Alpha and Omega Semiconductor Ltd (AOSL) 2021 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Alpha and Omega Semiconductor Reports Financial Results for the Fiscal Third Quarter of 2021 Conference Call. (Operator Instructions)

I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mr. Gary Dvorchak, Managing Director of the Blueshirt Group Asia.

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Alpha and Omega Semiconductor's conference call to discuss fiscal 2021 third quarter financial results. I'm Gary Dvorchak, Investor Relations representative for AOS. With me today are Dr. Mike Chang, our CEO; Stephen Chang, our President; and Yifan Liang, our CFO. This call is being recorded and broadcast live over the web. A replay will be available for 7 days following the call via the link in the Investor Relations section of our website.

Our call will proceed as follows. Mike will begin with strategic highlights. Then, Stephen will provide business updates and a detailed segment report. After that, Yifan will review the financial results and provide guidance for the June quarter. Finally, we will have the question-and-answer session.

The earnings release was distributed over wire services today, May 5, 2021, after the close of market. The release is also posted on the company's website. Our earnings release and this presentation include certain non-GAAP financial measures. We use non-GAAP measures because we believe they provide useful information about our operating performance that should be considered by investors in conjunction with the GAAP measures that we provide. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to comparable GAAP measures is included in the earnings release.

We remind you that during this conference call, we will make certain forward-looking statements, including discussions of the business outlook and financial projections. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from such expectations. For a more detailed description of these risks and uncertainties, please refer to our recent and subsequent filings with the SEC. We assume no obligation to update the information provided in today's call.

Now I will turn the call over to our CEO, Mike, to provide strategic highlights. Mike?

Thank you, Gary. I would like to welcome everyone to today's call. I am excited to be speaking with all of you again today and to report another strong quarter.

In the March quarter, we experienced strong year-over-year performance in each of our market segments. We saw robust shipments across most of our product categories, leading to results ahead of expectations. Revenue of $169 million reflected solid year-over-year and sequential growth. We benefitted from strong end-market demand, which enabled us to optimize our product mix. In the meantime, we continued to take a disciplined approach to our spending. All of this resulted in non-GAAP gross margin of 31.9% and non-GAAP EPS of $0.77, which increased by 7x year-over-year. Yifan will go into more details on our financial performance later. I remain encouraged by our team's solid execution. The operational controls and efficiencies continue to positively impact our bottom line, resulting in significant profitability improvement.

As I discussed on previous calls, our mission is to be a trusted technology partner and a global supplier of a broad portfolio of power semiconductors. This mission continues to drive our strategic focus and the work we do at AOS.

Our focused R&D effort is driving broader and deeper product innovation. Our strong engineering team and technical expertise enable us to develop a broader variety of power discrete and Power IC technology platforms. This allows us to expand our product offerings and deliver complete power solutions for more targeted applications. As a solution provider, we have deepened our relationships with customers, becoming their trusted strategic partner. As a result, our newer products are driving growth primarily by increasing our BOM content in core applications.

On the manufacturing front, we continue to ramp up our capacity at our joint venture fab in Chongqing according to plan. The semiconductor capacity remains tight globally as end-market demand outlook continues to be solid across the board. With our expanded capacity at the JV fab, we are thankful to be able to address additional customer demand from the Chongqing joint venture. The JV fab is fulfilling its purpose and providing us with flexible capacity management, which is critical to supporting our growth. I am very pleased with the progress, and we are on track to approach the Phase I target run rate in the September quarter. Yifan will update you on the progress of the JV fab later on this call.

While we have made tremendous progress as a company over the last several years, we are energized by the opportunities in front of us. We believe that our focus on innovation and unwavering commitment to developing strategic partnerships with Tier 1 OEM customers will enable us to continue to capitalize on our core growth opportunities, as well as progressively penetrate other markets. Importantly, we are confident that we will surpass our target of $600 million annual revenue for calendar year 2021.

