Semtech Corporation

Welcome to Semtech's fourth quarter and fiscal year 2026 financial results conference call. Participants on today's conference call are Hong Ho, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Mark Lin, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I would like to highlight upcoming investor events, including the Optical Fiber Communications Conference starting tomorrow and the Roth Technology Conference on March 23rd. Today after market close, we released our run out of results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2026, which are posted along with the earnings call presentation to our investor relations website at investors.sumtech.com. Today's call will include various remarks about future expectations, plans, and prospects, which comprise forward-looking statements. Please refer to today's press release and see slide two of the earnings presentation as well as the risk factors section of our most recent annual report on Form 10-K for a number of risk factors that could cause our action results and events to differ materially from those anticipated or projected on today's call. You should consider these risk factors in conjunction with our forward-looking statements. We will refer primarily to non-GAAP financial measures during today's call. We'll also be referring to results for our fourth quarter of fiscal year 2026 unless otherwise noted. Please see today's press release and slide three of the earnings presentation for information regarding notes on our non-GAAP financial presentation. The press release and earnings presentation also include reconciliations of our GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. With that, I will turn the call over to Hong.

Thank you, Mitch. Good afternoon to all of you joining today. SEMTEX closed the fiscal year 2026 with a significant momentum. achieving a record $1.05 billion in net sales, a milestone that reflects the progress we have made and the trajectory we believe lies ahead. We drove strong sequential and year-over-year revenue and earnings growth, advanced our data center roadmap to capture compelling design wins opportunities, and continue to optimize our product portfolio. all while executing on the R&D and expensive initiatives, we believe position Semtex for exciting next chapter. Looking at Q4, net sales were $274.4 million, up 3% sequentially and up 9% year over year. For the year, revenues were $1.05 billion, representing annual growth of 15% driven by continued strength in our data center and Elora portfolios. Adjusted diluted earnings per share were 44 cents, up 10% year-over-year. For fiscal year 2026, adjusted diluted earnings per share were $1.71, growth of 94% over the prior year. In addition to delivering strong revenue and earnings growth, portfolio optimization remains a key focus of execution. As announced earlier this month, we acquired HIFO Corporation, which represents an important strategic building block for Semtech. HIFO is a California-based manufacturer of high-efficiency indium-phosphate-based optoelectronic devices, including game chips, and the CW laser chips that are critical components in the optical transceivers are in today's data centers. Put simply, HIFO makes the light-emitting building blocks that sit at the heart of high-speed optical interconnects. The strategic rationale is straightforward. As data center architectures evolve to 1.6T and 3.2T, the complexity of optical interconnects increases dramatically. By bringing HIFO's proven indium phosphate laser technology together with the Semtex industry-leading TIAs and laser drivers, we can co-develop and co-optimize performance across the laser modulator and driver interface, and increase Semtex content opportunity from high single-digit dollars an 800 gig module to about $80 in a 3.2T module. We believe this combination will result in a more integrated, more efficient chipset, one that reduces system power consumption and give the hyperscaler a differentiated solution for high bandwidth optical transceiver modules. We have developed a comprehensive investment plan for the Alhambra, California facility to expand domestic capacity and accelerate the product development. Integration of HIFO into some tax operation is underway, with the transaction expected to be accretive to non-GAF diluted earnings per share within the first year. We are genuinely excited about the people and technology joining Semtech, and we see significant untapped potential for high-efficiency lasers in different interconnect applications. Finally, we continue to make progress on the divestiture of the cellular module business, and we are increasingly encouraged by the level of interest and engagement. We remain confident this business represents a compelling opportunity for the right buyer, and we remain focused on bringing this process to a successful conclusion. Now, let me move to a discussion of our end markets. For Q4, infrastructure net sales were $86.3 million, up 11% sequentially and up 25% year over year. strongly supported by our data center business. For fiscal 2026, infrastructure net sales were $310 million, growth of 27% over the prior year. For Q4, net sales of data center were a record $63 million, up 12% sequentially and up 26% year over year. benefiting from strong demand for our broad portfolio, including our market-leading fiber edge ICs, whose net sales set another record. In Q4, we also started shipping into LPO transceivers with revenues in line with the outlook we provided on the last quarter's earnings call. Year 2026, our data center revenues were a record $223 million, representing an annual growth of 58%. Our optical and copper product lines are firmly established with hyperscalers as a differentiated and high-performance offering. Power efficiency has become one of the defining constraints of the modern AI infrastructure. As hyperscalers measure data center capacity in megawatts, The ability to move data faster while consuming less power at the networking layer is no longer just a differentiator. It's an enabler. Our analog solutions address this