Vicor Corporation (NASDAQ:VICR) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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Quinn Bolton: Got it. Okay. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions] And it comes from the line of Richard Shannon of Craig-Hallum. Please proceed.

Richard Shannon: Hi guys. Thanks for taking my follow-on question here. I guess, Phil, following on your prepared remarks here, which has probably had as much focus outside of HPC, as I have heard in some time here, and you kind of alluded to this at your shareholders’ meeting last year as well. But in that context, can you give us some sort of understanding of a split of your advanced product revenues between HPC and other applications. And then also, if you might just give us a flavor of how much of that Advanced Products segment is also point of load versus bridging in other kinds of functionality.

Phil Davies: Yes. So, can you hear me?

Richard Shannon: Yes.

Phil Davies: Yes. So, today, the advanced product revenues – yes, advanced products revenue last quarter was 51.6%, about 52% of the total company. Yes, and look, the bulk of that was – well, kit, a number of it was into HPC. There was quite a bit of it’s now going into the industrial, and I think that it’s early days in automotive as everyone knows [Technical Difficulty] that’s growing quite a few new as far as growth in defense and aerospace applications, like the space satellite communication that we have been talking about. We are getting more design wins there. So, it’s really spread amongst those three business units, excluding automotive, Richard.

Patrizio Vinciarelli: Okay.

Richard Shannon: That was helpful.

Patrizio Vinciarelli: I would add to that, that the strategy that fill our line with better deviation among different end markets with different trades and different sets of opportunities. That’s fully supported by a product strategy that leverages commonality of per conversion engines, control systems, packaging technology. So, we are able to, in effect, address market needs in markets, and markets that may appear to be some of this like test equipment on the one hand and high car point-of-load VPD applications with modules, in particular, 5G type modules, they are essentially the same. Investors as a part in another way relative to the competition, so to speak.

Richard Shannon: Okay. Thanks for all that detail. And a quick follow-on question for Patrizio. You talked about consistently from the time that we have covered you and frankly, a lot longer about having a distinct advantage in terms of power delivery at very high current. You talked about delivering samples or whatever to customers up to 2,000 Amps. I wonder if you could characterize the competitive dynamics here in the future with 5G. In the terms of above what do you think you are going to be the only credible solution up there? Is that at a 1,000 Amps or whether that just any characterization so we can think about this as we see the next generation of accelerators kind of the market?

Patrizio Vinciarelli: So, we have been able to – systems, they are already up to a few tens of thousands of amperes on a wafer. I would say that’s the most advanced solution in terms of power system capability and from what I can tell, compute capability in the market. So, that’s obviously cutting edge and preferable the more common denominator type applications, which as Phil suggested earlier, are trending up to the 2,000 Amp level. So, we are involved in one important development with a major OEM at the 2,000 Amp level. At that level, fundamentally, you need VPD and you need an advanced form of VPD such as what we call second gen VPD. Yes, you could try to do it with the first gen VPD that has been covered to a high degree by competitors, but what you would be sack with is a system, a power system that is evolves modules very heavy, very thick thermally in-app, difficult to call with very poor yields in assembly and reliability issues, not to mention the IP issues I alluded to earlier.

So, we see the market in AI, in particular, quickly getting past the 1,000 Amp level and fundamentally left with VPD-only solutions. The lateral is out, even lateral of vertical, while achieving significant benefits relative to lateral, not as good as a vertical. And fundamentally, what’s going to be needed is a more advanced version of VPD that doesn’t bring about the stacking challenges, the characterized first generation VPDs what currently is in…

Richard Shannon: Okay. Great. Thank you, guys.

Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our last question comes from Jon Tanwanteng with CJS Securities. Please proceed.

Jon Tanwanteng: Hi. Thanks for taking one more from me. I was wondering if you could update us just on the uptick of automotive and when you expect to start shipping in volume of those products. I think you have said for a number of years now that you expected ‘25 to be the year that automotive really starts shipping and making a difference. I am wondering if that remains on track. And if that’s going to be a good source of growth even before your VPD products start shipping in the second half of 2015.

Phil Davies: Hi Jon, this is Phil. So, no, the timing for automotive is really ‘26, ‘27 from reasonable revenue ramps beginning. There may be opportunities in Asia Pacific conversations that we have had in the last six months that could pull that in, but those are yet to develop. So, it’s too early to talk about those yet. But this is really a ‘26, ‘27 story for automotive. And although we will begin, as I have mentioned, I think last quarter or even in my remarks, the quarter before, production – early production at the end of this year for high-performance applications. So, I think that that’s sort of the timeframe that we are on with automotive.

Jon Tanwanteng: Okay. Got it. If you were to characterize what could be a bridge market between then and now, which one will be the most likely to drive some sort of upside, whether it would be HPC or automotive or some of these other applications you are talking about?

Phil Davies: Yes. HPC is definitely number one. And I think that we are, again, as I have mentioned, seeing very good design ins and wins in industrial, defense and aerospace. So, there is going to be some really good growth at good margins coming from those markets. But HPC and Gen 5 could just completely dominate that.

Jon Tanwanteng: Got it. Thank you, guys.

Operator: Thank you. I am not showing any further questions in the queue.

Patrizio Vinciarelli: Thank you.

Jim Schmidt: Okay. Thank you, operator and thank you everyone for joining.

Operator: And with that, everybody, we appreciate your participation, and you may now disconnect.

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