Northrop sees growing commercial market for microelectronics products

A worker handles delicate microelectronics inside a Northrop Grumman semiconductor foundry. (Northrop Grumman)

WASHINGTON — Northrop Grumman is bullish on expanding its microelectronics business to commercial customers, with the company undergoing a review of the business that could lead to a future spinoff or Pentagon investment, its chief executive said today.

In the company’s first major public statement since losing the Navy’s F/A-XX sixth-generation fighter competition , Northrop CEO Kathy Warden hinted that major changes to the company’s microelectronics unit are being considered.

“For more than a decade, we’ve leveraged our expertise in cutting-edge semiconductors and our secure US boundaries to pioneer leading quantum computing technologies,” Warden told investors during an earnings call this morning. “Today, we see a significant opportunity to scale this transformative technology for commercial and government customers.

“To fully realize its potential, we are actively evaluating strategic alternatives and believe we are uniquely positioned to lead in this field,” she said, adding that the company intends to share more details “in the coming months.”

Asked by analysts whether those changes included a sell-off or spin-off of the microelectronics business, Warden acknowledged that those two options are among those being considered, but that no final decisions have been made.

“We could continue to solely invest in it ourselves with the support of our current shareholders. We could think about broadening that base of investments, or we could think, as you noted, about separating the business,” Warden said.

“All of those options are on the table, and certainly the degree to which we do that and the timing are all the things that we would be taking under advisement here in the coming months,” she said.

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Warden also did not preclude a direct investment from the Pentagon as an option. The departme nt has announced a $1 billion equity stake in L3Harris’s missile solutions spin off, although that split has been postponed until mid-2027 .

“We believe there is such a strong commercial application for this that we are not wanting to be overly dependent on any government, particularly the US government in this case. But all options are on the table,” Warden said.

The company’s microelectronics business — known as the Northrop Grumman Microelectronics Center — is made up of three government-accredited production facilities: two semiconductor foundries in California and Maryland and an advanced packaging facility in Florida.

While the majority of the company’s current work on microelectronics is geared toward the US government, Warden said those customers are “very open” to Northrop selling some of those products on the commercial market — which would also allow the company to sell those items to the government as commercial items.

“It’s an opportunity that, as a company, we are going to take advantage of in complete partnership with the government, but do it in a way that also opens up access to commercial markets that before we did not have as strong as an opportunity to pursue because of the restricted nature of the work we were doing,” she said.

One new technology that Warden said could have commercial applications is the Fortitude chip , which Northrop unveiled earlier this month. A gallium nitride chip the size of a grain of rice, Fortitude is designed to deliver three times more power and 20 times better signal quality as current chips, with applications including radar, GPs and future 6G networks, she said.

While most of the company’s current work in the sector centers on government customers, in previous decades, advances in microelectronics technology pioneered by Northrop have been harnessed in commercial technologies. One such example are the microchips used in cell phones during the early 2000s, according to the company .

Last fall, Northrop announced that it was no w open to sel ling dozens of microelectronics components, made in government-certified facilities on US soil, to other aerospace and defense companies as a merchant supplier — a break from its previous position of manufacturing them only for Northrop-made products.

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一名工人在诺斯罗普·格鲁曼公司半导体代工厂内操作精密微电子元件。（诺斯罗普·格鲁曼公司）

华盛顿——诺斯罗普·格鲁曼公司首席执行官今天表示，该公司对将微电子业务扩展到商业客户充满信心，目前正在对该业务进行审查，这可能会导致未来的分拆或五角大楼的投资。

在诺斯罗普公司输掉海军 F/A-XX 第六代战斗机竞标后，该公司首次发表重要公开声明，首席执行官凯西·沃登暗示，公司正在考虑对其微电子部门进行重大改革。

“十多年来，我们利用自身在尖端半导体领域的专业知识和美国安全的边境环境，开创了领先的量子计算技术，”沃登在今天上午的财报电话会议上告诉投资者。“如今，我们看到了将这项变革性技术推广至商业和政府客户的巨大机遇。”

她表示：“为了充分发挥其潜力，我们正在积极评估各种战略选择，并相信我们在这个领域拥有独特的领先地位。”她还补充说，公司打算“在未来几个月内”分享更多细节。

当分析师询问这些变化是否包括出售或分拆微电子业务时，沃登承认这两个选项都在考虑之列，但尚未做出最终决定。

沃登说：“我们可以继续在现有股东的支持下自行投资。我们可以考虑扩大投资范围，或者正如你所提到的，我们可以考虑分拆业务。”

“所有这些选项都在考虑之中，当然，我们采取这些措施的程度和时机都是我们未来几个月会认真考虑的问题，”她说。

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沃登也没有排除五角大楼直接投资的可能性。国防部已宣布将斥资10亿美元收购L3Harris导弹解决方案分拆公司的股权，尽管分拆计划已推迟至2027年中期。

沃登表示：“我们相信这项技术具有非常强大的商业应用前景，因此我们不想过度依赖任何政府，尤其是在这种情况下的美国政府。但所有选项都在考虑之中。”

该公司的微电子业务——即诺斯罗普·格鲁曼微电子中心——由三个获得政府认可的生产设施组成：加利福尼亚州和马里兰州的两家半导体代工厂以及佛罗里达州的一家先进封装工厂。

虽然该公司目前在微电子领域的大部分工作都是面向美国政府，但沃登表示，这些客户“非常乐意”让诺斯罗普公司在商业市场上销售其中一些产品——这也将使该公司能够将这些产品作为商业产品出售给政府。

“这是一个机会，作为一家公司，我们将与政府全面合作，充分利用这一机会，同时也要以一种能够开拓商业市场的方式来实现这一目标。此前，由于我们工作的性质受到限制，我们没有如此强大的机会去追求这些市场。”她说道。

沃登表示，诺斯罗普公司本月早些时候发布的Fortitude芯片是一项可能具有商业应用前景的新技术。这款氮化镓芯片只有米粒大小，其设计功率是现有芯片的三倍，信号质量是现有芯片的20倍，应用领域包括雷达、全球定位系统（GP）和未来的6G网络。

虽然该公司目前在该领域的业务主要集中在政府客户，但在过去的几十年里，诺斯罗普公司开创的微电子技术进步已被应用于商业技术中。该公司表示，其中一个例子是21世纪初手机中使用的微芯片。

去年秋天，诺斯罗普公司宣布，现在愿意向其他航空航天和国防公司出售数十种在美国政府认证的工厂生产的微电子元件，作为商业供应商——这与该公司之前仅为诺斯罗普公司自身产品生产这些元件的做法截然不同。

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