Alpha and Omega Semiconductor Limited

Good afternoon, and thank you for attending today's Alpha and Omega Semiconductor Conference Call. My name is Austin, and I'll be your moderator for today. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call, with an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. I would now like to pass the conference over to our host, Gary Jvoracek, Investor Relations Representative of Alpha and Omega Semiconductor. Gary, you may proceed.

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Alpha and Omega Semiconductor's conference call to discuss fiscal 2022 fourth quarter financial results. I'm Gary Dvorak, investor relations representative for AOS. With me today are Dr. Mike Chang, our CEO, Stephen Chang, our president, and Yifan Liang, our CFO. This call is being recorded and broadcast live over the web. A replay will be available for seven days following the call, via the link in the investor relations section of our website. Our call will proceed as follows. Mike will begin with strategic highlights, and Stephen will provide business updates and a detailed segment report. After that, Yvonne will review the financial results and provide guidance for the September quarter. Finally, we will have a question and answer session. The earnings release was distributed over wire services today, August 10, 2022, after the close of the market. The release is also posted on the company's website. Our earnings release on this presentation includes non-GAAP financial measures. We use non-GAAP measures because we believe they provide useful information about our operating performance that should be considered by investors in conjunction with the GAAP measures that we provide. Reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to comparable GAAP measures is included in the earnings release. We remind you that during this conference call, we will make certain forward-looking statements, including discussions of the business outlook and financial projections. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from such expectations. For a more detailed description of these risks and uncertainties, please refer to our recent and subsequent filings with the SEC. We assume no obligations to update the information provided in today's call. Now I'll turn the call over to our CEO, Dr. Mike Chang, to provide strategic highlights.

Mike? Thank you, Gary. I would like to welcome everyone to today's call. It's good to be speaking with all of you again. Our fiscal Q4 was another strong quarter despite the challenge posed by the COVID lockdown in Shanghai. Once again, we outperformed our guidance midpoint. Revenue was $194 million, growing 9% year over year. Non-GAAP growth margin was 33.8%, and the non-GAAP EPS was 95%. I'm very proud of our people's ability and determination to execute each quarter despite the uncertainty and challenges. As you may remember, in early April, our Shanghai packaging and testing facilities was forced to shut down due to the citywide COVID Our ability to assemble and ship products was severely limited for most of April. Once the lockdown eased and we were cleared to restart operations at the end of April, it took time for our assembly lines to return to full utilization. It also took time for logistic support and supply chains to ramp up to full functional capacity. Our Shanghai facilities are mostly back to normal and are currently operating at full capacity. We are taking careful steps to reduce the risk of new COVID infections in compliance with local guidelines. I am most proud of and grateful for the great collaboration dedication that our people especially our shanghai team demonstrated during these challenging times our employees work as one team relentlessly pressing on our mission and the values which is to help our customers succeed i want to say thank you to our employees once again for their selfless devotion, loyalty, and support. Looking to the rest of 2022, we are seeing inventory corrections happening in certain consumer and the market. While we are not immune to current global market conditions, as of today, our demand and backlog are still higher than our overall capacity. Whether we are in up cycle or down cycle, We always focus on the basics and strengthen the foundation to speed up future growth. I founded AOS in September 2000, just as the internet bubble crashed and led to recession. This happened to be the best timing for a startup. Over our 22 years of history, the AOS team has navigated many semiconductor cycles surviving and striving, even when we were far smaller than we are now. Today, we are stronger than ever in terms of our leading technology, more diversified product portfolio, tier one customer base in all our business segments, expanding manufacturing capability and supply chain, strong balance sheet and dedicated and experienced management team. We are confident that we can navigate the current economic environment. More importantly, we are confident that near-term cyclical fluctuations will not overshadow substantial long-term opportunities for our business. The electrification of everything is just getting started, and our power products sit at the forefront of that trend. I believe our strategic position within our sector is resilient and our customers list and market share tier one customers is the highest it has ever been. We are confident we can achieve our $1 billion annual revenue target in the next quarter of years and are actively investing to position ourselves to achieve even more updates. Thank you. I will now send a call over to Stephen for an update on our business and a detailed segment report. Stephen.

