smci-20240630
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
______________________________________________________________________
Form 10-K
______________________________________________________________________
For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024
or
For the transition period from___________to___________
Commission File Number 001-33383
______________________________________________________________________
Super Micro Computer, Inc.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
______________________________________________________________________
980 Rock Avenue
San Jose, CA95131
(Address of principal executive offices, including zip code)
(408) 503-8000
(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)
__________________________________________________________________________
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title of each class Trading Symbol Name of each exchange on which registered
Common Stock, $0.001 par value per share SMCI NASDAQ Global Select Market
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 Section 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, a 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 Act) Yes ☐ No ☒
The aggregate market value of the registrant’s common stock held by non-affiliates, based upon the closing price of the common stock on December 31, 2023, as reported by the NASDAQ Global Select Market, was $13,520,556,853. Shares of common stock held by each executive officer and director and by each person who owns 5% or more of the outstanding common stock, based on filings with the Securities Exchange Commission, have been excluded since such persons may be deemed affiliates. This determination of affiliate status is not necessarily a conclusive determination for other purposes.
As of January 31, 2025, there were 593,481,352 shares of the registrant’s common stock, $0.001 par value, outstanding, which is the only class of common stock of the registrant issued. The foregoing reflects a forward stock split of the registrant’s common stock that became effective on September 30, 2024, and began trading on a post-split adjusted basis on October 1, 2024.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
None
SUPER MICRO COMPUTER, INC.
ANNUAL REPORT ON FORM 10-K
FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 2024
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
PART I
Item 1. Business 1
Item 1A. Risk Factors 11
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments 43
Item 1C. Cybersecurity 43
Item 2. Properties 44
Item 3. Legal Proceedings 45
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures 45
PART II
Item 6. [Reserved] 48
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk 62
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 63
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures 121
Item 9B. Other Information 126
Item 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections 126
PART III
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 126
Item 11. Executive Compensation 135
Item 14. Principal Accountant Fees and Services 175
PART IV
Item 15. Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules 175
Unless the context requires otherwise, the words “Super Micro,” “Supermicro,” “we,” “Company,” “us” and “our” in this document refer to Super Micro Computer, Inc. and where appropriate, our wholly owned subsidiaries.Supermicro, the Company logo and our other registered or common law trademarks, service marks, or trade names appearing in this Annual Report on Form 10-K (this “Annual Report”) are the property of Super Micro Computer, Inc. or its affiliates. Other trademarks, service marks, or trade names appearing in this Annual Report are the property of their respective owners.
The information contained on our website, or available by hyperlink from our website, or in our social media posts is not incorporated into this Annual Report or other documents we file with, or furnish to, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). We intend to use our website and social media posts as a means of disclosing material non-public information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. Such disclosures will be included in the "Investor Relations" section of our website. Accordingly, investors should monitor that section of our website, in addition to following our social media posts, press releases, investor presentations, SEC filings and public conference calls and webcasts.
EXPLANATORY NOTE
In late July 2024, our former registered public accounting firm, Ernst & Young LLP (“EY”), communicated to the Audit Committee (the “Audit Committee”) of our Board of Directors (the “Board”) concerns about certain matters related to governance, transparency, and our internal control over financial reporting. In response, the Board appointed a new director to the Board and formed an independent special committee (the “Special Committee”) to review these matters (the “Review”). The Special Committee engaged independent outside counsel Cooley LLP and forensic accounting firm Secretariat Advisors, LLC to aid in an investigation on behalf of and at the direction of the Special Committee.
The Special Committee’s investigation was intended to assess whether the information brought to the Audit Committee’s attention by EY, and certain other matters identified during the Review, raised substantial concerns about (i) the integrity of our senior management and Audit Committee, (ii) the commitment of our senior management and Audit Committee to ensuring that the Company’s financial statements are materially accurate, (iii) the Audit Committee’s independence and ability to provide proper oversight over matters relating to financial reporting, and (iv) the tone at the top of the Company with regard to rehiring certain former employees and financial reporting.
On October 2, 2024, the Special Committee reported its interim findings to EY and the Board.
On October 24, 2024, EY resigned from its position as our independent public accounting firm. As described in the Form 8-K we filed on October 30, 2024 (“October 2024 8-K”), other than what’s described in the October 2024 8-K, during the fiscal years ended June 30, 2024 and 2023, and the subsequent interim period preceding EY’s resignation, (1) there were no “disagreements,” as defined in Item 304(a)(1)(iv) of Regulation S-K, with EY on any matter of accounting principles or practices, financial statement disclosure or auditing scope or procedure, which if not resolved to EY’s satisfaction to our knowledge would have caused it to make reference to the subject matter thereof in connection with that report, and (2) there were no “reportable events” as described in Item 304(a)(1)(v) of Regulation S-K.
We disagreed with EY’s decision to resign as our independent registered public accounting firm for a number of reasons, including that a significant number of audit procedures were incomplete and the Special Committee had not yet obtained all information relevant for the Review and had not concluded the Review.
On November 18, 2024, the Audit Committee appointed BDO USA, P.C. (“BDO”) as our new independent registered public accounting firm.
On December 2, 2024, we announced that the Special Committee completed its Review. Among the findings by the Special Committee were:
•The evidence reviewed by the Special Committee did not give rise to any substantial concerns about the integrity of our senior management or the Audit Committee, or their commitment to ensuring that our financial statements are materially accurate.
•With respect to the matters investigated by the Special Committee, the Audit Committee demonstrated appropriate independence and generally provided proper oversight over matters relating to financial reporting.
•With respect to the rehiring of former employees, the tone at the top of our company was appropriate and fully consistent with a commitment to proper financial reporting and legal compliance.
•The Special Committee did not believe that the resignation of EY or the conclusions reached by EY (as described in EY’s letter of resignation dated October 24, 2024 and described in our Current Report on Form 8-K filed October 30, 2024) were supported by the facts examined in the Review, the Special Committee’s interim findings reported to EY on October 2, 2024, or the Special Committee’s final findings.
Due to EY’s stated concerns and subsequent resignation, we were unable to timely file our Annual Report and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarterly periods ended September 30, 2024 and December 31, 2024 (together the “Delinquent Reports”) as required under Nasdaq’s Listing Rule 5250(c)(1). On December 6, 2024, Nasdaq granted us an exception to Nasdaq’s Listing Rule 5250(c)(1), allowing us to file all the Delinquent Reports by February 25, 2025.
SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Annual Report contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements relate to future events or our future financial performance based on management’s beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to management. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology including “would,” “could,” “may,” “will,” “goal,” “should,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “project,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” “probable of achievement,” or “continue,” the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause our actual results, performance, time frames or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance, time frames or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. In evaluating these statements, you should specifically consider various factors, including the risks described below, under Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors”, and in other parts of this Annual Report as well as in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks emerge from time to time. It is not possible for us to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all 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 we may make. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the future events and trends discussed in this Annual Report may not occur and actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements.
These forward-looking statements represent our estimates and assumptions only as of the date of this filing. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. We cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements.Given these risks and uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements.
PART I
Item 1. Business
Our Company
We are a Silicon Valley-based provider of total IT solutions which address demanding workloads from the enterprise and cloud to the intelligent edge. We deliver rack-scale solutions optimized for various workloads, including artificial intelligence (“AI”) and high-performance computing (“HPC”), where acceleration is critical and we also produce an extensive portfolio of server and storage solutions for enterprise data centers, cloud service providers, and edge computing (5G Telco, Retail and embedded).
Our Total IT Solutions encompass complete servers, storage systems, modular blade servers, workstations, full-rack scale solutions, networking devices, server sub-systems, server management and security software. These turn-key solutions are designed, developed, validated and installed for leading AI datacenters. Our Total IT Solutions are designed for optimal power and thermal management, including using Supermicro’s state-of-the-art liquid cooling technologies. We also provide global support and services to help our customers install, upgrade and maintain their computing infrastructure, including liquid-cooling operations. We offer our customers a high degree of flexibility and customization by providing a broad array of server models and configurations from which they can choose the best solutions to fit their computing needs. Our server and storage systems, sub-systems and accessories are architecturally designed to provide high levels of reliability, quality, configurability, and scalability.
Our in-house design competencies, design control over many of the sub-systems required within our server and storage systems, and our Server Building Block Solutions® (an innovative, modular and open architecture) enable us to rapidly develop, build and test complete solutions, which include servers, storage, software, and networking components. As a result, when new technologies are brought to market, we are generally able to quickly assemble a broad portfolio of solutions by leveraging common building blocks across product lines. We work closely with the leading microprocessor, graphics processing units (“GPU”), memory, disk/flash, and interconnect vendors and other hardware and software suppliers to coordinate our new products' design with their product release schedules. This enhances our ability to rapidly introduce new products by incorporating the latest technology, improve quality and reduce costs. We seek to be the first to market with superior product designs, and we have the ability to offer a broad selection of products using those technologies to our customers.
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We conduct our operations principally from our Silicon Valley headquarters, Taiwan and Netherlands facilities. We are in the process of adding capacity at our existing sites and are adding a new facility in Malaysia. Our sales and marketing activities operate through a combination of our direct sales force and indirect sales channel partners. We work with distributors, value-added resellers, system integrators, and original equipment manufacturers ("OEMs") to market and sell our optimized solutions to their end customers in our indirect sales channels.
Strategy
Our objective is to be the world’s leading provider of Rack Scale Total IT Solutions leveraging our broad portfolio of platforms that are application-optimized high-performance server, storage and networking solutions. Achieving this objective requires continuous development and innovation of our Total IT Solutions portfolio with better price-performance and architectural advantages compared with our prior generation of solutions and our competitors' offerings. Through our strategy, we seek to maintain or improve our relative competitive position in many product areas and pursue markets that provide us with additional long-term growth opportunities. Key elements of our strategy include executing upon the following:
Strong Internal Research and Development and Internal Manufacturing Capability
We are continually investing in our engineering organization. As of June 30, 2024, we had over 2,800 employees in our research and development organization. These resources, along with our understanding of complex computing and storage requirements, enable us to deliver product innovation featuring advanced functionality and capabilities required by our customers. Also, we have worldwide manufacturing facilities which enable us to reduce the time to delivery in every geography around the world. Our engineers work directly with our manufacturing personnel to plan together and identify and correct issues together.
Introducing Innovative Products, Faster
We seek to sustain advantages in both time-to-market and breadth of products by incorporating the latest technological innovations, such as new processors, advancements in storage and evolving I/O technologies. We seek these advantages by leveraging our in-house design capabilities and our Building Block Solutions® architecture. This allows us to offer customers a broad choice of products to match their target application requirements.
In particular, during the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024 (“fiscal year 2024”),
•We delivered a comprehensive portfolio of solutions designed specifically for AI including products that support NVIDIA Hopper (H100/200) and Blackwell (GB200/B200) generation platforms;
•We expanded our liquid cooled system offerings and our complete liquid cooling solutions to include an external cooling tower and more powerful Coolant Distribution Units ("CDUs") for the increased demand to cool the latest generations of GPUs and central processing units ("CPUs");
•We announced more than 100 products supporting Intel’s new 5th Gen Intel® Xeon® Processor and Intel’s Xeon ® 6 data center CPU as well as the AMD EPYCTM 8004 Series and AMD EPYCTM 4004 Series Processors;
•We announced a number of new edge and IoT systems that are specifically designed for environments where low-powered systems are required; and
•We expanded our storage portfolio of products and solutions with an AI storage solution optimized for large-scale AI training workloads and introduced new storage products for enterprise scale-up storage.
Capitalizing on New Applications and Technologies
In addition to serving traditional needs for server and storage systems, we have devoted, and will continue to devote, substantial resources to developing systems that support emerging and growing applications including AI, cloud computing, 5G/edge computing, storage and others. We believe there are significant opportunities for us in each of these rapidly developing markets due to stringent design requirements for these applications that often require the use of the latest technologies, allowing us to leverage our capabilities in product innovation, superior time-to-market, and portfolio breadth.
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Liquid Cooling
To reduce the high cost of operating and address constraints on power and cooling in data centers, IT managers increasingly turn to suppliers of high-performance products that can also be cost-effective, energy-efficient, and green. Our resource saving architecture supports our efforts to lead in green IT innovation. We offer product lines that are designed to share common computing resources, thereby saving both valuable space and power as compared to general-purpose rackmount servers. In addition, due to the advanced power requirements of these systems we seek to provide end-to-end liquid cooling solutions across our designs to optimize the elevated power and thermal management requirements. We believe our approach of leveraging an overall architecture that balances data center power requirements, cooling, shared resources and refresh cycles helps the environment and provides total cost of ownership (“TCO”) savings for our customers.