directly, enabling operators to scale next-generation architectures at 800 gig, 1.6T, and eventually 3.2T. Demands for 800 gig PIA solutions remain strong and broad-based. with an increasing momentum throughout 2026. At 1.60, we are engaged across a wide range of transceiver programs and expect volume runs to build as hyperscalers roll out their new XPU and switch platforms using reduced power 1.60 transceivers throughout the year. On LPO, design wins with several leading U.S. hyperscalers, validated our TIA and driver solutions in 800-gig transceivers. We are very excited to be a member of the new XPO MSA to define specifications and enable high bandwidth, high density, and low-power switches. By combining with the low-loss copper interconnects, such as flyover wires of linear re-driven PCB traces, some hyperscalers are becoming increasingly bullish on 1.60 LPO instead of using LROs for the first layer of the scale-up fabrics. We continue to expand our LPO IC portfolio with 1.60 LPO drivers and TIAs expected to come to market this year. In supporting further proliferation of low-power linear optics, Semtech, along with other industry leaders, are developing MPO, or Near Package Optics, MSA, for low-power, high-density, and high-bandwidth solutions. Successful deployment of 800-gig LPO transceivers gives hyperscalers confidence in MPO as the next evolution of the optical solutions. We are excited by the increased content available to Semtech in NPO deployments. Active Copper Cable, or ACC, continues to gain significant traction. Customers evaluating ACC's against the incumbent solutions are seeing compelling performance advantage in the form of a robust link margin and transformative power savings versus DSP-based solutions. Alongside our cable solutions, customers are increasingly evaluating our CopperEdge linear equalizers for onboard integration to enhance signal integrity across high-speed links, an opportunity we are confident will convert into design wins over the coming quarters One of these use cases is active backbone using copper-etched ICs, which our cable partners will demonstrate at OFC. Finally, we co-authored the ACC MSA, helping establish ACC technology as a leading solution for low-power and high-performance copper links. Members of the MSA spent IC, XPU, and cable suppliers all in partnership with major hyperscalers. We believe the ACC MSA accelerates the adoption curve for the entire industry. By establishing common specifications, we reduce fragmentation, lower deployment risk for hyperscalers, and make it easier for the ecosystem to develop around ACC as a standard, not just a preparatory solution that is good for customers is good for Semtech. We look forward to seeing many of you at OFC starting tomorrow. This year, we are showing live demos across several of our key product areas. They tell a clear story about where Semtech is positioned in the data center interconnect market, starting with copper. We are demonstrating 1.6 TACCs running live traffic to NVIDIA's 224 gig 30s. We are also showing next generation 448 gig per channel copper edge chips. As the AI clusters scale, the demand for low power and a low latency copper interconnects continues to grow. And we think we are very well positioned to lead the market. On the optical side, we'll be demonstrating NVIDIA's 1.6T DRA transceivers powered by SEMTECH's TIAs and laser drivers running live in NVIDIA switch platform. We'll also be demonstrating a 100T Ethernet switch running live traffic over both single-mode and the multi-mode fibers supporting FRO, LRO, and LPO configurations across the Tomahawk 6 platform, all built on Semtech silicon. We are thrilled to demonstrate the breadth of our optical portfolio across a multi-vendor ecosystem. We'll also be demonstrating our next generation 448 gig per channel modulator drivers and TIAs, addressing increasing bandwidth demand to support future generation AI workloads. We're also showcasing our indium phosphide CW laser and the GaN chip technology for tunable laser applications with outstanding power efficiency over temperature performance and the far field beam profile products from our HIFO acquisition. Across copper and optical and both near term and next generation, OFC gives us a tremendous opportunity to show Semtech's position across the full hyperscale interconnect stack. We believe we are positioned for multi-year growth opportunities supported by our expanded portfolio. We expect to start shipping CopperEdge for the 1.60 ACC hyperscaler deployment this quarter, with demand accelerating throughout the year. We also expect fiber edge design wins for 1.6T transceivers with a significant ramp in the second half of the year. Additional revenue growth drivers in the near future are expected from additional design wins for ACC and other hyperscalers, linear equalizers on board across multiple customers, gain chips and CW lasers in transceivers, and our market-leading 400-gig fiber edge and copper edge products for 3.2T interconnect solutions. Given the breadth of our data center portfolio and design interaction across an expanding set of customers, we expect data center year-over-year revenue growth this fiscal year to exceed 50%. Now moving to our high-end consumer end market. Net sales for Q4 were $36.6 million, down 13% sequentially and up 3% year-over-year. Net sales for fiscal year 2026 were $155.1 million, up 5% year-over-year, driven by both our TVS and per se product portfolios. Our consumer TVS revenue continues to ramp well ahead of handset volume growth, and we expect another year of revenue and design win momentum. We expect consumer TVS revenues to increase next quarter, a function of improved seasonality and share gains at the leading handset manufacturers. In addition, Persei continues to broaden its design win footprint. with adoption expanding across smart glasses and smartphone platforms in supporting both current and upcoming product launches. The integration of the force sensing portfolio is progressing well with the initial product shipments already underway Customer engagement and design wind activities