Tower Semiconductor - Earnings Call - Q1 2025
May 14, 2025
Transcript
Operator (participant)
Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Tower Semiconductor First Quarter 2025 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press *11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press *11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Miss Noit Levy, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and Human Resources. Please go ahead.
Noit Levi (SVP Human Resources, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications)
Thank you, and welcome to Tower Financial Results Conference Call for the First Quarter of 2025. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that some statements made during this call may be forward-looking and are subject to uncertainties and risk factors that could cause actual results to be different from those currently expected. These uncertainties and risk factors are fully disclosed in our Forms 20F and 6K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as filings with the Israeli Securities Authority. They are also available on our website. Tower assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Please note that the First Quarter of 2025 financial results have been prepared in accordance with US GAAP.
The financial tables and data in today's earnings release and in this earnings call also include certain adjusted financial information that may be considered non-GAAP financial measures under Regulation G and related reporting requirements as established with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The financial tables include a full explanation of these measures and the reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the GAAP financial measures. We have a supporting slide deck that complements the conference call. This presentation is accessible on our company's website and is also integrated into today's webcast for your convenience. Now, I'd like to turn the call to our CEO, Mr. Russell Ellwanger. Russell, please go ahead.
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining our call today. It is a pleasure to have the opportunity to update on our activities and progress. We opened 2025 with a quarterly revenue of $358 million, with a net profit of $40 million. We guide the second quarter of 2025 to a midpoint of $372 million, plus or minus 5%, and affirm our target for year-over-year growth with sequential revenue increases throughout 2025 and with strong acceleration in the second half as our multi-fab capacity investments complete customer qualifications and ramp into production. The overall market experienced uncertainty due to tariffs and related policy shifts. However, Tower offers a clear advantage to our customers through our global footprint and proactive cross-qualification of all major process flows across our sites.
Our global manufacturing flexibility, combined with the strength of our wide technical offerings, gives us an immediate opportunity to grow wherever demand emerges or constraints occur. We will now present First Quarter 2025 revenue breakdown while adding some flavor for the year. Please reference slide number four. In looking at our First Quarter revenue breakdown, we see two significant year-over-year shifts. Firstly, RF infrastructure has grown from 14% of our total revenue in Q1 2025 to 22%, and this at a higher corporate revenue level. Secondly, power grew from 10% to 18% of our corporate revenue, a very important shift resulting from a share gain in a new serve market, which we will refer to shortly. In our RF infrastructure business, we continue to see growth driven by data center and AI expansions served by our Silicon Photonics and Silicon Germanium technologies for optical fiber communications.
The first quarter of 2025 continued record revenue levels for these two technologies. As we look toward the second quarter, we see further strong sequential increases, with continued growth forecasted in the third and again in the fourth quarter of the year. Silicon Photonics continues to displace traditional EML solutions at 800 gigabit per second and is anticipated to increase further at 1.6 terabit per second, for which we are presently in a production ramp. The market shift to Silicon Photonics, combined with the expected 800G and 1.6T optical transceiver five-year CAGR of 49% based on light counting reports, provides ample opportunity for Tower revenue and blended margin growth in the years to come. Please reference slide number five. In addition to being a driver within these strong market dynamics, we continue to invest in next generations of technology to maintain our very high market share in Silicon Photonics.
For example, this past quarter, we announced a new technology that enabled InnoLight to reduce the number of external lasers used per 800G module by a factor of two, and hence substantially reducing the transceiver cost. We also announced with OpenLight the achievement of a 400 gigabit per lane modulator performance, enabling next generations of 3.2T products. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a 400 gigabit per second modulator integrated on an eight-inch silicon wafer. Please reference slide number six. Along with Silicon Photonics, Silicon Germanium is growing strongly with continued adoption for TIAs and drivers and optical modules, which are benefiting from the same strong market dynamics. Longer term, we see adoption of Silicon Germanium in satellite terrestrial receivers as well as in low-noise amplifiers for the most advanced handsets, providing additional growth factors for this high-margin segment of our business.
