Operator
女士们、先生们,欢迎参加奇景光电股份有限公司2024年第四季度及全年业绩电话会议。[接线员指示] 提醒一下,本次电话会议正在录音。现在,我将会议转交给奇景光电首席投资者关系与公共关系官李艾瑞先生。李先生,请开始。
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Himax Technologies, Incorporation Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. And now I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Eric Li, Chief IR and PR Officer at Himax. Mr. Li, please begin.
Tzung
欢迎各位参加奇景光电2024年第四季度及全年业绩电话会议。我是奇景光电投资者关系主管Eric Li。今天与我一同出席的有总裁兼首席执行官Jordan Wu,以及首席财务官Jessica Pen。在公司准备好的评论之后,我们安排了问答环节的时间。如果您尚未收到今日业绩发布的副本,请发送电子邮件至himx@mzgroup.us或hx_ir@himax.com.tw,或通过财经门户网站访问新闻稿,或从奇景光电网站www.himax.com.tw下载。在开始正式发言前,我想提醒各位,本次电话会议中的部分陈述,包括关于预期未来财务业绩和行业增长的陈述,均为前瞻性陈述,涉及诸多风险和不确定性,可能导致实际事件或结果与本次电话会议中描述的情况存在重大差异。风险因素清单可在公司向美国证券交易委员会提交的截至2023年12月31日财年的20-F表格中找到,标题为'风险因素'的部分,该部分可能已修订。除公司2023年全年财务数据(已于2024年4月2日提交给SEC的公司20-F表格中提供)外,本次电话会议中包含的财务信息均为未经审计的合并报表,按照国际财务报告准则编制。此类财务信息由内部生成,未经过与我们的年度合并财务报表相同的审查和审核程序,包括内部审计程序和独立审计师的外部审计,可能与同期经审计的合并财务信息存在重大差异。公司无义务因新信息、未来事件或其他原因而公开更新或修订任何前瞻性陈述。在今天的电话会议上,我将首先回顾奇景光电2024年第四季度及全年的合并财务表现,然后是我们2025年第一季度的展望。随后Jordan将介绍我们业务的最新情况,之后我们将回答问题。您可以通过网络直播或电话在线提交问题。我们将基于国际财务报告准则回顾财务数据。我们很高兴地宣布,尽管面临普遍的经济挑战,第四季度的收入、毛利率以及利润均超过了2024年11月7日发布的指引。优于预期的财务业绩主要得益于各产品线订单势头增强,以及成本改善和产品组合优化。第四季度收入达到2.372亿美元,环比增长6.7%,显著超出我们指引的'小幅下降至持平'范围,同比增长4.2%。毛利率达到30.5%,超出我们指引的'持平至较上季度30%略有上升',也高于去年同期的30.3%。环比增长得益于有利的产品组合和成本改善。第四季度摊薄后每ADS利润为0.14美元,远高于0.09至0.11美元的指引区间,这得益于优于预期的收入和改善的成本。大尺寸显示驱动芯片收入为2500万美元,环比下降18.6%。下降主要归因于第二季度为购物节大量补货后客户持续去库存,以及中国同行加剧的价格竞争。大尺寸面板驱动IC销售额占本季度总收入的10.5%,而上季度为13.8%,去年同期为14.8%。中小尺寸显示驱动芯片部门总收入为1.668亿美元,环比增长7.4%,超出我们'环比持平'的指引,这得益于汽车和平板电脑市场销售强于预期。第四季度汽车驱动芯片销售(包括传统DDIC和TDDI)实现了中双位数增长,显著优于我们预期的个位数增长,DDIC和TDDI销售均强于预期。这一激增主要得益于中国面板客户延续自第三季度的紧急订单,此前中国政府于2024年8月中旬宣布了新的贸易刺激措施以促进汽车消费。值得注意的是,我们第四季度汽车TDDI销售额首次超过了DDIC销售额,突显了我们TDDI解决方案在全球的采用,该方案在现代车辆中日益重要,并反映了对由TDDI技术驱动的更直观、交互性更强且更具成本效益的触摸面板功能日益增长的需求。我们的汽车业务(包括驱动芯片、Tcon和OLED IC销售)约占第四季度总收入的50%。同时,第四季度平板电脑IC销售超出'低双位数下降'的指引,销售额环比略有增长,主要受领先终端客户的紧急订单推动。第四季度智能手机IC销售略有下降,符合我们的指引。中小尺寸驱动IC部门占本季度总销售额的17.3%,而上季度为69.9%,去年同期为71.6%。第四季度非驱动芯片销售达到4540万美元,超出指引区间,环比增长24.9%。增长主要得益于向领先投影仪客户一次性出货的Tcon产品(用于显示器应用)。第四季度,汽车Tcon销售继续环比增长,这得益于我们市场领先的局部调光Tcon的广泛采用,该产品已在全球主要面板制造商、一级供应商和汽车制造商中获得了超过200个已确认的设计中标项目。非驱动芯片产品占总收入的19.2%,而上季度为16.3%,去年同期为13.6%。第四季度营业费用为4920万美元,环比下降19.1%,同比下降6%。环比下降主要源于年度员工奖金减少,部分被研发费用增加所抵消。作为公司标准惯例,我们每年9月底向员工发放年度奖金,包括现金和限制性股票单位。这导致第三季度的IFRS营业费用高于一年中的其他季度。同比下降主要由于员工奖金薪酬下降,因为2023年上一年度奖金的摊销部分高于2024年,抵消了2024年相比2023年更高的年度奖金薪酬授予。在持续的宏观经济挑战下,我们严格执行预算和费用控制,2024年全年营业费用同比下降5.6%。第四季度营业利润为2310万美元,占销售额的9.7%,而上季度为2.6%,去年同期为7.3%。环比增长主要源于销售额增加、毛利率改善以及营业费用降低。同比增长主要源于销售额增加、毛利率提高以及由于上年度奖金摊销部分导致的员工奖金薪酬降低。第四季度税后利润为2460万美元,即摊薄后每ADS 0.14美元,较上季度的1300万美元(每ADS 0.074美元)显著增加,也高于去年同期的2360万美元(每ADS 0.135美元)。现在让我们快速回顾2024年全年的财务表现。总收入为9.068亿美元,较2023年小幅下降4.1%。持续的全球需求疲软,加上市场趋势的不确定性,导致我们的面板客户采取保守的采购决策和库存管理。尽管存在这种不确定性,我们实施了严格的费用控制,导致全年营业费用减少5.6%。然而,我们对汽车业务的乐观态度依然坚定,2024年汽车IC销售额同比增长近20%,远超整体汽车市场增长。在我们的汽车产品线中,汽车TDDI和Tcon销售(均为相对较新的技术)激增超过70%,这得益于各领域的加速采用。这一增长巩固了我们的市场领导地位和定位,为汽车行业拥抱更先进技术(源于车内显示器尺寸、数量和复杂程度增加的大趋势)带来的持续成功奠定了基础。2024年大尺寸面板显示驱动芯片总收入为1.259亿美元,同比下降28.3%,占总销售额的13.9%,而2023年为18.6%。中小尺寸驱动芯片总收入为6.254亿美元,同比微降0.6%,占总收入的69%,而2023年为66.5%。非驱动芯片销售总额为1.555亿美元,同比增长10.6%,占总销售额的17.1%,而去年同期为14.9%。2024年毛利率为13.5%,高于2023年的27.9%。利润率扩张得益于对成本改善和运营效率优化的战略关注,结合了有利的产品组合(包括更高比例的高利润率产品,如汽车和Tcon)。成功实现代工厂来源多元化也促进了利润率提升。2024年营业费用为2.08亿美元,较2023年下降5.6%,主要原因是员工奖金薪酬降低,因为2023年奖金的摊销部分高于2024年。2024年营业利润为6820万美元,占销售额的7.5%,高于2023年的4320万美元(占销售额的4.6%)。