Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST) reported fiscal 2026 third-quarter revenue of $118.4 million, up 23% from a year earlier, marking its 14th consecutive quarter of growth. The company raised its full-year revenue outlook and said it remains on track to reach adjusted EBITDA breakeven in the fiscal fourth quarter.
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder Emily Leproust said growth was supported by demand across the company’s DNA synthesis, protein solutions and next-generation sequencing businesses, with AI-enabled drug discovery emerging as a significant driver. “Today, we are seeing that opportunity mature into a durable growth engine,” Leproust said of AI-enabled discovery.
Revenue Growth Led by DNA Synthesis and Therapeutics
Twist shipped 369,000 genes during the quarter and reported continued quarter-over-quarter growth in genes manufactured for data characterization. Chief Financial Officer Adam Laponis said the company’s therapeutic revenue increased 49% year over year to $40.4 million, reflecting increased product adoption by pharmaceutical companies, dry-lab biotech companies and large technology companies pursuing therapeutic discovery, including AI-enabled programs.
Diagnostics revenue increased 15% year over year to $43.8 million and grew 10% sequentially, supported by growth among top accounts. Academic and government revenue rose 32% year over year and 21% sequentially to $15.5 million, which Laponis attributed to strength in U.S. accounts and the return of several large customers during the quarter.
- Americas revenue increased 30% year over year to approximately $77.3 million.
- EMEA revenue rose 9% to $33.6 million.
- APAC revenue increased 26% to $7.5 million.
- Global Supply Partner revenue was $12.9 million, compared with $13 million a year earlier.
Twist said its top 10 NGS Applications customers accounted for approximately 48% of NGS Applications revenue in the quarter. The company served 657 NGS Applications customers, with 182 adopting its products, according to Laponis.
AI Drug Discovery Demand Expands
Leproust said customers are increasingly using artificial intelligence and machine-learning models to design large numbers of DNA sequences, test hypotheses and refine therapeutic candidates through iterative design-build-test-learn workflows.
Twist previously projected triple-digit percentage order growth for AI-enabled discovery in fiscal 2026 compared with fiscal 2025. Leproust said the company is increasingly confident it will meet or exceed that target and believes it could again achieve triple-digit percentage order growth in fiscal 2027 versus fiscal 2026.
During the question-and-answer session, Leproust said demand has come from customers that have moved from developing AI models to using those models repeatedly, as well as from new customers and programs expanding into additional therapeutic modalities. She said the company has seen larger orders and greater customer transparency around expected future needs.
Laponis said AI drug-discovery project timelines are generally measured in weeks. He said orders and revenue have become more closely aligned in fiscal 2026 as the company has broadened its AI customer base, though Twist did not provide a specific quarterly AI revenue figure.
Manufacturing Investments and Complex Genes Launch
President and Chief Operating Officer Patrick Finn said Twist’s semiconductor-based DNA synthesis platform supports cost, scale and speed advantages across its offerings. Over the last three years, Finn said the company has reduced manufacturing costs by 60%, cut waste by 70%, reduced turnaround time by roughly 73% and expanded oligonucleotide capacity four-fold.
The company formally launched its Complex Genes offering two weeks before the earnings call after an early-access period. Finn said select early-access customers ordered more than 1,800 Complex Genes across more than 100 orders. The company completed the overwhelming majority of those constructs within 12 days, its expected delivery window.
Complex Genes are DNA constructs that can include high GC content, repetitive elements or other characteristics that can make them difficult to synthesize consistently. Finn said the offering is manufactured on the same automated production line used for standard and Express Genes workflows.
Twist also highlighted opportunities in molecular residual disease testing and proprietary enzymes for sequencing workflows. Finn said the company has developed a ligase and a high-fidelity polymerase that are used in its kits and are intended to improve workflow performance.
Margin Progress and Raised Outlook
Third-quarter gross margin was 52.8%, up 120 basis points sequentially. Laponis said 70% of incremental revenue flowed to gross margin. Operating expenses excluding cost of revenues were $98.7 million, compared with $81.4 million a year earlier, including approximately $2 million in employee transition costs and other one-time expenses.
Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of approximately $11.3 million for the quarter, reflecting planned one-time investments. Twist ended the quarter with $166.8 million in cash equivalents and short-term investments, compared with $171.7 million as of March 31, 2026.
The company increased its fiscal 2026 revenue guidance to $456 million to $457 million, representing approximately 21% year-over-year growth at the midpoint. For the fiscal fourth quarter, Twist forecast revenue of $123 million to $124 million, implying approximately 25% year-over-year growth at the midpoint.
Management expects sequential growth in both DNA Synthesis and Protein Solutions and NGS Applications in the fourth quarter. Laponis said DNA Synthesis and Protein Solutions growth is expected to be driven by therapeutics, while NGS Applications is expected to return to growth above 20% year over year.
Twist reiterated its expectation to achieve adjusted EBITDA breakeven in the fourth quarter and said it intends to provide full fiscal 2027 guidance in November.
About Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST)
Twist Bioscience Corporation is a synthetic biology company specializing in the development and commercialization of DNA-based products and solutions. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in South San Francisco, California, the company has pioneered a proprietary silicon-based DNA synthesis platform designed for high-throughput production of synthetic genes and oligonucleotides. Twist leverages semiconductor manufacturing techniques to enable precise, scalable synthesis of DNA at speeds and volumes unattainable with traditional methods.
At the core of Twist’s offering is its proprietary platform that automates the synthesis of custom DNA fragments, gene libraries, and long oligonucleotides.
