Alpha and Omega Semiconductor - Q3 2023
May 4, 2023
Transcript
Operator (participant)
Ladies and gentlemen, hello and welcome to the Alpha and Omega Semiconductor fiscal Q3 2023 earnings call. My name is Maxine and I'll be coordinating today's call. If you would like to ask a question during the presentation, you may do so by pressing star followed by one on your telephone keypad. I will now hand you over to Yujia Zhai of The Blueshirt Group to begin. Yujia, please go ahead when you're ready.
Yujia Zhai (Investor Relations Contact)
Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Alpha and Omega Semiconductor's conference call to discuss fiscal 2023 third quarter financial results. With me today are Stephen Chang, our CEO, and Yifan Liang, our CFO. This call is being recorded and broadcast live over the web. A replay will be available for seven days following the call and can be found in the investor relations section of our website. Today's call will proceed as follows: Stephen will begin with business updates, provide strategic highlights in a detailed segment report. After that, Yifan will review the financial results and provide guidance for the June quarter. Finally, we'll have the Q&A session. The earnings release was distributed over the wire today, May 4, 2023, after the market closed. The release is also posted on the company's website. Our earnings release and this presentation include non-GAAP financial measures.
We use non-GAAP measures because we believe they provide useful information about our operating performance that should be considered by investors in conjunction with the GAAP measures. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to their comparable GAAP measures is included in the earnings release. Please remind you that during this conference call, we will make certain forward-looking statements, including discussions of the business outlook and financial projections. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially. For a more detailed description of these risks and uncertainties, please refer to our recent and subsequent filings with the SEC. We assume no obligations to update the information provided in today's call. With that, I will now turn the call over to our CEO, Stephen Chang. Stephen?
Stephen Chang (CEO, and Director)
Thank you, Yujia. Good afternoon, everyone. I will begin today with a high level overview of our results and then jump into segment detail. Our fiscal Q three results were near the high end of our revenue and gross margin guidance. Revenue was $132.6 million. Non-GAAP gross margin was 25.1%, and non-GAAP EPS was negative $0.21. As we indicated last quarter, our performance this quarter reflects our effort to bring customer inventory levels back into balance as quickly as possible in response to the sharp industry-wide inventory correction, particularly in PC and smartphones. As for the broader market environment, end consumer demand continues to be weak. We are optimistic that the worst is behind us, given the intensity of the inventory correction, coupled with our proactive measures.
Looking into the rest of the year, we expect to recover a good portion of the revenue decline in the upcoming June quarter, with further improvement expected in our seasonally strongest September quarter. In terms of our operations, our near-term focus is continuing to work with our customers through the inventory correction and preparing for peak season. We are looking forward to the upcoming fall flagship phone launches and the holidays, all of which are big opportunities for us given our leading share with the leading OEMs in each of these end markets. As I look to the long term as a newly appointed CEO of AOS, I am positioning the company towards growth beyond our near term $1 billion revenue target.
Over the years, AOS has grown to be a major global power semiconductor supplier to tier one players across PCs, graphics, gaming, smartphones, appliances, and power tools to name a few. However, we are just scratching the surface of potential opportunities in front of us. In the coming decade, the electrification of everything trend is set to accelerate and will shape our lives in profound ways. Growing concerns over climate change and the need to reduce dependence on fossil fuels will continue to drive the transition towards electric vehicles and clean energy. Advancement in generative AI will drive exponentially higher demand for high performance computing data centers and spur advancements in robotics. Rapid progress in battery technology will likely usher in a growing array of higher voltage portable electronics, similar to recent developments in power tools.
Moreover, continued advancements in IoT and high performance computing will pave the way for widespread adoption of new cutting-edge products such as smart devices for the home and work. All of these new use cases will drive more demand for power management solutions and significantly expand the market opportunity from the $50 billion TAM today. Power semiconductors have become an essential part of our daily lives in our homes, in our workplaces, and in our communities. AOS's comprehensive range of products, which covers a wide voltage spectrum, positions us at the epicenter of this monumental trend that is set to transform every facet of our lives and the industries we know today. I am determined to drive AOS towards even greater success and capitalize on this exciting future and have my sights set on AOS becoming a multi-billion dollar business by the end of this decade.
