Amprius Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:AMPX) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Mark Shooter: Understood. Okay. And do you see any of those potential customers, is there any restriction on converting to PO based on where the material is coming from? I’m thinking, okay, I’d like to miss a deal if you there waiting for U.S. domestic production. Is that a factor rule in your–

Kang Sun: Yes, the customer engaged, they shouldn’t have that problem. The customer who has — the customers who have concerns would not engage with us for tool manufacturing model.

Mark Shooter: Understood. Okay. Thank you. And lastly here, congrats on the award with the military. Can you give any color on the unit volumes we should be expecting or ASPs or margin, any color of how we should be modeling that?

Kang Sun: Yeah, Sandra, let you address this.

Sandra Wallach: So that is a larger order that is scheduled to go out this year, but we haven’t given guidance on pricing and margins on that.

Mark Shooter: Okay. Understood. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question is from Chris Souther with B. Riley Securities. Please proceed.

Chris Souther: Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my question. So about six months ago we were talking about customer commitments of tens of megawatt hours and indications of hundreds of megawatt hours for SiMaxx. Are most of those commitments for customers that can switch over to SiCore, at least in the interim, if that’s the first line you’re going to have up and running and maybe even utilize some of the tool manufacturing in the interim? Or can you help kind of understand, like, what the customer evolution is a little bit better as far as switching over to this newer product just because you’re going to have a lot more capacity quicker for that product?

Kang Sun: Yeah. The customer, Chris, customers who are interested in SiMaxx, they would not easily shift to the SiCore because as you know, we sold out our 2024 capacity for SiMaxx. The demand for SiMaxx is still very strong. So the customer wants to have a SiMaxx product for reasons. SiMaxx not only offers super high energy density, also offers very high power capability. We have a customer interest in both products, but I have not seen a customer willing to compromise, say since the SiMaxx is not readily available, I’m going to use the SiCore.

Chris Souther: Okay. So what are the conversations like as far as those customers who were expecting, like, the first line to be in Colorado to be SiMaxx and now it might be a little bit further that they’d have to wait? Is that going to impact any product launches with some of the key customers you talked about previously? Or how do you kind of address that in the interim? I’m curious.

Kang Sun: At this time, our design likes to have a first line for SiCore. That doesn’t mean we have to wait for two or three years to build a SiMaxx. So the SiMaxx, at the year end we have a full manufacturing protocol for SiMaxx validate at Fremont with this two megawatt facility. So we are ready to go larger scale. So now our plan is we design this factory not only for SiCore, also for SiMaxx. We just procure our first line and production line for SiCore.

Chris Souther: Okay. And then can you quantify in any way beyond the customer numbers being impressively quick to grow here? How commitments and indications are for SiCore, that you’re kind of clarifying that one for the first line? And are there significant expectations of CapEx savings for that initial line for SiCore versus SiMaxx?

Kang Sun : Yes. SiCore line, of course, is based on our estimate SiCore line is relatively lower cost, okay? This is a off-shelf production line, right? So is a proven manufacturing process. Currently, we are using Pro manufacturing partner part to do for us. We know exactly how the process looks like we should have the machine configuration is.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question is from Jeff Grampp with Alliance Global Partners. Please proceed.

Jeff Grampp: Afternoon. Curious going back to the customer count that you guys had in the quarter. Curious if you guys have kind of a percentage of rough numbers that are taking both SiCore and SiMaxx, and wondering if you have a sense or any insight as to the ones that maybe are taking both, is that to maybe assess a better fit within a specific use case? Or might there be customers that could be ultimately be customers of both products for different use cases. Any insight there?

Kang Sun : As we mentioned in our call, quarter, a primary driver of our revenue. Last quarter, actually, we have almost — the people purchase equal amount SiMaxx and SiCore. But we have a lot more new customers for SiCore products because we have capacity available to them. If we have had more capacity for SiMaxx, we will have a lot of more SiMaxx customers as well.

Jeff Grampp: Understood. That’s helpful. And for my follow-up, maybe for Sandra. Any rough numbers or time line in terms of when you guys might have a final number to share publicly on the cost of Colorado? Is that something that’s months away at year-end or just any kind of benchmark to kind of think about here without holding it to too tight of the time line?

Sandra Wallach : Yes. So we’ve completed the 30% construction drawings. We believe we’ll have the 100% construction drawings at the end of the summer. That will allow us to get a more high confidence cost estimate as well as the schedule. And so I think we should be able to give some sort of guidance in exiting the third quarter.

Jeff Grampp: Great. Look forward to. Thank you.

Sandra Wallach : Thank you.

Operator: Our next question is from Amit Dayal with HC Wainwright. Please proceed.

Amit Dayal: Thank you and good afternoon everyone. With respect to sort of this ramp in new customers, how should we think about revenues for 2024, given that you do have the tolling capacity available? Is there anything in the pipeline that could materialize into sort of an order that is larger than everyone is sort of expecting at this point that could move expectations for 2024 higher than where they are.

Kang Sun: So we — as you see, we are very impressive number of customers today. So at this moment, we don’t know which customer can finish their qualification process. We have some customers already placed order for their commercial use. But we have a large reflection of the customer has engaged with us, start purchasing small quantity of the batteries for qualification. I think we may have more clarity. And over that, in Q2, later part of Q2, which customers can start offering our larger orders.