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Operator
Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Arteries' fourth quarter and year-end 2023 earnings call. Please note, this call is being recorded and simultaneously webcast. All material contained in the webcast is sole property and copyright of Arteries, Inc., with all rights reserved. For opening remarks and introductions, I will now turn the call over to Erica Mannion of Sapphire Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Erica Mannion of Sapphire Investor Relations
Thank you, and good afternoon. With me today from our terrace are Charlie Janik, Chief Executive Officer, and Nick Hawkins, Chief Financial Officer. Charlie will begin with a brief review of the business results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2023. Nick will review the financial results for the fourth quarter and full year, followed by the company's outlook for the first quarter and full year of 2024. We will then open the call for questions. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you management will make statements during this call that are forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. These statements involve material risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to materially differ from those anticipated, and you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional information regarding these risks, uncertainties, and factors that could cause actual results to differ appear in the press release our terrorists issued today and in the documents and reports filed by our terrorists from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Please note, during this call, we will cite certain non-GAAP measures, including non-GAAP net loss, non-GAAP net loss per share, and free cash flow, which are not measures prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Non-GAAP measures are presented as we believe they provide investors with the means of evaluating and understanding how the company's management evaluates the company's operating performance. These non-GAAP measures should not be considered in isolation from, as substitutes for, or superior to financial measures prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the nearest GAAP measure can be found in the press release for the quarter ended December 31, 2023. In addition, For a definition of certain of the key performance indicators used in this presentation, such as annual contract value, confirmed design starts, active customers, and remaining performance obligations, please see the press release for the quarter ended December 31, 2023. Listeners who do not have a copy of the press release for the quarter ended December 31, 2023 may obtain a copy by visiting the investor relations section of the company's website. Now, I will turn the call over to CEO, Charlie Janik.
Charlie Janik
Thank you, Erica, and thanks to everyone for joining us on the call this afternoon. We're excited to report a strong finish to 2023 with annual contract value plus trailing 12-month variable royalties of $56.1 million. We added four new customers in the fourth quarter, totaling 23 new customers for the year. Our customer base continues to expand across all of our key verticals and regions, with particular success in automotive, enterprise, consumer, and communications. Our customer base has now delivered approximately 3.5 billion SoCs to their electronic systems customers. The continued growth of SoC design complexity and associated design costs increasingly drives our customer base toward commercial system IP. As we look back at 2023, this accelerating industry adoption of commercial system IP solutions is demonstrated by a record number of license deals and record high customer chip design activity with 29 confirmed design starts for the quarter and 95 for the year. I'm delighted to note that we added four new major semiconductor and system house companies as customers during the year. Not only are we seeing growth in a number of our customers, but we're also seeing further design penetration within our existing customer base. License revenue is strong across all of our vertical markets and balanced across geographies. Notable achievement includes strong adoption of FlexNoc version 5 of the physically aware network on chip, which now represents the majority of FlexNoc sales. Customer design wins from the past years are developing into a growing royalty base for our tariffs, as we've seen a 32% year-over-year increase in royalties in 2023. Historically, our royalty revenue was primarily driven by leading-edge applications within the consumer space. But today, we see that our royalty stream is comprised of a broader mix across numerous customers in automotive, consumer electronics, and enterprise computing, and other applications. Our continued momentum in artificial intelligence and machine learning, or AIML space, remains strong, with AIML representing over 50% of our license deals in a quarter across a broad section of our verticals. For example, Rain AI is another innovative AI chip company which recently selected the Arteris FlexNoc 5 physically aware network on chip IP for use in its Edge AI accelerator. The low power, low latency, and high bandwidth capabilities of FlexNoc 5 will be critical in helping RAIN and its customers to process the large data requirements needed for generative AI applications. Communications, where AI supports the globally accelerating transition to 5G, is another vertical where we saw strong adoption of Arteris products for the growing need for high bandwidth, low power 5G chips that can only reach their performance goals by leveraging Arteris system IP. As an example, HQ, a leading innovator in 5G and AI technologies, has licensed Arteris FlexNoc for use in its comprehensive multi-mode 4G, 5G base station chip. It is a RISC-V-based device that offers a scalable architecture, high throughput, and low power consumption, effectively shrinking an entire base station onto a single SOC. J-LINX is another innovator in communications infrastructure, which has licensed both our N-Core and FlexNoc interconnect IPs for use in their next-generation modem SOC with the aims to provide telecom players with power to deliver ultra-high-capacity, multi-gigabit links over longer distances at an optimized total cost of ownership. In automotive, we have seen an accelerating proliferation of AI-enabled Advanced Driver Assistance Systems and other advanced electronics to support electrification, automated driving, and electronic unit ECU consolidation, ensuring all electronics adhere to automotive functional safety standards and other mission-critical applications. To continue to expand our technology to better support this endeavor, in Q4, we announced that Encore Cache Computer and Interconnect IP has achieved ISO 26262 certification, a key milestone to ensure safe technology is incorporated into modern vehicles and other autonomous systems. Similarly, our Magellan SOC integration automation software also received its ISO 26262 TCL1 functional safety certification, further expanding upon Arteris' ongoing commitment to support mission-critical safety applications. The strong focus on automotive was recognized in the fourth quarter, with Arteris being awarded the Autonomous Vehicle Technology of the Year Award by Autotech Breakthrough. Finally, In the fourth quarter, Arteris achieved ISO 9001 quality management system certification, further supporting customer confidence in our commitment to product and process quality. Currently, certain macroeconomic dynamics, including geopolitical uncertainties and the US BIS restrictions with respect to China-U.S. trade, continue to impact our business. While these dynamics do create near-term headwinds, we believe that the scale and scope of our long-term opportunity remains robust. This is illustrated by a robust product pipeline of new system technologies and solid relationships with some of the largest electronics companies in the world who continue to innovate in exciting areas such as generative AI and autonomous driving. With that, I'll turn it over to Nick to discuss our financial results in more detail.
