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 first quarter 2025 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 Michal Ben-Ari, Investor Relations, for Valence Semiconductor. Please go ahead.

Thank you and welcome everyone to Valence Semiconductor's first quarter 2025 earnings call. With me today are Gideon Bensley, Chief Executive Officer, and Guy Natanzon, Chief Financial Officer. Earlier today, we issued a press release that is available on the investor relations section of our website under investors.valence.com. As a reminder, today's earning 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 on Form 20F filed with the SEC on February 26, 2025 for a discussion of the factors that will 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 reconciliation of these metrics within our earnings release. With that, I will now turn the call over to Gideon.

Thank you, Michal. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Valence kicked off 2025 on a high note, delivering solid performance across key metrics. We reported revenues of $16.8 million, which exceeded the top end of our guidance. Gap growth margin for the first quarter came in at 62.9% above the guidance and adjusted EBITDA loss was $4.3 million within the guidance range. Beyond the numbers, I'd like to highlight some of our key achievements in Q1 that reinforce my confidence in our growth potential for the near future. And I will start with our cross-industry business unit, or CAB, which consists of a variety of industries, professional audio-video, industrial machine vision, and medical. In ProEV last quarter, inventory digestion continued to impact our sales. But as expected, we are emerging from the bottom of this cycle. As such, We are seeing an increasing interest in our solutions, which are currently being integrated into products that are set to hit the market by the middle of 2026. The interest of our ProEV solutions was most apparent during a couple of industry events. First, in February, we were at ICE, the industry's most renowned international conference for innovations in video conferencing, education, digital signage, entertainment, and more. There, we showcase a variety of meeting rooms, set-ups powered by our latest chipset, the VA6320 and the VA7000. We also announced the integration of this chipset into next-gen products from top manufacturers and showcasing products from customers such as Sennheiser and Logitech. These partnerships reflect key industry trends, more rooms, more displays, more video equipment, all creating more opportunities for Valence. Second at Infocom China in April, we were honored with a Best of Choice Award in the Best Technology Application category. This award was for our innovation in USB 3.0 extension with our VS-6320 chip and is further testament to the superiority of our technology. Infocom China is an influential conference. And China is a large and growing market, so this sort of recognition is important as we continue to promote our chipset offering. As mentioned in previous calls, we are seeing growing adoption of our BS6320 chipset for the extension of US market. There are now over 70 products that have hit the market with our chip inside. Examples of recently released 6320-based products include Hull Technologies Discovery 3-Therm, InnoGene, Eurabridge Wallplace and Pro IPAV Extenders, all of which hit the market over the last couple of months. Staying with our cross-industry business unit, I would like to discuss another industry, Machine Vision, where once again a recent international conference shined the spotlight of our technology with very positive customer feedback. In March, at the Embedded World Event in Nuremberg, we showcased our innovative connectivity solutions, the VA7000 and VS6S320. Initially developed for the automotive and private industries, these chipsets are already proven and mass produced and are now being repurposed to extend commonly used machine vision protocols. At the conference, we met with the leading players in the industry, all of whom were impressed by our technology. There is no substitute for seeing live demonstrations of our chipsets and this renowned industry event was an excellent opportunity to further broaden our customer base. Our project with leading machine vision players continues to progress and we are confident that our AFINE-based solution will soon begin to wedge this industry open. One machine vision partnership I would like to mention, which we announced just after the show, is with Argo Robotics and Cherry Embedded Solutions. This collaboration integrates Argo's advanced perception engine, Valence VA7000 chipset, and Cherry Rockchip-based hardware module. The collaboration delivers unprecedented design flexibility, cost efficiency, and performance for mobile machine manufacturers, enabling AI robotics applications. Valence chips offer a number of important advantages in this industry. First, Valence chips support the highest resolution video, increasing the precision of automated machine vision solutions. Second, the Valence chips are standardized, facilitating the implementation of smaller form factor camera modules. Third, like all our other chips, Valence solutions are the most in my resilience on the market, important for