We plan to take our products deeper into our existing core markets like PCs and smartphones with more integrated solutions and drive higher BOM content. We will leverage our core technology IP and strength in advanced computing, battery, motor and power supply, and continue to invest R&D in new adjacent markets like data centers for AI, automotive, and energy generation. Our supply chain strategy is another key piece of that puzzle that is critical to us reaching new heights over the coming decade. As we look towards our future, we remain committed to optimizing our supply chain strategy. We understand that diversification is key to maintaining reliability of supply, and that's why we are exploring additional foundry partnerships in new geographical locations to expand our production capabilities.
Further, we will continue to balance between internal manufacturing and third-party foundries to ensure a more robust supply chain that delivers top-notch products to our customers. Our success in attaining a record number of tier one customers is no coincidence. It is a direct result of our unwavering focus on providing products that are both compelling and reliable, backed by unparalleled customer service and engineering support. We strive to solve our customers' power problems with a user-friendly system approach by providing a total solution. As CEO, I will continue to make sure this commitment to excellence remains one of our core values and constantly strive to exceed our customers' expectations with every product and service that we deliver. Lastly, our talented and dedicated employees are who make this success possible.
As we build upon our strong foundation and momentum, I will continue to foster a work environment and culture in which our employees can fully unleash their talents with respect and care. With that, let me now cover our segment results and provide some guidance by segment for the next quarter. Starting with Computing. March quarter revenue was down 57.7% year-over-year and 40.4% sequentially and represented 28.7% of total revenue. These results were driven by lower shipments across all Computing applications, magnified by March quarter being our seasonally weakest quarter. However, we believe inventory at some of our customers has been depleting, and we are seeing a resumption of orders for the June quarter. Our current visibility sees encouraging demand recovery in some applications.
For the June quarter, we expect total computing segment revenue to be up about 40% sequentially. Turning to the consumer segment, March quarter revenue was up slightly year-over-year and decreased 5.5% sequentially and represented 33.6% of total revenue. These results were in line with our expectations, driven by strong gaming volumes, which grew 68.2% year-over-year and decreased 11.3% sequentially. We saw a 30% sequential recovery from both home appliances and e-mobility, which includes e-bikes and e-scooters, another application that AOS is addressing with our medium voltage solutions for motor and battery management. Looking ahead, we anticipate our consumer segment revenue to be flattish or slightly drop sequentially. Next, let's discuss the communication segment.
Revenue in the March quarter experienced a considerable decline of 33.7% year-over-year and 45.4% sequentially, making up only 14.5% of total revenue. The drop in revenue was primarily attributable to weak consumer demand and the ongoing inventory correction in smartphones across all regions. The correction seems to be taking longer than we initially expected, which will cause this segment to remain weak, and we currently expect single-digit percentage decline in the June quarter. Despite these challenges, we remain optimistic about a rebound in the second half of the year in our seasonally strongest quarters for the fall launches and ahead of holiday sales. Now, let's talk about our last segment, Power Supply and Industrial, which accounted for 20% of total revenue.
March quarter revenue decreased 29.6% year-over-year and 35.7% sequentially. The performance by applications in this segment was mixed. PC power supplies and quick chargers for smartphones were weak, consistent with the declining trend in PC and smartphone sales. Power tools exhibited positive signs of recovery, growing 65% sequentially. For the June quarter, we anticipate the segment will rebound with about 50% sequential growth, primarily driven by increased demand by our tier one US smartphone customer and China's high-end quick charger demand. Additionally, we anticipate continued strength in the power tools category. In closing, as we stated last quarter, our business is affected by the economic environment and industry cycles.
