Valens Semiconductor Ltd.

Good morning. My name is Yoni, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Valence Semiconductor's fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings conference call and webcast. All participant lines have been placed in a listen-only mode. Opening remarks by Valence Semiconductor management will be followed by a question and answer session. I will now turn the call over to Daphna Golden, Vice President of Investor Relations for Valence Semiconductor. Please go ahead.

Thank you and welcome everyone to Valence Semiconductor's fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings call. With me today are Gideon Bensley, Chief Executive Officer, and Guy Nysensen, Chief Financial Officer. Earlier today, we issued a press release that is available in the Investor Relations section of our website under investors.valence.com. As a reminder, today's earnings call may include forward-looking statements and projections which do not guarantee future events or performance. These statements are subject to the safe harbor language in today's press release. Please refer to our annual report in form 20F filed with the SEC earlier today for a discussion of the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. We do not undertake any duty to revise or update such statements to reflect new information, subsequent events, or changes in strategy. We will be discussing certain non-GAAP measures on this call, which we believe are relevant in assessing the financial performance of the business, and you can find reconciliations of these metrics within our earnings release. In the coming weeks, we will attend the annual Roth MKM Conference in Dana Point, California. If you're interested in meeting with us, please email me at investors at valence.com. With that, I will now turn the call over to Guidon.

