Q2 2025 Wolfspeed Inc Earnings Call
[inaudible]
Hello, everyone.
Sierra: Thank you for attending today's Wolfspeed Incorporated Q2 Fiscal Year 2025 Earnings Call. My name is Sierra, and I will be your moderator for today. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call with an opportunity for questions and answers at the end.
Speaker Change: If you would like to ask a question, press star 1 on your telephone keypad. I would now like to pass the conference over to our host, Tyler Gronbach, VP External Affairs.
Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone.
Tyler Gronbach: Welcome to Wolfspeed's second quarter fiscal 2025 conference call. Today, Wolfspeed's Executive Chairman, Tom Werner, and Wolfspeed's CFO, Neill Reynolds, will report on the results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2025.
Tyler Gronbach: Also in attendance is Jay Cameron, our Head of Power Devices, and Rick Madormo, our Head of Sales and Product Marketing.
Tyler Gronbach: Please note that we will be presenting non-GAAP financial results during today's call, which we believe provides useful information to our investors. Non-GAAP results are not in accordance with GAAP and may not be comparable to non-GAAP information provided by other companies.
Tyler Gronbach: Non-GAAP information should be considered as a supplement to, and not a substitute for, financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP.
Tyler Gronbach: A reconciliation to the most directly comparable gap measures is in our press release and posted in the investor relations section of our website, along with a historical summary of our other key metrics.
Tyler Gronbach: Today's discussion includes forward-looking statements about our business outlook, and we may make other forward-looking statements during the call.
Tyler Gronbach: Such forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties. Our press release today and the SEC filings noted in the release mention important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially.
Tyler Gronbach: Lastly, please note that all numbers presented today will be on a continuing operations basis.
Tyler Gronbach: During the Q&A session, we would ask that you limit yourself to one question and one follow-up so that we can accommodate as many questions as possible during today's call.
Tyler Gronbach: Also, any discussions surrounding our work to strengthen our balance sheet, at least initially, will take place pursuant to confidential non-disclosure agreements.
Tyler Gronbach: And therefore, we will not be addressing any specific questions on balance sheet initiatives involving RENESAS, our convertible notes, or Apollo during the Q&A session. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact us after the call.
Tom Werner: And now, I'd like to turn the call over to Tom.
Tom Werner: Good afternoon and thank you for joining me today. By way of introduction, I have been a member of the Wolfspeed board for 19 years and have served as chairman of the board before assuming my current role.
Tom Werner: Throughout my years with the company, I've had the opportunity to support the business in its transition into an established leader in silicon carbide.
Tom Werner: and have developed a solid understanding of the business, the technology, employees and the market. Since stepping into the role as Executive Chairman in November, I've dedicated my efforts to examining every aspect of the company with a fresh perspective.
Tom Werner: aggressively executing against our plan to achieve our financial and operational targets in ensuring we are intensely focused and accountable to improve financial performance.
Tom Werner: I have visited both Mohawk ValleyFab and the Siler City locations multiple times.
Tom Werner: I'm impressed with the advanced capabilities of both facilities and with the WolfSPEED teams that run them.
Tom Werner: This work is reaching the first phase of completion and it is now time to leverage the advantage of these facilities.
Tom Werner: With that said, it is critically important that we continue to execute on the plan that was outlined on the last earnings call in early November to accelerate our profitability and optimize our capital structure.
Tom Werner: This will allow us to leverage the best-in-class assets and capabilities we have already built and capitalize on the long-term opportunities that lie ahead.
Tom Werner: I, the board, and the management team have aligned on an operating plan driven by the key priorities that will be our focus over the coming months.
Tom Werner: We believe focusing on these priorities in the immediate term will put Wolfspeed on a path toward long-term growth and profitability.
Tom Werner: First, we must dramatically improve the financial performance of the company and accelerate our path to generate positive free cash flow.
Tom Werner: Second, we will continue to take aggressive steps to strengthen our balance sheet.
Tom Werner: And third, we will continue our efforts to raise cost-effective capital required to support our long-term growth plan.
Tom Werner: The work on these initiatives is well underway and I'd like to share some of the progress we've made thus far.
Tom Werner: By focusing on our purpose-built 200mm greenfield facilities, this is an opportunity to simplify our operating footprint and focus on best-in-class execution to improve our financial performance.
Tom Werner: We are continuing with the closure of our Durham 150mm device facility and the closure of our 150mm EPPE Farmers Branch facility.
Tom Werner: We expect all these actions to be completed by the end of this calendar year, supporting our plans to lower our break-even point and accelerating our path to profitability.
Tom Werner: In addition, we are maintaining our outlook for reduced capex levels for fiscal 2025 at a midpoint of approximately $1.2 billion.
Tom Werner: This level of capex allows us to continue to grow the top line while maintaining the capability to ramp supply rapidly should a sharp turn in demand materialize.
Tom Werner: While we also minimize cash use for the remainder of fiscal 2025 to achieve our previously stated profitability goals.
We expect further CAPEX commitments to be closed to zero.
Tom Werner: We have also started work on additional cost reductions that will further reduce our break-even point.
Tom Werner: Regarding our second initiative, our work to strengthen the balance sheet continues.
Tom Werner: We're scrutinizing every investment across the company to lower our cost structure and capital requirements.
helping to accelerate our path to profitability.
Tom Werner: We are working closely with Apollo to look at ways to improve our overall capital structure and renaissance to account for the current market dynamics.
