load reduced DIMMs, module level power management now standard on DDR5 DIMMs, and claims the company asserts against high bandwidth memory used in AI accelerators. The operating company is tiny by comparison: ~72 employees at the end of fiscal 2025, and of the ~$109.8 million in net sales during the June 2026 quarter, ~$103.8 million came from reselling third party memory products while only ~$6.1 million came from Netlist's own modular memory subsystems. Reselling other people's DRAM is a distribution business, and it normally earns distribution margins.
August 2026 rewrote the shape of the story. On August 4 Netlist and Samsung signed a five year patent cross license, a settlement releasing the patent cases pending between them, a supply agreement letting Netlist buy up to ~$300 million of Samsung DRAM and NAND per year (~$1.5 billion in aggregate), a technology cooperation agreement, and a securities purchase under which Samsung took 10 million Netlist shares. Samsung owes an upfront license fee of ~$200 million plus quarterly fees of up to ~$27.5 million through the second quarter of 2031, so up to ~$750 million payable to Netlist before the litigation counsel's 7.5% contingency, and roughly ~$898 million gross once the Korean withholding tax gross up is counted. What that does is convert the largest piece of a long running litigation bet into contracted payments. The Micron half stays unresolved: a ~$445 million willful infringement verdict from May 2024 sits on appeal at the Federal Circuit with oral argument scheduled for September 9, 2026, several asserted patents face parallel validity challenges at the patent office, and Micron has countersued in Idaho under that state's bad faith patent assertion statute with trial set for February 2027.
What's driving Netlist, Inc. (NLST)?
1. The Samsung license turns a verdict into a payment schedule
For six years Netlist's value hung on whether appellate courts would let jury awards against Samsung stand. The August 2026 cross license replaces that with an upfront ~$200 million fee and quarterly fees of up to ~$27.5 million for twenty quarters, calculated off a revenue based formula rather than a court ruling. The amounts carry adjustment and refund rights in years four and five, and counsel takes 7.5% off the top, so the headline is a ceiling rather than a floor.
2. Memory pricing and a $1.5 billion Samsung supply line
The resale business grew from ~$41.7 million to ~$109.8 million in net sales year over year, and gross margin jumped from ~3.3% to ~20.8% as DRAM and NAND prices climbed through the AI buildout. Inventories rose from ~$3.4 million at year end to ~$26.9 million by late June, which is what carrying memory into a rising market looks like. The supply agreement gives Netlist a contractual right to ~$300 million of Samsung product a year, useful allocation in a tight market, though the same margin lift reverses when memory prices roll over.
3. Micron and the ITC docket are the remaining optionality
Netlist still holds a ~$445 million willful infringement verdict against Micron, argued at the Federal Circuit on September 9, 2026. Separately it has ITC complaints running that name Google, Nvidia, Broadcom and Super Micro over DDR5 and HBM products, seeking exclusion orders rather than damages. Exclusion orders are the leverage that tends to produce licenses, which is roughly the path the Samsung matter took.
4. The operating business turned profitable, barely
Netlist earned ~$1.4 million of net income in the June 2026 quarter and ~$10.0 million over the first half, moving stockholders' equity from a ~$5.2 million deficit at year end to ~$23.2 million positive. Intellectual property legal fees of ~$16.8 million in the quarter are the largest operating expense by a wide margin, several times research and development plus general and administrative combined. The accumulated deficit still stands at ~$352.5 million.
What are the risks to Netlist, Inc. (NLST)?
NLST is quoted on OTCQB, not on Nasdaq or the NYSE. Netlist was moved off Nasdaq in September 2018, traded on OTCQX, and has been on OTCQB since August 2020, with no uplisting or reverse split proposal on the September 2026 annual meeting agenda. Over the counter quotation means no exchange listing standards, wider spreads, thinner disclosure requirements around the trading venue itself, possible penny stock broker rules that Netlist flags in its own risk factors, and some brokerages restricting or blocking orders entirely. The larger issue is what supports the ~$1.96 billion valuation: the operating business earned ~$10.0 million in the first half on ~$214.7 million of mostly resold third party product, book equity is ~$23.2 million, and the gap is being carried by the Samsung license stream plus unresolved claims against Micron and the ITC respondents. Those claims can shrink: the Micron award's collectability turns on pending appeals of patent office invalidity decisions, Samsung's quarterly fees are formula driven with refund rights attached, Micron is pressing bad faith assertion counterclaims in Idaho with a February 2027 trial date, and dilution has been steady with shares outstanding rising from ~307.3 million to ~333.9 million during the first half plus a further 10 million issued to Samsung and ~5.7 million from warrant exercises after quarter end.