In 2024, the handset market demonstrated about 7% growth, with Tower's RFSOI year-over-year growth being at about 30%. This year, the handset market is currently forecast to see flat to minimal growth, creating a situation where our RFSOI customers are now burning off some inventories. However, our handset market saw overall growth being more than compensated by a new serve market for Tower, namely Envelope Tracker, served by our highly differentiated custom-developed power management 300 millimeter BCD platform. We expect this to continue to grow and provide a strong revenue stream for multiple years. Finally, in power management, we are seeing a strong rebound in both our high-voltage 200 millimeter platforms as well as continued strong growth in our 300 millimeter BCD platforms. Our higher-voltage 200 millimeter power business serving automotive, industrial, and consumer applications are in the midst of a strong ramp.
In 300 millimeter BCD, we are primarily benefiting from the strong ramp of new business serving the handset market, namely Envelope Tracker, as previously mentioned. An Envelope Tracker is used in advanced handsets to improve battery life by interacting closely with the baseband to dynamically adjust the operating point of the power amplifier, minimizing wasted energy. Our current ramp is in support of a major new handset with a newly introduced custom baseband that is coupled with our direct customer's Envelope Tracker. The 300 millimeter business is expected to grow strongly as we continue to qualify additional products and ramp the large capacity we have available in the Albuquerque facility. We are seeing a market rebound in our machine vision sensor business, both in 200 millimeter and 300 millimeter.
Customers have consumed their inventories and are placing orders not just for existing SKUs, but also for new sockets, demonstrating refreshed vibrance in this market. This includes not only the traditional machine vision market using our Global Shutter Pixel technology, but also 3D depth centers direct time of flight based on our SPAD Pixel technology for robotics and autofocus applications. The impact of this rebound is expected to be seen in the revenue of the second half of this year. Utilization in the first quarter of Fab Two, we continue to build the additional 5G capacity, operated at approximately 55% utilization. Fab Three is at 80% utilization. Fab Five at 65%, growing with the increased high-voltage power management demand, and Fab Seven, 300 millimeter, was fully utilized with the highest process layers to date, with additional activities allowing us to be well above our 85% utilization model.
Fab Nine was at 70% utilization. To note, as previously stated, Fab Two and Fab Nine are in the midst of repurposing toward Silicon Germanium and Silicon Photonics with available capacity awaiting full customer qualification. In summary, we are pleased with progress across all areas. We reaffirm quarter-over-quarter revenue growth for the year. Silicon Photonics and 5G demand remain strong, in fact, very strong, with tier one customer alignment on next generation co-developments in 200 and 300 millimeter. Our 200 millimeter high-voltage power is experiencing high demand with continued strong interest in 300 millimeter 65 nanometer and finer line BCD programs. The industrial image market is rebounding on top of a stable medical and camera imaging business, and we remain confident in the realization of high-volume display activities. With that, I'd like to turn the call to our CFO, Mr. Oren Shirazi. Oren, please.
Oren Shirazi (CFO and SVP of Finance)
Thank you, Russell. Hello, everyone. Earlier today, we released our financial results for the first quarter of 2025. For the first quarter of 2025, we reported revenue of $358 million, representing a $31 million, or 9% year-over-year revenue increase, compared to the same quarter in 2024. Gross profit and operating profit for the first quarter of 2025 were $73 million and $33 million, respectively, similar to the same quarter in 2024. This gross profit and operating profit benefited from the year-over-year revenue increase. This benefit was offset by the Agrate Fab fixed cost, which, as previously communicated, commenced operations during the fourth quarter of 2024. Net profit for the first quarter of 2025 was $40 million, reflecting $0.36 basic earnings per share and $0.35 diluted earnings per share.
Net profit for the first quarter of 2024 was $45 million, or $0.40 basic and diluted earnings per share, and included a non-recurring income tax benefit. Moving to our balance sheet and future CapEx and cash plans, our balance sheet remains very strong, evidenced by the following indicators and financial ratios. As of the end of March 2025, our assets totaled $3.1 billion, primarily comprised of $1.3 billion in fixed assets, predominantly comprised of Fab machinery, and $1.7 billion of current assets. Current assets ratio is very strong at about 7x, while shareholders' equity reached a record of $2.7 billion at the end of March 2025. An additional indication of our financial strength has been awarded to us last week by Standard & Poor's Israel recent annual rating review, which reaffirmed our rating as ILAA stable, endorsing a stable outlook for the company.
