NASDAQ:PXLW Pixelworks Q4 2023 Earnings Report $0.54 -0.02 (-3.25%) Closing price 04/17/2025 04:00 PM EasternExtended Trading$0.56 +0.03 (+4.84%) As of 04/17/2025 06:24 PM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more. Earnings HistoryForecast Pixelworks EPS ResultsActual EPS-$0.07Consensus EPS -$0.07Beat/MissMet ExpectationsOne Year Ago EPSN/APixelworks Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$20.07 millionExpected Revenue$20.00 millionBeat/MissBeat by +$70.00 thousandYoY Revenue GrowthN/APixelworks Announcement DetailsQuarterQ4 2023Date2/8/2024TimeN/AConference Call DateThursday, February 8, 2024Conference Call Time5:00PM ETUpcoming EarningsPixelworks' Q1 2025 earnings is scheduled for Tuesday, May 13, 2025, with a conference call scheduled at 5:00 PM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Q1 2025 Earnings ReportConference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptPress Release (8-K)Annual Report (10-K)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfilePowered by Pixelworks Q4 2023 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrFebruary 8, 2024 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 7 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Pixelworks Inc. 4th Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. This conference is being recorded for replay purposes. I would now like to turn the call over to Brett Perry with Shelton Group Investor Relations. Speaker 100:00:28Thank you, Jonathan. Good afternoon and thank you for joining us on today's call. With me on the call are Pixelworks' President and CEO, Todd DeBonis and Chief Financial Officer, Haley Amon. The purpose of today's conference call is supplement the information provided in Pixelworks' press release issued earlier today announcing the company's financial results for the Q4 of 2023. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that various remarks we make on this call, including those about projected future financial results, Economic and market trends and competitive position constitute forward looking statements. Speaker 100:01:02These forward looking statements and all other statements made on this call that are not historical facts are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. All forward looking statements are based on the company's beliefs as of today, Thursday, February 8, 2024. The company undertakes no obligation to update any such statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after today. Please refer to today's press release, the company's annual report on Form 10 ks for the year ended December 31, 2022, and subsequent SEC filings for a description of factors that could cause forward looking statements to differ materially from actual results. Additionally, the company's press release and management's statements during this conference call will include its discussions of certain measures and financial information in GAAP and non GAAP terms, including gross margin, operating expense, net loss and net loss per share. Speaker 100:01:57Non GAAP measures exclude amortization of acquired intangible assets and stock based compensation expense as well as the tax effect of the non GAAP adjustments. The company uses these non GAAP measures internally to assess operating performance. We believe the non GAAP measures provide a meaningful perspective into core operating results and underlying cash flow dynamics. We caution investors to consider these measures in addition to and not as a substitute for nor superior to the company's consolidated financial results as presented in accordance with U. S. Speaker 100:02:28GAAP. Also note, throughout the company's press release and management statements during this conference, we refer to net loss attributable to Pixelworks Inc. As simply net loss. For additional details and reconciliations of GAAP to non GAAP net loss and GAAP net loss to adjusted EBITDA, please refer to the company's press release issued earlier today. With that, it's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Pixelworks' CEO. Speaker 100:02:52Todd, please go ahead. Speaker 200:02:54Thank you, Brett. Good afternoon and welcome to everyone joining us today on the phone or webcast. Jumping right in, our 4th quarter results marked strong finish to the year, which was highlighted by the continued momentum and significant growth of our mobile business. Total revenue for the quarter increased 25% sequentially and was up 19% year over year. Our mobile revenue reached a new quarterly record, increasing 44% sequentially and growing more than 200% year over year. Speaker 200:03:28In addition to strong top line growth, gross margin for the 2nd consecutive quarter as we continue to execute on certain cost related initiatives, while also driving increased sales of newer products with higher ASPs and better margin profiles. We expect this gross margin expansion to continue in 2024 as we introduce and ramp shipments of higher value processors and TrueCut services and licensing. As previously mentioned, the highlight of the past year was the breakout performance of our mobile business, with revenue for the second half of 2023 growing more than 100% year over year. For the full year, mobile revenue grew 33% to a record $30,000,000 expanding to represent more than half of the total revenue. Underpinning our momentum in mobile against a challenging market backdrop for consumer semiconductors is the differentiated display performance enabled by our visual processing technology. Speaker 200:04:29With the superior visual experience being especially prevalent For mobile gaming, we formally introduced Pixelworks' IRX branded gaming experience and certification program. IRX, which stands for Image Rendering Accelerator, represents an end to end ecosystem solution that has been quickly embraced by leading game engine companies, including Unity and Unreal, as well as top gaming studios, including Nuverse, Tencent, NetEase and Perfect World. To date, there are 8 IRX certified games by these leading game studios that integrate our SDK solution. Additionally, our current generation mobile visual processors have been individually tuned to optimize the visual performance on another 30 mobile games that have not yet integrated our SDK. IRX certified games integrating our SDK deliver unparalleled visual quality, enabling a truly immersive gaming experience, while also saving overall system power and providing for longer battery life. Speaker 200:05:39The most recent game, Earth Revival, was announced earlier this week And we expect to see a significant number of new IRX certified games incorporating our SDK as well as IRX tuned games released over the coming year. Complementing our engagement with mobile game developers is our expanding product portfolio of IRX capable mobile visual processors, which are designed to leverage our rendering accelerator SDK that is integrated into the IRX games. Following the formal introduction of our latest mobile visual processor in October, in early January, the OnePlus Ace 3 smartphone became the first device launched incorporating our X7 Gen 2. The X7 Gen 2 is the first to feature our internally developed AI based high super resolution technology. This enables exceptional picture quality with simultaneous operation of up to 144 frames per second and 1.5 ks resolution for immersive mobile gaming, while also maintaining lower power consumption. Speaker 200:06:50For the next phase of our growth, we continue to focus on expanding to global model adoption of our visual processing solutions within our existing Tier 1 handset customers. Our past design wins and growth of our mobile business have historically been in the customer's flagship and premium smartphone models sold domestically within China. Following the December launch of OnePlus' 12 in China, The global version of the OnePlus 12 was launched in January, becoming the 1st flagship international model to incorporate both our X7 visual processor and IRX certification. Launching a model into multiple international markets while marketing the benefits the BIrox and X7 visual processor in local languages around the world is no easy feat. We believe that this model launch represents moment and the next leg of our growth. Speaker 200:07:47While these expansion efforts have been focused on our 4 existing Tier 1 customers, We also expect an initial program with a new first time volume mobile OEM later this year. To the extent we are successful in securing additional international models and expanding our customer base, we believe that both will contribute incremental unit volumes, accelerate the ecosystem development and accelerate our mobile growth. Specific to our expectations for mobile in 2024, we are targeting annual revenue growth of 50%, driven by a combination of increased unit volumes and a favorable mix of newer visual processors with higher ASPs. This growth takes into consideration the recent ecosystem traction and momentum of our IRX based solutions, resulting in an increased pipeline of design ins. Turning to our TrueCut Motion platform, which we are just now beginning to commercialize following years of technology development and evangelism within the Hollywood technical community. Speaker 200:08:57Given the recent news and subsequent inbound questions, I want to briefly reiterate what TrueCut is and what this technology platform enables. TrueCut Motion is both a first of its kind end to end solution for the creation of cinematic high frame rate content as well as a delivery platform. It enables filmmakers to fine tune or motion grade the motion look of cinematic content Shot by shot, while also eliminating motion playback artifacts, all as part of a standard post production workflow. This can be