GCTS · Read the filing

10-K

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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025

Commission File Number 001-41013

GCT Semiconductor Holding, Inc.

(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its Charter)

(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (408) 434-6040

Not Applicable

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Title of each class Trading Symbol(s) Name of each exchange on which registered

Common Stock, par value $0.0001 per share GCTS The New York Stock Exchange

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. YES ☐No☒

Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act. YES ☐No☒

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes☒ NO ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to submit such files). Yes☒ NO ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

Large accelerated filer ☐ Accelerated filer ☐

Non-accelerated filer ☒ Smaller reporting company ☒

Emerging growth company ☒

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☐

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). YES ☐ NO ☒

The aggregate market value of the voting shares held by non-affiliates of the registrant as of June 30, 2025 was approximately $68.2 million based on the closing price of the registrant's common stock as reported on the New York Stock Exchange on June 30, 2025 (the last business day of the registrant's most recently completed second fiscal quarter). The common stock of the registrant held by each executive officer and director and certain affiliated stockholders who beneficially owned 10% or more of the outstanding common stock of the registrant have been excluded in such calculation as such persons and entities may be deemed to be affiliates of the registrant. This determination of affiliate status is not necessarily a conclusive determination for other purposes.

The number of shares of Registrant’s Common Stock outstanding as of March 19, 2026 was 72,494,116.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

None.

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Page

PART I

Item 1. Business 1

Item 1A. Risk Factors 12

Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments 31

Item 1C. Cybersecurity 31

Item 2. Properties 32

Item 3. Legal Proceedings 32

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures 32

PART II

Item 6. [Reserved] 33

Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk 45

Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 46

Item 9A. Controls and Procedures 81

Item 9B. Other Information 81

Item 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections 82

PART III

Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 83

Item 11. Executive Compensation 89

Item 14. Principal Accounting Fees and Services 101

PART IV

Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules 102

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EXPLANATORY NOTE

In this Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025 (the “Annual Report”), the terms “we,” “us,” “our,” the “Company,” and “GCT” generally refer to GCT Semiconductor, Inc. prior to the consummation of the business combination completed on March 26, 2024, and to GCT Semiconductor Holding, Inc. following such business combination, unless the context otherwise indicates. As a result of that transaction, GCT Semiconductor, Inc. became a wholly owned subsidiary of Concord Acquisition Corp III, which was renamed GCT Semiconductor Holding, Inc., and the financial statements included in this Annual Report reflect the results of the combined company for the periods presented. Certain statements contained in this Annual Report, including statements regarding our plans, strategies, and expectations for our business, constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties and are subject to the cautionary statements set forth under the heading “Forward-Looking Statements” below.

SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements about our financial condition, results of operations, earnings outlook and our prospects. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as “plan,” “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “outlook,” “estimate,” “forecast,” “project,” “continue,” “could,” “may,” “might,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “should,” “would” and other similar words and expressions, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking.

The forward-looking statements are based on the current expectations of our management and are inherently subject to uncertainties and changes in circumstances and their potential effects and speak only as of the date of such statement. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties or other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the following:

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our ability to successfully commercialize, scale, and achieve market adoption of our 5th generation (“5G”) products, including through collaboration agreements with our major partners;

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our financial and business performance, including our financial projections and business metrics;

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macroeconomic conditions, including labor disputes, fluctuations in the value of the U.S. dollar, capital markets volatility, inflationary pressures, and disruptions to global supply chains;

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the imposition of duties and tariffs and other trade barriers and retaliatory countermeasures implemented by the U.S. and other governments;

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changes in our strategy, future operations, financial position, estimated revenues and losses, forecasts, projected costs, prospects and plans;

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increase in supply chain costs, including raw materials, sourcing, transportation and energy;

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our inability to anticipate the future market demands and future needs of our customers;

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the impact of component shortages, suppliers’ lack of production capacity, natural disasters or pandemics on our sourcing operations and supply chain;

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our ability to meet the prospective delivery time for our products and fulfill customer orders;

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our future capital requirements and sources and uses of cash;

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our ability to fund future capital expenditures and to meet our debt service and repayment obligations, including those related to our near-term indebtedness;

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our ability to obtain funding and raise capital for our operations;

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our ability to access the capital markets and credit markets;

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our anticipated financial performance, including gross margin, and the expectation that our future results of operations will fluctuate on a quarterly basis for the foreseeable future;

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our expected capital expenditures, cost of revenue and other future expenses, and the sources of funds to satisfy the liquidity needs of the Company;

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our ability to maintain the listing of our common stock on the NYSE;

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technology, cybersecurity, and data privacy risks;

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intense market competition;

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geopolitical conditions, including political instability in the U.S. and Korea, unrest and sanctions, war, conflict, including the ongoing conflicts between Russia and Ukraine, conflicts in the Middle East, and increasing tensions between China and Taiwan;

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legislative and regulatory risks, including those relating to changes in laws and regulations and the impact of U.S. government shutdowns or other governmental disruptions;

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uncertainties and risks relating to new trade regulations, including tariffs and export control regulations;

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reputational risks; and

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other risks and uncertainties indicated or referenced in this Annual Report, including those set forth under the section entitled “Risk Factors.”

A detailed discussion of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and events to differ materially from such forward-looking statements is included in the section entitled “Risk Factors” contained in this Annual Report. These forward-looking statements are based on information available as of the date of this Annual Report, and current expectations, forecasts and assumptions, and involve a number of judgments, risks and uncertainties. New risk factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all such risk factors, nor can we assess the impact of all such risk factors on our business or the extent to which any factor or combination of factors may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the foregoing cautionary statements. We undertake no obligations to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

RISK FACTORS SUMMARY

The following is a summary of certain important factors that may make an investment in our company speculative or risky. You should carefully consider the fuller risk factor disclosure set forth in this Annual Report, in addition to the other information herein, including the section of this report titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our financial statements and related notes.

Risks Related to Our Business

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We may encounter difficulties or challenges in satisfying our obligations under our 5G development agreements and in scaling and sustaining commercialization of our 5G chipsets, which may adversely affect our ability to generate revenue.

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If the 5G market develops more slowly than expected, or if we fail to accurately predict market requirements or demand for our 5G solutions, our financial performance could be adversely affected.

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Our products target primarily certain segments in the 5G markets, including fixed wireless access, mobile broadband, and M2M applications, and if these markets do not develop or grow as anticipated, our financial performance will be adversely affected.

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We depend on the commercial deployment of 4th generation (“4G”) long term evolution (“LTE”) and 5G communications equipment, products and services to grow our business, and our business may be harmed if wireless carriers delay in the adoption of 5G standards, or if they deploy technologies that are not supported by our solutions.

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If we are unsuccessful in developing and selling new products or in penetrating new markets, our business and operating results would suffer.

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If customers do not design our semiconductor solutions into their product offerings or if our customers’ product offerings are not commercially successful, we would have difficulty selling our semiconductor solutions and our business would suffer.

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If we are unable to compete effectively, we may not increase or maintain our revenue or market share.

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We rely on a small number of customers for a significant percentage of our revenue, and the loss of, or a reduction in, orders from these customers could result in a substantial decline in our revenue.

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Our customers may cancel their orders, change production quantities or delay production, and if we fail to forecast demand for our products accurately, we may incur product shortages, delays in product shipments or excess or insufficient product inventory, which could harm our business.

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We do not have long-term capacity agreements with our foundries and they may not allocate sufficient capacity to allow us to meet future demands for our products, and there is no guarantee that we will be able to secure capacity agreements in the future.

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If our foundry vendors do not achieve satisfactory yields or quality, our reputation, customer relationships and financial performance could be harmed.

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Our business may be impacted by political events, war, terrorism, business interruptions and other geopolitical events and uncertainties beyond our control, including the Russian-Ukraine and conflicts in the Middle East.

Risks Related to Our Finances

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We have a history of losses, and we may not achieve or sustain profitability in the future, on a quarterly or annual basis.

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We have significant ongoing capital requirements that could have a material effect on our business and financial condition if we are unable to generate sufficient cash from operations or unable to raise capital on favorable terms.

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Our indebtedness could adversely affect our operations, including our ability to perform our obligations and fund working capital.

Risks Relating to Our Intellectual Property

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Our failure to protect our intellectual property rights adequately could impair our ability to compete effectively or to defend ourselves from litigation.

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The enforcement and protection of our intellectual property may be expensive, could fail to prevent misappropriation or unauthorized use of our intellectual property, could result in the loss of our ability to enforce one or more patents, and could be adversely affected by changes in patent laws, by laws in certain foreign jurisdictions that may not effectively protect our intellectual property and by ineffective enforcement of laws in such jurisdictions.

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We rely upon third parties for supporting technology that is integrated into some of our products, and if we are unable to continue to use this technology and future technology, our ability to sell technologically advanced products would be limited.

Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock and Our Corporate Structure

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The market price of our Common Stock may be volatile, which could cause the value of your investment to decline.

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We do not intend to pay dividends on our Common Stock and, consequently, your ability to achieve a return on your investment will depend on appreciation in the price of our Common Stock.

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Our major shareholder exerts significant influence over our business and affairs.

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Future sales of shares of Common Stock may depress our stock price

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PART I

Item 1. Business.

Overview

GCT Semiconductor Holding, Inc. (“GCT” or the “Company”) is a fabless semiconductor company that specializes in the design, manufacturing, and sale of communication semiconductors, including high-speed wireless communication technologies such as 5G/4.75G/4.5G/4G transceivers (“RF”) and modems, which are essential for a wide variety of industrial, business-to-business (“B2B”) and consumer applications. We have successfully developed and supplied communication semiconductor chipsets and modules to leading wireless operators worldwide, as well as to original design manufacturers (“ODMs”) and original equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”) for portable wireless routers (e.g., Mobile Router (“MiFi”)), indoor and outdoor fixed wireless routers (e.g., customer premise equipment (“CPE”)), industrial machine-to-machine (“M2M”) applications and smartphones.

We oversee sales, marketing and accounting operations from our headquarters in San Jose, California. The Company conducts product design, development and customer support through our wholly owned subsidiaries located in South Korea, one of which serves as our research and development center. In addition, we utilize separate sales offices for local technical support and sales in Taiwan, China, and Japan.

The Company has recently released our first 5G product in our portfolio with first commercial shipments in the fourth quarter of 2025. This 5G chipset adds to our existing product portfolio which includes RF and modem chipsets based on 4th generation (“4G”), known as Long Term Evolution (“LTE”), technology offering a variety of chipsets differentiated by speed and functionality. These include 4G LTE, 4.5G LTE Advanced (twice the speed of LTE), and 4.75G LTE Advanced-Pro (four times the speed of LTE) chipsets. The Company also develops and sells cellular Internet of Things (“IoT”) chipsets for low-speed mobile networks such as eMTC/NB-IOT/Sigfox, and other network protocols.

Even as more and more applications are deployed on 5G networks, we nonetheless anticipate continued demand for our existing 4G LTE product lineup (4.75G/4.5G/4G, etc.) for the foreseeable future, because 4G products are expected to coexist in the market with 5G products at lower price points for some time in the same way that 3rd generation (“3G”) products coexisted with 4G products when 4G networks were first deployed. We commenced our first production shipments of our 5G products in the fourth quarter of 2025. Also, we expect the average sales prices for our 5G chipset to be approximately four times that of our 4G chipset, resulting in a significant increase in revenue and gross margins. We plan to continuously expand our product lineup to support 5G chipsets for future applications such as vehicle-to-everything standard (e.g., C-V2X), 5G-based satellite communication (e.g., Non-Terrestrial Network), and 5G-based IoT standard (e.g., RedCap). Our current chipset products are used in a wide variety of applications, including fixed wireless subscriber terminals (e.g., CPE), mobile wireless routers (e.g., Mobile Router/MiFi), various communication modules and devices, and industrial products.

Since inception, we have financed our operations primarily through cash receipts from customers, the issuance of convertible promissory notes, borrowings, and the issuance of capital stock.

Evolution of Wireless Technologies

As the demand for mobile communication has evolved from voice-centric to data-centric, technology has continuously evolved. The 1st generation (“1G”) analog cellular system introduced the concept of the cell to facilitate frequency reuse. Due to the limitations of analog technology, the rapidly growing demand for mobile phones led to the transition to 2nd generation (“2G”) digital communication systems. Notable 2G digital mobile phone systems include Global System for Mobile Communication (“GSM”) using Time Division Multiple Access (“TDMA”) and Code Division Multiple Access (“CDMA”). GSM was adopted in Europe, while CDMA was adopted in the United States, Korea, and other regions.

