Valens Semiconductor Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
February 28, 2024

There are 6 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning. My name is Yoni, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Valens Semiconductors 4th Quarter and Full Year 2023 earnings conference call and webcast.

Operator

All participant lines have been placed in a listen only mode. Opening remarks by Valens 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 Valens Semiconductor. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you, and welcome, everyone, to Valens Semiconductor's Q4 and full year 2023 earnings call. With me today are Gideon Bensvi, Chief Executive Officer and Guy Naissensin, Chief Financial Officer. Earlier today, we issued a press release that is available on the Investor Relations section of our website under investors. Villans.com. As a reminder, today's earnings call may include forward looking statements and projections, which do not guarantee future events or performance.

Speaker 1

These statements are subject to the Safe Harbor language in today's press release. Please refer to our annual report on Form 20 F 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.

Speaker 1

If you're interested in meeting with us, please email me at investorsvolence.com. With that, I will now turn the call over to Gidon.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Daphna. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining the Valens Semiconductor 4th quarter and full year 2023 earnings call. I'm joined today by Guy Natanzone, our new Chief Financial Officer. Guy will play a key role in progressing the Valens Semiconductor high performance strategy and its execution. Guy has more than 20 years of executive leadership experience with U.

Speaker 2

S. Listed and private companies in the semiconductor, medical imaging and aviation technology sectors. As CFO, these companies including Provigen, Altera Semiconductor, TAS Technologies and Scopio 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 Jael Rosenberg for stepping in as our interim CFO for the past 6 months.

Speaker 2

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 Valens Semiconductor, we continue to expand our engagement and partnerships across the various verticals themselves, enhance our innovative high performance connectivity offerings and improve the visibility of our technology. We are pleased to report that both 4th quarter and full year revenues were at the top end of our guidance range at $21,900,000 $84,200,000 respectively. Automotive revenue reached new highs and accounted for more than 30% of total revenues in 2020 3.

Speaker 2

Non GAAP gross margin for the 4th quarter and the full year came in at 63.1% and 63.9%, respectively. And adjusted EBITDA was $2,200,000 for the 4th quarter and a loss of $10,300,000 for the full year, substantially better than our guidance. We entered 2024 with a strong balance sheet with $142,000,000 of cash and cash equivalents. Balanced semiconductor's robust balance sheet allows us to continue investing in innovation and pursue long term growth opportunities as we overcome these headwinds. Looking ahead, I'm confident that Valensa Bi Conducto is well positioned with a highly relevant and compelling set of solutions to address customer demand as we see market tailwinds return.

Speaker 2

For example, the advantages of our technology make it an optimal connectivity solution to support the increasing need for AI based application 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 audiovideo, while demand since the second half of twenty twenty three 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.

Speaker 2

The installed base potential of Vidyo is approximately 100,000,000 conference rooms and classrooms worldwide. The penetration level is very low It's 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 and partner recently commented that the TAM 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.

Speaker 2

I obviously agree with this view of the video conferencing market, which means there is a significant opportunity for Valens Semiconductor. Our offering is increasingly relevant for all types of meeting rooms from large corporate boardrooms to smaller model rooms and small office home office setups known as Sobo. 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, Valencia 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.

Speaker 2

Just as with video conferencing, the USB 3 extension opens up new opportunities for Valens Semiconductor in the audiovideo market. For example, in the industrial vertical, we can expand our penetration to address the demand for high bandwidth and resilience required by AI based computer vision. Due to the growing use of high bandwidth USB peripheral and the inherent limitation of connectivity length, the industry has been seeking a professional grade extension solution. Valens Semiconductor has identified the growing requirement 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 audiovideo trade show.

Speaker 2

At CES, the VS-sixty three-twenty was a 2024 Innovation Awards honoree in the Embedded Technology category for Outstanding Design and Engineering as the first to market chip solution for professional grade extension of USB 3.2. And last month, we won 2 more distinguished awards for the VS 6320 at IT, the Commercial Integrator, TMC Top New Technology Award and AV Technology Magazine's Best of Show. Momentum around the VS-six thousand three hundred and twenty is strong with dozens of products under development by Valencia Meconductor 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 extensions enabling long range connectivity between multiple USB cameras, video conferencing, touchscreen control panels and PCs. We saw exceptional enthusiasm around VS6 S3 20 Chipset embedded into cameras which will eliminate the need to use external extension boxes and dedicated power suppliers.