done with both new release titles and the remastered re release of existing titles. The TrueCut motion delivery platform precisely captures the content creators intended cinematic look and feel in the source And through device certification ensures consistent delivery and appearance across all screens from premium large format theaters to any premium home entertainment screen. Speaker 200:10:05As articulated on previous conference calls, establishing the foundational end to end ecosystem for TrueCut Motion requires bringing together content creation and content distribution, 1st theatrical and then to home entertainment devices in order to deliver a truly cinematic high frame rate experience to consumers. Our announced partnership with Lightstorm Entertainment and the endorsement of James Cameron was a major turning point. This led to TrueCut Motion grading being used in the theatrical rereleases of both the original Avatar and Titanic, as well as Disney's global theatrical release of James Cameron's Avatar: The Way of the Water, All of which were released to theaters in 4 ks HDR and 3 d, featuring cinematic high frame rate for which Pixelworks was credited. The global box Office success of these three titles was an important first step. Not only did it validate the commercial viability of our TrueCut Motion technology with millions of global consumers in theaters. Speaker 200:11:20It also ushered in a broader industry acceptance and started a pivot toward more cinematic high frame rate content. In 2023, we focused on the next element of the ecosystem development. To formalize engagements with global home entertainment partners, we've now secured our first such ecosystem partner. With our recently announced multi year agreement with Walt Disney Studios to bring a collection of true cut motion graded titles to select home entertainment devices. Initially available for streaming via the Disney plus app And in the Apple TV store will be 2 of the 3 previously mentioned titles for which the first time can be experienced exactly as James Cameron brought it to the theaters, but now in the home on the recently launched Apple Vision Pro. Speaker 200:12:16Separately last week, we announced Matthew Vaughn's newest film, Argyle, would be released in select premium theatrical screens worldwide in TrueCut Motion's cinematic high frame rate format. Argyle was produced by Apple Original Films in association with Marv and released in theaters globally by Universal Studios. With support of multiple filmmakers and leading studios for TrueCut Motion, showing in both premium theaters and the home, Consumers will get to truly experience the joy of immersive cinematic high frame rate content. We believe this is only the beginning. You can expect additional announcements of new titles and ecosystem partners as we progress throughout the year. Speaker 200:13:06Shifting to an update on our Home and Enterprise business, which largely consists of visual processor SoCs for the 3 LCD digital projector market. Revenue from home enterprise increased sequentially in the Q4 and was in line with our expectations. More generally, the market dynamics throughout 2023 reflected a prolonged period of inventory adjustment by projector OEMs. Although end demand for digital projectors appears to have stabilized, most of our projector customers are still in various stages of realigning their business following previous component supply imbalances. Regarding our multi year co development project with our largest projector customer, We successfully taped out this next generation SoC in the 4th quarter. Speaker 200:13:54Achieving this final development milestone allowed us to recognize an anticipated R and D credit, which reduced our reported OpEx in the quarter. We'll be delivering production samples to the customer in the Q1 and this new SoC will go into volume production in the second half of the year. Overall, we anticipate the projector market to reflect further normalization of customer and channel inventories over the next few quarters, contributing to roughly flat year over year revenue from Home and Enterprise in 2024. However, additional takeaways include that this continues to be a high margin, profitable and cash generation generating business for Pixelworks. In addition, we believe our new co developed chip will increase our market share in the 3 LCD projector market over the next several years. Speaker 200:14:47Shifting gears, I want to briefly comment on the status with respect to our Pixelworks Shanghai subsidiary, especially for new investors and those new to our story. As part of our now completed multiyear effort, we have reorganized our existing business operations and employees in China, Japan, Canada and some in the U. S. Into an independent P and L center with the end goal of the subsidiary pursuing a public listing on the Star market in China. As discussed on the previous conference call, The filing of our application for listing requires suitable market conditions in China, which we will continue to monitor together with our advisors. Speaker 200:15:27Today, we are and we will remain fully prepared to move forward with a local listing when we believe the market conditions in China are supportive. In closing, over time, we believe 2023 will prove to have been a pivotal year for Pixelworks and our growth trajectory. I would like to specifically acknowledge our team's solid execution on our strategic growth initiatives, including the building of 2 influential ecosystems that will become the foundation of our mobile and TrueCut businesses. Exiting 2023, I believe the company is well poised and better positioned than at any time in my tenure as CEO. We continue to build a strong capable team. Speaker 200:16:18Collectively, these factors have clear the path to profitability, which looks to be achievable this year and then accelerating in 2025. We believe both of these objectives are within reach. We have entered 2024 with strong momentum across our mobile visual processing solutions and IRX Certification Program, coupled with the recently secured commercial engagements with 2 major Hollywood studios for our TrueCut Motion platform. Specific to mobile, we expect to achieve another year of accelerated growth, driven by a combination of increased unit volumes and the continued ramp of new product introductions. As previously communicated, We do anticipate revenue contribution from TrueCut Motion in 2024. Speaker 200:17:09However, the size of the contribution will be lumpy as we progress throughout the year. Additionally, our current base case assumes that home and enterprise will be roughly flat in 2024. Also fundamental to achieving non GAAP profitability in the back half of this year will be our continued expansion of corporate gross margins and tightly managing OpEx while still adequately funding our existing growth initiatives. With that, I'll hand the call to Haley to review financials and provide our guidance for the Q1. Speaker 300:17:43Thank you, Todd. Revenue for the Q4 of 2023 increased 25% sequentially to $20,100,000 from $16,000,000 in the 3rd quarter and increased 19% from $16,900,000 in the Q4 of 2022. As Todd previously highlighted, The sequential and year over year increase in 4th quarter revenue was primarily driven by continued strong growth in mobile. The breakdown of revenue in the 4th quarter was as follows. Revenue from mobile increased 44% sequentially to approximately $11,900,000 which represented a quarterly record and a record 59% of total revenue. Speaker 300:18:30Home and Enterprise revenue was approximately $8,200,000 3rd quarter non GAAP gross profit margin expanded 170 basis points sequentially to 44.8% from 43.1% in the Q3 of 2023 and compared to 53.3% in the Q4 of 2022. As discussed in recent quarters, we expect to continue to drive gross margin expansion by passing through an increased portion of previously incurred higher material costs to customers as well as improving manufacturing cost efficiencies with our suppliers. We anticipate further benefits to gross margin from a combination of incremental sales of new products with higher margins as well as increased overhead absorption. Non GAAP operating expenses were $12,000,000 in the 4th quarter compared to $13,300,000 in the prior quarter $10,800,000 in the Q4 of 2022. During the Q4, we completed the last scheduled milestone related to our co development agreement with our largest projector customer, resulting in a final credit of $1,300,000 to R and D. Speaker 300:19:50Excluding the credit, 4th quarter operating expenses would have been effectively flat compared to the prior quarter. On an non GAAP basis, 4th quarter 2023 net loss was $2,600,000 or a loss of $0.05 per share compared to a net loss of 5,700,000 or a loss of $0.10 per share in the prior quarter and a loss of $800,000 or a loss of $0.01 per share in the year ago Q4. Adjusted EBITDA for the Q4 2023 was a negative $1,900,000 compared to a negative $5,000,000 in the 3rd quarter and a negative $1,000,000 in the Q4 of 2022. Turning to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of 47,500,000 Shifting to our current expectations and guidance for the Q1 of 2024. Speaker 300:20:50As a reminder, our Q1 results typically reflect seasonality in both the mobile market and the home and enterprise market. Recent order patterns and our current backlog are consistent with this seasonality, and we expect total revenue for the Q1 to be in a range of between $15,000,000 $17,000,000 In addition to this guidance reflecting normal seasonality, I would like to highlight that at the midpoint of this range, Total revenue for the Q1 would represent year over year growth of approximately 60%. In terms of gross profit margin, as discussed in my