Erica
Thank you, Charlie, and good afternoon, everyone. As I view our fourth quarter and portfolio results today, please note I'll be referring to non-GAAP metrics. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financials is included in today's earnings release, which is available on our website. Total revenue for the fourth quarter was $12.5 million, up 12% year-over-year, and above the top end of our guidance range. At the end of the fourth quarter, annual contract value, or ACV, plus trailing 12-month variable royalties and other revenue was $56.1 million, also above the top end of our guidance range. Remaining performance obligations, or RPO, at the end of the fourth quarter was $72.7 million, representing 26% year-over-year growth, going through its highest level on record for our tariffs. Gap gross profit for the quarter was $11.1 million, representing a gross margin of 88%. Non-gap gross profit for the quarter was $11.3 million, representing a gross margin of 90%. Total gap operating expense for the fourth quarter was $20.3 million, compared to $20.4 million in the third quarter, down 1% sequentially. Non-gap operating expense in the quarter was $16.8 million flat sequentially. As we've done throughout 2023, we will continue to proactively and prudently manage operating expenses, limiting spending to strategically critical areas. Gap operating loss for the fourth quarter was $9.2 million compared to a loss of $9.1 million in the year-ago period. Non-gap operating loss was $5.5 million, or 44%, compared to a loss of $5.8 million in the year-ago period. Net loss in the quarter was $10.5 million, or diluted net loss per share of $0.29. Non-GAAP net loss in the quarter was $6.8 million, or diluted net loss per share of $0.18, based on approximately 36.8 million weighted average diluted shares outstanding. Turning out the balance sheet and cash flow, we ended the quarter with $53 million in cash, cash equivalents, and investments. Cash flow used in operations was approximately $3 million and a quarter. Free cash flow, which includes capital expenditure, was approximately negative $3.4 million, coming in better than the top end of our guidance range. Moving on to our annual results, total revenue for 2023 was $53.7 million, up 7% year-over-year, reflecting our switch to a fully wrapable revenue model at the end of the second quarter. Total operating expenses were $83.7 million compared to $75.7 million in the year-ago period, while non-GAAP operating expenses were $69.1 million compared to $62.8 million in the year-ago period. Net loss in 2023 was $36.9 million, or net loss per share, basic and diluted, of $1.03. Non-GAAP net loss was $21.6 million, or net loss per share basically diluted of $0.60, based on approximately 35.7 million weighted average shares outstanding. Cash flow used in operations was $15.7 million in 2023, while free cash flow, which includes capital expenditure, was negative $17.2 million, or 32% of revenue. I would now like to turn to our outlook for the first quarter and full year of 2024. For the first quarter, we expect ACB plus trailing 12-month variable royalties of $55 to $59 million and revenue of $12.1 to $13.1 million with non-GAAP operating loss margin of 41% to 61% and non-GAAP free cash flow margin of negative 9% to positive 11%. reflecting strong sales in the prior quarter for the full year 2024 our guidance is as follows acb plus trailing 12-month variable royalties to exit 2024 at 62 to 68 million dollars up 16 year-over-year at the midpoint revenue of 54.5 to 57.5 million dollars non-GAAP operating loss margin of 33% to 43%, and non-GAAP free cash flow margin of negative 5% to positive 5%. We're encouraged by the above guidance performance and strong deal activity in the prior quarter. While we expect some quarter-to-quarter cash flow fluctuations throughout the year due to timing of deals, we expect that with the actions we have taken in 2023, we will become a free cash flow positive in 2024. With that, I will turn the call over to the operator to open it up for questions. Operator?
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press the star followed by the one on your telephone keypad. You will hear a three-tone prompt acknowledging a request. Questions will be taken in the order received. Should you wish to Cancel your request. Please press the star followed by the 2. If you are using a speakerphone, please leave the handset before pressing any keys.
spk15
One moment, please, for your first question. Your first question comes from the line of Matt Ramsey from TD Cowen. Please go ahead.
Matt Ramsey
Thank you very much, gentlemen. Good afternoon. I guess One thing I wanted to get an update on, Charlie, and you mentioned some of it in your script, but over the last couple of quarters, just on a run rate basis, licensing in China was a fairly material headwind. And I'm just trying to get an idea of if the environment has improved at all, if the headwind is at least sort of stabilized in the run rate going forward, and if there's been any real change in China versus 90 days ago when we had this chat. Thanks.