Now I will turn the call over to Stephen for an update on our business and a detailed segment report. Stephen?

Thank you, Mike, and good afternoon, everyone. I will start with an update on our business and then provide detailed segment highlights for the March quarter.

As Mike discussed earlier, industry-wide supply remains tight while demand continues to be strong across all our core market segments. In the midst of worldwide shortage, we continue to optimize our operations, product mix and capacity allocation to support our key customers and maximize revenue. We are working diligently with our strategic customers to meet their procurement needs. In particular, we have been ramping production at the JV fab in Chongqing. Supply from the JV fab has enabled us to address growing demand.

Our business momentum in recent quarters reflects our broad product portfolio, go-to-market strategy, and expanding production capacity. More and more, our products offer a comprehensive solution to our customers, leveraging our expertise in power. This expands beyond commodity parts into multi-socket optimized solutions, enabling our customer products to become more reliable and efficient. We are accelerating growth by winning new customer engagements with an expanding pipeline of new products and increasing BOM content with our application-specific solutions. For example, we are designing in more and more Power IC products into notebook applications. We are also expanding our compact module solutions to address additional home appliance applications like washing machines and room air conditioners.

Now let me drill down into each of the business segments.

Let's start with Computing. Revenue was up 48.6% year over year and up 8.6% sequentially, as anticipated. This segment represented 41.5% of our total revenue. End demand for our products remained strong even going into the March quarter as our major customers were still facing shortages. While we were on allocation, we actively managed our capacity to support customer demand and resumed sequential growth in the quarter. During the quarter, we were able to improve product mix by selling more higher ASP products for both MOSFETs and Power ICs. We allocated more resources to support the Computing segment, especially the notebook application. The graphic card business was strong in the March quarter and is expected to remain strong, driven by cryptocurrency mining. Looking ahead, we expect overall Computing revenue to grow by mid-single digits in the June quarter. We expect solid demand at our ODM customers for both notebooks and motherboards, offset by a temporary drop in graphic card business due to production delays.

Moving on, the Consumer segment, which was 21.2% of total revenue in the March quarter, up 79.1% year-over-year and up 1.3% sequentially. TV business was down seasonally, offset by the strength in home appliances. We shipped high volumes of module solutions to important home appliance customers in Korea and China. Gaming resumed growth in the March quarter, and we expect momentum to continue in the coming quarters. We continue to grow our gaming business with both our MOSFET and Power IC products in multiple sockets. Looking to the June quarter, we expect the Consumer segment to be flat, with continued strength in home appliances and gaming offset by a decline in our TV business.

Next, let's move to the Communications segment, which was 16.2% of total revenue in the quarter, up 42.2% year-over-year and up 1.8% sequentially. This segment played out better than expected, as smartphone business performed better than normal seasonality. Demand for some phone models extended into the March quarter, particularly in the China market. We expect our Communication segment to decrease low double-digits in the smartphone low season for the June quarter. We are well-positioned to resume battery protection growth in the September quarter with designs secured at our key global customers.

Finally, let's discuss the Power Supply and Industrial Segment, which accounted for 19.2% of total revenue. This segment was up 70.5% year-over-year and up 12.5% sequentially. The solid growth was due to several factors. First, quick chargers were strong, due to demand for travel adaptors used for tablets as well as quick-charger solutions for smartphones. Second, the demand for AC-DC power supplies for laptop adaptors was robust, with incremental design activity with major power customers in Taiwan. Third, demand from our power tool customers remained strong with our low voltage motor drive solutions. We have been growing this overall segment due to support from our JV fab. We expect this segment to grow by high single-digits in the June quarter driven largely by robust quick charger business for both U.S. and China markets.

I am excited by the momentum we are seeing in our business. With 9 months of fiscal 2021 now under our belt, we are executing well and on track with the road map we've laid out for the investment community in terms of our key growth drivers across the various business segments.