Supermicro anticipated the need for rack-scale integration and liquid cooling capabilities. We design, build, test, validate, and deliver complete in-house liquid-cooled direct-to-chip cold plate solutions for CPUs, GPUs, and memory. In addition, we manufacture the sophisticated management systems -- Cooling Distribution Units, Cooling Distribution Manifolds -- to regulate system temperatures for maximum performance. Liquid cooling can be easily included in rack-level integrations to further increase system efficiency, reduce instances of thermal throttling, and lower both the TCO and Total Cost to Environment ("TCE") of data center deployments.
Driving Software and Services Sales to our Global Enterprise Customers
We work closely with customers by offering total data center life-cycle management software. This enables data center operators to closely monitor the entire IT infrastructure to identify issues before failures. By offering management software and worldwide onsite and remote services to our customers we also increase our total IT solution revenue. These software products and services are required for large-scale deployments, help meet service level agreements and address uptime requirements. In addition to our internal software development efforts, we also integrate and partner with external software vendors to meet customer requirements.
Leveraging Our Global Operating Structure
We plan to continue to increase our worldwide manufacturing capacity and logistics abilities in the United States, Taiwan and the Netherlands and we plan to bring additional manufacturing capacity online in Malaysia. This strategic expansion aims to serve our customers more efficiently while reducing overall manufacturing costs.
Products and Services
We offer a broad range of compute, storage and edge platforms that are application-optimized server solutions, rackmount and blade servers, storage, and subsystems and accessories. These products are designed to serve a variety of markets, such as enterprise data centers, cloud computing, AI and 5G/edge computing. We complement our accelerated compute platforms inclusive of server and storage system offerings with software management/security solutions, global services and support, the revenue for which is included in our server and storage systems revenue.
Server and Storage Systems
We offer platforms in rackmount, blade, multi-node and embedded form factors, which support single, dual, and multiprocessor architectures. Our key product lines include:
•Extensive portfolio of air cooled and liquid cooled AI Servers for Training and Inferencing with integrated GPUs or PCIe based architectures;
•SuperBlade® and MicroBlade® system families are designed to share common computing resources, thereby saving space and power over standard rackmount servers;
•SuperStorage systems that provide high-density storage while leveraging an efficient use of power to achieve performance-per-watt savings. Our storage systems are also designed for maximum performance for AI training environments;
•Twin family of multi-node server systems designed for density, performance, and power efficiency; including FlexTwinTM, GrandTwin®, and BigTwin®;
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•Hyper, CloudDC, and WIO rackmount optimized systems deliver entire clusters of racks, with both liquid-cooled and air-cooled options, per customer requirements;
•Embedded (5G/IoT/Edge) systems optimized for evolving networks and intelligent management of connected devices; and
•MicroCloud server systems that deliver node density in environments with space and power constraints.
In addition to our server and storage platforms business, we offer a large array of modular server subsystems and accessories, such as server boards, chassis, power supplies and other accessories. These subsystems are the foundation of platform solutions and span product offerings from the entry-level single and dual-processor server segment to the high-end multiprocessor market. The majority of the subsystems and accessories we sell individually are designed to work together to improve performance and are ultimately integrated into complete server and storage systems.
Server Software Management Solutions
Our open industry-standard remote system management solutions, such as our Server Management suite, including Supermicro Server Manager (“SSM”), Supermicro Power Management software (“SPM”), Supermicro Update Manager (“SUM”), SuperCloud Composer and SuperDoctor 5, have been designed to help manage large-scale heterogeneous data center environments, including liquid cooling.
Supermicro Global Services
We provide global service and support offerings for our direct and OEM customers and our indirect sales channel partners directly or through approved distributors and third-party partners. We also identify service requirements, create and execute project plans, conduct verification testing and training and provide technical documentation.
Global Services: Our strategic direct and OEM customers may purchase a variety of on-site support service plans. Our service plans vary depending on specific services, response times, coverage hours and duration, repair priority levels, spare parts requirements, logistics, data privacy and security needs. Our Global Services team provides help desk services and on-site product support for our server and storage systems.
Support Services: Our customer support services offer competitive market warranties, generally from one-to-three years, and warranty extension options for products sold by our direct sales team and approved indirect sales channel partners. Our customer support team provides ongoing maintenance and technical support for our products through our website and 24-hour continuous, direct phone-based support.
Data Center Space Lease
On June 14, 2024, we entered into a Master Colocation Services Agreement (the “MCSA”) with respect to a multi-tenanted facility located in Vernon, California. Concurrent with the execution of the MCSA, we entered into a service order to lease 21 Megawatt ("MW") of the multi-tenanted facility for a term of ten years. Our aggregate financial obligation for the term of the service order is estimated to be over $600 million, which includes the monthly recurring charges, power charges and other anticipated costs. Concurrent with the execution of the MCSA and the service order, we sublicensed all of our rights and obligations with respect to the data center space, pursuant to which the sublicensee agreed to assume and perform all of our obligations, covenants, representations and terms under the MCSA and service order. The sublicensee is obligated to pay to us the monthly recurring charges due from us under the service order plus an additional monthly charge. The payments owed by us under the service order (as governed by the MCSA) may be accelerated in the event of a default under the MCSA and/or the service order and the exercise of remedies in connection therewith. Upon such acceleration, we have a right to seek reimbursement for such accelerated payments from the sublicensee.
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Research and Development
We perform most of our research and development activities in-house in the United States at our facilities in San Jose, California, and in Taiwan, increasing the communication and collaboration between design teams to streamline the development process and reduce time-to-market. We believe that the combination of our focus on internal research and development activities, our close working relationships with local customers and vendors and our modular design approach allows us to decrease time-to-market, improve quality and deliver superior product designs. We continue to invest in reducing our design and manufacturing costs and improving the performance, cost-effectiveness and power- and space-efficiency of our Total IT Solutions.
Our research and development teams focus on the development of new and enhanced products that can support emerging technological and engineering innovations while achieving high overall system performance. Much of our research and development activity relates to the new product cycles of leading processor vendors. We work closely with NVIDIA, Intel and AMD, among others, to develop products that are compatible with the latest generation of industry-standard technologies under development. Our collaborative approach with these vendors allows us to coordinate the design of our new products with their product release schedules, thereby enhancing our ability to rapidly introduce new products incorporating the latest technology. We work closely with their respective development teams to enhance system performance and reduce system-level issues. Similarly, we work very closely with our customers to identify their needs and develop our new product plans accordingly.
Customers
During fiscal year 2024, we sold to over 1,100 direct customers in over 110 countries. During each of the fiscal years ended June 30, 2023 (“fiscal year 2023”) and June 30, 2022 (“fiscal year 2022”), we sold to over 1,000 direct customers in over 100 countries. In addition, over the three years ended June 30, 2024, we have sold to thousands of end users through our indirect sales channel. These customers represent a diverse set of market verticals including enterprise data centers, cloud computing, AI, 5G and edge computing markets. One single customer accounted for 10% or more of the net sales in fiscal year 2024. No single customer accounted for 10% or more of the net sales in fiscal years 2023 and 2022.
Sales and Marketing
Our sales and marketing activities are conducted through a combination of our direct sales force and our indirect sales channel partners. Our direct sales force is primarily focused on selling Total IT Solutions, including management software and global services to large scale cloud, enterprise and OEM customers. In addition, we have a centralized command center, designed to assist customers with quick and accurate configurations.
We work with distributors, value-added resellers, system integrators, and OEMs to market and sell our optimized solutions to their end customers. We provide sales and marketing assistance and training to our indirect sales channel partners and OEMs. We leverage our relationships in our indirect sales channel and with our OEMs to penetrate select industry vertical market segments where our products can provide better alternatives to existing solutions.
We maintain close contact with our indirect sales channel partners and end customers. We often collaborate during the sales process with our indirect sales channel partners and the end customer’s technical staff to help determine the optimal system configuration for the customer’s needs. Our interaction with our indirect sales channel partners and end customers allows us to monitor customer requirements and develop new products to meet their needs.
International Sales
Our global sales efforts are supported both by our international offices in the Netherlands, Taiwan, South Korea, United Kingdom, China and Japan as well as by our United States based sales team. Product fulfillment and first level support for our international customers are provided by Supermicro Global Services and through our indirect sales channel and OEMs. Sales to customers located outside of the United States represented 32.0%, 32.1% and 41.6% of net sales in fiscal years 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively.
Marketing
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Our marketing programs are designed to create a global awareness and branding for our company and products, as well as an understanding of the significant value we bring to customers. These programs also inform existing and potential customers, the trade press, market analysts, indirect sales channel partners and OEMs about the strong capabilities and benefits of using our products and solutions. Our marketing efforts support the sale and distribution of our products through both direct sales and indirect channels. We rely on a variety of marketing vehicles, including advertising, public relations, web, social media, collateral, and participation in industry events and tradeshows, to gain market awareness and generate new customer demand. We provide funds for cooperative marketing to our indirect sales channel partners to extend the reach of our marketing efforts. We also actively utilize our suppliers’ cooperative marketing programs and jointly benefit from their marketing development funds to which we are entitled.
Intellectual Property
We seek to protect our intellectual property rights with a combination of patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secret laws, and disclosure restrictions. We rely primarily on trade secrets, technical know-how, and other unpatented proprietary information relating to our design and product development activities. We also enter into confidentiality and proprietary rights agreements with our employees, consultants, and other third parties and control access to our designs, documentation and other proprietary information.
Manufacturing and Quality Control
We manufacture the majority of our systems at our San Jose, California headquarters. We believe we are the only major server, storage and accelerated compute platform vendor that designs, develops, and manufactures a significant portion of their systems in the United States. Global assembly, test and quality control of our servers are performed at our manufacturing facilities in San Jose, California, Taiwan and the Netherlands, with plans to expand manufacturing to Malaysia. In each of our existing facilities, a Quality and Environmental Management System has been certified according to ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and/or ISO 13485 standards. Our suppliers and contract manufacturers are required to support the same standards to maintain consistent product and service quality and continuous improvement of quality and environmental performance.
We use several third-party suppliers and contract manufacturers for materials and sub-assemblies. We believe that selectively using outsourced manufacturing services allows us to focus on our core competencies in product design and development and increases our operational flexibility. We believe our manufacturing strategy allows us to adjust manufacturing capacity in response to changes in customer demand and to rapidly introduce new products to the market. We use Ablecom Technology, Inc. (“Ablecom”) and its affiliate Compuware Technology, Inc. (“Compuware”), both of which are related parties, for contract design and manufacturing coordination support. We work with Ablecom to optimize modular designs for our chassis and several other components. Ablecom also coordinates the manufacturing of chassis for us. In addition to providing a large volume of contract manufacturing services to us, Ablecom warehouses multiple components and subassemblies manufactured by various suppliers before shipment to our facilities in the United States, Europe and Asia. We also have a series of agreements with Compuware, including multiple product development, production and service agreements, product manufacturing agreements and lease agreements for office space. See Note 10, “Related Party Transactions,” in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements and Part III, Item 13, “Certain Relationships and Related Transactions and Director Independence.”
We monitor our inventory continuously to be able to meet customer delivery requirements and to avoid inventory obsolescence. Due to our building-block designs, our inventory can generally be used with multiple different products, lowering working capital requirements and reducing the risk of inventory write-downs.
Competition
The market for our products is highly competitive, rapidly evolving and subject to new technological developments, changing customer needs and new product introductions. We compete primarily with large vendors of x86-based general purpose servers and components. In addition, we also compete with smaller vendors that specialize in the sale of server components and systems. In recent years, we have experienced increased competition from original design manufacturers ("ODMs”) that benefit from their scale and very low-cost manufacturing and are increasingly offering their own branded products. We believe our principal competitors include:
•Global technology vendors, such as Cisco, Dell, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, and Lenovo; and
•ODMs, such as Foxconn, Quanta Computer, and Wiwynn Corporation.
The principal competitive factors in our market include the following:
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•Rack Scale Total IT Solutions to reduce TCO for our customers;
•First to market with new emerging technologies;
•High product performance, efficiency and reliability;
•Early identification of emerging opportunities;
•Cost-effective design and manufacturing;
•Sufficient manufacturing capacity necessary to support market demand;
•Energy efficient (Green Computing) product designs that reduce environmental impact, overall power consumption, and costs; and
•Localized and responsive customer support on a worldwide basis.