earlier remarks, we expect to drive continued gross margin expansion in the current quarter and throughout the year. Specific to the Q1, we anticipate non GAAP gross profit margin to increase by more than 600 basis points sequentially and be between 51% 53%. The expected sequential increase in 1st quarter gross margin primarily reflects increased shipments of our newest generation mobile visual processor, which has a higher margin profile compared to prior generation mobile chips. Speaker 300:22:07We expect operating expenses in the Q1 to range between $12,500,000 $13,500,000 on a non GAAP basis. As a reminder, operating expenses in the 4th quarter had the benefit of the final milestone credit related to our co development project, and we do not expect additional credits associated with this project going forward. Lastly, we expect 1st quarter non GAAP EPS to range between a loss of $0.10 per share and a loss of $0.06 per share. That completes our prepared remarks, and we look forward to taking your questions. Operator, please go ahead and proceed with the Q and A. Operator00:22:47Thank you. Certainly. Our first question comes from the line of Suji Silva from ROTH. Your question please. Speaker 400:23:04Hi Todd. Hi Hailey. Congratulations on the progress here. Maybe you can talk about the revenue you talked about gross margin of profitability in 25%, can you give a sense of what revenue level that might be occurring at roughly? Speaker 200:23:21Well, I would say that we're going to we said that we're going to grow 50% in 2024 in mobile. We haven't given guidance for true cut growth, but it's going to grow considerably faster than that. And then we do expect in 2025 Home and Enterprise We'll probably have churned through all the inventory issues. We think that we'll actually exit the year without inventory issues in 'twenty four. And Home and Enterprise We'll go back to probably low double digit growth in the 2025 timeframe, especially as we start to ramp up our new SoC. Speaker 200:24:03So you put it all together, Suji, you're probably looking at top line growth of 50%. Speaker 400:24:16Okay, great. Thanks. And then maybe on the mobile side, you talked about a new smartphone OEM win. Is that a global Tier 1 is that a new China OEM? Speaker 200:24:30Repeat the question for me. Speaker 400:24:33I'm sorry, I thought you talked about a new smartphone OEM win in the prepared remarks. I'm wondering if that was another China OEM or if that's a global Tier 1? Speaker 200:24:42Well, they're global Tier 1. They sell around the world. Operator00:24:47Okay. That's great. Speaker 400:24:50That's great. And then lastly on the gross margin, can you talk about the elements that drive the gross margin expansion from your area? Is it the where is the mix shift in the Mobile processors to newer mobile processors in the market? And then, I guess, obviously, there'll be other elements contributing maybe to TrueCut and so forth. Speaker 200:25:08So let's just focus on Q1 right now. The margin guidance we gave increases the margin by 600 basis points. It really is made up of 3 elements and I'll give them back to you in size of magnitude, probably the largest first. The shift to our newest visual processors in mobile changes the margin profile quite a bit for the mobile business. So that's number 1. Speaker 200:25:39Number 2 is the contribution of high margin services and licensing business from TrueCut. And then number 3, we have rolled out a different pricing strategy for our projector OEMs that are volume based. And based upon this new rollout of pricing, It improves the margin profile across all of the projector product line. Speaker 400:26:10Okay. Thanks, Haley. I'll pass it all. Operator00:26:14Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Quinn Bolton from Needham. Your question please. Speaker 500:26:31Hey, guys. This is Nick Doyle on for Quinn. Thanks for letting me ask a couple of questions. The first one on TrueCut. If you can just expand on your expectations for 2024, I understand it's lumpy, but is there a number we can expect? Speaker 500:26:47And then are all these contributions going to be split between those services, the remastering and the licensing fees? Are there any Royalties in the picture that's further down the road. Speaker 200:27:04You guys are amazing, man. Usually, we don't give any annual guidance, let alone this level of clarity. But thanks for asking the question, Nick. Let me tell you what I will say. What I will say is, we're not going to give Annual guidance for TruCut, it's definitely a business now. Speaker 200:27:30To give you some color, I would just probably start to guide it. Let me back up. Where is the revenue going to come from in 2024? It's predominantly where we're focused, which is new content, new quality content. And so maybe I should just repurpose exactly or revisit how we get revenue. Speaker 200:27:521, we license our technology and we give services. So we do the motion grading services for these cinematic releases. And so the contracts we signed with the production companies are on a film by film basis. It's a service, a post production service. We provide them and we give them access to our tools. Speaker 200:28:16With that, we also license The theatrical rights to that version, that cinematic high frame rate version of the content. The second element of revenue is if a large distribution partner, We announced this relationship with Disney wants to distribute those films to home entertainment devices. There is a distribution license involved. And then the 3rd element will be royalties from TrueCut Motion certified devices. Today and throughout most of 2024, What we're focused on is the pipeline of content. Speaker 200:29:03It's a big deal. And most of that content will be targeted towards theatrical release premium large format theatrical release globally, whether it be in Dolby Cinema Theatres globally or Infinity Theaters, possibly others. Some of that content will want to make its way to home entertainment devices. I mentioned on the prepared remarks that the first couple of films coming to home entertainment devices are coming to the VisionPRO. And I would strongly encourage consumers to go see that experience. Speaker 200:29:41Go watch Avatar 1 and Avatar 2 On the Apple Vision Pro. There is a I don't know, there is probably today maybe 50 three d titles on the Disney Plus streaming app and they've designed an app specifically for the Apple Vision Pro. It's a unique experience. You can select an immersive background, I would suggest you go select a theater background. You will feel like you are in a theater. Speaker 200:30:09It is an amazing thing. And watch either Avatar 1 or Avatar 2, they're both An incredible experience on the Apple Vision Pro. I would also encourage you to watch some of the other titles. They're pretty good, But there are no other titles that are in high frame rate. My guess is the consumer will notice the difference between cinematic high rate and non cinematic high frame rate. Speaker 200:30:40So to get back to your original question, We'll probably I would just guide low single digit 1,000,000 of dollars right now. It's going to be predominantly service revenue for new theatrical releases where we give the theatrical licensing. If those films start to accelerate for home entertainment, then the guidance would accelerate. Speaker 500:31:09Thanks a lot for the color. I had to ask, Todd. Speaker 200:31:13You got more answer. If you don't ask, you don't get an answer, Nick, and you Got more color than I was really prepared to give. So, hats off. Speaker 500:31:22So, we're hearing a lot about these new AI phones. Gartner actually came out This week estimating 295,000,000 units in 2024, that's 20% of all shipments expected. So first, would your X7 Gen 2 with the neural network processor classify as one of those phones? And second, Just maybe your thoughts on AI phones in general. I understand you can run LLMs on device, but I don't think consumers understand the benefit. Speaker 500:31:50I think people still feeling like, what is this? So maybe just your thought overall? Speaker 200:31:58Well, so the numbers that I think they're quoting are bringing, I don't know the terminology they're using. I'm going to probably use my own terminology, which is edge based AI. It's a large language model, but it's been ported for some processing to be done at the edge, not everything going back to the cloud. So you can have a quicker response and answer. My guess is it can't be complex questions to answer, right? Speaker 200:32:29It's probably Could be very simple questions that they can answer on the phone. I think that the ability of AI based phones will increase over time, there's quite a bit of processing power in a phone. None of that is really reflective of what we do. We've been working on AI for motion models for a while, long before This advent of OpenAI and large language model and then this rush, the gold rush to Heavy duty use GPUs. I mean, I will say, if you go look at what we do with TruCut, the servers that we've been employing for the last 4 or 5 years look a lot like a large language model AI server. Speaker 200:33:23There multiple high end CPUs with I think the largest configuration we use in our own servers, 8 large NVIDIA GPU cards. And that's where we run our TrueCut algorithms is on these models. What we do for mobile phones. We are now putting a very specific neural process. We looked at general purpose neural processors that we could license from various companies that are in the marketplace licensing IP. Speaker 200:33:57There's several of them. And a lot of them very good technology, but we are very focused on really just A couple of advanced algorithms, we felt we could design