Is NLST a buy or a sell?
We give no verdict on Netlist, Inc.. Both cases are real, which is why the question is contested at all, so here is the strongest version of each.
The case for buying. The Samsung license turns a verdict into a payment schedule. For six years Netlist's value hung on whether appellate courts would let jury awards against Samsung stand.
The case against. NLST is quoted on OTCQB, not on Nasdaq or the NYSE.
Read the full bull and bear case on NLST, including what would have to change to break either one. Walnut is not an investment adviser.
How is Netlist, Inc. (NLST) valued? (approximate, August 2026)
A simple financial snapshot. These are approximations and refresh quarterly; for current figures see Netlist, Inc.'s investor relations page or your broker.
- Revenue (TTM): ~$332.69 million
- Q2 FY2026 net sales: ~$109.8 million, up ~163% year over year
- Q2 FY2026 gross margin: ~20.8%, versus ~3.3% a year earlier
- Market cap / price to sales: ~$1.96 billion at ~$5.88, ~5.9x trailing sales
- Samsung license consideration: up to ~$750 million to Netlist over five years (~$200 million upfront plus up to ~$27.5 million quarterly)
- Cash and equity: ~$30.7 million cash plus ~$10.0 million restricted; stockholders' equity ~$23.2 million
Trailing revenue of ~$332.69 million against a ~$1.96 billion market value works out to ~5.9 times sales, a multiple that would be unusual for a memory reseller earning single digit millions. The reconciling item is intellectual property: the Samsung license alone is worth up to ~$750 million to Netlist over five years, and the ~$445 million Micron verdict remains live on appeal. Reported results will look lumpy as license fees land, since the upfront payment and the quarterly fees follow contract dates rather than the shipment cycle that drives the resale line.
Who competes with Netlist, Inc. (NLST)?
DRAM and NAND manufacturers
Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron make the memory Netlist's patents read on. The relationship runs in both directions: Samsung is now simultaneously a licensee, Netlist's contracted supplier under the ~$1.5 billion purchase agreement, and a 10 million share holder, while Micron remains an adversary across district court, the patent office and Idaho state court.
Memory module and storage subsystem suppliers
SMART Modular (Penguin Solutions), Kingston Technology, ATP Electronics, Innodisk and ADATA compete for the server and enterprise module business that Netlist's own products address. That segment is small for Netlist at ~$6.1 million in the June quarter, and these firms have far larger manufacturing scale and customer relationships.
Patent licensing companies
Rambus, InterDigital, Acacia Research and Quarterhill run the business model that actually drives NLST: monetizing a semiconductor or communications patent portfolio through licenses and enforcement. Rambus is the closest analogue given its own history of memory interface litigation followed by broad industry licenses.
What stocks are similar to Netlist, Inc. (NLST)?
Other names that sit close to NLST: same theme, named as a direct competitor, or held beside it in the same funds. Each entry says which. Worth a look if you are thinking about diversification within a thesis rather than concentration on one ticker.
How to invest in Netlist, Inc. (NLST)
There are three common ways to get NLST exposure. Buy shares (or fractional shares) directly at any major broker. Hold an ETF that includes it, which spreads the position across many companies. Or build it into a focused thematic portfolio, so NLST sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.
Walnut takes the portfolio route. Describe a thesis where NLST fits (for example “AI infrastructure” or “dividend-growth large-caps”) and the AI proposes 5 to 6 constituents with target weights. You review the plan and fund it through your own broker when you're ready.
New to this? Start with how to invest in stocks, see how to analyze a stock with AI, or compare the best AI stock analyzers.
The bottom line on Netlist, Inc. (NLST)
NLST is an intellectual property story with a memory distribution business bolted to it, now backed by one signed Samsung license and still carrying an unresolved Micron appeal, quoted on OTCQB at roughly 5.9 times trailing sales.
More on Netlist, Inc. (NLST)
Whether NLST is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, what would have to go right, and the risks in is NLST a buy or a sell?, and where the stock could go from here in the NLST stock forecast.
For income investors, whether NLST pays a dividend and how the payout looks is covered in does NLST pay a dividend? And to weigh NLST against a peer, read the full side-by-side comparisons: NLST vs MU and NLST vs PENG.