With that, I will now turn the call over to Yifan for a discussion of our fiscal third quarter financial results and our outlook for the next quarter. Yifan?

Thank you, Stephen. Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us.

Revenue for the March quarter was $169.2 million, up 6.5% from the prior quarter and up 58.4% from the same quarter last year.

In terms of product mix, DMOS revenue was $122.6 million, up 3.5% sequentially and up 40.1% year-over-year. Power IC revenue was $43.4 million, up 16.1% from the prior quarter and up 139.5% from a year ago. Assembly service revenue was $3.2 million as compared to $2.9 million last quarter and $1.2 million for the same quarter last year.

Non-GAAP gross margin for the March quarter was 31.9%, up from 31.4% in the prior quarter and up from 27.5% in the same quarter last year. The quarter-over-quarter increase in non-GAAP gross margin was mainly driven by the better product mix partially offset by the lower utilization at some of our factories due to the Lunar New Year holiday and 1-week shutdown at our Oregon fab near the end of March for annual maintenance. Non-GAAP gross margin excluded $0.8 million of amortization of purchased IP for both the March quarter and the prior quarter. In addition, non-GAAP gross margin excluded $0.4 million of share-based compensation charges for the March quarter and for the prior quarter as well as the same quarter last year, respectively.

Non-GAAP operating expenses for the March quarter were $30.9 million, compared to $31.5 million for the prior quarter and $25.8 million for the same quarter last year. The quarter-over-quarter decrease was primarily due to the higher variable compensation accruals last quarter. Non-GAAP operating expenses for the quarter excluded $3.4 million of share-based compensation charges and $0.6 million of legal expenses related to the government investigation. This compares to $2.8 million of share-based compensation charges and $0.8 million of legal expenses related to the investigation for the prior quarter, as well as $2.5 million of share-based compensation charges, $2.1 million of legal expenses related to the investigation, and $0.6 million of impairment charge related to an investment in a start-up company for the same quarter last year.

Income tax expense for the quarter was $1.0 million, compared to $0.7 million for the prior quarter and $1.0 million income tax benefit for the same quarter last year.

Non-GAAP EPS attributable to AOS for the quarter was $0.77 per share as compared to $0.65 for the prior quarter and $0.11 for the same quarter last year. AOS continued to generate positive operating cash flow.

AOS on a stand-alone basis generated $33.3 million of operating cash flow in the March quarter, as compared to $35.7 million in the prior quarter and $29.5 million in the same quarter last year. In the March quarter, we received $20 million customer deposits for securing supply. The JV company generated positive operating cash flow of $5.3 million in the March quarter compared to $0.4 million in the prior quarter and $15.2 million of cash flow used by the JV company in the same quarter last year.

Consolidated EBITDAS for the March quarter was $36.2 million, compared to $31.6 million for the prior quarter and $8.8 million for the same quarter last year. EBITDAS attributable to AOS for the quarter was $30.6 million as compared to $25.3 million for the prior quarter and $6.5 million for the same quarter last year. EBITDAS for the JV company was $4.5 million in the March quarter, as compared to $6.0 million for the prior quarter and negative $1.1 million for the same quarter last year.

Now let's look at the balance sheet.

We completed the March quarter with cash balance of $192.1 million, including $158.3 million at AOS and $33.8 million at the JV company. This compares to $181.0 million at the end of last quarter, which included $142.3 million at AOS and $38.7 million at the JV company. Our cash balance a year ago was $110.2 million, including $99.5 million at AOS and $10.7 million at the JV company.

The bank borrowing balance at the end of March was $167.2 million, including $26.4 million at AOS and $140.8 million at the JV company. During the quarter, AOS and the JV company repaid $2.1 million and $4.4 million of existing loans, respectively.