2G had limitations due to the broad mixture of technologies and differences in frequency bands, making international roaming difficult and providing limited multimedia services due to low transmission speeds. The need to unify wireless transmission technologies for international roaming services and more led to the development of 3G mobile communication, such as IMT-2000, W-CDMA, and CDMA2000. 3G not only provided voice and low-speed data like 2G but also supported multimedia services, including video. Up until the adoption of 3G, there was significant demand for circuit-switched services, but as the internet became widespread, the demand for packet services also grew. This led to technological advancements with 3G, resulting in technologies like Evolution-Data Only (“EV-DO”) and High Speed Packet Access (“HSPA”).

Generation System Multiple access technology Peak user data rate

1G AMPS FDMA —

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Generation System Multiple access technology Peak user data rate

3G W-CDMA W-CDMA 0.384Mbps

HSPA W-CDMA 14.4Mbps

4G LTE DL: OFDMA UL: SC-FDMA DL: 100Mbps UL: 50Mbps

WiMAX OFDMA DL: 128Mbps UL: 56Mbps

LTE-A DL: OFDMA UL: SC-FDMA DL: 1Gbps UL: 500Mbps

5G NR OFDMA Up-to 10Gbps

The increased demand for wireless data services after 3G led to the development of 4G technology, known as LTE. While Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (“WiMAX”) was another 4G technology, the market eventually consolidated around LTE. LTE was defined by the 3rd generation partnership project (“3GPP”), which established the Rel-8/9 standards. LTE later evolved into LTE-Advanced (“LTE-A”) and 3Band LTE-A, including standards like Rel-10 and beyond, which introduced technologies like Carrier Aggregation (“CA”), Coordinated Multi-Point (“CoMP”), relaying, and Multi-Input Multi-Output (“MIMO”).

4G Technology Features CarrierBandwidth Downlink peak throughput

5G communication evolved from 4G as a communication technology needed for the “Hyper-Connected Revolution” of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, where various industry technologies converge. The Fourth Industrial Revolution represents the convergence of ICT-based technologies and advanced digital technologies, like artificial intelligence, robotics, virtual reality, augmented reality, 3D printing, biotechnology and quantum computing, among others. This technology convergence creates a new era where “people + places + objects + products” are interconnected based on artificial intelligence. 5G is an essential communication technology that enables the Fourth Industrial Revolution and related technology convergence by realizing ultra-fast wireless communication (eMBB: enhanced Mobile Broadband), ultra-low latency reliable communication (URLLC: Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication), and massive machine-type communication for hyper-connected objects (mMTC: massive machine type communication).

5G Technology Features CarrierBandwidth Downlink peakthroughput

5G is now growing in all regions around the world. According to the Ericsson Mobility Report published in November 2025, at the end of 2025, the highest 5G subscription penetration is expected to be in North America with 79 percent, followed by North East Asia at 61

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percent and Western Europe and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, both at 55 percent. During the third quarter of 2025, total 5G subscriptions reached nearly 2.8 billion worldwide, with 162 million added in the third quarter of 2025 alone. Further, it is anticipated that 5G subscriptions will continue to increase, reaching 6.4 billion globally by end of 2031.

Expanding Fixed Wireless Access

Fixed Wireless Access (“FWA”) service provides data and voice (“VoLTE” or “VoNR”) connectivity by connecting data terminals through indoor or outdoor fixed CPE to mobile communication networks, offering services comparable to traditional wired line networks such as xDSL, cable, or fiber optics. The wireless network connection approach is advantageous for quick installation in areas with existing mobile communication infrastructure, especially in regions where installing conventional wired networks is challenging or economically impractical. However, traditional wireless networks face limitations, such as lower speed when multiple devices are connected simultaneously, and the performance of user devices that vary based on the environment or location of such user devices relative to the base station, diminishing their competitiveness compared to wired line networks.

However, recently introduced FWA technologies, including gigabit-speed 4G LTE Advanced or 5G NR (New Radio), offer speeds faster than DSL or cable networks, addressing the shortcomings of traditional wireless connections. Especially in frequency bands above 3 GHz, 5G FWA can deliver service with 100 MHz or more of bandwidth, or in the millimeter-wave spectrum above 20 GHz, 5G FWA can utilize 800 MHz or more of bandwidth, achieving performance comparable to optical fiber communications. This makes FWA an attractive alternative technology that can overcome the significant installation costs associated with fiber optics for new installation areas.

According to the Ericsson Mobility Report (November 2025), by the end of 2025, FWA services based on 4G and 5G will reach 185 million subscriptions. FWA services are projected to grow at an annual rate of ~11.5% (2025-2030 CAGR), reaching over 350 million subscriptions by 2031, which is 1.9 times the number of subscriptions at the end of 2025. 5G-based FWA services are expected to grow even faster with a CAGR of over 31% over the same period. 5G-based FWA subscriptions will be, approximately equal that for 4G by 2027 and will constitute 90% of the total FWA services by 2031. Particularly in the U.S. and India markets is FWA connection growth noteworthy. There is a robust demand for FWA in India with the combined number of connections from Jio and Airtel reaching 12 million as of September 2025. Also in the US, the three largest service providers achieved all-time-high quarterly FWA net adds of

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1.04 million connections in the third quarter of 2025, bringing their combined FWA connections to 14.6 million by the end of the third quarter of 2025.

FWA devices come in two main types: Outdoor CPE (ODU, Outdoor Customer Premises Equipment) which typically includes performance-boosting external antennas for improved wireless signal reception in wider areas, and Indoor CPE (IDU, Indoor Customer Premises Equipment), which can be installed in various indoor locations for user convenience. Outdoor CPE generally offers higher performance; however, it requires external antenna installation and the installation of separate cables to deliver power and data, resulting in higher installation and device costs. By contrast, Indoor CPE, while having the disadvantage of impaired wireless reception due to the scattering and attenuation of external radio signals, offers ease of installation without the need for external antennas or additional cabling work, which results in lower installation and device costs.

Notably, with speeds exceeding 1Gbps and network latency of approximately 1ms or less, 5G communication technology offers faster data throughput and reduced delay compared to wired communication options like DSL or cable. Moreover, the deployment of 5G networks for FWA is facilitated by the presence of existing 5G infrastructure developed by mobile network operators to support mobile broadband services.

This has prompted numerous prominent mobile service providers to view 5G-based FWA as a new growth driver, particularly in light of saturation in the mobile phone market, leading to substantial anticipated subscriber expansion.

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Business Development Overview

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is rapidly unfolding worldwide, driven by the increasing adoption of key enabling communication technologies such as 4.5G, 4.75G, and 5G wireless networks. This growth has led to the emergence of a high-speed wireless internet-based 4.5G/4.75G/5G wireless broadband market and related wireless devices and chipsets. We specialize in providing baseband modems, RF chipsets, and protocol software that enable stable communication on 4.5G/4.75G/5G wireless carrier networks. Wireless modems consist of both hardware components, such as RF transceivers and baseband modems, and software responsible for modem operation, protocol processing and system operation. These elements must work together seamlessly to deliver optimal performance and solutions, making this a critical technology for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. However, there are very few companies globally that can commercialize these technologies, given their high complexity and technological barriers. We have continuously focused on wireless communication product development since our establishment, and believe our core technologies and compatibility testing capabilities acquired during the development and sale of our competitive wireless communication chipsets are unique and not easily duplicated by new entrants in the market. As a result, we believe we have secured a strong competitive position by providing competitive and optimized solutions in the mobile communication market where different generations of technology coexist.

We possess essential core technologies for enhancing the wireless data communication capabilities of competitive 4G/4.5G/4.75G/5G chipsets. We commercialized wireless communication chipset technology using four or eight multiple antennas to achieve outstanding performance improvements in speed, coverage expansion, and interference reduction, earning recognition from top global carriers. We introduced 4x4 MIMO 4.5G chipset technology with four antennas in Japan, followed by commercialization of eight-antenna products in the United States and Europe. RF/modem chipset technology using multiple antennas is particularly vital for FWA services that require stable data communication without interruptions in fixed locations. In countries and regions where it is challenging to install high-speed wired networks, such as optical fiber, due to geographical, technical and economic reasons, wireless broadband FWA using 4G and 5G is an increasingly cost-efficient alternative. This service is rapidly expanding worldwide as a core component of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

We have commercialized competitive wireless communication chipset products, including 4G/4.5G/4.75G, by actively adapting to the evolution of new wireless standard technologies and developing specialized technologies, such as multi antenna modem chipsets, in close collaboration with major carriers worldwide. In addition, we have taken a proactive role in chipset certification and product validation processes required for stable operation on wireless networks, which allows us to gain further credibility from major carriers.

We have developed and commercialized chipsets for various product categories corresponding to 4G, 4.5G and 4.75G including LTE-based IoT chipsets. In collaboration with a leading worldwide wireless operator (the “Operator”), we are currently developing competitive and innovative 5G chipsets that support 5G sub-6GHz and mmWave spectrums. We have established a close relationship with the Operator for over 13 years. In 2019, we entered into a Joint Development Agreement (“JDA”) with the Operator for the design and development of 5G chipsets for FWA, mobile broadband and modules. Pursuant to the JDA, we agree to perform certain services for and collaborate with such Operator to develop semiconductor chipsets, software and related reference designs, and then supply such items to the Operator and our suppliers. Under the JDA, we are required to perform certain services to achieve specified development milestones, and the Operator is required to pay a one-time payment to us upon achievement of each milestone. The JDA also includes other terms with respect to the supply of chipsets, including most favored status protection for the Operator and our suppliers and certain rebate fees based on worldwide sales of chipsets developed under the JDA. We also agree to grant the Operator various non-exclusive, non-terminable licenses for the use of certain source code and work product developed under the JDA, provided that we retain all worldwide rights, title and interest in and to all intellectual property rights embedded and contained in the chipsets provided to the Operator.

The JDA includes customary representations, warranties and covenants and has an initial term of three (3) years, and thereafter automatically renews for one-year period at each annual anniversary of the effective date of the JDA unless written notice not to renew is provided by the parties 90 days prior to the expiration date. In addition, the Operator may terminate the JDA (i) at any time upon written notice to us; (ii) if our business is materially changed by sale of our business, transfer of control of our outstanding stock, merger or otherwise to a competitor of the Operator; or (iii) immediately upon written notice if there is a material breach of the JDA by us and we fail to cure such breach after 30 days.

As part of this arrangement, we are applying the same multiple antenna reception technology to our 5G chipsets that received recognition from top carriers worldwide for 4G, 4.5G and 4.75G products. We plan to offer three different 5G chipset solutions, taking into account various market demands for performance, functionality, and price ranges, similar to our existing 4G LTE products. We have commenced initial commercial shipments of our 5G chipset products to GCT’s lead customers. Additionally, we differentiate ourselves from the dominant chipset provider in the market by providing customized solutions tailored to the specific needs of wireless carriers.

Our wireless communication chipsets can be used in virtually all wireless broadband data devices driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution, excluding smartphones. Such devices include essential CPE for all wireless broadband FWA services and MiFi that offer

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wireless internet connections sharing via WiFi, even while on the move. Our chipsets can also be adopted into devices such as laptops and tablets, card-type modules that provide communication functionality for IoT and industrial applications, wireless monitoring equipment and wireless smart meters. In addition, we plan to expand our product lineup continuously to support 5G chipsets for future applications such as vehicle-to-everything standard (“C-V2X”), 5G-based satellite communication (Non-Terrestrial Network) and 5G-based IoT standard (RedCap), which can create additional markets with meaningful scale relative to existing broadband markets.

We are among a limited number of companies globally with commercially proven 4G LTE & 5G solutions, leveraging leading-edge multi-antenna modem technology to provide differentiated solutions to wireless operators. High barriers to entry, market pushback against incumbents and political sanctions against certain offshore suppliers have led to few reliable alternatives for 4G/5G modem chipset suppliers. These factors have created a timely opportunity for us to expand rapidly. We plan to maintain collaboration with our existing 4G wireless broadband FWA device manufacturers and partners as they transition to 5G. In the 5G space, we are considered an alternative solution provider with competitive pricing, as other options are limited except for the high-priced products of the top-ranked supplier. In particular, for medium-sized FWA device manufacturers, choosing the leading chipset supplier can create a significant cost burden as it often requires large upfront licensing fees and ongoing royalty payments, after commercialization. Our strategy is to offer the advantage of lower initial licensing costs and no additional licensing fee after commercialization. Moreover, having previously adopted our 4G solution and successfully commercializing it, FWA device manufacturers may find ease and convenience in seamless transition to GCT’s 5G solution. In particular, the strong core technologies offered by us, such as the eight-antenna reception technology for improved efficiency and network coverage expansion, are highly recognized and needed by many wireless carriers and FWA device manufacturers. This can serve as significant motivation for wireless carriers and FWA device manufacturers to adopt our 4G/5G chipsets. In 2024, we made announcements regarding development agreements with FWA device manufacturers that will use our 5G chipsets. These announcements included one regarding an agreement with Kyocera and another regarding an agreement with a “Tier One Telecommunications Supplier.”