Wondering how NLST fits the portfolio you already own? Walnut is an AI investing app that connects your brokerage read-only and answers questions like that about your actual holdings: overlap, concentration, and how each position tracks the S&P 500. Compare the best AI portfolio analyzers or see the best AI investing apps in 2026.
Investing in Netlist, Inc. with AI
Connect the broker you already use and ask Walnut's AI how NLST fits what you actually hold: whether you own it already through a fund, what it would do to your concentration, and how it has tracked the S&P 500. Read-only by default, and you approve anything before it reaches your broker.
FAQ
What does Netlist actually do?
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Two things. It resells third party DRAM and NAND memory products, which generated ~$103.8 million of the ~$109.8 million in June quarter net sales, and it designs and sells its own modular memory subsystems, which added ~$6.1 million. Underneath both sits a patent portfolio covering server memory module architecture, distributed buffer designs, on module power management and high bandwidth memory, and licensing that portfolio is where the company's economic value has concentrated.
Why does NLST trade on OTCQB, and how much of its value depends on patent claims?
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Netlist listed on Nasdaq in 2006, was moved to OTCQX in September 2018, and has traded on OTCQB since August 2020, with no uplisting proposal on the September 2026 annual meeting agenda. Over the counter quotation means no exchange listing standards, wider bid ask spreads, potential penny stock broker rules the company discloses in its own filings, and some brokerages refusing the ticker outright. On the valuation question, the answer is most of it: book equity is ~$23.2 million and first half net income was ~$10.0 million, against a ~$1.96 billion market value carried by the Samsung license stream of up to ~$750 million and unresolved claims against Micron and the ITC respondents.
What did the Samsung agreements actually give Netlist?
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Five separate contracts signed August 4, 2026 and effective July 31: a five year patent cross license, a settlement and mutual release of the pending cases, a supply agreement covering up to ~$300 million of DRAM and NAND per year (~$1.5 billion total), an ITC cooperation agreement under which Samsung provides evidence for actions against third parties, and a securities purchase in which Samsung bought 10 million shares for ~$1 million. The license pays ~$200 million upfront plus quarterly fees of up to ~$27.5 million for twenty quarters, subject to a revenue based formula and to adjustment and refund rights in the later years.
Is Netlist profitable?
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As of the June 2026 quarter, yes, though thinly and recently. Net income was ~$1.4 million for the quarter and ~$10.0 million for the first half, which lifted stockholders' equity from a ~$5.2 million deficit at fiscal year end to ~$23.2 million. The accumulated deficit remains ~$352.5 million, and intellectual property legal fees of ~$16.8 million in the quarter dwarf every other operating line.
What is the Micron case worth?
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A jury awarded Netlist ~$445 million in May 2024 after finding Micron willfully infringed two patents, and the district court denied Micron's post trial motions in June 2025. Micron appealed to the Federal Circuit, where oral argument was scheduled for September 9, 2026. Netlist's own filings caution that collectability depends on pending appeals of patent office invalidity decisions covering those patents, so the award is not a receivable.
Why is the gross margin so low on most of the revenue?
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Because reselling other companies' memory is a pass through business. Cost of sales was ~$87.0 million on ~$109.8 million of net sales in the June quarter. The ~20.8% gross margin was itself unusually good, up from ~3.3% a year earlier, reflecting memory prices rising while Netlist held inventory bought earlier. That works in reverse when DRAM and NAND pricing turns.
How much dilution has there been?
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Shares outstanding went from ~307.3 million at fiscal year end 2025 to ~333.9 million at June 27, 2026, then rose further with 10 million shares issued to Samsung Semiconductor and ~5.7 million from warrant exercises through early August. The company also adopted a 2026 Performance Equity Plan on July 1 reserving 33.6 million shares, approved by the board without a stockholder vote, with a performance and time vesting grant made to the chief executive.
How would someone invest in NLST?
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NLST is quoted over the counter, so the practical first question is whether a given brokerage accepts OTCQB orders at all, since several restrict them or require extra acknowledgements. Netlist has never paid a dividend. Because the position sizing question here is really about how much litigation and license outcome risk a portfolio is carrying, some investors track it inside a defined memory or intellectual property theme rather than as a standalone line, which is the kind of grouping Walnut is built to hold and monitor against a stated thesis.
Walnut is informational, not investment advice. Financial figures on this page are approximations; always verify current numbers with Netlist, Inc.'s investor relations page or your broker before making investment decisions.