We believe that we compete favorably with respect to most of these factors. However, most of our competitors have longer operating histories, significantly greater resources, greater name recognition and deeper market penetration. They may be able to devote greater resources to the development, promotion and sale of their products than we can, which could allow them to respond more quickly to new technologies and changes in customer needs. In addition, it is possible that new competitors could emerge and acquire significant market share. See Part I, Item 1A, "Risk Factors" risk titled “The market in which we participate is highly competitive, and if we do not compete effectively, we may not be able to increase our market penetration, grow our net sales or improve our gross margins.”
Government Regulation
Our worldwide business activities subject us to various federal, state, local, and foreign laws in the countries in which we operate, and our Total IT Solutions are subject to laws and regulations affecting their sale. To date, costs and expenses incurred to comply with these governmental regulations, including environmental regulations, have not been material to our business, financial condition, results of operations, and competitive position. Although there is no assurance that existing or future governmental laws and regulations, including environmental regulations, applicable to our operations or Total IT Solutions will not have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and competitive position, we do not currently anticipate material increases in expenditures for compliance with government regulations.
We are subject to U.S. and other applicable trade control regulations that restrict with whom we may transact business, including the trade sanctions enforced by the U.S. Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control and the export controls enforced by the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security. If we fail to comply with laws and regulations restricting dealings with sanctioned countries or companies and/or persons on restricted lists, we may be subject to enforcement actions, including civil or criminal penalties. The United States and other countries continually update their lists of export-controlled items and technologies and may impose new or more-restrictive export requirements on our products in the future. As a result of regulatory changes, we may be required to obtain licenses or other authorizations to continue supporting existing customers or to supply existing products to new customers in China, eastern Europe and elsewhere. Further escalations in trade restrictions or hostilities, particularly between the United States and China, could impede our ability to sell or support our products. Although we historically sold products into Russia before broad sanctions were imposed, we no longer sell products or provide services to Russia. We had last recorded revenue from Russia in February 2022.
In October 2022, U.S. export restrictions and export licensing requirements were imposed targeting China’s semiconductor and supercomputing industries. These restrictions impact exports of software, hardware, equipment and technology used to develop, produce or manufacture certain chips in China (including Hong Kong). At the same time, export restrictions and export license requirements were also imposed on certain GPUs and advanced integrated circuits, as well as computing equipment containing such components, with a focus on China (including Hong Kong). These restrictions impacted certain of our products, including products that contain the NVIDIA A100 and H100 integrated circuits, among others.
In November 2023, the export control restrictions on advanced integrated circuits, supercomputing and other end uses were revised and further expanded to cover additional countries where we sell our products, including in the Middle East, and additional parties based on the location of their headquarters, or the headquarters of their ultimate parent. Compliance with ever-changing regulations is complex and time consuming. We may experience delays in implementing procedures to address the changing regulatory requirements.
In January 2025, the U.S. export control regulations targeting advanced integrated circuits and computing were further revised to include a worldwide authorization requirement for certain of our advanced computing products. New license exceptions were added to the regulations and allow us to export in some cases without the need for an export license, thus
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expanding upon previous authorizations. However, these new regulations will, depending on the country and ultimate consignee, also place new limits on the number of advanced computing products that we can export to each ultimate consignee per calendar year, and the number of advanced computing products that the Commerce Department will license per-country over a given period to all exporters in the aggregate. These new limitations create a competitive process for obtaining the product allocation associated with these new government authorizations and therefore could disadvantage us against certain of our competitors. The limitations could also prevent us from selling our advanced computing products to the full extent of customer demand in certain countries that have not historically been subject to these limitations.
The process to obtain licenses required under recently adopted export control regulations is complicated and time-consuming in the event we determine to pursue them, and there are no assurances they may be granted at all. Our competitive position and future results may be harmed, over the long-term, if there are further changes in export controls, including further expansion of the geographic, customer, end use, deemed export, or product scope of the controls, if customers purchase product from competitors, if customers develop their own internal solution, if we are unable to provide contractual warranty or other extended service obligations, if licenses are not granted in a timely manner or denied to significant customers or if we incur significant transition costs. Even if requested licenses are granted, the licenses may be temporary or impose burdensome conditions that we or our customers or end users cannot or choose not to fulfill. The licensing requirements may benefit certain of our competitors, as the licensing process will make our technical support efforts more cumbersome and less certain and encourage customers to pursue alternatives to our products.
See “Risk Factors - Legal and Regulatory Risks”for additional discussion of risks related to government regulation.
Human Capital Resources and Management
Mission, Culture, and Engagement
The key to success in technology is designing a company around people committed to work that they love. We aim to attract, develop, and retain a high performing and engaged global workforce.
As of June 30, 2024, we employed 5,684 full-time employees, consisting of 2,885 employees in research and development, 632 employees in sales and marketing, 509 employees in general and administrative and 1,658 employees in manufacturing. Of these employees, 2,659 employees are based in our San Jose facilities. We consider our highly qualified and motivated employees to be a key factor in our business success. Our employees are not represented by any collective bargaining organization, and we have never experienced a work stoppage.
We are committed to protecting the environment through our “We Keep IT Green” initiative as a first to market innovator in high-performance, high-efficiency server, storage, networking and management total solutions. We recognize the critical importance of talent and culture to our success and ability to fulfill this vision.
We encourage opportunities for growth and conduct regular performance reviews that set clear expectations to motivate employees and align their performance with company objectives. We communicate to our employees through a secure intranet site, executive communications, company meetings, and business-related emails.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging
We believe a workplace that encourages different voices, perspectives and backgrounds creates better teams, better solutions and more innovation. Employees should be treated fairly and respectfully despite differences and should feel accepted in the workplace to contribute their perspective and be valued.
Talent Development, Acquisition, Retention and Rewards
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Talent Strategy
Our talent strategy focuses on attracting skilled, engaged employees who contribute the talent and skills critical to our innovative and forward-looking workforce. Our recruiting process actively sources talent supporting our ability to hire candidates with professional qualifications and potential. We identify opportunities through tracking and analyzing data from various sources such as annual performance reviews to assess our progress in ensuring critical talent are in critical roles.
It is our policy to ensure equal employment opportunity for all applicants and employees without regard to prohibited considerations of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity and sexual orientation), national origin, age, disability or genetic information, marital status or any other classification protected by applicable local, state or federal laws. All employees receive training in the prevention of sexual harassment and abusive conduct in the workplace.
Total Rewards Program
Our total rewards program is designed to attract and reward talented individuals who possess the skills necessary to support our business objectives, assist in the achievement of our strategic goals and create long-term value for our stockholders. We provide employees with compensation packages that include base salary in the form of cash and representing fixed compensation to reward individual performance and contributions (“Base Salary”), incentive bonus programs, and long-term equity awards, including restricted stock units and options, tied to the value of our stock price. We believe that a compensation program with both short-term and long-term awards provides fair and competitive compensation and aligns employee and stockholder interests, including by incentivizing business and individual performance (pay for performance), motivating based on long-term company performance and integrating compensation with our business plans. In addition to cash and equity compensation, we also offer U.S. employees benefits such as life and health (medical, dental & vision) insurance, paid time off, sick leave, holiday pay, and a 401(k) plan. Outside of the U.S., we provide benefits based on local requirements and needs.
Health,Safety & Wellness
Throughout our history, we have maintained our commitment to providing a safe workplace that protects against and limits personal injury and environmental harm. We follow international standards and regulations for product safety and security. Our health and safety programs emphasize personal accountability, professional conduct, and regulatory compliance, while our culture fosters a sense of proactivity, caution, and communication. In the development of our products, we define and perform various tests to ensure Product Safety and Security. We evaluate risks using both government-required procedures and best practices to ensure we understand residual risk and appropriately protect our employees. We engage in proactive efforts to prevent occupational illnesses and injuries which allow us to maintain a safe, healthy, and secure workplace. We have a Safety Committee, which is designed to promote communication regarding health, safety, and emergency response procedures and to help implement improvements to our work areas and practices.
We are committed to complying with applicable laws, including those associated with labor and employment, across all areas of our operations. In addition, we abide by global standards, irrespective of legal requirements, regarding the treatment of workers such as those detailed by the Responsible Business Alliance. These include prevention of excessive working hours and unfair wages, controls to prohibit child labor and human trafficking and bolstering workplace health and safety measures.
Board Oversight of Human Capital Management
Our Board of Directors, as a part of its overall responsibility to provide oversight, has purview over matters related to human capital management. Our Compensation Committee provides oversight of various matters related to human capital management, such as incentive compensation plans and equity compensation plans and the administration of such plans, compensation matters outside of the ordinary course, and compensation policies.
Corporate Information
We were founded in and maintain our worldwide headquarters and approximately half of our employees in San Jose, California. We are one of the largest employers in the City of San Jose and an active member of the San Jose and Silicon Valley community.
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We were incorporated in California in September 1993. We reincorporated in Delaware in March 2007. Our common stock is listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “SMCI.” Our principal executive offices are located at 980 Rock Avenue, San Jose, California 95131, and our telephone number is (408) 503-8000. Our website address is www.supermicro.com.
Financial Information about Segments and Geographic Areas
Please see Note 15, “Segment Reporting” in the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements in this Annual Report for information regarding segment reporting and Note 3, “Revenue - Disaggregation of Revenue” in the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements in this Annual Report for information regarding our net sales by geographic region. See Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors” for further information on risks associated with our international operations.
Working Capital
We focus considerable attention on managing our inventories and other working capital related items. We manage inventories by communicating with our customers and partners and using our industry experience to forecast demand. We place manufacturing orders for our products based on forecasted demand. We maintain substantial inventories of our products because the computer server industry is characterized by short lead-time orders and quick delivery schedules. Additionally, during fiscal year 2024, the computer server industry experienced global supply chain shortages, which requires us to carry more inventory to fulfill demand from our customers and partners.
Forward Stock Split
On September 30, 2024, we filed an amendment to our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation (the “Amendment”) with the Secretary of State of the State of Delaware to effect a ten-for-one forward split (the “Stock Split”) of our common stock without any change to its par value. The Amendment also effected a proportionate increase in the number of shares of authorized common stock from 100,000,000 to 1,000,000,000. Pursuant to Section 242(d) of the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware, stockholder approval was not required in connection with the foregoing.
The Stock Split became effective at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on September 30, 2024 (the “Effective Time”). Trading in the common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market commenced on a Stock Split-adjusted basis at the market open on October 1, 2024, under the existing trading symbol “SMCI.”
As a result of the Stock Split, every one (1) share of common stock issued and outstanding was automatically divided into ten (10) shares of common stock. The Stock Split did not modify any rights or preferences of the shares of the common stock. Proportionate adjustments were automatically made to the number of shares of common stock underlying the Company’s outstanding equity awards, equity incentive plans, and other existing agreements, as well as exercise or conversion prices, as applicable.
Unless noted, all references to shares of common stock and per share amounts contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K have been retroactively adjusted to reflect the Stock Split.
Available Information
Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and amendments to reports filed or furnished pursuant to Sections 13(a) and 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), are available free of charge, on or through our website at www.supermicro.com as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such reports with, or furnish those reports to, the SEC. Information contained on our website is not incorporated by reference in, or made part of, this Annual Report or our other filings with, or reports furnished to, the SEC. The SEC also maintains a website that contains our SEC filings.
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Item 1A.Risk Factors
Our business involves significant risks, some of which are described below. Other events that we do not currently anticipate or that we currently deem immaterial also may affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows, other key metrics and the trading price of our common stock. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all the other information in this Annual Report, including “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and the consolidated financial statements and the related notes. If any of the following risks actually occurs, our business, reputation, financial condition, results of operations, revenue, and future prospects could be seriously harmed. In addition, you should consider the interrelationship and compounding effects of two or more risks occurring simultaneously. Unless otherwise indicated, references to our business being harmed in these risk factors will include harm to our business, reputation, financial condition, results of operations, revenue, and future prospects. In that event, the market price of our common stock could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment. You should not interpret our disclosure of any of the following risks to imply that such risks have not already materialized.
Risk Factor Summary
The following is a summary of the most significant risks and principal factors that make an investment in our common stock speculative or risky.