Thank you, Mike, and good afternoon, everyone. I will start with an update on our business and then provide color on our segment results. As a reminder, in the June quarter, demand for our products was higher than our total capacity. The modest slowdown in our growth was caused by the very limited operations at our Shanghai packaging and assembly facilities due to the government-posed COVID lockdown in the month of April. However, we still delivered solid results, which highlights our strong execution and the benefits of our diversified manufacturing capacity. Coming September quarter, As Mike mentioned, we are seeing some softness in consumer and markets due to inventory corrections. However, as of now, our backlog remains higher than our capacity, so our customers remain on allocation. Moreover, we believe a few aspects of our business make us more resilient in this type of environment, which we are highly proud of. First, since we own the majority of our own manufacturing, we are able to quickly shift WAPR's capacity to other parts of the business where demand remains strong and therefore are at lower risk of costly inventory buildups that later may result in write-offs or selling at discounted prices. Second, another trend that is worth mentioning is that most of our Tier 1 customers have remained resilient thus far. This benefits us as our share at our Tier 1 customers is at the highest level ever in our history. Third, AOS has been upgrading our products to address higher performance sockets with differentiated solutions. These are the types of products that remain on allocation now. For the coming September quarter, with our Shanghai facility back in full operation, we expect high single-digit sequential growth. We expect September quarter revenue to be at $210 million at the midpoint. Now let me throw down into each of our business segments. Unless otherwise noted, the following figures refer to the June quarter of 2022. Starting with computing, revenue was up 15.6% year over year, down 0.5% sequentially, and represented 46% in total revenue. The year over year growth was driven by continued strong demand in notebooks, particularly from OEM customers that have a higher concentration of their businesses serving commercial laptop applications. In addition, high-end PCs and gaming desktops were also strong. The sequential decline was mainly due to the shutdown of our facilities in Shanghai. Looking ahead in the September quarter, we expect computing to be flat to slightly down sequentially as our customers rebalance their inventories for a weaker end market. Our total revenue won't be affected, however, as we are able to quickly shift wafer capacity to other parts of the business. Turning to the consumer segment, revenue declined 1.7% year-over-year and 15.9% sequentially, and represented 19% of total revenue. Nearly all of the revenue decline was attributable to the Shanghai lockdown, as the largest end-market applications in this segment, such as home appliances and gaming, are sourced fully from our Shanghai factory. Looking ahead, we expect the consumer segment to recover double digits sequentially, on strong demand in gaming and catch-up shipments. We are expecting record gaming volumes, particularly from the number one gaming console manufacturer, where we have leading share. Home appliances are also expected to recover sequentially on catch-up shipments, but in general is softer as overall demand has weakened, driven by inflation-induced slowdowns in real estate and consumer spending. Next, let's discuss the communications segment. which was up 32% year-over-year and 2.9% sequentially and represented 15% of total revenue. This segment delivered strong year-over-year growth due to share gains at major Chinese smartphone OEMs, particularly in their premium tier models, which are still in shortage. These share gains more than offset an overall softening of the smartphone market in the quarter. Due to our ability to serve the high-end market, with our high-performance battery protection products, as well as strong partnerships with our customers. In the September quarter, we expect mid-single-digit revenue growth as we prepare for our launch from one of our major smartphone OEMs. AOS maintains high share in high-end models in all three of our markets in US, Korea, and China. Now let's talk about our last segment, power supply and industrial, which accounted for 18% of total revenue. This segment was down 1.1% year-over-year and 4.8% sequentially. The decline was mainly due to our intentional decision to deprioritize shipping quick chargers parts into our distributors. With a slow and smartful market, we want to manage channel inventory levels. Shipments for solar applications and power tools remain steady. For the September quarter, we anticipate this segment to grow low double digits sequentially, mostly from share gains in quick chargers at a major phone maker and growth in power tools. In closing, we are aware of the growing uncertainty in the macroeconomic environment. However, we still expect to grow as we focus on our long-term plan. We continue to execute our product and technology roadmaps, enhancing our diversified manufacturing capability and deepening strategic customer relationships, which should result in share gains and SAM expansion. Our $210 million September revenue guidance puts us well over an $800 million annual revenue run rate. We remain confident in our target of $1 billion of annual revenue in 2024. With that, I will now turn the call over to Yvonne for a discussion of our fiscal fourth quarter financial results and our outlook for the next quarter. Yvonne?