Given our strong fundamentals, leading technology, more diversified product portfolio, tier one customer base in all our business segments, expanding manufacturing capability and supply chain and robust balance sheet, we are in the best position we have ever been to continue our growth momentum once this downturn is past us. Moreover, the encouraging data from our backlog and constructive conversations with our customers leads us to believe that the March quarter was the bottom and that the worst is now behind us. As such, we are optimistic about the future and look towards executing on the opportunities ahead of us. With that, I will now turn the call over to Yifan for a discussion of our fiscal third quarter financial results and our outlook for the next quarter.
Yifan Liang (CFO)
Thank you, Stephen. Good afternoon, everyone, thank you for joining us. Revenue for the quarter was $132.6 million, down 29.8% sequentially and 34.8% year-over-year, reflecting the current industry-wide inventory correction. In terms of product mix, DMOS revenue was $81 million, down 41.2% sequentially and 42.2% over last year. Power IC revenue was $47.4 million, down 5.1% from the prior quarter and 22.1% from a year ago. Assembly service revenue was $0.6 million as compared to $1.2 million last quarter and $2.3 million for the same quarter last year. License and engineering service revenue was $3.6 million for the quarter.
In February 2023, we entered into a license and engineering service agreement with a leading power semiconductor automotive supplier related to our silicon carbide technology for a total amount of $45 million. This contract further validates the technical leadership of our silicon carbide technology. In the agreement, besides the license, we will also provide product development and engineering services over the next 24 months. The revenue related to this agreement is recognized over the contract period. Non-GAAP gross margin was 25.1% compared to 29.5% in the prior quarter and 36.7% a year ago. The quarter-over-quarter decrease in non-GAAP gross margin was mainly driven by a less favorable mix and lower manufacturing efficiency. Non-GAAP operating expenses were $36.2 million compared to $32.8 million for the prior quarter and $34 million last year.
The quarter-over-quarter increase was primarily due to last quarter's reversal true-up in variable compensation accruals. non-GAAP tax expense was $2.5 million versus $1.5 million last quarter and $2.2 million in the prior year. The quarter-over-quarter increase was due to the withholding tax on the $18 million payment received under the silicon carbide license agreement mentioned previously. non-GAAP quarterly EPS was -$0.21 compared to $0.67 last quarter and $1.34 a year ago. Moving on to cash flow. Operating cash flow was $11.6 million, which included $18 million first tranche payments received from our licensing deal and $8.9 million repayments of customer deposits.
By comparison, operating cash flow in the prior quarter was $0.3 million, which included $12.2 million net repayments of customer deposits. Operating cash flow a year ago was $61.8 million, which included $6.4 million net customer deposits. We expect to refund around a total of $30 million customer deposits in calendar year 2023. Consolidated EBITDA was $6.5 million compared to $31.8 million last quarter and $48.4 million last year. During the quarter, we repurchased 107,000 shares of our stock for $2.7 million through our existing share repurchase program that was previously approved by the board.
We also purchased 217,000 shares of employee restricted stock units vested during the quarter by paying $5.5 million withholding tax on behalf of employees. Let me turn to our balance sheet. We completed the March quarter with cash balance of $265.9 million compared to $287.8 million at the end of last quarter. The cash balance a year ago was $323.1 million. Net trade receivables were reduced to $19.4 million compared to $53.2 million at the end of the prior quarter.
Day sales outstanding were 30 days for both this and the prior quarter. Net inventory was $179.8 million at the quarter end, compared to $163.8 million at the end of the prior quarter, and $143.5 million last year. Average days in inventory were 152 days compared to 109 days in the prior quarter. We expect average days in inventory to improve along with our revenue recovery. CapEx for the quarter was $22.7 million. We expect CapEx for the June quarter to range from $15 million-$20 million. Our Oregon fab expansion is complete and started ramping in March 2023. I would like to discuss June quarter guidance.
We expect revenue to be approximately $160 million ±$5 million. GAAP gross margin to be 24% ±1%. We anticipate the non-GAAP gross margin to be 25.8% ±1%. GAAP operating expenses to be in the range of $45.5 million ±$1 million. Non-GAAP operating expenses are expected to be in the range of $36.5 million ±$1 million. Interest expense to be approximately $1.2 million and income tax expense to be in the range of $1.3 million-$1.5 million. With that, we will now open the call for questions. Operator, please start the Q&A session.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. If you do change your mind, please press star followed by two. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure that your line is unmuted. Our first question today comes from David Williams from Benchmark. Please go ahead, David. Your line is now open.