Risks Related to our Delinquent SEC Reporting Obligations
•Circumstances discussed in the Explanatory Note in this Annual Report;
•Our failure in timely filing our SEC reports;
•The outcome of litigation and other legal proceedings, disputes, claims, as well as regulatory examinations, investigations, proceedings and orders arising out of the circumstances discussed in the Explanatory Note in this Annual Report, and any orders, actions or rulings not in our favor;
•Significant expenses related to the circumstances discussed in the Explanatory Note in this Annual Report;
•The remediation of material weaknesses and deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures, and any resulting litigation;
•The absence of timely and accurate financial information has hindered and may in the future hinder our ability to effectively manage our business and the ability to issue stock-based compensation to our employees;
•Our availability to access outside financing;
•Negative publicity and potential customers’ concerns;
OperationalandExecution Risks
•Volatility of our quarterly operating results;
•Our ability to meet publicly announced financial guidance or other expectations about our business;
•Timely development of new products and enhancements to our existing products;
•Our ability to maintain sufficient inventory;
•Shortfall in revenue or decline in margins;
•The exercise of security interests we take in products sold;
•Concentration of our customer base;
•Our ability to secure additional financing on favorable terms;
•Our cost structure, ability to deliver server solutions to customers, and ability to resolve warranty claims in a timely manner;
•Our ability to enhance or upgrade our enterprise resource planning (“ERP”) systems and other IT applications, including challenges related to automating internal controls utilizing our ERP systems and maintaining internal controls over processes in other IT applications;
•Increases in average selling prices for our solutions;
•Changes in U.S. or foreign policies, geopolitical conditions, general economic conditions, and other factors beyond our control;
•System security violations, data protection breaches, cyber-attacks, and other related cyber-security issues;
•Failure to adequately expand or retain our sales force;
•Potential conflicts of interest with Ablecom and Compuware;
•Our reliance on a limited source of contract manufacturing services and inventory warehousing;
•Our ability to attract and retain key personnel;
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•Our direct sales efforts and relationships with our indirect sales channel and with our OEMs;
•Our ability to maintain good publicity with respect to us, our employees, our third-party service providers or our partners;
StrategicandIndustry Risks
•Our ability to work with suppliers to make timely new product introductions;
•Our ability to manage our business for growth and expansion, including the expansion of our international manufacturing capacity and business operations;
•Our reliance on a limited number of suppliers for certain components used to manufacture our products;
•Our suppliers’ ability to improve the functionality and performance of materials and key components for our products;
•Our ability to timely deliver high quality server and storage solutions;
•Increased competition and our ability to compete effectively;
•The AI industry has contributed to our success but also presents significant risks and uncertainties, including potential risks from its use by our workforce;
•Our investments in corporate ventures and other investments;
•Our growth into markets outside the United States;
•Our reliance on indirect sales channels;
LegalandRegulatory Risks
•Lawsuits and other legal proceedings, disputes, claims, and government inquiries and investigations;
•Compliance with laws, rules, regulations, as well as political and other actions related to export control to which our business is subject;
•Compliance with laws and regulations regarding privacy, data protection and other matters;
•Our ability to protect our intellectual property;
•Compliance with environmental, health and safety laws, U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, other applicable anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws, outbound investment regulations, and other government regulation or laws related to our business;
•Anti-takeover provisions in our charter and bylaws;
Financial Risks
•Our indebtedness, liabilities, and contractual obligations;
•Our ability to raise the funds necessary to repurchase the convertible notes for cash following a fundamental change (including the delisting of our common stock), to repay the outstanding principal and accrued interest upon an event of default, or to pay any cash amounts due upon conversion;
•Provisions in the indentures governing our convertible notes making it harder for a third-party to acquire us;
•Risks associated with the capped call transactions;
•Potential dilution caused by conversion of our convertible notes;
•Our R&D expenditures, which are considerably higher than many of our competitors;
•Change in our future effective income tax rates;
•Our backlog amount;
RisksRelatedtoOwningour Stock
•Volatility of the trading price of our common stock;
•A decline in our stock price caused by future sales by existing stockholders;
•The concentration of our capital stock ownership with insiders likely limits your ability to influence corporate matters;
•No expectation in paying dividends in the foreseeable future;
General Risks
•Our products may not be viewed as supporting climate change mitigation in the IT sector; and
•Enactment of or changes to government regulation or laws related to our business.
Risks Related to our Delinquent SEC Reporting Obligations
We face risks related to previously being delinquent in our SEC reporting obligations.
Due to the circumstances discussed in the Explanatory Note in this Annual Report, our recent SEC filings, including this Annual Report, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarterly periods ended September 30, 2024 and December 31, 2024 (the “Delinquent Reports”) were delinquent. On December 6, 2024, Nasdaq granted us an exception to Nasdaq’s Listing Rule 5250(c)(1), allowing us to file all the Delinquent Reports by February 25, 2025.
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While we filed all of the Delinquent Reports on or before February 25, 2025, we expect to continue to face many of the risks and challenges related to previously being delinquent in our SEC reporting obligations, including the following:
•We may fail to remediate material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting and other material weaknesses may be identified in the future, which could adversely affect the accuracy and timing of our financial reporting;
•Failure to timely file our SEC reports and make our current financial information available has placed downward pressure on our stock price, which has adversely affected, and may continue adversely affect, hiring and employee retention;
•Litigation and claims as well as regulatory examinations, investigations, proceedings and orders arising out of our failure to file SEC reports on a timely basis, including the reasons and causes for such failure to file, will continue to divert management attention and resources from the operation of our business;
•We may not be able to recapture lost business or business opportunities due to ongoing reputational harm; and
•Negative reports or actions on our commercial credit ratings would increase our costs of, or reduce our access to, future commercial credit arrangements and limit our ability to refinance existing indebtedness.
The outcome of litigation and other legal proceedings, disputes, claims, as well as regulatory examinations, investigations, proceedings and orders arising out of the circumstances discussed in the Explanatory Note in this Annual Report, and any orders, actions or rulings not in our favor could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Our company and certain of our current and former executive officers and directors are defendants in certain legal proceedings and putative class actions.Please see Part I, Item 3, “Legal Proceedings.” These proceedings have resulted in significant expenses and the diversion of management attention from our business. In addition, the circumstances which gave rise to the circumstances discussed in the Explanatory Note in this Annual Report continue to create the risk of additional litigation and claims by investors and examinations, investigations, proceedings and orders by regulatory authorities. These include a broad range of potential actions that may be taken against us by the SEC or other regulatory agencies, including a cease-and-desist order and/or the assessment of possible civil monetary penalties. Any such further actions could be expensive and damaging to our business, the results of operations, and financial condition.
We have incurred and expect to continue to incur significant expenses related to the circumstances discussed in the Explanatory Note in this Annual Report, the remediation of deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures, and any resulting litigation.
We have devoted and expect to continue to devote substantial internal and external resources towards remediation efforts relating to the circumstances discussed in the Explanatory Note in this Annual Report, the management review process and other efforts to regain timely compliance with the filing of our future SEC periodic and other reports. As a result of these efforts, we have incurred and expect that we will continue to incur significant incremental fees and expenses for additional accounting, financial and other consulting and professional services, as well as the implementation and maintenance of systems and processes that will need to be updated, supplemented or replaced. Specifically, in connection with the circumstances discussed in the Explanatory Note in this Annual Report, audit and compliance efforts and related litigation and other proceedings, claims, governmental inquiries or investigation, and other demands, we have incurred professional fees totaling $18.6 million through January 31, 2025. The expenses we are incurring in this regard, as well as the substantial time devoted by our management, could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
The circumstances discussed in the Explanatory Note in this Annual Report have diverted, and continue to divert, management and other human resources from the operation of our business.
The circumstances discussed in the Explanatory Note in this Annual Report have diverted, and continue to divert, management and other human resources from the operation of our business. The Board of Directors, members of management, and our accounting, legal, administrative and other staff have spent significant time on the circumstances discussed in the Explanatory Note in this Annual Report and will continue to spend significant time on related matters. These resources have been, and will likely continue to be, diverted from the strategic and day-to-day management of our business and may have an adverse effect on our ability to accomplish our strategic objectives.
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Additionally, due to the delay in filing the Annual Report as discussed in the Explanatory Note, our registration statements on Form S-8 were ineffective until the Annual Report was filed with the SEC. This hindered the Company’s ability to grant certain stock-based compensation under its existing compensation programs. The delay also prevented the Company from holding its annual meeting of stockholders, which would have allowed an increase in the number of common stock shares available for grant under its amended and restated 2020 Equity and Incentive Compensation Plan. The inability to issue sufficient stock-based compensation could negatively impact our ability to attract and retain talent, potentially affecting our business growth, results of operations, and financial conditions.
Our failure to file SEC reports timely has affected, and could continue to adversely affect our access to outside financing.
As a result of the circumstances discussed in the Explanatory Note in this Annual Report, we chose to terminate our obligations under certain loan agreements early. The failure to timely file our Delinquent Reports also has resulted in an obligation to pay additional interest and special interest under the terms of the indenture governing our 0.00% Convertible Senior Notes due 2029 (the “2029 Convertible Notes”) (the “2029 Convertible Notes Indenture”), which was subsequently amended on February 20, 2025 to, among others, provide for the 2029 Convertible Notes to bear interest from February 20, 2025 at an annual rate of 3.50%. Please see Note 16, “Subsequent Events” in the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements in this Annual Report for information regarding the amendment of the terms of the 2029 Convertible Notes. While we have filed all the Delinquent Reports within the extension period granted by Nasdaq, if any of our SEC periodic or other reports becomes delinquent in the future, any sources of financing that may be available to us could also be at higher costs and require us to satisfy more restrictive covenants, which could limit or restrict our operations, cash flows and earnings. We cannot ensure that additional financing will be available to us or be sufficient or available on satisfactory terms. In addition, unless we have filed all required reports with the SEC, we will be precluded from registering our securities with the SEC for offer and sale, and the failure to timely file our SEC reports will limit our ability to use “short-form” Form S-3 registration statements for registering our securities for sale with the SEC until we again meet the timely filing requirements of Form S-3. If we are unable to access outside financing in a timely manner, or we are not able to obtain additional financing on terms favorable to us, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be adversely affected.
Matters relating to or arising from the circumstances discussed in the Explanatory Note in this Annual Report, including adverse publicity and potential concerns from our customers, have had and could continue to have an adverse effect on our business and financial condition.
We have been and could continue to be the subject of negative publicity focused on the matters underlying the circumstances discussed in the Explanatory Note in this Annual Report. We may be adversely impacted by negative reactions to this publicity from our customers or others with whom we do business, who may have concerns including the time and effort required to address our accounting and control environment and our ability to be a long-term provider to our customers. The continued occurrence of any of the foregoing could harm our business and have an adverse effect on our financial condition.
We have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, which could, if not remediated, adversely affect our ability to report our financial condition and results of operations in a timely and accurate manner.
Pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, our management is required to report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting in our annual reports, and annually our independent auditors must attest to and report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. It is necessary for us to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting to prevent fraud and errors and to maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures so that we can provide timely and reliable financial and other information. A failure to maintain adequate internal controls may adversely affect our ability to provide financial statements that accurately reflect our financial condition and report information on a timely basis.
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We have concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was not effective as of June 30, 2024 due to the existence of material weaknesses in such controls, and we have also concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective as of June 30, 2024 due to material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, all as described in Part II, Item 9A, “Controls and Procedures” of this Annual Report. While we have initiated remediation measures to address the identified material weaknesses, we cannot provide assurance that our remediation efforts will be adequate to allow us to conclude that such controls will be effective in the future. We also cannot assure you that additional material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting will not arise or be identified in the future. We intend to continue our control remediation activities and to continue to improve our overall control environment and our operational, information technology, financial systems, and infrastructure procedures and controls, as well as to continue to train and develop our personnel who are essential to effective internal controls. In doing so, we will continue to incur expenses and expend management time on compliance-related issues. If we are unable to successfully complete our remediation efforts in a timely manner and are, therefore, not able to favorably assess the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, this could further cause investors to lose confidence, and our operating results, financial position, ability to accurately report our financial results and timely file our SEC reports, and stock price could be adversely affected.
Moreover, because of the inherent limitations of any control system, material misstatements due to error or fraud may not be prevented or detected on a timely basis, or at all. If we are unable to provide reliable and timely financial reports in the future or if our financial statements are restated, our business and reputation may be further harmed. Restated financial statements and failures in internal controls may also cause us to fail to meet reporting obligations, negatively affect investor and customer confidence in our management or result in adverse publicity and concerns from investors and customers, any of which could have a negative effect on the price of our common stock, subject us to further regulatory investigations, potential penalties or stockholder litigation, and have a material adverse impact on our business and financial condition.