ensuring 24-7 operation in the noisy electromagnetic environment of the factory floor. And fourth, due to their ability to operate over low-cost cables and connectors, these chipsets enable significant total system cost reduction. Kirill was the head of BDS Cherry's head to say, and I quote, the addition of Valens V7000 NIPI A5 connectivity into our portfolio opens new opportunities per platform, end of quote. The co-founder and CEO of AgroRobotics agreed, and I quote again, our robotics perception engine demands high quality video data and that's exactly what Valerio's connectivity solution provides while allowing us to distance the processing unit from the sensors, end of quote. Next week, at Automated Choice, we will be showcasing our machine vision solutions with partners that are adding AFI technology to their platforms, such as D3 Embedded and Tramos. In addition, our AFI chipset has been shortlisted for the show's innovation award. We are very proud of this industry's recognition. In all, we continue to support our customers in bringing solutions to the market based on our VS7000 and VS6320 chipsets, and we are confident that the machine vision industry will become an even more significant source of revenues for us before long. We expect initial revenue from the end of 2026 with significant potential growth during the following years. I would like to turn now to the automotive industry. As a reminder, our opportunity in automotive is dominated by the V7000 chipset, the first in the industry to comply with the MIPI A5 standard for high-speed sensor connectivity. Late last year, we announced three design wins with leading European OEMs and solutions, gaining a strong foothold for AFI within the OEM community. The momentum from EP AFI continued to build in Q1 2025, as we announced two significant milestones. The fact is that Mobileye, a global leader in data systems, selected our chips for the in-car sensor-to-compute connectivity infrastructure for Mobileye's IQ6 high-production programs underway with a group of global automotive brands. That is to say, the design wins we announced last year came about through a strong collaboration with one of the most central automotive tier ones in the industry, Mobileye. Most importantly, in announcing this partnership, we are signaling to the OEM community that AFI has the backing of a key industry player like Mobileye and that they will be working with us to bring this solution to other OEMs around the world. Here is what the Executive Vice President of Engineering at Mobileye said, quote, MIPI AFI believes in efficient and robust high-performance standardized connectivity and we look forward to working with Valence to broaden the MIPI API ecosystem and deliver this technology to more market-leading automakers. The second significant milestone that we announced is the successful interoperability with seven vendors of API silicon. Notice interoperability is a hallmark of any true standard. So having multiple suppliers for MIPI API can only broaden the API pipe or the API, as I like to call it. I will make special mention to one of these AFI vendors, OmniVision, a global supplier of imaging solutions of automotive OEMs, which is integrating AFI directly inside the sensor. After Sony, OmniVision is the second major company to announce this type of integration, which is only possible because AFI is a standard. Here is what the senior director of design at OmniVision said, quote, Integrating MIPI AFI directly into our sensors provides significant value for OEM customers and partners." I would like to take a moment to discuss the growth of MIPI AFI in China. We are hearing that the Chinese automotive ecosystem is rapidly adopting the AFI standard. From a variety of local AFI silicon vendors to Tier 2 and Tier 1 suppliers designing around this specification to significant interest from OEM in this technology. Of course, China is unlike any other country in the world. They are fast to adopt new technologies, but there are also a series of regulations that we are required to adhere to when attempting to penetrate this market. To address some of these challenges, we have partnered with the local Chinese firm ES Wing Computing to present Chinese automakers the opportunity to source locally manufactured production-ready MIPI-A5 chipsets for both sensor and display connectivity. This partnership allows us to access the large and gross MIPI-A5 business opportunity that exists in the Chinese market. Additionally, with regards to our activities in China, we were proud to display our A5 technology at the Auto Shanghai Conference at the end of April. At our booth, we unveiled a number of A5 demonstrations with major players in the automotive industry. First, we had Qualcomm's Snapdragon Ride 4 evaluation platform with A5 connectivity. Second, we had Chameleon's Tier 1 Supply Desire SV with A5 surround view system. Third, we had Horizon Robotics' Journeys platform with A5. And finally, an ASUS reference design with Sigma Star based on A5. It's clear that the momentum around A5 continues to build. We continue to participate in several evaluation processes at various stages with multiple OEMs. With that, I will turn the call to Guy to discuss our financial performance in more detail.

