--- title: "Delta faces Vicor at the US ITC a second time, with royalties now $66.6 million a quarter" description: "Vicor's Section 337 case over AI-server power delivery names Delta Electronics, Foxconn and Quanta among twenty respondents, but Delta is the one that already lost to Vicor at the ITC in February 2025 and survived by redesigning around the patents." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Chips" published: 2026-10-26T15:09:58.588Z modified: 2026-10-26T15:09:58.588Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/delta-faces-vicor-at-the-us-itc-a-second-time-with-royalties-now-66-6-million-a-quarter language: en keywords: "Vicor, Delta Electronics, Patents, ITC, AI Servers" --- # Delta faces Vicor at the US ITC a second time, with royalties now $66.6 million a quarter > Vicor's Section 337 case over AI-server power delivery names Delta Electronics, Foxconn and Quanta among twenty respondents, but Delta is the one that already lost to Vicor at the ITC in February 2025 and survived by redesigning around the patents. ## A second knock on Delta's door On September 9, 2026, [Vicor](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/vicor) Corporation, a Massachusetts power-module maker, filed a [Section 337 complaint](https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/usitc-institutes-investigation-of-vertical-power-delivery-vpd-modules-and-computing-systems-infringing-a-vicor-patent-1036616308) at the US International Trade Commission alleging that imported AI-server power delivery systems infringe its patents [1][2]. On October 9 the commission instituted the investigation, naming [Delta Electronics](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/delta-electronics), Hon Hai ([Foxconn](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/foxconn-hon-hai-precision-industry)) and [Quanta Computer](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/quanta-computer) among twenty respondents [1][2]. Vicor seeks a Limited Exclusion Order and cease-and-desist orders, remedies that block imports rather than impose tariffs [1][2]. Delta has been here before. In a final determination of February 2025, the commission found a Section 337 violation in an earlier Vicor case against Delta and issued the same pair of orders; Delta survived by developing alternative products designed around the patents [2]. Analyst Tsai Ming-han argues that precedent is instructive: Delta, which designs and manufactures its own power products, sits closer to the technological heart of the dispute than Foxconn and Quanta, whose server assembly leaves the disputed parts with their suppliers [2]. ## The royalties running through the case The money at stake is no longer small. Vicor's [royalty revenue more than tripled to $66.6 million](https://seekingalpha.com/news/4654595-vicor-revenue-surges-on-ai-demand-as-earnings-miss-estimates) in the third quarter of 2026, about 34 percent of its $197.1 million total, against roughly 20 percent a year earlier [3]. That licensing income carries the margins of a patent, not a factory: Vicor's gross margin reached 68.3 percent, up 10.8 points [3]. *Chart: **Vicor's royalties tripled to $66.6 million as the ITC case opened** Column chart comparing Vicor's product revenue and royalty revenue in Q3 2025 and Q3 2026, showing royalty revenue tripling to $66.6 million.* *Vicor's third-quarter royalty and product revenue, millions of US dollars, reported October 20, 2026. Sources: Seeking Alpha [3]. [3]* The complaint itself is part of the sales machinery. Vicor disclosed that the ITC investigation has already prompted inquiries from potential licensees, and its press release tells OEMs and hyperscalers that computing systems containing components from respondents will need a Vicor license to enter the United States, with royalty rates that escalate as the case advances toward an exclusion order [1][3]. Delta's choice is therefore a toll or a gate: pay royalties on the modules inside every AI server, or lose the US market for the accused products. *Chart: **Vicor's revenue has climbed about 71% from its early 2024 trough** Column chart of Vicor's quarterly revenue from Q1 2024 through Q2 2026, rising from a $84 million trough to $143 million.* *Vicor's quarterly revenue, millions of US dollars, from its SEC filings, retrieved October 26, 2026. Source: Vicor SEC filings [4]. [4]* ## Who bleeds first, and when Neither camp reports damage yet. Delta says the relevant products remain unaffected and it will respond through legal procedures; Quanta will require its suppliers to address the disputed components; Foxconn reports no material impact on production, shipments or customers [2]. Taiwan's trade agency notes these investigations typically run 12 to 16 months, which gives respondents time to contest, redesign or license [2]. That runway is the whole game. Delta ran this playbook once and lived: its redesigns passed where its original designs did not [2]. The risk this time is scope, since the respondent list reaches past Taiwan to Infineon, Luxshare, [Monolithic Power Systems](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/monolithic-power-systems), [Flex](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/flex), [Celestica](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/celestica) and Ingrasys, meaning an exclusion order could tangle sourcing across the whole AI-server chain [1]. Investors need not overreact to the filing alone, but Delta's AI-power premium now carries a documented, precedented legal overhang its assembly peers do not share. The next scheduled reading is the ITC's target date inside that 12-to-16-month window; watch Delta's design-around disclosures before Vicor's next royalty line [1][2][3]. ## Takeaway Vicor's second ITC case names Delta among twenty respondents, but Delta already beat a 2025 exclusion order by redesigning around the patents; the real question is whether licensing revenue now big enough to carry Vicor's margins translates into another design-around or a toll on every AI server. ## Sources 1. [Markets Insider (GlobeNewswire), USITC Institutes Investigation of Vertical Power Delivery (VPD) Modules and Computing Systems Infringing a Vicor Patent, 12 October 2026](https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/usitc-institutes-investigation-of-vertical-power-delivery-vpd-modules-and-computing-systems-infringing-a-vicor-patent-1036616308) 2. [Taiwan Current News, Expert: US patent probe poses limited near-term risk to Foxconn, Quanta and Delta, 23 October 2026](https://www.tcn.tw/news/6885659) 3. [Seeking Alpha, Vicor revenue surges on AI demand as earnings miss estimates, 20 October 2026](https://seekingalpha.com/news/4654595-vicor-revenue-surges-on-ai-demand-as-earnings-miss-estimates) 4. [Vicor, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 26 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0000751978) --- Delta faces Vicor at the US ITC a second time, with royalties now $66.6 million a quarter — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/delta-faces-vicor-at-the-us-itc-a-second-time-with-royalties-now-66-6-million-a-quarter