Our Competitive Strengths

We believe the following competitive strengths enable us to be a strong 4G and 5G wireless semiconductor provider by effectively addressing the challenges faced by customers:

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Substantial experience and track record in commercialization of wireless technology: We were one of the first suppliers of 4G LTE chipsets for commercialization in many devices including smartphone, USB dongles, embedded wireless modem and CPE products. Also, we were the first provider of 4.5G 4x4 MIMO LTE chipsets for commercialization in 2015. Our experience and historical track records as a proven supplier provides a strong commercial and technology foundation that will enable us to execute our strategies to become a leading 5G supplier.

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GCT’s proprietary multi-antenna technology: We were the first eight-antenna LTE solution provider which is uniquely suited to relieve carriers’ looming network overloads arising from rapid FWA adoption. We believe this technology is prized by network operators given that it enables lower infrastructure costs and improved service. We believe we are one of the only suppliers with an eight-antenna solution in entry-level baseband/RF chipsets, positioning us uniquely in the marketplace. Multi-User (“MU”)-MIMO is a network capacity enhanced solution to support multiple UEs (User Equipment such as CPE) with multiple beams from the base station and is usually implemented with Massive-MIMO architecture. MU-MIMO provides the peak throughput for the whole network while Single-User (“SU”)-MIMO provides the peak throughput only for a single user. The best way to implement MU-MIMO is to use Massive-MIMO architecture with multiple antenna array at the base station, which can provide high spectrum efficiency through large multiplexing gain as well as antenna array gain. In MU-MIMO, beam control by the base station is not always perfect. As such, the dedicated beam to a specific UE can cause interference to another adjacent UE nearby. This can result in performance degradation unless there is an appropriate interference cancellation technology on the UE side. Our Multi-Antenna Modem provides superior interference cancellation performance on the UE side, even in the harsh MU-MIMO environment with multiple adjacent EUs, by utilizing eight-antenna reception technology implemented in our cost-effective dedicated hardware modem engine.

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Longstanding relationships with Tier 1 and Tier 2 network operators worldwide: We enjoy relationships with a global stable of network operators, who in some cases have done business with us for over a decade. These trusted relationships are central to our 5G business plan and our expectations of meaningful deployments in the United States as well as in Europe and Asia. Some of these customers have actively contributed to funding and defining our 5G roadmap in order to obtain strategic access to mission-critical components. In addition to network operators, we have longstanding relationships with ODMs and OEMs who in turn play a critical supply chain function for operators. We believe our proven ability to deliver products to specs and on time positions us favorably as we deploy our 5G portfolio.

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Highly differentiated & innovative modem architecture: Unlike traditional DSP-based modem solutions, we employ a scalable modular modem design based on optimized data-flow dedicated hardware engines, which provides scalable products with optimized cost structure without the de-featuring approach that other competitors usually take. Adoption of innovative, scalable

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5G modern architecture to expand different product SKUs with minimum design effort and cost allows us to use cheaper wafer process nodes without trading off performance and complexity.

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Deep knowledge and expertise on wireless system-level architecture and signal processing: Our engineering team has deep and end-to-end knowledge and expertise on wireless system-level architectures and networks in relation to a broad range of wireless technologies including Wi-Fi, 4G/5G LTE and IoT. This enables us to serve as a trusted advisor and partner to wireless carriers, OEMs and infrastructure vendors to optimize the performance of their 4G/5G devices and networks.

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Fully integrated 4G/5G solutions: We provide the industry with highly integrated 4G/5G system-on-chips, or SoCs, integrating not only the baseband modem and RF but also the application CPU for networking function, which is an essential feature of FWA and can save on total solution cost by eliminating an extra network processor or interface ASIC in the platform.

Products

We have developed and commercialized a portfolio of 4G semiconductor solutions to address a variety of applications and market segments from high performance 4.75G (CAT12) solution to low power, low performance 4G IoT (CAT-M1/NB1). We offer baseband modem solutions to encode and decode data based on 4G protocols that serve as the core wireless processing platform for a 4G device; RF transceivers to transmit and receive wireless transmissions; and highly integrated SoC solutions that combine these and other functions into a single die or package. Our SoC solutions integrate the baseband modem and RF transceiver functions, and in some cases, with an applications processor and memory. This advanced level of integration reduces the size, cost, design complexity, and power consumption of the 4G solution. All of our baseband modem SoC products are provided with comprehensive software, including relevant source code, to enable manufacturers to efficiently integrate our solutions into their devices in a wide variety of environments. In addition, we provide customers with design support. This includes reference designs that specify recommended methods for interconnecting our chips to peripheral devices, such as host processors, memory and RF front-end components. Further, we provide customers with a warranty that our solutions are free from defects in materials and workmanship and will operate in material conformance with the provided specifications, entitling the customer to have the defective product repaired or replaced.

In addition to our various 4G LTE solutions that are currently available to our customers, we have just released a 5G NR chipset and have other 5G NR solutions in development that are expected to become available during 2026. Our products, including the expected availability of those products currently in the design stage of development, are summarized in the table and future roadmap below.

Technology Product Type Function ExpectedAvailability Key Features

4G GDM7243S CAT1/4 RF+BB NOW Integrated DRAM, multi-band RF

4G GDM7243SL CAT1/4 RF+BB NOW Enhancement features, Multi-mode

4G GDM7243i CAT-M1/NB1 RF+BB NOW eMTC/NB-IoT

4.5G GDM7243Q CAT-5/6/7 RF+BB NOW 2CA, 4x4MIMO, Integrating DRAM

Cyclicality and Seasonality

Wireless communication chipsets for FWA devices or industrial IoT modules typically have a relatively long lifespan because they are closely tied to network deployments, which are not easily changed due to significant capital expenditures. However, semiconductor solution sales can be subject to fluctuations over time due to the cyclicality inherent in the semiconductor industry and the supply and demand characteristics specific to this industry. We anticipate that these cyclical conditions will persist. While we have not observed a firmly established pattern of seasonality, business activities in Asia tend to slow down in the first quarter of each year during the Lunar New Year period. This is consistent with potential first quarter softness that other semiconductor suppliers experience in the consumer electronics space as a result of the fourth quarter holiday season (specifically the period from the last week of November to the second week of January). This slowdown could potentially impact our sales and operational results during the first quarter period.

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Regulation

We conduct reviews for all products from the early stages of development to determine whether they qualify as strategic items under the U.S. Department of Commerce’s regulations. We prepare relevant documentation and submit it to the U.S. Department of Commerce for evaluation. The U.S. Department of Commerce reviews the items for Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) compliance and ultimately assigns an Export Control Classification Number (“ECCN”) for the product, which is required for the export and shipment of products during both the manufacturing process and final product delivery. The assignment and use of the applicable ECCN facilitates lawful export, shipment, and transportation of such products. When an ECCN for a commercial product is classified as a strategic item, it may be subject to stricter export regulations. Therefore, if there is a perceived trend toward easing the classification approval by the U.S. Department of Commerce, we may seek re-evaluation for previously approved products that were classified as strategic items. Where feasible, we aim to have these products reclassified as non-strategic items to minimize regulatory constraints on export activities.

Wireless devices equipped with our modem chipsets must undergo formal certification through official regulatory bodies, as well as specific testing and field verification by network operators before they can be approved for sale by those operators or approved for use on the operators network. Beyond the standard reliability testing for products, many critical aspects related to the performance and functionality of wireless devices are managed and executed by our modem chipsets and software. Therefore, the completeness of the solution provided by us is considered the most essential factor in the commercialization process. We offer chipset solutions that comply with radio certification regulations in different countries. Furthermore, leading mobile operators often implement their own product certification processes to ensure network security, performance optimization, and efficiency. In some cases, particularly with major operators, they may enforce the use of certified chipsets only in their products, even before product certification. We have collaboratively engaged with major operators in North America and Asia on multiple occasions to facilitate chipset certification. This cooperation has resulted in successful chipset certifications with various operators, including Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, US Cellular, KDDI, SoftBank in Japan, and the three major telecom operators in South Korea. We continue to pursue ongoing certification for our evolving chipsets to ensure compliance with regulatory and operator requirements, and to make adoption by ODM and OEMs as carefree as possible.

Competition

We believe that our competitive strengths will enable us to compete favorably, particularly in the 5G markets. Companies in this industry primarily compete on the following elements: functionality, form factor and cost; product performance, as measured by network throughput, signal reach, latency and power consumption; track record of providing high-volume deployments in the industry; and systems knowledge.

Companies offering wireless modem chipsets can be categorized into those primarily focused on wireless modem chipsets for smartphones and those, like us, dedicated to wireless modem chipsets for wireless broadband applications including FWA CPE, mobile routers and modules. Qualcomm and HiSilicon, for example, offer wireless modem chipsets for both smartphones and wireless broadband applications. In the mid and low-end 4G wireless broadband market, there are Qualcomm, the Company, MediaTek, HiSilicon and Sequans among others. However, in the high-speed 4G LTE space, such as 4.75G and 5G wireless broadband market, chipsets are primarily offered by Qualcomm, us and MediaTek, while Samsung LSI concentrates mainly on modem chipsets for smartphones (most notably the Samsung Galaxy line). HiSilicon has encountered difficulties in its modem business due to political sanctions, and companies like Sequans are limited to lower end IoT chipset developments and more recently pursued a “micro strategy” based on bitcoin.

We establish high technology barriers by offering highly integrated solutions incorporating RF transceivers, baseband modems, and protocol software. In this field, any issues in either the hardware or software components can impede the progress towards actual commercialization. While some specific components can be sourced through external intellectual property (“IP”) providers, there are no IP companies that can provide turn-key integrated solutions. Consequently, we believe it is highly unlikely for others to replicate all of these hardware and software components, insulating us from competition by newcomers, startups, and other risk factors. A recent example of the challenges in wireless communication chipset development, including baseband modem development, can be seen in Apple’s experience in this space. In their pursuit of 5G modem development, Apple has acquired the entire modem development division of Intel in 2019 (which Intel had created through acquisition of multiple modem companies/divisions), emphasizing that independent development alone is not feasible. Even after acquiring Intel’s modem development division, Apple still ostensibly faces obstacles in development and still primarily relies on Qualcomm’s modem products. Apple released its first attempt at a production modem in the iPhone 16e in 2025 (6 years after acquiring the ongoing Intel development effort). It is benchmarked by third parties as slower in download speeds and it cannot access the FR2 (mmWave) bands.

Accordingly, due to the combined impact of high barriers to entry, market pushback against large incumbents with excessive market power or political sanctions against certain offshore suppliers, there are few reliable alternatives for 4G/5G modem chipset suppliers and this has created a timely opportunity for us to expand rapidly. This has also provided us with high scarcity value as one of only a handful of remaining companies worldwide with commercially-proven 4G LTE and soon 5G solutions.

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Customers

We maintain close relationships with wireless carriers and with OEMs and ODMs who supply devices to those carriers and their end users. We do not typically sell chipsets directly to wireless carriers. Our sales are conducted on a purchase order basis with OEMs, ODMs, contract manufacturers or system integrators, and distributors who provide certain customer communications, logistics and customer support functions.

Sales and Marketing

Our sales efforts are focused on securing design wins at leading OEMs and ODMs for wireless broadband devices. We work closely with key players across the 4G/5G wireless broadband industry to understand their requirements and enable them to certify and deploy 4G/5G solutions in high volume. Our sales force is organized regionally to provide account management and customer support functions as close to customer physical locations as practical. We have a direct sales force consisting of five individuals serving GCT OEM and ODM customers in the Asia-Pacific region, including Taiwan, China, Korea and Japan, Europe, North America and South America. In China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea, we supplement our direct sales team with local distributors and sales representatives who handle certain customer communications, logistics and customer support functions. The headquarters and regional sales teams maintain close relationships with customers, identify distributors, and are responsible for the distribution of our products. They also provide education and support for products, including maintenance. These teams handle customer orders, issue quotations, and negotiate prices.

When customers intend to use our chips for product development, we ensure that technical support from our in-house experts is readily available to them. To address potential concerns or challenges in the production and sales processes, we connect customers with our internal technical teams to resolve any issues promptly, ensuring that they do not hinder the timely realization of revenue. Additionally, we collect real-time information from customers to facilitate monthly demand forecasts and maximize quarterly sales performance.