Thank you, Stephen. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Revenue for the quarter was $194 million, up 9.4% year-over-year and down 4.6% sequentially. Given the COVID restrictions in Shanghai, we are pleased that we achieved better than our guidance midpoint. Please recall that the March quarter was a record-setting quarter, And we expect another record quarter in September. In terms of product mix, DMOS revenue was $138.9 million, up 9.2% year over year, and down 1.2% sequentially. PowerIC revenue was $53.1 million, up 14.2% from a year ago, and down 12% from the prior quarter. Assembly service revenue was $2 million as compared to $2.2 million last quarter and $3.6 million for the same quarter last year. Non-GAAP gross margin was 33.8% compared to 34.9% a year ago and 36.7% in the prior quarter. The decrease in non-GAAP growth margin was primarily impacted by the production shutdown at our Shanghai assembly and test facilities in April. Non-GAAP operating expenses were $36.7 million compared to $34 million for the prior quarter and $32.8 million last year. The quarter-over-quarter increase in non-GAAP operating expenses was largely due to higher R&D engineering expenses and addition of headcount. We continue to invest in R&D to fuel our future growth. In sum, non-GAAP quarterly EPS was $0.95 per share compared to $1.34 for the last quarter and $0.95 a year ago. On the fiscal year basis, revenue for the year 2022 was $777.6 million, up 18.4% year-over-year. Non-GAAP growth margin was 35.6%, representing a year-over-year improvement of 370 basis points. Non-GAAP operating expenses were $139.3 million, up 12.5% from last year. Non-GAAP EPS for the year was $4.56 as compared to last year's $2.93, an increase of 56%. Moving on to cash flow. GAAP operating cash flow was $25.7 million which included $3.4 million of net customer deposits. By comparison, operating cash flow in the prior quarter was $61.8 million, which included $6.4 million of net customer deposits. Operating cash flow on iOS standalone basis a year ago was $32.6 million, which included $10 million of customer deposits. Consolidated EBITDAs was $36.9 million compared to $48.4 million last quarter and $40.9 million a year ago. For the fiscal year, cash flow from operations was $203.4 million as compared to $114.3 million for the prior year. Consolidated EBITDAs was $177.2 million as compared to $136.4 million a year ago. Let's move on to the balance sheet. We completed the June quarter with a cash balance of $314.4 million compared to $323.1 million at the end of the March quarter. The cash balance a year ago was $164.9 million excluding $37.5 million at the JV company. The bank borrowing balance at the end of June was $63 million compared to $65.2 million a quarter ago. Net trade receivables were $65.7 million at the end of the June quarter as compared to $39.2 million at the end of the prior quarter and $35.8 million for the same quarter last year. The quarter-over-quarter increase was due to the uneven shipments toward the second half of the quarter as a result of the shutdown of our Shanghai assembly and test facilities in April. Day sales outstanding for the June quarter were 26 days compared to 28 days in the prior quarter. Nightly inventory was $158 million at quarter end, up from $143.5 million last quarter, and up from $154.3 million in the prior year. Quarter-over-quarter increase was primarily due to increased wafer inventory as a result of lower wafer consumption at our Shanghai assembly and test facilities because of the COVID shutdown. Average days in inventory were 104 days compared to 94 days in the prior quarter. Finally, property, plant, and equipment was $318.7 million, up from $245.8 million last quarter. The fixed assets balance a year ago was $174.5 million, excluding $262.5 million at the JV company. An update on our Oregon Fab expansion project. Clean room expansion has been completed, and a good portion of the equipment was installed. However, our equipment installation contractors have experienced a shortage of skilled labor and certain materials. Therefore, we expect the project to be delayed by a quarter, and we currently anticipate additional capacity to come online in the March quarter of 2023. Now I would like to discuss September quarter guidance. We expect revenue to be approximately $210 million plus or minus $3 million. Gap growth margin to be 33.8% plus or minus 1%. We anticipate the non-GAAP gross margin to be 35% plus or minus 1%. Non-GAAP gross margin guidance excludes $0.8 million amortization of acquired IP and $1.8 million of estimated share-based compensation charges. GAAP operating expenses to be in the range of $45.7 million plus or minus $1 million. Non-GAAP operating expenses are expected to be in the range of $36.5 million plus or minus $1 million. Non-GAAP operating expenses exclude $9 million of estimated share-based compensation charges and $0.2 million of estimated legal expenses relating to the government investigation. Interest expense to be approximately $1.2 million and income tax expense to be in the range of $1.2 million to $1.4 million. With that, we'll now open the call for questions. Operator, please start the Q&A session.

