Amprius Technologies Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
March 21, 2024

There are 10 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good afternoon. Welcome to Amprius Technologies' 4th Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Joining us for today's presentation are the company's CEO, Doctor. Tang Sun and CFO, Sandra Wallach. At this time, all participants are in listen only mode.

Operator

Following management's remarks, we will open the call for questions. Please note that this presentation contains forward looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements regarding future product commercialization, new customer adoption, the timing and ability of Amprius to build its large scale manufacturing facility, expand its manufacturing capacity, scale its business and achieve a sustainable cost structure and Amprius' financial and business performance. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause Amprius' results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied in such forward looking statements. For a more complete discussion of these risks and uncertainties, please refer to Amprius' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Finally, I would like to remind everyone that conference call is being webcast and a recording will be made available for replay on the company's Investor Relations website at ir.amprius.com.

Operator

In addition to the webcast, the company has posted a shareholder letter that accompanies these results, which can also be found on the Investor Relations website. I'll now turn the call over to Ampharius Technology's CEO, Doctor. Kang Sun, for his comments. Sir, please proceed.

Speaker 1

Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us this afternoon. On today's call, I will report our progress and accomplishments for the Q4, while also highlighting some of the milestones we achieved in 2023. Our CFO, Sander Wallach, will then discuss our financial results for the period. After that, I will share some closing remarks before opening the call for questions. The Q4 was a strong end of a great year for Amprius.

Speaker 1

Before I give a recap of the year, I would like to briefly introduce Amperes to those who may be new to the company. Amperes develops, manufactures and markets high energy density and high power density batteries with applications across all segments of electrical mobility, including the aviation and the EV industries. As a pioneer of silicon anode battery technologies, Amprius has spent the last decade developing various silicon anode structures and cell chemistries as well as manufacturing processes. The company has a strong patent portfolio of over 80 issued patents and pending applications. When it comes to the battery performance, Ampere's silicon anode batteries command a firm leading position in the industry.

Speaker 1

Ampere's batteries deliver 4.50 and 11 50 hour per liter volumetric energy density and have been available commercially since early 2022. In 2023, we developed a 500 watt per kilo, 1300 wattler battery platform, which will be ready for commercial shipments soon. Also, Ampere's silicon anode structures and cell chemistries enable us to 10C power capability and balance the high energy and high power battery designs. Our silicon anode batteries have the extreme fast charging rate of 0% to 80% stay of charge in approximately 6 minutes and operate in a wide temperature range of minus 30 degrees Celsius up to 55 degrees Celsius and have safety design features that enable us to pass the United States military benchmark and nail penetration test. Each of these performance parameters is critically important for electrical mobility applications.

Speaker 1

Not only do our battery enable certain aircraft and vehicles function, but in doing so, they also enable our customers to achieve their economic targets as well. Ampere has been in commercial battery production since 2018. So the company has many years of experience manufacturing high energy density and high power density lithium ion batteries. It's our belief that there are no other commercial batteries on the market that can perform at these levels today. Between our 2 battery families, CEMEX and the cycle, Ambi's high performance batteries have attracted significant market attention and customer demand.

Speaker 1

The company's priority today is to build additional manufacturing capacity as quickly as we can to meet the significant customer demand for our products. 2023 was a transformational year for Ampeus. We come into the year with 3 major goals. First, we set out to further advance our silicon anode battery technology to deliver breakthrough performance. 2nd, we saw new customer wins as we continue to grow our product shipment volume.

Speaker 1

And 3rd, we strove to expand our production capacity to meet the increasing demand of our batteries. We made significant progress across each of these areas and are confident that our effort has positioned Amprius to continue executing on its growth strategy in 2024 and beyond. Specifically, we had several noteworthy accomplishments in 2023. Last year turned out to be a banner year for our technology development. Back in March, we unveiled our 500 watt per kilo battery platform, a first for our industry.