Thank you, Daphna. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining the Valence Semiconductor Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings Call. I'm joined today by Guy Nacanzon, our new Chief Financial Officer. Guy will play a key role in progressing the Valence Semiconductor high-performance strategy and its executions. Guy has more than 20 years of executive leadership experience with U.S. listed and private companies in the semiconductor, medical imaging, and aviation technology sectors, and CFOs with companies including Provigent, Altair Semiconductor, Tax Technologies, and Scorpio Labs. We are excited to welcome Guy to our executive team and glad he is here today for our earnings call. I also want to thank Yael Rosenberg for stepping in as our interim CFO for the past six months. Yael is working closely with Guy and will continue to manage all aspects of our finance department as VP of Finance. As you all know, the past year has been challenging for the semiconductor industry, largely due to macroeconomic headwinds, including customer inventory levels, high interest rates, and inflation. Against this backdrop, at Valen Semiconductor, we continue to expand our engagement and partnerships across the various verticals we serve, enhance our innovative high-performance connectivity offerings, and improve the visibility of our technology. We are pleased to report that both fourth quarter and four-year revenues were at the top end of our guidance range at $21.9 million and $84.2 million, respectively. Automotive revenue reached new highs and accounted for more than 30% of total revenues in 2023. Non-GAAP gross margin for the fourth quarter and the full year came in at 63.1% and 63.9% respectively. And adjusted EBITDA was $2.2 million for the fourth quarter and a loss of $10.3 million for the full year, substantially better than our guidance. We entered 2024 with a strong balance sheet with $142 million of cash and cash equivalents. Valence Semiconductor's robust balance sheet allows us to continue investing in innovations and pursue long-term growth opportunities as we overcome these headwinds. Looking ahead, I am confident that Valence Semiconductor is well positioned with a highly relevant and compelling set of solutions to address customer demand as we see market tailwinds return. For example, the advantages of our technology make it an optimal connectivity solution to support the increasing need for AI-based applications in robust connectivity solutions that allow the distribution of ever-increasing data. Now, let me turn to our performance and the trends we are seeing in the markets we serve, starting with audio video. While demand since the second half of 2023 has been challenging, I remain excited. Our offering is designed to benefit from the positive long-term trends in the video conferencing, education, industrial, and medical imaging sectors, among others. As more and more corporations are implementing return-to-office policies, they will need to invest in their video conferencing platforms to redefine the hybrid work environment. The install base potential of video is approximately 100 million conference rooms and classrooms worldwide. The penetration level is very low, at about 10% or so, according to industry analysts. We believe it's only a measure of time before we see widespread demand from companies for connectivity solutions like ours that offer high bandwidth, quality, easy installation, and low total cost of ownership. To that point, the CEO of Logitech, our customer partner, recently commented that the time in video conferencing is enormous. He also said that if you look out 10 years, it makes perfect sense that all conference rooms will be video enabled. I obviously agree with this view of the video conferencing market, which means there is a significant opportunity for balanced semiconductor. Our offering is increasingly relevant for all types of meeting rooms, from large corporate boardrooms to smaller hotel rooms and small home office setups known as SOHO. In 2023, we introduced a very exciting and innovative product, our USB 3.2 extension, the VS6320 chipset. With the introduction of this groundbreaking product, Valence Semiconductor addresses the most prominent industry pain points. We provide a high-performance single-chip solution for multi-gig connectivity for distances up to 100 meters or 328 feet over simple category copper cables. Just as with video conferencing, the USB3 extension opens up new opportunities for valence semiconductor in the audio-video market. For example, in the industrial vertical, we can expand our penetration to address the for high bandwidth and resilience required by AI-based computer vision. Due to the growing use of high-bandwidth USB peripherals and the inherent limitation of connectivity length, the industry has been seeking a professional-grade extension solution. The Lens Semiconductor has identified these growing requirements in video conferencing, IT, industrial, and medical applications. We are receiving exceptional feedback from our customers on this newly introduced chipset, and it was a major hit at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and at Integrated System Europe in Barcelona, the world's largest audio-video trade show. At CES, the VS6320 was a 2024 Innovation Award honoree in the Embedded Technology category for outstanding design and engineering as the first to market cheap solution for professional-grade extension of USB 3.2. And last month, we won two more distinguished awards for the VS6320 at ISE, the Commercial Integrator, TNT Top New Technology Award, and AV Technology Magazine's Best of Show. Momentum around the VS6320 is strong, with dozens of products under development by valence semiconductor customers, a dozen of which were introduced at ISE. Products introduced range from point-to-point extension between cameras and computers, USB hub and switch extension, enabling long-range connectivity between multiple USB cameras, video conferencing, touchscreen control, panels and PCs. We saw exceptional enthusiasm around VS6320 chipsets embedded into cameras, which will eliminate the need to use external extension boxes and dedicated power suppliers. This means much faster and simpler installation of video conferencing systems at a lower total cost. We believe that this new standard of built-in high-performance USB 3.0 extension will become a default requirement in the industry. Another innovative product concept introduced by our customers was the extended docking station. Combining balanced USB 3.0 extension technology with the docking technology provides a balanced, cost-efficient, and easy-to-install huddle rooms. This will enable acceleration of the adoption of video conferencing in unequipped tens of millions of huddle rooms. These are all examples of how Valen Semiconductor is once again setting standards and transforming industries. We expect revenues from the VS6320 to begin ramping up in the second half of 2024 and believe that Valen Semiconductor will capture a substantial share of this largely untapped and growing market opportunity in the coming years. We are also targeting industrial applications with the USB3 extension chipset and are extremely excited about this opportunity as USB3 brings benefits to factory automation which heavily relies on machine vision that increasingly utilizes AI. These benefits include an easy and cost-effective replacement of parts and cables and lower latency and jitter. The VF6320 is a game changer. It solves connectivity challenges of the current solutions as it uniquely provides the ideal combination of multi-gig bandwidth extension, language, and resilience with a single chip on each end. All this done at substantially lower costs. While the sales cycle in the industrial market tends to be lengthy, it provides a long-term and extremely sticky runway. Another evolving trend is multi-camera applications, which are suitable for video conferencing and provide enhanced meeting equity. Multicamera applications are also relevant for industrial machine vision. Commonly used remote communication platforms are increasingly integrating AI-based decision-making features that select the best view of audio of in-room participants for multiple cameras and audio sources, increasing the potential quality, clarity, and resolution of the video and audio streams in the meeting, enabling better remote communication and collaboration. Valet Semiconductor's connectivity solutions enable this evolution of AI-based applications, positioning us to capture growing business opportunities. For example, in 2023, we announced a collaboration with iCatch Technology, a Taiwan-based AI image processing company, to bring a 360-degree multi-camera video conferencing solution to market. This video conferencing solution is based on our automotive-grade VA7000. Last month, iCache announced the plans to introduce an AI-enhanced multi-channel surround view monitoring system for the automotive industry, which is also based on our VA7000 high-performance automotive connectivity solution. This collaboration demonstrates our vision for a holistic strategy that leverages Valen Semiconductor's core technology to power cross-industry innovation. Talking about automotive, we have continued to make considerable progress in our automotive business and our commercial VA6000 chipsets contributed to a record level of automotive revenues in 2023. Our asymmetric VA6000 chips have been used in infotainment and telematics systems in Mercedes-Benz cars for a number of years. 2023 was our first full year of selling our chipsets into a broad range of data-based models, S, C, and E-class series, as well as our EV models. While the automotive sector is experiencing a cyclical downturn, pointing to weaker demand, as well as slower decision-making around new technology adoption, I am encouraged by the interest we see in our VA7000 MIPI A5 chipset. We have continued to make progress with various evaluation processes that we are participating in and have expanded our pipeline of opportunities. In addition to the excellent electromagnetic compatibility known as EMC immunity tests we passed in Japan by Jasper earlier in 2023, valence semiconductor technology was also validated by leading European labs at the request of leading automotive OEMs who are evaluating our technology. While this process is lengthy, as time goes by, the necessity of resilient connectivity provided by AFI will continue to grow. Our technology is designed to provide seamless connectivity for the increasing number of sensors and infotainment systems in today's and future cars. This is an unstoppable trend supported by content uplift as regulatory and safety requirements are increasingly adopted mostly for advanced driver assistance systems known as ADAS and other safety-related solutions. We expect to continue to make progress towards securing the first VA7000 design wins. In the meantime, we continue to advance our long-term prospects for ADAS and surrounding safety systems, positioning Valen Semiconductor as a top technology innovator in the automotive sector. So far in 2024, we have announced two important developments. First, we announced our partnership with Intel Foundry Services. ILS will fabricate the second generation of our A5 compliance chipsets for the automotive industry. Intel's ecosystem and advanced processes will enable significant cost and power reductions for this chipset family while achieving the highest performance and robust EMC immunity. We are extremely proud to have been recognized by Intel and industry leader for developing one of the most advanced chipsets for automotive. Stuart Pham, Senior Vice President and General Manager of IFS, said that one of their goals is to identify transformative technologies and harness Intel's breakthrough process technology and global ecosystem to accelerate innovation and unlock new opportunities for customers. He also said that the valence semiconductor MIPI AFI chipset is an obvious fit in next generation technology with the potential for broad market adoption that can help advance automotive performance and safety and further the market's vision for autonomous solutions. The second announcement made earlier this month was about another new connectivity chipset providing a robust solution to critical safety concerns and operational needs in the trucking industry. Valen Semiconductor's new BA700R chipset will uniquely solve the lack of visibility for trucks on the highway by delivering an unparalleled combination of bandwidth and lane distances for both surround view and rear view visibility. This multi-key connectivity infrastructure was designed with highway safety and tractor-trailer in mind and will address one of the most dangerous situations on our road today, making them much safer. Based on the VA7000, we developed the VA700R chipset, which was introduced last month at Automotive World Japan, the largest automotive technology show in Japan. Even with the current headwinds in automotive, we are excited about the progress we are making and can leverage our technology to capitalize on a growing set of opportunities in this multi-billion dollar market in the coming years. With that, I will turn the call to Guy to discuss our financial performance in more detail.