continue to build, and we are increasingly optimistic about the cross-selling opportunities this combination unlocks across our combined customer base. Moving to our industrial end market, Q4 industrial net sales were $151 million, up 3% sequentially and year over year. With another solid quarter for LoRa, for the full year, industrial revenue was $584 million, 13% growth over the prior year. LoRa-enabled net sales were $39.6 million, in line with the Q3, and up 7% year-over-year, supported by continued expansion across several application verticals, such as smart utilities, smart building, smart city, and asset management. For the full year, LoRa revenues were $156 million, representing full year growth of 34%. We had a strong presence at the CES this year, showcasing new LoRa application use cases. Four themes highlighted in our presence, edge AI integration, multiple protocol connectivity, global network expansion, and the convergence of industrial and consumer IoT, together reflecting a technology that is broadening its reach across a trillion range of markets. Edge AI emerged as another defining trend, as the sensors increasingly processed data locally for latency, privacy, and bandwidth reasons our collaboration with an ecosystem partner demonstrated how LoRaWAN and Edge AI work together to enable predictive maintenance in industrial environments. Demand for a solution that combines LoRa with a multiple protocol flexibility is accelerating. In order to facilitate LoRaPlus adoption, we recently signed an agreement with a technology partner to support software development to activate and support others' protocols. We are rolling out a Z-Wave first with a Zigbee and a threat and matter to follow. We expect beta units will be available to deployment partners in Q2 of this year as a multiple protocol smart home and security solutions. The markets move towards a single-skill solutions is exactly what LoRa Plus is designed to address, reducing complexity for customers while expanding our addressable markets. Customers who purchase our LoRa Plus transceivers now get royalty-free access to an SDK and development tools, silicon and software together from a single source. Additionally, Amazon and Ring announced a new line of LoRa-powered sensors, spanning security, safety, and home control applications, all operating on Amazon's sidewalk. Ring plans to launch this product in the U.S. in March, followed by extensions across Canada, Mexico, Europe, Australia, and Japan. This demonstrates LoRa's readiness for mass market consumer adoption at Amazon scale, a significant evolution from its industrial and commercial roots. The ecosystem continues to scale, now spanning over 125 million LoRaWAN-connected devices across 70 countries, well beyond early adoption and into mainstream deployment. With LoRa technology, we now have established three pillars of low-power connectivity platforms. LoRaWAN, LoRaPlus with multiple protocols, and Amazon Sidewalk. With these sales vectors, we believe LoRa's long-term sales rate to be approximately 20% and quarterly sales to range from $35 to $45 million. Our IoT systems and connectivity business recorded Q4 net sales of $89.9 million, up 2% sequentially and down 3% year-over-year. For fiscal 2026, revenues were $354 million, up 9% compared to last year. We continue to bring products to market that address gaps in how industrial customers connect to remote infrastructure. In Q4, we launched the AirLink RX400 and the EX400, the industry's first rugged 5G REDCap routers purposely built for mission-critical industrial deployments. These routers deliver 5G performance with less than one watt of the idle power, roughly one-tenth of the draw of standard 5G equipment. making solar and battery-backed deployment practical for the first time. This allows our utility, oil and gas, and transportation customers to operate in remote locations where grid power is not always available. Customer engagement at the distribution pack in February reinforced our conviction that this product is well-timed to address a real market need. Looking back on fiscal 2026, I'm proud of what the team had accomplished. We delivered a strong revenue and earnings growth through disciplined execution, a differentiated portfolio, and a relentless focus on the customers and the markets where Semtech can win. This was not just a strong year financially. It was a year in which we fundamentally strengthened Semtech's foundation. Looking at where we stand today, I'm more confident than ever in our positioning. The AI data center build-out is one of the most significant infrastructure investments in a generation. And we believe Semtech is well positioned with a broad purpose-built portfolio of solutions designed for 1.6T and 3.2T era. We believe our continued investment in our core assets through R&D and acquisitions helps ensure we are not just keeping pace with the next generation technology. We are helping to define it. And importantly, we now have the financial flexibility to diligently evaluate and pursue the strategic investments that will accelerate our growth. We enter fiscal 2027 with the momentum with a clarity of purpose and with a stronger syntax than we have had in years. I want to thank our employees, our customers, and our shareholders for their continued confidence in us with just getting started and the opportunities ahead has never been more compelling. Our key focuses for 2027 fiscal year include, one, accelerating business growth by supporting customer runs with sufficient availability and strong operational metrics as we compete in a capacity-constrained environment. Two, intensify R&D investment to add new drill drivers and solution differentiation by maintaining diligent governance of R&D investment with a goal of driving customer wins and delivering strong financial returns. transforming Semtech by strengthening our winning culture and making major progress in portfolio optimization. With that, I will now turn the call to Mark for additional details on our financial results and our outlook for the first quarter of fiscal 27. Mark?