Charlie
Yeah, Matt. So, yeah, we saw a significant decline in the middle of Q3. But things have not gotten, I think things are stable at the moment. I don't think the economy in China has improved. I think there's some other, you know, cockroaches to be revealed. But there is a significant deal flow coming from China. And we do not see things getting any worse. Where You know, our strategy in response to this has been, as the capital has gotten tight for the smaller companies in China, we have shifted our attention to larger companies that are designing, you know, SOCs. And so we anticipate that we'll, you know, the situation in China will be stable going forward. It might get better. We're planning on stability.
Matt
Hey Matt, this is Nick. Just a couple of bits of color to Charlie's excellent commentary. When we come to looking at the numbers side, and I'm just looking at revenue here, I'm not looking at ACV, which is obviously a separate beast, but just the impact on Rattable revenue, GAAP revenue. The impact that we felt in 2023 from the China headwind was approximately $2 million. That was only obviously representing third and fourth quarter. The impact in 2024, and this is assuming nothing gets better. It also assumes that nothing gets worse, obviously. That impact would be approximately double that at 4 million headwind.
Matt Ramsey
Thank you both for that, and thanks, Nick, for the numbers. I guess, since I have you, Nick, I noticed in the full year 2024 outlook, I mean, you have to squint a little at the numbers, but the midpoint is roughly free cash flow break-even. I think our team had been assuming sort of free cash flow break-even second half of 24 and maybe non-GAAP break-even second half of 25. Things seem a little bit ahead of that schedule, if you're able to guide that for the full year on free cash flow. So maybe you could walk us through... What's changed there? Is it lower OPEX? Is it more visibility on revenue? I'm just trying to figure out. It seems at first look that things seem like things have been pulled in a little bit on free cash flow break-even, which is great to see. Thanks.
Matt
Yeah, free cash flow is always going to be a bit of a variable feast, Matt. I mean, the first and fourth quarters, you probably saw in our commentary that we benefited again from a a kind of a present from customers in fourth quarter of 23 to the tune of a few small number of millions of dollars where they paid early again. And I don't know why they do this, but they do. Nevertheless, we're still gunning for free cash flow neutral slightly to slightly positive for FY24. You've obviously... also noticed that we're guiding for free cash flow neutral in first quarter. But not all quarters are created equally. The second quarter and the third quarter tend to be weaker from a free cash flow perspective. The fourth quarter and then sometimes the first quarter, depending on deals, tend to be positive. So really at the moment, we're at that stage where we might still see a sawtooth of of free cash flow over the quarters. But if you look at the overall trajectory over the year, we're looking at free cash flow, neutral to positive.
Matt Ramsey
Got it. That's helpful. Just my last follow-up there and kind of piggybacks on that prior question is the second half of 25, we're still thinking about non-gap break-even and Second half of 26, the plan would still be for gap break-even. Is that still on track, or has that moved up maybe a hair as well?
Matt
So I think on the non-gap topics, now that we're fully rational, it's harder to shift the needle on revenue. We do expect to break the seal on non-gap profitability. As we exit 25 and enter 26, um so the full year 25 um we don't think at this stage although we're not guiding it clearly um we don't think that is uh feasible to be um non-gap operating positive operating profit positive but we'd expect to see the exit of that year as being the pivot point as to where we go into non-gap profitability And then we enjoy the benefits of that through 2026. Does that make any sense to answer your question?
Matt Ramsey
No, Nick, obviously we're looking at decent ways out here given the macro. So I appreciate that color. And yes, it does answer the question. But thank you very much, guys. Congrats. And I'll jump back in the queue.
Nick
Thanks, Matt.
Operator
Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Hans Mossesman from Rosenblatt. Please go ahead.
Hans Mossesman
Hey, thanks. Hey, guys. Good evening. Congrats on the execution. Hey, Charlie or Nick, ASPs for licensing, what is that trend? How is that looking as we go into 2024?
spk03
So we've announced FlexNoc 5 in June.
Charlie
or started shipping in the beginning of June of 2023. So we have a whole year of delivering it. FlexNOC 5 is now over half of FlexNOC sales. So the ASP of that is about 33% higher because of the second generation physical awareness. So the ASP is tracking to our projections. It's going up every year. And we said on the IPO that we're going to be at something like a million average project deal size by 2026, and I think we're still tracking to that. So the ASPs are rising well, driven by essentially new functionality that we're delivering to the marketplace to address the complexity of some of these degenerative AI and automotive SOCs.
Hans Mossesman
Great, and you may have mentioned this, I apologize, I've been traveling. What were royalties as a percentage of revenues? Yeah, let me tell you that one.