Thank you, Gideon. Hello, everyone. I'm excited to be here today for my first earnings call at Valen Semiconductor. Over the past few weeks, Since I joined Valen Semiconductor, I've met and engaged with a passionate results-driven team. They look forward to the future success of our superior product offerings and are ready to move full steam ahead on executing our long-term strategy regardless of the immediate environment. I'll begin with a review of the company's fourth quarter and full year 2023 results and then turn to our guidance for Q1 2024 and what we expect for the first half of the year. Starting with the quarterly results, Q4 2023 revenues reached $21.9 million at the high end of our guidance range. This compares to revenues of $23.5 million in Q4 2022. Q4 2023 gross profit was $13.5 million and gross margin was 61.7%. compared to gross profit of $16 million and gross margin of 68.3% in Q4 2022. Q4 2023 non-GAAP gross margin came in at 63.1%, this compared to 69.2% in Q4 2022. The year-over-year change in gross margin was mostly due to product mix. with a higher proportion of automotive revenue compared to our audio-video business, which has much higher gross margin. Operating expenses in Q4 2023 totaled $15.3 million, significantly lower than $24.1 million in Q4 2022. I'd like to turn to analyzing the improvement achieved in OPEX. Research and development expenses were $8.6 million compared to $16.5 million in Q4 2022. Several factors contributed to substantially lower R&D expenses. Last year, the company recorded expenses of $4.2 million associated with development of our VA7000 chipset family, an essential step towards mass production. As Gideon mentioned, the VA7000 is part of our vision for a holistic strategy that leverages Valence Semiconductors core technology to power cross-industry innovation. The company also lowered R&D payroll expenses by approximately $2.1 million in line with the streamlining of our development platforms. The quarterly payroll expenses were also positively impacted by $1.2 million due to lower bonuses and reserve duty refunds. And finally, would benefit from a positive foreign exchange rate impact. As G&A expenses of $6.6 million were 13.5% lower compared to $7.7 million in Q4 2022. This was mainly due to lower payroll related expenses. In Q4 2023, the company achieved gap net income of $2.8 million, compared to a net loss of $7.3 million in Q4 2022, driven mainly by lower expenses. Adjusted EBITDA in Q4 2023 was substantially higher than our guidance, at a record $2.2 million. The better-than-guided adjusted EBITDA in Q4 2023 was achieved mainly due to lower OPEX. This compared to an adjusted EBITDA loss of $4.6 million in Q4 2022. Another notable achievement was the record gap net income per share of $0.03 in Q4 2023, which compares to a loss of $0.07 in Q4 2022. On a non-GAAP basis, net income per share reached a record of $0.06 per share in Q4 2023, 300% higher than the loss per share of $0.03 in Q4 2022. Concluding the Q4 commentary on this positive note, I will now turn to the full year 2023 results. Total revenues for the year 2023 were at the top end of our guidance. reaching $84.2 million, compared to $90.7 million in 2022. Revenues from the audio-video business were $57.4 million, compared to $74.5 million in 2022, as customers walked through accessing inventory, which slowed the pace of orders. Automotive business revenues rose to a record $26.8 million, up 65.5% from $16.2 million in 2022. I'd like to highlight that 2023 marked the first full year in which Valence Semiconductor's high-performance connectivity chipsets were implemented in a broad range of Mercedes-Benz car models. Gap gross profit was $52.6 million, and gross margin was 62.5% for the full year 2023, compared to $63.4 million and 69.9% in 2022. Non-gap gross margin was 63.9% for the full year 2023, compared to 70.7% in 2022. The change in gross profit mainly resulted from the lower number of units shipped. In parallel, the percentage of revenues from automotive increased substantially to 31.8% in 2023, up from 17.8% in 2022. This mixed shift from audio-video to automotive had an impact as audio-video has higher margin. Full year 2023 operating expenses were lower at $79.5 million compared to $91.8 million in 2022. The year-over-year decrease of $12.3 million in OPEX was driven by several factors. R&D expenses decreased by approximately $10 million and drove most of the year-over-year improvement. R&D payroll expenses were $6.1 million lower they were impacted by the efficiency plan we deployed by the end of Q3, lower bonuses and reserve duty refunds, and the positive effect of exchange rates of the Israeli currency versus the US dollar. The other contributing factor was lower R&D spent in 2023, given the significant investment made in 2022 in our VA7000 chipset family. $4.2 million investment in a production manufacturing phase to target new automotive design needs. FG&A expenses decreased by $2.2 million year over year, mainly due to reduction in D&O insurance premium. In 2023, recorded finance income of $5.6 million compared to expenses of $1.8 million in 2022. The $7.4 million increase was mostly driven by our strong cash position and foreign currency exchange rate impact of $3.3 million. More substantial was Valence's robust cash position, which enabled us to benefit from the rise in interest rates on the deposits we hold. Interest income in 2023 reached $6.7 million, up from $2.3 million in 2022. Moving to net loss and adjusted EBITDA. Gas net loss for the full year 2023 improved to $19.7 million from $27.7 million in 2022. Adjusted EBITDA loss for the full year 2023 was $10.3 million an improvement compared to $14.9 million in 2022 and substantially higher than the guidance. Gas net loss per share for 2023 was 19 cents. It was better than 28 cents in 2022. Non-gas loss per share for 2023 was 5 cents. It was better than 17 cents in 2022. Now turning to the balance sheet. Ensuring a robust balance sheet enables us to implement our strategy, finance our growth plans, and puts us on a path towards achieving sustainable profitability. Cash-cash equivalents and short-term deposits totaled $142 million at the end of December 2023, compared to $142.7 million at the end of September 2023 and $148.4 million at the end of December 2022. We continue to carefully manage our inventories and have effectively reduced them throughout the year. As of the end of 2023, our inventory balance was $13.8 million, down from $16.9 million at the end of September 2023, and down from $23.8 million at the end of 2022. Now let's move to our outlook. As with the rest of the semiconductor industry, Valence Semiconductor continues to encounter challenging macroeconomic conditions and shorter lead times, which influence ordering and inventory consumption patterns. Our Q1 2024 guidance is as follows. We now expect Q1 revenues to be in the range of $11 to $11.2 million, We expect gross margin to be in the range of 52.2% to 53%. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to range between a loss of $9.7 and $9.1 million. The current environment is also impacting our visibility and is likely to lead to a challenging first half. As such, Q2 2024 revenues are expected to be relatively flat compared to Q1 2024. I would like to reiterate. Looking ahead, Valence Semiconductor's growth prospects for the medium and long-term remain positive. Once the industry recovers, we will be ready to continue executing our growth plan with an even broader portfolio. Our extended portfolio is designed to penetrate the untapped market and verticals and enables the evolution of AI-based applications. I'll now turn the call back to Gidon for his closing remarks before opening the call for Q&A.