Speaker 1

To the best of our knowledge, once our sales begin shipping to customer this year, Ampere's will be the 1st company to achieve 500 watt per kilo energy density in a commercially available battery. Then in August, we also unveiled our breakthrough battery cell chemistry and design that enable 400 delivered by this cell make it ideal solution for electric mobility applications such as aviation and EVs. For EV tours, this battery is designed to provide the necessary proportion power and energy for taking off cruising and landing, while also extending flight range by as much as 50% as modeled based on commercially available alternatives. We completed customer evaluations and begin shipping batteries to select customers in 2023 with the expanded commercialization expected in 2024. We hit the ground running in 2024 as well.

Speaker 1

In January, we launched our all new cycle product family to go along with our existing silicon antiviral platform now called CEMEX. While CEMEX includes our high performance batteries, the cycle platform services the applications that demand high energy density and a longer cycle life, offering up to 400 hours per kilo and as many as 1200 cycles at full depths of discharge. Developed in close collaboration with Basilios, formerly affiliated company, we are able to achieve a greater manufacturing capacity in the short term by working with the tall manufacturing partners, which we expect will allow us to serve more customers and bring in additional revenue while we extend our U. S. Manufacturing capacity.

Speaker 1

We believe that total manufacturing capacities can create a bridge until our facility in Colorado comes online. The cycle product also have additional form factor flexibility capable for both pouch and cylindrical cells form factors. This allows them to be used in more applications and to be available at scale today. These two product platforms are the culmination of years of work in silicon anode space and are just the beginning of our vision here at Ampeus to transform electrical mobility. Overall, when it comes to battery performance, we continue setting new bars for ourselves in 2023.

Speaker 1

We are confident that Amprius battery can reach unmatched level of performance and we look forward to trying to expand our performance lead in 2024. We believe that the highest endorsements of our technology are customer orders. Our industry continues to notice the battery performance success that we are having. And as a result, our demand far outstrips our supply. Throughout the year, we had several customer wins.

Speaker 1

We furthered our partnership with AeroVironment in Q1, started a new technical engagement with a leading high performance automotive OEM in Q2 and reached a long term battery supply agreement with Panergy in Q3. Also, in the Q4, we made a significant progress on building out our book of customers, shaping to 41 total customers in the quarter, up from 38 in Q3. While many of them were repeating customers like Auto Airbus, Airline Freer and the U. S. Army and the BAE Systems.

Speaker 1

16 of them were new customers who came to us from across the electrical mobility sector. For example, we announced a volume purchase order from a eToro manufacturer in October and complete the high volume shipment of CEMEX sales to the Korean Aerospace Research Institute in December. We also successfully secured CEMEX purchase order from 3 premier electrical aviation manufacturers. For customer 450 hour per kilo cell for battery pack development and the qualification, These customer cells were developed in collaboration with Ampere's strategical partners to address their unique HEPs qualification requirements and enable these customers to operate in highly challenging environments. With greater energy density and the longer cycle life than the previous 400 watt per kilo platform.

Speaker 1

The new cell are the only known commercially available batteries of their kind that can provide enough power and endurance for HEPs overnight stratospheric flight applications. These orders have strengthened Ampere's position as a premier global battery solution for eVTOL and HEBS application. Also within our wearables market, we completed our first volume shipment of the safe sale for the U. S. Army in December.

Speaker 1

This shipment is an important milestone for us because it completes our scale up manufacturing initiative under the U. S. Army Fund Manufacturing Technology Program, which allows us to now have a large deployment of our cells for the mission critical products. To meet the market and the customer demand, we have made significant progress in building out our manufacturing capacity. First, we completed our new production line in Fremont, California in December.

Speaker 1

With this investment, we have increased our manufacturing capacity by approximately 10 times and expect to achieve 2 megawatt hour of capacity exiting 2024. In our largest scale manufacturing site in Brighton, Colorado, we received the final rezoning permit that allows us to move forward with the site. We have made progress in recent months on ordering long lead time items such as electrical, mechanical and plumbing systems to ensure that we remain on track with our timeline. We are also continuing the design and the pre construction work that will allow us to be operational in 2025. In addition to our own manufacturing capacity development, we have developed a 2 manufacturing partnerships to provide us with a larger scale manufacturing capacity for cycle battery production rather than a way.