Speaker 2

This means much faster and simpler installation of video conferencing system at a lower total cost. We believe this new standard of built in high performance USB 3 extension will become a default requirement in the industry. Another innovative product concept introduced by our customer was the extended docking station. Combining Valens USB 3 extension technology, which the docking technology provides unparalleled cost efficient and easy to install handle rooms. This will enable acceleration of the adoption of video conferencing in unequipped tens of millions of Huddle Rooms.

Speaker 2

These are all examples of how Valens Semiconductor is once again setting standards and transforming industries. We expect revenues from the BS6320 to begin ramping up in the second half of twenty twenty four and believe that Valens 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 USB 3 extension chipset and are extremely excited about this opportunity as USB 3 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 VS-six thousand three hundred and twenty is a game changer.

Speaker 2

It solves connectivity challenges of the current solutions as it uniquely provides the ideal combination of multi gig bandwidth extension, long reach and resilience with a single chip on each end. All this done at substantially lower cost. While the sales cycle in the industrial market tends to be lengthy, it provides a long term and extremely sticky runway. Another revolving trend is multicamera applications, which are suitable for video conferencing and provides enhanced meeting equity. Multi camera applications are also relevant for industrial machine vision.

Speaker 2

Commonly, Yield's remote communication platforms are increasingly integrating AI based decision making features that select the best view of audio of in room participants from 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. Valens Semiconductor's productivity solutions enables its evolution of AI based applications positioning us to capture growing business opportunities. For example, in 2023, we announced a collaboration with iCage 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, Ifix announced the plan 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.

Speaker 2

This collaboration demonstrates our vision for a holistic strategy that leverages Valens 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 BA6000 Chipset contributed to a record level of automotive revenues in 2023. Our Symmetrix VA6000 chips have been used in infotainment and telematics systems in Mercedes Benz cars for a number of years. 2023 was our 1st full year of selling our chipsets into a broad range of Mercedes based models, SC 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'm encouraged by the interest we see in our VA7000 MiP A5 chipsets.

Speaker 2

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, Valens 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 Eify 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.

Speaker 2

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 Ceramics safety systems, positioning Valens Semiconductor as a top technology innovator in the automotive sector. So far in 2024, we have announced 2 important developments. 1st, we announced our partnership with Intel Foundry Services. ILS will fabricate the 2nd generation of our A5 compliant chipsets for the automotive industry.

Speaker 2

Intel's ecosystem and advanced processes will enable significant cost and power reductions for this chipset family while achieving the highest performance and robust ELC in Unity. We are extremely proud to have been recognized by Intel an industry leader for developing one of the most advanced chipsets for automotive. Stor Penn, 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 Valencia Micaductum EP85 chipset is an obvious feat, a 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 concern and operational needs in the trucking industry.

Speaker 2

Valens Semiconductor's new VA700R 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 connectivity infrastructure was designed with highway safety and structural trailer in mind and will address one of the most dangerous situations on our road today, making them much safer. Based on the VA-seven thousand, we developed the VA-seven hundred R 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 multibillion dollar market in the coming years. With that, I will turn the call to Guy to discuss our financial performance in more detail.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Gideon. Hello, everyone. I'm excited to be here today for my first earnings call at Valens Semiconductor. Over the past few weeks, Flinsel joined Valens Semiconductor. Has met and engaged with a passionate results driven team.

Speaker 3

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 Q4 and full year 2023 results and then turn to our guidance for Q1, twenty twenty four and what we expect for the first half of the year. Starting with the quarterly results, Q4, 2023 revenues reached $21,900,000 at the high end of our guidance range. This compares to revenues of $23,500,000 in Q4 2022. Q4 2023 gross profit was $13,500,000 and gross margin was 61.7 percent compared to gross profit of $16,000,000 and gross margin of 68.3 percent in Q4 2022.

Speaker 3

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 audiovideo business, which has much higher gross margin. Operating expenses in Q4 2023 totaled $15,300,000 significantly lower than $24,100,000 in Q4 2022. I'd like to turn to analyzing the improvement achieved in OpEx.

Speaker 3

Research and development expenses were $8,600,000 compared to $16,500,000 in Q4 2022. Several factors contributed to substantially lower R and D expenses. Last year, the company recorded expenses of $4,200,000 associated with development of our VA7000 chipset family, an essential step towards mass production. As Gideon mentioned, the VA-seven thousand is part of our vision for holistic strategy that leverages Valens Semiconductor's core technology to power cross industry innovation. The company also lowered R and D payroll expenses by approximately $2,100,000 in line with the streamlining of our development platforms.