我们2024年的净利润为7980万美元,即摊薄后每ADS 0.46美元,显著高于2023年的5060万美元(每ADS 0.29美元)。转向资产负债表。截至2024年12月31日,我们拥有2.246亿美元的现金、现金等价物及其他金融资产。去年同期为2.064亿美元,上季度末为2.065亿美元。第四季度我们实现了3540万美元的强劲正经营现金流,而第三季度为310万美元的现金流出。我们向员工发放了总计1310万美元的年度现金奖金,导致本季度经营现金流较低。截至2024年12月31日,我们有3450万美元的长期无担保贷款,其中600万美元为流动部分。我们年末库存为1.587亿美元,低于上季度的1.925亿美元和去年底的2.173亿美元。我们的库存水平在过去几个季度稳步下降,现已处于健康水平。截至2024年12月底的应收账款为2.368亿美元,与上季度的2.246亿美元和去年同期的2.358亿美元相比变化不大。季度末的应收账款周转天数为96天,而上季度为92天,去年同期为91天。第四季度资本支出为320万美元,而上季度为260万美元,去年同期为1510万美元。第四季度的资本支出主要用于我们IC设计业务的研发相关设备。2024年总资本支出为1310万美元,而2023年为2340万美元。下降主要由于2024年我们IC设计业务内部测试设备支出减少。截至2024年12月31日,奇景光电拥有1.749亿股流通ADS,与上季度相比变化不大。按完全摊薄基础计算,第一季度流通ADS总数为1.751亿股。现在转向我们2025年第一季度的指引。我们预计2025年第一季度收入将环比下降8.5%至12.5%,这反映了农历新年假期导致的淡季需求。该收入指引意味着同比表现从持平到增长4.6%不等。毛利率预计约为30.5%,具体取决于产品组合。去年同期为29.3%。第一季度归属于股东的利润预计在摊薄后每ADS 0.09至0.11美元之间,意味着同比增长26%至54%。我们注意到,由于关税因素,部分同行的客户(特别是在消费电子领域)提前下单,导致第一季度收入预测超出正常季节性需求。相比之下,汽车半导体市场未观察到类似趋势。由于奇景光电汽车业务占我们总收入的一半以上,我们的第一季度收入预测并未受益于关税因素。我现在将电话转交给Jordan,讨论我们2025年第一季度的展望。Jordan,请发言。
Tzung
Welcome, everyone, to the Himax Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Earnings Call. My name is Eric Li, Chief IRP Officer at Himax. Joining me today are Jordan Wu, President and Chief Executive Officer; Jessica Pen, Chief Financial Officer. After the company's prepared comments, we have allocated time for questions in a Q&A session. If you have not yet received a copy of today's results release, please e-mail himx@mzgroup.us or hx_ir@himax.com.tw access the press release on financial portals or download a copy from Himax's website at www.himax.com.tw. Before we begin the formal remarks, I'd like to remind everyone that some of the statements in this conference call, including statements regarding expected future financial results and industrial growth are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those described in this conference call. A list of risk factors can be found in the company's SEC filings Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2023, in the section entitled Risk Factors as may be amended. Except for the company's full year of 2023 financials, which were provided in the company's 20-F and filed with the SEC on April 2, 2024. The financial information included in this conference call is unaudited and consolidated and prepared in accordance with IFRS accounting. Such financial information is generated internally and has not been subjected to the same review and scrutiny, including internal auditing procedures and external audits by an independent auditor or to which we subject our annual consolidated financial statements and may vary materially from the audited consolidated financial information for the same period. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. On today's call, I will first review the Himax consolidated financial performance of the fourth quarter and full year 2024, followed by our first quarter 2025 outlook. Jordan will then give an update on the status of our business, after which we will take questions. You can submit your questions online through the webcast or by phone. We will review our financials on an IFRS basis. We are delighted to announce that the Q4 revenues, gross margin as well as profit all surpassed the guidance issued on November 7, 2024, despite prevailing economic challenges. The better-than-expected financial results were primarily driven by