David Williams (Senior Equity Research Analyst, and Managing Director)
Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for letting me ask the question. Stephen, congrats to you on the position and just, here finding the bottom. It's good to see.
Stephen Chang (CEO, and Director)
Thanks, David. Appreciate it.
David Williams (Senior Equity Research Analyst, and Managing Director)
Yeah. First I wanted to ask, even on the gross margin, obviously you had some pressure last quarter and understandably with the mix and the utilization, but just kind of curious how we should be thinking about the margin as you get back up to more normalized revenue levels and a typical run rate. Can we see this return to where we were previously in the mid-30s range? Is there anything structural that's gonna keep you maybe a little bit below the 30 longer term?
Stephen Chang (CEO, and Director)
For us, our target model is still to move towards that mid-30% range. Right now, you know, the market has flipped from a seller's market to a buyer's market. We do have to, you know, be competitive in order to protect our business and also to grow share. In the time being, you know, before the market recovers, you know, we will be shy of that target. That doesn't change, nothing structurally changes our model for when we get out of this market situation we're in now.
David Williams (Senior Equity Research Analyst, and Managing Director)
Okay. That, that's fair. Is, is it... Should we think about this as you're competing on price, and so you're giving margin to get the business, or are you able to maintain kind of your pricing just from a competitive, maybe a performance competitive stance?
Stephen Chang (CEO, and Director)
Certainly, you know, we will compete on performance. It's more that, you know, in the last few years during the supply shortage, you know, we didn't touch price and, well, in some cases we even increased prices, in that environment, which is very, very, you know, unusual, right, in our market. You know, our products continue to compete on our performance, but we also need to price accordingly, in the market.
David Williams (Senior Equity Research Analyst, and Managing Director)
Okay. Fair. Thanks for the color. Stephen, just maybe your strategy, and maybe I missed this in your opening remarks, how do you think about the IC business and just the opportunity there? I know you've been a proponent of that, and just kind of curious how maybe what your strategy is and as you go forward.
Stephen Chang (CEO, and Director)
Sure. ICs is a key part of our business. It's been one area that we've been broadening our product portfolio in order to address, you know, higher margin content. At the same time, we recognize that in some of our applications, especially in PCs, there's already been a move towards more integration, meaning using ICs to replace MOSFETs in certain sockets. For us, you know, it's a necessary part of being a part of that BOM content and going forward. With that, you know, we are seeing BOM content increase in some of our applications. We continue to invest more in our ICs in order to bring out more Power IC products. These products tend to be more application specific.
As we come out with more products, you know, they will be tackling sockets that we weren't able to address before.
David Williams (Senior Equity Research Analyst, and Managing Director)
Okay. Fantastic. Just one more, if I might. Just on the licensing engineering agreement, that sounds very interesting and around your silicon carbide. Just wonder if you could give us any more color around that, then maybe what segment or end market you expect that product will be shipping into. Is this automotive or what market that might be serving?
Stephen Chang (CEO, and Director)
Sure. Certainly, we are definitely excited about the about closing that licensing deal. It's great validation of our technology that another, you know, of our peers recognizes that, you know, our technology can compete in the global space. For us, you know, we're, you know, this is, this is actually gonna help us to and fund our ability to, you know, to grow this business. This business does take a lot of investment in terms of, you know, the R&D, as well as to secure the supply chain. It's going to help us to enter into markets that we haven't been into before, such as automotive or industrial power supplies. We're, we're excited about the new, this new extension or new, of our product portfolio.
David Williams (Senior Equity Research Analyst, and Managing Director)
Thank you. Best of luck on the quarter, guys.
Stephen Chang (CEO, and Director)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. The next question comes from Craig Ellis from B. Riley Securities. Please go ahead. Your line's now open.