Our sales force is complemented by a team of field applications engineers (“FAEs”) that assists customers in solving technical challenges during the design, manufacturing implementation and certification phases of a customer’s product life cycle. This high-touch approach allows us to facilitate the successful certification and acceptance by the wireless carriers of our customers’ products, which speeds time-to-market for our customers and reinforces our role as a trusted advisor to our customers.

Our sales cycles typically take 12 months or more to complete and our solutions are generally incorporated into our customers’ products at the design stage. Prior to an end customer’s selection and purchase of our solutions, our sales force and FAEs provide our end customers with technical assistance in the use of our solutions in their products. Once our solution is designed into a customer’s product offering, it becomes more difficult for a competitor to sell their semiconductor solutions to that end customer for that particular product offering given the significant cost, time, effort and risk involved in changing suppliers. In addition, we believe that upon achieving a particular design win with a customer, our ability to achieve other design wins with that same customer increases significantly.

Our marketing strategy is focused on enabling broad adoption of 4G/5G solutions and communicating our technological advantages to the marketplace with a focus on wireless carriers. This includes building awareness of and preference for our technology at wireless carriers who generate demand for 4G/5G-enabled devices. By working to understand carrier services strategies, device roadmaps and technical requirements, we believe we are better positioned to drive our roadmap to meet these needs, to influence carriers’ choice of technology suppliers, and to identify manufacturers in the wireless industry who are best prepared to serve the needs of the wireless carrier.

Our marketing team is also responsible for product management, strategic planning, product roadmap creation, OEM, ODM and wireless carrier business development and corporate communications. All of these functions are aimed at strengthening the competitiveness of our solutions in response to evolving industry needs and competitive activities, and at articulating the value proposition of our technology throughout the 4G/5G broadband wireless industry. Our sales and marketing organizations work closely together to ensure that evolving industry requirements are reflected in our product plans, and that customers have early access to our roadmaps and can communicate the value of our technology to the wireless carriers. This end-to-end value chain management approach is designed to preserve and grow our market share in the segments we serve. Based on the execution of our sales and marketing strategy, we have achieved a history of commercialization success, as described below.

Intellectual Property

We rely on a combination of intellectual property rights, including patents, trade secrets, copyrights and trademarks, and contractual protections, to protect our core technology and intellectual property. As of December 31, 2025, we hold approximately 86 patent rights in relation to 5G/4G and next-generation wireless communication semiconductor technology. Our patent portfolio consists of modem design-related technologies (58 items, 68%), which includes multi-antenna solution for modular modem design and interference cancellation technology, system impairment (such as IQ mismatch) calibration technology, communication system technology and signal processing modem technology, RF transceiver technologies (20 cases, 23%), frequency synthesis technologies (8 cases, 9%).

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Most of the issued patents have been already applied to our commercial products. Among those patents, there are three key aspects: multi-antenna modem solution which provides scalable, module modem core design technology and base line architecture of our 4G and 5G modem; impairment calibration technology to compensate system impairment from direct-conversion RF and analogy parts, such as I/Q imbalance and carrier leakage, calibration technology; and RF transceiver architecture and related circuit technology for CMOS direct-conversion RF technology. In addition to our U.S. patents, patents have been issued in multiple countries where production facilities, product markets, and competitors are located. As of December 31, 2025, we hold 34 US patents, 34 Korean patents, 7 Taiwanese patents, 5 Japanese patents, 4 Chinese patents, and 2 patents issued in other countries.

In February 2024, we entered into a Foundry Product Development Agreement and related agreement (the “Alpha Agreements”) with Alpha Holdings Co., Ltd. (“Alpha”), pursuant to which Alpha agreed to develop and deliver to us various semiconductor products (produced in the Samsung foundry), including performing certain development activities based on our design data and delivering prototypes in the quantity specified by the applicable statement of work. The term of the Alpha Foundry Product Development Agreement is three years from the date of execution and the total development costs that we will pay to Alpha under this Agreement are approximately $7.6 million. Under the Alpha Agreements, Alpha also granted us a license to use certain third-party intellectual property that will enable us to develop and deliver 5G products set forth in such agreements. Furthermore, also in February 2024, we entered into several license and development agreements with third-party vendors (the “Vendor Agreements”), pursuant to which these vendors agreed to supply us a license to use certain intellectual property that will enable us to develop and deliver 5G products under the Alpha Agreements. As disclosed previously, we entered into a research and development agreement (the “Samsung Agreement”) with Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd (“Samsung”) in July 2020, pursuant to which Samsung agreed to provide us with certain development support, an intellectual property license, and mass production set up support to enable us to develop and produce 5G chipsets for our customers. The development support, technology licensing, and other services provided to us under the Alpha Agreements and Vendor Agreements are intended to support our continued development and production of 5G chipsets utilizing Samsung foundry processes. In connection with entering into the Alpha Agreements, the Samsung Agreement was terminated.

Manufacturing

We employ a fabless semiconductor business model and use third-party foundries and assembly and test vendors to manufacture, assemble and test our semiconductor solutions. Our main foundry vendors are Samsung Foundry, and United Microelectronics Corporation (“UMC”). From Samsung Foundry, we currently use 28nm mixed-signal and digital Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (“CMOS”) production processes for 4G baseband modem, and 8nm technology for 5G baseband modem products. The use of these commercially available standard processes enables us to produce our products more cost-effectively and, by migrating to lower process geometries, we expect to achieve advantages in cost, size and power consumption. Particularly, given the fact that foundry companies, which can provide the leading-edge foundry technology for fabless semiconductor companies to access, are very few and practically limited to TSMC and Samsung Foundry in this market, it is very important for us to establish close relationships with such foundry companies. Currently, the Company and Samsung Foundry enjoy a mutually beneficial foundry relationship providing secure access to leading-edge technology and manufacturing capacity as our 5G business ramps.

From UMC, we currently use 110 RF production process for 4G RF only, and 40nm RF, mixed-signal and digital CMOS production processes for 4G baseband, 4G RF and 5G RF. From TSMC, we currently use 40nm RF, mixed-signal and digital CMOS production processes for 4G RF only.

We use Hana Micron, Stats ChipPAC, and Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc., (“ASE”) for most of our assembly and testing requirements on a purchase order basis. We conduct extensive simulation, practical application and standardized test bed studies to validate and verify our products.

We closely monitor the production cycle from wafer to finished goods by reviewing electrical parameters, manufacturing processes and test yield data. We also run routine reliability monitoring programs to ensure long term product reliability. This enables us to operate certain test processes on demand to reduce the time-to-market for our products and to help ensure their quality and reliability. The Company and all of our outsourcing partners have implemented and adhered to the quality management system and environmental management system as required by ISO 9001:2015 across the organization. This has enabled the establishment of a robust quality assurance system for production and products, securing trust from our customers. We are also proactively responding to the strengthening of international environmental regulations and meeting market demands.

Human Resources

As of December 31, 2025, we had 126 full-time employees, of whom 101 were located in Korea, 18 were in the United States, three were in Taiwan, two were in China and one was in each of Hong Kong and Japan. These employees include 80 in research and development, 18 in sales and marketing, 22 in general and administration and 6 in operations. Management considers labor relations to be positive. We also contract with independent contractors and consultants.

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Facilities

Our principal executive offices are located in San Jose, California, and consist of approximately 5,900 square feet under a lease that expires in October 2026. This facility accommodates our product marketing and finance and administrative activities as well as a small research and development team. We have an approximately 56,500 square-foot facility in Seoul, Korea, which accommodates a research and development center under a lease expiring in December 2026. We have an approximately 100 square-foot facility in Taipei, Taiwan, which houses sales and technical support personnel, under a lease that expires in July 2026. We also have an approximately 850 square-foot facility in Shanghai, China for sales and technical support personnel under a lease that expires in July 2026and an approximately 720 square-foot facility in Shenzhen, China, which accommodates sales and technical support personnel, under a lease that expires in June 2028.

We do not own any real property. We believe that our leased facilities are adequate to meet our current needs and that additional facilities will be available on suitable, commercially reasonable terms to accommodate any future needs.

Legal Proceedings

We are not currently a party to any material legal proceedings. From time to time, we may, however, in the ordinary course of business become involved in legal proceedings. Regardless of outcome, litigation could have a material adverse effect on us due to defense and settlement costs, diversion of management resources, negative publicity, reputational harm and other factors, and there can be no assurances that favorable outcomes will be obtained.

Available Information

We file Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, proxy statements, and related amendments, exhibits and other information with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC. You may access and read our filings without charge through the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov or through our website at https://investors.gctsemi.com/sec-filings, as soon as reasonably practicable after such materials are electronically filed with or furnished to the SEC pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act. Information contained on, or accessible through, our website shall not be deemed incorporated into and is not a part of this Annual Report.

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Item 1A. Risk Factors.

Risk Factors

Investing in our securities involves risks. Before you make a decision to buy our securities, in addition to the risks and uncertainties discussed above under “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements,” you should carefully consider the specific risks set forth herein. If any of these risks actually occur, it may materially harm our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations. As a result, the market price of our securities could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment. Additionally, the risks and uncertainties described in this Annual Report on Form 10-K (the “Annual Report”) or in any document incorporated by reference herein or therein are not the only risks and uncertainties that we face. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently believe to be immaterial may become material and adversely affect our business.

Risks Related to Our Business

We have entered into 5G development and collaboration agreements with certain customers and operators, including a development and collaboration agreement with a Tier 1 wireless communications operator. Under these agreements, we have agreed to design, develop and collaborate with each respective customer to test, qualify and commercialize our chipsets and also to help these customers commercialize products that use our chipsets, and these agreements impose various obligations on us to deliver results and meet certain product development milestones. We have completed certain development milestones and commenced initial commercial shipments of our 5G chipsets to select customers. As we continue to perform under these agreements and expand commercialization, we may receive revenues and fees, including milestone payments upon the achievement of specified business and development objectives and follow-on sales of our chipsets to ODM and OEM suppliers as products using our chipsets ramp in volume.

However, we may encounter difficulties and challenges in meeting our obligations under these development agreements and our anticipated timeline and volumes for product shipments, such as delays in testing and qualifying our products, technical issues in the development and manufacturing of our products, lack of resources and funding to support the development and commercialization efforts, the rise of competitive technologies and products that cause the customers or partners to shift focus and attention elsewhere, lack of funding to support development activities, lack of cooperation by the customers or partners and lack of success of our customers’ products in the marketplace. Any of these factors may adversely affect our ability to monetize these agreements and meet our anticipated product development timeline, including delays in volume shipment of 5G products, which in turn will adversely affect our financial results and results of operations.

If the 5G market develops more slowly than expected, or if we fail to accurately predict market requirements or demand for our 5G solutions, our financial performance could be adversely affected.

We have invested substantial time and resources in developing products that support the 5G wireless communications market, and we have entered into various agreements and arrangements with potential customers and wireless operators to develop wireless communications products to serve the growing needs of this market. Although we have commenced initial commercialization of our 5G solutions, our future growth depends on our ability to accurately anticipate customer requirements, application use cases, pricing sensitivity, and end-market demand, and to scale adoption of our solutions over time. In addition, if 5G networks are deployed to a lesser extent or more slowly than we currently anticipate, or if other competing semiconductor solutions achieve greater market acceptance or if operators do not migrate to 5G as expected, we may not realize the expected benefits from this investment, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our products target primarily certain segments of the wireless markets, including fixed wireless access (“FWA”), mobile broadband and machine-to-machine (“M2M”) applications, and if these markets do not develop or grow as quickly as expected, or if other products or technologies displace or reduce the demands of such market segments, our business operations and financial condition could be negatively impacted. For example, our products are applicable to the FWA market, which is an innovative use case that employs 4G and 5G radio spectrum to provide wireless broadband connectivity between multiple locations and fixed points, such as a mobile network cell tower and a wireless device in a subscriber’s home. FWA provides wireless coverage where there is no fixed line or where fixed line service is poor, including rural areas, where broadband access is limited. However, the FWA market and related demand may be impacted by various factors, including the growth of fixed line services (especially fiber optic lines), the costs and benefits of deploying FWA infrastructure and regulatory requirements for implementing FWA solutions. Each of these factors may adversely affect our ability to sell products into such markets. Similarly, the mobile broadband market can be affected by demand for mobile devices, such as smartphones, wireless modems, and portable wireless devices, and a slowdown in demand for these applications may reduce our ability

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to sell our products. Furthermore, the growth of M2M applications depends on various factors that drive demand, including decisions by businesses, institutions, and regulatory authorities to implement and permit the establishment of infrastructure or systems that utilize M2M wireless communications. These and other factors could adversely affect our business operations and financial condition.