Tom Werner: In addition, we've also begun the work to address our convertible modes.
Tom Werner: We will be working with the financial advisors to advance these efforts in the very near term. Our plan is to complete this work as quickly as possible.
Tom Werner: Turning to the U.S. government support, we're working to finalize both direct funding agreement announced last October and the disbursement of certain CHIPS Act related cash tax refunds.
Tom Werner: We're optimistic about achieving a definitive agreement, particularly after completing our $200 million ATM earlier this month.
An important milestone in the CHIPS funding process.
Tom Werner: We maintain frequent, constructive dialogue with the CHIPS Program Office, narrowing the remaining milestones to reach a final arrangement.
Tom Werner: We believe that the recent OMB memos issued this week do not impact our anticipated timeline to receive the first tranche of CHIPS Act funding in mid-calendar 2025. We are actively monitoring the situation as it evolves.
Tom Werner: As part of our tighter cash management, we plan to have close to zero capital commitments until we have a direct funding agreement signed with the CHIPS program office.
Tom Werner: With existing committed capital, we will still complete construction at the JP and have the wafer capacity to support the continued ramp at Mohawk Valley.
Our congressional champions remain unwavering in their support of Wolfspeed.
Tom Werner: And we're equally encouraged by the Trump administration's America First agenda and its emphasis on strengthening U.S. supply chains, especially for silicon carbide technologies.
Tom Werner: Low Speed has long championed a domestic manufacturing renaissance in semiconductors, particularly in North Carolina and New York, and we look forward to continuing alignment on these shared objectives.
Tom Werner: Putting it all together, when you combine U.S. government support with the additional committed funding from our investor group, led by Apollo, Wolfspeed has access to a total of $2.5 billion funding package.
Tom Werner: At the same time, while we execute on these priorities, we continue to believe we are strategically undervalued.
Tom Werner: And the board continues to examine ways to ensure that we're generating the most value for shareholders.
Tom Werner: That said, at this point, management's core focus is on executing against the priorities I've just outlined to improve our financial performance, strengthen the balance sheet, and raise additional capital.
Thank you. Thank you.
Tom Werner: Before I turn the call over to Neill, I would like to touch on our end markets and the competitive landscape.
Tom Werner: We acknowledge that over the past few quarters both we and the entire market have faced challenges and demand.
Neill Reynolds: This quarter, revenue from Mohawk Valley was $52 million, which we expect will grow again in the third quarter with a continued ramp of our previously announced design wins.
Neill Reynolds: Similarly, we are making strong progress at the JP and we remain on track to receive a certificate of occupancy in the first half of this year. We are extremely pleased with the yields of our 200 millimeter wafers and the performance of our devices from these wafers.
Neill Reynolds: This is a key competitive advantage as we are the first to begin commercial production on 200mm substrates. As these new facilities mature,
Neill Reynolds: And we see less impact from startup and underutilization costs on our financials. Unit economics will improve significantly.
for our key end markets.
Neill Reynolds: Although broader macroeconomic pressures and a slower-than-expected EV ramp have challenged I&E and auto demand in recent quarters,
Neill Reynolds: We continue to aggressively pursue stronger markets, including renewables and AI data centers.
Neill Reynolds: Our previous design wins are ramping, and as such, our power revenue will continue to grow over the balance of the year, largely driven by our EV customers, where companies like GM are investing in their EV programs to support the long-term transition taking place in our motor.
Neill Reynolds: Demand in industrial and energy applications is showing some green shoots.
But visibility remains limited.
Speaker Change: Margaret, we're not out of the woods yet. We remain encouraged with what we are seeing so far.
Speaker Change: Our channel inventory has dropped significantly over the last few quarters.
Speaker Change: And we have even more confidence given the long-term demand drivers behind AI and data centers.
Speaker Change: where billions are being invested in renewable energy, which will continue to see demand as the need for electricity generation and storage increases rapidly.
Speaker Change: Silicon carbide is homegrown, American innovation at its core, pioneered by Wolfspeed scientists nearly 40 years ago in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Speaker Change: Although the EV market propelled silicon carbide from a niche technology into a multi-billion dollar industry, we believe we're still in the early stages of realizing its full potential.
Speaker Change: Many of the world's most advanced technologies in markets ranging from consumer products to aerospace and defense to e-mobility.
Speaker Change: increasingly require silicon carbide for high voltage solutions due to its ability to operate at higher voltages, with higher efficiency, and with higher power density, and with greater ruggedness in extreme environments.
In these critical applications, reliability is paramount.
Speaker Change: The risk of failure is simply too great to depend on lower-grade materials, and this is why customers rate performance and quality at the top of their list when selecting a silicon carbide device partner.
Speaker Change: And we are continuing to deliver more innovative device solutions to customers.
Speaker Change: Last week, we introduced our new Gen 4 MOSFET, a highly flexible platform that supports long-term roadmaps for high-performance, application-optimized products.
Speaker Change: This new platform allows design engineers to create more efficient, longer-lasting systems that perform well in tough operating environments at a better overall system cost.
Speaker Change: Our Gen4 platform will be delivered via our highly efficient 200mm wafers, which will enable us to deliver products on a scale not seen in this industry before.
Speaker Change: Turning to the broader competitive landscape, we continue to track key industry developments, including the U.S. Trade Representative's recent 301 investigation into China's semiconductors policies.