Craig Ellis (Director of Research and Senior Semiconductor and Capital Equipment Analyst)
Yep. Thanks for taking the questions. I'll echo the congratulations, Stephen. This is great. I look forward to working with you. I wanted to follow up on the last question. This may be more for Yifan, though. Yifan, can you just talk about how much revenue associated with the new silicon carbide deal recognized in fiscal 3Q, and how much revenue is baked into the guide for fiscal 4Q?
Yifan Liang (CFO)
Sure. We recognized $3.6 million revenue from this licensing deal. This agreement is for 24-month period, so the revenue recognition is going to be spread out over this contract period. Yes, and we already baked in some estimated revenue in our June quarter guidance.
Craig Ellis (Director of Research and Senior Semiconductor and Capital Equipment Analyst)
Should it be about $5 million-$6 million a quarter, Yifan, if we just do the high level math at $45 million over a couple of years, so $2 million a month? Or is there something related to either technology development milestones or other that would cause revenue to be lumpier?
Yifan Liang (CFO)
It's in that ballpark number, but it is more, depends on the engineering service hours and our team spend and relative to the overall total expected engineering hours. It's more like, go with the progression of this engineering service.
Craig Ellis (Director of Research and Senior Semiconductor and Capital Equipment Analyst)
Yep. And then just a clarification on that before I flip it to Stephen. With that being the revenue impact, $3.6 million in the quarter, something greater than that and closer to $5 million-$6 million in the fiscal fourth quarter, how do we think about the gross margin impact of this contribution? Does it come in near a corporate average level, or does it come in either materially lower or higher?
Yifan Liang (CFO)
For the licensing engineering service portion of the revenue, yeah, they carries at a higher, gross margin for us.
Craig Ellis (Director of Research and Senior Semiconductor and Capital Equipment Analyst)
Okay. That was baked into the gross margin color for the fiscal fourth quarter, I take it. Okay. Stephen, so nice to see that some of the businesses are rebounding strongly with the color that PC is up 40% quarter-on-quarter and industrial up 50%. To your point in the prepared remarks that there are some places where inventory is better, can you just elaborate in more detail where in PCs are you seeing good inventory? Is it across the board or just in some products like Chromebooks or gaming PCs, which we've heard are stronger? Industrial, can you characterize that?
If you could characterize, you know, maybe how bad things are in the communications market, given it seems like we're seeing lower expectations now than maybe three months ago, that would be helpful as well.
Stephen Chang (CEO, and Director)
Sure. Yes. I wouldn't say there's a necessary pattern to it's tied to certain types of PCs. We know that overall, you know, the end demand is still a bit soft in terms of because both consumers and corporate buyers are, you know, delaying their refresh cycles. You know, that said, you know, that's, you know, at the component level, this is where we saw the sharper inventory correction, which led to, you know, our March quarter results. Going into the June quarter, we're starting to see some signs of that inventory correction abating in certain sockets. I can't really see a clear pattern out of that, so that, you know, we are starting to get orders again.
Part of this is also, you know, dependent upon which customer you're engaging with because based on their inventory policy during the shortage time, some, you know, hoarded a lot more and ordered a lot more components during that time, whereas others were hand them out, so they don't really have as much of an inventory correction problem. It's more of a kind of customer by customer in terms of their inventory levels, and some are, you know, are exiting more out of that, whereas others will still take longer to get through that.
Craig Ellis (Director of Research and Senior Semiconductor and Capital Equipment Analyst)
Got it. Then could you just provide some commentary on communications? How do you feel about inventory levels in that end market?
Stephen Chang (CEO, and Director)
Sure. So the smartphone market, everybody's, you know, was starting the correction even at the end of last year. You know, we still see, you know, the first... Sorry, I just say the March and June quarter is still relatively soft when it comes to the battery protection. In general, also, those two quarters are usually the lower quarters because of just when our customers go through their phone launches. We're still preparing and anticipating that the second half will be stronger, but that will be seen as a, you know, as our customers release their fall refreshes.