Net trade receivables were $33.7 million at the end of the March quarter, as compared to $24.9 million at the end of the prior quarter and $17.5 million for the same quarter last year. Days sales outstanding for the March quarter was 22 days, compared to 21 days in the prior quarter. Net inventory was $145.1 million at quarter end, slightly up from $144.3 million last quarter and up from $127.4 million in the prior year. Average days in inventory were 112 days for the quarter, compared to 115 days in the prior quarter.

Net property, plant and equipment was $432.6 million, up from $430.8 million last quarter and up from $412.3 million last year. Capital expenditures were $15.8 million for the quarter, including $10.1 million at AOS and $5.7 million at the JV company.

The JV company continued to ramp its 12-inch fab during the March quarter. It's on track to achieve the Phase I target run rate in the September quarter this year. The JV company is in the process of additional financing to further expand its capacity. We will provide more details when available.

With that, now I would like to discuss the guidance for the June quarter.

We expect revenue to be approximately $170 million, plus or minus $3 million; GAAP gross margin to be 31.7%, plus or minus 1%. We anticipate non-GAAP gross margin to be 32.5%, plus or minus 1%. Non-GAAP gross margin excludes $0.8 million amortization of acquired IP and $0.6 million of estimated share-based compensation charges. GAAP operating expenses to be in the range of $36.2 million, plus or minus $1 million; non-GAAP operating expenses are expected to be in the range of $31.0 million, plus or minus $1 million. Non-GAAP operating expenses exclude $4.7 million of estimated share-based compensation charges and $0.5 million of estimated legal expenses relating to the government investigation; income tax expense to be approximately $0.9 million to $1.1 million, loss attributable to non-controlling interests to be approximately $0.2 million.

As part of our normal practice, we are not obligated to update this information. With that, we will open the call for questions. Operator, please start the Q&A session.

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Craig Ellis from B. Riley Securities.

To the entire team, congratulations on just very robust execution and a breakthrough performance. Mike, you and I have known each other for at least 10 years now, and you've always had an unwavering vision for where you wanted to take the company and this is certainly a very significant milestone, so good for you.

Thank you.

You're welcome. And maybe the first question should be to you with the JV fab phase 2 through 4 still ahead of us, is the best for AOSL still ahead? And if so, can you just comment on some of the things that you see when you look out over the next couple years for the company?

You're talking about specifically on this joint venture?

Not necessarily just the joint venture, but that as well as some of the things that's happening with things like the Tier 1 OEM wins that you talked about, the increased diversification that you're getting across different end markets and the strong revenue and earnings growth that you see in the business. It was more of a general question on the company's evolution over the next 2 to 3 years.

Well, thank you very much. Actually, the company has one core (inaudible) belief and no matter what, we always want to grow. So we work hard all these years. We believe once we grow, our infrastructure will be stronger, our quality will be better, our product will be stronger and our relationship with the customer will be deeper because they will recognize the value. And that's exactly what we're doing. Of course before today, even across over a certain critical mass or threshold -- now before that, you rate us adequate. So as of right now, we start to gain enough mass, so the (inaudible), maybe we'll accelerate it because of our capabilities right now, also because our infrastructure and everything. I don't know whether that answered your question. So we are actively looking for a billion dollars and more.

No, that helps. And certainly, large companies with big product programs want companies that can scale with them. And I think one of the things that you're saying is you now have the ability to do that and to be a trusted partner to Tier 1s. So thanks for that. Let me take that line of thinking a little bit into the near term and flip it over to you, Stephen. So we had stellar fulfillment execution in the quarter, $170 million in revenue, with growth across, I believe 3 or 4 end markets. As we look at the end market profile, we would typically expect to see revenues increase sequentially from 2Q to 3Q, just given seasonal dynamics in things like smartphones and gaming cards and notebooks. The question is, do you have that kind of flexibility in the business or as we look at calendar 2Q fiscal 4Q revenues, are we really fully optimized in terms of our output relative to end demand?