Thank you, Gideon. I'll start with our first quarter 2025 results and then provide our outlook for the second quarter. We achieved quarterly revenue of $16.8 million, which exceeded our guidance of between $16.3 million to $16.6 million. This compares to revenue of $16.7 million in Q4 2024 and $11.6 million in Q1 2024. The cross-industry business, or CIB, accounted for $11.7 million, or approximately 70% of total revenue. while automotive contributed $5.1 million or approximately 30% of total revenue this quarter. This compares to Q4 2024 revenue of $11.7 million from CIB and $5 million from automotive, which represented 70% and 30% of total revenue respectively. It also compares to Q1 2024 revenue of $7.2 million from the CIB and $4.4 million from automotive, representing 60% and 40% of total revenue respectively. In Q1 2025, gross profit was $10.6 million compared to $10.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, and compared to $6.8 million in the first quarter of 2024. Q1 2025 gross margin was 62.9% compared to our guidance of between 60.8% and 61.3%. This compares to Q4 2024 gross margin of 60.4% and Q1 2024 of 59%. On a segment basis, Q1 2025 gross margin from the cross-industry business was 69.1%, and gross margin from automotive was 48.4%. This compares to a Q4 2024 gross margin of 64.7% and 50.5%, respectively, and a Q1 2024 gross margin of 77.2% and 29.1%, respectively. The increase in gross margin of the cross-industry business, CIB, compared to Q4 2024 was due to an inventory adjustment in Q4 2024. The increase in Q1 2025 automotive gross margin compared to Q1 2024 was due to an optimization of our product cost. Non-GAAP gross margin in Q1 was 66.7%, which compares to a 64.5% in Q4 2024 and 62% in Q1 2024. Operating expenses in Q1 2025 totaled $20 million, compared to $18.5 million at the end of Q4 2024 and $18.1 million in Q1 2024. Research and development expenses in Q1 totaled $10.6 million, compared to $10.1 million in Q4 2024 and $10.1 million in Q1 2024. SG&E expenses in Q1 were $9.3 million, compared to $8.3 million in Q4 2024 and $8 million in Q1 2024. Gas net loss in Q1 was $8.3 million compared to a net loss of $7.3 million in Q4 2024 and a net loss of $10 million in Q1 2024. Adjusted EBITDA in Q1 was a loss of $4.3 million within the guidance range of a loss between $4.5 million and $4.2 million. This compares to an adjusted EBITDA loss of $3.7 million in Q4 2024 and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $7.1 million in Q1 2024. Gap loss per share for Q1 was $0.08 compared to a gap loss per share of $0.07 for Q4 2024 and a gap loss per share of $0.10 for Q1 2024. Non-GAAP loss per share in Q1 2025 was $0.03 compared to a loss per share of $0.02 in Q4 2024 and a loss per share of $0.07 in Q1 2024. The difference between GAAP and non-GAAP loss per share was due to stock-based compensation and depreciation and amortization expenses. Now turning to the balance sheet. We ended Q1 2025 with cash, cash equivalents, and showed them deposits totaling $112.5 million in all debts. This compares to $131 million at the end of Q4 2024 and $139.8 million at the end of Q1 2024. In November 2024, we announced the first share repurchase plan of up to $10 million and in February 2025 on another plan of up to $15 million. During the quarter, we spent $9.6 million on both plans. Our working capital at the end of the first quarter was $119.8 million compared to $133.6 million at the end of Q4 2024 and $153.3 million at the end of Q1, 2024. Our inventory as of March 31st, 2025 was $10.9 million, a slight increase from $10.2 million on December 31st, 2024 and down from $12.5 million on March 31st, 2024. Now, I would like to provide our guidance for the second quarter of 2025. We expect Q2 revenue to be in the range of $16.5 to $16.8 million. We expect gross margins for Q2 of 2025 to be in the range of 63% to 64%. And we expect adjusted EBITDA loss in Q2 2025 to be in the range of $4.9 to $4.4 million loss. Before turning the call back to Bidon, I want to refer to the new tariffs. While semiconductors are currently exempt from these tariffs, it is still too early to estimate the direct impact on our operations and the impact on our customers' and markets' demands. We're closely monitoring the situation, and we will provide updates to the investment community as we get more information. I'll now turn the call back to Gideon for his closing remarks before opening the call for Q&A.

Thank you, guys. We believe that Valence Semiconductor is well positioned for a return to growth in our target market, leveraging our industry-leading technology and robust balance sheet. We remain committed to executing our long-term strategy to drive renewed growth and profitability. Before opening the call for questions, I want to express my gratitude to the entire Valence Global team for their ongoing commitment and dedication. With that, I will open the call to answer 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 1. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star 2. If you're using speaker equipment, kindly lift the handset before pressing the numbers. Please ask your question in a loud and clear voice. Your questions will be polled in the order they are received. Please stand by while we poll for your questions. The first question is from Rick Schaefer of Oppenheimer. Please go ahead.