Thank you, Guy. We remain focused on execution and on capitalizing on the great opportunities we see ahead in the markets that offer the best growth opportunities for Valet Semiconductor. In 2024, we will continue to invest in an innovative and broad pipeline of connectivity solutions and opportunities, such as the VA7000 for automotive and audio video, the VA6320, our new USB 3.2 extension offering, and various AI-based applications. We are positioned to take advantage of market tailwinds with a focus on delivering long-term, sustainable value to our stakeholders. Valen Semiconductor offers the most innovative, high-performance connectivity solutions with the most advanced chipsets in the industry, and we were honored to receive recognition by ISS for developing one of the most advanced chipsets for automotive. We have over 15 years of innovation excellence in the semiconductor industry and a strong partnership with the cash necessary to withstand market fluctuations. Valence Semiconductor is the driving force behind technological innovations that make tangible impact on people's lives and with our chipsets already embedded in millions of products, we are not just setting standards, we are redefining them across industries. Before opening the call for questions, I would like to take this opportunity to thank our employees. You are the force driving Valence Semiconductor forward with your passion, dedication, and an unmatched innovative spirit. With that, I will now open the call to your questions, operator.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin the question and answer session. If you have a question, please press star one. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you're using speaker equipment, kindly lift the handset before pressing the numbers. Please ask your questions in a loud and clear voice. Your questions will be polled in the order they are received. Please stand by. The first question is from Brian Dobson of Sheridan Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Yeah, thanks very much for taking that question, and congratulations on your CES award this year. So, as you're thinking about growth for the year, where do you see pockets of strength and relative weakness compared with 2023?