Speaker 3

The quarterly payroll expenses were also positively impacted by $1,200,000 due to lower bonuses and reserve duty refunds. And finally, we benefited from a positive foreign exchange rate impact. SG and A expenses of $6,600,000 were 13.5% lower compared to $7,700,000 in Q4 2022. This was mainly due to lower payroll related expenses. In Q4 2023, the company achieved GAAP net income of $2,800,000 compared to a net loss of $7,300,000 in Q4 2022, driven mainly by lower expenses.

Speaker 3

Adjusted EBITDA in Q4 2023 was substantially higher than our guidance at a record $2,200,000 The better than guidance adjusted EBITDA in Q4 2023 was achieved mainly due to lower OpEx. This compares to an adjusted EBITDA loss of $4,600,000 in Q4, 2022. Another notable achievement was the record GAAP 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 point Total revenues for the year 2023 were the top Total revenues for the year 2023 were at the top end of our guidance reaching $84,200,000 compared to $90,700,000 in 2022. Revenue from the audiovideo business were $57,400,000 compared to $74,500,000 in 2022 as customers walked through excess inventory which slowed the pace of orders.

Speaker 3

Automotive business revenues rose to a record $26,800,000 up 65.5 percent from $16,200,000 in 2022. I'd like to highlight that 2023 marks the 1st full year in which Valens Semiconductor's high performance connectivity chipsets were implemented in a broad range of Mercedes Benz car models. GAAP gross profit was $52,600,000 and gross margin was 62.5 percent for the full year 2023 compared to $63,400,000 69.9 percent in 2022. Non GAAP 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.

Speaker 3

In parallel, the percentage of revenues from automotive increased substantially to 31.8% in 2023, up from 17.8% in 2022. This mix shift from audiovideo to automotive had an impact as audiovideo has higher margin. Full year 2023 operating expenses were lower at $79,500,000 compared to $91,800,000 in 2022. The year over year decrease of $12,300,000 in OpEx was driven by several factors. R and D expenses decreased by approximately $10,000,000 and drove most of the year over year improvement.

Speaker 3

R and D payroll expenses were $6,100,000 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 U. S. Dollar. The other contributing factor was lower R and D spend in 2023 given the significant investment made in 2022 in our VA-seven thousand chipset family, a $4,200,000 investment in a production manufacturing phase to target new automotive designing.

Speaker 3

SG and A expenses decreased by $2,200,000 year over year, mainly due to reduction in D and O insurance premium. In 2023, we recorded finance income of $5,600,000 compared to expenses of $1,800,000 in 2022. The $7,400,000 increase was mostly driven by our strong cash was Valens' robust cash position, which enabled us to benefit from the rise in interest rates on the deposits we hold. Interest income in 2023 reached $6,700,000 up from $2,300,000 in 2022. Moving to net loss and adjusted EBITDA.

Speaker 3

GAAP net loss for the full year 2023 improved to $19,700,000 from $27,700,000 in 2022. Adjusted EBITDA loss for the full year 2023 was $10,300,000 an improvement compared to $14,900,000 in 2022 and substantially higher than the guidance. GAAP net loss per share for 2023 was $0.19 It was better than $0.28 in 2022. Non GAAP loss per share for 2023 was $0.05 it was better than $0.17 in 2022. Now turning to the balance sheet.

Speaker 3

Ensuring our 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 $142,000,000 at the end of December 2023 compared to $142,700,000 at the end of September 2023 100 and $48,400,000 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 $13,800,000 down from $16,900,000 at the end of September 2023 and down from $23,800,000 at the end of 2022. Now let's move to our outlook.

Speaker 3

As with the rest of the semiconductor industry, Valens 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 revenue to be in the range of $11,000,000 to $11,200,000 We expect gross margin to be in the range of 52.2% to 53%. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to range between a loss of $9,700,000 $9,100,000 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.

Speaker 3

I would like to reiterate, looking ahead, Valens 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 Gideon for his closing remarks before opening the call for Q and A.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Guy. We remain focused on execution and on capitalizing on the great opportunities we see ahead in the market that offer the best growth opportunities for Valens 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 audiovideo, 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. Valens 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 1 of the most advanced chipsets for automotive.

Speaker 2

We have over 15 years of innovation excellence in the semiconductor industry and the strong balance sheet with the cash necessary to withstand market fluctuations. Valens Semiconductor is the driving force behind technological innovations that makes 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.