Craig Ellis (Director of Research and Senior Semiconductor and Capital Equipment Analyst)
That leads me to my last question before I hop back in the queue. I think you commented in your prepared remarks, you saw, I believe it was, a potential for growth in the fiscal first quarter, which is typically a seasonally strong quarter for the company. Can you just elaborate on that in more detail? Do you expect that, across the business for select segments, just any indications that you're getting about how the fiscal first quarter can play out for the company would be quite helpful. Thanks, Stephen. Thanks, Yifan Liang.
Stephen Chang (CEO, and Director)
Sure. Overall, you know, our eyes are definitely looking at that second half to see, you know, will there be a rebound, what, you know, what degree it can recover. Right now, you know, it's still a bit murky in terms of the visibility of the end demand. That said, you know, we are expecting the component level inventory correction to continue to improve going into the September quarter. I don't think that the demand will be as back to what it was originally, I mean, typically that September quarter is a peak season, the end of demand, I think isn't quite there yet. I think it'll still be more the impact of the relief from the, you know, inventory control abating.
Craig Ellis (Director of Research and Senior Semiconductor and Capital Equipment Analyst)
Got it. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by 1 on your telephone keypad now. Our next question comes from Jeremy Kwan from Stifel Nicolaus. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Jeremy Kwan (Associate VP, and Equity Research Analyst)
Yes, thank you. Let me also add my congrats on both the appointment to CEO first full year and also on calling the bottom here. I guess first question on the, on, you know, the inventory correction appearing to abate and, you know, in terms of the end demand that you're seeing, can you give us, you know, how much of the, you know, how much of this is currently the inventory replenishment that you're seeing in the June quarter, and how much is maybe the underlying sell-through or end demand? Any kind of color you can provide on that would be very helpful.
Stephen Chang (CEO, and Director)
Sure. I would say most of the impact is still coming from the inventory correction getting back to more normal. That's, you know, that's probably the bigger contributor of that. You know, we were hoping for a bigger, stronger, you know, September end demand, but that's, I would say, still remains to be seen. The inventory correction, inventory levels, are improving. On that front, you know, we're seeing that, you know, in the backlog and in the orders that are being placed.
Jeremy Kwan (Associate VP, and Equity Research Analyst)
Great. Maybe a follow-up on the licensing agreement. Can you just maybe walk us a little bit through more how that came about? You know, is this a customer that you've been working with maybe on the product side and you decide to partner up in doing a license? Also any other details you can provide on the terms. Is this exclusive? You know, are you still working on your own products? Just any more details. Also on the manufacturing, any details on that would be great.
Stephen Chang (CEO, and Director)
Sure. This partner, they, you know, they are basically behind in their their silicon carbide technology. They really didn't have anything going. They were basically looking for a jump start to that. They approached us and we came to an agreement for them to license our products and technology for that. It is an exclusive license, but at the same time, it doesn't prevent us from continuing our own development like we have been doing.
If anything, as I mentioned before, this deal is helping to fund and help us to speed up our own silicon carbide initiatives in order to expand the product portfolio, you know, the marketing and sales needed to promote the products as well as secure the supply chain.
Jeremy Kwan (Associate VP, and Equity Research Analyst)
Are there, you know, once this customer develops their own product, is there an ongoing, you know, potential royalty or any kind of ongoing revenue stream from that? Also when can we expect first products from that partnership and also from your own internal development?
Stephen Chang (CEO, and Director)
Yes. We already have released products, for our silicon carbide even before, this licensing agreement. You know, there is, you know, as part of the contract, you know, in the contract period, they, you know, we will have benefits, you know, through supplying, these products, to them for the period of the agreement. And again, you know, we will still, at the same time, continue to grow and our own silicon carbide business.
Jeremy Kwan (Associate VP, and Equity Research Analyst)
Great. I guess turning to the power management, the integrated integration that you're talking about longer term, can you give us an update maybe on is this coming from, you know, the digitally controlled Power ICs that you've been working on? Can you give us maybe an update there in terms of your progress in penetrating beyond the graphics cards? Thank you.