Thank you. As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. If for any reason you would like to remove that question, please press star followed by two. Again, to ask a question, press star one. If you're using a speakerphone, please remember to pick up your handset before asking your question. We'll pause here briefly as questions are registered. Our first question is with David Williams from Benchmark. David, your line is open.

Thanks so much for taking the question, and congratulations on the execution and the resiliency of the business. Obviously some great success here, and it's great to see, so congratulations there. Thank you. Maybe the backdrop, it seems to have deteriorated more than I think we had expected since the prior quarter, and particularly in areas that you have a lot of exposures. Steven, you talked about this in your remarks a little bit, but maybe if you could give us some color around the flexibility to pivot. If there was anything unusual, maybe given the assembly and test issues, and maybe speak to the fungibility of your portfolio overall.

Sure. For us, yes, we're starting to see some softness in some of the end markets that we address. And many of our end markets at the very end are consumer-facing. And we're seeing some pressure just due to the current macroeconomic backdrop. However, when you look into each of the businesses that we're in, the story is not necessarily the case across the board in that we address multiple sockets within many of our applications. And depending on the sockets, the higher performance applications and the higher performance sockets are generally faring better and then the lower end. We talked about in computing that we are more addressing the commercial applications as opposed to consumer. And in general, the drop has been more in the lower to mid-end models, especially in the consumer side, whereas the higher-end models and the commercial PCs have generally been doing better. Additionally, when you look into the BOM content of some of these applications, Higher performance sockets in general are still under allocation. It is still hand-to-mouth, whereas the lower end, we're starting to see some more pressure from local competition. So that theme, you can see that, we can also see that in other segments as well too. As a whole, you know, AOS still remains on allocation. Our backlog is stronger than our capacity right now. So for us, internally, we're basically shifting our supply to support the areas that are more profitable, that have a stronger demand. So we do have the ability, because we have a lot of the supply chain under our own control, to be able to shift those resources around to address the stronger portions of the market.

Great. Thanks so much for the color there. Certainly helpful. And then maybe even on the gross margin side, I know you had expected to recover most of the margin lost, I guess, from the shutdown in Shanghai. But it looks like you gained about 120 basis points. Was this largely maybe a component of just a mix of lower power IC or higher power IC and, excuse me, lower discrete and higher power ICs? And then how do you think that trends over the next several quarters? Can we get back the margin maybe that we were previously? Or just anything around the levers that you have available to pull there would be helpful.

Sure. Our September quarter's midpoint of the non-GAAP gross margin guidance, yeah, is about 120 basis points, as you said, and higher than the June quarter's actual. This guidance reflected the current view of demand dynamics, expected product mix, and also our factory productions, including input cost increases. I mean, all those factors, we have been factored in. um so on of course in that i mean it's a range and then i mean 35 plus on minus one percent and i mean in terms of uh future quarters and then i mean this uh at this point and um uh it's hard to say that i mean we only guide the one quarter at a time and then i mean the market demand and the old dynamics and you know a lot of factors could change and uh for the December quarter and onward. So, you know, I would expect that probably we can maintain around this September quarter, but, you know, guidance range at least.

Okay. Thanks so much. And then maybe just one last one for me if I can. If you kind of think about your outlook and just given the macro challenges, What do you think the risks are to the outlook? How much is maybe is booked into the outlook in terms of that demand? And then maybe how much of the guidance is already booked and just kind of where you think there could be potential risk from in market perspective?

I mean, for the September guidance?

Yes.

OK. Yeah. For the September guidance, I mean, I would say that most of the risk is on the production side, and the backlog is pretty much there in place. And then the production side, yes, the China COVID risk is still there, even though the Shanghai city has already released restrictions. You'll never know. I mean, their policy toward zero tolerance on COVID is still there. I mean, not lifted yet. So, I mean, I think supply chain disruptions, you know, always is a risk there.

Great.