Sure. During this time, we are a beneficiary of being able to (inaudible), and we're thankful that we have a lot of the in-house production that helps to support our growth. But even with that, we've had to make some decisions about what kind of business to support and how to be able to support our key customers while also maximizing AOS revenue as well. So that's been a careful but I'm going to say deliberate decisions that we've been making to grow our business. So in the short term, we definitely saw in Computing, we've been given the chance to improve on the ASPs by selling higher value sockets for both MOSFETs and Power ICs. As we're getting into some more advanced applications too, in terms of entire power sockets, including the (inaudible) graphics, of course the power [states] with the CPUs is still big as well too. We also continue to deepen our home appliance end business and this is an area that we entered into the market a few years ago, and then have been consistently growing that business. And I think during this time of the shortage was a great time to improve our ability to serve some of these Tier 1 customers. And smartphone is going to be big and it's still going to be coming back. So if you're talking about looking a little further out, we are preparing for the normal peak in the September quarter, because we are well-positioned with the key smartphone makers there. So seasonality is a little bit different this year, but I think in some ways it's still the same as well too. So I think smartphone is an example of that.

That's really helpful, and then clarifying the gaming card production delay issue, is that related to AOSL components or is that related to components away from AOSL, but it impacts your shipment intensity into the application?

It's a little bit of both. I think right now, when things are so tight and especially with Power IC products, the more things that you have to procure or to have, I guess, allocation for. So we believe that is a short-term thing and is behind us. It's just a temporary thing and it should be resolved quickly.

Yes. That's helpful. And then Yifan a couple for you, if I could, please. The first question is nice to see the guidance for a gross margin increase. But I thought that 3 months ago when the company initially guided to gross margin, it indicated that the Lunar New Year, 1-week shutdown and the Oregon fab shutdown would negatively impact gross margin by about 190 basis points. So is it possible that the gross margin improvement would actually be greater than what I think is a 60 basis point increase, as you get the full month benefit from that higher level of utilization versus really the absence of a week in each of your 2 internal counts? And if not, what would the offsets be that would preclude that?

Okay. We are pleased with our margin improvement. In the March quarter, it was primarily driven by the better part of mix. Yes, I mean, originally, we estimated some reductions on the operators in China for Lunar New Year. Actually, it turned out better than we expected. And also, the Oregon fab's annual maintenance mostly got pushed toward the end of the March quarter. So the impact on the March quarter was relatively smaller. So overall, I mean, we think -- and I mean, this product mix and then we can continue to improve some there. And then one factor is the current tight demand-supply environment worldwide we're in right now provided some opportunities for us to optimize the mix. And another contributing factor is the growth from our new products. For example, you saw our Power IC products grew quite a bit and 100 -- almost 140% year-over-year growth. So those newer products generally carry a higher margin for us. So fundamentally, we expect to gradually improve our margin with new products.

Got it. And then in the prepared remarks, there was mention of a $20 million advance payment, I believe, related to capacity. Can you talk a little bit more about what that relates to and when the fulfillment would be executed for that payment?

Sure. In the March quarter, we received $20 million in customer deposits for securing supply for the next few years. And I mean, each year, we have some numbers we guarantee. In the quarter before, in the December quarter, we also received $10 million, I think, back then. Those deposits, I think, indicate our relationship with our customers are getting deeper and deeper. So they recognize AOS products' value and our supply. So we were happy to see that.

That's helpful. And then lastly, before I hop in the queue, nice to see the JV fab EBITDA motoring along around the mid-single digits for another quarter. At these revenue levels, is that a reasonable level? Or are there some gives and takes either way coming in the next couple of quarters that would shift fab EBITDA either materially up or down?

I would expect it will stay around this level-- and I mean, for a couple of quarters, and I mean this relatively -- the June quarter's revenue guidance is slightly higher than the March quarter. So that would be at a similar production level for the JV company. So overall, yes, it is marching toward a better target run rate in the September quarter.

Your next question comes from the line of David Williams from Loop Capital.

