tkal · Corsair Q3 2026: The Raise Is the Beat. Memory Set a Record, and Its Profit Peak Is Already Behind It.

Corsair Q3 2026: The Raise Is the Beat. Memory Set a Record, and Its Profit Peak Is Already Behind It.

Corsair beat its guide by $17.0M and raised the year, but the raise is that beat plus $3.8M. Memory was 45.6% of revenue and the extra dollar earned 15.6%, while inventory plus a new prepaid line reached $384.2M. Our call: December-quarter memory gross profit below the third quarter's $35.7M; $35.7M or more refutes it.

Published November 6, 2026 · Post-print analysis · Corsair Gaming, Inc. · CRSR · NASDAQ · Q3 2026, quarter ended September 30, 2026 · reported after the close November 5, 2026 · figures from the Form 8-K Ex. 99.1 and Form 10-Q filed the same day, and earlier filings · Committed analyst read, not advice

The raise is the beat

On November 5 Corsair reported $367.0M of revenue, $17.0M above the top of its $320M to $350M guide, and adjusted EBITDA of $22.4M, also above the top of its range. The release headline says "Full-Year Outlook Raised," and the full-year revenue midpoint did rise, by about $36M. The stock opened the next morning at $11.27 against a $12.80 close, 12.0% lower, and was at $12.13 by 10:22 PT, down 5.2%. A company that beat and raised sold off. The arithmetic below is why I think the tape read it correctly.

Start with the raise. The August guide for the third quarter had a $335M midpoint. Corsair delivered $367.0M, so the beat against that midpoint was $32.0M. The full-year midpoint rose about $36M. That leaves $3.8M for the fourth quarter: August's guide implied $431.2M for the December quarter and today's midpoint is $435M. Do the same with profit and the gap closes completely. August implied $39.9M of fourth-quarter adjusted EBITDA; the midpoint now is $40M. The full-year EBITDA midpoint rose about $3M, and the third-quarter beat against its own midpoint was $2.9M.

Now add what changed between August and November. Trak Racer closed on August 4, and management says it starts contributing in the fourth quarter, with the third quarter immaterial. Peripherals backlog ended September elevated by $6M to $7M, on the CFO's figure, and that revenue moves into December too. Two things landed in the fourth quarter that were not in the August number, and the fourth-quarter revenue midpoint moved $3.8M with no change to profit. So the rest of the December quarter went down, or at best stayed where it was. "We are raising our full-year outlook," the CEO said. Decode: Corsair raised the part of the year that has already happened.

My call: December-quarter memory gross profit comes in below the third quarter's $35.7M, in the seasonally largest quarter of the year, even with a record memory build on the shelf going into it. $35.7M or more refutes it. It settles when the 10-K gives full-year memory gross profit, which is due around the fourth-quarter report (the calendar feed shows February 11, 2027, tentative). The rest of this page is the case: memory is now the largest line in the company, its margin has fallen for three quarters, and the extra dollar it sold in September already earned close to the old mid-teens margin.

Of $367.0M in revenue, cost of revenue took $269.2M and left $97.8M of gross profit, 26.7%. Filed operating expenses of $99.5M exceed that, so the GAAP line is a $1.6M operating loss and a $2.4M net loss, which a flow chart cannot draw. The chart shows the company's non-GAAP bridge instead: $19.2M of add-backs (amortization, stock comp, deal and legal costs, inventory step-up) leave $80.3M of expense, $17.5M of adjusted operating income and $14.8M of adjusted net income. Memory is 45.6% of revenue.

The numbers

Net revenue

$367.0M

+6.1% Y/Y · +16.8% Q/Q

Adjusted EBITDA

$22.4M

+38.2% Y/Y · 6.1% margin

GAAP operating income

−$1.6M

from −$5.6M

Memory revenue

$167.3M

+42.8% Y/Y · 45.6% of revenue

Memory gross margin

21.3%

from 34.8% in Q4 2025 · guide 18–20%

Operating cash flow

−$14.1M

from $74.8M in Q2

Corsair Q3 2026 · $ millions unless stated

Line	Q3 26	Q2 26	Q3 25	Y/Y
Sales
Net revenue	367.0	314.3	345.8	+6.1%
Memory	167.3	123.0	117.2	+42.8%
Other components, systems	83.2	75.4	115.9	−28.2%
Peripherals	116.5	115.9	112.7	+3.4%
Profit
Gross profit	97.8	104.3	93.1	+5.1%
Memory	35.7	28.7	19.6	+81.6%
Other components, systems	17.1	23.5	29.2	−41.3%
Peripherals	45.0	52.0	44.3	+1.7%
Adjusted EBITDA	22.4	30.8	16.2	+38.2%
Cash and stock
Operating cash flow	−14.1	74.8	−37.0	n/m
Inventories	344.6	264.5	314.5	+9.6%
Cash and restricted cash	136.2	193.9	66.1	+106.2%

Source: Corsair Form 8-K Ex. 99.1 and Form 10-Q, November 5, 2026 (unaudited). Q2 line profits derived by subtraction. Notes ↓

Two things to hold in mind before the argument. The second quarter carried about $15.6M of one-time tariff refund in gross profit, about $14.3M in adjusted EBITDA, so the fall from $30.8M to $22.4M overstates the sequential slide. And the GAAP line is still a loss: $19.2M of add-backs sit between the $1.6M operating loss and the $17.5M of adjusted operating income.