Speaker 1

Overall, we believe that 2023 was a highly successful year across our major initiatives. As we turn our attention to 2024, it remains critical to grow to our growth strategy that we continue advancing our technology and expanding our production capacity. We are off to a good start. In addition to announcing cycle and making progress on pre construction activities at Ampere's fab, we announced that we received the AS9120 16 certification for our Fremont production facility. The crucial certification received from Smith's quality Assessments as we continue to supply battery to the burgeoning electrical aviation industry, helping to advance the technology like eVTOL, HEPs and the drones.

Speaker 1

As shown in our recent customer wins and the technology advancements, we believe that low IRs can commercially offer capabilities that match those of Ampere's batteries. Early this week, we were named 1 of the fastest companies 2024 Most Innovative Companies, largely due to our battery's advanced capabilities. We were also recognized at a recent international battery seminar winning the Best of Show New Product Award for our CEMEX 400 hour per kilo cell. This is our 2nd consecutive award in this category at IBS as well, as we won last year for our 450 Whaler Per Kilo 11 50 Whaler Per Liter Lithium Ion cell. Overall, these awards further underscore the demand for our innovative solutions.

Speaker 1

We are working hard to expand our production capacity to meet that demand and we are confident in the path forward for Enphase. With that, I will now turn the call over to our CFO, Sandro Wallach, to review our financial results for the quarter. Sandra?

Speaker 2

Thank you, King. I would now like to spend a few minutes covering some key financial updates. As a reminder, our detailed financials can be found in our shareholder letter. We finished the Q4 with $3,900,000 in revenue, a $3,100,000 increase compared to $800,000 in the same quarter last year and up $1,100,000 sequentially. There were 3 drivers of this net increase in Q4 versus Q4 of 2022.

Speaker 2

1st, our product revenue increased by $300,000 from the prior year period to $900,000 largely driven by shipments to 41 customers in the quarter, a second consecutive quarterly record for Amphreas. Although our product revenue remains largely driven by customer purchase orders that can arrive at uneven times throughout the year. We have shown consistent new customer growth and diversification in recent quarters. Also of these customers, only 2 customers represented greater than 10% of revenue, a testament to our diverse customer set. 2nd, our development services revenue increased by $3,000,000 a reflection of the successful completion of the U.

Speaker 2

S. Army Manufacturing Technology Program delivery that Tang mentioned earlier. Development services are non recurring in their nature due to disparate programs. 3rd, these two increases were partially offset by $200,000 reduction in government grant revenue period over period due to the completion of the DOE program in Q3 2023. Pivoting to our full year results, we closed 2023 with $9,100,000 in revenue.

Speaker 2

This represents a growth rate of over 100% from 2022. Moving to our profitability metrics, our gross margin was negative 162% for the full year, compared to negative 128% in the prior year period. As we've discussed in prior quarters, we see significant gross margin variation as our product and services revenue mix fluctuates. Also, we anticipated that factory start up costs would ramp up as we start Colorado design and construction. Longer term, we are confident that our GAAP gross margin will begin to normalize as we approach our capacity expansion goals.

Speaker 2

Now on to our operating expense management. Our operating expenses for the full year 2023 were $24,000,000 a 94% increase from the prior year. While we continue to maintain a lean cost structure, the increase is primarily attributed to the increased G and A related to public company expenses and transaction related costs as well as targeted staffing increases in R and D and sales and marketing. Our GAAP net loss for the full year 2023 was $36,800,000 or a net loss of $0.43 per share with $86,200,000 weighted average number of shares outstanding compared to a net loss of $0.24 per share with $71,300,000 weighted average number of shares outstanding. Also as of December 31, 2023, there were 80 full time employees, up from 76 in the Q3 and 59 at the end of 2022, with those employees primarily based in our Fremont, California location.