Operational and Execution Risks
Our quarterly operating results have fluctuated and will likely fluctuate in the future, which could cause rapid declines in our stock price.
We believe that our quarterly operating results will continue to be subject to fluctuation due to various factors, many of which are beyond our control. Factors that may affect quarterly operating results include:
•The circumstances discussed in the Explanatory Note in this Annual Report;
•Fluctuations in demand for our products, in part due to factors such as changes in emergent and rapidly evolving markets (such as AI) and changes in the global economic environment;
•Fluctuations in availability and costs associated with key components, particularly semiconductors, memory, storage solutions, and other materials needed to satisfy customer requirements;
•The timing of the introduction of new products by leading microprocessor vendors and other suppliers;
•Fluctuations based upon seasonality, with the quarters ending March 31 and September 30 typically being weaker;
•The ability of our customers and suppliers to obtain financing or fund capital expenditures;
•Fluctuations in the timing and size of large customer orders, including with respect to changes in sales and implementation cycles of our products into our customers’ spending plans and associated revenue;
•Variability of our margins based on the mix of server and storage systems, subsystems and accessories we sell and the percentage of our sales to internet data center, cloud computing customers or certain geographical regions;
•The introduction and market acceptance of new technologies and products, and our success in emergent and rapidly evolving markets (such as AI), and incorporating emerging technologies in our products, as well as the adoption of new standards;
•Changes in our product pricing policies, including those made in response to new product announcements and fluctuations in availability and costs of key components;
•Mix of whether customer purchases are of partially or fully integrated systems or subsystems and accessories and whether made directly or through our indirect sales channel partners;
•The effect of mergers and acquisitions among our competitors, suppliers, customers, or partners;
•General economic conditions in our geographic markets;
•Geopolitical tensions, including regional conflicts, trade wars, tariffs and/or sanctions in our geographic markets; and
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•Impact of regulatory changes (including export control) on our cost of doing business.
Customers may hesitate to purchase, or not continue to purchase, our products based upon the circumstances discussed in the Explanatory Note in this Annual Report. If we fail to meet expectations of investors or analysts, our stock price may fall rapidly and without notice. Furthermore, the fluctuation of quarterly operating results may render less meaningful period-to-period comparisons of our operating results, and you should not rely upon them as an indication of future performance.
If we fail to meet any publicly announced financial guidance or other expectations about our business, it could cause our stock to decline in value.
We generally provide forward-looking financial guidance when we announce our financial results for the prior quarter. No assurances can be given that we will continue to provide forward-looking financial guidance, and if we do issue forward looking guidance, the uncertainties related to these items could cause us to revise such guidance. If issued, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking guidance at any time. In the past, our financial results have failed from time to time to meet the guidance we provided. There are a number of reasons why we have at times failed to meet guidance in the past and might fail again in the future, including, but not limited to, the factors described in these Risk Factors.
We depend upon the development of new products and enhancements to our existing products, and if we fail to predict or respond to emerging technological trends and our customers’ changing needs, our operating results and market share may suffer.
The markets for our products are characterized by rapidly changing technology, evolving industry standards, new product introductions, and evolving methods of operations. While our revenues increased in fiscal year 2024, our operating results depend on our ability to develop and introduce new products into existing and emerging markets (such as AI) and to reduce the production costs of existing products. If our customers do not purchase our products, our business will be harmed.
The process of developing products incorporating new technologies is complex and uncertain, and if we fail to accurately predict customers’ changing needs and emerging technological trends our business could be harmed. We must commit significant resources, including the investments we have been making in our strategic priorities to developing new products before knowing whether our investments will result in products and services the market will accept and investments to purchase inventory of key components for which there have been periods of supply constraint. If the industry does not evolve as we believe it will, or if our strategy for addressing this evolution is not successful, many of our strategic initiatives and investments may be of no or limited value. Suppliers of our key components may introduce new technologies that are critical to the functionality of our products more quickly than anticipated, which may render components we have on hand obsolete, saddling us with excess inventory which we may not be able to utilize in our products or sell at prices we had anticipated. Conversely, suppliers of our key components may also introduce new technologies that are critical to the functionality of our products at a slower rate than their competition, which could adversely impact our ability to timely develop and provide competitive offerings to our customers. Similarly, our business could be harmed if we fail to develop, or fail to develop in a timely fashion, offerings to address other transitions, or if the offerings addressing these other transitions that ultimately succeed are based on technology, or an approach to technology, different from ours. In addition, our business could be adversely affected in the periods surrounding our new product introductions if customers delay purchasing decisions to qualify or otherwise evaluate the new product offerings.
Furthermore, we may not execute successfully on our vision or strategy because of challenges with regards to product planning and timing, technical hurdles that we fail to overcome in a timely fashion, or a lack of appropriate resources. This could result in competitors, some of which may also be our suppliers, providing those solutions before we do and loss of market share, revenue, and earnings. The success of new products depends on several factors, including proper new product and service definition, component costs, timely completion and introduction of these products, differentiation of new products from those of our competitors, market acceptance of these products, and providing appropriate support of these products. There can be no assurance that we will successfully identify new product opportunities, develop and bring new products to market in a timely manner, or achieve market acceptance of our products or that products and technologies developed by others will not render our products or technologies obsolete or noncompetitive. The products and technologies in our other product categories and key priority and growth areas may not prove to have the market success we anticipate, and we may not successfully identify and invest in other emerging or new products.
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We may lose sales or incur unexpected expenses relating to insufficient, excess or obsolete inventory.
To offer greater choices and optimization of our products to benefit our customers, we maintain a high level of inventory. If we fail to maintain sufficient inventory, we may not be able to meet demand for our products on a timely basis, and our sales may suffer. If we overestimate customer demand for our products for whatever reason (including technology changing more rapidly than we anticipate), we could experience excess inventory of our products and be unable to sell those products at a reasonable price, or at all. As a result, we may need to record higher inventory reserves. In addition, from time to time we assume greater inventory risk in connection with the purchase or manufacture of more specialized components in connection with higher volume sales opportunities. In the past, we have taken certain actions including our increased purchase of certain critical materials and components as a part of our response planning for various uncertainties and risks, such as periods of supply constraint of key components and those related to lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we sought to actively manage our supply chain for potential risks of shortage by building inventories of critical components required for our motherboards and other system printed circuit boards, as well as add to our inventories of key components such as GPUs, CPUs, memory, and solid state drives ("SSDs") so that customer orders can be fulfilled as rapidly as possible after they are received. We may continue to take similar actions in the future based upon our assessment of uncertainties and risks. Nevertheless, no assurances can be given that any such efforts will be successful to manage inventory, and we could be exposed to risks of insufficient, excess, or obsolete inventory. We have from time-to-time experienced inventory write downs associated with higher volume sales that were not completed as anticipated. We expect that we will experience such write downs from time-to-time in the future related to existing and future commitments, and potentially related to any proactive purchase of certain critical materials and components as part of our planning for uncertainties and risks. Excess or obsolete inventory levels for these or other reasons could result in unexpected expenses or increases in our reserves against potential future charges which would adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Our revenue and margins for a particular period are difficult to predict, and a shortfall in revenue or decline in margins may harm our operating results.
Our revenue and margins for a particular quarter are difficult to predict, especially in light of the potential volatility in emergent and rapidly evolving markets (such as AI), increased competition, challenging and inconsistent global macroeconomic environment, and steps we are taking in response to each of the foregoing. Our revenue may grow at a slower rate than in past periods or decline. Our ability to meet financial expectations could also be adversely affected if the nonlinear sales pattern seen in some of our past quarters recurs in future periods.
The timing of large orders can also have a significant effect on our business and operating results from quarter to quarter. From time to time, we receive large orders that have a significant effect on our operating results in the period in which the order is recognized as revenue. For instance, our larger customers may seek to fulfill all or substantially all of their requirements in a single or a few orders, and not make another significant purchase for a substantial period of time. The timing of such orders is difficult to predict, and the timing of revenue recognition from such orders may affect period to period changes in revenue. When we issue credit in connection with large orders, in the event customers do not pay or make timely payment, our ability to collect amounts owed to us creates risk. We have in the past, and may continue in the future, on a case-by-case basis, take steps to mitigate collection risks, such as seeking third party insurance with respect to credit issued and taking a security interest in goods we have sold to customers pending collection of any credit given. However, we cannot be assured that such measures will be effective to collect on all or part of any such credit issued. As a result, our operating results could vary materially from quarter to quarter based on the receipt of such orders and their ultimate recognition as revenue.
We plan our operating expense levels based primarily on forecasted revenue levels. These expenses and the impact of long-term commitments are relatively fixed in the short term. A shortfall in revenue could lead to operating results being below expectations because we may not be able to quickly reduce these fixed expenses in response to short-term business changes. Any of the above factors could have a material adverse impact on our operations and financial results.
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In some instances, we take security interests in the products sold. The exercise of such security interests, and the resale of our products, could negatively affect the results of operations and operating cash flows.
To mitigate the collection risks associated with larger sales, we have, in some instances, taken security interests in our products sold pending the collection of outstanding accounts receivable. These security interests grant us priority as a secured creditor and entitle us to the recapture of the products sold in the event of customer default or bankruptcy. However, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to successfully recapture our products on exercise of our security interests. Even if we can recapture our products, we may not be able to successfully re-sell such products at a favorable price. The occurrence of any of these events could negatively affect the results of operations and operating cash flows.
As we increasingly target larger customers and sales opportunities, our customer base may become more concentrated, our cost of sales may increase, our margins may be lower, our borrowings to fund purchases of key components may be higher, we are exposed to inventory risks and increased credit risks, and our sales may be less predictable.
We have become increasingly dependent upon larger sales to grow our business. In recent years, we have completed larger sales to leading internet data center and cloud customers, large enterprise customers and OEMs. We had one customer account for 10% or more of our net sales in fiscal year 2024, while we had no single customer account for 10% or more of net sales in fiscal years 2023 or 2022. We anticipate we may continue to have customers account for 10% or more of net sales in the future, and the loss of such customers could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. If customers buy our products in greater volumes and their business becomes a larger percentage of our net sales, we may grow increasingly dependent on those customers to maintain our growth. If our largest customers do not purchase our products, or we are unable to supply such customers with products, at the levels, in the timeframes or within the geographies that we expect, including as a result of a global economic downturn, excessive credit risk, or a belief by such customers of excessive dependency upon us as a supplier, our ability to maintain or grow our net sales will be adversely affected.
Increased sales to larger customers may also cause fluctuations in the results of operations. Large orders are generally subject to intense competition and pricing pressure which can have an adverse impact on our margins and results of operations. Accordingly, a significant increase in revenue during the period in which we recognize the revenue from a large customer may be followed by a period during which the customer either does not purchase any products or only a small number of our products.
Additionally, as we and our partners focus increasingly on selling to larger customers and attracting larger orders, we expect greater costs of sales. Our sales cycle may become longer, and more expensive, as larger customers typically spend more time negotiating contracts than smaller customers. Such larger orders may require greater commitments of working capital, which may require increased borrowings under our credit facilities to fund purchases of key components (such as CPUs, memory, SSDs and GPUs) necessary for such orders, which could adversely affect our cash flow and expose us to the risk of holding excess and obsolete inventory, if there are delays or cancellations. Furthermore, larger customers also often seek greater levels of support in the implementation and use of our server solutions. An actual or perceived inability to meet customer support demands may adversely affect our relationship with such customers, which may affect the likelihood of future purchases of our products. Larger customers may also request larger amounts of credit or longer payment terms, which, if granted, increases our risks in the event customers to do not pay or make timely payment, which risk is exacerbated in the event our payment terms with major suppliers of necessary components for such orders do not match the payment terms of our customers.
As a result of the above factors, our quarter-to-quarter results of operations may be subject to greater fluctuation and our stock price may be adversely affected.
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We may be unable to secure additional financing on favorable terms, or at all, which in turn could impair the rate of our growth.