Congrats on the incredible quarter here. It's great to see the progress. So I wanted to maybe think a little bit about the -- from the solution standpoint and maybe the modules that you talked about, obviously, you've been growing the IC business. But do you think that over time, AOS becomes more as a solution provider, maybe modules and less like a discrete maybe silicon provider?

I think from our perspective, definitely moving into modules and ICs is something that we have been doing and is part of our strategy going forward. So our view of total solutions is actually -- it's a total set, right? When you're talking about individual sockets then yes, you're talking about ICs and modules. But what we want to be is the solution provider to our customers.

So usually, when they're looking -- when a customer is designing a board, they have multiple sockets, and they need to work together in order for the application to perform at its best. So it's best when we can provide a total solution to help the customer and say, hey, these parts work together and they know how to perform at best and doing it without leaving too much on the table. And basically, we can get the best performance by having the parts operate together. So for us, I think we will be continuing to grow our portfolio of products, certainly, but it's not going to be moving away from discretes or anything. And also just one bigger point that our IC products and our module products, they have -- a lot of them have a discrete silicon device inside. And that's what powers the device. But of course, coupled with the IC, it can really bring out the performance.

Sure. And thinking about that, is there -- do you think that this is an organic approach longer term? Or do you think there's an opportunity maybe for an acquisition or something that might come in to perhaps supplement that?

In general, we always are on the lookout for M&A opportunities, especially, if there's something that complements what we're trying to do, that could help us to really to move forward in one area or maybe compensate in an area that we're weak. But I think we definitely have an organic plan for it, but it's not strictly restricted to that.

Okay. Great. And then maybe on the bookings side, obviously, a strong quarter and a good guide. Can you talk maybe a little bit about the velocity of bookings through the quarter and how that maybe trended into April?

Sure. Backlog has been strong and steady, I mean just throughout the quarter, not so much fluctuation there. It's reflecting the strong end-market demand and our company-specific business growth and our design-ins and wins. So we monitor the market changes and dynamics very closely. And so we adjust our plans accordingly.

Okay. That's fair. And maybe in terms of the JV, you've talked about it reaching the run rate in the September quarter and that the planning phase of -- or the second phase there of the JV. When do you think in maybe realistic times, could you have capacity, if we continue to see the strength that we're seeing in the market now, when could you reasonably have the Phase 2, at least in a ramp pace?

Certainly, we understand the current market demand and supply situation. Our JV company also understands it. As I said in my prepared remarks, the JV company is in the process of additional financing to further expand on their Phase 2. So I don't want to jump the gun here. And so we will provide more details when available.

Okay. Great. And then just one more for me, if I can. On the margin improvement, is there any way really to size, maybe what the prioritization of the higher-margin products versus maybe what the volume benefit would have been in the quarter?

In the March quarter, pretty much the entirely -- the margin improvement came from the better product mix in this tight supply-demand environment, and we have opportunities to optimize our mix. So -- and also it reflected in some newer products which are carrying at a higher-margin for us. So yes, it's primarily from the product mix.

Your next question comes from the line of Jeremy Kwan from Stifel Nicolas.

And let me add my congratulations on the strong execution and results. Yifan, I wanted to follow up on the capacity question because yes, my understanding is that combined with the JV and the Oregon fab, the quarterly revenue that the total company could support with Phase 1, it was $150 million or so in terms of revenue. Obviously, you're well above that. Can you give us an idea of where the utilization stands, both in Oregon and also in the JV? And how that -- and then to kind of follow-on with some of the earlier questions, how quickly can you add additional capacity to expand your headroom?