Speaker 2

Our share based compensation for the year was $3,900,000 compared to 2 point $7,000,000 in 2022. Turning to the balance sheet, we exited the year with $45,800,000 in cash and no debt. Key drivers of our cash activity for the year were $25,600,000 used in operating cash flow, $17,600,000 used for cost related to the build out of the Fremont and Brighton facilities, and $19,200,000 inflow added primarily through the usage of our equity financing. Considering our business achievements and ongoing projects, we believe we are efficiently using capital to drive Amprius forward. Before I turn the call back over to Kang, I would like to take a moment to discuss our outlook for 2024.

Speaker 2

We expect to spend another $2,000,000 to $3,000,000 completing the new cathode line and other support equipment for the megawatt hour line in Fremont this year. As detailed design work on our facility in Brightness finalized and construction gets underway, we expect to finalize our construction cost forecast and we'll provide updates as the year goes on. As part of our strategic planning efforts, we filed a shelf registration on Form S-three in October 2023, and once effective, established a new ATM facility for 100,000,000 We have terminated the committed equity facility concurrent with the effectiveness of the shelf registration statement. Subsequent to December 31, 2023, we have raised gross proceeds of about $6,500,000 through the sale of approximately 2,000,000 shares under the ATM facility as of March 18, 2024. To support our strategic plan, we are pursuing additional funding through multiple vehicles, including both equity issuances such as warrant exercises and sales under our ATM and non dilutive sources such as grants, loans and incentives.

Speaker 2

With that, I will conclude the financial discussion and pass the call back to King.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Sandra. I'd like to reemphasize a few key points before closing. First, Ampere's silicon anodechnology continues to demonstrate unmatched performance in our industry. Ampere's Battery command a firm leader with their combination of safety, energy, power, charging time and the temperature performance and are uniquely positioned for the electrical mobility market. 2nd, Ampeze batteries are commercially available today.

Speaker 1

We have been shipping commercial products since 2018 and our technological advancements continue to bring in significant customer demand. This quarter, we not only delivered to repeat customers and expand our technical engagements, we added 16 new customers as well. Our demand pipeline is robust, and we look forward to further building out our customer book in the coming quarters. 3rd, we are scaling our manufacturing capacity to serve significant demand ahead and support U. S.-based supply chain.

Speaker 1

We believe that the introduction of a site core helps us meet some of the near term demand. Finally, we are looking forward to several exciting milestones in the year ahead. In 2024, we are working to begin construction of our gigawatt scale facility in Brighton, Colorado, fully optimize our CEMEX mass production process in Fremont, add new customers and deliver additional sales to current customers as we increase our CEMEX cell production, ramp up our tour manufacturing efforts to secure 100 of megawatts of capacity in 2024 so that we can maximize our opportunity to deliver cycle batteries to customers, commercialize our 500 watt per kilo cells and continue to bring to market new and innovative products and continue to innovate and push the boundary of what is possible for our industry. As we look to rest of the year, our strategy and focus at Ampere remains unchanged. We have a tremendous opportunity ahead with a product portfolio that positions us to both growth in aviation market and expand to other industries seeking batteries with leading performance.

Speaker 1

The opportunities in front of Amperes are enormous, including the $1,250,000,000 conformal variable battery market by 2,030, the 33 building aviation battery market by 2,030 and the 5 by 2,033, all of which amperes growth path in coming years. 2023 was a very productive year for the company and we believe that 2024 is off to a strong start. We look forward to continuing to deliver what we have planned and promised in the year ahead. Thank you for your continued support of Amprius Technologies. With that, I will turn it back to the operator for Q and A.

Speaker 3

Thank you. And at this time, we'll open up the line for questions. The company requests that each participant limit their comments to 1 question and one follow-up. Thank you. And our first question comes from Colin Rusch with Oppenheimer and Company.

Speaker 3

Please state your question.

Speaker 4

Hi, this is Lydia on for Colin. Could you speak to the customer direction and opportunity you're pursuing with SCICOR? What has the initial feedback been so far?

Speaker 1

We have been working on FICO for some time. We explore this market since the middle of 2023. We received a very strong feedback from the customers. So Saiccor has form factor flexibility. Currently, we are not only supplying the pouch cell we have been making in last few years.

Speaker 1

This particular product enable us to supply energy cylindrical cell as well.

