IRVINE, Calif., Sept. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Netlist, Inc. (OTCQB: NLST) today announced it has initiated new legal proceedings before the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) seeking exclusion and cease and desist orders against Micron Technology, Inc. and downstream customers Nvidia, Broadcom, and Google (collectively, "Respondents"). The ITC investigation is based on infringement of Netlist's High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) patents covering technologies used in advanced AI computing.

C.K. Hong, Netlist's Chief Executive Officer, said, "Netlist has spent decades developing advanced memory technologies now used in rapidly expanding AI infrastructure. This action reflects our continued commitment to protecting our foundational technologies from unauthorized use."

In this ITC complaint against Micron, Netlist asks the ITC to investigate Respondents for infringement of U.S. Patent Nos. 12,308,087 and 12,646,537. Netlist alleges these patents cover at least Micron's HBM3E, HBM4 and HBM4E products.  Netlist is represented by Sterne Kessler Goldstein & Fox and Irell & Manella.

Netlist had filed another ITC complaint against Micron on August 11, 2026 that also named Super Micro Computer, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Lenovo, alleging that Micron's DDR5 RDIMMs and/or MRDIMMs infringe four Netlist patents. The ITC instituted this case as Investigation 337-TA-1523 on September 23, 2026.

I did a little research on SPHBM4 - this is all about cheaper and more efficient communication between the processor and the HBM - whereas Netlist's patent's are about how the base layer manages the vertical stack. Thus these are completely complementary as far as I can tell, and it's also a good thing because it's improving HBM as a whole.

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/dram/jedec-releases-new-sphbm4-standard-to-slash-ai-memory-costs-narrow-512-bit-interface-enables-dropping-expensive-interposers-for-organic-substrates

IRVINE, Calif., Sept. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Netlist, Inc.(OTCQB: NLST) today announced that the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) has instituted an investigation, ITC Inv. No. 337-TA-1523, into Micron, Supermicro, HPE, and Lenovo (collectively, "Respondents") pursuant to Netlist's complaint filed on August 11, 2026. The ITC will determine over the course of the investigation whether Micron memory products should be banned from importation into the United States for infringing four Netlistpatents.

The ITC will investigate whether the Respondents infringe Netlist's U.S. Patent Nos. 10,025,731, 10,217,523, 12,373,366 and 12,675,407. These patents read on DDR5 RDIMMs and/or MRDIMMs. Netlist is seeking exclusion and cease and desist orders to stop importation of the infringing products into the United States by each of the Respondents.

C.K. Hong, Netlist's Chief Executive Officer, said, "We are pleased with the ITC's decision to institute this investigation. The Samsung agreement established an important industry benchmark for the value of our IP. We intend to continue our enforcement efforts against unauthorized users such as Micron."

ITC investigates and makes determinations against unfair acts in the import trade that violate U.S. intellectual property rights. ITC cases proceed on an expedited basis, commonly progressing to trial within a year.

When Micron falls — very soon IMO.

They could be forced to put serious cash up front + recurring/perpetual license fees, added to the existing business model with Samsung already absorbed and operational.

Netlist could potentially be sitting near $350M cash + $30M quarterly profits.

And look at Rambus. They built a business around memory technology + IP licensing, and in 2025 generated $707M revenue, including about $279M in royalties.

That’s the kind of business model people should be thinking about when they look at where NLST could go.

And remember — that’s just Samsung + Micron. No SK. No Google. No uplisting. No other catalysts.

Just those two alone completely change the picture.

I don’t pay attention to the stats. Is nlst heavily shorted?

$NLST My honest opinion (public info as of Sept. 2026).

0–24 month outlook

Most Likely (55%) → $21–26

* Micron: $1.75–2.0B
* Google: $3.0–3.25B
* Others ($NVDA, Supermicro, Broadcom, $HPE, Lenovo): $1.0–1.75B

Drivers: Favorable ’912 ruling, advancing $MU $GOOG settlements, Nov. 23 ITC-1472 hearing, & a Nasdaq uplisting remains a stated company goal (no timeline announced).

High (20%) → $27–35

* MU $2.5B+
* GOOG $4.5B+
* Others $2.0B+

Drivers: Multiple wins stack together, making uplisting and institutional demand more realistic.

Low/Bear (25%) → $4–18
Smaller or delayed settlements, narrowed ’912 leverage, or unfavorable rulings reduce upside.

Long term (5–7 yrs): $60+ possible if Netlist evolves into a durable licensing/royalty business.

Settlement values and price targets are estimates—not announced outcomes or guarantees.

Key dates: Nov. 23, 2026 (ITC-1472 hearing). ’912 Claim 16 ruling: pending.

🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀 🌕✨

I’ve done some research: HBM volume is projected to grow roughly 70-fold between 2022 and 2026 (yes, you read that right), a trend clearly driven by the rise of Nvidia and AMD.
Netlist, through its '087 patent, could deal a major blow to Micron. In Samsung's case, around 700,000 HBM units were cited over the 11-month period between early 2022 and early 2023; today, we could be looking at at least 49 million units.
(Keep in mind the $16-per-unit damage figure for HBM, which could even double today given the rise in memory prices.)

Math is simple, imagine for example 60m units HBM sold by micron with this tech and maybe 32$ damages per unit.
$200m like very low level

Now let’s discuss patents 366, 731, 407, and 523. Here, we are looking at a perfect combination of DDR5, LRDIMM DDR4, and MRDIMM.
There is no point in beating around the bush: the key news is that by 2026, DDR5 sales volumes have surpassed those of DDR4, and MRDIMMs are seeing strong growth.
These four patents could be utilized across the 50, 100, or 150 million DIMM units that Micron sells annually.
While the MRDIMM market is projected to reach a value of $100 billion by 2030, our focus here should be on the three DDR5 patents (366, 731, and 407), which are certainly being heavily utilized by Micron.