Paid subscribers

The rest of this dive is for paid subscribers.

The headline numbers are above. The 10 sections below carry the mechanism, the peer read, the valuation work, and the dated tests that decide it.

Memory: the record revenue and the falling profit
Everything that is not memory
The inventory, and the line beside it
What the December guide says
The funding stack
Connecting the dots
Valuation
The strongest case against this read
What we'd watch
Bottom line

Unlock the full dive →

Not ready to pay? Get the free Monday issue and one full dive a week by email.

Already a subscriber? Sign in.

Sources

Notes. All quarterly figures are from the filings listed here; those not filed directly are derived. Q2 2025 memory gross profit $16.3M = nine months $59.8M − Q1 $23.8M − Q3 $19.6M. Q4 2025 memory revenue $156.1M and gross profit $54.4M = full year $519.4M and $114.2M less nine months $363.2M and $59.8M; the release rounds that margin to 35%. Q2 2026 memory gross profit $28.7M = nine months $111.4M − $47.0M − $35.7M. Q2 2026 other components gross profit $23.5M = segment $52.2M − memory $28.7M. Memory growth: $167.299M ÷ $117.179M is 42.77%; the release says 43% and the 10-Q prints 42.7%. Incremental margin: ($35.652M − $28.732M) ÷ ($167.299M − $123.014M) = 15.6%. August-implied Q4 revenue: full-year midpoint $1,435M − first half $668.8M − Q3 midpoint $335M = $431.2M; EBITDA: $126M − $66.6M − $19.5M = $39.9M, as the August page stated. Inventory bridge: memory about $37M is the company's figure; acquired inventory $15.0M is the purchase price allocation (the call cited about $13M, net of what has since been sold); all other is by subtraction. Inventory cash flow: $104.6M ≈ ($344.6M − $264.5M − $15.0M) + $39.6M; the 10-Q says the non-cash reclassification is excluded from the statement, and the June prepaid balance is not separately disclosed. Largest customer revenue = 22.2% × $367.0M and 29.5% × $345.8M, both rounded percentages, so approximate. Implied Q4 memory is a tkal construct: peripherals $164.9M × 1.10 or 1.15, other components $115.9M × (1 − 28.2%). Valuation: $12.13 × 109.225M shares; debt $6.1M + $110.6M; cash and restricted cash $136.0M on the balance sheet excluding noncurrent restricted cash.
Corsair Gaming — Form 8-K Ex. 99.1, November 5, 2026: revenue 367,025 / 345,763; gross profit 97,826 / 93,096; operating loss (1,641) / (5,627); net loss (2,387) / (10,392); adjusted EBITDA 22,373 / 16,187; adjusted net income 14,809 / 6,789; adjusted operating income 17,544 / 13,537; inventories 344,638; cash and restricted cash 136,207 / 66,053; operating cash flow (14,055) / (36,991); guide for Q4 and FY 2026.
Corsair Gaming — Form 10-Q, quarter ended September 30, 2026: memory 167,299 / 117,179; memory gross profit 35,652 / 19,632; other components 83,245 / 115,924, gross profit 17,135 / 29,172; raw materials 70,436, work in progress 41,363, finished goods 232,839; prepaid inventory 39,560 / 856; reciprocal accrual $40.8M / $1.0M; Trak Racer allocation; purchase commitments $2.0M / $3.9M; credit facility; customer concentration; geography.
Corsair Gaming — Form 10-K for 2025 (DRAM IC sourcing, Taiwan facility, FY 2023 to FY 2025 memory margin); Forms 10-Q for Q1 and Q3 2025 and Q1 and Q2 2026; Forms 8-K Ex. 99.1 for August 6, May 7 and February 12, 2026.
Corsair Q3 2026 call transcript, The Motley Fool, and Gloom transcript summary: memory margin sequence, 67% price rise, backlog, Trak Racer, "deferred, not lost," mid-teens long-term margin (the last two via the summary, which warns of transcription errors). Secondary sources, not filings.
Share price, open and prior close via the Robinhood market data feed, retrieved November 6, 2026, 10:22 PT, intraday; market data, not filing figures.
tkal — Corsair Q2 2026, the open calls graded here; Team Group Q3 2026 (49.27% margin, 3.35x cost); Phison Q3 FY26 (59.7%, 65.3%, 38.8%); AMD Q3 2026 (Client $2,949M, +7.2%); Samsung 3Q26 (DRAM price, secondary and unverified); Biwin Q3 2026.

Corsair Q3 2026: The Raise Is the Beat. Memory Set a Record, and Its Profit Peak Is Already Behind It.

The raise is the beat

The numbers

The rest of this dive is for paid subscribers.

This is one print. The pipeline runs every week.