Speaker 4

Great. And then for my follow-up on ramp, are there any surprises you're running into on ramp up of your megawatt

Speaker 1

Yes. Let me answer the ramping up question. We have a 4th facility set up in Fremont, California that would enable us to produce approximately 2 megawatt hour products at the end of the year. For Colorado, we finished the rezoning. Rezoning was successful.

Speaker 1

Now we are working on the air permitting and emergency response plan.

Speaker 3

Thank you. And our next question comes from Jed Dorsheimer with William Blair. Please state your question.

Speaker 5

Hi. You have Mark Schuder on for Jed Dorsheimer. Thanks for your time, Tom. If could you give a little bit more color on the revenue breakdown between SCImax and SCI Core?

Speaker 2

So Mark, this is Sandra. So we have not disclosed the separation of those 2. It's reported under our product revenue in our filings.

Speaker 5

Okay. Directionally, do you think that for 2024 that there'll be even one more than the other?

Speaker 2

We will still be limited in 2024 by the capacity that is already spoke for here in Fremont of 2 megawatts. There is not a capacity restriction on SCICOR because it's being made by our co manufacturing partners. So it has the potential to be much larger.

Speaker 5

Okay, great. Could you speak to a little bit of the IRA subsidies that you're are you participating in any of that with the facility in Fremont?

Speaker 2

Yes. So we have gone through our study with our tax advisors and we're pursuing 45x tax credit, manufacturing tax credit, which is 10% of the anode manufacturing cost and $35 per kilowatt hour. So that will be part of our tax planning for 2023. We can take advantage of it with this year's filing and part of our financial planning going forward.

Speaker 5

Awesome. Thank you, Sandra.

Speaker 3

Thank you. Our next question comes from Chris Souther with B. Riley Securities. Please state your question.

Speaker 6

Hi. Thanks for taking my question. On the Saiccor, how does the pricing compare to kind of commodity batteries that are out there as well as cyanidex. I'm just kind of curious like where that sits as far as kind of premium pricing would be helpful to understand.

Speaker 1

Yes, Chris, since we have a large scale manufacturing facility available to us, so today we certainly have a competitive production cost. In terms of ASP, the pricing, what do we charge to our customer because of the superb performance our battery delivers. We deliver very high energy density as well as a long cycle. So we still command the premium for those applications.

Speaker 6

Got it. Okay. And maybe just a little more on some of the application focus for Synchor. Is that it seems like it's some pretty similar end markets that you're going after with the Cymak that we've been talking about for quite some time. Is the additional form factor something that kind of increases the different applications you're going after or customers you're going after?

Speaker 6

Maybe just higher level like what if there's any differentiation as far as the end market focus that you're looking at with that new product?

Speaker 1

Yes, our end market focus has remained the same, but the cycle product offer flexible form factor. So certainly enable us to participate in other market segments. If we have our product catalog available from that you can see we have said we already achieved the EV performance. That means the energy high 350 watt per kilo at 1200 cycles and meet all other EV battery specifications. The cylindrical cell opened a new market for us, not only for aviation, also for other electrical mobility segments.

Speaker 6

Okay. That's helpful. I'll hop in the queue. Thanks.

Speaker 3

Our next question comes from Chip Moore with ROTH MKM. Please state your question.

Speaker 7

Hey, everybody. Good to see you earlier this week. I wanted to ask another one on Saiccor.

Speaker 8

I think

Speaker 7

you talked about potential for 100 plus megawatt hours of demand there in the future or already. Maybe just help us think about the ramp of pulling capacity and how we should think about potential revenues there?

Speaker 1

The manufacturing capacity, we have been developing those customers, those partners for some time. So manufacturing capacity is available for us, is over 100 megawatts. The question is the qualification. So the customers still need to qualify these products. We have some purchasing orders for commercial applications already, but a larger fraction of the customers still in the evaluation phase.

Speaker 1

We believe the commercial revenue will come in later over the year. So capacity is not our issue today, but the customer has to go through the factory qualification and the product qualifications.