We depend on the commercial deployment of 4th generation (“4G”) long term evolution (“LTE”) and 5G communications equipment, products and services to grow our business, and our business may be harmed if wireless carriers delay adoption of 5G standards, or deploy technologies that are not supported by our solutions.

We depend upon the continued commercial deployment of 4G and 5G wireless communications equipment, products and services based on our technology. Deployment of new networks by wireless carriers requires significant capital expenditures, well in advance of any revenue from such networks. If the rate of deployment of new networks by wireless carriers is slower than we expect, this could reduce sales of our products and could cause original equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”) and original design manufacturers (“ODMs”) to hold excess inventory. This would harm our revenues and financial results. The worldwide commercial deployment and adoption of narrow band LTE variants, Cat M and Cat NB, are expected to expand further the markets for IoT devices. If deployments of the Cat M or Cat NB standards are delayed or if competing standards for IoT devices become favored by wireless carriers, we may not be able to successfully increase sales of our Cat M and Cat NB products, which would harm our revenues and financial results. In addition, our OEM/ODM customers may experience difficulties, delays and other challenges in the transition from 4G to 5G markets, including loss of business opportunities because wireless operators decide to switch suppliers during this transition, which may cause such OEM/ODM customers to reduce demand from us. If the transition from 4G to 5G market encounters disruption or delay, or if the roll off of our 4G business occurs faster than anticipated and /or the loss of our 4G business is not immediately replaced by our 5G sales, it may have an adverse effect on our operating result and financial condition.

If we are unsuccessful in developing and selling new products or in penetrating new markets, our business and operating results would suffer.

The markets in which we and our customers compete or plan to compete are characterized by rapidly changing technologies and industry standards and technological obsolescence. Our ability to compete successfully depends on our ability to design, develop, market and support new products and enhancements on a timely and cost effective basis. A fundamental shift in technologies in any of our target markets, such as the 5G wireless communications markets, could harm our competitive position within these markets. Our failure to anticipate these shifts, develop new technologies or react to changes in existing technologies could delay our development of new products, which could result in product obsolescence, decreased revenue and loss of design wins.

The development of new technologies and products generally requires substantial investment before they become commercially viable, and we have created a roadmap to build and increase our product offerings. Under this roadmap, we intend to continue making substantial investments to develop new technologies and products, and our development efforts may not be successful, and our new technologies and products may not produce meaningful revenue. For example, we currently invest significant resources to develop 5G semiconductor solutions. We may be required, on a case by case basis, to invest additional resources to develop multiple chip solutions in response to changing market demand. If the semiconductor solutions we develop fail to meet market or customer requirements or do not achieve market acceptance, we may not be able to execute our roadmap successfully. In addition, our products have long sales cycles that involve numerous steps, and during this time we may expend substantial financial resources and management time and effort without any assurance that product sales will result. Our sales cycle typically begins when one of our products have been provided to our end customers for evaluation, and thereafter it can take 12 or more months to achieve successful commercialization. The anticipated long sales cycle for our products makes it difficult to predict the quarter in which sales may occur.

The success of our new products will depend on accurate forecasts of long-term market demand, customer and consumer requirements and future technological developments, as well as a variety of specific implementation factors, including:

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accurate prediction of the size and growth of the 4G and 5G markets;

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accurate prediction of the growth of the IoT markets and the timing of commercial availability of 4G and 5G networks;

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accurate prediction of changes in device manufacturer requirements, technology, industry standards or consumer expectations, demands and preferences;

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timely and efficient completion of product design and transfer to manufacturing, assembly and test, and securing sufficient manufacturing capacity to allow us to continue to timely and efficiently deliver products to our customers;

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market acceptance, adequate consumer demand and commercial production of the products in which our mobile and wireless broadband semiconductor solutions are incorporated;

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the quality, performance and reliability of the product as compared to competing products and technologies;

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effective marketing, sales and service; and

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the ability to obtain licenses to use third-party technology to support the development of our products.

If we fail to introduce new products that meet the demands of our customers or our target markets, or if we fail to penetrate new markets, our revenue will likely decrease over time and our financial condition could suffer.

We sell our semiconductor solutions both directly and indirectly through distributors to OEM/ODM customers. Our OEM/ODM customers incorporate our semiconductor solutions in their products and include our semiconductor solutions in the products they supply to their customers. Our semiconductor solutions are generally incorporated into our customers’ products at the design stage. As a result, we rely on OEM/ODM customers to design our semiconductor solutions into the products they sell. Without these design wins, our business would be materially and adversely affected. We often incur significant expenditures on the development of a new semiconductor solution without any guarantees that an OEM/ODM customer will select our semiconductor solution for design into its own product. Once an OEM/ODM customer designs a competitor’s semiconductor into its product offering, it becomes significantly more difficult for us to sell our semiconductor solutions to that customer because changing suppliers involves significant cost, time, effort and risk for the customer. Furthermore, even if an OEM/ODM customer designs one of our semiconductor solutions into its product offering, we cannot be assured that its product will be commercially successful and that we will receive any revenue from that customer. If our customers’ products incorporating our semiconductor solutions fail to meet the demands of their customers or otherwise fail to achieve market acceptance, our revenue and business may suffer.

In addition, we employ a dual-pronged approach to the market that focuses on both operators and OEM/ODM customers in order to facilitate design wins of our products. Under this approach, we rely on key relationships with wireless operators to help create strong endorsement of our products to OEM/ODM customers. If we are not able to develop and maintain our relationships with wireless operators, our sales of products to OEM/ODM customers would likely be adversely affected. Further, if we are not able to provide wireless operators with access to leading OEMs/ODMs that can deliver our solutions in volume, or if these operators choose not to work with our OEM/ODM customers, it may make it more difficult for us to achieve design wins and cause a delay in the deployment of our products, which may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If we are unable to compete effectively, we may not increase or maintain our revenue or market share.

Competition in the wireless semiconductor business continues to increase at a rapid pace as consumers, businesses and governments realize the market potential of wireless products and services. To remain competitive, companies must have highly trained engineering talent and make significant capital investments over long development cycles. We may not be able to compete successfully against current or potential competitors. If we do not compete successfully, our revenue and market share may decline. We face or expect to face competition from established semiconductor companies such as Altair Semiconductor (a Sony Corporation subsidiary), ASR, HiSilicon Technologies (a Huawei subsidiary), Mediatek, Qualcomm Incorporated, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Unisoc (includes Spreadtrum Communications and RDA) and Sequans Communications S.A.

Many of our competitors have longer operating histories and customer relationships, significant legacy products and technologies, greater resources and brand recognition, more industry influence and a larger customer base than us. This may allow them to respond more quickly than us to new or emerging technologies or changes in customer requirements and to provide backward compatibility in their products as required by some operators. In addition, these competitors may have greater credibility with our existing and potential customers. Moreover, our competitors may have been doing business with customers for a longer period of time and have established relationships, which may provide them with information regarding future trends and requirements that may not be available to us. In addition, some of our larger competitors may be able to provide greater incentives to customers through rebates, marketing funds and similar programs. Some of our competitors may also adopt aggressive or predatory pricing policies to offset what we believe are the performance and cost advantages of our solutions. Our competitors with multiple product lines may bundle their products to offer a broader product portfolio or integrate wireless functionality into other products that we do not sell, which may make it difficult for us to gain or maintain market share.

Our ability to compete will depend on a number of factors, including:

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our ability to anticipate market and technology trends and successfully develop products that meet market needs;

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our success in identifying and penetrating new markets, applications and customers;

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our ability to accurately understand the price points and performance metrics of competing products in the marketplace;

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our products’ performance and cost-effectiveness relative to that of competitors’ products;

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our ability to develop and maintain relationships with wireless operators, base station suppliers and OEM/ODM customers;

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our ability to expand international operations in a timely and cost-efficient manner;

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our ability to secure sufficient manufacturing capacity and deliver products in large volume on a timely basis at competitive prices;

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our ability to participate in or influence the process for setting wireless industry standards;

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our ability to conform to industry standards on a timely basis, while developing new and proprietary technologies to offer products and features previously not available in the 4G and 5G markets;

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our ability to recruit design and application engineers with expertise in wireless broadband communications technologies and sales and marketing personnel; and

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our ability to obtain third-party licenses for supporting technologies to develop new products.

Our potential competitors may also establish cooperative relationships among themselves or with third parties, acquire companies that provide similar products to ours, or consolidate with other competitors. As a result, new competitors or alliances between our competitors may emerge that could acquire significant market share. In addition, future development efforts by our competitors could render our products obsolete. Any of these factors, alone or in combination with others, could harm our business and result in a loss of market share, an increase in pricing pressure or inability to achieve and sustain profitability.

If we are unable to effectively manage our business through periods of economic or market slow-down and any subsequent future growth, we may not be able to execute our business plan and our operating results could suffer.

Our future operating results depend to a large extent on our ability to successfully manage our business through periods of economic or market slow-down, and periods of subsequent expansion and growth. To manage our growth successfully, we believe we must, among other things, effectively:

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recruit, hire, train and manage additional qualified engineers for our research and development activities, especially in the positions of design engineering, product and test engineering, and applications engineering;

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add additional sales personnel and expand sales offices;

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add additional finance and information systems personnel;

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implement and improve our administrative, financial and operational systems, procedures and controls; and

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enhance our information technology support for enterprise resource planning and design engineering by adapting and expanding our systems and tool capabilities, and properly training new hires as to their use.

Furthermore, to remain competitive and manage future expansion and growth, we must carry out extensive research and development, which requires significant capital investment. New competitors, technological advances in the semiconductor industry or by competitors, our entry into new markets, or other competitive factors may require us to invest significantly greater resources than we anticipate. If we are required to invest significantly greater resources than anticipated without a corresponding increase in revenue, our operating results could decline. Additionally, our periodic research and development expenses may be independent of our level of revenue, which could negatively impact our financial results. Finally, there can be no guarantee that our research and development investments will result in products that create additional revenue.

During periods of economic or market slow-down, we must also effectively manage our expenses to preserve our ability to carry out such research and development. We are likely to incur product and market development costs earlier than some of the anticipated benefits, and the return on these investments, if any, may be lower, may develop more slowly than we expect, or may not materialize at all, which could harm our operating results. For the last several years, we have dedicated a large portion of our operating expenses to our development of 5G products, which we do not expect will result in significant product revenues before the second half of 2026.

If we are unable to manage our business during both periods of economic or market slow-down and periods of growth effectively, we may not be able to take advantage of market opportunities or develop new products, and we may fail to satisfy customer requirements, maintain product quality, execute our business plan or respond to competitive pressures, any of which could harm our operating results.

We sell our products to OEM/ODM customers either directly or indirectly through distributors. We depend on a small number of customers for a large percentage of our annual revenue. For the year ended December 31, 2025, four customers accounted for 74% of our total revenues and for year ended December 31, 2024, four customers accounted for 73% of our total revenues.

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We expect that sales to a limited number of customers will continue to account for a significant percentage of our revenue for the foreseeable future. Additionally, consolidation among OEMs in some of our markets could result in an increased concentration in our sources of revenue. It is possible that any of our major customers could terminate its purchasing arrangements with us or significantly reduce or delay the amount of our products that it orders, purchase products from our competitors or develop its own products internally. The loss of, or a reduction in, orders from any major customer could cause a decline in revenue and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We do not have firm, long-term purchase commitments from our customers. Substantially all of our sales are made on a purchase order basis, and in most cases, our customers are not contractually committed to buy any quantity of products from us beyond firm purchase orders. Additionally, customers may cancel, change or delay purchase orders already in place under certain conditions. Because production lead times often exceed the amount of time required to fulfill orders, we often must manufacture in advance of orders, relying on an imperfect demand forecast to project volumes and product mix. Our ability to accurately forecast demand can be harmed by a number of factors, including inaccurate forecasting by our customers, changes in market conditions, changes in our product order mix and demand for our customers’ products. Even after an order is received, our customers may cancel these orders or request a decrease in production quantities if certain lead times are respected. Any such cancellation or decrease subjects us to a number of risks, most notably, that our projected sales will not materialize on schedule or at all, leading to unanticipated revenue shortfalls and excess or obsolete inventory, which we may be unable to sell to other customers. Alternatively, if we are unable to project customer requirements accurately, we may not manufacture enough semiconductor solutions, which could lead to delays in product shipments and lost sales opportunities in the near term, as well as force our customers to identify alternative sources, which could affect our ongoing relationships with these customers. We have in the past had customers significantly increase their requested production quantities with little or no advance notice. If we do not fulfill customer demands in a timely manner, our customers may cancel their orders, and we may be subject to customer claims for cost of replacement. Underestimating or overestimating demand would lead to insufficient, excess or obsolete inventory and could harm our operating results, cash flow and financial condition, as well as our relationships with our customers and our reputation in the marketplace.