Hi, this is Waymok on the line for Rick, and thanks for taking the question. Firstly, congrats on the mobile iWIN. I was wondering, how does this partnership changed the dynamic in which you pursue future OEM wins with AFI? Since Mobileye is already collaborating across several OEMs, does that by virtue mean you will be working closely with those OEMs?

Hi, Rick, thank you for your question. And I'm happy to answer about actually it's almost an invited question for me. The Mobileye collaboration is a collaboration which is purely on quality. What Valence provided here is the need to elevate in the quality and the bandwidth of cameras that are coming into the ECU of Mobil Eye. A need that, of course, is more resolution, is more bandwidth, more exposed to a noise that can ruin the whole system. And we proved that by this elevation, by this increase in bandwidth, we can do things which others can't. And this is the nature of the deal. About how it will influence other deals, it's time to tell, but the essence is that Mobileye is moving up, is elevating their capabilities, and requires better cameras which provide more data, and we are there for them. So we believe it's even those systems that initially they are installed or have their own design with other chips, those customers would like to elevate in some stage, and then we will be there. I guess if you ask Mobileye, they would, as they said in the press release, they see our solution as a solution that is helping them take the connection between the camera and to the ECU up. I hope I answered exactly what you But if it's not the answer, let me know.

No, yeah, I was just wondering, yes, because Mobileye is already working with other large OEMs, are you working directly closer to those OEMs, or will you still be pursuing OEM design independently?

Well, of course, we are, and you know, this market, the market, everyone speaks to everyone. and the influence is is quite a matrix if you look at it from above and yes we meet the customers and we meet mobili and you know this market is a market that's tier ones and tier twos and oems um are are knowing each other it's a oem is always aware who is the tier two that says the tier one and sometimes even the whole negotiation is done between the third tier two and the oem and only the technical and the delivery is done through the tier one. The case of Mobileye is different because Mobileye are acting in the market on both as tier one and tier two. So actually all answers are right. Sometimes you pick the OEM, sometimes the tier one, sometimes the both. But in all cases, the OEM is fully aware and involved in the decision as we will be the service.

Okay. Got it. That's clear. Thank you. Um, and as best for my followup, um, is on Paris. Um, I really appreciate the color that you're not seeing any direct impacts. So what gives you this level of visibility? And while there is no direct impacts, are you seeing any second or third order effects? So any indirect impacts to your business from Paris?

Of course, this is something that we cannot disclose at this stage, but then, um, uh, The nature of this market at an OEM which is very prestigious has the circles around and the circles around and that's the whole idea of our business model is to create the presence, to start with the strong with those give us the credibility and to move on and when we'll have news to announce, believe me, we will not wait a minute.

Great, thank you. The next question is from Quinn Bolton of Needham & Company. Please go ahead.

Hey, guys. Let me offer my congratulations on the steady results. I wanted to follow up on the Mobileye question, Gideon. You mentioned that as camera resolution and bandwidth goes up, you know, that hopefully pushes solutions or, you know, customers to adopt your solution. Can you give us a sense, is there a camera resolution where the incumbent technology that Mobileye uses with a large semiconductor competitor maxes out? Are we talking eight megapixel resolutions? Does it have to be something higher? Just any kind of metrics around the resolution where the MIPI AFI standard may really start to show dramatic benefits relative to the Texas Instruments FPD link. technology?

Thank you very much for the question and I would be happy to answer without drilling too much into technology because the answer is quite a technique and I will try to leave it in a way which is not too technical. I hope I will succeed. Bandwidth is not only resolution. Bandwidth is also frames per second. It's also a peak at how many pixels, how many bytes per pixel, bits per pixel, all of these together create the bandwidth. The higher the bandwidth, the more exposed it is to noise, and this is something which is quite not intuitive. When we move from a 4 gigabit bandwidth to 8 gigabit bandwidth, we move to twice the bandwidth, but the fragility and the exposure to noise is not twice, it's not linear, it's far more meaning that if a car that is moving to a higher higher bandwidth will be driving near a cellular antenna on a bridge or near a truck or whatever the result can be lost frames and lost frames meaning that missing the red light or missing the passenger or missing something Now, the calculation of what the bandwidth is, whether it's an 8-megapixel camera or 4-megapixel camera, 30 or 60 or 24 frames per second or 10, 12, 14, whatever number of pixels, each of them has its calculation. And yes, they can play with it. They can definitely decide to move one up and move one down in order to stay with slower bandwidth and use incumbent technology in order not to move to the next stage, and sometimes they do it. But there is a level that they cannot do it anymore, and they understand it in order to move to the next stage of quality of data. It requires the next mode of the quality of information. It is retrieved in order to digest it and make a decision. Red light, yes or no? Passenger, yes or no? Bicycle, yes or no? And sometimes, not sometimes, often, this requires only one way to know it, is uh enough information of course the the other side is the quality of the of the mobile which is of course a supreme system that analyzes it but you know you need a certain level of information to analyze i want to go in something very detailed if i may think about a car that is going and it has the spirit is going braking distance is 150 meters but there is a very small foot of a child just out of the sidewalk in 100 meters. A certain resolution or certain bandwidth will not see the foot of the child, and this is exactly how to prevent casualty or accident by going up with the resolution. I hope I was not too technical and I gave the answer.