Matt
Yeah, let me tell you that one. So if I give you the numbers, it's probably easier. I mean, royalties come in at around sort of 10%, but the... of total... But if you look at 22, for example, we had total royalties and other of 4.3. But if you strip out the other, which is really just, it's nothing to do with royalties. It's things like training, SOWs, and various other things that can't be recognized as license revenue. If you just look at the variable royalties that we report, it was 3.1 million in 2022. If you look at 23, it was 5.1 million. So that's obviously a pretty big increase. But bear in mind that, to be fair, there's some audit stuff in there. We had some really successful audits thanks to our audit guru. So we have a very big tailwind from royalty audits. If you strip out those and you just get back to pure, pure variable royalties, then we're up around 45-50% year over year. And in our guidance, we don't actually guide royalties, but you can look for a similar kind of growth on royalties into 24. And there's no reason why that shouldn't continue. We don't actually project any sort of other revenue. We don't project or include in our guidance any audit benefits, any audit pickups, even though they may well happen. So we're seeing at least maintaining the same rate of growth royalties and maybe increasing. So look at, you know, 5 million, 5.3 million total versus 53 million. So it's about 10% of total revenue. It's a very roundabout way of answering the question. And we're getting some color in the middle. I hope you don't mind.
Hans Mossesman
Right. And so to kind of summarize that, so
Matt
so this year it would probably grow as a percentage of total revenues by a few points is that that right kind of yeah yeah you you'd expect it to be growing this year albeit we don't we will not have the audit so the audit benefits that we have this year we will not not get next year or we sorry we we may in in 24 we're not expecting we're not predicting or forecasting that we'll get them in our guidance But in reality, yeah, we may well get those again. Great. And then the last question.
Hans Mossesman
Okay, perfect. And then the last question, and I'll let somebody else ask a question. You guys have been kind of sharing with investors that in the automotive space, you know, SOCs per vehicle could be over, you know, 20, over, say, like 2026 to 2027 timeframe. Is that still kind of like a good number to kind of talk about with investors, number of SOCs per vehicle?
Charlie
Yes, the number is still good. But, for example, you know, this is public information. If you were to pay attention to, for example, the Mobileye booth at CES in January, they were showing – basically automated driving control boards that not only had two SOCs in there, but also three and four, right? So we feel pretty comfortable with the projected 23 SOCs per car number, but it could be more. And on the other hand, there's some SOC consolidation where people are trying to consolidate drive management and dashboard control and things like this. So I think the low to mid-20s number, it remains to be good.
Mobileye
Excellent. Thank you very much.
spk15
Thank you. Once again, should you have a question, please press the star followed by the one on your telephone keypad.
Operator
And your next question goes to the line of Kevin Garigan from West Park Capital. Please go ahead.
Kevin Garigan
Yeah. Hey, good afternoon, all. And thanks for letting me ask the question. Um, so just kind of going off of Hans's question, Charlie, in your, in your script, you know, that you're seeing an acceleration in AI and automotive. Um, and then you just kind of mentioned Mobileye going ahead with, you know, adding multiple SOCs to their, their chip designs. Are our automotive OEMs and automotive related companies still continuing with, with new chip designs? Are you seeing any push outs there? And then just kind of wondering how you're viewing the automotive market in 2024.
Charlie
Yeah, so there's an increasing number of car OEMs building chips. So I think out of 35 OEMs, I think we have nine as customers. Ultimately, it's not clear to me that all those projects are going to go to production because I think all the car companies need to understand architectures and the cost structures of OEMs. of automated driving, but at the end, you know, some of the people like, like Mobileye have just a huge, you know, just huge momentum and then huge critical mass in, in actually getting a mission critical solution like that into the market. But clearly, you know, all the car OEMs in order to be competitive are doing some, some electronic design work, which provides an opportunity for our terrorists and, And yes, our design win rate in automotive continues to be quite positive.
Kevin Garigan
Okay, perfect, perfect. And then just as a quick follow-up, just a clarification, the four active customers in the quarter, were these all new customers and customers that were using internal solutions that shifted to using our tariffs?
Charlie
So there's actually two numbers. They just happen to be the same. So in the fourth quarter, we added four net new customers, right? And some of those were startups, some were big companies. We also added in the year, you know, we have a list of basically top 20 semiconductor companies and top 20 system houses. And all of those were mainly internally focused, so they made their own internal – internal system IP. And four of those companies have decided to go with Arteris. So the whole thesis of this system IP market is that you have maybe 30% of the market be commercial and two-thirds being internal. And the thesis is that over the next four or five years, the market will go two thirds commercial and one third internal. And that provides a, um, you know, a major opportunity for people like our terrorists. But, you know, a lot of these companies are starting slowly, right? So we're, we're getting sort of beachhead deals. Uh, we're getting, uh, getting to know those large customers. We're getting to, uh, uh, you know, negotiate, uh, uh, contracts with them. And then, uh, we, uh, we're wanting to do a good job so that, uh, they feel comfortable ordering more based on the success of the initial projects.
Arteris
Okay, perfect. I appreciate that. Thanks, guys.
Operator
Thank you. That concludes our question and answer session. I will now turn the call over to Charlie Janak for closing comments.
Charlie
Yes. So thank you for your time and interest in our terrace. We look forward to meeting with you at the upcoming investor conferences that we're participating in during the next couple of weeks and months. And we look forward to updating you on all our business progress in the quarters to come. So thank you very much for your attention.