Speaker Change: We recognize that these issues remain front and center for our investors and stakeholders, and by participating in this process, we anticipate government actions will help level the playing field for American companies.
making significant investments in advanced technologies.
Silicon carbide is critical to our national security.
Speaker Change: OneSpeed has been at the forefront of advanced silicon carbide programs for U.S. security.
Speaker Change: We welcome the U.S. government's efforts to safeguard American interests as these measures are vital to preserving our competitive edge in semiconductors.
Speaker Change: Silicon Carbide is homegrown American IP that fuels economic growth and creates well-paying jobs. We stand ready to engage and assist the U.S. government as it advances their investigation.
Neill Reynolds: Now I'd like to turn the call over to Neill to discuss our quarterly financials and guidance in more detail.
Thanks, Tom, and good afternoon, everyone.
Neill Reynolds: Looking at our fiscal 2Q financial results, we generated $181 million of revenue for the quarter, slightly above the midpoint of guidance and down 7% sequentially.
Neill Reynolds: We recognize power device revenue of $91 million, down 6% sequentially, driven largely by ongoing weakness in the industrial and energy end markets.
Neill Reynolds: Despite the lower revenue levels, we saw our EV revenue grow 92% year-over-year, and we expect to see increased revenue in EVs as we look out into the back half of fiscal 2025.
Neill Reynolds: Revenue contribution from Mohawk Valley was $52 million, up quarter over quarter, and we expect Mohawk Valley revenue to reach between $55 million to $75 million in the third quarter.
Neill Reynolds: We recognize materials revenue of $90 million down 8% sequentially, driven by customers adjusting down their inventories to account for the current demand outlook. We expect materials revenue to trend in line with Q3 until end market demand begins to improve.
Neill Reynolds: Moving to our margins, non-GAAP gross margin for the second quarter was 1.8%, down 160 basis points quarter over quarter, but above the midpoint of our November guidance.
Neill Reynolds: This included 29 million or 1,600 basis points of underutilization costs primarily related to Mohawk Valley.
Neill Reynolds: Gross margins were also impacted by lower factory production rates in our Durham WaferFab and Durham Materials operations as we successfully executed a maintenance shutdown previously communicated last quarter and lowered factory output in line with a lower demand outlook.
Neill Reynolds: The financial impact of the maintenance shutdown and the lower factory production was in line with our expectations.
Neill Reynolds: This was partially offset by lower depreciation costs resulting from favorable 48D tax credit guidance issued during 2Q.
Neill Reynolds: Operating expenses were $108 million in the quarter below the midpoint of our guidance and down $11 million quarter over quarter as we continue to reduce costs as part of our restructuring and simplification efforts.
Neill Reynolds: Startup costs in OPEX, primarily associated with the JP Materials facility, were $23 million. An increase of $3 million versus prior quarter, and in line with our outlook.
Neill Reynolds: Adjusted EPS of negative 95 cents was better than the midpoint of our guidance.
Neill Reynolds: It's included an increase of 1.6 million shares on a weighted average shares outstanding basis related to our ATM equity offering Excluding the equity offering our EPS would have been negative 96 cents just ahead of the midpoint of our outlook
Neill Reynolds: Regarding our balance sheet, we ended the quarter with approximately $1.4 billion of cash and liquidity on hand. This included approximately $91 million of the total $200 million ATM equity offering that was completed in January of this year.
Neill Reynolds: Including the $109 million raised in January after the quarter closed, our starting quarterly cash balance was $1.5 billion.
Neill Reynolds: Free cash flow during the quarter was negative $598 million, comprised of negative $195 million of operating cash flow and $403 million of capital expenditures.
Neill Reynolds: Operating cash flow was impacted by higher net working capital due to the timing of shipments in the quarter, cash restructuring charges, and higher cash interest costs versus prior quarter, partially offset by improved profitability driven by our cost reduction efforts.
Neill Reynolds: We expect to see significant improvement in our operating cash flow as we move into the second half of fiscal 2025, as we anticipate our cost-out measures, improved revenue linearity, stricter cash management, and inventory reduction efforts will result in improved profitability and working capital performance.
Neill Reynolds: CapEx was $403 million during Fiscal 2Q, primarily comprised of facilities investments into the JP Materials facility.
Neill Reynolds: As we wind down the construction phase, we expect capital expenditures to fall off sharply in the second half of fiscal 2025, and we forecast capital expenditures in fiscal 2025 to be approximately $1.2 billion, with dramatically lower capex in fiscal 2026.
Neill Reynolds: Last quarter, we outlined our financing and liquidity plans in conjunction with the announcement of a $2.5 billion funding package in line with our CHIPS grant preliminary memorandum of terms.
Neill Reynolds: This included $750 million grant, $750 million of additional private secured term loan financing, and approximately $1 billion in 48D tax credits.
Neill Reynolds: In order to receive the funding tranches of the grant, we are required to achieve both financial and operational milestones.
Neill Reynolds: From a financial milestone perspective, absent reaching some other accommodation based on the preliminary terms.
Neill Reynolds: We are required to raise $300 million of non-debt capital and a portion of that to receive the first funding tranche, which we achieved by executing the $200 million ATM equity offering.
Neill Reynolds: In addition, we will need to address our convertible debt, which will be our next primary focus. Also, we will need to achieve operational milestones, which we remain on track to achieve.