We may fail to forecast customer demand for our products accurately, which may result in product shortages, delays in product shipments or excess or insufficient product inventory.

All of our sales are made on a purchase order basis which permit our customers to cancel, change or delay product purchase commitments with little or no notice to us and without penalty. Because production lead times often exceed the amount of time required to fulfill orders, we often must manufacture in advance of orders, relying on a demand forecast to project volumes and product mix. Our ability to accurately forecast demand can be adversely affected by a number of factors, including inaccurate forecasting by our customers, changes in market conditions, adverse changes in our product order mix and demand for our customers’ products. Even after an order is received, our customers may cancel or reduce these orders, or require us to reduce the prices of our product. In addition, a customer may delay an order for our products even after it has been placed. These cancellations, reductions, or price changes may subject us to a number of risks, including the following:

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our projected sales will not materialize on schedule or at all;

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unanticipated reduction in revenue and net profit; and

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increase in excess or obsolete inventory which we may be unable to sell to other customers.

Alternatively, if we are unable to project customer requirements accurately, we may not manufacture sufficient semiconductor solutions, which could lead to delays in product shipments and lost sales opportunities in the near term, as well as force our customers to identify alternative sources, which could affect our ongoing relationships with these customers. In the past, we have experienced customers significantly increasing their orders with little or no advance notice. If we do not fulfill customer demands in a timely manner, our customers may cancel their orders, or may decide not to order from us in the future. In addition, we may be subject to customer claims for cost of replacement. Either underestimating or overestimating demand could lead to insufficient, excess or obsolete inventory, which could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations, as well as our customer relationships.

We currently do not have long-term capacity agreements with our main foundries, UMC and Samsung, primarily because historically we have placed only a limited quantity of orders. Accordingly, our foundries are not obligated to perform services or supply wafers to us for any specific period, in any specific quantities, or at any specific price, except as may be provided in a particular purchase order. Foundry capacity allocated to us has in the past been reduced due to strong demand by other foundry customers. The ability of our

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foundry vendors to provide us with semiconductor products is limited by available capacity and existing obligations. Because none of our third-party foundries has provided contractual assurances to us that ensure adequate capacity will be available to us to meet future demand for our products, foundry capacity may not be available when we need it or at reasonable prices. The foundries may allocate capacity to the production of other companies’ products while reducing deliveries to us on short notice or without notice. In particular, our foundries may reallocate capacity to other customers that are larger and better financed than us or that have long-term agreements with our foundry during a period of high demand. In addition, we expect that we may need to secure additional capacity from our foundries in the immediate future to support increasing demand for our products, and there is no guarantee that we will be able to secure this increased capacity to meet our needs.

As we continue to grow our business, we intend to negotiate long-term supply agreements with our main foundries in order to secure capacity commitments. There can be no assurance that we will be able to negotiate these agreements successfully or in a timely fashion, or that any agreements we enter into will provide us with favorable pricing or sufficient capacity to meet our customer demand. Our failure to secure suitable long-term capacity agreements with our foundries may limit our ability to expand our market and may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Any increase in the manufacturing cost of our products could reduce our gross margins and operating profit.

The semiconductor business experiences ongoing competitive pricing pressure from customers and competitors. Accordingly, any increase in the cost of our products, whether by adverse changes in purchase price or adverse manufacturing cost, will reduce our gross margins and operating profit. In general, we do not have long-term supply agreements with our foundry, test, assembly and other vendors other than a framework agreement with UMC. As a result, we typically negotiate pricing on a purchase order basis. Therefore, we may not be able to obtain price reductions or anticipate or prevent future price increases from our suppliers. There is no assurance that our manufacturing suppliers will be able to deliver raw materials, goods and services to us at reasonable prices and the required volume. These and other related factors could impair our ability to meet our customers’ needs and have an adverse effect on our operating results, including our ability to reduce net loss and achieve profitability. See “Risk Related to Our Finances- We have a history of losses, and we may not achieve or sustain profitability in the future, on a quarterly or annual basis.”

If our foundry vendors do not achieve satisfactory yields or quality, our reputation, customer relationships and financial performance could be harmed.

The fabrication of chipsets is a complex and technically demanding process. Minor deviations in the manufacturing process can cause substantial decreases in yields, and in some cases, cause production to be suspended. Our foundry vendor could, from time to time, experience manufacturing defects and reduced manufacturing yields. Changes in manufacturing processes or the inadvertent use of defective or contaminated materials by our foundry vendor could result in lower than anticipated manufacturing yields or unacceptable performance. Many of these problems are difficult to detect at an early stage of the manufacturing process and may be time consuming and expensive to correct. Poor yields from our foundry vendor, or defects, integration issues or other performance problems in our products could cause us significant customer relations and business reputation problems, harm our financial results and result in financial or other damages to our customers. Our customers could also seek damages from us for their losses. A product liability claim brought against us, even if unsuccessful, would likely be time consuming and costly to defend.

Our semiconductor solutions are manufactured at a limited number of locations. If we experience manufacturing problems at a particular location, we would be required to transfer manufacturing to a backup location or supplier. Converting or transferring manufacturing from a primary location or supplier to a backup fabrication facility could be expensive and may not be completed for an extended period of time. During such a transition, we would be required to meet customer demand from our then-existing inventory, as well as any partially finished goods that can be modified to the required product specifications. We do not seek to maintain sufficient inventory to address a lengthy transition period because we believe it is not economical to keep more than minimal inventory on hand. As a result, we may not be able to meet customer needs during a transition, which could delay shipments, cause a production delay or stoppage for our customers, result in a decline in our sales and damage our customer relationships. In addition, a significant portion of our sales are to customers that practice just-in-time order management from their suppliers which gives us a very limited amount of time to process and complete these orders. As a result, delays in our production or shipping by the parties to whom we outsource these functions could reduce our sales, damage our customer relationships and our reputation in the marketplace, any of which could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We may experience difficulties in transitioning to new wafer fabrication process technologies or in achieving higher levels of design integration, which may result in reduced manufacturing yields, delays in product deliveries or increased costs.

We currently use standard 110-nanometer, 40-nanometer and 28-nanometer standard RF, mixed-signal and digital CMOS production processes. We are also developing our next generation of products using 8-nanometer process technology. To remain competitive, we expect to continue to transition our semiconductor products to progressively smaller geometries and to achieve higher levels of design integration. These ongoing efforts require us from time to time to modify the manufacturing processes for our products and to redesign some products, which in turn may result in delays in product deliveries. We periodically evaluate the benefits of migrating to new

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process technologies to reduce cost and improve performance. We may face difficulties, delays and increased expenses as we transition our products to new processes and potentially to new foundries. We depend on our relationships with our existing wafer foundries to transition to new processes successfully. There is no assurance that these foundries will be able to effectively manage the transition or that we will be able to maintain our relationship with them or develop relationships with new foundries. In addition, as new processes become more prevalent, we expect to continue to integrate greater levels of functionality, as well as end customer and third-party intellectual property, into our products. However, we may not be able to achieve higher levels of design integration or deliver new integrated products on a timely basis. If we or our wafer foundries experience significant delays in transitioning to smaller geometries or fail to efficiently implement transitions and new processes, we could experience reduced manufacturing yields, delays in product deliveries and increased costs, any or all of which could harm our relationships with our customers, and our business, financial condition and operating results.

The complexity of our semiconductor solutions could result in unforeseen delays or expenses from undetected defects, errors or bugs in hardware or software, which could reduce the market acceptance for our new semiconductor solutions.

Highly complex semiconductor solutions, such as ours, frequently contain defects, errors and bugs when they are first introduced or as new versions are released. We have in the past and may in the future experience these defects, errors and bugs. If any of our semiconductor solutions have reliability, quality, or compatibility problems, we may not be able to successfully correct these problems in a timely manner or at all. In addition, if any of our proprietary features contain defects, errors or bugs when first introduced or as new versions are released, we may be unable to correct these problems. Consequently, our reputation may be damaged and customers may be reluctant to buy our semiconductor solutions, which could harm our ability to retain existing customers and attract new customers, as well as our financial results. In addition, these defects, errors or bugs could interrupt or delay sales to our customers. If any of these problems are not found until after we have commenced commercial production of a new semiconductor solution, we may be required to incur additional development costs and product recalls, repairs or replacement costs. These problems may also result in claims against us by our customers or others.

War, terrorism, geopolitical uncertainties and other business interruptions could cause damage to, disrupt or cancel sales of our products and services on a global or regional basis, which could have a material adverse effect on our business or vendors with which we do business. Such events could also make it difficult or impossible for us to deliver products and services to our customers, or to advance our product development efforts. In addition, territorial invasions can lead to cybersecurity attacks on technology companies, such as ours, located far outside of the conflict zone. In the event of prolonged business interruptions due to geopolitical events, we could incur significant losses, require substantial recovery time and experience significant expenditures in order to resume our business operations.

We do not and cannot know if the current uncertainties in these geopolitical areas, which are unfolding in real-time, may escalate and result in broad economic and security conditions, which could result in material implications for our business. In addition, our insurance policies typically contain a war exclusion of some description and we do not know how our insurers are likely to respond in the event of a loss alleged to have been caused by geopolitical uncertainties.

Risks Related to Our Finances

We have a history of losses, and we may not achieve or sustain profitability in the future, on a quarterly or annual basis.

We began operations in 1998 and have incurred losses on an annual basis since inception. We have incurred and will continue to incur significant operating losses. For the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, we had a net loss of $43.4 million and $12.4 million, respectively, and used cash in operating activities of $30.7 million and $31.0 million, respectively. We had short-term debt in the amount of $56.6 million and $37.6 million, including borrowings as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. As of December 31, 2025 and 2024, we had an accumulated deficit of $605.4 million and $562.0 million, respectively and negative working capital of approximately $67.7 million and $43.3 million. We expect to incur significant expenses related to the research and development of our products and expansion of our business. Furthermore, the rapidly evolving wireless communications markets in which we sell our products, as well as other factors, make it difficult for us to forecast quarterly and annual revenue accurately. As a result, we could experience cash flow management problems, unexpected fluctuations in our results of operations and other difficulties, any of which would make it difficult for us to meet our debt obligations and achieve and maintain profitability.

Our consolidated financial statements do not include any adjustments to reflect the possible future effects on the recoverability and classification of assets or the amounts and classification of liabilities that might be necessary if we are unable to obtain adequate financing in the future. Accordingly, if we do not generate a sufficient level of revenue or become profitable, we will be required to seek other sources of funding, such as issuance of equity or debt securities to raise capital. Any such financings may not be accessible on acceptable terms, if at all. The failure to raise additional capital or otherwise obtain funding for our operation will have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial position. In addition, given our current available cash and the need to secure

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additional funding, the report of our independent registered accounting firm included in this Form 10-K contains a paragraph expressing substantial doubt as to our ability to continue as a going concern. If we are unable to continue as a going concern, our stockholders may lose some or all of their investment in the Company.

Our business requires significant capital investment to carry out extensive research and development in order to remain competitive. At the same time, demand for our products is highly variable and there have been downturns. If our cash on hand, net proceeds from financing activities and cash generated from operations are not sufficient to fund our operations and capital requirements, we may be required to limit our growth, or enter into financing arrangements at unfavorable terms, any of which could harm our business and financial condition. We expect capital outlays and operating expenditures to increase over the next several years as we expand our operations and product development activities. We may be unable to raise additional capital on favorable terms, if at all, which would harm our ability to fund our operations and may force us to cease operations. We regularly consider fund raising opportunities and may decide, from time to time, to raise capital based on various factors, including market conditions and our plans of operation. We may experience difficulties in accessing the capital markets due to external factors beyond our control, such as volatility in the equity markets, the trading price and volume of our stock and general economic and market conditions both in the United States and abroad. We have utilized, and may continue to utilize, equity financing transactions, including at-the-market offerings and registered direct offerings, to raise capital. While these financing alternatives provide us with additional flexibility, our ability to raise capital through such transactions depends on market conditions, investor demand, and the trading price and liquidity of our common stock, and such transactions may result in significant dilution to existing stockholders. In addition, we rely substantially on investors, banks, lenders and partners in South Korea to provide loans and fundings for our operations, and our ability to secure such funding may be affected by the economic, banking and capital market conditions and trends in South Korea. While we have entered into equity financing arrangements, including an equity line of credit and other equity offering structures, our ability to raise capital under these arrangements may be constrained by trading volume, price volatility, contractual limitations, or market conditions. Additionally, we anticipate that strategic alliances and partnerships will be an important source of revenue and possible financing for us going forward. If we are unable to develop alliances with or otherwise attract investment from strategic partners, or if strategic partners are not willing to enter into transactions with us on favorable terms, our business and financial condition could be harmed.