Thank you, Hong. For Q4, we recorded our eighth consecutive quarter of net sales growth, with record net sales of $274.4 million. above the midpoint of our outlook and up 9% year-over-year. For the fiscal year, net sales were $1.05 billion, up 15% year-over-year. Net sales trends by end market, reportable segment, and geographic region are included in the accompanying earnings presentation. Addressed gross margin was 51.6%, above the midpoint of our outlook. Total semiconductor products gross margin was 61.7%, up 40 basis points sequentially and up 350 basis points year-over-year. Total semiconductor products gross margin was above the high end of our outlook range, the result of favorable mix from our LoRa and data center portfolio. We expect gross margin contributions from new data center products from our copper and optical 1.6T portfolio ramping in the second half of this year will be accretive to both our semiconductor products and signal integrity products gross margin. IoT systems and connectivity gross margin was reflective of MIX-related net sales growth in cellular modules, with Q4 at 31.6%. Adjusted net operating expenses were $91.5 million, slightly above the midpoint of our guidance range. Adjusted operating income was $50.0 million, adjusted operating margin was 18.2%, adjusted EBITDA was $57.4 million, and adjusted EBITDA margin was 20.9%. with all of these metrics above the midpoint of our guidance range. Reflective of capital structure changes, CEMTEC was in a net interest income position in Q4 at $0.1 million, which reflects a sizable change from the $11.2 million of net interest expense reported a year ago. For fiscal year 2026, adjusted net interest expense was $11.5 million compared to $70.6 million in fiscal year 2025. We recorded adjusted diluted earnings per share of 44 cents above the midpoint of our guidance and full year adjusted diluted earnings per share was $1.71. Operating cash flow for Q4 was $61.5 million, sequentially up 30% from $47.5 million and up 84% from $33.5 million a year ago. Free cash flow for Q4 was $59.1 million, sequentially up 32% from $44.6 million and up 91% from $30.9 million a year ago. Operating cash flow and free cash flow for the standalone fourth quarter each exceeded the amounts reported for all of fiscal year 2025, driven by improvements in both our capital structure and operating performance. Strong cash flow generation has allowed us the operational flexibility to invest in R&D projects as well as to invest strategically via Tuckins. The increased R&D investment in our core data center, LoRa, and sensing portfolio has yielded strong returns. The aggregate consideration for the four sensing portfolio we acquired in October 2025 and the laser engagement business we acquired in March 2026 is less than the free cash flow we generated from Q4. I believe our balancing of R&D spending along with prudent use of capital for capacity expansion and acquisitions positions us to generate meaningful long-term returns for our shareholders. We ended Q4 with a cash and cash equivalence balance of $195.2 million and debt was $503 million, unchanged from last quarter. Our adjusted net leverage ratio was 1.3 as of the close of Q4, down sequentially from 1.5 and down year-over-year from 2.3. Now turning to our outlook for the first quarter of fiscal year 2027. We currently expect net sales of $283 million, plus or minus $5 million, of 13% year-over-year at the midpoint. We expect net sales from an infrastructure end market to increase sequentially, supported by projected sequential data center growth of 12%, including initial Copper Ridge production shipments supporting a hyperscaler at the tail end of the quarter. We expect net sales from our high consumer end market to increase about 9% sequentially, or about 13% year-over-year, benefiting from improved seasonal trends, market share gain in our TVS products, and contributions from the force sensing portfolio we acquired in the fourth quarter. We expect net sales from our industrial end market to be about flat, with LoRa increases offsetting decreases in IoT systems and connectivity. Based on expected product mix and net sales levels, we expect adjusted gross margin to be 52.8%, plus or minus 50 basis points. Our gross margin outlook for our total semiconductor products is expected to be 60.4%, plus or minus 50 basis points, down 130 basis points sequentially, and include initial ramp costs from the HIFO acquisition. Adjusted net operating expenses are expected to be $96.9 million, plus or minus $1 million. resulting in adjusted operating margin at the midpoint of 18.6%. Included in the higher first quarter adjusted operating expense outlook are R&D costs associated with the addition of the force sensing business along with increased investment in support of our growing data center portfolio, including the HIFO acquisition. We have demonstrated strong returns on our R&D investment and expect incremental returns from these investments. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be $59.5 million plus or minus $3 million, resulting in adjusted EBITDA margin at the midpoint of 21%. We expect adjusted interest and other expense net to be approximately half a million dollars. We expect an adjusted normalized income tax rate of 72% for all of fiscal year 2027, an increase from 15% in fiscal year 2026 due to a geographical shift in pre-tax profits. These amounts are expected to result in adjusted diluted earnings per share of 45 cents plus or minus 3 cents based on a weighted average share count of 96.6 million shares.

