Stefan Arnold
Head of Investor Relations

So I would suggest we start. So again, thank you for participating in this IR talk. And again, good afternoon, morning or evening from wherever you are listening today.

So this is now our last call for Q2 or half year 1 2026. And as always, some notes at the very beginning. So this — with this, we are following the recommendations of the ESMA. This means we are just sharing, of course, publicly known information. The call was made accessible to everyone who is interested via our website. And if we would maybe show any documents later on, which I would expect not to happen, then this will be, of course, made available to all nonparticipants as well. And another hint, this call will not be recorded by us, but I think there will be some transcripts produced by service companies.

To start with, let me first summarize the most important points of Q1 2026. So sales revenues in Q1 amounted to around EUR 318 million, which corresponds to a reported growth rate of 8%. Adjusted for negative FX effects, the growth amounted to more than 11%. Here, it is important to know that looking at the development of the past month, we see that there is a stronger prebuying effect than we initially expected. To be honest, we cannot, of course, quantify that in detail. But looking at the strong organic growth in Q1, we would estimate that 2 or 3 — between 2 and

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President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that Taiwan is doubling the size of the chipmaking plants under construction in Arizona, adding that it could help the U.S. share of the chip market rise to 50% by the end of his term.

“We’re creating more jobs, we have more people working today than have ever worked in the history of our country. It’s great and that’s before these places opened,” Trump said before his departure from Joint Base Andrews.

The president said that new chip plants will be opening up over the next year and that chipmakers from Taiwan, such as the industry leader TSMC, are adding to their investments in the U.S.

“The biggest company in the world, actually, the chipmaker. But they’re coming in, they’re building in Arizona, and they just announced they’re going to double the size. We could have 50% of the chip market by the time I leave office. You know what we have now? Nothing,” Trump added.

US, TAIWAN COME TO $250B ‘AMERICA FIRST’ TARIFF DEAL OVER SEMICONDUCTORS

FOX Business reached out to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) for comment.

TSMC has previously announced large investments in building chipmaking facilities in the U.S., including an announcement of a series of investments that ultimately totaled $65 billion in 2024 as the U.S. CHIPS Act was signed into law that November. That investment covered three chip fabrication plants in Arizona.

Then in March 2025, TSMC announced another $100 billion investment to help build a self-sustaining supply chain for artificial intelligence (AI) chips in the U.S.

That $100 billion investment included three new fabrication plants in Phoenix that would focus on next-gen AI chips for computer processors and smartphones, plus two advanced packaging facilities in Arizona and a center for research and development on next-generation technologies.

TSMC said at the time that the project was the largest single foreign direct investment in U.S. history and would support 40,000 construction jobs over four years plus tens of thousands of high-paying jobs in chipmanufacturing and R&D.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Zerodha founder and CEO Nithin Kamath on Tuesday shared what he believes has been the driving force behind the brokerage’s growth, saying the company’s success has come from putting customer interests ahead of aggressive expansion and avoiding conventional growth tactics.

In a post on X, Kamath said one of the most common questions he gets from young entrepreneurs at industry events and through Rainmatter is what makes Zerodha different. He directed users to a company page outlining the principles that have shaped the business since its inception.

According to Zerodha, its core philosophy revolves around prioritising customer interests over growth, maintaining transparency and building products that avoid nudging users into unnecessary trading or financial decisions.

The brokerage said it does not advertise, spam customers or use incentives to encourage higher trading activity. Instead, it has relied almost entirely on word-of-mouth referrals to grow from an unknown startup in 2010 into one of India’s largest stockbroking platforms.

Zerodha said more than 1.6 crore customers now trust the platform with around Rs 6 lakh crore worth of equity investments, while the brokerage accounts for nearly 15% of India’s daily retail exchange trading volumes.

Kamath also attributed Zerodha’s culture to its decision to remain bootstrapped and profitable, allowing it to operate without pressure from external investors. The company said employees are not assigned metric-based growth targets such as the number of accounts opened, app installs, orders placed or revenue generated.
Instead, the focus has remained on improving product quality and customer experience rather than pursuing rapid growth at any cost.The comments come at a time when fintech firms are increasingly competing for users through marketing campaigns, cashbacks and incentive-driven customer acquisition strategies. Zerodha has long stood apart by eschewing paid advertising and maintaining a low-profile approach to customer acquisition.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)