stronger order momentum across product lines, along with cost improvements and a better product mix. Fourth quarter revenues registered $237.2 million, an increase of 6.7% sequentially, significantly exceeding our guidance range of a slight decrease to flat and up 4.2% year-over-year. Gross margin reached 30.5%, exceeding our guidance flat to slightly up from 30% in the previous quarter and up from 30.3% in the same period last year. The sequential increase was driven by a favorable product mix and cost improvements. Q4 profit per diluted ADS was $0.14, considerably above the guidance range of $0.09 to $0.11, thanks to better-than-expected revenues and improved costs. Revenue for large display drivers came in at $25 million, reflecting an 18.6% sequential decline. The decrease was primarily attributed to continued customer destocking after substantial Q2 replenishment for shopping festivals as well as heightened price competition from China peers. Sales of large panel driver IC accounted for 10.5% of total revenues for the quarter compared to 13.8% last quarter and 14.8% a year ago. Revenue from small- and medium-sized display driver segment totaled $166.8 million, an increase of 7.4% sequentially, exceeding our guidance of flat quarter-over-quarter, thanks to stronger-than-expected sales in the automotive and tablet markets. Q4 automotive driver sales, including both traditional DDIC and TDDI, experienced mid-teens increase significantly outperforming our expectation of a single-digit increase with both the DDIC and TDDI showing stronger-than-expected sales. This surge was primarily driven by continued rush order from Chinese panel customers carried over from Q3 following the Chinese government's renewed trading stimulus initiatives announced in mid-August 2024 to boost automobile consumption. Remarkably, our Q4 automotive TDDI sales have exceeded DDIC sales for the first time, underscoring the global adoption of our TDDI solution, which are increasingly essential in modern vehicles and reflects the growing demand for more intuitive, interactive and cost-effective touch panel features powered by TDDI technology. Our automotive business comprising drivers, Tcon and OLED IC sales accounted for around 50% of total Q4 revenues. Meanwhile, Q4 tablet IC sales exceeded the guidance of a low teens decline with sales up slightly sequentially driven by rush orders from leading end customers. Q4 smartphone IC sales declined slightly, in line with our guidance. The small and medium-sized driver IC segment accounted for 17.3% of total sales for the quarter compared to 69.9% in previous quarter and 71.6% a year ago. Q4 non-driver sales reached $45.4 million, exceeding the guidance range with a 24.9% increase from the previous quarter. The growth was primarily driven by a onetime Tcon product shipment to a leading projector customer in Tcon for monitor application. In Q4, automotive Tcon sales continued to grow sequentially due to the widespread adoption of our market-leading local dimming Tcon with over 200 secured design win projects across major panel makers, Tier 1 suppliers and automotive manufacturers worldwide. Non-driver products accounted for 19.2% of total revenues as compared to 16.3% in previous quarter and 13.6% a year ago. Fourth quarter operating expenses were $49.2 million, a decrease of 19.1% from the previous quarter