Thank you, Mark. We can now turn the call back to the operator for the question and answer session.

Thank you. We'll now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up the handset before pressing the star keys.

One moment please while we poll for questions. Thank you. Our first question is from Sean O'Glockman with TD Cowan.

hey guys uh congrats on the solid results and continuing to execute uh on on your strategy i wanted to ask a question on the hypo acquisition i think you know the strategic rationale you laid out is pretty straightforward but wondering if you could expand on you know the initial applications you're targeting sounds like mostly transceiver side and then maybe more importantly where Where are you for the indium phosphide-based products in the qualification or design cycles at some of your customers? And what should be our expectations for when some of that starts to fold into the model and material way?

Yeah, thank you, Sean, for the question. So the hypo initial product right now in production is a GaN chip. using tunable lasers. Those are the high-end lasers to support a transmission over 80 kilometers, 40 kilometers for metro and data center interconnect applications. By leveraging about four decades of laser design experience, and they have been the leading supplier for GaN chips for ITLA. This is a product already in volume production and demand is increasing, and right now it's capacity limited. So this product for 2027 probably will be contributing roughly about a high tin level of revenue. But, you know, we are adding capacity as we speak in the second week as a proud owner of this asset. We have also demonstrated, we'll showcase tomorrow at the OFC, The intensity modulated direct drive lasers are CW lasers used in optical transceivers. This laser is really well designed to support high conversion efficiency. For example, wall plug efficiency at a room temperature of 42 percent. That is much higher than a typical about 25 percent. Then our temperature performance is outstanding, and the far-field beam profile is outstanding. So that makes it much easier to couple into single-mold fiber our silicon photonics waveguide. And we do not have enough capacity right now to support the industry demand. After the announcement, you can just imagine we got multiple customers reaching in and asking for samples. So we will be able to provide samples to the key customers to support the evaluation when we are building capacity to support the future yields. As for putting in the model, probably once we have a better understanding on the equipment lead time and the capacity in the future periods, we will provide more guidance on the revenue contribution from CW lasers. Right now, we're planning to intercept at a 3.2T transceiver, of course, it can support a 1.6T transceiver as well.

Great, thanks, and appreciate all the color there. If I could just ask a real quick follow-up maybe for Mark on that topic, you know, how should we be thinking about, the CapEx line as you talk about those capacity expansions at Alhambra. And, you know, I guess maybe Hong alluded to the answer to this question in his previous comment about understanding equipment lead times, but, you know, how everybody in the Indian phosphide industry seems to be ramping capacity. And, you know, are you guys, I guess, for lack of a better term, at the back of the line there?

Yeah, so the CapEx intensity is moderate and, you know, they already have the key capabilities. Right now, we just need to selectively add in capacity in some areas. So they, I know the whole industry is ramping up and equipment and test equipment, fab equipment in high demand as well. But, you know, we, will be very creative in combining with the new and used market and to look at the FAP and test equipment. The intensity, I would say, of the CapEx can be easily supported with, say, for example, one quarter of the free cash flow, as we have demonstrated in the past quarter.

Yeah, Sean, and the RAP is over multiple quarters, but I think Semtech's world-class operations team is on it. We already had the planning during diligence. And the other good news is, you know, all of this CAPEX, I believe, qualifies for, you know, Section 48D investment tax credit, 35%. And there's some additional government grant programs, you know, that are available, especially, you know, to strengthen U.S. semiconductor manufacturing capacity.

Thanks, guys. Thank you.

Our next question is from Torres Vonberg with Stifel.

Yes, thank you, Hong, Mark. Congrats on the results. So my first question is on CopperEdge. So as that business now starts to ramp in fiscal 27, can you give us any sense for, you know, how big that could be? You know, maybe tens of millions of dollars. And if you can't give us the size, perhaps you could at least give us the mix between actual ACC cables versus linear equalizers.

Yeah. So, Terry, thank you for the question. So, we are supporting the REMP. We're getting forecast, and we're getting the materials ready as we give the guidance in our prepared remarks towards the end of this fiscal year. Well, this fiscal quarter in April timeframe, we'll start shipping to the cable manufacturers who are our direct customers. to support the rack level volume ramp in the middle of the year. So everything is on schedule. As for the mix between DAC and ACC, it's still, they are in the process of right now doing this rack level testing system validation. So we will be getting better idea probably by in a month or two. on the support but we are getting the long range forecast so that we can get a wafer start in the fab and prepare the material readiness as I indicated that's a very key focus for our operations so at this point it's still too early to tell but as for linear equalizer on board there are multiple customers supporting our activities and I do believe that some of those based on the level of engagement, it will be getting qualified within the coming quarters. So just on the Leader Equalizer, the ACC side, the MSA establishment with the 11 or 12 founding members are tasked and at work already start drafting the specifications. You know, this is still the early stage of the ACC and some customers experiencing the different, different customers experiencing different performance. It is very important to have this MSA and to draft the specification and educate the industry that what to expect with a certain level of that reach and gauge and, you know, and data rate. So with the common understanding of MSA, I do believe this technology is going to be proliferated much faster. So we have already seen some other hyperscalers lining up to getting their rack designed by using ACC.