Speaker 2

You are the force driving Valens Semiconductor forward with your passion, dedication and an unmatched innovative spirit. With that, I will now open the call to your questions. Operator?

Operator

Thank The first question is from Brian Dobson of Sheridan Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Yes. Thanks very much for taking my 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?

Speaker 2

Thank you, Brian, for the question and welcome. We see the strengths and weaknesses as follows. Currently, we saw some of the softness of the industries in our ecosystem that is still we still feel it. I believe we hope that it is we are going out of this weakness by the second half of twenty 24. We feel that we are very well positioned to execute growth plan.

Speaker 2

We're seeing currently the market is first in audiovideo. We believe the inventory consumption 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 get what we're looking for. I we it's hard to predict the date, but it is the certainty about the uniqueness and the need and the of the market is we feel it very strong. We also believe it will benefit from capturing new untapped markets with our USB3 extension, the product that we just launched and got all those awards, the BS6320, it's a product we're very, very proud of. It's a very, very high end product in a very sophisticated technology for the use of a lot broader market which we were before.

Speaker 2

All in all, once the markets with recover, we are well positioned to execute our growth plan and we are all prepared for that. So I hope I answered you. Thank you.

Speaker 4

Yes, very good. Thanks. And then you highlighted that you sold VA 6000 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 tax stamp of approval? And have you had conversations with other, call it, household brands about selling into those companies as well?

Speaker 4

And I'm not asking you to specifically name companies.

Speaker 2

We're focusing on the next generation on the VA7000 where we see a lot higher barrier and a lot more blunt need and demonstratable advantage on the market. Though the VA6000 is the product that enters us to the market and we believe is a very important player here. As answering specifically about other customers, of course, we cannot discuss and can just tell that we see the VA-sixty VA-sixty thousand also in other markets than automotive. We have sales in industrial. We have sales in audiovideo.

Speaker 2

And the VN-six thousand has a lot of influence in Valens. As I said, it enters into the automotive. We have Mercedes, we have Stoneridge and we have other companies which are looking at it, which you cannot elaborate, of course, at this stage. And but as I said, it was the step to get into the big market, the VA 7,000, where we see the huge upside in totally different magnitude. I would like to elaborate one sentence here.

Speaker 2

If you look at the car, at the vehicle, how many of the links are symmetric that would require 6,000 in the life versus how many are non symmetric, asymmetric that we'd 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 wins and how the whole vehicle is fragile if those wins are not perfect. So this is the way we see those 2 chips and the connection between them. So that's I think the summarize my answer.

Speaker 4

Yes, very good. That's helpful. Thank you. And then could you share a little bit about potentially positive or constructive feedback you've received from the trucking industry regarding the ZA7000 chip's ability to provide, call it, rear view and surround view, favor bits for trucks? Well,

Speaker 2

we the answer the real answer that I cannot share, not because I do not have, it's because we are in some 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 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.

Speaker 2

And this enable the long distance vehicle a full surround view and ADAS and it leverages the VA7000 chipset family for more. While the VA-six thousand is mainly for rearview visibility in truckload 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 terms. A lot of the and we have very thorough statistics about accidents with Struss. We believe to give her something very serious solution.

Speaker 2

But about the process with Struss, I cannot elaborate now. But I hope I did answer you.

Speaker 4

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

Speaker 2

Sorry, I could. Can you please repeat? We don't it was heard here not so clear. Can you please repeat the question?

Speaker 4

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.

Speaker 2

Well, there are again, it's like in this kind of discussion, we cannot speak a lot about certain customers. I can say that our AV activity is facing new opportunities both in school districts, both in hybrid education, in industrial, and it is something that we believe has a lot of upside for Valens 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 B2G, it's business to government, but we are also see an upside here.

Speaker 4

Thank you very much.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Operator

The next question is from Suji Vasilva of ROTH Capital. Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Hi, Gideon and Guy. Welcome to the call. Best of luck in the new role here.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Speaker 5

So, yes, the VS-six thousand three hundred and twenty sounds interesting here, Gideon. Can you talk about the AI CV market opportunity, the surveillance opportunity for computer vision. That sounds very interesting and 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?

Speaker 2

Fair. Thank you very much, Luigi, for the question. Especially thank you because I asked Dafna before, I want someone to ask me about AI and therefore I'm especially thankful this time. 100. Hi, Andrew.