We had net income of $1.15 billion, $640.0 million and $285.2 million in fiscal years 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively. During fiscal year 2024 we raised approximately $2.31 billion, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses payable by us, in two equity offerings of our common stock and $1.55 billion, net of debt issuance costs and capped call transactions costs in an offering of convertible debt securities. In addition, we borrowed $500.0 million under our term loan facility in July 2024. Our Taiwan subsidiary, where we maintain significant operations, also increased their lines of credit, or entered into new lines of credit, with various commercial banks in Taiwan. In addition, on February 20, 2025, we issued $700.0 million aggregate principal amount of our 2.25% Convertible Senior Notes due 2028 (the “2028 Convertible Notes”) in a private placement. We believe that our current cash, cash equivalents, borrowing capacity available from our credit facilities and internally generated cash flows will be sufficient to support our operating businesses and maturing debt and interest payments for the 12 months following the issuance of the financial statements included in this Annual Report. Nevertheless, we intend to continue to grow our business, which could require additional capital. We may need to further expand our credit facilities, enter into new credit facilities or engage in additional equity, debt or other type of financings to secure additional capital to continue or increase our rate of growth. If we raise additional capital through additional future issuances of equity or equity-linked securities, our existing stockholders could suffer significant dilution, and any new equity securities we may issue could have rights, preferences and privileges superior to those holders of our common stock. Any credit facility or debt financing that we secure in the future could involve restrictive covenants relating to our capital raising activities and other financial and operational matters, which could make it more difficult for us to raise additional capital and to pursue our growth strategies. If we are unable to secure additional funding on favorable terms, or at all, when we seek it, we may not be able to continue the rate of our growth. In addition, no assurances can be given that in the event that we secure such financing that the proceeds thereof will be used effectively or result in growth.
Our cost structure, ability to deliver server solutions to customers, and ability to resolve warranty claims in a timely manner may be adversely affected by volatility of the market for core components and certain materials for our products.
Prices of certain materials and core components utilized in the manufacture of our server and storage solutions, such as GPUs, server boards, chassis, CPUs, memory, hard drives and SSDs, represent a significant portion of our cost of sales. GPUs have represented an increasing portion of our cost of sales. While we have increased our purchases of certain critical materials and core components in response to the supply and demand uncertainties, we do not have long-term supply contracts for all critical materials and core components, but instead often purchase these materials and components on a purchase order basis. Prices and availability of these core components and materials are volatile, and, as a result, it is difficult to predict expense levels and operating results. For a variety of reasons, including supply constraints of some key components and forecasts for the demand for our products, the purchase orders we place for such components and materials have resulted in a growth of inventory. No assurances can be given that we will be able to enter into necessary long-term supply contracts for critical materials and core components, or, even if we are able to enter into such supply contracts, that they would be appropriate, or our costs, gross margins or inventory would improve.
Because we often acquire materials and key components on an as needed basis, we may be limited in our ability to effectively and efficiently respond to customer orders and warranty claims, which in some cases require the provision of replacement solutions, because of the then-current availability or the terms and pricing of these materials and key components, particularly for GPUs during periods of growth of new emerging markets (such as for AI). While we have experienced an increase in demand for certain of our products in the recent past, our industry has experienced materials shortages and delivery delays in the past, including as a result of increased demand during periods of growth of new emerging markets (such as for AI), challenges in the global supply chain as a result of conflict and pandemic, and global economic downturn. We may have experienced, or continue to experience, shortages or delays of critical materials or increased logistics costs to obtain necessary materials in a timely manner to meet the needs of our increasing demand. From time to time, we have been forced to delay the introduction of certain of our products or the fulfillment of customer orders as a result of shortages of materials and key components, which can adversely impact our revenue. If shortages, supply or demand imbalances or delays arise, the prices of these materials and key components may increase or the materials and key components may not be available at all. In the event of shortages, some of our larger competitors may have greater abilities to obtain materials and key components due to their larger purchasing power. We may not be able to secure enough key components or materials at reasonable prices or of acceptable quality to build new products to meet customer demand or timely resolve warranty claims, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. In addition, from time to time, we have accepted customer orders with various types of component pricing protection. Such arrangements have increased our exposure to component pricing fluctuations and have adversely affected our financial results in certain quarters.
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If we were to lose any of our current supply or contract manufacturing relationships, the process of identifying and qualifying a new supplier or contract manufacturer who meets our quality and delivery requirements, and who will appropriately safeguard our intellectual property, may require a significant investment of time and resources (if an alternative supplier is available at all), adversely affecting our ability to satisfy customer purchase orders and warranty claims and delaying our ability to rapidly introduce new products to market. Similarly, if any of our suppliers were to cancel, materially change contracts or commitments to us or fail to meet the quality or delivery requirements needed to satisfy customer demand for our products, whether due to shortages or other reasons, our reputation and relationships with customers could be damaged. In addition, changes in supplier credit terms may have impacts on our ability to acquire materials and key components needed to meet customer demand or required for growth. An inability to meet such customer demand may have adverse impacts on our growth or our ability to maintain or grow market share.We could also lose orders, be unable to develop or sell some products cost-effectively or on a timely basis, if at all, and have significantly decreased revenues, margins and earnings, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Challenges we encounter in enhancing and updating ERP systems and other IP applications, including automating internal controls through our ERP systems and maintaining internal controls over processes in other IT applications, could adversely impact our controls environment.
Many companies have experienced challenges with their ERP systems that have had a negative effect on their business. We have incurred and expect to continue to incur additional expenses related to our ERP systems, particularly as we continue to further enhance and develop them, including by automating certain internal controls and updating systems which are approaching the end of their service life or may no longer be supported. Any future disruptions, delays or deficiencies relating to automating internal controls utilizing our ERP systems, integrating processes that occur in other IT applications, or updating systems could adversely affect our ability to file reports with the SEC in a timely manner, deliver accurate financial statements and otherwise impact our controls environment. Any of these consequences could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Increases in average selling prices for our solutions have significantly contributed to increases in net sales in some of the periods covered by this Annual Report. Such prices are subject to decline if customers do not continue to purchase our latest generation products or additional components, or key components become more widely available and commoditized, which could harm the results of operations.
Increases in average selling prices for our server solutions have significantly contributed to increases in net sales in some of the periods covered by this Annual Report. The market for key components became, and continues to be, volatile. As with most electronics-based products, average selling prices of server and storage products are typically highest at the time of introduction of new products, which utilize the latest technology, and tend to decrease over time as such products become commoditized and are ultimately replaced by even newer generation products. We cannot predict the timing or amount of any decline in the average selling prices of our server solutions that we may experience in the future, which may be exacerbated by factors such as global economic conditions, regional conflicts, and rapid developments in trade restrictions. In some instances, our agreements with our indirect sales channel partners limit our ability to reduce prices unless we make such price reductions available to them, or price protect their inventory. If we are unable to either (i) decrease the average per unit manufacturing costs faster than the rate at which average selling prices decline or (ii) increase the average selling prices at the same pace at which average per unit manufacturing costs increase, our business, financial condition and results of operations will be harmed.
Changes in U.S. or foreign policies, geopolitical conditions, general economic conditions, and other factors beyond our control may adversely impact our business and operating results.
Our business is subject to risks generally associated with doing business abroad, such as U.S. and foreign governmental regulation in the countries in which we operate and the countries in which our contract manufacturers, component suppliers, and other business partners are located. Our operations and performance depend significantly on global, regional, and U.S. economic and geopolitical conditions. For example, tensions between the United States and China have led to the United States’ imposition of a series of tariffs, sanctions, and other restrictions on imports from China and sourcing from certain Chinese persons or entities, as well as other business restrictions. Additionally, President Trump has indicated that his administration would potentially impose greater restrictions on trade with China through significant increases in tariffs on goods imported into the U.S., which could increase tensions and create greater uncertainty in our business dealings. Several countries are considering or have implemented tariffs or other trade barriers or restrictions, as well as other measures affecting cross-border commerce and the flow of information, which could have broad economic consequences, impact global supply chains and negatively affect our business, customers and partners.
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Global events may present challenges and risks to us. For example, the crises in eastern Europe and the Middle East continues to pose challenges to global companies, including us, which have customers in the impacted regions. The U.S. and other global governments have placed restrictions on how companies may transact with businesses in these regions, particularly Russia, Belarus and restricted areas in Ukraine. Because of these restrictions and the growing logistical and other challenges, we have paused sales to Russia, Belarus and the restricted areas in Ukraine. This decision, which is in line with the approach of other global technology companies, helps us comply with our obligations under the various requirements in the U.S. and around the world. While it is difficult to estimate the impact on our business and financial position of both (i) our pause in sales to Russia, Belarus and the restricted areas in Ukraine and the current or future sanctions and (ii) tensions in the Taiwan strait, our pause in sales and these sanctions and continuing rising tensions could have adverse impacts on us in future periods, although they have not been material to date. For example, with respect to Russia, Belarus and the restricted areas in Ukraine, we did not, prior to the imposition of restrictions, make a material portion of our sales or acquire a material portion of our parts or components directly from impacted regions; however, our suppliers and their suppliers may acquire raw materials for parts or components from the impacted regions. Supply disruptions may make it harder for them to find favorable pricing and reliable sources for materials they need, which may put further upward pressure on their costs and increasing the risks that our costs may increase and that it may be more difficult, or we may be unable, to acquire materials needed. In addition, the crises may further exacerbate inflationary pressures that have indirect impacts on our business, such as further increasing our logistics costs from rising fuel prices and/or continuing to increase our compensation expenses. In addition, no assurances can be given that additional developments in the impacted regions, and responses thereto from the U.S. and other global governments, would not have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Our business depends on the overall demand for accelerated compute platforms. Global financial developments and downturns seemingly unrelated to us or our industry may harm us. If economic conditions, including inflation, increased interest rates, economic output and currency exchange rates, in these markets and other key potential markets for our Total IT Solutions remain uncertain or deteriorate, including as a result of a downturn in the global economy, regional conflicts, trade restrictions, or other reasons, customers may delay or reduce their spending. General economic weakness may also lead to longer collection cycles for payments due from our customers, an increase in customer bad debt, and impairment of investments. Furthermore, weakness and uncertainty in worldwide credit markets may harm our customers’ available budgetary spending, which could lead to cancellations or delays in planned purchases of our Total IT Solutions. If our customers or potential customers experience economic hardship, this could reduce the demand for our Total IT Solutions, delay and lengthen sales cycles, increase requests for customer credit which may increase our risks in the event customers do not pay or make timely payment, lower prices for our Total IT Solutions, and lead to slower growth or even a decline in our revenues, operating results and cash flows.
While recently moderating, inflation in the U.S. had increased at a rate not seen in several decades.A recurrence of high inflation may result in decreased demand for our Total IT Solutions, increases in our operating costs including our labor costs, constrained credit and liquidity, reduced spending and volatility in financial markets. In response to inflation, the Federal Reserve had significantly raised, and may again raise, interest rates, which may increase our own borrowing costs and/or reduce our clients’ access to debt financing, reduce technology expenditures and demand for our Total IT Solutions.
These and other geopolitical tensions, political or economic uncertainty can disrupt supply chains and increase the cost of our and our partners’ products, and have a negative impact on consumer confidence, which could impair our future growth and adversely affect our international operations, business, financial condition, and results of operations.
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System security violations, data protection breaches, cyber-attacksand other related cyber-security issues could materially disrupt our internal operations or compromise the security of our products, and any such disruption could materially reduce our expected revenues, increase our expenses, damage our reputation and adversely affect our stock price.
Malicious computer programmers, malicious insiders, criminals, hackers and sophisticated organizations (including nation states) may be able to penetrate our network and misappropriate or compromise our confidential information or that of third parties, create system disruptions or cause shutdowns that could have a material adverse effect on our business, operations, or products. Such computer programmers, hackers, and organizations also may be able to develop and deploy ransomware, network intrusions, exploitation of zero-day vulnerabilities, distributed denial of service, man-in-the-middle, phishing, vishing, domain name system spoofing, password spraying, viruses, worms and other malicious software programs that attack our products or otherwise exploit any security vulnerabilities of our products that could likewise have a material adverse effect on our business. There have been increases in the frequency and sophistication of such attacks, and we expect that these activities will continue. We may also face cybersecurity threats due to error or intentional misconduct by employees, contractors or other third-party service providers. Certain aspects of effective cybersecurity are dependent upon our employees, contractors and/or other third-party service providers safeguarding our sensitive information and adhering to our security policies and access control mechanisms. While we employ a number of protective measures, including firewalls, anti-virus and endpoint detection and response technologies, regular annual training of employees with respect to cybersecurity, and testing employee competence with anti-phishing policies followed up by additional remedial training as needed, these measures may fail to prevent or detect significant attacks on our systems. Additionally, the costs associated with cybersecurity tools and infrastructure and fierce competition for scarce cybersecurity and IT talent have at times limited, and may in the future limit, our ability to efficiently identify, eliminate, or remediate cyber or other security vulnerabilities or problems or enact changes to minimize the attack surface of our network. While there have been unauthorized intrusions into our network in the past, none of these intrusions, individually or in the aggregate, had a material adverse effect on our business, operations, or products. We have taken steps to enhance the security of our network and computer systems and we provide regular updates to our Board at our quarterly meetings with respect to cybersecurity matters. Despite these efforts, we may experience future intrusions, which could materially and adversely affect our business, operations, or products. In addition, our hardware and software or third-party components and software that we utilize in our products may contain defects in design or manufacture, including “bugs” and other problems that could unexpectedly interfere with the operation or security of the products, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, operations, or products. The costs to us to eliminate or mitigate cyber or other security problems, bugs, viruses, worms, malicious software programs and security vulnerabilities could be significant and, if our efforts to address these problems are not successful, could result in material interruptions, delays, cessation of service and loss of existing or potential customers that may impede our sales, manufacturing, distribution or other critical functions. Any claim that our products or systems are subject to cybersecurity risk, whether valid or not, could damage our reputation and materially and adversely impact our revenues and results of operations.