Yeah, that's very helpful. Thank you. And as my follow-up and maybe more of a clarification question, You talked about lower growing 20% longer term, but then you talked about a 35 to 45 million quarterly run rate. You just did 40. So what exactly is that 35, 45 range? I mean, are you expecting some volatility this year? Or yeah, if you could just clarify what you meant by that. Thank you. Yeah, thank you, Tori.

So historically, we have been seeing, you know, overall trend of lower revenue has been increasing. But quarter to quarter is a little bit bumpy due to the project-based deployment of demand. That's why we give a range of plus minus $5 million. But you see that sliding scales continue to go up with the center point. I feel like I have never been this excited about our LoRa strategy. It's really with the dual band to increase the bandwidth to address edge AI applications with a LoRa Plus to really get multiple applications in one SKU with the software and hardware all supported by us. And with the Amazon, you know, the sidewalk and the mass market, So adding the value-added market, whether to add the mass market, really we got multiple growth drivers. So I think that's why they're giving us conviction that, you know, 20% growth rate is very doable. When we can help the ecosystem to adopt a LoRa Plus protocol faster, we expect the growth rate to accelerate.

Very clear. Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next question is from Christopher Roland with Susquehanna.

Hey, guys. Thank you for the question. I guess my first one is on the Indian Fossilized Laser Acquisition. I guess first a clarification. This is all going to be internally manufactured materials. Just wanted to clarify that. And secondly, if you could talk about maybe your go-to-market strategy here and maybe even some revenue synergies with some of your other parts. Are you going to kind of bundle this with FiberEdge? Are you going to perhaps go direct to hyperscalers? How are you going to approach this market? Thank you.

Yeah, thank you, Chris. That's very good questions. To answer your first question, yes, the FAB we acquired is vertically integrated. Namely, we do the epi growth of epi wafers. We process wafers. We test it internally. And we do use the ecosystem on backend packaging to increase the capacity. That part, you know, we are doing really well. This lasers, because of the amount involved that regrows process, so we do internally, that's how we are able to get the superior performance in conversion efficiency and over temperature performance. As for your second question, go-to-market strategy. You are absolutely right. We know that 100 gig per lane in transition to 200 gig per lane, they already put so much stress into the ecosystem. So we're really challenging the device designers with a performance margin. And when we evolve the data rate to 400 gigs per lane, they really not hold a lot of margin to give out. So the code development and code optimize is so key in order to get the best electronic component with the best auto electronic components. So now we own two sides of the equation. So we'll be able to mix and match to provide the best integrated solution. And when we have that, we will provide the chipset with a reference design to our customer base. This way will help to accelerate the time to market for them. And in return, we make our components more sticky, right? So if you use this kind of electronic component, like a TIA, a laser driver, modulator driver, using our optical components, you will pretty much get a guarantee to work to deliver 400 gig performance. That's why we're saying, we anticipate the major cut-in point is 3.2T transceiver modules. It could be earlier than that.

That's great. That's a fantastic strategy. One question I get from investors is around the eventuality of CPO, particularly for scale-up. Genshin here at GCC was talking a little bit about the coexistence of both copper and optical in the rack. But some pushback I get from investors is around the role of copper, the closer that optical moves to the ASIC. Obviously, you're expanding your market with lasers here into the CPO world. But perhaps you could also address that kind of pushback on copper, where you see copper playing a role not only in the next two years, but all the way through 2030, for example, even as you move CPO to the ASICs.

Great. Thank you, Chris. I listened to Jensen's call as well. So basically, what I was trying to say over the last year, but he clarified it so well. So copper scale up. It's always going to be there. And CPO scale-up is only making more sense in the multi-rec systems. For example, he was talking about Alboron NVL576 across eight recs. That way, because you're using active copper cable, it's very hard to get eight recs all point-to-point interconnected. So you use the first opportunity the signal out of the XPU to convert into optical. Optical not only be able to interconnect within RECs, but it can also interconnect between RECs. The same thing for the Kyber platform. It was talking about NVL 1152. That's also an eight REC system on the NVL 144. And that the CPO scale up makes sense. So in general, I think the copper scale-up is going to be the mainstream, is going to be primarily used for within a rack. The CPO scale-up is going to be used in multiple racks. So don't put a terminal value on the copper yet. And industry also are formulating an MPO, Near Package Optics, It's a complement to CPO. So this way, CPO is one company thing, right? But MPO can define a specification to have specific geometry, the IO pin out and keep out zone to leverage the entire ecosystem's innovation to make it more scalable, more affordable. So in a CPO, we may not have much content in there, except for lasers, but in MPO, we will be all over the place with the laser drivers and TIAs and lasers and even silicon photonics modulator, as I mentioned, that is a very natural expansion of our portfolio by the internal development.