Speaker 2

My personal background is before Vlorelances in AI for more than 20 years. AI requires a lot of data and very accurate, especially AI which is untapped that actually is needs to learn itself the situation. And what we're doing in the world of ADAS, we the world of ADAS 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?

Speaker 2

It's 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 8 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 straight in 300 yards from us or because of the fog that 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 become a lot more essential as important.

Speaker 2

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 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 certain data bandwidth to double, The exposure to EMC is not doubled. It's exponentially higher.

Speaker 2

So the case of a car moving new cellular antenna under a truck above the bridge wherever whether you have a magnetic influence make the whole link a lot more fragile and the most ADAS and ADAS a lot less functional. So this is where AI and how Velez is an AI enabler because of the need for more data and more resilience a way to transfer this data in time.

Speaker 5

Okay. That makes a lot of sense, Gideon. Appreciate that. In the 2024 revenues versus 23, do you have a sense of what auto will be in the mix? And in the first half, is it weaker because of into the weak into the cautious guide because of inventory digestion?

Speaker 5

Is that the impact on the first half for auto?

Speaker 3

Okay. Thank you for the question. So We think that eventually Can you repeat the question please, 1 minute? Sure, yes.

Speaker 5

Sure, I'm sorry. So in the thinking what the auto revenue mix will be in 2024 versus the 30% you saw in 2023 and if the first half auto might be impacted by inventory corrections, perhaps recovering in the second half?

Speaker 3

Okay. So at this stage, we have kind of limited the visibility into the first half of 'twenty four and all over the 'twenty four. This is why we would prefer at 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 2022 to 2023. I would not expect the same pace on the Mercedes Benz design also into 2024 because we are fully ramped.

Speaker 3

And 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. Okay, great.

Speaker 5

And one last question perhaps for 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?

Speaker 2

Well, of course, we can also elaborate about the detail about technical detail of the chip. I can say one thing. The essence of Valens 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 company, 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 this 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.

Speaker 2

So that's the advantage of the IFS. I'm not sure if this is what you asked. MiP A5 chipset, did you ask particularly about the MiP A5 chipset or about this magnitude of

Speaker 5

Just what Intel noticed about your chip architecture? Obviously, it's the auto chip, right?

Speaker 2

Well, the Senior Vice President of Intel, Estupan, said that their goal is to identify transformative technologies and this would put Intel to do it and I think this will put us to do this still. It accelerates innovation and it really unlock opportunities, new opportunities that the automotive don't have today. 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 speaking about cars that have 100 of watts, actually a range of kilowatts in order to operate a different system.

Speaker 2

And the Intel the deal with Intel addresses this particular problem as well. Aside of the performance, It's a side of the performance for sure, but also the power. MIPI A5 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 that and the power to accomplish those needs. And this is why we think it's a transition in the automotive for automotive.

Speaker 5

Okay. Thank you, Gideon. Very helpful. Thanks,

Speaker 3

There are

Operator

no further questions at this time. Mr. Ben Svi, would you like to make your concluding statement?

Speaker 2

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 Valens Semiconductor.

Operator

Thank you. This concludes the Valens Semiconductor 4th quarter and final results of 2023 conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may go ahead and disconnect.

Powered by Quartr

Key Takeaways

  • Valens reported Q4 revenue of $21.9 million and full-year revenue of $84.2 million, both at the top end of guidance, with automotive sales rising to over 30% of total revenues and non-GAAP gross margins around 63%.
  • The new VS6320 USB 3.2 extension chipset earned three industry awards at CES and ISE and is expected to ramp in H2 2024, targeting high-bandwidth AI-driven video-conferencing, industrial machine vision, and medical imaging markets.
  • Automotive business hit a record with the BA6000 chipset in Mercedes-Benz models, is advancing VA7000 design wins with leading OEM validations, and introduced the VA700R for surround-view and rear-view safety in heavy trucks.
  • Operating expenses were cut by over 13% in Q4 and $12.3 million for the full year, driving a Q4 non-GAAP EBITDA of $2.2 million and narrowing the full-year adjusted EBITDA loss to $10.3 million.
  • With a robust balance sheet holding $142 million in cash and short-term deposits, Valens expects Q1 2024 revenue of $11–11.2 million, acknowledges continued macro headwinds in H1, and remains focused on long-term growth via its expanded AI-enabled connectivity portfolio.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Valens Semiconductor Q4 2023
00:00 / 00:00