Thank you, Brian, for the question, and welcome. We see the strengths and weaknesses as follows. Currently, we will start with the softness of the industries in our ecosystem that is still We still feel it. I believe we hope that we are going out of this weakness by the second half of 2024. We feel that we are very well positioned to execute growth plan. We're seeing currently the market is first in audio-video. We believe the inventory consumption is in good progress. And in automotive, the sector is experiencing, I would say, a cyclical downturn and slower decision-making around new technology adoption, yet we get, in parallel, very, very good recognition about the need, the demonstratable advantage, and we are retained the hopefulness that our solution is the solution, and that we'll eventually guess what we're looking for. It's hard to predict the date, but it is the certainty about the uniqueness and the need of the market, we feel is very strong. We also believe it will benefit from capturing new untapped markets with our USB 3.0 extension. the product that we just launched and got all those awards, the BSC 6320. It's a product we're very, very proud of. It's a very high-end product in a very sophisticated technology for the use of a lot broader market, which we were before. All in all, once the markets we serve recover, We are well positioned to execute our growth plan, and we're all prepared for that. So I hope I answered you. Thank you.

Yeah, very good. Thanks. And then you highlighted that you sold VA6000 chipsets into Mercedes-Benz. for use in a wide swath of its car offerings. Do you think that other automotive OEMs will see that as a tacit stamp of approval? And have you had conversations with other, call it household brands, about selling to those companies as well?