No, that was very helpful. I wanted to follow up. You mentioned the MIPI, AFI interoperability testing in China and your work with the local partner. I guess two questions there. Can you give us some sense how you're progressing in terms of conversations with Chinese auto OEMs? When could you start to see adoption of your solution in the China market? And to the extent you're working with that local partner, does that have any impact on profitability or margins there? For your solution since you're you're working with that partner on the go-to-market Strategy.

Yeah, there are several several sections in this question. I will try to not to miss any of them first China become the place of innovation and We are very happy to see that innovation if I go together There is no play that a fight has been accepted in the market more than China and we see so many a five players and we are helping interoperability to everyone we happy to bring competitors to the market even if they eat part of our lunch and we do it because at the end of the day we have a superior technology and a lot of those chips would be acquired a purchase from us so we help the ecosystem and we're happy to see how the ecosystem is a vibrant and how the ecosystem is active So this is about AFI and China. About us and China. China often requires different business models. Business models without getting too detailed requires JVs and other, I would say, mechanics in order to penetrate to the market. And we adopt them. We don't try to teach the Chinese the Israeli way. The opposite. We are trying to learn the Chinese way. And in order to penetrate the market, we understand that we need to do some adjustments. If we do those adjustments... And the last question is whether we speak to OEMs. Of course we do. You know that there are many OEMs in China. There are many mergers. It's a lot of activities. And I believe that we are very well aware and accepted in China as a superior technology. I believe that there is most of, if not all of the of the Chinese manufacturer know about AFI and it is an option, know about Valenza, it's an option. And we're working very hard in order to create news for us and for the markets.

Great. Last quick one for Guy. You guys gave 2025 guidance, I think, originally back at the Analyst Day late last year. I think you reiterated on your last conference call. I didn't see any comment about 2025 guidance. I'm not sure if you're willing to reiterate that this morning or whether you're pulling that guidance given some of the tariff uncertainty, but just any comment on the 2025 annual guidance?

At this stage, there is no change on the guidance. We keep them as we said. And yes, we're closely tracking the situation and the impact of the tariffs. And if there is any change, we will let you know. But at this stage, we keep everything as is.

Perfect.

Thank you. Thank you.

The next question is from Suji Da Silva of Ross Capital. Please go ahead.

Hi, Gideon. Hi, Guy. Congrats on the steady results here. Switching over to the CIB segment, as you talk about the mid-26 ramp of some of the newer products, can you talk about which end markets might lead that, professional AV, industrial, machine vision, or medical, and then which products would lead the ramp? Is it VA7000 or VS6320, or will it be both together?

Okay, there are, you know, we're active in several markets in the CAB. There is a traditional ProAV, the market which suffered from an inventory digestion as we look that there is recovery in the market. There is the market which is, it is somehow can be called ProAV, but it's in AB more than ProAV, which is the conference rooms. a market which we are helping to ramp it up. It's definitely with the 6320 and somehow with the 3000 from the VS family. And if we're moving to a USB 3 extension and to an extension of an industrial camera, both the VS 6320, the chip that was made for the audio-video and the V7000 series for automotive, both of them find the way to extension and connecting cameras in the industrial world to the computing power that calculates and help monitoring the industrial process. So the answer is that in the industrial machine vision support, both the chips from automotive and audio video, with very few changes and modifications, we found the chips that are suitable for this market, which we're very happy about this reuse.