and a decrease of 6% from a year ago. The sequential decrease stemmed primarily from a reduction in annual employee bonuses, partially offset by an increase in R&D expenses. As part of our standard company practice, we grant annual bonuses, including cash and RSUs to employees at the end of September each year. This results in higher IFRS operating expenses in the third quarter compared to other quarters of the year. The year-over-year decrease was mainly due to a decline in employee bonus compensation as the amortized portion of prior year bonuses for 2023 was higher than that for 2024, offsetting the higher annual bonus compensation grant for 2024 compared to 2023. Amid ongoing macroeconomic challenges, we are strictly enforcing budget and expense control with full year 2024 operating expenses declining 5.6% compared to last year. Fourth quarter operating income was $23.1 million or 9.7% of sales compared to 2.6% of sales last quarter and 7.3% of sales for the same period last year. The sequential increase was primarily a result of higher sales, improved gross margin and lower operating expenses. The year-over-year increase was primarily the result of higher sales, higher gross margin and lower employee bonus compensation due to the amortized portion of high year's bonuses. Fourth quarter after-tax profit was $24.6 million or $0.14 per diluted ADS, reflecting a meaningful increase from $13 million or $0.074 per diluted ADS last quarter and up from $23.6 million or $0.135 in the same period last year. Now let's quickly review the financial performance for the full year 2024. Revenues totaled $906.8 million, a slightly decline of 4.1% compared to 2023. Persistent global demand weakness, coupled with uncertainty about market trends led to conservative purchasing decisions and inventory management by our panel customers. Even this uncertainty, we implemented strict expense controls, resulting in a 5.6% reduction in operating expenses for the year. However, our optimism in the automotive business remains unwavering with automotive IC sales increasing by nearly 20% year-over-year in 2024, far outpacing the overall automotive market growth. Among our automotive product lines, automotive TDDI and Tcon sales, both relatively new technology, surged by more than 70%, driven by accelerated adoption across the board. The growth strengthened our market leadership and position as well for continued success as the automotive sector embrace more advanced technology resulting from the megatrend of increasing size, quantity and sophistication of displays inside vehicles. Revenue for large panel display drivers totaled $125.9 million in 2024, marking a decrease of 28.3% year-over-year and representing 13.9% of total sales as compared to 18.6% in 2023. Small and medium-sized drivers totaled $625.4 million, reflecting a slight decrease of 0.6% year-over-year and accounting for 69% of our total revenues as compared to 66.5% in 2023. Non-driver sales totaled $155.5 million, an increase of 10.6% year-over-year and representing 17.1% of our total sales as compared to 14.9% a year ago. Gross margin in 2024 was 13.5%, up from 27.9% in 2023. The margin expansion was driven by a strategic focus on cost improvement and operational efficiency optimization, combined with a favorable product mix that included a higher percentage of high-margin products such as automotive and Tcon. The successful diversification of foundry sources also contributed to margin increase. Operating expenses in 2024 were $208 million, a decline of 5.6% from 2023, primarily due to lower employee bonus compensation as the amortized portion of bonuses in 2023 was higher than that in 2024. 