Our strong financial position allows us to invest in strategic opportunities that support our corporate vision as follows. One, we've committed to pay up to $300 million to acquire equipment and CapEx in the 12-inch New Mexico Fab, 15% of which has been paid, and the remaining 85% is forecasted to be paid as we ramp up qualifications by the end of 2026. As part of the STMicroelectronics partnership, $500 million in cash are allocated for this Italy 12-inch Fab equipment. We've already invested 80% of such amount, and the balance is expected by the end of 2025. Three, for our high-margin SiPho and 5G business, we announced we will invest $350 million to expand our capacity in our 8-inch Fabs in Israel and Texas and in our 12-inch Wozu Fab in Japan. 25% of such amount has been paid to date.
The remaining 75% is expected to be paid by the end of 2026. All of these investments, including the SiPho and 5G CapEx, are fully reflected in our previously presented strategic and financial model. Under this model, we target $2.7 billion in annual revenue at full loading of our existing Fabs, including Agrate and New Mexico, $560 million in annual operating profits, and $500 million in annual net profits. That concludes my prepared remarks. Now, I'd like to turn the call back to the operator so we can take your questions.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. To ask a question, you will need to press *11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press *11 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Thank you. We will now go to the first question. Your first question comes off the line of Cody Acree from Benchmark Company. Please go ahead.
Cody Acree (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Yeah, thanks, guys. Take my questions and congrats on the progress. Russell, congrats on the new Envelope Tracker business. Maybe if we can just start there, can you just maybe help us size that business revenue-wise today and then your expectations for the year and maybe as you look into the next few quarters?
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
I'm not sure I really should, being that it's very specific to a certain customer, and I think not difficult to find out who that customer is. It has reached very high volumes and will continue at even higher volumes. I mean, we're talking thousands of wafers per month. I don't think it would be proper for me to give more color than that, especially with your own reporting. I think you would specifically know exactly who we're talking about.
Cody Acree (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Is this going to be accounted for in your RF mobile business? Is that correct?
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
No. The Envelope Tracker is in the power management.
Cody Acree (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
In power management. Okay. Awesome.
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
That was what I talked about, about the increase from the 12% to the 18%.
Cody Acree (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
In the 300 millimeter. Right. Okay. Awesome. Can you maybe help us with the size of your SiPho business this quarter and your expectations for the rest of the year?
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
Certainly. I think this is just in line with what we talked about when we entered the year, and there's no difference right now in what we're seeing in the growth. We finished the previous year with SiPho at about $105 million, and we said that we would see a doubling of that within 2025. That's everything pretty much on track for that to occur.
Cody Acree (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Okay. Great. Lastly, can you maybe just actually two more questions. Can you just talk about the tone of business that you may be getting from customers in your conversations, both officially and unofficially, I guess, as you're just talking to them and getting their read on the impact of the current tariff landscape?
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
There's certainly discussion about tariffs and a potential impact. We've not seen any yet, and our customers aren't really seeing an impact. There's potentially some fear, not as far as our manufacturing, which is stated. We do have the ability, through cross-qualifications, to manufacture in many different global locations, depending on customer needs or desires. There's some potential fear that if you look at the very end market, for example, some of the power management going into power tools that are being produced in China, that that potentially could have a softening in the end market of the China products being sold into the U.S. None of that has been realized yet, but there's some concern there. However, we have not seen any pullback in orders, nor a discussion of pullback in orders due to any concerns on tariffs.
Some of that, again, is because of our ability to support our customers in manufacturing and shipping from various global locations.
Cody Acree (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Great. Thanks for the help there. Lastly, any thoughts or comments around the Indian project that was in the media the last couple of weeks about the possible tabling of that project?
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
Very good question, Cody. Let me just think for a second so that I answer it properly and ethically correct. I did read the article. It came as a surprise because we stopped the project, and at our request, we withdrew from the project some five, six months ago. I will say, without breaking any type of confidentiality agreements that we had, that the article itself was 100% baseless, really no truth in anything that it said. It was Tower that withdrew from it. The reasons we withdrew are very good reasons, but again, out of confidentiality, it would not be proper for me to go into those reasons. However, we never press released anything about the India project. It was released by others, not by us, even during the time that we were engaged.
Why we did not press release anything is we never had any formal agreement to go forward. We were working on an opportunity, as one should always look at and develop every opportunity that is good for your customers, good for your shareholders, good for your business. It could have been a very good thing. Ultimately, for reasons that we thought were very good, we withdrew from the project, unlike anything that was in the article. It was Tower that withdrew.
Cody Acree (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Thanks for all the help, and congrats on all the progress.