Sure. Overall, last year or 1.5 years ago maybe, I guided that yes, combined capacity probably can support us to $150 million revenue per quarter level. During the last year or 2 or so, our product mix improved quite a bit. So when we rolled out our newer products and newer products carries -- generally carries at higher ASP, higher margin. And then also, at the same time, the new products generally have the shrinking die size, which is equivalent to giving us additional capacity. So that's the delta right now, the $170 million quarterly revenue versus $150 million quarterly revenue, and that pretty much then contributed to our newer products. So right now, our Oregon fab is at full capacity and the JV 12-inch fab is ramping up, and it has been fairly close to the -- to their target run rate. So we still haven't -- we still have some room to go. So overall, here, we're happy with the JV's progress.

Maybe if I can push a little further on that, can you give us an idea of how much room you have left to go? And how much of a runway you need to keep growing because from what I understand, the equipment market is -- there's very long lead times. It takes time to install the equipment and get things up and running. So is there a period where you might be a little bit capacity limited at some point? And can you give us an idea of what that could be, what that limit might be?

Okay. Sure. As I said, the JV fab can still ramp up a little bit. I would say probably a few million dollars per quarter contribution to our revenue range. Then yes, we recognize the semi equipment and lead time is getting longer. And the JV is also doing their part of the work to expand their capacity. We don't have to do the whole phase of Phase 2 altogether. Beyond the Phase 1 over there, actually, the current Phase 1 clean room still has some space so that they can squeeze in some equipment to lift up some bottleneck areas so that they can produce more wafer. Fundamentally, yes, that's now where they are in the process of additional financing for the full phase of the Phase 2 expansion, yes. Then we will provide more information later on.

Great. That's very helpful. And a question on the $20 million deposit. I guess 2 questions there. One is, is this included in the operating cash flow for AOS?

Yes, yes.

Okay. And is this -- is this for securing capacity at the Oregon fab or at the JV?

It's supply from AOS. We do not spell out wherever we're manufacturing them.

Got it. Okay. And is this something that's recognized? It sounds like it's going to be recognized over the next couple of years, it's securing capacity for the next couple of years? And is it kind of again potential revenue?

Incremental, is a guarantee them for a certain dollar amount of incremental supply for next multiple years.

So is it something that gets converted into revenue at some point? Or is it kind of a deposit that you hold for now and gets returned later?

This is deposit, yes, that we will return later.

Return later. Got it. Yes. And then when that happens, is it -- will you -- how do you record that on the cash flow statement?

Well that will be reduction of operating cash flow at the time when we return the deposit.

Got it. Okay. And a question for Mike. On the Power ICs, it's very nice to see that increase so substantially as a percent of sales, I think 15%-ish last year, 25% or more this year. Two questions, first part is, is this fabbed externally? And if so, what kind of wafer requirements are you seeing -- are there any shortages and things that can impact your needs from that level? And then longer term, when you -- you mentioned that $1 billion target eventually. Where could Power ICs be once you hit that kind of revenue run rate?

This is Stephen. Maybe I'll address on this first and then I think Mike definitely can give the overall picture. Power ICs, just like any product, everything does need to be sourced. And some of our products are monolithic, some of our products are multi-chip, especially when it's taking advantage of our silicon. And so to some degree, it's internal, but to some degree, we also depend on outside and in general, I think ICs for any kind of foundry business is tight these days, whether it's a MOSFET or whether it's an IC.

So yes, I think we are facing some constraints there, just like any other business. Power IC definitely is something that we are investing to grow in, and it will become -- in proportional, the line will start to become a bigger portion going forward, especially when you look out to a plan for $1 billion and beyond. But at the same time, I also expect the discrete business to grow as well, too. And fundamentally, discrete is still underpinning a lot of the power IC strength. So in the bigger picture, we still expect discretes to be a bigger majority of the business still. But at the same time, Power IC is going to grow both percentage of business-wise as well as just total absolute dollars.

Stephen speak exactly what I would like to say anyway. So it's complete.