2024 operating income was $68.2 million or 7.5% of sales, an increase from $43.2 million or 4.6% of sales in 2023. Our net profit for 2024 was $79.8 million or $0.46 per diluted ADS, significantly up from $50.6 million or $0.29 per diluted ADS in 2023. Turning to the balance sheet. We had $224.6 million of cash, cash equivalents and other financial assets as of December 31, 2024. This compared to $206.4 million at the same time last year and $206.5 million a quarter ago. We achieved a strong positive operating cash flow of $35.4 million for the fourth quarter compared to a cash outflow of $3.1 million in Q3. We made a total of $13.1 million annual cash bonus to employees, resulting in the low operating cash flow of the quarter. As of December 31, 2024, we had $34.5 million in long-term unsecured loans with $6 million representing the current portion. Our year-end inventory were $158.7 million, lower than $192.5 million last quarter and $217.3 million at the end of last year. Our inventory level has steadily declined over past couple of quarters and are now at a healthy level. Accounts receivables at the end of December 2024 was $236.8 million, little change from $224.6 million last quarter and $235.8 million a year ago. DSO was 96 days at the quarter end as compared to 92 days last quarter and 91 days a year ago. Fourth quarter capital expenditures were $3.2 million versus $2.6 million last quarter and $15.1 million a year ago. Fourth quarter CapEx was mainly for R&D-related equipment for our IC design business. Total capital expenditures for 2024 were $13.1 million as compared to $23.4 million in 2023. The decrease was primarily due to reduced spending on in-house testers for our IC design business in 2024. As of December 31, 2024, Himax had 174.9 million ADS outstanding, little changed from last quarter. On a fully diluted basis, the total number of ADS outstanding for the first quarter was 175.1 million. Now turning to our first quarter 2025 guidance. We expect first quarter 2025 revenues to decrease by 8.5% to 12.5% sequentially, reflecting the low season demand due to Lunar New Year holidays. The revenue guidance implies a year-over-year performance ranging from flat to 4.6% increase. Gross margin is expected to be around 30.5%, depending on product mix. This compares to 29.3% of same period last year. The first quarter profit attributable to shareholders is estimated to be in the range of $0.09 to $0.11 per fully diluted ADS, implying a year-over-year increase of 26% to 54%. We have noted that some peers' customers placed order early due to tariff factors, especially in the consumer electronics sector, resulting in Q1 revenue forecast exceeding normal seasonal demand. In contrast, no similar trend has been observed in the automotive semiconductor market. Since Himax automotive business accounts for more than half of our total revenues, our Q1 revenue forecast has not benefited from tariff factors. I will now turn the call over to Jordan to discuss our Q1 2025 outlook. Jordan, the floor is yours.