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
Thank you. Very good questions, Cody, and thank you always for your interest and good questions.
Cody Acree (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press *11 on your telephone keypad. We will now go to our next question. One moment, please. Your next question comes from the line of Richard Shannon from Craig-Hallum. Please go ahead.
Richard Shannon (Senior Research Analyst)
Hi, Russell. Oren, thanks for taking my questions. Maybe I'll start with the first one on Silicon Photonics. I had prepared to ask you about the competitive dynamics here, and I think you made a brief remark to that. I guess I'd love to get your sense of, given a few other founders that started talking a little bit about Silicon Photonics for transceivers, whether you're seeing anything specifically. Maybe as a follow-on in this general topic, Silicon Photonics, how do you see the 1.6 generation shaping up from a revenue point of view versus the 800 gig generation that you're already obviously doing very well in?
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
I did not honestly follow the first part of your question. Maybe you could restate it, but I will answer the second part. The 1.6T, we are in a ramp right now with additional customers saying that they will be ramping strongly in the second half. It is very real. We are supplying it in a good fashion, and these are 8x200 channels. Moving along very well. I wanted to, if you could really just restate the first part of the question because I did not pick up what the question was.
Richard Shannon (Senior Research Analyst)
Sure. Sure. It's just based on competitive dynamics of Silicon Photonics. We've seen a couple of other foundries talk about either in earnings calls or in other events about getting into the transceiver part of the market here. Just wanted to get your sense of whether you're seeing any of that.
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
We would estimate our market share somewhere about 80%. Now, anytime that you have a very strong market share, you have to work very hard to protect it. The best way to do that is shipping wafers that perform well on time and having customer-aligned roadmaps that their next generation needs are ready and available before they need them. That is where we're engaged right now. It's a very big growing market. As I stated, if you look at the analyst report, it's looked to have a 49% CAGR and having customer-aligned roadmaps that.
Richard Shannon (Senior Research Analyst)
I'm sorry.
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
Their next generation needs are ready and available before they.
It's forecast to have a 49%. Are you there? Hello?
Richard Shannon (Senior Research Analyst)
I am here. Yes.
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
Okay. A 49% CAGR. It is a very big growth market. Our point will be to maintain very strong share as that market is growing. It is a very big market. It is also a very high-value product. High-value products drive very high margins. Hopefully that answered your question. At present, we are serving four of the top five producers as far as optical integrators. I think in a sole position with four of the top five.
Richard Shannon (Senior Research Analyst)
Okay. Excellent. Appreciate that feedback. My next question, Russell, is regarding any utilization. Sounds like you're cross-fertilizing processes across multiple fabs, which you described already here today, which makes total sense here. I want to get a sense of when we start to see this complete and start to see greater capacity available here. I guess my question is specifically oriented towards Silicon Germanium and Silicon Photonics. I want to know whether is that utilization pretty much 100%, and when does that spigot open up here to see? It sounds like you have great demand here. I'd love to get a sense of when we start to see acceleration.
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
Yes. To restate what I said during the prepared remarks, for the SiGe and SiPho as a combined infrastructure business, we see continued growth, record revenue presently, and we see that growing in Q2, growing additionally in Q3, and growing additionally in Q4. If you were talking about capacity opening up, that's the only way that that could happen. When there's big demand, obviously, we're running as many as we can presently. The cross-qualifications, as well as even within Newport Beach, additional capacity capability being added. That's happening real time. You'll see it as we anticipate that you'll see it in Q2 and then incrementally higher Q3 and again incrementally higher in Q4.
Richard Shannon (Senior Research Analyst)
Okay. Last question. I'll jump on the line here. Just want to ask kind of big picture longer term, thinking out a couple of years or if you want to pick a different time frame here. Looking at some of the big picture or the biggest drivers of your top line here, obviously RF infrastructure with the two segments we talked about today is going to be one, I would imagine, fit in there power, RFSOI with the new capacity. Then your last earnings call, you specifically mentioned in your closing remarks about OLED and on Silicon backplanes here. I wonder if you kind of rank order which ones you think are going to be the biggest dollar contributors over a two-year time frame or whatever you'd like to pick, Russell.