We manage and store various proprietary information and sensitive or confidential data relating to our business as well as information from our suppliers and customers. Breaches of our or any of our third party suppliers’ security measures or the accidental loss, inadvertent disclosure or unapproved dissemination of proprietary information or sensitive or confidential data about us or our customers or suppliers, including the potential loss or disclosure of such information or data as a result of fraud, trickery or other forms of deception, could expose us or our customers or suppliers to a material risk of loss or misuse of this information, result in litigation and potential material liability for us, materially damage our brand and reputation or otherwise materially harm our business.
To the extent we experience cyber-security incidents in the future, our relationships with our customers and suppliers may be materially impacted, our brand and reputation may be materially harmed and we could incur substantial costs in responding to and remediating the incidents and in resolving any investigations or disputes that may arise with respect to them, any of which would cause our business, operations, or products to be materially and adversely affected. In addition, the cost and operational consequences of implementing and adding further data protection measures could be significant.
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Any failure to adequately expand or retain our sales force will impede our growth.
We expect that our direct sales force will continue to grow as larger customers increasingly require a direct sales approach. Competition for direct sales personnel with the advanced sales skills and technical knowledge we need is intense, and we face significant competition for direct sales personnel from our competitors. Our ability to grow our revenue in the future will depend, in large part, on our success in recruiting, training, retaining and successfully managing sufficient qualified direct sales personnel. New hires require significant training and may take six months or longer before they reach full productivity. Our recent hires and planned hires may not become as productive as we would like, we may be unable to hire enough qualified individuals in the future in the markets where we do business, and individuals we hire may not perform pursuant to our expectations in the event of inadequate supervision. If we are unable to hire, develop and retain enough productive sales personnel, our customer relationships and resulting sales of our server solutions will suffer.
Conflicts of interest may arise with Ablecom and Compuware, and they may adversely affect our operations.
We use Ablecom, a related party, for contract design and manufacturing coordination support and warehousing, and Compuware, also a related party and an affiliate of Ablecom, for distribution, contract manufacturing and warehousing. We work with Ablecom to optimize modular designs for our chassis and certain other components. We outsource to Compuware a portion of our design activities and a significant part of our manufacturing of subassemblies, particularly power supplies. Our purchases of products from Ablecom and Compuware represented 4.3%, 6.6% and 8.3% of our cost of sales for fiscal years 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively. Ablecom and Compuware’s sales to us constitute a substantial majority of Ablecom’s and Compuware’s net sales. Ablecom and Compuware are both privately held Taiwan-based companies. In addition, we have appointed Compuware as a nonexclusive authorized distributor of our products in Taiwan, China and Australia. Each of Ablecom and Compuware are also developing campuses in close proximity to the campus we are developing in Malaysia to expand our manufacturing.
Steve Liang, Ablecom’s Chief Executive Officer and largest shareholder, is the brother of Charles Liang, our President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of our Board of Directors (the “Board”). Steve Liang owned no shares of our common stock as of June 30, 2024, 2023 or 2022. Charles Liang and his spouse, Sara Liu, our Co-Founder, Senior Vice President and Director, jointly owned approximately 10.5% of Ablecom’s capital stock, while Mr. Steve Liang and his family members owned approximately 35.0% of Ablecom’s outstanding common stock as of June 30, 2024. Bill Liang, a brother of both Charles Liang and Steve Liang, is a member of the Board of Directors of Ablecom as well. In addition, a sibling of Yih-Shyan (Wally) Liaw, who is our Senior Vice President, Business Development and a director on our Board, owns approximately 11.7% of Ablecom’s capital stock and 8.7% of Compuware’s capital stock.
In October 2018, our Chief Executive Officer, Charles Liang, personally borrowed approximately $12.9 million from Chien-Tsun Chang, the spouse of Steve Liang. The loan is unsecured, has no maturity date and bore interest at 0.8% per month for the first six months, increased to 0.85% per month through February 28, 2020, and reduced to 0.25% effective March 1, 2020. The loan was originally made at Mr. Liang's request to provide funds to repay margin loans to two financial institutions, which loans had been secured by shares of our common stock that he held. The lenders called the loans in October 2018, following the suspension of our common stock from trading on NASDAQ in August 2018 and the decline in the market price of our common stock in October 2018. As of June 30, 2024, the amount due on the unsecured loan (including principal and accrued interest) was approximately $16.4 million.
Bill Liang is also the Chief Executive Officer of Compuware, Chairman of Compuware’s Board of Directors and a holder of equity interest in Compuware. Steve Liang is also a member of Compuware’s Board of Directors and is an equity holder of Compuware.
Mr. Charles Liang is our Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, is a significant stockholder of our company, and has considerable influence over the management of our business relationships. Accordingly, we may be disadvantaged by the economic interests of Mr. Charles Liang and his spouse, Ms. Sara Liu, as stockholders of Ablecom and Mr. Charles Liang's personal relationship with Ablecom’s Chief Executive Officer and Compuware's Chief Executive Officer. We may not negotiate or enforce contractual terms as aggressively with Ablecom or Compuware as we might with an unrelated party, and the commercial terms of our agreements may be less favorable than we might obtain in negotiations with third parties. If our business dealings with Ablecom or Compuware are not as favorable to us as arms-length transactions, our results of operations may be harmed.
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If Ablecom or Compuware are acquired or sold, new ownership could reassess the business and strategy of Ablecom or Compuware, and as a result, our supply chain could be disrupted or the terms and conditions of our agreements with Ablecom or Compuware may change. As a result, our operations could be negatively impacted or costs could increase, either of which could adversely affect our margins and the results of operations.
Our reliance on Ablecom could be subject to risks associated with our reliance on a limited source of contract manufacturing services and inventory warehousing.
We plan to continue to maintain our manufacturing relationship with Ablecom in Asia. In order to provide a larger volume of contract manufacturing services for us, we anticipate that Ablecom will continue to warehouse for us an increasing number of components and subassemblies manufactured by multiple suppliers prior to shipment to our facilities in the United States and Europe. We also anticipate that we will continue to lease office space from Ablecom in Taiwan to support our research and development efforts. We operate a joint management company with Ablecom to manage the common areas shared by us and Ablecom for our separately constructed manufacturing facilities in Taiwan.
If our commercial relationship with Ablecom deteriorates, we may experience delays in our ability to fulfill customer orders. Similarly, if Ablecom’s facility in Asia is subject to damage, destruction or other disruptions, our inventory may be damaged or destroyed, and we may be unable to find adequate alternative providers of contract manufacturing services in the time that we or our customers require. We could lose orders and be unable to develop or sell some products cost-effectively or on a timely basis, if at all.
Currently, we purchase contract manufacturing services primarily for our chassis products from Ablecom. If our commercial relationship with Ablecom were to deteriorate or terminate, establishing direct relationships with those entities supplying Ablecom with key materials for our products or identifying and negotiating agreements with alternative providers of warehouse and contract manufacturing services might take a considerable amount of time and require a significant investment of resources. Pursuant to our agreements with Ablecom and subject to certain exceptions, Ablecom has the exclusive right to be our supplier of the specific products developed under such agreements. As a result, if we are unable to obtain such products from Ablecom on terms acceptable to us, we may need to discontinue a product or develop substitute products, identify a new supplier, change our design and acquire new tooling, all of which could result in delays in our product availability and increased costs. If we need to use other suppliers, we may not be able to establish business arrangements that are, individually or in the aggregate, as favorable as the terms and conditions we have established with Ablecom. If any of these things should occur, our net sales, margins and earnings could significantly decrease, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
If we lose Charles Liang, our President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, or any other key employee or are unable to attract additional key employees, we may not be able to implement our business strategy in a timely manner.
Our future success depends in large part upon the continued service of our current executive management team and other key employees. Charles Liang, our President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, is critical to the overall management of our company as well as to our strategic direction. Mr. Liang co-founded our company and has been our Chief Executive Officer since our inception. His experience in leading our business and his personal involvement in key relationships with suppliers, customers and strategic partners are extremely valuable to our company. We currently do not have a succession plan for the replacement of Mr. Liang if it were to become necessary. Additionally, we are particularly dependent on the continued service of our existing research and development personnel because of the complexity of our products and technologies. While the vesting of certain long-term performance-based option awards granted to Mr. Liang are tied to Mr. Liang remaining as our CEO (or such other position as the Board may agree), our employment arrangements with our executives and employees do not require them to provide services to us for any specific length of time, and they can terminate their employment with us at any time, with or without notice, without penalty. The loss of services of any of these executives or of one or more other key members of our team could seriously harm our business.
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Our direct sales efforts may create confusion for our end customers and harm our relationships in our indirect sales channel and with our OEMs.
We expect our direct sales force to continue to grow as our business grows. As our direct sales force becomes larger, our direct sales efforts may lead to conflicts in our indirect sales channel and with our OEMs, who may view our direct sales efforts as undermining their efforts to sell our products. If an indirect sales channel partner or OEM deems our direct sales efforts to be inappropriate, they may not effectively market our products, may emphasize alternative products from competitors, or may seek to terminate our business relationship. Disruptions in our indirect channels could cause our revenues to decrease or fail to grow as expected. Our failure to implement an effective direct sales strategy that maintains and expands our relationships in our indirect sales channel and with our OEMs could lead to a decline in sales, harm relationshipsand adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
If negative publicity arises with respect to us, our employees, our third-party service providers or our partners, our business and operating results could be adversely affected, regardless of whether the negative publicity is true.
Negative publicity about our company or our products, even if inaccurate or untrue, could adversely affect our reputation and confidence in our products, which could harm our business and operating results. For example, on August 27, 2024, a news article was published by a short seller alleging evidence of accounting manipulation, sibling self-dealing and sanctions evasion (the “Report”). We indicated that such Report contained false or inaccurate statements about us, including misleading presentations of information we previously shared publicly. However, despite these statements related to the allegations in the Report, and the announcement of the results of Special Committee investigation, the publication of the Report and the circumstances discussed in the Explanatory Note in this Annual Report contributed to a substantial negative impact on the trading price of our common stock and our reputation, and may continue to have a negative impact in the future.
Harm to our reputation can also arise from many other sources, including employee misconduct, which we have experienced in the past, and misconduct by our partners, consultants and outsourced service providers. Additionally, negative publicity with respect to our partners or service providers could also affect our business and operating results to the extent that we rely on these partners or if our customers or prospective customers associate our company with these partners.
If we are unable to attract and integrate additional key employees in a manner that enables us to scale our business and operations effectively, or if we do not maintain competitive compensation policies to retain our employees, our ability to operate effectively and efficiently could be limited.
To execute our growth plan, we must attract additional highly qualified personnel, including a Chief Financial Officer, a Chief Compliance Officer, a General Counsel and additional in-house attorneys, additional engineers and executive staff. Competition for qualified personnel is intense, especially in Silicon Valley, where we are headquartered. We have experienced and may continue to experience difficulty in hiring and retaining highly skilled employees with appropriate qualifications. If we are unable to attract and integrate additional key employees in a manner that enables us to scale our business and operations effectively, or if we do not maintain competitive compensation policies to retain our employees, our ability to operate effectively and efficiently could be limited.
Strategic and Industry Risks
We must work closely with our suppliers to make timely new product introductions.