Operator
Thank you.
spk15
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you all for participating. You may all disconnect. Thank you. you Thank you. Thank you
Operator
Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Arteries' fourth quarter and year-end 2023 earnings call. Please note, this call is being recorded and simultaneously webcast. All material contained in the webcast is sole property and copyright of Arteries, Inc., with all rights reserved. For opening remarks and introductions, I will now turn the call over to Erica Mannion of Safar Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Erica Mannion of Sapphire Investor Relations
Thank you, and good afternoon. With me today from our terrace are Charlie Janik, Chief Executive Officer, and Nick Hawkins, Chief Financial Officer. Charlie will begin with a brief review of the business results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2023. Nick will review the financial results for the fourth quarter and full year, followed by the company's outlook for the first quarter and full year of 2024. We will then open the call for questions. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you management will make statements during this call that are forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. These statements involve material risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to materially differ from those anticipated, and you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional information regarding these risks, uncertainties, and factors that could cause actual results to differ appear in the press release our terrorists issued today and in the documents and reports filed by our terrorists from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Please note, during this call, we will cite certain non-GAAP measures, including non-GAAP net loss, non-GAAP net loss per share, and free cash flow, which are not measures prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Non-GAAP measures are presented as we believe they provide investors with a means of evaluating and understanding how the company's management evaluates the company's operating performance. These non-GAAP measures should not be considered in isolation from, as substitutes for, or superior to financial measures prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the nearest GAAP measure can be found in the press release for the quarter ended December 31, 2023. In addition, For a definition of certain of the key performance indicators used in this presentation, such as annual contract value, confirmed design starts, active customers, and remaining performance obligations, please see the press release for the quarter ended December 31, 2023. Listeners who do not have a copy of the press release for the quarter ended December 31, 2023 may obtain a copy by visiting the investor relations section of the company's website. Now, I will turn the call over to CEO, Charlie Janik.
Charlie Janik
Thank you, Erica, and thanks to everyone for joining us on the call this afternoon. We're excited to report a strong finish to 2023 with annual contract value plus trailing 12-month variable royalties of $56.1 million. We added four new customers in the fourth quarter, totaling 23 new customers for the year. Our customer base continues to expand across all of our key verticals and regions, with particular success in automotive, enterprise, consumer, and communications. Our customer base has now delivered approximately 3.5 billion SOCs to their electronic systems customers. The continued growth of SOC design complexity and associated design costs increasingly drives our customer base toward commercial system IP. As we look back at 2023, this accelerating industry adoption of commercial system IP solutions is demonstrated by a record number of license deals and record high customer chip design activity with 29 confirmed design starts for the quarter and 95 for the year. I'm delighted to note that we added four new major semiconductor and system house companies as customers during the year. Not only are we seeing growth in a number of our customers, but we're also seeing further design penetration within our existing customer base. License revenue is strong across all of our vertical markets and balanced across geographies. Notable achievement includes strong adoption of FlexNoc version 5 of the physically aware network on chip, which now represents the majority of FlexNoc sales. Customer design wins from the past years are developing into a growing royalty base for our tariffs, as we've seen a 32% year-over-year increase in royalties in 2023. Historically, our royalty revenue was primarily driven by leading-edge applications within the consumer space. But today, we see that our royalty stream is comprised of a broader mix across numerous customers in automotive, consumer electronics, and enterprise computing and other applications. Our continued momentum in artificial intelligence and machine learning, or AIML space, remains strong, with AIML representing over 50% of our license deals in a quarter across a broad section of our verticals. For example, Rain AI is another innovative AI chip company which recently selected the Arteris FlexNoc 5 physically aware network on chip IP for use in its Edge AI accelerator. The low power, low latency, and high bandwidth capabilities of FlexNoc 5 will be critical in helping RAIN and its customers to process the large data requirements needed for generative AI applications. Communications, where AI supports the globally accelerating transition to 5G, is another vertical where we saw strong adoption of Arteris products for the growing need for high bandwidth, low power 5G chips that can only reach their performance goals by leveraging Arteris system IP. As an example, HQ, a leading innovator in 5G and AI technologies, has licensed Arteris FlexNoc for use in its comprehensive multi-mode 4G, 5G base station chip. It is a RISC-V-based device that offers a scalable architecture, high throughput, and low power consumption, effectively shrinking an entire base station onto a single SOC. J-LINX is another innovator in communications infrastructure, which has licensed both our N-Core and FlexNoc interconnect IPs for use in their next-generation modem SOC with the aims to provide telecom players with power to deliver ultra-high-capacity, multi-gigabit links over longer distances at an optimized total cost of ownership. In automotive, we have seen an accelerating proliferation of AI-enabled Advanced Driver Assistance Systems and other advanced electronics to support electrification, automated driving, and electronic unit ECU consolidation, ensuring all electronics adhere to automotive functional safety standards and other mission-critical applications. To continue to expand our technology to better support this endeavor, in Q4, we announced that NCORE Cache Conherent Interconnect IP has achieved ISO 26262 certification, a key milestone to ensure safe technology is incorporated into modern vehicles and other autonomous systems. Similarly, our Magellan SOC integration automation software also received its ISO 26262 TCL1 functional safety certification, further expanding upon Arteris' ongoing commitment to support mission-critical safety applications. The strong focus on automotive was recognized in the fourth quarter, with Arteris being awarded the Autonomous Vehicle Technology of the Year Award by Autotech Breakthrough. Finally, In the fourth quarter, Arteris achieved ISO 9001 quality management system certification, further supporting customer confidence in our commitment to product and process quality. Currently, certain macroeconomic dynamics, including geopolitical uncertainties and the US BIS restrictions with respect to China-U.S. trade, continue to impact our business. While these dynamics do create near-term headwinds, we believe that the scale and scope of our long-term opportunity remains robust. This is illustrated by a robust product pipeline of new system technologies and solid relationships with some of the largest electronics companies in the world who continue to innovate in exciting areas such as general AI and autonomous driving. With that, I'll turn it over to Nick to discuss our financial results in more detail.