Thanks so much.

is with Craig Ellis from B. Reilly. Craig, your line is open. Hey, guys.

So nice work getting my back up and running and strong guide for the fiscal first quarter. A couple things that stood out, at least for me, in the guide is the strength we're seeing in gaming consoles. So I'm wondering if that's in part due to incremental content gain, and if so, how much? And the other thing that stood out was that industrial and power supply, there's some quick charge or share gain with the large smartphone OEM. And I'm wondering if you can help us understand how material that is, because it seems you might have a couple tailwinds that, at least on our end, we might have been underappreciating as we head into the back half of the year.

Sure. Hi, Greg. This is Steven. So to address your first question, hi. So addressing the first question about gaming, gaming consoles in general is definitely a strong portion of the business. And historically, this customer, their consoles have been more immune to changes in the economy. And we know that from the past year and a half that they've been under-pursuing. And ever since launch, they couldn't produce fast enough They are resolving some of that now. So our growth in the September quarter partly is coming from their own growth in the second half, as well as share gain. Bond content increase I don't think is playing a big factor right now, but it's definitely, we are internally as a company, AOS is shifting more support to this particular customer. So I would say both the end shipment growth as well as share gain is what's contributing to the big step in the gaming console business for AOS. Regarding quick chargers, this is more so on the high-end quick chargers. In the quick charger market, we actually address two sets of customers. One is in China. for the lower to mid-end. And that area, we actually, because of the decline in softness in the China smartphone market, we chose to back off support for that area for the China region. But for the big OEM, and that's making more higher-end quick charges for their higher-end phones, this is an area that we've been choosing to support more. It's also a higher-performance socket. It's better business for us, and our customer is coming to us for more support. So in general, you kind of see the theme as we see the market dynamics that the higher-end applications are generally faring better, and AOS is shifting our resources to support those applications.

Got it. And then moving on to a supply-side issue. And I'm not sure if this is best directed to you or at Yvonne. Can you provide a little bit more color on what the specific issues are with the contractors that are working on the FAB clean room completion? And then given how we are to the ramp, any update on expectations for the pace and magnitude of revenue ramp out of that facility?

Sure. I mean, this one we have to thank to the booming FAB constructions in the U.S. I mean, right now there's a lot of FAB constructions going on. You know, people are competing for skilled and certified laborers. I mean, those FAB equipment, they're all large and complicated and then you need certain certified people to handle it and then to install. So right now our contractors have been experiencing some labor shortage and some materials and then I mean certain materials like tubes and those are all very specialized tubes for fab operations. In those areas, we are seeing some shortages. That's why our current estimate is probably delayed for a quarter. Previously, we estimated that in the December quarter, we can get it online but now it is more likely in the march quarter range so and then uh march quarter and then it will gradually ramp up so we will say probably take a quarter or two probably fully ramp up to the anticipated expansion capacity got it got it and then um a follow-up question it goes back to one of the themes uh from

from the prior question, and it's related to just the environment that we're seeing out there where there's more and more visible signs of consumer weakness, but obviously the company has a number of levers that they can pull. But the question is this, given what you're seeing with growing signs of inventory correction across the markets that you served, And given the seasonal dynamics of the business with consumer and enterprise builds typically stronger in calendar 2 and 3Q and weaker in 1Q, Stephen, can you give us some help on how we should think about some of the gives and takes as we look out to fiscal 2Q? Not looking for guidance, but just do you have any new programs like the two we just talked about that we'd be picking up in fiscal 2Q or 3Q? anything that would be a particular headwind, anything that's coming off of a particularly strong ramp in fiscal 1Q. Thank you.

Sure. For us, when we look outward to the December quarter, seasonally, typically, the strength of it depends on the strength of the peak season of the previous quarter, of the September quarter. So we are looking carefully at the adoption of the new smartphone from one of the major OEMs. That's one of the major customers that we have in supporting not only for their smartphone but also their other applications like the tablet and quick chargers. We're also looking carefully at what's happening in the PC market in terms of how long the inventory correction will take place. Of course, we're still gravitating towards the higher end, that area. AOS is focusing on supporting more of during this time as they're going through inventory correction of the other low to mid-end products. So for us, I think we're carefully watching now. We're not giving specific guidance for December quarter, but at the same time, we are making careful use of our allocation right now.