Thanks. Thank you.

Our next question is from Tristan Guerra with Robert W. Baird.

Hi, good afternoon. You've talked about the rising interest from hyperscalers about LPOs. Could you talk about the recent ARISA XPO announcement and what it does to the LPO ecosystem and, you know, any way to quantify, you know, what the ramp is going to look like medium term and when you expect a big inflection point in LPO revenue?

Great. Thank you, Tristan. So XPO, Arista just released that MSA. We are a very active member of the MSA. XPO defined high density, low power, and provide high reliability MSA for front panel switch, for example. to keep the same relics, but they will be able to collapse the form factor from essentially four RU into one without giving out any capacity. So it basically removes the packaging overhead. Because liquid cooling is available, they can develop the cold plate so that get in between the optical transceivers and that is just great and really a that build upon the confidence on LPO and build upon the innovation from the entire ecosystem with multiple module manufacturers MPO on the other hand is a little bit more involved because that's involved in the development of common specification on, say, geometry, keypods, the IOs, and the shoreline configurations. So essentially, MPO is, in a way, XPO on board. XPO is this high density package on the front panel of the box. In both configurations, we're going to be having a lot of content in there. Again, the lasers and the modulator drivers, the modulator itself, and TIAs. And so we welcome this type of MSA. It's really going into our direction.

OK, that's great, Carlo. And then for my follow up, you've mentioned in the past some ACC opportunities on board. provide maybe a little bit more feedback on what that is, you know, what exactly is the use case for that and how meaningful that could get over time?

Yeah, the Copper Edge Linear Equalizer onboard, our customers are defining five, six different use cases in order to utilize the Redrive capability to extend the link and improve the link budget. So it can be on the switch, can be on the merchant CPU board, can be on the ASIC board of hyperscalers. It can also be on the backplane, in an active backplane by our cable partners.

Great. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

Our next question is from Quinn Bolton with Needham & Company.

Hi, this is Robert on for Quinn here. Congrats on the quarter. Just one on you've been doing active, you've been active in doing acquisitions and have expressed intent to increase R&D with some of your capital up into this point. But any updates on potential divestitures? Last we heard, I think, you know, ongoing and, you know, roughly in the third or fourth inning. So any update on that process would be great.

Yeah, Robert, thanks for calling in. I'm not really good at sports analogies, but I think that we're making good progress. I'm optimistic and a good conclusion. At this point, I'd say that maybe incremental from last quarter, the interested parties are spending some dollars on external consultants, so financial due diligence and on legal costs. So we're at that stage. And, you know, when there's additional kind of skin in the game, I think, you know, that does point towards a successful conclusion. with the cellular module divestiture in the near term.

Thanks. And just as a follow-up, you know, it sounds like there are many tailwinds coming across for LPO as well as copper. And I think, you know, last week we kind of heard them ramping kind of in a similar timeframe this year. Can you just refresh that for us as it sounds like ACC's could be ramping a little earlier now? And then which do you see as the larger revenue opportunity over kind of the coming 12 months?

Yeah, Robert, so we gave the timeline ACC ramp. It's on time, on schedule. And then the 1.60 fiber edge product. And then beyond that, as I said, could be linear the ACC with other hyperscalers, linear equalizer on board, and the lasers, and 400 gig. We like them all, and at this point, it is too early to call which one is the bigger opportunity, but we like them all and are going to be contributing pretty significant ways.

Sounds great.

Thanks, guys. Thank you. Our next question is from Joe Moore with Morgan Stanley.

Great. Thank you. You talked about 1.6T starting to grow in your business and other places. Can you talk about the line of sight that you have to 800 still growing? I assume it's still growing for now and you're layering in the higher speeds on top of it. You know, how long will that persist and what point does it start transitioning over more?

That's right. So Joe, we did mention in the prepared remarks to 800 gig is a foundation. the growth is strong, demand is strong, and broad-based. So that's the given. That goes very strong, at least throughout the FY27. And as for the industry, rolling out new XPUs and then all the IOs goes to 200 gig. So they're going to be evolving into 1.60 and in a low-power 1.60 optics. we are actually very well positioned, even better than 800 gig. Okay.

Thank you. Yeah. Thank you.

Our next question is from Craig Ellis with B Reilly Secure.