our own neural processor specific to those algorithms and run at a higher performance per watt because it's very important that we keep our power low. One of the things we do, When we we can put simultaneous super resolution scaling on concurrently With our motion processing, we're increasing the frame rate of a rendered game at 40 frames per second. So it's being natively rendered at 40 frames per second. And we can do 120 frames per second output while simultaneously using our AI super resolution processor and SDR to So we're also converting it from standard dynamic range to high dynamic range. Speaker 200:35:10We can do all of that And we can save about a 1.5 watt over the phone natively rendering the same game at 800 ks resolution, 60 frames per second. So it's really Pretty compelling what we do because not only are we taking full advantage of the display that are on these phones, many of these phones like the newest OnePlus 12 is a 2 ks 120 frame per second display. There are very few immersive mobile games that can natively be rendered on either Qualcomm or MediaTek and take advantage of the full resolution and frame rate of that display. And if they did, it would burn a lot of power. So the reason they can't take advantage, they usually hit the heat thermal limiter within a phone. Speaker 200:36:10If a phone gets too hot, bad things happen. So they will clamp down on the native rendering and limit the frame rate, so it doesn't get too hot. By doing what we do, you can take full advantage of the display and still save, depending on the game anywhere between 1 and 2 watts of power. So to get back to the original question of AI, what we're doing is very specific to creating an AI trained model and we can tune to each game. So we can go in and try to make each game look specific and better, based upon training with a data set that we get from the partner, so one of these studios, to make sure that when we are doing our rendering acceleration that game looks as good as it could be. Speaker 200:37:08A lot of answer there. Hopefully, it helped on your question. Speaker 400:37:13Thank you. Operator00:37:15Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Richard Shannon from Craig Hallum. Your question please. Speaker 600:37:44Hi, Todd and Haley. Thanks for taking my questions. I didn't jump on the call late with a couple going on at the same time. So hopefully I'm not repeating questions on topics that were already discussed here. But, Todd, your press release talks about getting to non GAAP quarterly profitability in second half of the year, I'm not sure if you could address what that level looks like or kind of the progression of that happening by segments. Speaker 600:38:09I'm assuming all of this is coming from mobile growth with some TrueCut contribution, but maybe you can detail that, please. Speaker 200:38:17Well, I think I'll just repeat what I said. I think I outlined in the previous investor pitch, which is on our website, what the various different businesses would the ranges they would have to get at to hit profitability. And I think we met mobile was Overall, it was, I think, between $23,000,000 $26,000,000 in revenue. It's on the low side of that if there's more contribution from TrueCut and Home and Enterprise. It's on the high side of that revenue if it's more mobile oriented, right? Speaker 200:39:00And so I guess what we're telling you is we believe we're going to have a quarter, probably The last quarter, if you look at our seasonality, usually Q4, especially with mobile for China, Q4 is our big quarter. Will probably exceed that target and that mix that I've outlined on the investor Presentation. Speaker 600:39:28Okay. And with how do you think about the both the attach rates and increase in ASPs ASP and content in mobile processors transitioning from December quarter to this, let's say, this mythical breakeven point in December of this year. Speaker 200:39:47Well, I wouldn't say it's so mythical, Richard. Speaker 600:39:50Well, I didn't say it wasn't going to happen. Speaker 200:39:53It hasn't happened yet, but we believe it is going to happen. Okay. Otherwise, I wouldn't say it. Okay. Speaker 400:39:59Yes, I know. Speaker 200:40:00Okay. So what's the specific question? Speaker 600:40:03Yes. So the question is what kind of attach rates and what kind of ASP increase do you in order to drive to an outcome getting to a breakeven or better point in Q4 this year? Speaker 200:40:15I don't know about attach rates, but if we ship 5000000 to 6000000 mobile units at a 30% higher ASP in a quarter than we did in the 4th quarter. Will hit the mobile target of the total revenue. If we increase the revenue if we basically are flat with Home and Enterprise to Q4 of this year. And then TrueCut contributes $1,000,000 for the quarter. We probably are at that breakeven profitability stage. Speaker 200:41:00We're just not that far away. Why it's not mythical, Richard. Speaker 600:41:05Poor choice of words than my Didn't believe you just always want to I want to know what's built into your assumptions, maybe assumptions where I should use here. And I came in on your one of your answer to one of the last question on TrueCut here and is that $1,000,000 a quarter, is that assumed to be somewhat a consistent or modestly growing revenue stream here throughout this year? Speaker 200:41:30It will be lumpy, as I said in the prepared remarks, which you probably didn't get a chance to hear. It will be very contingent on the pipeline of content. It will accelerate When we line up more distribution partners and we announce home entertainment device licensees. Most of the revenue you're going to model this year is all service revenue for content. Speaker 600:42:11Okay. But I think over time it's supposed to be largely device or heavily device oriented. Is that fair to think Speaker 200:42:20When the business really gets its momentum, yes. When we have a built out ecosystem and you have multiple home entertainment devices, the consumers can take advantage of cinematic high frame rate Content, the content that we're building right now with our partners, yes, I would imagine that the royalties from home entertainment devices will be over half the total revenue. Device or excuse me, home distribution. So from distribution partners will be a portion and then service and theatrical licensing will be another portion. Speaker 600:43:06Okay. And I guess my last question, I'll jump out of line, Todd, as think about the building ecosystem, particularly on the endpoint devices where the long term revenues are going to be coming from. How do we think about Public acknowledgment of new partners coming in here. Presumably they have been seeing this ecosystem develop and you've been communicating with them Well in advance of these announcements you've had here just the last couple of weeks, how should we think about this ecosystem developing? How many customers or how many partners on the TV side and other maybe more unique endpoint display devices, should we be looking for over the next months quarters? Speaker 200:43:46Well, so this year, let's just not get ahead of ourselves. Let's focus on content right now, right? Right now, we're focused on building out the content, Okay. And the content will come from so far we've announced content with Lightstorm and Universal and actually was a Universal Apple production. You will see new studios that we also you'll see these same studios do more content and you'll see new studios added to the mix, Okay. Speaker 200:44:22That's the first thing you're going to see. Then the next thing to look for is, Is this content pipeline that we're building being distributed by our partners to any home entertainment devices? That's the next thing you need to really focus on. And then once you see that, then, okay, how many home entertainment devices are those distribution partners streaming that content. Speaker 400:44:52Okay. Speaker 600:44:53Okay, fair enough. Thanks for that perspective. I will jump at a line. Thanks, Todd. Speaker 200:44:57Thank you, Richard. Operator00:44:59Thank you. This does conclude the question and answer session of today's program, I'd like to hand the program back to management for any further remarks. Speaker 200:45:07Yes. Thank you very much for joining us on the call and hearing about our continued progress. I encourage investors to go to our website and check out the 2 the new TrueCut Motion section of our website. It's informative. It will reiterate some of the things I mentioned. Speaker 200:45:30And it'll probably help you understand our value proposition and how we go to market. Thank you. Operator00:45:39Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Good day.Read morePowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallPixelworks Q4 202300:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2x Earnings DocumentsPress Release(8-K)Annual report(10-K) Pixelworks Earnings HeadlinesPixelworks secures Nasdaq listing extensionMarch 12, 2025 | investing.comPixelworks, Inc. Files Form 8-K with SECMarch 11, 2025 | tipranks.comMusk’s AI Masterplan – Our #1 AI Stock to Buy NowDid Elon Musk just set the stage for the next AI stock explosion? One 30-year Wall Street veteran thinks so. Musk has been quietly creating one of the most ambitious AI ventures in history.April 18, 2025 | Behind the Markets (Ad)Pixelworks to Present at the ROTH Annual Conference On March 17March 10, 2025 | prnewswire.comPixelworks, Inc.: Pixelworks Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2024 Financial ResultsFebruary 16, 2025 | finanznachrichten.dePixelworks Files Form 8-K for Recent DevelopmentsFebruary 13, 2025 | tipranks.comSee More Pixelworks Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like Pixelworks? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Pixelworks and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About PixelworksPixelworks (NASDAQ:PXLW), together with its subsidiaries, develops and markets semiconductor and software solutions for mobile, home and enterprise, and cinema markets in the United States, Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, and Europe. The company offers imageprocessor integrated circuits, such as embedded microprocessors, digital signal processing technology, and software that control the operations and signal processing within high-end display systems; visual processor integrated circuits that works with a mobile application processor; and transcoder integrated circuits which includes software that control the operations and signal processing for converting multiple bitrates, resolutions and codecs to provide bandwidth efficient video transmissions based on industry standard protocols. It also provides software and platform licensing products comprising Pixelworks Pro Software, a software that enables development and customize the look and feel of mobile products by use of various features, such as absolute color accuracy, HDR tone mapping, SDR-to-HDR conversion, and others; and TrueCut Motion Platform, content creation tool which provides the ability to dial in a motion look on a shot-by-shot basis. The company distributes its products to integrators, branded manufacturers, and branded suppliers. Pixelworks, Inc. was founded in 1997 and is based in Portland, Oregon.View Pixelworks ProfileRead more More Earnings Resources from MarketBeat Earnings Tools Today's Earnings Tomorrow's Earnings Next Week's Earnings Upcoming Earnings Calls Earnings Newsletter Earnings Call Transcripts Earnings Beats & Misses Corporate Guidance Earnings Screener Earnings By Country U.S. Earnings Reports Canadian Earnings Reports U.K. Earnings Reports Latest Articles Archer Aviation Unveils NYC Network Ahead of Key Earnings Report3 Reasons to Like the Look of Amazon Ahead of EarningsTesla Stock Eyes Breakout With Earnings on DeckJohnson & Johnson Earnings Were More Good Than Bad—Time to Buy? 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There are 7 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Pixelworks Inc. 4th Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. This conference is being recorded for replay purposes. I would now like to turn the call over to Brett Perry with Shelton Group Investor Relations. Speaker 100:00:28Thank you, Jonathan. Good afternoon and thank you for joining us on today's call. With me on the call are Pixelworks' President and CEO, Todd DeBonis and Chief Financial Officer, Haley Amon. The purpose of today's conference call is supplement the information provided in Pixelworks' press release issued earlier today announcing the company's financial results for the Q4 of 2023. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that various remarks we make on this call, including those about projected future financial results, Economic and market trends and competitive position constitute forward looking statements. Speaker 100:01:02These forward looking statements and all other statements made on this call that are not historical facts are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. All forward looking statements are based on the company's beliefs as of today, Thursday, February 8, 2024. The company undertakes no obligation to update any such statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after today. Please refer to today's press release, the company's annual report on Form 10 ks for the year ended December 31, 2022, and subsequent SEC filings for a description of factors that could cause forward looking statements to differ materially from actual results. Additionally, the company's press release and management's statements during this conference call will include its discussions of certain measures and financial information in GAAP and non GAAP terms, including gross margin, operating expense, net loss and net loss per share. Speaker 100:01:57Non GAAP measures exclude amortization of acquired intangible assets and stock based compensation expense as well as the tax effect of the non GAAP adjustments. The company uses these non GAAP measures internally to assess operating performance. We believe the non GAAP measures provide a meaningful perspective into core operating results and underlying cash flow dynamics. We caution investors to consider these measures in addition to and not as a substitute for nor superior to the company's consolidated financial results as presented in accordance with U. S. Speaker 100:02:28GAAP. Also note, throughout the company's press release and management statements during this conference, we refer to net loss attributable to Pixelworks Inc. As simply net loss. For additional details and reconciliations of GAAP to non GAAP net loss and GAAP net loss to adjusted EBITDA, please refer to the company's press release issued earlier today. With that, it's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Pixelworks' CEO. Speaker 100:02:52Todd, please go ahead. Speaker 200:02:54Thank you, Brett. Good afternoon and welcome to everyone joining us today on the phone or webcast. Jumping right in, our 4th quarter results marked strong finish to the year, which was highlighted by the continued momentum and significant growth of our mobile business. Total revenue for the quarter increased 25% sequentially and was up 19% year over year. Our mobile revenue reached a new quarterly record, increasing 44% sequentially and growing more than 200% year over year. Speaker 200:03:28In addition to strong top line growth, gross margin for the 2nd consecutive quarter as we continue to execute on certain cost related initiatives, while also driving increased sales of newer products with higher ASPs and better margin profiles. We expect this gross margin expansion to continue in 2024 as we introduce and ramp shipments of higher value processors and TrueCut services and licensing. As previously mentioned, the highlight of the past year was the breakout performance of our mobile business, with revenue for the second half of 2023 growing more than 100% year over year. For the full year, mobile revenue grew 33% to a record $30,000,000 expanding to represent more than half of the total revenue. Underpinning our momentum in mobile against a challenging market backdrop for consumer semiconductors is the differentiated display performance enabled by our visual processing technology. Speaker 200:04:29With the superior visual experience being especially prevalent For mobile gaming, we formally introduced Pixelworks' IRX branded gaming experience and certification program. IRX, which stands for Image Rendering Accelerator, represents an end to end ecosystem solution that has been quickly embraced by leading game engine companies, including Unity and Unreal, as well as top gaming studios, including Nuverse, Tencent, NetEase and Perfect World. To date, there are 8 IRX certified games by these leading game studios that integrate our SDK solution. Additionally, our current generation mobile visual processors have been individually tuned to optimize the visual performance on another 30 mobile games that have not yet integrated our SDK. IRX certified games integrating our SDK deliver unparalleled visual quality, enabling a truly immersive gaming experience, while also saving overall system power and providing for longer battery life. Speaker 200:05:39The most recent game, Earth Revival, was announced earlier this week And we expect to see a significant number of new IRX certified games incorporating our SDK as well as IRX tuned games released over the coming year. Complementing our engagement with mobile game developers is our expanding product portfolio of IRX capable mobile visual processors, which are designed to leverage our rendering accelerator SDK that is integrated into the IRX games. Following the formal introduction of our latest mobile visual processor in October, in early January, the OnePlus Ace 3 smartphone became the first device launched incorporating our X7 Gen 2. The X7 Gen 2 is the first to feature our internally developed AI based high super resolution technology. This enables exceptional picture quality with simultaneous operation of up to 144 frames per second and 1.5 ks resolution for immersive mobile gaming, while also maintaining lower power consumption. Speaker 200:06:50For the next phase of our growth, we continue to focus on expanding to global model adoption of our visual processing solutions within our existing Tier 1 handset customers. Our past design wins and growth of our mobile business have historically been in the customer's flagship and premium smartphone models sold domestically within China. Following the December launch of OnePlus' 12 in China, The global version of the OnePlus 12 was launched in January, becoming the 1st flagship international model to incorporate both our X7 visual processor and IRX certification. Launching a model into multiple international markets while marketing the benefits the BIrox and X7 visual processor in local languages around the world is no easy feat. We believe that this model launch represents moment and the next leg of our growth. Speaker 200:07:47While these expansion efforts have been focused on our 4 existing Tier 1 customers, We also expect an initial program with a new first time volume mobile OEM later this year. To the extent we are successful in securing additional international models and expanding our customer base, we believe that both will contribute incremental unit volumes, accelerate the ecosystem development and accelerate our mobile growth. Specific to our expectations for mobile in 