Stephen Chang (CEO, and Director)
Sure. Our biggest, and most immediate impact is still gonna be in the client computing area. Because we know we're addressing not only the MOSFET and the driver MOSFET IC side, we're also, you know, also developing controllers in that space, which is helping us to expand the BOM content there quite significantly. You know, going somewhere from what used to be $2 and is approaching $4-$5, because of the integration that we're seeing, the additional sockets that we can address, because of our Power IC technologies that have been deployed there.
In the near term, I think that's kind of the biggest impact for us, you know, significantly increasing the BOM content in the client computing. You know, we will move onwards from there to other areas, but I think most immediately that's what's gonna move the needle for us.
Jeremy Kwan (Associate VP, and Equity Research Analyst)
Great. I guess, maybe in terms of the going back to the pricing question, it sounds like, you know, the environment has just kind of shifted back over to more balanced and maybe more normalized environment. Can you give us maybe an update in terms of the competitive landscape? I remember you mentioned a couple of quarters ago kind of seeing some increased competition as, you know, supply capacity has eased up in other areas and in certain regions. Can you just give us an update there in terms of your expectations for pricing, you know, in fiscal 2024 versus, you know, fiscal 2023? Thank you.
Stephen Chang (CEO, and Director)
Sure. I think during the, you know, as we're in the correction period for inventory correction, you know, the pricing is gonna be, you know, is gonna be tougher in terms of because, you know, our competitors, as we mentioned before, they do have access to supply, whereas, you know, during the shorter time they didn't. It's getting, you know, getting back to kind of normal competitive, type of market. Again, cycles come and go as well too. As we exit out of inventory correction, it will, you know, approach more of a normal, pricing as situation or environment, regarding the relationship between the, us and our customers.
Jeremy Kwan (Associate VP, and Equity Research Analyst)
Great. With this one final question, maybe for Yifan. You know, the cash flow looked pretty nice, I guess, relative to, the operating results. I noticed the accounts receivable was down quite a bit. You know, DSOs were roughly flat, but where do you see, you know, accounts receivables going? What do you see kind of, you know, cash flows going over the next couple quarters? Thank you.
Yifan Liang (CFO)
Sure. I mean, in terms of day sales outstanding, it has been around 30 days, we don't see any collection issues. Receivable balance down was mainly because of the shipment, the revenue was kind of exceptionally low for the March quarter, and the timing of the collections and the shipment. Going forward, I would expect, you know, as our revenue recovers, I would expect that, you know, our cash flow would continue to improve.
Jeremy Kwan (Associate VP, and Equity Research Analyst)
Sorry, just another follow-up on that. With the Oregon fab expansion mostly complete, and you know, you provided us with your outlook for CapEx. Can you give us maybe a longer time horizon? Like, where do you see your manufacturing needs? I know you mentioned, Yifan, I think it was looking at other geographical locations. Is there a, you know, CapEx outlook associated with that? Also, you know, what kind of activity can you are you looking would you be able to get from potentially the CHIPS Act and, you know, government subsidies and things of that nature? Thank you.
Yifan Liang (CFO)
Okay. Yes, our Oregon fab expansion is complete. From the cash flow perspective, we will still have a little bit lingering payments. That's why, you know, you see in the June quarter, we guided $15 million-$20 million level CapEx. From there, I would expect our CapEx gradually to come down a little bit. At the same time, yes, we are working with the other foundries to develop our the capacity. You know, right now, we don't have a concrete plan for the our internal, you know, foundry internal fab expansion. In terms of CHIPS Act, we are actively working with the, you know, state government and the federal government and with our Consultants.
Right now this, we still have a lot of work to do in terms of getting some potential funding from the CHIPS Act.
Jeremy Kwan (Associate VP, and Equity Research Analyst)
One final question. In terms of your utilization rates and lead times, can you give us an update there? I would imagine utilization's a little bit lower and, you know, is this kind of the lowest level you kind of anticipate for the next, you know, couple quarters?
