CompetitorsNarrow moat

Texas Instruments (TXN) — moat facet

Highly fragmented, in TI's own words — dozens of suppliers, and not one front where it is uncontested.

Texas Instruments describes its own market as highly fragmented, with competition from dozens of large and small companies including emerging suppliers particularly in Asia — and that description is the most useful thing in the filing about competition.1

Four competitors, four different problemsAnalog Devices~$36bn of acquisitions, not fabsChinese analog firmsDuty ruling due Sept 2026Infineon, ST, NXPDepth in 66% of TI revenueTI's former distributorsUnder 20% of revenue, rival linesTI's own description: highly fragmented, dozens of large and small suppliers.
There is no front on which this company is uncontested.

Analog is not a market with a share table worth arguing about. It is tens of thousands of sockets, each won on breadth, price, availability and support, against a different opponent depending on which socket. TI is the largest supplier and has never been close to a monopolist.

Analog Devices is the closest peer and the clearest strategic contrast. Where TI built capacity, ADI bought companies — Linear Technology in 2017, Maxim in 2021 — assembling breadth through acquisition rather than through construction. Both approaches produce a wide catalogue; only one of them puts $24 billion of fabs on the balance sheet, which is why TI's return on invested capital fell from 49.8% to 17.6% while ADI's did not fall as far.2 The comparison over the next three years is the real test of whether the fabs were worth it.

The European suppliers — Infineon, STMicroelectronics, NXP — compete where TI is most concentrated, in automotive and industrial, which together are 66% of TI's revenue.3 They are strong in the specific: power for electric vehicles, microcontrollers designed into particular platforms. TI's answer is breadth rather than depth, and it works better in industrial than in automotive.

The Chinese analog manufacturers are the only competitor with a policy tailwind, and they are the reason this page is rated the way it is. SG Micro, Silergy and others are moving up from commodity parts with aggressive pricing and government-backed localisation, into a market where about 50% of TI's shipments physically go.4 The anti-dumping investigation China opened in September 2025 is covered in this company's second root threat.

And TI's own former distributors are now a competitive channel, carrying rival catalogues to precisely the long-tail customers TI moved direct to reach.

The rating is narrow: TI wins on breadth and cost almost everywhere, and there is no front on which it is uncontested.

Moat trajectory: Narrowing

Chinese suppliers are advancing with policy behind them, the anti-dumping investigation is live, and the distributors TI left now sell against it in the long tail. Analog Devices and the European suppliers are where they were; the new pressure is all in one direction.

The number that tests this moat
Reported
Spending on R&D and SG&A, past twelve months
$3.9B

Analog is fragmented among dozens of suppliers, and TI's defence is a catalogue too broad to copy. Spending at this level keeps it growing; a rival matching it across the range is what would change the picture.