Our indebtedness could adversely affect our operations, including our ability to perform our obligations and fund working capital.

As of December 31, 2025, we have borrowings with a total principal amount of $62.6 million, of which $56.6 million is contractually due within 12 months from the reporting date. We may also incur substantial additional indebtedness. Our indebtedness could have important consequences, including the following:

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we may be unsuccessful in refinancing our existing indebtedness on a long-term basis;

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we could have difficulty satisfying our debt obligations, and if we fail to comply with these requirements, an event of default could result;

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we may be required to dedicate a substantial portion of our cash flow from operations to required payments on indebtedness, thereby reducing the cash flow available to fund 5G and other product development, working capital, capital expenditures and other general corporate activities;

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in order to manage our debt and cash flows, we may increase our short-term indebtedness and decrease our long-term indebtedness which may not achieve the desired results;

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covenants relating to our indebtedness may limit our ability to obtain additional financing for working capital, capital expenditures and other general corporate activities, which may limit our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business and the industry in which we operate;

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we may be more vulnerable to general adverse economic and industry conditions;

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we may be placed at a competitive disadvantage compared to our competitors with less debt; and

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we may have difficulty repaying or refinancing our obligations under our senior credit facilities on their respective maturity dates.

If any of these consequences occur, our financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected. This, in turn, could negatively affect the market price of our Common Stock, and we may need to undertake alternative financing plans, such as refinancing or restructuring our debt, selling assets, reducing or delaying capital investments or seeking to raise additional capital. We cannot assure that any refinancing would be possible, that any assets could be sold, or, if sold, of the timing of the sales and the amount of proceeds that may be realized from those sales, or that additional financing could be obtained on acceptable terms, if at all. In addition, while we were able to negotiate with our lenders of commercial loans to extend the maturity dates or modify payment schedules, there is no

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guarantee that we will be successful in negotiating such terms in the future, and failure to do so may result in defaults under the loans, which will have an adverse effect on our financial conditions and results of operations.

Risks Relating to Our Intellectual Property

Our failure to protect our intellectual property rights adequately could impair our ability to compete effectively or to defend ourselves from litigation.

We rely primarily on patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws, as well as confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements and other methods, to protect our proprietary technologies and know-how. As of December 31, 2025, we hold 34 US patents, 34 Korean patents, 7 Taiwanese patents, 5 Japanese patents, 4 Chinese patents, and 2 patents issued in other countries. Even if the pending patent applications are granted, the rights granted to us may not be meaningful or provide us with any commercial advantage. For example, these patents could be opposed, contested, circumvented or designed around by our competitors or be declared invalid or unenforceable in judicial or administrative proceedings. The failure of our patents to adequately protect our technology might make it easier for our competitors to offer similar products or technologies. Our foreign patent protection is generally not as comprehensive as our U.S. patent protection and may not protect our intellectual property in some countries where our products are sold or may be sold in the future. Many U.S.-based companies have encountered substantial intellectual property infringement in foreign countries, including countries where we sell products. Even if foreign patents are granted, effective enforcement in foreign countries may not be available.

The legal standards relating to the validity, enforceability and scope of protection of intellectual property rights are uncertain and evolving. There is no assurance that others will not develop or patent similar or superior technologies, products or services, or that our patents, trademarks and other intellectual property will not be challenged, invalidated or circumvented by others.

Unauthorized copying or other misappropriation of our proprietary technologies could enable third parties to benefit from our technologies without paying us for doing so, which could harm our business. Monitoring unauthorized use of our intellectual property is difficult and costly. Although we are not aware of any unauthorized use of our intellectual property in the past, it is possible that unauthorized use of our intellectual property may have occurred or may occur without our knowledge. There is no assurance that the steps we have taken will prevent unauthorized use of our intellectual property. Our failure to effectively protect our intellectual property could reduce the value of our technology in licensing arrangements or in cross-licensing negotiations. We may in the future need to initiate infringement claims or litigation. Litigation, whether we are a plaintiff or a defendant, can be expensive, time-consuming and may divert the efforts of our technical staff and managerial personnel, which could harm our business, whether or not such litigation results in a determination favorable to us. If we are unable to protect our proprietary rights or if third parties independently develop or gain access to our or similar technologies, our business, revenue, reputation and competitive position could be harmed.

We rely primarily on patent, trademark, trade secret and similar laws, as well as nondisclosure and confidentiality agreements, international treaties and other methods, to protect our intellectual property and proprietary information. Enforcing our intellectual property against misappropriation, infringement or unauthorized use may be costly, difficult and time consuming. We cannot be certain that the steps we have taken and will take in the future will prevent the misappropriation, infringement or unauthorized use of our products, technologies or intellectual property, particularly in foreign countries where the laws may not protect our rights as fully or as readily as United States laws or where the enforcement of such laws may be lacking or ineffective.

We generally enter into confidentiality agreements with our employees, consultants, strategic partners and any other third party we do business with, where our relationship with such parties may entail disclosure of our confidential information. We also try to control access to and distribution of our technologies, documentation and other proprietary information. Despite these efforts, internal or external parties may attempt to copy, disclose, obtain or use our products or technology without our authorization. Also, former employees may seek employment with our business partners, customers or competitors, and may improperly use our proprietary information for the benefit of or in connection with their new employer.

We may be subject to claims of infringement or misappropriation of third-party intellectual property rights, and any such infringement or other intellectual property claim made against us, whether or not it has merit, could be time-consuming, result in costly litigation, cause product delays, or require us to enter into royalty or licensing agreements.

Our competitors and other third parties hold numerous patents related to technology used in our industry, and may hold or obtain patents, copyrights, trademarks or other intellectual property rights that could prevent, limit, or interfere with our ability to make, use, develop, sell or market our products and services, which could make it more difficult for us to operate our business. From time to time we may be subject to claims of infringement, misappropriation or other violation of patents or other intellectual property rights and related

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litigation. Regardless of their merit, responding to such claims can be time consuming, can divert management’s attention and resources, and may cause us to incur significant expenses in litigation or settlement, and we cannot be certain that we would be successful in defending against any such claims in litigation or other proceedings. If we do not successfully defend or settle an intellectual property claim, we could be liable for significant monetary damages and could be prohibited from continuing to use certain technology, business methods, content or brands, and from making, selling or incorporating certain components or intellectual property into the products and services we offer. As a result, we could be forced to redesign our products and services, and/or to establish and maintain alternative branding for our products and services. To avoid litigation or being prohibited from marketing or selling the relevant products or services, we could seek a license from the applicable third party, which could require us to pay significant royalties, licensing fees, or other payments, increasing our operating expenses. If a license is not available at all or not available on reasonable terms, we may be required to develop or license a non-violating alternative, either of which could be infeasible or require significant effort and expense. If we cannot license or develop a non-violating alternative, we would be forced to limit or stop sales of our offerings and may be unable to effectively compete. Moreover, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments and if securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a substantial adverse effect on the price of shares of our common stock (the “Common Stock”). Any of these results could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations and prospects. Finally, any litigation or claims, whether or not valid, could result in substantial costs, negative publicity and diversion of resources and management attention, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Any potential dispute involving our patents or other intellectual property could also include our industry partners and customers, which could trigger any indemnification obligations to them and result in substantial expense to us.

In any potential dispute involving our patents or other intellectual property, our licensees could also become the target of litigation, and certain customers have received notices of written offers from our competitors and others claiming to have patent rights in certain technology and inviting our customers to license this technology. Because we may indemnify our licensees and customers for intellectual property claims made against them for products incorporating our technology, any litigation could trigger technical support and indemnification obligations in some of our license agreements, which could result in substantial payments and expenses by us. In addition to the time and expense required for us to supply support or indemnification to our licensees and customers, any such litigation could severely disrupt or shut down the business of our customers, which in turn could hurt our relations with our customers and cause the sale of our proprietary technologies and products to decrease.

We or our customers may be required to obtain licenses for certain so-called “standard essential patents” in order to comply with applicable standards, which could require us to pay additional royalties on certain of our products. If we or our customers are unable to obtain such licenses, our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects would be harmed.

We or our customers may be required to obtain licenses for third-party intellectual property. In particular, we may be required to obtain licenses to certain third-party patents, so-called “standard essential patents,” that claim features or functions that are incorporated into applicable industry standards and that we are required to provide in order to comply with the standard. If we need to license any third-party intellectual property, standard essential patents or other technology, we could be required to pay royalties on certain of our products. In addition, while the industry standards bodies and antitrust laws in certain countries may require participating companies to license their standard essential patents on fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory terms, there can be no assurances that we will be able to obtain such licenses on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Although we have implemented a dedicated standard essential patents licensing-in reference policy, our inability to obtain required third-party intellectual property licenses on commercially reasonable terms or at all could harm our business, results of operations, financial condition or prospects. If our customers are required to obtain such licenses, there can be no assurances that their businesses will not be adversely affected. In addition, if our competitors have significant numbers of essential patents and/or patent license rights, they could be at an advantage in negotiating with our customers or potential customers, which could influence our ability to win new business or could result in downward pressure on our average selling prices.

Our failure to comply with obligations under open source licenses could require us to release our source code to the public or cease distribution of our products, which could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Some of the software used with our products, as well as that of some of our customers, may be derived from so-called “open source” software that is generally made available to the public by its authors and/or other third parties. This open source software is often made available to us under licenses, such as the GNU General Public License, which impose certain obligations on us in the event we were to make available derivative works of the open source software. These obligations may require us to make source code for the derivative works available to the public, and/or license such derivative works under a particular type of license, rather than the forms of license customarily used to protect our intellectual property. In addition, there is little or no legal precedent for interpreting the terms of certain of these open source licenses, including the determination of which works are subject to the terms of such licenses. While we believe we have complied with our obligations under the various applicable licenses for open source software, in the event the copyright holder of any open source software were to successfully establish in court that we have not complied with the terms of a license for a particular work, we could be required to release the source code of that work to the public and/or stop distribution of that work, which may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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We may not be able to obtain additional patents and the legal protection afforded by any additional patents may not adequately cover the full scope of our business or permit us to gain or keep competitive advantage.

Our ability to obtain additional patents is uncertain and the legal protection afforded by these patents may not adequately protect our rights or permit us to gain or keep competitive advantage. In addition, the specific content required of patents and patent applications that are necessary to support and interpret patent claims can be uncertain due to the complex nature of the relevant legal, scientific and factual issues. Changes in either patent laws or interpretations of patent laws in the United States or elsewhere may diminish the value of our intellectual property or narrow the scope of our patent protection. Even if patents are issued regarding our products and processes, our competitors may challenge the validity of those patents.

We may not be able to obtain reimbursements from our customers for costs related to research and development activities.

In connection with product development agreements with certain customers, we received non-recurring engineering (“NRE”) fees to reimburse costs incurred in the development and design of our products. These arrangements are motivated primarily by the opportunity to engage customers and at the same time, jointly progress our own research and development activities with the associated development compensation. During the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, we recognized $1.7 million and $4.4 million, respectively, related to these NRE contracts and as a service revenue. Generally, these NRE reimbursements are paid upon the completion of specified milestones in our product development contracts. However, there is no guarantee that we will be able to satisfy these milestones, and failure to do so may delay or prevent us from receiving NRE fees.

We rely on third parties for supporting technology that is integrated into some of our products. If we are unable to continue to use or license on reasonable terms third-party technologies used in some of our products, we may not be able to secure alternatives on a timely basis and our business could be harmed. Even if we are able to secure an alternative license to replace the loss of an existing technology, our transition to this new technology may require additional time and expenses. Any delay or incurrence of additional costs could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock and Our Corporate Structure

The market price of our Common Stock may be volatile, which could cause the value of your investment to decline.