Neill Reynolds: As it relates to the 40AD tax credits, we have already accrued $865 million as of fiscal 2Q. We have already submitted returns for $186 million of cash refunds from the federal government.
Neill Reynolds: We expect to request significantly more cash tax refunds under the 48D program in calendar 2025 when the J.P. goes into service this year, which we expect to receive in calendar 2026.
Thank you.
Neill Reynolds: Also tied to improving financial performance, we continue to execute on our company's simplification and restructuring efforts.
Neill Reynolds: We expect to contribute to $200 million of annual cash savings, as well as driving approximately $150 million of liquidity in conjunction with non-core asset sales. The following is a status of the various initiatives related to those plans.
Neill Reynolds: The closure of the Durham 150mm wafer fab remains on track to close in the second half of calendar 2025.
Neill Reynolds: The Farmer's Branch 150mm Epitaxy Facility was closed at the end of December and is being prepared for sale.
Neill Reynolds: The non-factory workforce reductions, contributing to a 20% reduction in total company employment along with the factory closures, remains on track with most of the reductions already completed at the end of fiscal 2Q.
Neill Reynolds: Lastly, we continue to work on our divestiture of non-core assets, which we expect to generate approximately $150 million of cash proceeds in calendar 2025.
Neill Reynolds: At this time, we have a clear line of sight to approximately $325 million of liquidity from our 48D cash tax refunds and non-core asset sales.
Tom Werner: In total, if you combine this with the first tranche of the CHIPS grant and the additional funding committed by our lender group led by Apollo, we have up to three quarters of a billion dollars of liquidity going forward, giving us ample opportunity to work on the three priorities Tom outlined at the top of the call.
Tom Werner: Restructuring charges related to our company's simplification and restructuring efforts are expected to be in the range of $400 million to $450 million in fiscal 2025, consistent with our previous communications.
Tom Werner: This included $188 million in charges recorded in Fiscal Q2. Please see the attachment in our earnings press release, which includes a table detailing the charges for this non-GAAP adjustment.
Tom Werner: The fiscal 2Q charges were comprised of severance costs, asset impairment costs, including write-offs related to the Farmers Branch facility and the previously proposed SAR land facility, accelerated depreciation, asset disposition costs, and other related expenses.
Tom Werner: We continue to expect restructuring activities to be cash neutral in fiscal 2025 and start generating a significant amount of the annualized $200 million of cash savings in fiscal 2026.
Tom Werner: Collectively, these measures allow us to improve our unit economics, deliver substantial annualized cash savings, and enhance cash generation capabilities, reducing our non-GAAP EBITDA break-even point to under $1 billion on an annualized revenue basis.
Tom Werner: Finally, turning to our Q3 2025 guidance, we expect Q3 2025 revenue to be between $170 million and $200 million. We expect Q3 2025 non-GAAP gross margin of minus 3% to 7%.
Tom Werner: We expect Q3 2025 non-GAAP OPEX of $104 million to $99 million.
We expect Q3 2025 non-GAAP EPS loss.
of 88 cents to 76 cents.
Tom Werner: which also accounts for the impact of issuing approximately 27.8 million shares of common stock under our ATM program.
Tom Werner: Going forward, we expect our weighted average shares outstanding to be approximately $155 million as we exit fiscal 3Q.
Speaker Change: Thank you, and I will now turn the call back over to Tom for closing remarks.
Speaker Change: Thank you, Neill. Throughout the remainder of my tenure as Executive Chairman.
Speaker Change: I want to reiterate that our management team, board, and I are all aligned on executing against the key priorities I outlined earlier. Those are dramatically improving the financial performance of the company and accelerating our path to generate positive cash flow from operations.
Speaker Change: Second, aggressively pursue activities to strengthen our balance sheet, and third, raise the cost-effective capital required to support our long-term growth plan.
Speaker Change: Also, the board continues to work on identifying a CEO to lead Wolfspeed in its next chapter of growth, and they are pleased with the current slate of candidates.
Speaker Change: We are confident that our collective focus will place Wolfspeed on a path towards long-term growth and profitability and to capture the multi-decade growth opportunity in silicon carbide.
Speaker Change: and therefore more closely reflect the strategic valuation of the company.
Thank you and we will now move to Q&A.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, press star 1 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to remove that question, press star 2.
Speaker Change: And in the interest of time, we do ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up.
Speaker Change: Our first question today comes from Brian Lee with Goldman Sachs. Your line is now open.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: Hey guys, good afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions and welcome back in the saddle. It's been a long time, but good to hear from you.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: First one I had was just on maybe the demand environment. A lot of folks, you know, worried about all the narratives around EV demand slowing and kind of long-term forecast. So, you know, you guys have a lot ramping. Maybe it's a bit slower than expected near-term, but be curious, Tom, as you've been spending time with customers. What's the commentary been? You know, what gives you confidence that medium to longer term demand will be there?
Speaker Change: You know, even as you fill Mohawk up to a fuller capacity level beyond, you know, where you're running right now. Then I have a follow-up.
Tom Werner: So, thank you, Brian, and it's good to be back working with you again.
Speaker Change: So on demand, first let me talk about EV, and then I'll talk about I&E. In terms of EV, we think of it as slowing growth. So it's still growing, but not growing as fast as we and others had projected.
Speaker Change: The other way we think about this we think about this specific OEMs and specific models and we have
models that are ahead of
Speaker Change: The RAMP plan that we thought or forecasted and there are other models.