Yeah. Thanks for sneaking me in. And, guys, congratulations on both the execution and a really strategic-looking acquisition. Hong, I think near the end of your prepared remarks, commented that you thought data center year-on-year revenue this year could be up around 50%. One, just confirming that I heard that right, and two, can you help us understand what the biggest growth drivers are or rank the growth drivers that you see driving that degree of growth?

Yeah, thank you, Craig. Yes, you heard it right. Year-over-year, we expect the data center revenue to grow 50%. So, the driver is ACC with a hyperscaler, 1.6T fiber edge, second half of the year, and then there might be even linear equalizer onboard contributing to the growth.

That's helpful. Thank you. And then, Mark, congratulations on the strength and you too, Hong, on the strength in semis gross margin. and what we're seeing in signal integrity, it's really nice to see those mid-high 60s levels reattained. The comments on accretive second-half products, are we signaling that gross margin for the segment could start with a seven handle later this year or next year, or would you still expect to be in the 60s?

The new products that we introduced do have accretive gross margins, so I'm very pleased with that. It's a great return on the R&D that we put into the products, and they do contribute to growing gross margin. But we still also have other products, so at 800 gig, right? So I'm not expecting it to be in the sevens, but firmly in the zip code.

Yeah. Well, congratulations on where it is. Thanks, guys.

Thank you. Our next question is from Cody Ackrey with Benchmark Stonehouse.

Thanks, guys, for taking my question. Maybe just following up on Craig's question, you didn't mention LPOs among the drivers of that 50% data center growth. Any reason for leaving that out? And maybe can you just talk about the breadth of expansion of your engagements with ACC and LPOs over the last few months and how you expect those to progress over the course of the year?

Thank you, Cody. So, yes, the LPO continued to grow, and as we said, the Q4, we delivered just as we gave the guidance, mid-single digit, and signal the first ramp. And it continued to ramp on the LPO, you know, but we got in the fiber edge product category, so we included in there. The LPO adoption is proliferating, and that's also built the confidence for this XPO and MPO strategy. Then ACC is also getting more and more accepted by the industry. I mentioned that the hyperscalers, one hyperscaler started ramping mid-year, and then more hyperscalers are embracing this ACC as well. linear equalizer with multiple customers the engagement has been going really strong so i do believe that we not only have drills drivers lined up for this year and have multiple drills drivers lined up from future periods beyond f by 27. great thanks for that color mark any thoughts on your opex trends for the year yeah so you know

I'm pleased that we're able to have the flexibility to invest in the business. Our outlook for next quarter in OPEX growth is really R&D. So I believe we demonstrated strong returns on investment. And our investment in R&D certainly yields stronger returns than interest expense, for example. But we do remain disciplined in our R&D investments, focusing on our core data center portfolio on LoRa and Per Se. And the two recent acquisitions, Do have some incremental R&D, but these are in our core portfolios.

All right. Great. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Thanks, Cody.

Thank you. Our last question is from Scott Searle with Roth Capital Partners.

Hey, guys. Thanks for sinking me in under the wire. Just real quick on lower out, wondering if you could provide a little bit more color in the past. China was such a big percentage in the mix. I'm wondering how it was in the quarter and the pipeline of opportunities there. We continue to diversify away from the Chinese marketplace. And as part of that, you know, sidewalk is cropped up from time to time as being a large opportunity. It's been, I think, slow to date. I'm wondering if you could calibrate when we might start to see that contributing in a more meaningful fashion. And as a follow up, Just on the protection and sensing side, I think you indicated that there was a large wind that kicks into the first quarter. I'm wondering if you could just clarify that and provide any additional color. Thanks.

Okay. Thank you. Laura, right now the growth is broad-based across multiple regions. China certainly is a good driver. And in Europe and in North America, the growth is equally strong. And it's all benefited from multiple growth drivers out there. So Sidewalk, you know, certainly it had a little bit of a false start several years ago, but at OFC, not OFC, CES in January, they had over 10 product demos all embedded with LoRa chips inside. So they're going to be start deployed in March in North America, had a clear plan to proliferating into other countries So we'll see this time, but that can be a pretty significant opportunity for Semtech. So I would let Mark address the TVS question.

So TVS, we're seeing growth above, let's say, a proxy of handset, handset volumes, unit volumes. So we have a number of good design wins in TVS. And also there's a little bit of a geopolitical tailwind that we believe is sustainable over a number of quarters. That's leading to our better than seasonal guide for Q1.

Great. Thanks so much. Nice job on the quarter. Thank you.

Thank you. I would now like to hand the call back over to Mitch Haas for any closing remarks.

That concludes today's call. Thanks to all of you for joining us today. We look forward to seeing you at various investor events over the coming weeks and at OFC starting tomorrow. Thank you.