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
On incremental dollar growth and especially the margin impact of it, the biggest contributor will be RF infrastructure. Power on absolute dollars should continue to be a big growth driver. RF Mobile, as stated, has pulled back a bit within the first quarter as compared to where we were at during 2024, but we expect that as well to snap back and have very strong growth in 2026 and 2027. I think that those will be the biggest. The display, we're confident of display realizing big revenue growth. There are activities happening, customer forecasts that are happening, but it has not been accomplished yet. I do not want to overstate that. The biggest confidence in the future is what is happening presently. The activities are there. The revenue, not yet.
Upon starting to get into a few thousand wafer per month of backplane shipment, that's when I'll be much more confident on the growth driver of the display. To get to the few thousand wafer a month, I'm confident in that presently on display itself. Again, what we do with the OLED is the backplane, the silicon backplane.
Richard Shannon (Senior Research Analyst)
Okay. Appreciate that perspective. I'll jump out of line. Thanks, Russell.
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
Yeah. Thank you, Richard. Very good questions. Thanks.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Matt Bryson from Wedbush. Please go ahead.
Matthew Bryson (Managing Director)
Hi. Thanks for taking my questions. Just with the RF Mobile business, I think it's either at the lowest point or close to the lowest point that it tends to hit. Can you tell us whether or not this might be a bottom, how far customers are in terms of reducing their inventories? I guess, is it all inventory reduction? I think there's been a bit of effort in China to ramp up domestic production on their RF side. Is that affecting the business at all?
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
By forecast, we see the mobile business growing throughout the year, the RF Mobile, so RFSOI specifically in the front-end module. It should be growing throughout the year against the Q1. At least from forecast, I would say that, yes, this Q1 was the lowest point. Now, on the base business itself, you are correct. There has been a drive in China and possibly something that came as a little bit of a surprise and maybe a negative impact of trying to get the Chinese regulatory approval was needing to show them our customers and different numbers from our customers. Potentially that drove some further drive for some of our very big Chinese customers to give more market share into China. That is part of what we're seeing as well.
We have one customer to where they are sourcing more of their volume percentage inside of the country itself.
Matthew Bryson (Managing Director)
Awesome. I really appreciate the call. That was all I have.
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
Thank you very much.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Lisa Thompson from Zacks Investment Research. Please go ahead.
Lisa Thompson (Senior Analyst)
Good morning. I'd just like to ask a little bit more about your sales and how it relates to tariffs. I know at the year-end you said 42% of revenues go to the U.S., but I believe that just means that's where you send the bill. Do you actually have what % of product or so do you have coming from outside the U.S. to the U.S.?
Oren Shirazi (CFO and SVP of Finance)
Like we said in the financials, you're right. 42% of our revenues about are for U.S. customers. Usually, the shipping of the goods is not done to U.S. It's done to where the customer asks us to send it for continued work, which usually is—I mean, it's not usually. There is a lot of regions in the world, according to the customer request. It can be Philippines, Thailand, in order to package them and test them and put them into a final end product according to the customer request. It doesn't matter that the corporate is in the U.S. for this case.
Lisa Thompson (Senior Analyst)
The 42% is just who you bill, right? It's not where it goes.
Oren Shirazi (CFO and SVP of Finance)
It's the headquarter of the parent company that we bill. That's how we do that. Yeah. It's not the place that we ship to the product. Because again, we ship what we're doing to the next packaging houses and to the next station in the chain, in the supply chain, right?
Lisa Thompson (Senior Analyst)
Correct. So that would mean possibly that very little of that revenue actually goes physically to the U.S. and would be captured by tariffs, right?
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
That's how we do it. It's not the.
Oren Shirazi (CFO and SVP of Finance)
Yes. Exactly. Yeah. A very small part of that physically enters from us to U.S. Yes.
Lisa Thompson (Senior Analyst)
All right. That's good to know. Just one small question. Do you expect operating expenses to stay above the $40 million level for the rest of the year?
Oren Shirazi (CFO and SVP of Finance)
We expect it to remain about flat at these current levels of $40 million a quarter, right? Yeah.
Lisa Thompson (Senior Analyst)
Okay. Great. Thank you so much. That's all my questions.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. Our next question is a follow-up from Cody Acree from Benchmark Company. Please go ahead.
Cody Acree (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Hey, guys. Thanks for letting me back in line here. Just a couple of quick questions. The volume that you're seeing from Agrate, has that started in earnest?
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
Yes. In Q4, it actually started in earnest.
Cody Acree (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Any thoughts on that ramp, Russell, throughout the year?