Neill Reynolds: that are ramping slower. And Neill can say a few words about the percentage or the models that we're in and the growth that we've seen.
Neill Reynolds: So, there are certain accounts, though, or certain models where we are seeing demand increase. In terms of I&E, as I mentioned in the prepared remarks, we are seeing some green shoots.
specifically AI, data centers, energy,
and other markets like that.
We're in the early stages.
Neill Reynolds: We're also benefitting because we've lowered our channel inventory over the last few quarters, and so that gives us a particularly strong tailwind in that market.
Neill Reynolds: Now, having said that, we don't see a V-shaped improvement in IAE, but we do see steady growth for us.
Neill Reynolds: Neill, do you want to add anything? Let me just add a couple of comments there, Tom. We mentioned in the prepared remarks that ED growth in the last quarter and the 2Q fiscal quarter grew 90% year over year.
Neill Reynolds: We should expect that to expand, you know, 20 to 30 percent from an EV perspective going into 3Q. That would also be over 90 percent growth year over year. And if you take a step back, we just have a broad number of models going into production across a number of geographies.
Speaker Change: So, as Tom said, as the adoption rate is lower than we expected.
Speaker Change: Our customer base, essentially, is broad and diverse, and that's what's driving kind of that significant year-on-year growth and kind of a weaker backdrop.
Speaker Change: What that does give us is a certain level of diversity so when the market does come back with a number of models that we're shipping into, we've got a nice broad set of customers that we can ship into and take advantage of the market as EV adoption rates start to pick up again.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: One follow-up, I know you guys alluded to competition during the prepared remarks. I didn't hear anything maybe...
Speaker Change: Be curious again to hear your thoughts, you know, impact on the competitive environment given what's happening out there in China with respect to 200 millimeter and then, you know, what that does to your ability to sell merchant capacity out in Siloes City. Are you kind of sort of behind peers at this point? Just any thoughts that would be helpful. Thank you.
Speaker Change: So we're acutely aware of what's going on in the competitive space with competitors, and we're also acutely aware of developments in China. In terms of specifically 200 millimeter, we are the only volume producer of 200 millimeter wafers.
Speaker Change: And we're shipping thousands of them to our Mohawk Valley Fetch, and we know the performance of the wafers, and it's exceptional.
Speaker Change: So, we have a technology lead, and we have the credibility of shipping thousands of wafers per week. In addition to that,
We have started to sample.
A number of customers.
Speaker Change: Our next question comes from Jed Dorsheimer with William Blair. Your line is now open.
Hi, thanks. Tom, I guess first question...
Thank you.
Speaker Change: I'm not sure if you caught any of the Senate confirmation sounds like you're
Speaker Change: might have been busy on the operational side, but Howard Lednick was getting grilled today. And, you know, a lot of his commentary was around looking at ChIPSAC with respect to national security.
Speaker Change: And I know silicon carbides, they've ruled that from a CFIUS perspective back in 2016.
Speaker Change: I'm just wondering if you could update us on, obviously that's key to the liquidity part of the story, the transition phase and maybe share any context in terms of
Speaker Change: how that transition is progressing. And then I have a follow-up.
Speaker Change: Thank you, Jed, for the question. As I said in the prepared remarks, we are constructively engaged frequently with the CHIPS Program Office.
Speaker Change: And it's important to note that we're narrowing the issue list, which is usually a good sign when you're working on something like this. In terms of, and we work closely, have started to work closely with the new administration.
Speaker Change: on, and we did listen to Howard Lutton X testimony today. And it was important to note he talked about everything Wolfspeed is, American technology, American manufacturing.
Speaker Change: thousands of American jobs, billions invested in important national security, never mind AI, never mind the importance of things like going to Mars. So if there's ever a fit for chips
Speaker Change: ever may be overstated. If there's a prototype of what you'd want CHIPS to expand more of in America, we're in. So that gives us confidence as we engage with the new administration. We think we're completely aligned.
Great.
Speaker Change: This is my follow-up, Neill, just sticking with the theme of liquidity here for a second.
Speaker Change: Looks like spending falls off and you've done a good job to kind of throttle that back.
Speaker Change: As you did talk about some of the potential sources of cash.
Speaker Change: I didn't hear a 200 millimeter supply agreement is part of that. I'm just curious, have his...
Speaker Change: Things change. Are you still in discussions in negotiating the potential for that? Maybe just update or if that was purposely missed or whether or not, you know, what the expectations around an additional agreement might be. Thanks.
Speaker Change: So Jed, I'll say a few comments and then we'll let Neill answer the majority of the question.
Neill Reynolds: So, we are managing $150,000 in terms of an inventory correction with our LT long-term agreement partners.
as the only company that's producing 200 millimeter.
Neill Reynolds: There's nothing to announce now, but there's constructive work being done.
will bear fruit, we believe, in this calendar year.
Neill Reynolds: I think that's one element of it, Jed, but just kind of go and hit a little bit further on the first comment you made there in terms of driving towards our liquidity goals. First things first, and I think Tom laid it out in the prepared remarks.
Neill Reynolds: You know, driving better financial performance and execution is kind of step one here.
Neill Reynolds: And you can see the results from the restructuring and the simplification program that we put into place. That's already generating results. We've seen the OPEX come down.
Neill Reynolds: And I think if you look into the second half of the year, we'll see...