Source: Texas Instruments Form 10-Q, Q2 2026 ↗
Dig deeper
DIG DEEPER 01
Analog Devices: Built Versus Bought
TI spent $24 billion on fabs while Analog Devices spent it on Linear and Maxim. The next three years settle which was right.
DIG DEEPER 02
The Chinese Analog Firms, and the Duty
The only rival whose cost advantage is granted by a ministry rather than earned in a fab.
DIG DEEPER 03
Infineon, ST and NXP in the Two-Thirds
Depth against breadth, in the two end markets that are two-thirds of TI's revenue.
DIG DEEPER 04
The Distributors TI Fired
The channel TI walked away from is still calling on the customers TI reaches least well, for a fuller margin.
References
  1. ReportedTexas Instruments describes its own market as highly fragmented, with competition from dozens of large and small companies including emerging suppliers particularly in Asia — and that description is the most useful thing in the filing about competition.
    Texas Instruments Incorporated, Form 10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025 (SEC, CIK 97476) — Item 1, Business. TI's two reportable segments are Analog and Embedded Processing, with remaining activities in Other; operations began in 1930 and it has design, manufacturing or sales operations in more than 30 countries. The product portfolio includes more than 80,000 products. TI states four sustainable competitive advantages: a strong foundation of manufacturing and technology, a broad portfolio of analog and embedded processing products, the reach of its market channels, and the diversity and longevity of its products, markets and customer positions, which in combination it describes as difficult to replicate. An unpackaged chip built on a 300mm wafer costs about 40% less than one built on a 200mm wafer; TI continued qualifying and ramping production at its newest 300mm fabs in Richardson and Sherman, Texas, and Lehi, Utah, supporting external foundry transfers and internal transfers from its legacy 150mm facilities, and expects to maintain sufficient internal capacity to meet the majority of its production needs, offering customers geopolitically dependable capacity. TI sells to over 100,000 customers, with about half of revenue derived from customers outside its largest 50; more than 80% of revenue was direct in 2025, including TI.com. End markets as a percentage of 2025 revenue: industrial 33%, automotive 33%, personal electronics 21%, data centre 9%, communications equipment 3%, and calculators about 1%. About 60% of revenue comes from customers headquartered outside the United States; revenue from end customers headquartered in China represented about 20% of revenue in 2025, while revenue from products shipped into China represented about 50%. The analog and embedded processing markets remain highly fragmented, with significant global competition from dozens of large and small companies including emerging companies, particularly in Asia. The company's stated objective is the growth of free cash flow per share over the long term. — FY2025 · publ. 2026-02-06 · source ↗
  2. Moat Explorer calcBoth approaches produce a wide catalogue; only one of them puts $24 billion of fabs on the balance sheet, which is why TI's return on invested capital fell from 49.8% to 17.6% while ADI's did not fall as far.
    Texas Instruments Incorporated, Form 10-K FY2025 — Management's Discussion and Analysis, cash flow statement and the free-cash-flow reconciliation. Cash flow from operations $7,153M (2024 $6,318M), 40.5% of revenue; capital expenditures $4,550M (2024 $4,820M); proceeds from CHIPS Act incentives $335M; free cash flow $2,938M (2024 $1,498M), 16.6% of revenue. In 2025 TI invested $3.94bn in R&D and SG&A, invested $4.55bn in capital expenditures and returned $6.48bn to shareholders. Dividends paid were $4,999M against $4,795M in 2024 and $4,557M in 2023, reflecting an increased dividend rate; $1,477M was used to repurchase 8.5 million shares against $929M for 4.7 million shares in 2024. Net proceeds of $1,199M were received from the issuance of fixed-rate long-term debt and $750M of maturing debt retired. Over the ten-year period from 2016 to 2025 TI allocated $109 billion, of which about $24 billion went to capital expenditures, and states it is near completion of its six-year elevated capital expenditure cycle. The dividend was raised 4% to $1.42 per share per quarter, marking 22 consecutive years of increases, since extended to 23. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, enacted 4 July 2025, provided for expensing of US research and eligible capital expenditure and increased the CHIPS Act investment tax credit; TI expects the effective tax rate and tax-related cash payments to be lower than under prior law from 2026. — FY2025 · publ. 2026-02-06 · source ↗
  3. ReportedThe European suppliers — Infineon, STMicroelectronics, NXP — compete where TI is most concentrated, in automotive and industrial, which together are 66% of TI's revenue.
    Texas Instruments Incorporated, Form 10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025 (SEC, CIK 97476) — Item 1, Business. TI's two reportable segments are Analog and Embedded Processing, with remaining activities in Other; operations began in 1930 and it has design, manufacturing or sales operations in more than 30 countries. The product portfolio includes more than 80,000 products. TI states four sustainable competitive advantages: a strong foundation of manufacturing and technology, a broad portfolio of analog and embedded processing products, the reach of its market channels, and the diversity and longevity of its products, markets and customer positions, which in combination it describes as difficult to replicate. An unpackaged chip built on a 300mm wafer costs about 40% less than one built on a 200mm wafer; TI continued qualifying and ramping production at its newest 300mm fabs in Richardson and Sherman, Texas, and Lehi, Utah, supporting external foundry transfers and internal transfers from its legacy 150mm facilities, and expects to maintain sufficient internal capacity to meet the majority of its production needs, offering customers geopolitically dependable capacity. TI sells to over 100,000 customers, with about half of revenue derived from customers outside its largest 50; more than 80% of revenue was direct in 2025, including TI.com. End markets as a percentage of 2025 revenue: industrial 33%, automotive 33%, personal electronics 21%, data centre 9%, communications equipment 3%, and calculators about 1%. About 60% of revenue comes from customers headquartered outside the United States; revenue from end customers headquartered in China represented about 20% of revenue in 2025, while revenue from products shipped into China represented about 50%. The analog and embedded processing markets remain highly fragmented, with significant global competition from dozens of large and small companies including emerging companies, particularly in Asia. The company's stated objective is the growth of free cash flow per share over the long term. — FY2025 · publ. 2026-02-06 · source ↗
  4. ReportedSG Micro, Silergy and others are moving up from commodity parts with aggressive pricing and government-backed localisation, into a market where about 50% of TI's shipments physically go.
    Coverage of China's anti-dumping investigation into American-made analog chips, September 2025. China's Ministry of Commerce opened the probe on 13 September 2025 into certain American-made analog integrated circuits, targeting commodity interface ICs and gate driver ICs and naming products sold by Texas Instruments and Analog Devices among others. The anti-dumping investigation period covers 1 January to 31 December 2024 and the injury investigation period 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2024; the investigation is normally scheduled to be completed by 13 September 2026, extendable by a further six months in special circumstances. China's Trade Remedy and Investigation Bureau issued questionnaires seeking data on sales activities in China, including comparisons of costs and profits in the home country and in China, with responses required within 37 days. A duty regime could prompt Chinese manufacturers to pay more for US-origin analog chips, switch to domestic alternatives or pivot to non-US vendors. — 2025-2026 · publ. 2025-09-15 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 23, 2026