And lastly, on the December quarter, there was, I think, a significant gaming card launch that I think a lot of us thought would occur in calendar 3Q, fiscal 1Q. And it looks like due to the inventory correction, that's going to happen in calendar 4Q, fiscal 2Q. So it seems like that would be one thing, if it occurred at that time frame, that would be a sequential benefit to the business or has a lot of the product for that product cycle already been produced and shipped to that customer?

We're still shipping and producing for that particular customer. They're dealing with their own challenges right now with balancing the inventory of existing graphics cards from the current platform. So we do expect that that transition is going to be delayed. But, you know, AOS is continuing to ship into that application. But at the same time, we're also taking some of that product supply support to support other stronger applications such as the gaming consoles.

Got it. Thanks, guys. I'll hop back in the queue.

Our next question is with Jeremy Kwan from Stifle. Jeremy, your line is open.

Yes, good afternoon, and let me add my congrats to the strong execution here in the quarter. Stephen, you mentioned that your backlog is still higher than overall capacity. Would you mind giving us a little bit more color in terms of the makeup of the backlog and maybe the quality of it? You know, is it cancelable? Are there different dynamics going on between, you know, DMOS backlog versus PowerIC?

I think for us, it reflects the changing the backlog. Yes, we see some inventory correction going on, but as I mentioned before, it is different depending on which products are involved. The higher end products, the higher performance products are still hand-in-mouth, and backlog is tight on those. But the lower to mid-end, this is where we're seeing more competition coming from other suppliers, including local suppliers that are starting to get more access to foundries in this market landscape. So overall, we are seeing some backlog adjustments. Actually, we welcome that because it's a good time to clean up the backlog so that it's a better, clearer picture of where the true demand is. And so part of this is initiated by the customer, but part of this is also initiated by us in order to have a clean look at what to build.

Great, and that's very helpful. And maybe if I could just press a little bit more on the color in terms of the tenure of that backlog, like how much of it is still 12 months out? Have you seen a shift in maybe customers placing orders that far out and how much of it is for the next three months?

Right now, on a total backlog, we still have about six months of backlog. And generally, we have the next quarter covered, plus some more. And so our backlog still goes through the December quarter, and some of it trickles into the following quarter after that. But our focus is always still on the near-term quarter first.

Great. Thank you. And I guess, can you give us insight into how order linearity is looking Currently, I know last quarter there was probably a lot of catch-up in the month of June, which probably helped drive DSOs up. But can you talk about how things are trending this quarter so far?

Do you mean order linearity or delivery?

Sorry, delivery. Yes, sales linearity.

Okay, so our building, the main thing for the June quarter was we were affected by the lockdown. So once we were able to get back to full production, June was a much heavier month for us. And our operations team did an excellent job to bring things back online and get our products out the door. So last quarter was an abnormal quarter. Usually we see the shipments spread more evenly through the quarter, but because of the lockdown recovery, It was more back-heavy. We do expect the September quarter to be more linear back to our normal shipping patterns.

And also, if you wouldn't mind adding some color on the order linearity, too. Has that been pretty stable as well?

As we mentioned before, the backlog itself is going through inventory correction. We're seeing some areas where they are going through inventory correction. That means canceling some old delinquent backlog, but also pausing on some of the new orders for the lower to mid-end products that are starting to build up some inventory. But the areas where it's high performance, where our supply is still hand-to-mouth to the customer, You know, those orders are still coming in steady.

Great. And another question, if I could, on the, could you give any color on the pricing ASPs? I know, you know, some of your peers have talked about 8% year-over-year pricing increases and even a 2% sequential. Is that something that you're seeing as well? And maybe if there's a differentiation between, like you said, the higher end and the lower end and, you know, where you see that trending next quarter?

Well, I mean, overall pricing, I mean, the environment and thinking is kind of studied at this point. And then, I mean, yeah, I mean, we selectively pass on to input cost increases to certain customers. Overall, it's kind of steady at this point.

Great. One last question before I get back in the queue. Last quarter, you mentioned CapEx was $43.4 million and that you were expecting something similar for this quarter. Can you give us that number for this quarter and how you see things trending, especially in light of the different delays in installation. Thank you.