Speaker Change: You know, nice performance and operating cash flow as a result of some of the working capital and the stricter cash initiatives that Tom laid out on the call. So that's kind of step one, you know, focus on that, you know, consistent, you know, operating execution and financial performance.
Speaker Change: Now, in addition to that, we laid out a couple of other things. The first one is that we have...
Speaker Change: You know, clear visibility to roughly, you know, $325 million of liquidity between the 40AD tax credits, which we've already completed our returns for, and we've been in conversations and correspondence with the federal government on those. So those have been received and they're being processed.
Speaker Change: In addition, we're making progress on $150 million of asset sales, $325 million, or $325 million plus.
Speaker Change: related to that element. And on top of that, we continue to work the chips.
The CHIPS grant, working with the CHIPS office closely.
Speaker Change: And that would result in another big portion of the grant or a solid portion of the grant along with the term loan financing for another more than $400 million. So more than three quarters of a billion dollars of visibility in terms of liquidity. So step one, let's drive the operational performance, and then step two, we've got liquidity plans that we're focused on.
Great. Thanks, guys.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: Our next question comes from George Jennekes with Concord. Your line is now open.
George, your line is now open.
Hello, can you hear me?
Yep, we can hear you George. Hello?
Speaker Change: Thank you for taking my question. I'd just like to ask about your revenue break-even. I think you said under a billion. If you could just sort of help us understand.
Speaker Change: exactly when you think that's achievable and how realistic you think those revenue targets are in the current environment.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: George, I'll take the first part, or I'll say a few words and you'll probably add something.
Lower than a billion dollars a break even
We have initiated another look at the company.
Speaker Change: This time we're taking a fresh look as if we started the company from scratch.
Speaker Change: And we're looking at two businesses, the materials and power of the business.
Speaker Change: And we're saying, what would we build that business like from the ground up? That is likely to yield some efficiencies, although we are in the beginning phases of that.
Speaker Change: that we'll see progressive or sequential growth in our power business throughout the year. But we want to take sort of a cautious look at revenue and base our expenses off of that. And that's what the second.
Speaker Change: Device business onto 200mm, simplifying the business and driving the cost-out initiatives and the stricter cash management.
Speaker Change: That's step one. And then from a revenue perspective, we are seeing power device revenue grow into the back half of the fiscal year, and we'll continue to see that grow. I agree, though, in terms of industrial energy, in terms of materials, the visibility is somewhat limited. But we are seeing growth into those periods. And as that revenue continues to grow along with these operational initiatives, that will give us a better kind of line of sight to break even points and operating cash flow out in time.
And maybe as a follow-up, you know, you traditionally discuss...
Speaker Change: Design wins and design ends, so how have those been trending and has the current state of your financials impacted customer interest, and thank you.
Speaker Change: So first, design wins and design ends. We published a set of slides on our website.
Speaker Change: It's got one of those two numbers, but I can give you the numbers for the quarter. It's $1.475 million for design-ins and $795 million.
Speaker Change: for DesignWins. And I do want to point out, cumulatively, DesignWins, which is 20% first-year revenue is the definition, is $12.2 billion cumulatively.
Speaker Change: And then in terms of your second question, we are completely transparent and we are constantly communicating with our key customers, our OEM customers and customers like Aero who are critical to our business.
We're talking about how, in some cases, how do we...
Speaker Change: increase supply for key parts of their business, and they see things like our Gen 4 release that we just announced recently, and they see the investments that we've made paying off in R&D.
Speaker Change: And then it's important to note as they listen to this call that our CAPEX is largely implemented.
Speaker Change: So, we said close to zero new capital commitments, which means that the existing capital commitments we made...
Speaker Change: can satisfy meaningful demand increase and can satisfy our customers' demands. So the profile of the company is substantially different as we look at it going forward, and we are completely transparent and aligned with our customer partners.
Speaker Change: And just to clarify, that's $1.5 billion of design ins and about roughly $800 million of design wins that have gone in this quarter.
Speaker Change: I think we see a large stable, as we've talked about before, of design-ins, we see a large stable of those transitioning into design-wins, but our focus right now goes back to the operational execution and transitioning those into real orders and shipments out of our factories.
Speaker Change: The next question comes from Sameek Chatterjee with J.P. Morgan. Your line is now open.
Sameek Chatterjee: Thank you and thank you for taking my questions. Maybe to start with, in terms of the revenue contribution from Durham, which you're winding down, it seems
Speaker Change: did track towards the, on the power product side, did track towards the higher end or higher than what you were sort of implying.
Mohawk did have more muted sort of increase.
Speaker Change: The question really around that is, are we seeing a slower transition for some reason than...
Speaker Change: you had expected 90 days ago and is that sort of any change to the timeline relative to maybe how the ramp down of Durham sort of feeds through the year? And for my follow-up really the question
Speaker Change: is more around the CHIPS Act funding, which you mentioned, the two things that you need to work on. One is the CONVERT, and then you have some operational milestones to achieve.
Speaker Change: I guess you won't really talk about what those operational milestones are, but can you give us some sense about what is the time frame in which you expect to achieve those operational milestones?
Thank you.
Okay, so let me kick things off first.
Speaker Change: The answer is yes, we are on track to close North Carolina FAD per our previous guidance, which is the second half of this year.
Speaker Change: The second part of that is we of course forecasted demand for the fab and the forecast or the actual demand that we've seen is higher than what we forecasted.
