Monolithic Power Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:MPWR) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Other income before foreign exchange gains or losses expected to range from $5.3 million to $5.7 million. Fully diluted shares to be in the range of $48.8 million to $49.2 million of shares. We continue to execute the share buyback program that was announced in our Q3 ’23 earnings call. Finally, I am pleased to announce a 25% increase in our quarterly dividend to $1.25 per share from $1 per share for stockholders of record as of March 29, 2024. In conclusion, while we continue to be cautious about the near-term business conditions, we believe our long-term growth strategy remains intact, and we can swiftly adapt to market changes as they occur. I will now open the webinar up for questions.

Operator:

A – Genevieve Cunningham: Thank you, Bernie. Analysts, I would now like to begin our Q&A session. [Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Quinn Bolton of Needham. Quinn, your line is now open.

Quinn Bolton: Can you hear me? Michael, Bernie, can you hear me?

Michael Hsing: Yes.

Bernie Blegen: Yes, we can. Speak up.

Quinn Bolton: Hey, congratulations on the very stable outlook in a pretty choppy environment. Looks like the enterprise data segment was up $30 million quarter-on-quarter, really driving a lot of the growth in the near term. As you look into 2024, can you just talk about your expectations for enterprise data specifically your opportunity to perhaps expand the customer set with some of the other leading GPU and AI accelerator companies? And then I’ve got a follow-on question. Thank you.

Bernie Blegen: Sure. I’ll take that, Quinn. As far as the initial ramp that we’ve been experiencing over about the last four quarters, we’ve really seen or benefited from the acceleration of demand for these applications and solutions. As we look ahead, we see a broadening of the number of market participants or customers that will be participating in that. But at the same time, we also believe that competition within the supply chain will continue. So for a majority of the period to-date, we’ve enjoyed a pretty high percentage of market share, but expect that to decrease as we introduce second and third suppliers.

Michael Hsing: But overall, the overall added — overall, the market segment is and grow very rapidly. And we’re expanding our production lines and we will meet in the second-half for the demand.

Quinn Bolton: Got it. Maybe just looking at sort of the road map for some of these accelerators in 2024. I think you guys have some new ramps with probably higher content, but I think you also have perhaps lower cost cards coming out where you guys may see a step down in your dollar content. Can you just kind of walk through the puts and takes? We should be thinking about your average dollar content per win? Do you still see that trending higher as power consumption goes up? Or is the increase in competition and perhaps efforts to design cost down cards starting to perhaps limit that dollar content opportunity?

Michael Hsing: The dollar content is — well, it’s — as a market accelerating again, we have more — our competitor joining and especially this rate of ramp in — and also, we see other players, other AI players will enter the market that we are so far, we’re behind whether pretty much the sole source of power solutions. And as you see the second half or sometime next year, you will see a lot of other players to be qualified or they solve their — one of the technical problem is, okay, or the odds. So that’s what we expect. The cost side, okay, we’re always lowering our cost. And at this time, we want to solve all the problems and we believe we resolve all these issues and during this fast ramp. And also the cost at this time is not really the issue. It’s all about the throughput and to meet the customer demand.

Bernie Blegen: And one final comment on content is that with each following generation of new products that are being introduced for AI, the power requirements are increasing. And at this point, we have a belief that the dollar content will go up per server. But at this point, it’s very hard to gauge that.

Michael Hsing: In the next version of it is — the power is even higher — is much higher as Bernie said. And we started to do these product developments back in a couple of years ago. And we’re about to release it to our customers in this quarter and the next couple of quarters.

Quinn Bolton: Perfect, thanks. Thank you for all that color.

Genevieve Cunningham: Our next question is from Rick Schafer of Oppenheimer. Rick, your line is now open.

Rick Schafer: Yes, thanks. I’ll have my congratulations as well. A couple of questions, if I could. I guess, Michael, I’m curious if you could kind of elaborate a little bit, I’m curious what surprised you the most, the last 90-days or so. I’m thinking particularly of auto, obviously, enterprise data was stronger than expected, but auto seems like it’s kind of materially gotten softer for most in the last 90-days. So I was curious if you could comment on what you’re seeing there. And of course, you guys had, I think, a couple of delayed model year launches last year and the second half. And I was just getting — trying to get a sense of when those might ramp. And if you consider that an offset maybe to a slower auto market at large.