2024, we are targeting annual revenue growth of 50%, driven by a combination of increased unit volumes and a favorable mix of newer visual processors with higher ASPs. This growth takes into consideration the recent ecosystem traction and momentum of our IRX based solutions, resulting in an increased pipeline of design ins. Turning to our TrueCut Motion platform, which we are just now beginning to commercialize following years of technology development and evangelism within the Hollywood technical community. Speaker 200:08:57Given the recent news and subsequent inbound questions, I want to briefly reiterate what TrueCut is and what this technology platform enables. TrueCut Motion is both a first of its kind end to end solution for the creation of cinematic high frame rate content as well as a delivery platform. It enables filmmakers to fine tune or motion grade the motion look of cinematic content Shot by shot, while also eliminating motion playback artifacts, all as part of a standard post production workflow. This can be done with both new release titles and the remastered re release of existing titles. The TrueCut motion delivery platform precisely captures the content creators intended cinematic look and feel in the source And through device certification ensures consistent delivery and appearance across all screens from premium large format theaters to any premium home entertainment screen. Speaker 200:10:05As articulated on previous conference calls, establishing the foundational end to end ecosystem for TrueCut Motion requires bringing together content creation and content distribution, 1st theatrical and then to home entertainment devices in order to deliver a truly cinematic high frame rate experience to consumers. Our announced partnership with Lightstorm Entertainment and the endorsement of James Cameron was a major turning point. This led to TrueCut Motion grading being used in the theatrical rereleases of both the original Avatar and Titanic, as well as Disney's global theatrical release of James Cameron's Avatar: The Way of the Water, All of which were released to theaters in 4 ks HDR and 3 d, featuring cinematic high frame rate for which Pixelworks was credited. The global box Office success of these three titles was an important first step. Not only did it validate the commercial viability of our TrueCut Motion technology with millions of global consumers in theaters. Speaker 200:11:20It also ushered in a broader industry acceptance and started a pivot toward more cinematic high frame rate content. In 2023, we focused on the next element of the ecosystem development. To formalize engagements with global home entertainment partners, we've now secured our first such ecosystem partner. With our recently announced multi year agreement with Walt Disney Studios to bring a collection of true cut motion graded titles to select home entertainment devices. Initially available for streaming via the Disney plus app And in the Apple TV store will be 2 of the 3 previously mentioned titles for which the first time can be experienced exactly as James Cameron brought it to the theaters, but now in the home on the recently launched Apple Vision Pro. Speaker 200:12:16Separately last week, we announced Matthew Vaughn's newest film, Argyle, would be released in select premium theatrical screens worldwide in TrueCut Motion's cinematic high frame rate format. Argyle was produced by Apple Original Films in association with Marv and released in theaters globally by Universal Studios. With support of multiple filmmakers and leading studios for TrueCut Motion, showing in both premium theaters and the home, Consumers will get to truly experience the joy of immersive cinematic high frame rate content. We believe this is only the beginning. You can expect additional announcements of new titles and ecosystem partners as we progress throughout the year. Speaker 200:13:06Shifting to an update on our Home and Enterprise business, which largely consists of visual processor SoCs for the 3 LCD digital projector market. Revenue from home enterprise increased sequentially in the Q4 and was in line with our expectations. More generally, the market dynamics throughout 2023 reflected a prolonged period of inventory adjustment by projector OEMs. Although end demand for digital projectors appears to have stabilized, most of our projector customers are still in various stages of realigning their business following previous component supply imbalances. Regarding our multi year co development project with our largest projector customer, We successfully taped out this next generation SoC in the 4th quarter. Speaker 200:13:54Achieving this final development milestone allowed us to recognize an anticipated R and D credit, which reduced our reported OpEx in the quarter. We'll be delivering production samples to the customer in the Q1 and this new SoC will go into volume production in the second half of the year. Overall, we anticipate the projector market to reflect further normalization of customer and channel inventories over the next few quarters, contributing to roughly flat year over year revenue from Home and Enterprise in 2024. However, additional takeaways include that this continues to be a high margin, profitable and cash generation generating business for Pixelworks. In addition, we believe our new co developed chip will increase our market share in the 3 LCD projector market over the next several years. Speaker 200:14:47Shifting gears, I want to briefly comment on the status with respect to our Pixelworks Shanghai subsidiary, especially for new investors and those new to our story. As part of our now completed multiyear effort, we have reorganized our existing business operations and employees in China, Japan, Canada and some in the U. S. Into an independent P and L center with the end goal of the subsidiary pursuing a public listing on the Star market in China. As discussed on the previous conference call, The filing of our application for listing requires suitable market conditions in China, which we will continue to monitor together with our advisors. Speaker 200:15:27Today, we are and we will remain fully prepared to move forward with a local listing when we believe the market conditions in China are supportive. In closing, over time, we believe 2023 will prove to have been a pivotal year for Pixelworks and our growth trajectory. I would like to specifically acknowledge our team's solid execution on our strategic growth initiatives, including the building of 2 influential ecosystems that will become the foundation of our mobile and TrueCut businesses. Exiting 2023, I believe the company is well poised and better positioned than at any time in my tenure as CEO. We continue to build a strong capable team. Speaker 200:16:18Collectively, these factors have clear the path to profitability, which looks to be achievable this year and then accelerating in 2025. We believe both of these objectives are within reach. We have entered 2024 with strong momentum across our mobile visual processing solutions and IRX Certification Program, coupled with the recently secured commercial engagements with 2 major Hollywood studios for our TrueCut Motion platform. Specific to mobile, we expect to achieve another year of accelerated growth, driven by a combination of increased unit volumes and the continued ramp of new product introductions. As previously communicated, We do anticipate revenue contribution from TrueCut Motion in 2024. Speaker 200:17:09However, the size of the contribution will be lumpy as we progress throughout the year. Additionally, our current base case assumes that home and enterprise will be roughly flat in 2024. Also fundamental to achieving non GAAP profitability in the back half of this year will be our continued expansion of corporate gross margins and tightly managing OpEx while still adequately funding our existing growth initiatives. With that, I'll hand the call to Haley to review financials and provide our guidance for the Q1. Speaker 300:17:43Thank you, Todd. Revenue for the Q4 of 2023 increased 25% sequentially to $20,100,000 from $16,000,000 in the 3rd quarter and increased 19% from $16,900,000 in the Q4 of 2022. As Todd previously highlighted, The sequential and year over year increase in 4th quarter revenue was primarily driven by continued strong growth in mobile. The breakdown of revenue in the 4th quarter was as follows. Revenue from mobile increased 44% sequentially to approximately $11,900,000 which represented a quarterly record and a record 59% of total revenue. Speaker 300:18:30Home and Enterprise revenue was approximately $8,200,000 3rd quarter non GAAP gross profit margin expanded 170 basis points sequentially to 44.8% from 43.1% in the Q3 of 2023 and compared to 53.3% in the Q4 of 2022. As discussed in recent quarters, we expect to continue to drive gross margin expansion by passing through an increased portion of previously incurred higher material costs to customers as well as improving manufacturing cost efficiencies with our suppliers. We anticipate further benefits to gross margin from a combination of incremental sales of new products with higher margins as well as increased overhead absorption. Non GAAP operating expenses were $12,000,000 in the 4th quarter compared to $13,300,000 in the prior quarter $10,800,000 in the Q4 of 2022. During the Q4, we completed the last scheduled milestone related to our co development agreement with our largest projector customer, resulting in a final credit of $1,300,000 to R and D. Speaker 300:19:50Excluding the credit, 4th quarter operating expenses would have been effectively flat compared to the prior quarter. On an non GAAP basis, 4th quarter 2023 net loss was $2,600,000 or a loss of $0.05 per