We're focusing on the next generation, on the VA7000, where we see a lot higher technological barrier and a lot more blunt need and demonstratable advantage on the market. Though the VA6000 is the product that entered us to the market and we believe is a very important player here. As answering specifically about other customers, of course, we cannot discuss, I can just tell that we see the VA60,000 also in other markets than automotive. We have sales in industrial, we have sales in audio-video, and the VA60,000 has a lot of influence in Valencia. As I said, it enters into the automotive, we have Mercedes, we have and we have other companies which are looking at it, which you cannot elaborate, of course, at this stage. But as I said, it was the step to get into the big market, the VA7000, where we see the huge upside in totally different magnitude. I would like to elaborate one sentence here. If you look at a car, at a vehicle, how many of the links are symmetric? It would require 6,000 light versus how many are non-symmetric, asymmetric, that would need to connect between a sensor like a radar or a camera to the ECU. And it's by far, by far more links and also the significance and the importance of those links and how the whole vehicle is fragile if those links are not perfect. So this is the way we see those two chips and the connection between them. So that's, I think, summarized my answer.

Yeah, very good. That's helpful. Thank you. Could you share a little bit about potentially positive or constructive feedback you've received from the trucking industry regarding the VA-7000 chip's ability to provide, call it, rear view and surround view capabilities for trucking?

Well, the real answer that I cannot share, not because I do not have, it's because we are... I cannot share too much about it, but I say that we have significant hopes of the 700R. We believe that it gives us opportunities. I hope that in the future we'll be able to share more. At the moment, I can say the following. The V7000R is an industry-leading bandwidth and link distance. and gives a solution for long vehicle sensor connectivity that enables things that no one can, like 4 gigabits of distance up to 40 meters, 130 feet, and this enables the long-distance vehicle a full surround view and ADAS, and it leverages the V7000 chipset family for more. While you know the VA6000 is mainly for rear view visibility in truck or trailers and the VA7000 gives the whole surround view for a long vehicle market. It will enhance the safety offering of trucking industry and we believe it enables decreasing reducing the number of accidents that are because of either going backwards or having a blind spot while in different turns. And we have very thorough statistics about accidents with trucks. We believe we give her something very serious solution. But about the process with trucks, I cannot elaborate now. But I hope I did answer you.

Yeah, thanks. And just one final question. As far as your involvement with school districts in Florida, has that helped you further conversations with other school districts? I know we touched upon that on your last call.

Sorry, I could. Can you please repeat? It was heard here not so clear. Can you please repeat the question?

Yes, apologies. So as far as your work with the Florida School District, has gaining a foothold there helped further discussions with other school districts that you may be speaking with? I know we chatted about that briefly on your last call.

Well, there are, again, it's like, you know, in this kind of discussion, we cannot speak a lot about a certain customers. I can say that our AV activity is facing new opportunities both in the school district, both in the hybrid education, in industrial and it is something that we believe has a lot of upside for Valence in the future. And part of it is the hybrid education, which is actually part of what you just mentioned at the school district. It's an industry which is own mannerism and own decision-making speed and it's B2G, it's business to government. But we are also see an offset here.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. The next question is from Suji Da Silva of Roth Capital. Please go ahead.

Hi, Gideon and Guy. Welcome to the call. Best of luck in the new role here. Thank you. So, yes, the VS6320 sounds interesting here, Gideon. Can you talk about the AICV market opportunity, the surveillance opportunity for computer vision? That sounds very interesting. It could be probably the largest opportunity, but I'm curious if that is the case and how your traction is there early in that market.

