① The company's revenue has declined to varying degrees year-on-year for two consecutive quarters this year; ② Verisilicon Microelectronics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. has stated that the company continues to expand into incremental markets and emerging markets with development potential. This year, the situation of new orders is good, and the backlog of orders has remained high for three consecutive quarters.
"Star Daily" news on July 1st (Reporter Guo Hui) Tonight (July 1st), semiconductor IP licensing company Verisilicon Microelectronics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. announced its performance forecast for the second quarter of this year.
According to the announcement, based on the preliminary calculation of the Verisilicon Microelectronics financial department, the company is expected to achieve a quarterly revenue of 610 million yuan in the second quarter of 2024, a 91.87% QoQ growth compared to the first quarter.
However, it is worth noting that the second quarter revenue is still lower than the same period last year. In the second quarter of 2023, the revenue of Verisilicon Microelectronics was 644 million yuan, and the revenue in both quarters of this year decreased to varying degrees YoY.
In terms of business, Verisilicon Microelectronics's mass production business is expected to achieve a revenue of 235 million yuan in Q2 2024, a 126.18% QoQ growth; the chip design business is expected to achieve a revenue of 192 million yuan, a 120.45% QoQ growth; the intellectual property licensing fee business is expected to achieve a revenue of 158 million yuan, a 58.58% QoQ growth; and the franchise fee revenue is expected to be 24 million yuan, a 12.27% QoQ decrease.
Verisilicon Microelectronics stated that in the first half of 2024, the semiconductor industry gradually recovered, and downstream customer inventory improved significantly. Thanks to the company's unique business model, which has no inventory risk in principle, no boundaries in application areas, and anti-cyclical attributes, its operating performance quickly reversed. The business gradually improved, and Q2 performance improved significantly compared to Q1.
Regarding the reason for the improved performance, Verisilicon Microelectronics stated that the company continues to expand incremental and potential emerging markets, expand industry-leading customers, and sign new orders. The situation is good, and the in-hand orders have remained high for three consecutive quarters. Starting from Q2 2024, a large number of the company's in-hand orders will be converted into revenue.
At the earnings conference held in April this year, Verisilicon Microelectronics Chairman Dai Weimin answered investors' questions and stated that in 2023, due to factors such as changes in the international situation, adjustments in the industry cycle, and a slowdown in overall market demand, the company's business operations faced certain challenges last year, but he is bullish about the future growth in demand for AI applications and the conversion of the company's in-hand orders.
Dai Weimin stated that high computing power is the foundation for the rapid development and evolution of AI applications. As AIGC, smart travel (autonomous driving, smart cockpit, etc.) and other fields continue to increase their requirements for computing power, the requirements for data processing and computing power of chips are becoming higher and higher. The semiconductor industry has also entered a period of rapid growth with the development of applications such as artificial intelligence and autonomous driving.
It is reported that the AI chip with Verisilicon Microelectronics's neural network processor (NPU) IP integrated has shipped more than 100 million globally and is mainly used in 10 market areas including the Internet of Things, wearable devices, smart TVs, smart homes, security monitoring, servers, automotive electronics, smartphones, tablets, and intelligent medical fields. Dai Weimin stated that while optimizing and upgrading the NPU IP, the company also launched AI-ISP, AI-GPU and other IP subsystems, which can bring further performance improvement to traditional processor technologies.
In terms of Chiplet technology development, Verisilicon Microelectronics stated in May this year during institutional research that the company has helped customers design high-end multimedia application processor chips based on the Chiplet architecture and designed the UCIe/BoW-compatible physical layer interface for Die to Die connections. Currently, it is advancing research and development work on key functional modules such as chiplets, Die to Die interfaces, chiplet chip architectures, and advanced packaging technologies.
Regarding new products, Verisilicon Microelectronics introduced the new VC9800 series IP for next-generation data centers this year, which can meet the advanced requirements of next-generation data centers including video transcoding servers, AI servers, cloud desktops, and cloud gaming. At the same time, the company's second-generation ISP series IP for automotive applications has passed ISO 26262 ASIL B and ASIL D certification; the low-power Bluetooth overall IP solution has passed the LEAudio full-function certification and can help customers develop next-generation audio products with lower power consumption, lower cost, and higher efficiency.