share compared to a net loss of 5,700,000 or a loss of $0.10 per share in the prior quarter and a loss of $800,000 or a loss of $0.01 per share in the year ago Q4. Adjusted EBITDA for the Q4 2023 was a negative $1,900,000 compared to a negative $5,000,000 in the 3rd quarter and a negative $1,000,000 in the Q4 of 2022. Turning to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of 47,500,000 Shifting to our current expectations and guidance for the Q1 of 2024. Speaker 300:20:50As a reminder, our Q1 results typically reflect seasonality in both the mobile market and the home and enterprise market. Recent order patterns and our current backlog are consistent with this seasonality, and we expect total revenue for the Q1 to be in a range of between $15,000,000 $17,000,000 In addition to this guidance reflecting normal seasonality, I would like to highlight that at the midpoint of this range, Total revenue for the Q1 would represent year over year growth of approximately 60%. In terms of gross profit margin, as discussed in my earlier remarks, we expect to drive continued gross margin expansion in the current quarter and throughout the year. Specific to the Q1, we anticipate non GAAP gross profit margin to increase by more than 600 basis points sequentially and be between 51% 53%. The expected sequential increase in 1st quarter gross margin primarily reflects increased shipments of our newest generation mobile visual processor, which has a higher margin profile compared to prior generation mobile chips. Speaker 300:22:07We expect operating expenses in the Q1 to range between $12,500,000 $13,500,000 on a non GAAP basis. As a reminder, operating expenses in the 4th quarter had the benefit of the final milestone credit related to our co development project, and we do not expect additional credits associated with this project going forward. Lastly, we expect 1st quarter non GAAP EPS to range between a loss of $0.10 per share and a loss of $0.06 per share. That completes our prepared remarks, and we look forward to taking your questions. Operator, please go ahead and proceed with the Q and A. Operator00:22:47Thank you. Certainly. Our first question comes from the line of Suji Silva from ROTH. Your question please. Speaker 400:23:04Hi Todd. Hi Hailey. Congratulations on the progress here. Maybe you can talk about the revenue you talked about gross margin of profitability in 25%, can you give a sense of what revenue level that might be occurring at roughly? Speaker 200:23:21Well, I would say that we're going to we said that we're going to grow 50% in 2024 in mobile. We haven't given guidance for true cut growth, but it's going to grow considerably faster than that. And then we do expect in 2025 Home and Enterprise We'll probably have churned through all the inventory issues. We think that we'll actually exit the year without inventory issues in 'twenty four. And Home and Enterprise We'll go back to probably low double digit growth in the 2025 timeframe, especially as we start to ramp up our new SoC. Speaker 200:24:03So you put it all together, Suji, you're probably looking at top line growth of 50%. Speaker 400:24:16Okay, great. Thanks. And then maybe on the mobile side, you talked about a new smartphone OEM win. Is that a global Tier 1 is that a new China OEM? Speaker 200:24:30Repeat the question for me. Speaker 400:24:33I'm sorry, I thought you talked about a new smartphone OEM win in the prepared remarks. I'm wondering if that was another China OEM or if that's a global Tier 1? Speaker 200:24:42Well, they're global Tier 1. They sell around the world. Operator00:24:47Okay. That's great. Speaker 400:24:50That's great. And then lastly on the gross margin, can you talk about the elements that drive the gross margin expansion from your area? Is it the where is the mix shift in the Mobile processors to newer mobile processors in the market? And then, I guess, obviously, there'll be other elements contributing maybe to TrueCut and so forth. Speaker 200:25:08So let's just focus on Q1 right now. The margin guidance we gave increases the margin by 600 basis points. It really is made up of 3 elements and I'll give them back to you in size of magnitude, probably the largest first. The shift to our newest visual processors in mobile changes the margin profile quite a bit for the mobile business. So that's number 1. Speaker 200:25:39Number 2 is the contribution of high margin services and licensing business from TrueCut. And then number 3, we have rolled out a different pricing strategy for our projector OEMs that are volume based. And based upon this new rollout of pricing, It improves the margin profile across all of the projector product line. Speaker 400:26:10Okay. Thanks, Haley. I'll pass it all. Operator00:26:14Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Quinn Bolton from Needham. Your question please. Speaker 500:26:31Hey, guys. This is Nick Doyle on for Quinn. Thanks for letting me ask a couple of questions. The first one on TrueCut. If you can just expand on your expectations for 2024, I understand it's lumpy, but is there a number we can expect? Speaker 500:26:47And then are all these contributions going to be split between those services, the remastering and the licensing fees? Are there any Royalties in the picture that's further down the road. Speaker 200:27:04You guys are amazing, man. Usually, we don't give any annual guidance, let alone this level of clarity. But thanks for asking the question, Nick. Let me tell you what I will say. What I will say is, we're not going to give Annual guidance for TruCut, it's definitely a business now. Speaker 200:27:30To give you some color, I would just probably start to guide it. Let me back up. Where is the revenue going to come from in 2024? It's predominantly where we're focused, which is new content, new quality content. And so maybe I should just repurpose exactly or revisit how we get revenue. Speaker 200:27:521, we license our technology and we give services. So we do the motion grading services for these cinematic releases. And so the contracts we signed with the production companies are on a film by film basis. It's a service, a post production service. We provide them and we give them access to our tools. Speaker 200:28:16With that, we also license The theatrical rights to that version, that cinematic high frame rate version of the content. The second element of revenue is if a large distribution partner, We announced this relationship with Disney wants to distribute those films to home entertainment devices. There is a distribution license involved. And then the 3rd element will be royalties from TrueCut Motion certified devices. Today and throughout most of 2024, What we're focused on is the pipeline of content. Speaker 200:29:03It's a big deal. And most of that content will be targeted towards theatrical release premium large format theatrical release globally, whether it be in Dolby Cinema Theatres globally or Infinity Theaters, possibly others. Some of that content will want to make its way to home entertainment devices. I mentioned on the prepared remarks that the first couple of films coming to home entertainment devices are coming to the VisionPRO. And I would strongly encourage consumers to go see that experience. Speaker 200:29:41Go watch Avatar 1 and Avatar 2 On the Apple Vision Pro. There is a I don't know, there is probably today maybe 50 three d titles on the Disney Plus streaming app and they've designed an app specifically for the Apple Vision Pro. It's a unique experience. You can select an immersive background, I would suggest you go select a theater background. You will feel like you are in a theater. Speaker 200:30:09It is an amazing thing. And watch either Avatar 1 or Avatar 2, they're both An incredible experience on the Apple Vision Pro. I would also encourage you to watch some of the other titles. They're pretty good, But there are no other titles that are in high frame rate. My guess is the consumer will notice the difference between cinematic high rate and non cinematic high frame rate. Speaker 200:30:40So to get back to your original question, We'll probably I would just guide low single digit 1,000,000 of dollars right now. It's going to be predominantly service revenue for new theatrical releases where we give the theatrical licensing. If those films start to accelerate for home entertainment, then the guidance would accelerate. Speaker 500:31:09Thanks a lot for the color. I had to ask, Todd. Speaker 200:31:13You got more answer. If you don't ask, you don't get an answer, Nick, and you Got more color than I was really prepared to give. So, hats off. Speaker 500:31:22So, we're hearing a lot about these new AI phones. Gartner actually came out This week estimating 295,000,000 units in 2024, that's 20% of all shipments expected. So first, would your X7 Gen 2 with the neural network processor classify as one of those phones? And second, Just maybe your thoughts on AI phones in general. I understand you can run LLMs on device, but I don't think consumers understand the benefit. Speaker 500:31:50I think people still feeling like, what is this? So maybe just your thought overall? Speaker 200:31:58Well, so the numbers that I think they're quoting are bringing, I don't know the terminology they're using. I'm going to probably use my own terminology, which is edge based AI. It's a large language model, but it's been ported for some processing to be done at the edge, not everything going back to the cloud. So you can have a quicker response and answer. My guess is it can't be complex questions to answer, right? Speaker 200:32:29It's probably Could be very simple questions that they can answer on the phone. I think that the ability of AI based phones will increase over time, there's