Prior to our Business Combination, our Common Stock was not traded in a public market. Our common stock is publicly traded, but there can be no assurance that an active or liquid trading market will be maintained. The trading price of our Common Stock can be volatile and subject to wide fluctuations in price in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our control. These factors include:

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changes in financial estimates, including our ability to meet our future revenue and operating profit or loss projections;

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changes in earnings estimates or recommendations by securities analysts;

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fluctuations in our operating results or those of our customers, operators or other semiconductor companies;

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commercial deployment and upgrade of 4G and 5G wireless networks;

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economic developments in the semiconductor or mobile and wireless industries as a whole;

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general economic conditions and slow or negative growth of related markets;

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announcements by us or our customers or competitors of acquisitions, new products, significant contracts or orders, commercial relationships or capital commitments;

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announcements regarding intellectual property litigation involving us or our competitors;

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changes in the financial estimates of our competitors;

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our ability to develop and market new and enhanced products on a timely basis;

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changes in the pricing and costs of manufacturing;

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commencement of or our involvement in litigation;

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any major change in our board of directors (the “Board”) or management;

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political or social conditions in the markets where we sell our products; and

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changes in governmental regulations.

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In addition, the stock market in general, and the market for semiconductor and other technology companies in particular, have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. These broad market and industry factors may cause the market price of our Common Stock to decrease, regardless of our actual operating performance. These trading price fluctuations may also make it more difficult for us to use our Common Stock as a means to make acquisitions or to use options to purchase or to attract and retain employees. In addition, in the past, following periods of volatility in the overall market and the market price of a company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against these companies. This litigation, if instituted against us, could result in substantial costs and a diversion of our management’s attention and resources for our business operations.

If securities analysts or industry analysts downgrade our Common Stock, publish negative research or reports, or do not publish reports about our business, our Common Stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our Common Stock will be influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts publish about us, our business and our market. If one or more analysts adversely change their recommendation regarding our Common Stock or our competitors’ stock, our stock price could decline. If one or more analysts cease coverage of us or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause our Common Stock price or trading volume to decline.

Delaware law, our Charter and Bylaws contain provisions that could delay or discourage takeover attempts that stockholders may consider favorable.

Provisions in the Second Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation of the Company (the “Charter”) and the Amended and Restated Bylaws of the Company (the “Bylaws”) may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control or changes in our management. These provisions include the following:

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the right of our Board to elect a director to fill a vacancy created by the expansion of our Board or due to the resignation or departure of an existing Board member;

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the prohibition of cumulative voting in the election of directors, which would otherwise allow less than a majority of stockholders to elect director candidates;

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the requirement for the advance notice of nominations for election to our Board or for proposing matters that can be acted upon at a stockholders’ meeting;

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the ability of our Board to alter our Bylaws without obtaining stockholder approval;

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the ability of our Board to issue, without stockholder approval, up to 10,000,000 shares of preferred stock (“Preferred Stock”) with terms set by our Board, which rights could be senior to those of our Common Stock;

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the elimination of the rights of stockholders to call a special meeting of stockholders and to take action by written consent in lieu of a meeting; and

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the required approval of at least a majority of the shares entitled to vote at an election of directors to remove directors without cause.

In addition, because we are incorporated in Delaware, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law (“DGCL”). These provisions may prohibit large stockholders, particularly those owning 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock, from merging or combining with us. These provisions in our Charter, our Bylaws and under Delaware law could discourage potential takeover attempts and could reduce the price that investors might be willing to pay for shares of our Common Stock in the future and could result in our market price being lower than it would without these provisions.

We do not intend to pay dividends on our Common Stock and, consequently, your ability to achieve a return on your investment will depend on appreciation in the price of our Common Stock.

We do not intend to declare and pay dividends on our capital stock for the foreseeable future. We currently intend to invest our future earnings, if any, to fund our growth. Therefore, you are not likely to receive any dividends on your Common Stock for the foreseeable future and the success of an investment in shares of our Common Stock will depend upon any future appreciation in our value. There is no guarantee that shares of our Common Stock will appreciate in value or even maintain the price at which our stockholders have purchased their shares.

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Risks Relating to Our Industry and Regulatory Environment

The semiconductor and communications industries are cyclical and have historically experienced significant fluctuations, including prolonged downturns and periods of supply imbalance, which could impact our operating results, financial condition and cash flows.

The semiconductor industry has historically exhibited a pattern of cyclicality, which at various times has included significant downturns in customer demand. Cyclical downturns can result in substantial declines in semiconductor demand, production overcapacity, high inventory levels and accelerated erosion of average selling prices. Such downturns result from a variety of market forces including constant and rapid technological change, quick product obsolescence, price erosion, evolving standards, short product life cycles and wide fluctuations in product supply and demand.

Conversely, periods of exceptionally strong demand concentrated in specific semiconductor segments, including demand associated with artificial intelligence (“AI”) applications or other high-growth technologies, may create industry-wide supply constraints and capacity distortions. Large, well-capitalized semiconductor companies serving high-growth markets may receive priority access to wafer foundry capacity, advanced packaging, memory components, substrates and other critical inputs. If manufacturing resources or raw materials become constrained or disproportionately allocated to suppliers serving these high-demand sectors, we may experience reduced access to capacity, increased input costs, extended lead times, or delays in production and delivery of our products. Such constraints could adversely affect our ability to meet customer demand, manage inventory, or execute our product roadmap, which could materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Recent downturns in the semiconductor industry have been attributed to a variety of factors, including global macroeconomic uncertainty, global/regional pandemic (i.e., SARS, COVID-19), trade and geopolitical tensions, weakness in end-market demand and pricing across semiconductor applications, and excess inventory levels. In recent periods, portions of the semiconductor industry have experienced downturns driven by inventory corrections and reduced demand in certain end markets, while other segments have experienced increased investment and growth. These mixed industry conditions have impacted our business, as well as our suppliers, distributors, and end customers.

Because a significant portion of our expenses are fixed in the near term or is incurred in advance of anticipated sales, we may not be able to reduce our expenses rapidly enough to offset any unanticipated shortfall in revenue. If this situation were to occur, it could adversely affect our operating results, cash flow and financial condition. Furthermore, the semiconductor industry has periodically experienced increased demand and production constraints. If this happens in the future, we may not be able to produce sufficient quantities of our products to meet the increased demand. We may also have difficulty in obtaining sufficient wafer, assembly and test resources from our subcontract manufacturers. Any factor adversely affecting the semiconductor industry in general, or the particular segments of the industry that our products target, may adversely affect our ability to generate revenue and could negatively impact our operating results.

The wireless communications industry has, in the past, experienced pronounced downturns, and these cycles may continue in the future. A future decline in global economic conditions could have adverse, wide-ranging effects on demand for our products and for the products of our customers, particularly wireless communications equipment manufacturers or other members of the wireless industry, such as wireless network operators. Inflation, deflation and economic recessions that adversely affect the global economy and capital markets also adversely affect our customers and end consumers. For example, our customers’ ability to purchase or pay for our products and services, obtain financing and upgrade wireless networks could be adversely affected, which may lead to many networking equipment providers slowing their research and development activities, canceling or delaying new product development, reducing their inventories and taking a cautious approach to acquiring our products, which would have a significant negative impact on our business. If this situation were to occur, it could adversely affect our operating results, cash flow and financial condition. In the future, any of these trends may also cause our operating results to fluctuate significantly from year to year, which may increase the volatility of the price of our Common Stock.

The wireless and consumer electronics industry is characterized by short product cycles, significant fluctuations in supply and demand, and rapidly changing technologies, and we may not be able to meet these challenges successfully or consistently.

A substantial portion of our products is incorporated into wireless and consumer electronics industry. The wireless and consumer electronics industry into which we sell our products is characterized by high growth, short product cycles, significant fluctuations in supply and demand, and rapidly changing technologies. In order to remain competitive, wireless and consumer electronics manufacturers must continuously develop new technologies, deliver new products and otherwise adjust their business strategies to meet these challenges. We may not be able to implement the necessary measures timely, or if at all, to mitigate these industry-wide forces. For example, We may not be able to timely reduce our expenses to offset the impact of lower revenue in a cyclical downturn due to a reduction in demand, or it may be difficult for us to quickly shift the direction of our research and development efforts in response to new market requirements. Our failure to do so could have an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

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Changes in current laws or the imposition of new laws regulating the wireless networks and radio frequency emission could impede the sale of our products or otherwise harm our business.

Wireless networks can only operate in the frequency bands, or spectrum, allowed by regulators and in accordance with rules governing how the spectrum can be used. The Federal Communications Commission, or the FCC, in the United States, as well as regulators in foreign countries, have broad jurisdiction over the allocation of frequency bands for wireless networks. We therefore rely on the FCC and international regulators to provide sufficient spectrum and usage rules. For example, countries such as China, Taiwan, Japan, or Korea heavily regulate all aspects of their wireless communication industries and may restrict spectrum allocation or usage. If further restrictions were to be imposed over the frequency range where our semiconductor solutions are designed to operate, we may have difficulty in selling our products in those regions. In addition, our semiconductor solutions operate in the 2 and 3 gigahertz, or GHz, band, which in some countries is also used by government and commercial services such as military and commercial aviation. The FCC and European regulators have traditionally protected government uses of the 2 and 3 GHz bands by setting power limits and indoor and outdoor designation and requiring that wireless local area networking devices not interfere with other users of the band such as government and civilian satellite services. Changes in current laws or regulations or the imposition of new laws and regulations in the United States or elsewhere regarding the allocation and usage of the 2 and 3 GHz band on us, our customers or the industries in which we operate may materially and adversely impact the sale of our products and our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The large amount of capital required to obtain radio frequency licenses, deploy and expand wireless networks and obtain new subscribers could slow the growth of the wireless communications industry and adversely affect our business.

Our growth is dependent upon the increased use of wireless communications services that utilize our technology. In order to provide wireless communications services, wireless operators must obtain rights to use specific radio frequencies. The allocation of frequencies is regulated in the United States and other countries throughout the world, and limited spectrum space is allocated to wireless communications services. Industry growth may be affected by the amount of capital required to obtain licenses to use new frequencies, deploy wireless networks to offer voice and data services, expand wireless networks to grow voice and data services and obtain new subscribers. The significant cost of licenses, wireless networks and subscriber additions may slow the growth of the industry if wireless operators are unable to obtain or service the additional capital necessary to implement or expand 4G/5G wireless networks. Our growth could be adversely affected if this occurs.

We may experience a decrease in market demand due to uncertain economic conditions in the United States and in international markets, which has been further exacerbated by the concerns of terrorism, war and social and political instability.

Economic growth in the United States and international markets has slowed significantly. The uncertainty in the economic environment may contribute to the volatility in the United States stock markets, which has experienced significant fluctuations recently. In addition, terrorist attacks in the United States and turmoil in the Middle East, including the recent war between Israel and Hamas, have increased the uncertainty in the United States economy and may contribute to a decline in economic conditions, both domestically and internationally. Terrorist acts and similar events, or war in general, could contribute further to a slowdown of the market demand for goods and services, including demand for our products. If the economy declines as a result of the recent economic, political and social turmoil, including any potential default or downgrade in the rating of United States debt obligations, or if there are further terrorist attacks in the United States or elsewhere, we may experience decreases in the demand for our products and services, which may harm our operating results.

Rapidly changing standards could make our semiconductor solutions obsolete, which would cause our operating results to suffer.

We design our semiconductor solutions to conform to standards set by industry standard bodies, including the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., or IEEE, and the 3rd Generation Partnership Project, or 3GPP. We also depend on industry groups, such as the WiMAX Forum, to certify and maintain certification of our semiconductor solutions. If our customers adopt new or competing industry standards with which our semiconductor solutions are not compatible, or such industry groups fail to adopt standards with which our semiconductor solutions are compatible, our existing semiconductor solutions would become less desirable to our customers and our sales would suffer. The emergence of markets for our products is affected by a variety of factors beyond our control. In particular, our semiconductor solutions are designed to conform to current specific industry standards. Competing standards may emerge that are preferred by our customers, which could also reduce our sales and require us to make significant expenditures to develop new semiconductor solutions. Governments and foreign regulators may adopt standards with which our semiconductor solutions are not compatible, favor alternative technologies or adopt stringent regulations that would impair or make commercially unviable the deployment of our semiconductor solutions. In addition, products that implement existing standards may be challenged as infringing upon third-party intellectual property rights and may become obsolete.

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Changes in trade policies, sanctions, export controls, or broader political and regulatory conditions, including disruptions in government operations, could reduce demand for our products, limit our ability to sell or transfer our products, or otherwise adversely affect our business.

Changes in government trade policies, including the imposition of tariffs, sanctions and export restrictions, have limited and could continue to limit our ability to sell or provide our products and other items to certain customers and suppliers, which may materially adversely affect our sales and results of operations.

GCTS US Equity

GCTS · 10-K · period ended 2025-12-31

Item 1. Business.

Item 1A. Risk Factors.

GCTS US Equity☆

GCTS · 10-K · period ended 2025-12-31

Item 1. Business.

Item 1A. Risk Factors.

GCTS US Equity