We rely on our close working relationships with our suppliers, including Intel, AMD and NVIDIA, to anticipate and deliver new products on a timely basis when new generation materials and key components are made available. If we are not able to maintain our relationships with our suppliers or continue to leverage their research and development capabilities to develop new technologies desired by our customers, our ability to quickly offer advanced technology and product innovations to our customers would be impaired. We have no long-term agreements that obligate our suppliers to continue to work with us or to supply us with products.
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If we do not successfully manage the expansion of our international manufacturing capacity and business operations, our business could be harmed.
Since inception, we have conducted the majority of our manufacturing operations in San Jose, California. We continue to increase our manufacturing capacity in Taiwan and in the Netherlands and have sought to accelerate manufacturing in Taiwan to better diversify our geographical manufacturing concentration. In order to continue to successfully increase our operations in Taiwan, we must efficiently manage our Taiwan operations from our headquarters in San Jose, California and continue to develop a strong local management team.
We are also pursuing an expansion of our manufacturing operations into Malaysia. If we are unable to successfully ramp up our international manufacturing capacity in Taiwan, the Netherlands, Malaysia, or any other jurisdictions we pursue, including the associated construction, increased logistics and warehousing, we may incur unanticipated costs, difficulties in making timely delivery of products or suffer other business disruptions which could adversely impact our results of operations.
We may not be able to successfully manage our business for growth and expansion.
We expect to continue to make investments to pursue new customers, expand our product and service offerings to grow our business, and pursue new business markets and opportunities. We also expect that our annual operating expenses will continue to increase as we invest in sales and marketing, research and development, manufacturing and production infrastructure, software and product service offerings, strengthen customer service and support resources for our customers, and pursue new business markets and opportunities. Our failure to expand operational and financial or internal control systems timely or efficiently could result in additional operating inefficiencies, which could increase our costs and expenses more than we had planned and prevent us from successfully executing our business plan. We may not be able to offset the costs of operation expansion by leveraging the economies of scale from our growth in negotiations with our suppliers and contract manufacturers. Additionally, if we increase our operating expenses in anticipation of the growth of our business and this growth does not meet our expectations, our financial results will be negatively impacted. There are also no assurances that investments we make to pursue new business markets and opportunities (such as ecommerce in B2B and B2C markets and data center offerings) will be successful or profitable, given the investment costs necessary to pursue these markets and opportunities, which includes investments in technology, people, time, and other overhead costs.
As our business continues to grow, we will have to manage additional product design projects, materials procurement processes and sales efforts and marketing for an increasing number of SKUs, provide and update an increasing amount of software utilized in our hardware offerings, provide more sophisticated product service offerings to support our customers, expand the number and scope of our relationships with suppliers, distributors and end customers, and (for new business markets and opportunities we pursue) manage different and increasingly complex regulatory landscapes they are subject to. If we fail to manage these additional responsibilities and relationships successfully, we may incur significant costs, which may negatively impact our operating results. Additionally, in our efforts to be first to market with new products with innovative functionality and features, we may devote significant research and development resources to products and product features for which a market does not develop quickly, or at all. If we are not able to predict market trends accurately, we may not benefit from such research and development activities, and our results of operations may suffer.
Managing our business for long-term growth also requires us to successfully manage our employee headcount. We must continue to hire, train and manage new employees as needed. If our new hires perform poorly, or if we are unsuccessful in hiring, training, managing and integrating these new employees, or if we are not successful in retaining our employees, our business may be harmed. A growth in headcount would continue to increase our cost base, which would make it more difficult for us to offset any future revenue shortfalls by offsetting expense reductions in the short term. If we fail to successfully manage our growth, we will be unable to execute our business plan.
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We rely on a limited number of suppliers for certain components used to manufacture our products.
Certain components used in the manufacture of our products are available from a limited number of suppliers. Shortages could occur in these essential materials due to an interruption of supply, including interruptions on the global supply chain (such as did occur in connection with the prior COVID-19 pandemic, prior global economic downturns, and emergence of regional conflicts) or increased demand in the industry (such as did occur due to volatility in emergent and rapidly evolving markets, including AI). Similar future events may cause additional interruptions in the global supply chain. Two of our suppliers accounted for 65.4% and 6.3% of total purchases for fiscal year 2024. The same two suppliers accounted for 30.7% and 13.5% of total purchases for fiscal year 2023. The same two suppliers accounted for 11.4% and 18.1% of total purchases for fiscal year 2022. Ablecom and Compuware, related parties, accounted for 4.3%, 6.6% and 8.3% of our total cost of sales for fiscal year 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively. If any of our largest suppliers discontinue their operations, if our relationships with them are adversely impacted, or there are significant adverse changes to the terms upon which we do business, we could experience a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. See also “— Our cost structure, ability to deliver server solutions to customers, and ability to resolve warranty claims in a timely manner may be adversely affected by volatility of the market for core components and certain materials for our products.”
Our suppliers’ failure to improve the functionality and performance of materials and key components for our products may impair or delay our ability to deliver innovative products to our customers.
We need our material and key component suppliers, such as Intel, AMD and NVIDIA, to provide us with components that are innovative, reliable and attractive to our customers. Due to the pace of innovation in our industry, many of our customers may delay or reduce purchase decisions until they believe that they are receiving best of breed products that will not be rendered obsolete by an impending technological development. Accordingly, demand for new server and storage systems that incorporate new products and features is significantly impacted by our suppliers’ new product introduction schedules and the functionality, performance and reliability of those new products. If our materials and key component suppliers fail to deliver new and improved materials and components for our products, we may not be able to satisfy customer demand for our products in a timely manner, or at all. If our suppliers’ components do not function properly, we may incur additional costs and our relationships with our customers may be adversely affected.
Our failure to deliver high quality server and storage solutions could damage our reputation and diminish demand for our products.
Our server and storage solutions are critical to our customers’ business operations. Our customers require our server and storage solutions to perform at a high level, contain valuable features and be extremely reliable. The design of our server and storage solutions is sophisticated and complex, and the process for manufacturing, assembling and testing our server solutions is challenging. Occasionally, our design or manufacturing processes may fail to deliver products of the quality that our customers require. For example, in the past certain vendors have provided us with defective components that failed under certain applications. As a result, our products needed to be repaired, and we incurred costs in connection with the recall and diverted resources from other projects.
New flaws or limitations in our server and storage solutions may be detected in the future. Part of our strategy is to bring new products to market quickly, and first-generation products may have a higher likelihood of containing undetected flaws. If our customers discover defects or other performance problems with our products, our customers’ business, and our reputation, may be damaged. Customers may elect to delay or withhold payment for defective or underperforming server and storage solutions, request remedial action, terminate contracts for untimely delivery, or elect not to order additional products, which could result in a decrease in revenue, an increase in our provision for doubtful accounts or in collection cycles for accounts receivable or subject us to the expense and risk of litigation. We may incur expense in recalling, refurbishing or repairing defective server and storage solutions sold to our customers or remaining in our inventory. If we do not properly address customer concerns about our products, our reputation and relationships with our customers may be harmed. For all of these reasons, customer dissatisfaction with the quality of our products could substantially impair our ability to grow our business.
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The market in which we participate is highly competitive, and if we do not compete effectively, we may not be able to increase our market penetration, grow our net sales or improve our gross margins.
The market for server and storage solutions is intensely competitive and rapidly changing, particularly with the emergence of new markets (such as AI). Barriers to entry in our market are relatively low and we expect increased challenges from existing as well as new competitors. Some of our principal competitors offer server solutions at a lower price, which has resulted in pricing pressures on sales of our server solutions. We expect further downward pricing pressure from our competitors and expect that we will have to price some of our server and storage solutions aggressively to increase our market share with respect to those products or geographies, particularly for data center and cloud customers and other large sale opportunities. If we are unable to maintain the margins on our server and storage solutions, our operating results could be negatively impacted. In addition, if we do not develop new innovative solutions, or enhance the reliability, performance, efficiency and other features of our existing server and storage solutions, our customers may turn to our competitors for alternatives. In addition, pricing pressures and increased competition generally may also result in reduced sales, less efficient utilization of our manufacturing operations, lower margins or the failure of our products to achieve or maintain widespread market acceptance, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Our principal competitors include global technology companies such as Cisco, Dell, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and Lenovo. In addition, we also compete with a number of other vendors who also sell application optimized servers, contract manufacturers/OEMs and ODMs, such as Foxconn, Inspur, Quanta Computer and Wiwynn Corporation. ODMs sell server solutions marketed or sold under a third-party brand.
Many of our competitors enjoy substantial competitive advantages, such as:
•Greater name recognition and deeper market penetration;
•Longer operating histories;
•Larger sales and marketing organizations and research and development teams and budgets;
•More established relationships with customers, contract manufacturers and suppliers and better channels to reach larger customer bases and larger sales volume allowing for better costs;
•Larger customer service and support organizations with greater geographic scope;
•A broader and more diversified array of products and services; and
•Substantially greater financial, technical and other resources.
Some of our current or potential ODM competitors are also currently or have in the past been suppliers to us. As a result, they may possess sensitive knowledge or experience which may be used against us competitively and/or which may require us to alter our supply arrangements or sources in a way which could adversely impact our cost of sales or results of operations.
Our competitors may be able to respond more quickly and effectively than we can to new or changing opportunities, technologies, standards or customer requirements. Competitors may seek to copy our innovations and use cost advantages from greater size to compete aggressively with us on price. Certain customers are also current or prospective competitors and as a result, assistance that we provide to them as customers may ultimately result in increased competitive pressure against us. Furthermore, because of these advantages, even if our application optimized server and storage solutions are more effective than the products that our competitors offer, potential customers might accept competitive products in lieu of purchasing our products. The challenges we face from larger competitors will become even greater if consolidation or collaboration between or among our competitors occurs in our industry. Also, initiatives to establish more industry standard data center configurations, could have the impact of supporting an approach which is less favorable to the flexibility and customization that we offer. These changes could have a significant impact on the market and impact the results of operations. For all these reasons, we may not be able to compete successfully against our current or future competitors, and if we do not compete effectively, our ability to increase our net sales may be impaired.
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The AI industry has driven a portion of our recent success. The AI industry involves significant risks and uncertainties, and the use of AI by our workforce may present risks to our business.
A portion of the recent success of our server and storage solutions has been dependent on the integration of our products and services within the AI industry. However, the global AI market is subject to significant risks and uncertainties, such as evolving regulatory constraints, industry standards and ethical and legal considerations. Additionally, the AI market itself has not yet been fully established and can be influenced by a multitude of factors, such as market needs, legal changes and economic conditions. To the extent the AI market changes or declines, our business and results of operations could be materially and adversely impacted.
Our workforce may use AI tools on an unauthorized basis which poses additional risks relating to the protection of data, including the potential exposure of our proprietary confidential information to unauthorized recipients and the misuse of our or third-party intellectual property. Use of AI technology by our workforce may result in allegations or claims against us related to violation of third-party intellectual property rights, unauthorized access to or use of proprietary information and failure to comply with open-source software requirements. AI technology may also produce inaccurate responses that could lead to errors in our decision-making, solution development or other business activities, which could have a negative impact on our business, operating results and financial condition. Our ability to mitigate these risks will depend on our continued effective training, monitoring and enforcement of appropriate policies and procedures governing the use of AI technology, and compliance by our workforce.
Our results of operations may be subject to fluctuations based upon our investment in corporate ventures and other investments we make.
We have a 30% minority interest in a China corporate venture that was established to market and sell corporate venture branded systems in China based upon products and technology we supply. We record earnings and losses from the corporate venture using the equity method of accounting. Our loss exposure is limited to the remainder of our equity investment in the corporate venture which as of June 30, 2024 and 2023 was$4.6 million and $2.0 million, respectively. We currently do not intend to make any additional investment in this corporate venture. See Note 10, “Related Party Transactions” in the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements in this Annual Report. We do not control this corporate venture and any fluctuation in the results of operations of the corporate venture or any other similar transaction that we may enter into in the future could adversely impact, or result in fluctuations in, our results of operations.
In June 2020, the third-party parent company that controls our corporate venture was placed on a U.S. government export control list, along with several related entities. In addition, the United States has further prohibitions on conducting business with certain entities in China, continued to impose additional tariffs, and has placed export control restrictions on products which contain high-end GPUs. If economic conditions or trade disputes, including trade restrictions and tariffs such as those between the United States and China, in the areas in which we market and sell our products and other key potential markets for our products continue to remain uncertain or deteriorate, or if additional export control restrictions are placed on additional products, it may further affect the value of our investment in the corporate venture.