Sure. June quarter's CapEx spending was $34, $35 million-ish in that range. So compared to the quarter before, it was $40-some million. For the September quarter, we still expect a similar level, you know, $30, $40 million range. primarily for the Oregon FAPS expansion and then plus some back end facility expansion as well.

Great. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you.

Our next question is with David Dooley from Steelhead Securities. David, your line is open.

Thanks for taking my questions. A couple of clarifications. You mentioned that your June quarter was back in weighted. I saw receivables were up at least 25, 26 million. I'm assuming since this next quarter is going to be linear that you're going to kind of have a very strong cash flow from operations quarter as you unwind the receivables and perhaps the inventory. Could you just comment on how much you think cash flow might be from from lowering the working capital needs?

Sure, yeah. For the June quarter, yes, our operating cash flow got impacted by this receivable balance. Yes, because the June quarter, first half of the quarter, then our production got suspended in Shanghai facilities. So now it is back up to normal productions at our Shanghai factories at this point. Yes, for the September quarter, I would expect the receivable balance to come down a little bit, and then how much to come down, it will depend. Also keep in mind our total revenue guidance also increased compared to last quarter's $194 million. So both factors together, I would say yes, we should be able to see some accounts receivable balance drop. In terms of inventory, the inventory increase in the June quarter was primarily due to the wafer inventory increase because our Shanghai factory shut down. So the Shanghai assembly and test facilities consumed less wafer inventory. So it will depend on the back-end facilities. capacity and then you know certain wafers and you know the beacon capacities it's also full so that it will gradually uh be digested so um so it's kind of a dynamic for the inventory balance i would say the roughly flattish to slightly down okay and then you mentioned you have this delay in the

you know bringing on this new capacity in the oregon fab by a quarter but you also mentioned a lot of the equipment is already installed so i'm just assuming because you can't finish everything that you can delay the hitting the depreciation button on all that equipment that's installed until the march or the june quarter all right right because then you know that the productions and then you know the you know uh wafer productions

depends on a lot of, you know, equipment. So then, you know, even though you have certain equipment installed and, you know, you won't be able to formulate additional capacity. So now we have to wait until all the equipment is online.

Okay. And so I'm assuming the depreciation clock then starts like roughly at the end of the March quarter? uh yeah and you know when then when they started in production yeah okay and then um i noticed the power ic business was down sequentially i think more than the overall revenue could you just comment on perhaps why and then would this business be expected can you just talk about the growth prospects you know in the back half of the calendar year here um given that it's a higher margin and higher value-added slot

Okay, sure. I can comment on the June quarter's PowerIC revenue decrease. Yeah, I mean, that one was largely because of the Shanghai factory shutdown. I mean, our PowerIC products, you know, we use more advanced packaging technologies, proprietary technologies. So those are products tend to be produced more at our Shanghai facilities. So, I mean, because of the factory shutdown in April and partially in May, so that was a limited power IC revenue growth. We wouldn't expect a September quarter power IC revenue to back up again.

Should it grow faster than the overall revenue?

In the bigger picture, yes. And as you've seen, the growth of our PowerIC business, that was tied to the gaming consoles, tied to PC, and also a bit to graphics, too. Yeah, I think graphics might slow down a little bit, but in regards to the PC and gaming, I think this is still a key area where our PowerIC still has strength.

Okay, final question from me is, I think in the prepared remarks someone mentioned that your Tier 1 market share is the highest it's ever been. Could you just frame that for us? Is 20% of your revenue coming from Tier 1 accounts? I don't need an exact number, but what does that mean?

I would say overall, in terms of the majority of our business is tied to Tier 1 accounts these days. That's been a major change from, I think, over the last probably three or four years that we've really been going after the market leaders in every application that we're in, whether it's in the PC market, whether it's in the home appliance or the gaming market or the graphics cards. We've been focusing our attention in designing products as well as allocating our supply to these tier one customers. So it's a reflection of that effort, and we see it in the revenue and also in our market share.

All right. Thank you.

Thanks.

Our next question is with Craig Ellis from B Reilly. Craig, your line is open.