Jordan Wu
翻译中...
Jordan Wu
Thank you, Eric. In 2024, our sales revenues in each quarter consistently outperformed guidance. While this strong performance is certainly commendable, it also highlights the challenges we faced such as limited market visibility and conservative customer demand, while many customers rely on cash orders to address their actual demand. On the other hand, our rush orders are indicative of the tight inventory position of our panel customers in general. In the past few quarters, we have consistently demonstrated our ability to handle most of such rush orders, underscoring our agility, adaptability, strong capabilities in inventory management and swift market responsiveness. The automotive IC sales remained our largest revenue contributor in 2024, accounting for almost half of total revenues, achieving close to 20% annual growth. This performance highlights Himax's automotive leadership in technological innovations, product development and market share. Looking ahead, we expect our automotive TDDI and Tcon technologies to maintain growth momentum, further strengthening our market competitiveness. Beyond LCD technology, Himax is advancing development in the automotive OLED sector with numerous projects currently underway in partnership with leading panel makers. We anticipate that automotive OLED IC will serve as one of the key growth drivers for Himax in the coming years, further solidifying our leadership in automotive display market. Meanwhile, Himax is actively expanding its technology development beyond display ICs. To that end, in the WiseEye AI segment, we have made notable progress with leading notebook brands and achieved significant breakthroughs in smart door lock authentication and smart home applications, collaborating with world-leading customers to develop new innovations. We anticipate a strong growth trajectory in our WiseEye business in 2025 and beyond. Himax's proprietary Wafer Level Optics or WLO technology for Co-Packaged Optics or CPO has recently garnered significant attention in the capital markets. In fact, as early as June 2024, Himax and FOCI, a global leader in silicon photonics connectors, jointly announced the industry-leading CPO technology. The collaboration spanning several years Himax's WLO technology with FOCI's CPO solutions for cutting-edge AI Multi-Chip Modules or MCM. Since the announcement, we have provided updates on the latest progress in each quarterly earnings call. Himax's WLO technology plays a critical role in CPO by providing essential optical coupling capacity, making it a core element of the solution. CPO significantly enhances bandwidth and accelerates data transmission while reducing signal loss, latency and power consumption. Additionally, it can help drastically decrease the size and cost of MCM. While CPO is still in engineering validation and trial production stage this year with customers' mass production timelines undisclosed and the recent AI market disruption from DeepSeek. The prospect of CPO remains unchanged. The widespread adoption of CPO for data transmission to be conducted via optics instead of metal wire is on track in high-performance AI applications. This is evident by the significant increase in customers' recent trial production volume forecast, indicating an accelerated timeline for CPO technology to enter mass production. Furthermore, Himax and FOCI in close collaboration with leading AI customers and partners are actively developing future generations of CPO technologies to meet the explosive high-speed optical data transmission demand in HPC and AI. Through WLO and CPO technologies, Himax is well positioned to engage in the high-speed AI computing market with high expectations for its growth. We believe that CPO technology beyond cloud applications will see further adoption in sectors such as automotive and robots in the future. Our current goal is to accelerate CPO adoption in cloud applications, thereby helping drive broader CPO adoption in AI applications. At CES this year, Himax showcased a wide range of innovative achievements, including automotive display technology, WiseEye AI and advanced optical technologies for AR/VR. Notably, a clear trend emerged at this year's CES as the industry demonstrated growing enthusiasm for AR glasses, fueled by more companies entering the space and integrating generative AI to accelerate the development of lightweight, compact and all-day AR glasses. For AR glasses, Himax offers 3 