Raspberry Pi in an AI sweet spot
Shares in the UK tech firm are up 50% in just four months but are below their January peak. City writer Graeme Evans looks at today’s positive reaction to annual results.
2nd April 2025 14:07
by Graeme Evans from interactive investor
King Charles and Raspberry Pi chief commercial officer Mike Buffham at the Sony UK Technology Centre last summer. Photo: Phil Noble - WPA Pool/Getty Images.
Retail investors who bought a slice of Raspberry Pi Holdings (LSE:RPI) in last summer’s IPO were today given more reasons for cheer after a strong reception to the tech firm’s maiden annual results.
A period of industry de-stocking dented the headline 2024 figures but guidance for “solid and sustainable sales growth“ in 2025 have helped to lift the shares back near 500p.
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This means investors who got the full allocation of 365 shares in June’s oversubscribed 280p-a-share IPO are sitting on a paper profit of about £800.
Their gains were considerably larger at the end of January, having seen the maker of high-performance, low-cost general-purpose computing platforms trade above 750p for a valuation of more than £1 billion.
The new year rally came as the company reported an increasing number of discussions with industrial-focused original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
Interest in the FTSE 250 company also benefited from speculation over the implications of DeepSeek’s creation of a powerful AI model at a cheaper price.
Broker Peel Hunt said in January that these efficiency gains positioned AI within Raspberry Pi’s sweet spot “without requiring Raspberry Pi to evolve to match where AI is headed”.
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AI accelerator products were among the company’s 22 launches during 2024, an increase of 16 on 2023’s figure despite the distraction of the IPO and ongoing economic uncertainty.
As well as products aimed at its education and enthusiast customers, these new offerings included an expanded range of applications using Raspberry Pi’s Compute Module.
The product line is already in use by over 1,000 industrial customers, with shipments given a further boost by November’s strategic partnership with an Italian provider of IoT solutions, payment systems and industrial hardware.
Chief executive and founder Eben Upton said the IPO had “undoubtedly” boosted awareness of Raspberry Pi among the engineers and C-suite of major OEMs.
He added: “As our platforms and solutions evolve, we aspire to become the compute partner of choice for these companies, allowing them to outsource the intelligence element at the heart of their products while retaining control of application-specific design and engineering.”
With the industry inventory channels now back to normal after a period of de-stocking in 2024, Upton anticipates a steady build-up in demand throughout this year.
This includes increased traction with direct-to-OEM engagement, which should complement the company’s existing reseller and licensee channels.
Analysts at investment bank Jefferies expect that unit volumes will rise 13% to eight million boards in 2025, leading to revenues growth of 12% to $291 million (£224.7 million).
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With the contribution from new products set to further accelerate into 2026, the bank has upgraded the stock from Hold to Buy but with a lower price target of 650p. .
Peel Hunt reiterated its Add stance and 585p target following the results, which it said were broadly in line with expectations after annual revenues fell 2% to $259.5 million (£201 million) and adjusted earnings dropped 15% to $37.2 million (£28.8 million).
The broker forecasts earnings growth of 16% for this year, despite moving to the lower end of the consensus range as it expects geopolitics to continue to weigh on demand and the decision-making environment.
Raspberry Pi began trading in 2012 and has sold well over 60 million units for industrial internet-of-things purposes, as well as to enthusiasts and educators in markets worldwide.
The IPO raised £143 million for the Raspberry Pi Foundation as it continues its work in curriculum development, teacher training, non-formal learning, and research. The foundation owns 46.7% of the company’s shares.
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