All right, thanks, Gideon. And the other question really is, I'm sorry, go ahead. On the financial model, where do you think the break-even revenue is, kind of revisiting what you talked about the analyst day, perhaps, and then what do you think the expected CIB auto mix would be at that point?

Well, it's a question of thinking timing. We see the progress in all the three sections of CIB and automotive and audio-video. Of course, automotive, as everyone knows, is the slowest in the market. We thought that CIB would be slower than AV. We're not sure it is. With CIB, there is a lot of enthusiasm in the market and we hope it is definitely faster than automotive. The question of whether it's slower than audio-video or not, we are in the stage of Understanding it, I believe it is a lot closer in speed to audiovisual than to automotive. So the mix of the three is very much depends on timing. I guess that when we would be at this breaking point we spoke, it will be not a third, a third and a third, but maybe not very far away from there, but it's very hard to give you exact what would be the mix. and probably Guy should elaborate here more than I do. Thank you, Guido.

Hi, Suzy. So I will give you again the data we've provided during the analyst days. First of all, we expect to be EBITDA positive at annual run rate of revenue of $120 million roughly a year. We did not say when we expect it to happen. We said about the guidance for 2025. And we said, where is our goal for 2029, which is anywhere between $220 to $300 million by 2029. The second element, we said, what are the expectations on 2029 of the allocations? And we said that we expect to have the CAB anywhere between $90 to $100 million of revenue. And we expect to see on automotive $65 to $110, and machine-engine industrial $35 to $50. And for potential acquisitions, $30 to $40 million. Altogether, $220 to $300 million revenue by this year. We did not say or mention anything about the allocation of the different verticals or segments in the break-even point, in the EBITDA positive point, because first of all, we have still limited visibility to answer this question. but I can say the following. We said that we expect initial ramp up from the CIB business starting from 25 and beyond, machine vision industrial from 26 and beyond, and ramping up of the revenue in the automotive from late 26, 27 and beyond. I think that these are the inputs we gave during the analytics day. I think that probably can help you do the calculation on the specific question you have asked. Okay, thanks.

Very helpful, Guy. Gideon, thanks. Thank you.

The next question is from Robert Lynch of StoneGate Capital Partners. Please go ahead.

Hi, Gideon. Hi, Guy. This is Robert Lynch on for Dave Storms. I just have a couple questions here. The first one is just around margins, and I apologize if this is repetitive. Automotive gross margins improved significantly in Q1 to 48.4 from 29.1 just a year ago. Can you provide more detail on what drove this improvement? I understand it came from optimization of product cost, but if you could just provide more color on what specific initiatives allowed for a decrease in cost, and do you find these margin levels to be sustainable?

So unfortunately, I don't have too much to say about what we said. We do ongoing efforts to improve the cost of manufacturing. And we do different type of things all the time. Specifically in Q4, we had some inventory adjustment, we said, and Q1, we did not. But I would call it kind of ongoing efforts and routine activities in order to improve the margin all the time. In addition, typically, we have also the element of the product mix, which also has some impact on the growth margin. So these are the typical elements that influence the growth margin in the company.

Okay, understood that. I really appreciate the color there. I just had one more around working capital. Given the slight volatility here in the supply chain, excuse me, how are you approaching working capital management to balance inventory levels as well as liquidity and the flexibility needed to meet customer demand amid these macro headwinds? Anything there?

Well, that's part of the question. I'll take the first one. Because Valence is a very strong balance sheet, our policy is zero risk in being a very good supplier to our customer. And because we know that the digestion now is very stable, We rather have a bigger buffer and continue to be a company that each of our customers will compliment us and this is part of the company's pride. And I think this is one of the better use of capital and this is the part of the question. I guess Guy would take the second part.

So I think that eventually lead time got back to normal levels of the pre-COVID. And that means both lead time that Valence provides to its customers and the opposite, Valence gets from its suppliers. So we're trying to manage the inventory in a most efficient way that we could, adjusting the lead time and keeping some buffers in order to make sure that we can always supply on time. And this is the way we maintain the inventory.

Okay, great. Thank you, Gideon. Thank you, Guy. That's all for me. Congrats on Q1 and good luck in Q2.

Thank you. Thank you.

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. Bensve, would you like to make your concluding statement?

Yes, please. Thank you. I would like to thank you all for joining us, for the questions, and for the discussion, and joining us today for our first quarter 2025 call. And for your continued support and interest in Valence Semiconductor, hope to meet you again in our next earning call, and thank you and goodbye.

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