Speaker Change: The good news is we're seeing efficiencies. The team is doing a fantastic job and we're seeing efficiencies.
as we satisfy that demand.
Speaker Change: And we can satisfy that demand in a positive cash flow manner.
So, on track and going well.
in terms of design conversions to
Speaker Change: Our Mohawk Valley Fab, we've actually got a corporate objective to accelerate design conversions to our Mohawk Valley Fab.
Speaker Change: And plans are being implemented to significantly accelerate, because these are customers that we want to work with for the long term, and they'll benefit from the better economics of our Mohawk Valley fab.
Speaker Change: I think I've got your questions there, if not, Neill will make sure we cover them. On the CHIPS Act, Neill will cover that in more detail, but an important milestone is the Certificate of Occupancy for Siler City.
which we expect to happen by middle of this year.
And it's important to note...
Speaker Change: that despite close to zero new capital commitments, we will complete Siler City.
So I wanted to double emphasize that.
Speaker Change: Yeah, so just to clarify, just on the North Carolina to Mohawk Valley transition, I wouldn't read into the levels of revenue between Durham and North Carolina Fab. There are parts that are transitioning now, so there's certain lots of inventory that are going to ship out of Durham that are co-qualified to Mohawk Valley, so you could see a little bit of a mixed variation between the two factories.
Speaker Change: I think the thing to focus on though is a heavy amount of EV volume coming on quarter over quarter as you go from 2Q to 3Q.
Speaker Change: And a lot of that will come out of Mohawk Valley. And the midpoint of the guidance we gave, that's a 20 or 25% increase in Mohawk Valley revenue, quarter over quarter, which I think kind of underpins the ramp that we're seeing there and the ramp that we're seeing on EVs. So continued process and progress that Tom mentioned in terms of qualifying, in terms of transitioning parts over to Mohawk Valley.
Speaker Change: and agree on the CHIPS milestones from an operational perspective, very high confidence to reach the operational milestones early in calendar 2025.
Speaker Change: Our next question comes from Jackie Egan with Charter Equity Research. Your line is now open.
Jackie Egan: Great. Thanks for taking the question. So, over the past few quarters, there have been quite a few puts and takes on your revenue mix between automotive and industrial. And on this call, you mentioned...
Jackie Egan: that automotive will grow through 2025. So I was wondering if you could just level set us on how your device revenue breaks down by end market right now and then also maybe go over how that might change over time just as a result of consolidating your fab footprint into Mohawk Valley. And then I had a follow-up.
Speaker Change: Hey Jack, consistent with the other questions, I'll say a few words and then turn it over to Neill. So, in fact, you're right over the last year or two
The mix is gone from almost all I&E.
and a smaller percentage of auto to the inverse.
Speaker Change: I think we'll see that stabilize a little bit as we go forward as INE, as we said, we're
Speaker Change: Most of our drivetrain parts have had their final shipments coming out of the North Carolina FAB. We're seeing some alternative, you know, other applications outside of the drivetrain still shipping out of there at this point in time. Should see those winding down in the kind of first half of calendar 2025.
Speaker Change: And you'll start to see more and more EV out of Mohawk Valley, but we're also transitioning the I&E portfolio there as well. So as we start to see some of these I&E products and applications start to transition over to Mohawk Valley and the market picks up, we'll start to see that balance come back to, over time, back to a 70-30 split.
you know, EV and I&E revenue over time.
Speaker Change: Hey, Jack, I did want to mention, I forgot when I talked about I&E previously.
that the Artificial Intelligence Data Center is a big driver.
Speaker Change: energy in general because demand, load growth is the highest it's been in decades.
Neill Reynolds: And then from my previous market that I was in, battery energy storage is another increasing market that's driving the I&E and that will result in the mix that Neill mentioned. And we're ready for your second question.
Neill Reynolds: Great, okay, thanks, that's helpful. I guess a bit of a longer-term one here then. I was hoping you could talk a bit about wafer thickness.
Speaker Change: So, some competitors toward the end of last year announced that
Speaker Change: Their 8-inch wafers will be 350 microns thick versus the typical 500 micron thickness.
Speaker Change: I was wondering about the thinking there as it relates to both the wafers that you are using internally at Mohawk Valley, as well as the external materials that you are selling to customers in the materials business.
Speaker Change: I don't want to limit our comments, but I'd say that yes, we're developing 350, and yes, we can sample it, and yes, we will convert over time to 350 in our internal operation. We have not converted yet.
Speaker Change: Our next question comes from Craig Irwin with Roth Capital Partners. Your line is now open.
Craig Irwin: Thank you for taking my questions. So, Tom, it's nice to have your 19 years of history with Will Speed.
I guess the first decade.
Craig Irwin: You were on the board, the silicon carbide power business. It really was a line item nobody really cared about. You know, I guess the company obviously cared. But there was a very interesting level of support, I guess, even from the early 90s from the U.S. government for that business.
Craig Irwin: You know, is there any reason to think that the interest and support for that business has
Craig Irwin: has changed over the last year. So, I mean, we did see.
Craig Irwin: additional funding into that business from the US government this last year in form of a grant. You know, do you think the the appetite from these customers is growing or shrinking given the general impact from power across all areas of the economy?
Oh, I'm growing on-
Craig Irwin: and meaningfully so. On your right, the company has a long history of working with the U.S. government, and that continues today, and we benefit from that because we know how to partner, we know how the government works.