Speaker 7

Got it. That's very helpful, Ken. Appreciate that. And maybe on my follow-up for Fremont, I guess, anything to keep in mind as the year progresses, tie in of the cathode line or any other equipment that you need to put in any downtime or anything like that we should keep in mind? Thanks.

Speaker 1

Yeah, our capital line will come in probably Q3. That's the only missing piece of equipment only missing equipment at this time. The reason is we have for our capital has a very specific coding specification. So the supplier want to make sure they can meet satisfy our specification.

Speaker 7

Got it. Okay. Congrats on all the progress this year. Thanks.

Speaker 3

Thank you. And our next question comes from Jeff Grampp with Alliance Global Partners. Please state your question.

Operator

Good afternoon. Question for you guys

Speaker 5

on the 500 watt hour product that's going to be commercially available this year. Just curious to dig in on the timing a little bit more. Is that going to be back half of 'twenty four kind of in line with that cathode line? And just big picture kind of the pipeline that you guys are seeing in terms of demand there?

Speaker 1

Yes. The cathode line will not affect the shipment of this product. We are planning to have this product shipped to customer this year.

Speaker 5

Okay. Thank you. And my follow-up on the R and D side of things, curious kind of main initiatives or goals maybe for 2024, if you had to maybe bucket those in terms of key objectives, whether those relate to things like density, cycle life, different form factors or just any other kind of big picture objectives you guys are thinking about as it relates to R and D in 2024? Thanks.

Speaker 1

Yes, we have very ambitious goal for 2024 and you will see the energy improvement in energy density and the power, particularly the balance of energy density and the power. We are working on additional safety features for our battery. So 2024, you will see some breakthrough performance delivered from Ampere's sled.

Operator

All right. We'll stay tuned. Thanks for the time.

Speaker 3

Thank you. Our next question comes from Donovan Shafer with Northland Capital Markets. Please state your question.

Speaker 9

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the questions. So just real quick for the first one. Sorry if I missed this. And I'm guessing with the cathode line not coming on for Q3.

Speaker 9

I just want to clarify. So is it correct to say that the run rate for the megawatt hour capacity in Fremont right now is the from that incremental equipment is essentially 0. It's still just the 250 kilowatt hours of capacity at the moment Or are you actually able to get some incremental capacity out of whatever has been put in place already?

Speaker 1

So the line started running, already producing anode. As I mentioned, we have been sourcing cathode from our manufacturing partners for years. So missing this cattle line for next quarter is not going to affect our output. So today we already started producing the battery and the anode, but at the full capacity will be reached sometimes in Q4.

Speaker 9

And what would you say is kind of the run rate capacity right now? Is it half a megawatt hour, 1 megawatt hour?

Speaker 1

Not that yet. I think that we remember we just set up this line in December. But this line certainly help us to meet our revenue plan.

Speaker 9

Okay. Okay. And then for 2024, I know you don't give like a revenue guidance or anything like that, but just in kind of a general sense or at a high level with the line coming on and the capacity increasing, should we at least expect to see a revenue increase in 'twenty four versus 'twenty three and maybe even something like a run rate based on Q4 numbers?

Speaker 2

Yes. That's a great question.

Speaker 1

Go ahead. Go ahead, Hassane.

Speaker 2

Okay. So it's a great question. So we absolutely expect to see our revenue continue to ramp up through 2024 over 2023, as Kang mentioned. We've got 2 drivers of that. 1 is the capacity for Fremont that will be coming online and starting to contribute to revenue soon and getting to what we think is capacity exiting 2024 in Q4.

Speaker 2

We also have the Cycor product, which is available today and we've been sampling that under our market exploration. That's again not capacity constrained, but it will continue to increase as customers get through their qualification and testing.

Speaker 9

Kang, did you have anything to add?

Speaker 1

Yes. 2024 certainly is going to be exciting year for us. We have 2 product families. 1 of the product family, we actually have significant production capacity behind us.

Speaker 9

Okay. And then just one last question, if I can ask about you mentioned long lead time items for the Colorado facility. And so I know there will be a full cost kind of estimate that comes out later and that will be down the line. But can you give us any just kind of broad sense of what kind of investments or how much funds are needed to do that type of near term procurement for long lead time items or other things that sort of can't wait to get a full budget put together? Just in the next, I don't know, whatever this year or something like that for the year, just kind of what expenses are involved in that, just in rough terms?