optical technologies, namely LCoS microdisplay, WLO waveguide and ultralow power WiseEye AI. Our latest patented front-lit LCoS microdisplay delivers unparalleled brightness with industry-leading 400k nits, exceptional optical power efficiency, compact form factor, lightweight and superior display quality, making it one of the most viable solutions in the see-through AR glasses market. In waveguide, in collaboration with leading tech names, Himax leverages proprietary WLO expertise built on advanced metal imprint technology to offer industry-leading optical solutions that optimize light transmission and display efficiency. In the field of AI sensing for AR glasses, Himax's WiseEye provides always-on AI sensing capabilities, which are being applied by developers to significantly enhance AI interactivity while consuming just a few milliwatts of power. In automotive display IC technology, we unveiled the industry's most comprehensive LCD and OLED solutions at CES, showcasing a range of next-generation smart cabin technologies. These solutions not only improve the intuitive operation of smart cabins, but also enhance driving safety and provide an exceptional user experience. A prime example is the advanced Display HMI solution developed in collaboration with AUO, which meets the demand for large-sized, high-resolution and free-form automotive displays. At CES, Himax also partnered with several AI ecosystem partners to showcase its ultra-low power WiseEye Modules over a range of innovative production-ready AIoT applications. These applications include palm vein authentication, baby cry detection, people flow management, and human sensing detection. The modules are designed for EV integration, making it highly suitable for various AIoT applications. With that, I will now begin with an update on the large panel driver IC business. In Q1, we anticipate a single-digit sequential sales increase for large display driver ICs, driven by demand spurred by Chinese government subsidies for household appliances and at reviving demand in the sluggish household sector. Notebook and monitor sales are expected to increase in Q1. In contrast, DDIC sales are set to decline as customers pulled forward their inventory purchases in the prior quarter, coupled with the seasonal slowdown in Q1. Looking ahead in the notebook sector, we are seeing an increase in demand for premium notebooks to adopt OLED displays and touch features partially fueled by the rise of AI PC. Himax is well positioned to capitalize on this trend, offering a comprehensive range of ICs for both LCD and OLED notebooks, including DDIC, Tcon, touch controllers, and TDDI. A standout innovation is our pioneering in-cell touch TDDI for LCD displays, which improves the ease of system design integration by embedding the touch controller within the TDDI chip while maintaining the conventional display driver setup for Tcon data transmission. This design simplifies the integration for customers, reducing engineering complexity and speeding up product development. This solution also supports high-resolution displays up to 4K and larger screens up to 16 inches, aligning with the growing demand for advanced visual planning and immersive laptops. With mass production already underway for a leading notebook vendor IPC, more projects are lined up. For OLED notebooks, in addition to our OLED DDIC and Tcon solutions, we are also developing on-sale touch controller technology with multiple projects underway with top panel makers and notebook vendors. Last but not least, progress has been made on the next-generation eDP 1.5 display interface for Tcon for both LCD and OLED panels. This interface will support high frame rates, low power consumption, adaptive sync, and high resolution, key features essential for next-generation AI PCs. By delivering innovative, cutting-edge technologies, Himax is well positioned to lead in the rapidly evolving landscape for AI PCs and premium notebooks. Turning to the small and medium-sized display driver IC business. For the full year 2024, our automotive driver IC sales comprising of TDDI and traditional DDIC increased nearly 20% year-over-year, significantly outpacing global automotive growth, largely driven by the continued adoption of TDDI technology among major customers across all continents. However, we anticipate Q1 automotive revenue to decline low teens sequentially following 2 quarters of low demand. Despite this, Q1 automotive sales are still projected