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
Q2 will be a reasonable number. Q3, Q4, we expect will be higher by forecast. That was something that had mentioned previously that we see the Q1 revenue as the low. The bulk of our RFSOI at this point is 300 millimeter, not 200 millimeter. By design, we have tried to move all of the 300 millimeter into the Agrate factory for multiple reasons, not the least of which is allowing then more capacity in Fab 7 for the SiGe and Silicon Photonics growth for new 300 millimeter platforms.
Cody Acree (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Okay. Thanks. That's very helpful. You mentioned the Envelope Tracker power management business, and you mentioned New Mexico in the same breath. You're not ramping that in New Mexico yet. Is that right? Or is that the plan? Are you ramping wafers in New Mexico already?
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
That specific project is being worked in New Mexico. It is not yet ramped in New Mexico. Right now, that is coming out of the Wozu factory in Japan.
Cody Acree (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Okay. Great. Thank you. Lastly, could you just—I'm sorry, I'm slow on this update. Can you recover your conversation or your explanation about what's happened in China in the RF Mobile business? You mentioned a customer, the qualification process, and some regulatory approval movement with a customer. Can you just rediscuss that a bit?
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
During the diligence and working to get Chinese approval for the Intel acquisition, we were very careful about not opening up anything about customers that were not Chinese-based. We had very little choice but to be open about revenues and activities of Chinese customers with the Chinese government. We think potentially as a result of that, at least one customer got a lot of pressure to start sourcing in China. That happened, and some of their market share is now going internally into China. Presently, it is not the most advanced platforms.The capability does not sit there to do that. Volumes of older platforms are now being manufactured in China and not with us.
Cody Acree (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Okay.That does not change your expectations that the RF Mobile business is still troughing in Q1 and should improve through the year?
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
Correct.
Cody Acree (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Okay. All right. Thank you, guys.
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. Our next question is also a follow-up from Richard Shannon from Craig-Hallum. Please go ahead.
Richard Shannon (Senior Research Analyst)
I'm going to follow on Cody's last question here on mobile. And specifically, I think it was a response to my question here about improvements kind of longer-term. I think you talked about a snapback in 2026 and 2027 in RFSOI and Mobile. I guess I want to get some sense of the dynamics here. You're expecting a much better market or what I would guess is some share gains here. But maybe you can kind of clarify how and where you expect this to occur.
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
We have brought on multiple newer customers, some relatively new entries into the market that have grown remarkably fast. One specifically, I do not believe that we have press released with. We intend to. It is a customer that was very strong in antennas that then went into making their own antenna switches. They have been very successful. They have grown very strong. We have multiple other customers that as well are gaining share very quickly. That is a lot of what we are talking about within the growth of the remaining quarters of 2025. These customers, because of their big share gains during a time that the market was being built at a reasonable rate, the 7% improvement, and they got share gains in it, they certainly bought as many products as they could. As you are initially ramping and gaining share, the one thing that you cannot do is undersupply to customers' demand.
The handset integrators that were buying from them, they themselves built relatively big inventories so they would not let them down. When the market then started to pull back with the forecasted no to very low single-digit growth in 2025, they were stuck with inventory that is burning off now. For the existing SKUs that we had shipped last year, they have inventory that is being burned off. There are continual new designs for more advanced models. That is what we are really counting on for the growth in this year. As far as getting into 2026 and beyond, there are more established, very large customers that we have re-engaged with or newly engaged with that their ramps are planned to start in the fourth quarter of 2025 and go throughout 2026 or to begin in the first quarter of 2026.
If you look at 2026, we see it as a very big growth year for our RF Mobile business, mainly front-end module serving handsets. Hopefully, that gives the color you're asking for.
Richard Shannon (Senior Research Analyst)
That was very helpful. Thanks. Thanks for that, Russell. My next question is related to the New Mexico Fab with Intel here. I guess maybe I had a little bit of confusion that Cody asked on as well here. Maybe I'll ask in a slightly different way here. When do we expect to qualify equipment here, start to see depreciation, and then also go to production? This last part of the question, Russell, I ask because last call you talked about a large PO you got in power management, I think very early this year, that we're not talking about ramping until next year. It seems like very early to award a PO for. I just want to make sure I understand that well.