Yep. Thanks for taking the question. I wanted to come back and follow up on the point on customer deposit. The increase in the quarter was moderate at $3 million for $10 million in the last two quarters. But I have been a little bit surprised that even though we've taken customer deposits in two and now 10% above the expected capital cost of the Gresham expansion, that they continue to come in. So one, can you talk about what's been driving the increase late and And is it possible that as we look into the back half of the year that we would have continued customer deposit intake? And if so, to what extent? Thanks, Tim.

Oh, sure. I mean, yeah, in the June quarter, we had about $3 or $4 million in net customer deposits. And I mean, going forward, I would not expect an increase whole lot of deposits that we can take and because you know those deposits are earmarked with our delivery you know support and to our customers so then you know right now and I mean a lot of the Oregon fabs and expansion capacity already you know pretty much allocated to whoever put down the deposits, so I would not expect going forward we take a whole lot of deposits. But strategic customers, they still want to secure their supply, and yes, we want to foster those and deepen our partnership with those tier one customers, yet we still selectively take some deposits.

And Yvonne, can you provide some color on where those deposits are coming in from? I think the last time I asked a question of that nature was more of the PC customer base, but can you provide any color on how many different customers have placed deposits and if it remains more PC-centric or if it's broadened out into some of the other application areas?

Oh, those deposits came in from pretty much all the segments, you know, the customers in the different industries. I mean, in PC, in smartphone, in power supply, home appliances and then, you know, from a variety of customer base.

Got it. Thanks and good luck, team.

All right. Thank you. Thank you.

Our final question will be with Jeremy Kwan from Stifle. Jeremy, your line is open.

Yes. Just a quick follow-up or two on first the you know, the delay in the capacity expansion from, you know, December to March, is that, would that impact your ability to, you know, potentially grow? You know, are you guys pretty maxed out at this point, or are there other levers you can keep pulling to kind of, I guess, you know, manage your way through these delays? And as a follow-up to that, is there other, what's giving you the confidence that these issues will be resolved in that timeline that you guys have outlined.

Sure. Maybe I'll address the second one first. So overall, we are working very closely to resolve those challenges of the labor as well as the specialized equipment that we need. We have great relationships with the local labor force, and they are very cooperative to helping us to resolve and try to close the gap So just keep in mind in terms of the total project, this is like the last leg that we're getting through. The major equipment is already installed. Now we're trying to get all these accompanying equipment also tooled up and installed as well too. So we have confidence that with our team and our partnerships with the local vendors that they can help us to get this done. For us, yes, it will impact our expansion. And we were hoping to get some of that benefit at the end of this calendar year. But it's not going to stop our overall direction. We still plan to grow next year. Even when the market changes, we do expect the supply, even if it's one quarter late, it's still going to start to help us in the first half of next year. At the same time, we talked about our demand growth, but we also talked about our supply strategy that is a three-pronged strategy. First is on internal, but also depending on external, both with our JV partner and also with external foundries. We believe that over the course of the next year, we will start to see more benefit coming from external foundries also too. So I think that will help us to grow in addition to when our 8-inch path expansion comes online.

And just a quick clarification on external foundries. Is this for your power ICs mainly, or are you speaking about DMOS even?

It's for both, but it's mainly for the DMOS side.

I see. OK. And one last question. You mentioned you're seeing some more local competition in the low to mid-end range of your products. Can you help us understand, like, what would you classify as low to mid-end and, you know, what are kind of the distribution features? Is it just pricing or are there other things that, or maybe some applications that you're seeing being targeted first?

It's really tied to more lower performance sockets where it's easier for competitors to copy. In the products that we make, power density is a big deal, right? And if you can deliver the same power in a smaller form factor, then you have an advantage, right? But in some cases where space may not be an issue, then some of our competitors can come in with an inferior process, use a bigger die, and compete with lower margin with us. So this happens much more in the low end of the market and in the more, I would say, standardized type of products. And for us, you know, AOS has been focused on differentiating ourselves more and more with our products, both for the high-end discrete and MOSFETs, but also especially for our Power IC. So the trend generally is towards more integration, both our customers as well, and that's reflected in our product portfolio. So the more that we differentiate, the more that we can defend or avoid the challenges from the local competitors.

Great. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

That concludes our Q&A session. So I'll pass the call back to the management team for any closing remarks.

This concludes our earnings call today. Thank you for your interest in AOS, and we look forward to talking to you again next quarter. Thank you.

Thank you all.