quite a bit of processing power in a phone. None of that is really reflective of what we do. We've been working on AI for motion models for a while, long before This advent of OpenAI and large language model and then this rush, the gold rush to Heavy duty use GPUs. I mean, I will say, if you go look at what we do with TruCut, the servers that we've been employing for the last 4 or 5 years look a lot like a large language model AI server. Speaker 200:33:23There multiple high end CPUs with I think the largest configuration we use in our own servers, 8 large NVIDIA GPU cards. And that's where we run our TrueCut algorithms is on these models. What we do for mobile phones. We are now putting a very specific neural process. We looked at general purpose neural processors that we could license from various companies that are in the marketplace licensing IP. Speaker 200:33:57There's several of them. And a lot of them very good technology, but we are very focused on really just A couple of advanced algorithms, we felt we could design our own neural processor specific to those algorithms and run at a higher performance per watt because it's very important that we keep our power low. One of the things we do, When we we can put simultaneous super resolution scaling on concurrently With our motion processing, we're increasing the frame rate of a rendered game at 40 frames per second. So it's being natively rendered at 40 frames per second. And we can do 120 frames per second output while simultaneously using our AI super resolution processor and SDR to So we're also converting it from standard dynamic range to high dynamic range. Speaker 200:35:10We can do all of that And we can save about a 1.5 watt over the phone natively rendering the same game at 800 ks resolution, 60 frames per second. So it's really Pretty compelling what we do because not only are we taking full advantage of the display that are on these phones, many of these phones like the newest OnePlus 12 is a 2 ks 120 frame per second display. There are very few immersive mobile games that can natively be rendered on either Qualcomm or MediaTek and take advantage of the full resolution and frame rate of that display. And if they did, it would burn a lot of power. So the reason they can't take advantage, they usually hit the heat thermal limiter within a phone. Speaker 200:36:10If a phone gets too hot, bad things happen. So they will clamp down on the native rendering and limit the frame rate, so it doesn't get too hot. By doing what we do, you can take full advantage of the display and still save, depending on the game anywhere between 1 and 2 watts of power. So to get back to the original question of AI, what we're doing is very specific to creating an AI trained model and we can tune to each game. So we can go in and try to make each game look specific and better, based upon training with a data set that we get from the partner, so one of these studios, to make sure that when we are doing our rendering acceleration that game looks as good as it could be. Speaker 200:37:08A lot of answer there. Hopefully, it helped on your question. Speaker 400:37:13Thank you. Operator00:37:15Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Richard Shannon from Craig Hallum. Your question please. Speaker 600:37:44Hi, Todd and Haley. Thanks for taking my questions. I didn't jump on the call late with a couple going on at the same time. So hopefully I'm not repeating questions on topics that were already discussed here. But, Todd, your press release talks about getting to non GAAP quarterly profitability in second half of the year, I'm not sure if you could address what that level looks like or kind of the progression of that happening by segments. Speaker 600:38:09I'm assuming all of this is coming from mobile growth with some TrueCut contribution, but maybe you can detail that, please. Speaker 200:38:17Well, I think I'll just repeat what I said. I think I outlined in the previous investor pitch, which is on our website, what the various different businesses would the ranges they would have to get at to hit profitability. And I think we met mobile was Overall, it was, I think, between $23,000,000 $26,000,000 in revenue. It's on the low side of that if there's more contribution from TrueCut and Home and Enterprise. It's on the high side of that revenue if it's more mobile oriented, right? Speaker 200:39:00And so I guess what we're telling you is we believe we're going to have a quarter, probably The last quarter, if you look at our seasonality, usually Q4, especially with mobile for China, Q4 is our big quarter. Will probably exceed that target and that mix that I've outlined on the investor Presentation. Speaker 600:39:28Okay. And with how do you think about the both the attach rates and increase in ASPs ASP and content in mobile processors transitioning from December quarter to this, let's say, this mythical breakeven point in December of this year. Speaker 200:39:47Well, I wouldn't say it's so mythical, Richard. Speaker 600:39:50Well, I didn't say it wasn't going to happen. Speaker 200:39:53It hasn't happened yet, but we believe it is going to happen. Okay. Otherwise, I wouldn't say it. Okay. Speaker 400:39:59Yes, I know. Speaker 200:40:00Okay. So what's the specific question? Speaker 600:40:03Yes. So the question is what kind of attach rates and what kind of ASP increase do you in order to drive to an outcome getting to a breakeven or better point in Q4 this year? Speaker 200:40:15I don't know about attach rates, but if we ship 5000000 to 6000000 mobile units at a 30% higher ASP in a quarter than we did in the 4th quarter. Will hit the mobile target of the total revenue. If we increase the revenue if we basically are flat with Home and Enterprise to Q4 of this year. And then TrueCut contributes $1,000,000 for the quarter. We probably are at that breakeven profitability stage. Speaker 200:41:00We're just not that far away. Why it's not mythical, Richard. Speaker 600:41:05Poor choice of words than my Didn't believe you just always want to I want to know what's built into your assumptions, maybe assumptions where I should use here. And I came in on your one of your answer to one of the last question on TrueCut here and is that $1,000,000 a quarter, is that assumed to be somewhat a consistent or modestly growing revenue stream here throughout this year? Speaker 200:41:30It will be lumpy, as I said in the prepared remarks, which you probably didn't get a chance to hear. It will be very contingent on the pipeline of content. It will accelerate When we line up more distribution partners and we announce home entertainment device licensees. Most of the revenue you're going to model this year is all service revenue for content. Speaker 600:42:11Okay. But I think over time it's supposed to be largely device or heavily device oriented. Is that fair to think Speaker 200:42:20When the business really gets its momentum, yes. When we have a built out ecosystem and you have multiple home entertainment devices, the consumers can take advantage of cinematic high frame rate Content, the content that we're building right now with our partners, yes, I would imagine that the royalties from home entertainment devices will be over half the total revenue. Device or excuse me, home distribution. So from distribution partners will be a portion and then service and theatrical licensing will be another portion. Speaker 600:43:06Okay. And I guess my last question, I'll jump out of line, Todd, as think about the building ecosystem, particularly on the endpoint devices where the long term revenues are going to be coming from. How do we think about Public acknowledgment of new partners coming in here. Presumably they have been seeing this ecosystem develop and you've been communicating with them Well in advance of these announcements you've had here just the last couple of weeks, how should we think about this ecosystem developing? How many customers or how many partners on the TV side and other maybe more unique endpoint display devices, should we be looking for over the next months quarters? Speaker 200:43:46Well, so this year, let's just not get ahead of ourselves. Let's focus on content right now, right? Right now, we're focused on building out the content, Okay. And the content will come from so far we've announced content with Lightstorm and Universal and actually was a Universal Apple production. You will see new studios that we also you'll see these same studios do more content and you'll see new studios added to the mix, Okay. Speaker 200:44:22That's the first thing you're going to see. Then the next thing to look for is, Is this content pipeline that we're building being distributed by our partners to any home entertainment devices? That's the next thing you need to really focus on. And then once you see that, then, okay, how many home entertainment devices are those distribution partners streaming that content. Speaker 400:44:52Okay. Speaker 600:44:53Okay, fair enough. Thanks for that perspective. I will jump at a line. Thanks, Todd. Speaker 200:44:57Thank you, Richard. Operator00:44:59Thank you. This does conclude the question and answer session of today's program, I'd like to hand the program back to management for any further remarks. Speaker 200:45:07Yes. Thank you very much for joining us on the call and hearing about our continued progress. I encourage investors to go to our website and check out the 2 the new TrueCut Motion section of our website. It's informative. It will reiterate some of the things I mentioned. Speaker 200:45:30And it'll probably help you understand our value proposition and how we go to market. Thank you. Operator00:45:39Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Good day.Read morePowered by