And we know how to get things done.
on
Craig Irwin: And as you pointed out, there's a technology shift to higher voltage, higher power, higher switching frequencies.
which are exactly what we do well.
Craig Irwin: And, of course, we practically invented this market. We were founded 40 years ago.
and, as I mentioned, founded out of North Carolina State.
on show.
Craig Irwin: If you think about the defense agencies and what they want, they clearly want an American supplier.
Craig Irwin: So, we've got the credibility of four decades, the history, and the shift in technology to applications that need silicon carbide, so a definitive strengthening or broadening.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: Companies can switch suppliers, and I think it's oversimplified as far as the quality of product available at other OEMs, at other semiconductor OEMs.
Speaker Change: And the challenges in changing suppliers, I think, are underappreciated. Could you maybe give us some color on, you know, what makes Wolfspeed Chips
Special.
Speaker Change: what the challenges are for re-qualifying with another supplier, and why we've seen your business be so sticky during this period of uncertainty as you work through repositioning the balance sheet.
Speaker Change: Normally, other companies would see a fairly substantial drop in their revenue, but your revenue is actually held in pretty well, consistent with guidance, and has actually surprised me for this quarter, given that the challenges have been very public.
Speaker Change: So, this is one that you'll probably want to do a follow-up on, or at least potentially, so I'll say a few things.
The importance of the material quality to device performance.
Speaker Change: is unbelievably clear and they are inextricably tied together. So the quality of the wafer
Speaker Change: that you make a device out of will determine the characteristics of that device and can have as much as a 20% delta in yield.
So.
Speaker Change: Switching material suppliers is risky business because it can have a big impact on your yield.
and as we partner with customers.
And, of course, we isolate the materials business.
Thank you very much.
with almost all of our 150 millimeter customers.
Speaker Change: And, of course, those are constructively, we're working together as partners. In some cases, they may be spread out longer in time, but that's primarily what's happening in that market.
Speaker Change: that when we get these design ins, we're working with these customers for several years on integration of our parts and the performance of those parts in either modules or in their systems.
Speaker Change: So as you look at just the breadth of what we were talking about in terms of what we are seeing grow through a tougher cycle.
Speaker Change: And part of that is that we've got good engagement and good integration with our customers.
Speaker Change: and having that capability across the portfolio. So that does create some stickiness with our customers and I think the breadth of those things and the breadth of the customers that we're working with kind of shines through, even in maybe a tougher backdrop from a demand perspective.
Operator, we have time for one more question.
Speaker Change: Absolutely. Our final question will come from Harsh Kumar with Piper Sandler. Your line is now open. Hey guys, thank you for squeezing me in. I had just two simple questions. I just wanted a clarification. I think Neil or Tom, you might have mentioned that your break-even for revenues will be billion or little under billion dollars, call it.
Harsh Kumar: Does that, that $250 million, a quarter number, does that include startup and underutilization costs?
Harsh Kumar: That's a clarification that I wanted. And then you also said that your CapEx will fall quite dramatically. Is it possible for CapEx to fall close to zero next year outside of maintenance CapEx? And then I had a quick one, another one.
Harsh Kumar: Yes, so thanks Harsh for the question. Yes, it's fully inclusive of the full, you know, P&L. So when I talk about the EBITDA and the operating cash flow, that's what we're talking about.
Harsh Kumar: From a CapEx perspective, the way to think about that next year is we get about, I think, at one point, a target of $200 million to $600 million if you look at fiscal year 26.
Harsh Kumar: and we have the flexibility to continue to take that down.
Harsh Kumar: And based on what Tom said, still have the ability to significantly ramp the device portfolio because we'll have a significant amount of utilization available to us coming out of Mohawk Valley and behind that from a substrate perspective. So we'll be able to see that come down. Now, the second thing I would add to that is we'll go back to the 48D credits. We talked a lot about the near term of what we've already
Harsh Kumar: essentially sent in returns for and expect payment for from the federal government in the short term.
Harsh Kumar: In the longer term, when the JP comes online in the first half of this year, next year we will essentially send an invoice or put it in our return to the IRS for north of $500 million.
Harsh Kumar: of 48D tax credits as you look into 2026. So we talked about those gross numbers. There's a significant amount of funding that can come in from 48D to even offset those. So yes, the answer is you can get down from a gross perspective, we can drive that down. And then from a net perspective after federal incentives, that can go down to zero or even lower.
Speaker Change: Okay, got it. Thank you. And then a question on the underutilization charges on the start-up cost. At what point in time
Speaker Change: As a company in totality, would you expect these to go away? Is that a function of time or is that a function of revenues? And if it's a function of revenues, what number are we looking at for JP and Malak Lally combined?
Speaker Change: Yeah, so it's a function of both, you know, it depends on how fast you ramp the company and as we ramp revenue over time, we'll start to see the startup and the underutilization costs, you know, start to fall away.
Speaker Change: You can think about, you know, 70% utilization target being kind of a point in which we think them all, all of the underutilization and startup kind of all kind of fading away. And we'll just kind of see them linearly start to fall off as we start to get to those levels of utilization.
So I want to end it here.
Speaker Change: Yeah, I want to end it here. We appreciate you joining us for the call. I'll end with a repeat that we're intensely focused on improving the financial performance of the company.
Speaker Change: economic investment in the company. And we look forward to updating you over the quarter and the next call. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: That will conclude today's conference call. Thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect your line.