Erica
Thank you, Charlie, and good afternoon, everyone. As I view our fourth quarter and portfolio results today, please note I'll be referring to non-GAAP metrics. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financials is included in today's earnings release, which is available on our website. Total revenue for the fourth quarter was $12.5 million, up 12% year-over-year, and above the top end of our guidance range. At the end of the fourth quarter, annual contract value, or ACV, plus trailing 12-month variable royalties and other revenue was $56.1 million, also above the top end of our guidance range. Remaining performance obligations, or RPO, at the end of the fourth quarter was $72.7 million, representing 26% year-over-year growth, going through its highest level on record for our tariffs. Gap gross profit for the quarter was $11.1 million, representing a gross margin of 88%. Non-gap gross profit for the quarter was $11.3 million, representing a gross margin of 90%. Total gap operating expense for the fourth quarter was $20.3 million, compared to $20.4 million in the third quarter, down 1% sequentially. Non-gap operating expense in the quarter was $16.8 million flat sequentially. As we've done throughout 2023, we will continue to proactively and prudently manage operating expenses, limiting spending to strategically critical areas. Gap operating loss for the fourth quarter was $9.2 million compared to a loss of $9.1 million in the year-ago period. Non-gap operating loss was $5.5 million, or 44%, compared to a loss of $5.8 million in the year-ago period. Net loss in a quarter was $10.5 million, or diluted net loss per share of 29 cents. Non-GAAP net loss in a quarter was $6.8 million, or diluted net loss per share of 18 cents, based on approximately 36.8 million weighted average diluted shares outstanding. Turning out the balance sheet and cash flow, we ended the quarter with $53 million in cash, cash equivalents, and investments. Cash flow used in operations was approximately $3 million and a quarter. Free cash flow, which includes capital expenditure, was approximately negative $3.4 million, coming in better than the top end of our guidance range. Moving on to our annual results, total revenue for 2023 was $53.7 million, up 7% year-over-year, reflecting our switch to a fully wrapable revenue model at the end of the second quarter. Total operating expenses were $83.7 million compared to $75.7 million in the year-ago period, while non-GAAP operating expenses were $69.1 million compared to $62.8 million in the year-ago period. Net loss in 2023 was $36.9 million, or net loss per share, basic and diluted, of $1.03. Non-GAAP net loss was $21.6 million, or net loss per share basically diluted of $0.60, based on approximately 35.7 million weighted average shares outstanding. Cash flow used in operations was $15.7 million in 2023, while free cash flow, which includes capital expenditure, was negative $17.2 million, or 32% of revenue. I would now like to turn to our outlook for the first quarter and full year of 2024. For the first quarter, we expect ACB plus trailing 12-month variable royalties of $55 to $59 million and revenue of $12.1 to $13.1 million with non-GAAP operating loss margin of 41% to 61% and non-GAAP free cash flow margin of negative 9% to positive 11%. reflecting strong sales in the prior quarter for the full year 2024 our guidance is as follows acb plus trading 12-month variable royalties to exit 2024 at 62 to 68 million dollars up 16 year-over-year at the midpoint revenue of 54.5 to 57.5 million dollars non-GAAP operating loss margin of 33% to 43%, and non-GAAP free cash flow margin of negative 5% to positive 5%. We're encouraged by the above guidance performance and strong deal activity in the prior quarter. While we expect some quarter-to-quarter cash flow fluctuations throughout the year due to timing of deals, we expect that with the actions we've taken in 2023, we will become a free cash flow positive in 2024. With that, I will turn the call over to the operator to open it up for questions. Operator?
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press the star followed by the one on your telephone keypad. You will hear a three-tone prompt acknowledging a request. Questions will be taken in the order received. Should you wish to Cancel your request. Please press the star followed by the 2. If you are using a speakerphone, please leave the handset before pressing any keys. One moment, please, for your first question.
spk15
Your first question comes from the line of Matt Ramsey from TD Cowen.
Operator
Please go ahead.
Matt Ramsey
Thank you very much, gentlemen. Good afternoon. I guess One thing I wanted to get an update on, Charlie, and you mentioned some of it in your script, but over the last couple of quarters, just on a run rate basis, licensing in China was a fairly material headwind. And I'm just trying to get an idea of if the environment has improved at all, if the headwind is at least sort of stabilized in the run rate going forward, and if there's been any real change in China versus 90 days ago when we had this chat. Thanks.