Thank you very much, Rudy, for the question. Especially thank you, because I asked Daphna before, I want someone to ask me about AI, and therefore I'm especially thankful this time. You know, AI, and my personal background is, for instance, in AI for more than 20 years, AI requires a lot of data and very accurate, especially AI, which is untouched, that actually needs to learn itself the situation. And what we're doing in the world of ADAS the world of data requires a lot of data all the time, and I just want to be very concrete and down to earth. When speaking about compromising on data, what is compromising on data? Is going, let's say we don't have enough bandwidth, should we go from 30 to 24 frames per second? Should we go from 12 bit per pixel to 80 bit per pixel? And what does it mean? It means that it might not see the foot of the child is going to cross the street in 300 yards from us, or because of the fog, there is not enough color depth to see the difference between the red light and green light. And this is where the amount of data that is required becomes a lot more essential and important. And the resilience of the link that takes all this data back from the camera to the ECU is more and more essential because if you lose this link because of electromagnetic influence, the AI, the whole AI might function less good than pre-AI system. So the AI requirement for a lot of data and people, you know, when people start to speak about AI, they started to speak about big data. It came together because AI is has a very unique need of a lot of data and this is where we are positioned. One last thing, when you move from a certain resolution to double the resolution and from a certain data bandwidth to double, the exposure to EMC is not doubled, it's exponentially higher. So the case of a car moving your cellular antenna under a truck above a bridge, wherever you have a magnetic influence, make the whole link a lot more fragile and the data a lot less functional. So this is where AI and how Valence is an AI enabler because of the need for more data and more resilience, a way to transfer this data in time.

Okay, that makes a lot of sense. I appreciate that. In the 24 revenues versus 23, do you have a sense of what auto will be in the mix? And in the first half, is it weaker into the cautious guide because of inventory digestion? Is that the impact on the first half for auto?

Okay, thank you for the question. So we think... We think that they eventually... Just one second, sorry, we have a technical problem here. Can you repeat the question, please, one minute?

Oh, sure, yeah. Sure, I'm sorry. So, thinking of what the auto revenue mix will be in 24, versus the 30% you saw in 23, and if the first half auto might be impacted by inventory corrections, perhaps recovering in the second half.

Okay. So at this stage, we have kind of limited the visibility into the first half of 24 and all over 24. This is why we would prefer this stage not to refer to the product mix between the AV and the automotive. I think that we've seen a significant ramp in the automotive between 22 to 23. I would not expect the same pace on the Mercedes-Benz design also into 24 because we are fully ramped. Currently, we would not provide any further information on any new designs on the automotive. If we have something to announce, of course we will. Great.

And one last question perhaps, Gideon. With the partnership with Intel IFS, I'm just curious what features of your chip from a technical perspective stood out to them to have them highlighted versus other chips?

Well, of course, we cannot elaborate about the technical detail of the chip. I can say one thing. The essence of Valence is a company that replaced the full analog technology with carving out part of the analog and putting the DSP inside. And this puts us in a situation that, unlike analog companies, we benefit from the more advanced processes because, as you know, the digital enjoys from advanced processes while the analog suffers from advanced packages because it's far more expensive. And the deal with Intel will enable us to, without going to the specs of the chip, that each chip on this process will give us far higher performance, smaller and more efficient power, a power-efficient chip. So that's the advantage of the IFS. I'm not sure if this is what you asked. MIPI-A5 chipset, did you ask particularly about the MIPI-A5 chipset or about this ?

Just, you know, what Intel noticed about your chip architecture, obviously, to the auto chip, right?

Well, the senior vice president of Intel, Stu Pan, said that their goal is to identify transformative technologies and and this uh what put intel to do it and i think this will put us to do this this deal it accelerates innovation and it really unlocks opportunities new opportunities that automotive don't have today and the the the uh there are a lot of barriers today in the automotive industry regarding bandwidth as we discussed before with ai but also power power power and power the the Thinking about the cars that have hundreds of watts, actually a range of kilowatts in order to operate a different system. And the deal with Intel addresses this particular problem as well, aside of the performance for sure, but also the power. MiFi chipset is the obvious fit for the next generation technology. Because the next generation technology, as I mentioned before, we speak about AI, is more resolution, more bandwidth, more resolution and depth of the color, more bandwidth in order to capture and avoid more accidents cases. And the Intel did enable the resolution and the speed and the power to accomplish those needs, and this is why we think it's a transition in the automotive, in the automotive, for automotive. Okay. Thank you, Kylian. Very helpful. That's good.

If there are any additional questions, please press star 1. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star 2. Please stand by while we poll for more questions. There are no further questions at this time. Mr. Bensvi, would you like to make your concluding statement?

Yes, please. Thank you. I would like to thank you all for joining us today for our Q4 and the full year 2023 call and for your continued support and interest in Valence Semiconductor.

Thank you. This concludes the Valence Semiconductor fourth quarter and final results of 2023 conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may go ahead and disconnect.