Yifan Liang (CFO)
Yeah. Utilization right now, it is relatively low. You know, especially for the back end. For the Oregon Fab, you know, since we're ramping up and our expansion, actually need, you know, that expansion capacity actually is what we need right now. You know, our Oregon Fab's utilization is relatively better. Yeah, I would expect and we can improve on the factory utilization, you know, once our revenue started, you know, growing.
Jeremy Kwan (Associate VP, and Equity Research Analyst)
Thank you very much.
Stephen Chang (CEO, and Director)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. Our final question today is a follow-up from David Williams from Benchmark. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
David Williams (Senior Equity Research Analyst, and Managing Director)
Hey, Liang. Thanks for letting me jump back on. I just wanted to ask quickly on the JV and the disposition there, we know it's got a healthy equity stake. Anything, I guess, changed or any different there that we should be thinking about or maybe timing?
Yifan Liang (CFO)
Right now they are in the process of raising additional funds from outside, so, you know, we'll see. I mean, right now the market it is, it's tough right now.
David Williams (Senior Equity Research Analyst, and Managing Director)
Sure
Yifan Liang (CFO)
Other than that, you know, we don't have any other information. Yeah.
David Williams (Senior Equity Research Analyst, and Managing Director)
Okay. On the Oregon Fab, can you remind us of what that, the magnitude of the capacity expansion was in terms of maybe annual revenue?
Yifan Liang (CFO)
It's relatively expanded about additional 15% also. Yeah.
David Williams (Senior Equity Research Analyst, and Managing Director)
15% in terms of wafers or revenue?
Yifan Liang (CFO)
Yeah, wafer.
David Williams (Senior Equity Research Analyst, and Managing Director)
Wafer.
Yifan Liang (CFO)
Wafer.
David Williams (Senior Equity Research Analyst, and Managing Director)
Okay.
Yifan Liang (CFO)
15%.
David Williams (Senior Equity Research Analyst, and Managing Director)
Yeah.
Yifan Liang (CFO)
In-house wafer.
David Williams (Senior Equity Research Analyst, and Managing Director)
Okay. Thanks very much. I appreciate it.
Yifan Liang (CFO)
All right.
David Williams (Senior Equity Research Analyst, and Managing Director)
That's all for me.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. As a final reminder to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. We have a follow-up question from Jeremy Kwan from Stifel Nicolaus. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Jeremy Kwan (Associate VP, and Equity Research Analyst)
Yes, just a quick follow-up on the JV. It looks like the equity method investment that went up by a couple million, it has been going down previously. I think the minority interest, the loss, you know, kind of went up a bit there on the income statement side. Can you help us understand what's going on there? You know, is there, is the JV kind of running a little bit lower than before? You know, has there been kind of an increase in investment in that? Thank you.
Yifan Liang (CFO)
Sure. Yes. In the March quarter, we recorded our portion of JV's December quarter's, December 2022 quarter's results. We always have a one-quarter lag there. In the December quarter last year, the JV incurred a loss. Compared to the September 2022 quarter, which where they had a small income. You know, we recorded 42% of their December quarter's loss in our March quarter's financials.
Jeremy Kwan (Associate VP, and Equity Research Analyst)
Got it. On the balance sheet side, that going up a little bit, what was the driver there?
Yifan Liang (CFO)
Oh, no, that's mainly the because of the exchange rate changes in the translation.
Jeremy Kwan (Associate VP, and Equity Research Analyst)
Ah
Yifan Liang (CFO)
because in their, yeah, their financials is on the, on the, RMB not.
Jeremy Kwan (Associate VP, and Equity Research Analyst)
Yeah
Yifan Liang (CFO)
US dollar. Yeah.
Jeremy Kwan (Associate VP, and Equity Research Analyst)
Great. Thank you for that clarification.
Yifan Liang (CFO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. As another reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. We have no further questions, so I'll hand back over to the management team for any closing remarks.
Yifan Liang (CFO)
This concludes our earnings call today. Thank you for your interest in AOS, and we're looking forward to talking to you again next quarter. Thank you.
Jeremy Kwan (Associate VP, and Equity Research Analyst)
Thank you.
Yifan Liang (CFO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.