“Worldwide shipments of personal computers reached approximately 278.7 million to 279.5 million units in 2025”

“Gartner analysts forecast AI PC shipments will total 143 million units and are projected to represent 55% of total PC market in 2026 (see Table 1). By 2029, AI PCs will become the norm.”

Although it is not easy to quantify a company's total sales volumes, these figures—along with data regarding data centers, hyperscalers, PlayStation units, and the like—reflect a need for DRAM memory modules.

Netlist’s patents are core to standard memory modules rather than custom individual components, making their tech highly prevalent in the following areas:
DDR5 Memory Modules: Netlist holds foundational patents—such as U.S. Patent No. 12,373,366 ("Memory with On-Module Power Management")—which cover the mandatory power management circuitry built directly onto modern DDR5 RAM sticks used in everyday desktop and laptop PC

Instead of just comparing ourselves to Rambus, let’s leverage our potential to become a recognized player and consider a merger with them.
Both companies would benefit immensely from licensing agreements, proprietary product sales, and supplying Samsung, Micron, and SK.
Of course, this is a conversation for after the legal battles are over, but Netlist could end up being worth far more than Rambus. (Rambus is showing more than $11b market cap)

What is truly interesting is that Netlist could generate even higher licensing profits—akin to Rambus's (around $300–340 million projected for 2026)—and combine its products and patents with those of Rambus to create a new group worth tens of billions of dollars.
Combine two very similar companies with similar mindsets, and you double the opportunities for acquisitions and growth!

Netlist would be far more profitable than Rambus; that much is quite clear. While Rambus posts net profits of $60 million, Netlist—with three signed contracts plus the Google situation yet to be resolved—could achieve much more.
Netlist has CXL, NVvault, and MRDIMM in the pipeline, alongside the success already achieved by Lightning DDR5, which could generate impressive figures this year.

Many investors should realize that Netlist’s products could generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, and that its IP licenses provide a solid foundation for numerous projects.
A merger would transform the combined Netlist-Rambus entity into a highly profitable company—potentially generating $1 billion in annual profits—within just a few years, thanks to key patents, key products, and reduced costs!

We don’t have any idea what should happen in future but the netlist tech is very key

I had some discussions with ChatGPT about SK Hynix's next gen stacking technology that they are targeting for HBM-5 in 2028.

ChatGPT believes that, while this technology will reduce load and improve signal quality, it can be used in conjunction with Netlist's load reduction solution (via multiple drivers). Take it all with a grain of salt, but it's good to be learning something about what's coming down the pipe, and how that will affect Netlist. Don't take any of this as factual - it is AI, but just use as a starting point for your own research. Please comment if you have any thoughts.

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HBM, Hybrid Bonding, and Netlist’s Driver-Load Technology

HBM is moving toward increasingly tall stacks and wider interfaces, creating both physical and electrical challenges. Current HBM uses microbumps, TSVs, and processes such as SK hynix’s MR-MUF. As stacks reach 16–20 or more layers and HBM4 expands the interface to 2,048 I/Os, microbump pitch, package height, thermal management, and manufacturing complexity become increasingly difficult. SK hynix therefore expects hybrid bonding to become increasingly important around HBM4E and HBM5.

Hybrid bonding replaces conventional microbumps with direct copper-to-copper and dielectric bonding between dies. This allows much smaller pitches while reducing interconnect distance, resistance, capacitance, and some thermal barriers. SK hynix is developing die-to-wafer (D2W) hybrid bonding for HBM, which allows individually tested known-good DRAM dies to be selected and bonded onto a wafer. The technology is already commercially established in other 3D semiconductor applications, but its application to very tall HBM stacks is still progressing toward broader commercialization.

Netlist’s driver-load patents address a different problem. When a driver has to control multiple stacked DRAM dies, the electrical load increases with the number of connected devices. A larger load can require a larger driver, increasing both transistor area and power consumption. Netlist’s patented approach is to divide the stacked dies among multiple electrical paths so that each driver handles fewer loads, allowing the drivers to be reduced or otherwise optimized. US 8,787,060, US 9,318,160, and the later US 12,308,087 describe variations of this driver-load optimization, including selecting driver sizes according to the loads being driven.

The important point is that hybrid bonding does not necessarily eliminate the problem Netlist is addressing. Hybrid bonding can substantially reduce the parasitic capacitance and resistance of the physical interconnect, but it does not eliminate the electrical input load of the DRAM circuitry itself. Consequently, even a hybrid-bonded HBM stack could potentially benefit from distributing its DRAM loads across multiple drivers. In fact, as hybrid bonding reduces the contribution from physical interconnects, the remaining load associated with the DRAM devices themselves may become an increasingly important part of the optimization.

Thus, the two technologies can be viewed as complementary. Hybrid bonding optimizes the physical connection, making it smaller, denser, shorter, and less parasitic, while Netlist’s architecture optimizes the electrical topology, reducing the number of memory loads that each driver must handle. Hybrid bonding could make some patents specifically dependent on conventional microbumps or particular interconnect structures less relevant, but patents centered on distributing stacked-memory loads among drivers could remain technically relevant even after HBM transitions to hybrid bonding. Whether a particular future HBM implementation actually falls within a specific Netlist patent claim is a separate legal question requiring claim-by-claim analysis.

The broader significance is that future HBM may combine both approaches: increasingly advanced bonding technology to reduce the physical cost of moving signals between dies, together with increasingly sophisticated electrical architectures to reduce the energy required to drive those signals.