Speaker 2

So the procurement of long lead time items around mechanical and electrical and plumbing were for things like the dehumidifier, the switchgear and the transformers. Those purchase orders and down payments were placed in Q3 with some additional payments in Q4. So that's already been taken care of. Those are the long pole in the tent. And we're focused on permitting and finalizing the design in order to be able to share a high confidence construction and build out budget.

Speaker 9

Okay, okay, fantastic. Thanks guys. I'll take the rest of my questions offline.

Speaker 3

Thank you. And our next question comes from Amit Dayal with H. C. Wainwright. Please state your question.

Speaker 8

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Sandra, in terms of costs in 2024, should we expect some improvements in the gross margin side, given volumes could be a little bit higher for you? And then on the operating costs also like how should we expect costs in 2024 relative

Speaker 5

to 2023?

Speaker 2

Great question. So we will get economies of scale on Fremont. You're absolutely right, but we'll also start continue to incur cost in Colorado without the benefit of revenue in 2024. So there's design cost and pre construction work that is ongoing. So I think the margins are still going to be under some pressure in 2024.

Speaker 2

And again, we're not expecting to have a significant change in operating expense. We had $24,000,000 in full year 2023. We continue to look surgically at where we need to add resources, but I wouldn't expect to see something significantly different.

Speaker 8

Okay. Thank you for that. And then for 2024, do you have a sense of what your military versus commercial revenues mix could be?

Speaker 2

So that's hard for us to tell because we sell through OEMs. We're not selling directly unless we're doing a development program. So that's hard for us to estimate. What we do know is that we continue to build our relationships with folks like AeroVironment, Telefonica and Alto Airbus, as well as BAE Systems. So, the development program that we just wrapped up, the $3,000,000 for the U.

Speaker 2

S. Army, that was the largest one that we have in the backlog.

Speaker 8

Okay, understood. That's all I have for now guys. I'll take my other questions offline. Thank you.

Speaker 3

Thank you. At this time, this concludes our question and answer session. If you have any additional questions, you may contact Amprius' Investor Relations team at iramprius.com. I'd now like to turn the call back over to Doctor. Sun for his closing remarks.

Speaker 1

Thanks again everyone for joining us today. As a reminder, you may learn more about our company from the additional updates and learn about upcoming events and presentations from the Investor Relations section of our website. We hope to see you at our upcoming investor conferences and we'll continue to update you on the exciting progress we are making in Colorado. Finally, I'd like to thank our employees, partners and shareholders for their continued support.

Speaker 3

Operator? Thank you for joining us today for Ampereus Technologies' 4th quarter and full year 2023 earnings conference call. You may now disconnect.

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Key Takeaways

  • Amprius’ silicon anode batteries deliver industry-leading performance—up to 500 Wh/kg and 1,150 Wh/L energy density, 0–80% charge in ~6 minutes, –30 °C to 55 °C operation, and military-grade safety certifications.
  • In 2023 the company unveiled its first 500 Wh/kg commercial platform, launched a 400 Wh/kg cell for eVTOL and EV applications, and introduced the Cycle family offering 400 Wh/kg and up to 1,200 cycles.
  • Customer demand has far outstripped supply, with Q4 shipments to a record 41 customers (16 new), including AeroVironment, a leading auto OEM, Panergy, the Korean Aerospace Research Institute, and the U.S. Army.
  • Manufacturing capacity is scaling rapidly: a new Fremont line boosts output ~10× (targeting 2 MWh by year-end), Colorado gigafab rezoning is complete, and co-manufacturing partners bridge near-term needs.
  • Financially, Q4 revenue was $3.9 M (2023 total $9.1 M, >100% y/y growth), full-year gross margin –162%, net loss $36.8 M, $45.8 M cash/no debt, and ongoing funding via ATM equity, grants, and tax credits.
A.I. generated. May contain errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Amprius Technologies Q4 2023
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