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
As far as the first part of your question, we would start seeing production shipments within this year, which is what we've had stated in the third, fourth quarter of this year. Upon hitting a certain level of production shipments is when you begin depreciation of tools. That is when we would start seeing depreciation. You'd have to refresh me, though, on the second part of the question. I talked about a big PO for power management.
Richard Shannon (Senior Research Analyst)
Yeah. In the last earnings call. In fact, I can pull that up here and find it real quickly. I think it was in your prepared remarks. Actually, if you give me a second, I can locate it here. Yeah. Last quarter, you said we delivered successful prototypes to lead customers. And based on success, we received our first production PO related to 65-nanometer BCD.
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
Yeah. That was in Fab 11X. I did not say that it was big volume. But we did receive our first production POs. Before we start recognizing revenue, we have certain milestones on the volume that we ship. And those volumes, we would believe, will hit Q3, Q4.
Richard Shannon (Senior Research Analyst)
Okay. That's helpful to give some perspective there. My last quick question, Russell, is related to Silicon Photonics. I think you've mentioned additional platforms that do laser attach with the Silicon Photonics you're delivering today. Wondering when we might see that into production. Also, how do we—when do—in general timeframe, when do we expect to intersect with the CPO market?
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
It's a very good question, the latter part. The bigger question is, when will the CPO market actually be realized? It's thought to be probably at least four years out. I am not sure of the exact timing of when CPO will be there. What we're doing with CPO are very good active programs to ensure that our customers that are really, as I stated, the big players on the optical integrator side, that they know they can stay with us for multiple generations and that we're well prepared and they're well prepared at the time that it would be if it does get adopted, that we'll be their supplier. We have many forms of how we're pursuing that, if that answers the CPO question. What was the other part of the question? I'm sorry.
Richard Shannon (Senior Research Analyst)
The laser attach.
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
Yeah. So that's exactly. That's where we do the integrated laser. That's with the OpenLight platform. When will that start seeing volume shipments? By forecast, we have multiple customers that are saying it's in 2026. We'll see if that occurs. That is what's being stated on it.
Richard Shannon (Senior Research Analyst)
Okay. That's helpful perspective. That's all for me. I will jump on the line. Thanks, Russell.
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. That does conclude our Q&A session. I would now like to turn the call to Mr. Russell Ellwanger. Please go ahead.
Russell Ellwanger (CEO)
Thank you. This past month, Dr. Priesler, the VP of RF Technologies, Dr. Racanelli, Tower's President, and I attended the Optical Fiber Conference, OFC, in San Francisco. We have developed quite a strong reputation in the optical transceiver field. Candidly, it was almost embarrassing. We were greeted as rock stars. During the conference, we met with over 60 customers with discussions and real-time activities in multiple areas. For example, programs for further platform efficiencies, multiple form factors for next-generation 400G modulators, and co-package optics. As executive management, we continuously meet with our lead customers and new customers, both groupings either already creating or with the potential to create a large industry impact.
In my most recent multi-week customer visits, I was thrilled with the extreme capability, character, and passion of our existing customers as well as newer customers spanning not just data center, but also our mobile front-end module, power management, and imaging offerings. It really is the most exciting time for Tower. There is an interesting quote from former U.S. President Bill Clinton. He stated, "Old age is when our memories outweigh our dreams." Myself, not being a spring chicken, I pondered these words. I specifically pondered, "What defines vibrant, inspired youth?" My thought is that it is not just a high weighting of dreams and maybe better wording than dreams is high and noble aspirations, but as, or even more importantly, that these aspirations are tied to consequent actions. At Tower, we have many high and challenging aspirations.
Most importantly, are the real-time consequential actions we are taking to achieve them. Extremely capable people with boundless passion in an environment that promotes and inspires both the capability and passion is unstoppable, especially when this environment is based upon customers with equal capability and passion that are dedicated to partner towards mutual success. We thank you for your interest in the company. We look forward to updating you over the next quarters as we continue our progress towards achieving our multi-year aspirations. In the short term, we will be attending the following conferences and look forward to seeing you face to face if possible for your schedules. On May 18th, we will participate in the Oppenheimer Annual Israeli Conference in Tel Aviv. On May 28th, we will participate at the Craig-Hallum 22nd Annual Institutional Investor Conference in Minnesota. On May 29th, we will participate at the T.J.
Cowen 53rd Annual Technology Media and Telecom Conference in New York. Again, thank you for your interest. Thank you for your support. Best wishes to you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.