Charlie
Yeah, Matt. So, yeah, we saw a significant decline in the middle of Q3. But things have not gotten, I think things are stable at the moment. I don't think the economy in China has improved. I think there's some other, you know, cockroaches to be revealed. But there is a significant deal flow coming from China. And we do not see things getting any worse. Where You know, our strategy in response to this has been, as the capital has gotten tight for the smaller companies in China, we have shifted our attention to larger companies that are designing, you know, SOCs. And so we anticipate that we'll, you know, the situation in China will be stable going forward. It might get better. We're planning on stability.
Matt
Hey Matt, this is Nick. Just a couple of bits of color to Charlie's excellent commentary. When we come to looking at the numbers side, and I'm just looking at revenue here, I'm not looking at ACV, which is obviously a separate beast, but just the impact on Rattable revenue, GAAP revenue. The impact that we felt in 2023 from the China headwind was approximately $2 million. That was only obviously representing third and fourth quarter. The impact in 2024, and this is assuming nothing gets better. It also seems that nothing gets worse, obviously. That impact would be approximately double that at four million headwind.
Matt Ramsey
Thank you both for that, and thanks, Nick, for the numbers. I guess, since I have you, Nick, I noticed in the full year 2024 outlook, I mean, you have to squint a little at the numbers, but the midpoint is roughly free cash flow break-even. I think our team had been assuming sort of free cash flow break-even second half of 24 and maybe non-GAAP break-even second half of 25. Things seem a little bit ahead of that schedule, if you're able to guide that for the full year on free cash flow. So maybe you could walk us through... What's changed there? Is it lower OPEX? Is it more visibility on revenue? I'm just trying to figure out. It seems at first look that things seem like things have been pulled in a little bit on free cash flow break-even, which is great to see. Thanks.
Matt
Yeah, free cash flow is always going to be a bit of a variable feast, Matt. I mean, the first and fourth quarters, you probably saw in our commentary that we benefited again from a a kind of a present from customers in fourth quarter of 23 to the tune of a few small number of millions of dollars where they paid early again. And I don't know why they do this, but they do. Nevertheless, we're still gunning for free cash flow neutral slightly to slightly positive for FY24. You've obviously... also noticed that we're guiding for free cash flow neutral in first quarter. But not all quarters are created equally. The second quarter and the third quarter tend to be weaker from a free cash flow perspective. The fourth quarter and then sometimes the first quarter, depending on deals, tend to be positive. So really at the moment, we're at that stage where we might still see a sawtooth of of free cash flow over the quarters. But if you look at the overall trajectory over the year, we're looking at free cash flow neutral to positive.
Matt Ramsey
Got it. That's helpful. Just my last follow-up there, and it kind of piggybacks on that prior question, is the second half of 2025, we're still thinking about non-gap break-even and Second half of 26, the plan would still be for gap break-even. Is that still on track, or has that moved up maybe a hair as well?
Matt
So I think on the non-gap topics, now that we're fully rational, it's harder to shift the needle on revenue. We do expect to break the seal on non-gap profitability. As we exit 25 and enter 26, So the full year 25, we don't think at this stage, although we're not guiding it clearly, we don't think that is feasible to be non-GAAP operating positive, operating profit positive. But we'd expect to see the exit of that year as being the pivot point as to where we go into non-GAAP profitability. And then we enjoy the benefits of that through 2026. Does that make any sense to answer your question?
Matt Ramsey
No, Nick, obviously we're looking at decent ways out here given the macro. So I appreciate that color. And yes, it does answer the question. But thank you very much, guys. Congrats. And I'll jump back in the queue.
Nick
Thanks, Matt.
Operator
Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Hans Mossesman from Rosenblatt. Please go ahead.
Hans Mossesman
Hey, thanks. Hey, guys. Good evening. Congrats on the execution. Hey, Charlie or Nick, ASPs for licensing, what is that trend? How is that looking as we go into 2024?
spk03
So we've announced FlexNoc 5 in June.
Charlie
or started shipping in the beginning of June of 2023, so we have a whole year of delivering it. FlexNOC 5 is now over half of FlexNOC sales, so the ASP of that is about 33% higher because of the second-generation physical awareness. So the ASP is tracking to our projections. It's going up every year, and we said on the IPO that we're going to be at something like a million average project deal size by 2026, and I think we're still tracking to that. So the ASPs are rising well, driven by essentially new functionality that we're delivering to the marketplace to address the complexity of some of these degenerative AI and automotive SOCs.
Hans Mossesman
Great. And you may have mentioned this, I apologize, I've been traveling. What were royalties as a percentage of revenues? Yeah, let me take that one.
