Unidentified Analyst: All right. Thanks.
Operator: And we have one more question from an attendee who also joined over the phone. So I will unmute you now, but please introduce yourself before you take a question.
Unidentified Analyst: Hello? You’re muted now.
Phil Davies: Yes. We can hear you.
Unidentified Analyst: Hello?
Phil Davies: Yes, we can hear you.
Unidentified Analyst: Hello?
Phil Davies: Go ahead.
Unidentified Analyst: Hello. This is Neil Moore. General Motors announced that they’re building a big plant domestically for EVs. Do you expect that you’ll be selling your products to GE up for this?
Patrizio Vinciarelli: So, we, not again, not talking about any specific customers, but we have really covered most of the OEMs globally with our technology. It’s been part of our strategy to get the OEMs excited about Vicor technology and what it can do in their platforms, or mild hybrid platforms and for them to really start collaborations with us and to then bring in Tier 1s. And as our strategy for 2024 evolves, we’re starting to work with more Tier 1s on those types of collaborations. So rather than get specific about one customer, I can say that generally and on a global footprint, we’re doing very well with those collaborations and moving forward with our automotive strategy. But it’s good to see the GM investment. That really is good to see.
Unidentified Analyst: Thank you.
Patrizio Vinciarelli: If there is one more question before we close.
Operator: All right. The last questioner also joined over the phone. So I will unmute you now. Please introduce yourself before you take a question. Please go ahead. Your line is open now.
Unidentified Analyst: Can you guys hear me?
Patrizio Vinciarelli: Yes.
Unidentified Analyst: You can hear me?
Patrizio Vinciarelli: Yes.
Unidentified Analyst: Okay. Great. This is [Richard Chan] with the Craig Hallam. I’m not sure what’s wrong with this service, but I’ve been trying to get on for 45 minutes. Great. So I guess maybe a kind of a multi-parter, you know, as we look at your 5G technology, I think in your last call you talked about wanting to deliver models and tools sometime this quarter. I think I got in early enough to hear the prepared remarks and didn’t hear anything regarding that. So I’d love to get an update on whether those have been delivered yet here. And then as we think about your getting to volume production with this, and I think you alluded to maybe by the end of this year, early next year, what needs to happen between now and then, and how do you exercise the new facility here, to give confidence to large customers that you have the ability to ramp with, high yields, high quality, and low lead times?
Patrizio Vinciarelli: So customers have come to visit the facility, kicked the tires as it were, and generally speaking they’ve been very impressed. We had as an example a couple weeks ago, the VP of operations for a company with a very unique product in the realm of AI capabilities, and he commented having visited the factory that he’d never seen anything like that in terms of, capabilities instead of the art facilities. So the customer visits and customers being exposed to the equipment, the processes, the systems that our team has put in place speaks volumes to the scalability, the methodology of making panels of chips as if they were wafers of semiconductor devices. Regarding 5G, we are engaged with some lead customers, including one I was referencing a moment ago and another notable one that comes to mind.
That is particularly keen on our technology, and we have a schedule that has us deliver them functional samples, tools, and demo systems as we progress through Q2 and Q3 of this year. Regarding getting into production, we’re going to have a pilot production for 5G in the second half of the year. In terms of revenue opportunity, this is a Q1, 2025 type of event. It’s not in terms of contribution to revenue in any meaningful way a 2024 event, just to be clear.
Unidentified Analyst: Okay, perfect. Wanted to get that confirmation. I appreciate that one. My last quick question here is there was a statement made by, I can’t remember if it was either Patrizio or Phil on the last call here, about expecting a dominant share of AI power systems, I think referring to, you know, with 5G and over a period of time. I just wanted to, especially given the, you know, step down to revenues that people might have concerned people, wanted you to reiterate if you still believe that to be the case reiterate, that that’s what you think is going to happen?
Patrizio Vinciarelli: It is. It’s not a dream. It’s a vision that is rooted in hard numbers. The current density, the amps per square millimeter, so to speak, the efficiency, the scalability, the power delivery capabilities, the key attributes that we know data center, AI, and customers need, and with respect to which they are really today severely handicapped. The multi-phase approach, particularly with VPD, but even without VPD, is very, very challenged. And it’s been the de facto standard for obvious reasons, because it is multi-source and historically it has had scalability of its own to the ecosystem of a large multiplicity of suppliers around the globe. But technically, it’s very severely handicapped. And it’s that disability that I have, which again comes down to numbers, like amps per square millimeter and other attributes, the ability to provide a VPD solution in one amp millimeter thin crowd multiplier that line up with what the AI processors require.
You know, we’re looking at applications with 2,000, 4,000 amp requirements. In other cases, we’re looking at web-scale applications at the 50,000 amp level. You can’t do that with multi-phase. You can only do it with our enabling technology. And that’s what we’re set to enable directly with our Fab, and to some degree indirectly through our licensee model.
Unidentified Analyst: Okay. Appreciate those, I appreciate you. That’s all for me.
Patrizio Vinciarelli: Thank you. And with that, we’ll have to wrap it up.
Jim Schmidt: So, operator, if you could close the call. Thank you.
Operator: Sure. Thank you, everyone. That marks the end of your webinar. Thank you for joining, and have a nice day.