Yes. No, that was very thorough. One last question on the Communications segment. It looks like you're doing very well there. And I think in your prepared remarks, you talked about Chinese OEMs doing quite well. Can you talk about the dynamics you see? I understand there's market dynamics going on with Huawei and non-Huawei Chinese OEMs going after that market share. Can you talk about what you're seeing in terms of the -- how that settles out? And if there's a chance for a pause as people take stock of where their market share gains actually were?

Sure. I mean, I don't want to speculate in terms of like who's going to win out now at the end. But in general, yes, certainly, other Chinese vendors, they're all jockeying for market share starting from last year. But part of it also is we have more increased ability to serve that market than before. Actually, these Chinese customers -- phone makers, they were our first -- one of our first early customers for PCM, sorry, as battery protection products before we engaged with the Tier 1s. And we had to put them on allocation for a bit. But now because Chongqing gave us increased ability to supply, so we actually have been working on winning some of this business and supporting some of this business. So going forward, I believe that we will have a strong business from all the global markets: U.S., Korea as well as China.

Great. And sorry, one last question. Some of your semiconductor peers have talked about first half versus second half, maybe first half kind of being strong in the second half. Do you have any kind of early read on that, given your backlog levels and your visibility, any expectations from your end?

Well, this one, I mean, right now, the March quarter was definitely above normal seasonality. And the June quarter that we guided already. So right now, our backlog is still strong and healthy. So we are closely monitoring the market dynamics. Our channel inventory actually is below our target range right now.

Can you quantify that for us, please? The channel inventory specifically.

Channel inventory, we normally target 2 to 3 months in channel inventory. Right now, they're simply at the low end of the target.

(Operator Instructions) I think we have a follow-up question from the line of Craig Ellis from B. Riley Securities.

Just 2 quick ones. The first is either for Stephen or Yifan. Guys, if I rewound the clock 6 months, I think when we were talking about some wiggle room on fab capacity, one of the things that we were talking about is the potential for an incremental tool here or there to yield some debottlenecking benefits and give some incremental supply. In today's discussion, it sounds like the variance, $150 million to $170 million, is really new product. So did I misinterpret what the company was conveying 6 months ago? Or is the debottlenecking benefit, just a small minority of the overall gain that we're seeing from $150 million to $170 million with the majority being the new product help?

Yes. You are right.

Okay. And then the second question is really a bigger picture question just on how we look at how the joint venture fab is being optimized from Phase 1 through Phase 4. My understanding was and has been for the last few years that we were going to optimize phases 1 through 3 for volume and scaling. And we're certainly doing that. But we really weren't going to optimize for gross margin until Phase 4. But with your strong fulfillment execution, good industry dynamics and some other things that we're getting very good gross margin. So is it possible going forward that we can actually optimize for both through Phase 2 through 4, where we're optimizing for both strong gross margin and getting the volume ramp that Mike talked about as being so important for the longer-term evolution of the company?

Sure. I mean, yes, I mean, it can help both ends. But for us, the first thing is to expand their capacity, provide the volume support to us. So -- and I mean, yes, I would expect that in Phase 2 and 3, the margin on the front probably can also benefit to some extent.

We have a follow-up question from the line of Jeremy Kwan from Stifel Nicolas.

Yes. Just a quick question on the pricing. I think last quarter you mentioned adjusting the pricing to reflect cost increases, but being very selective about it. Can you give us maybe an update about where you see things now in terms of your own input costs, things that you're doing that mitigate that, and any kind of pricing that you're benefitting from?

Yes. So I think in this current climate that certainly we are seeing cost increases, just like anybody else. And we are putting -- implementing what we said last time in terms of incrementing price up at some of our customers in order to absorb and share that payment, pass along that cost. Again, we're being selective about that. We need to support our customers and their business, but they also understand the nature of this industry-wide situation too. So we are implementing now.

There are no other audio questions as of this moment. I would like to turn the call back to the management for the closing remarks.

Sure. This concludes our earnings call today. Thank you for your interest in AOS, and we look forward to talking to you again next quarter. Thank you.

Thank you so much, speakers. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.