Matt
Yeah, let me take that one. So if I give you the numbers, it's probably easier. I mean, royalties come in at around sort of 10%, but the... of total... But if you look at 22, for example, we had total royalties and other of 4.3. But if you strip out the other, which is really just, it's nothing to do with royalties. It's things like training, SOWs, and various other things that can't be recognized as license revenue. If you just look at the variable royalties that we report, it was 3.1 million in 2022. If you look at 23, it was 5.1 million. So that's obviously a pretty big increase. But bear in mind that, to be fair, there's some audit stuff in there. We had some really successful audits thanks to our audit guru. So we have a very big tailwind from royalty audits. If you strip out those and you just get back to pure, pure variable royalties, then we're up around 45, 50% year over year. And in our guidance, we don't actually guide royalties, but you can look for a similar kind of growth on royalties into 24. And there's no reason why that shouldn't continue. We don't actually project any sort of other revenue. We don't project or include in our guidance any audit benefits, any audit pickups, even though they may well happen. So we're seeing at least maintaining the same rate of growth royalties and maybe increasing. So look at 5 million, 5.3 million total versus 53 million. So it's about 10% of total revenue. It's a very roundabout way of answering the question. And we're getting some color in the middle. I hope you don't mind.
Hans Mossesman
Right. And so to kind of summarize that, so
Matt
so this year it would probably grow as a percentage of total revenues by a few points is that is that right kind of yeah yeah you you'd expect it to be growing this year albeit we don't we will not have the audit so the audit benefits that we have this year we will not not get next year or we sorry we we may in in 24 we're not expecting we're not predicting or forecasting that we'll get them in our guidance But in reality, yeah, we may well get those again. Great. And then the last question.
Hans Mossesman
Okay, perfect. And then the last question, and I'll let somebody else ask a question. You guys have been kind of sharing with investors that in the automotive space, you know, SOCs per vehicle could be over, you know, 20, over, say, like 2026 to 2027 timeframe. Is that still kind of like a good number to kind of talk about with investors, number of SOCs per vehicle?
Charlie
Yes, the number is still good. But, for example, you know, this is public information. If you were to pay attention to, for example, the Mobileye booth at CES in January, they were showing – basically automated driving control boards that not only had two SOCs in there, but also three and four, right? So we feel pretty comfortable with the projected 23 SOCs per car number, but it could be more. And on the other hand, there's some SOC consolidation where people are trying to consolidate drive management and dashboard control and things like this. So I think the low to mid-20s number, it remains to be good.
Mobileye
Excellent. Thank you very much.
spk15
Thank you.
Operator
Once again, should you have a question, please press the star followed by the one on your telephone keypad. And your next question goes to the line of Kevin Garrigan from West Park Capital. Please go ahead.
Kevin Garigan
Yeah. Hey, good afternoon, all. And thanks for letting me ask the question. Um, so just kind of going off of Hans's question, Charlie, in your, in your script, you know, that you're seeing an acceleration in AI and automotive. Um, and then you just kind of mentioned Mobileye going ahead with, you know, adding multiple SOCs to their, their chip designs. Are our automotive OEMs and automotive related companies still continuing with, with new chip designs? Are you seeing any push outs there? And then it's kind of wondering how you're viewing the automotive market in 2024.
Charlie
Yeah, so there's an increasing number of car OEMs building chips. So I think out of 35 OEMs, I think we have nine as customers. Ultimately, it's not clear to me that all those projects are going to go to production because I think all the car companies need to understand architectures and the cost structures of OEMs. of automated driving, but at the end, you know, some of the people like, like Mobileye have just a huge, you know, just huge momentum and then huge critical mass in actually getting a mission critical solution like that into the market. But clearly, you know, all the car OEMs in order to be competitive are doing some, some electronic design work, which provides an opportunity for our terrorists and, And yes, our design win rate in automotive continues to be quite positive.
Kevin Garigan
Okay, perfect, perfect. And then just as a quick follow-up, just a clarification, the four active customers in the quarter, were these all new customers and customers that were using internal solutions that shifted to using our tariffs?
Charlie
So there's actually two numbers. They just happen to be the same. So in the fourth quarter, we added four net new customers, right? And some of those were startups, some were big companies. We also added in the year, you know, we have a list of basically top 20 semiconductor companies and top 20 system houses. And all of those were mainly internally focused, so they made their own internal companies. internal system IP. And four of those companies have decided to go with Arteris. So the whole thesis of this system IP market is that you have maybe 30% of the market be commercial and two-thirds being internal. And the thesis is that over the next four or five years, the market will go two thirds commercial and one third internal. And that provides a, um, you know, a major opportunity for people like our terrorists. But, you know, a lot of these companies are starting slowly, right? So we're, we're getting sort of beachhead deals. Uh, we're getting, uh, getting to know those large customers. We're getting to, uh, uh, you know, negotiate, uh, uh, contracts with them. And then, uh, we, uh, we're wanting to do a good job so that, uh, they feel comfortable ordering more based on the success of the initial projects.
Arteris
Okay, perfect. I appreciate that. Thanks, guys.
Operator
Thank you. That concludes our question and answer session. I will now turn the call over to Charlie Janak for closing comments.
Charlie
Yes. So thank you for your time and interest in our terrace. We look forward to meeting with you at the upcoming investor conferences that we're participating in during the next couple of weeks and months. And we look forward to updating you on all our business progress in the quarters to come. So thank you very much for your attention.
Operator
Thank you. That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you all for participating. You may all disconnect.
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