to increase by mid-teens on a year-over-year basis. In the automotive TDDI sector, with cumulative shipments significantly surpassing those of our competitors. We continue to reinforce our market leadership, which currently stands at well over 50%, with nearly 5 design projects secured and a continuous influx of new pipeline and design wins across the board, of which only 20% already in mass production. We expect to sustain this decent growth in the years ahead. While traditional automotive DDIC sales for 2024 declined due to their gradual partial replacement by TDDI. Our DDIC shipment volume still saw a modest increase in the last year. This demonstrates the steady demand for mature DDIC products such as those used in cluster displays, SUVs and rear and side view mirrors, which do not require touch functionality. Furthermore, the long-term trust and loyalty from our DDIC customers, some of whom have relied on our solutions for over a decade is indicative of our strong customer retention. We continue to lead the automotive DDIC market, maintaining a global market share of approximately 40%. Himax continues to lead in automotive display IC innovation by pioneering solutions that deliver superior performance, power efficiency and enhanced user experiences. As part of this ongoing innovation, our latest TED or Tcon Embedded Driver IC solution, which combines TDDI with local dimming Tcon into a single chip provides a cost-effective, flexible and comprehensive solution for our customers. Another new technology worth highlighting is our automotive TDDI with advanced user-aware touch control, which differentiates between driver and passenger touches to prevent cross touch and enhance driver safety. In addition, we offer a unique not on in-cell display solution that combines a physical knob with a TDDI. This design seamlessly merges in-cell touch technology with tactile controls, offering drivers a safer, more intuitive interaction that reduces distractions and enhances the overall driver experience. Moving to smartphone and tablet IC sales. We expect a sequential decline in both product lines as is typical during the low season in Q1, Q2 the New Year. Next, for an update on our OLED business. In the automotive OLED market, we have established strategic partnerships with leading panel makers in Korea, China and Japan. As OLED technology extends beyond premium car models, Himax is well-positioned as the preferred partner, leveraging our strong presence and proven track record in the automotive display sector, capitalizing on our first-mover advantage. We aim to drive the growing adoption of OLED in automotive displays by offering a comprehensive range of solutions, including DDIC, Tcon and on-cell touch controller. We believe this positions us as a primary beneficiary of the anticipated shift towards OLED displays for high-end vehicles in a couple of years, enabling us to capture new growth opportunities and further strengthen our market leadership. Beyond the automotive sector, we have also made strides in the tablet and notebook markets, partnering with leading OLED panel makers in Korea and China. Our comprehensive OLED product portfolio covering DDIC, Tcon and touch controllers has driven several new projects that are on track to begin mass production this year. In the smartphone OLED market, we are making solid progress in our collaborations with customers in Korea and China, and we anticipate mass production to start later this year. First quarter small- and medium-sized display driver IC business is expected to decline low teens sequentially. I would like to now turn to our non-driver IC business update, where we expect the first quarter revenue to decrease high teens sequentially. First, for an update on our Tcon business. We anticipate Q1 Tcon sales to decrease mid-teens sequentially, primarily due to the non-recurrence of a onetime ASIC Tcon shipment to a leading projector customer last year as well as a moderation in automotive Tcon shipments following several quarters of strong growth. That being said, Himax maintains an unchallenged position in local dimming Tcon, evidenced by growing validation and widespread adoption in both premium and mainstream car models worldwide. We are confident in the continued growth of our automotive Tcon business, supported by our strong market presence in local dimming Tcon with strong pipelines of over 200 design-win projects set to gradually enter production in the coming years. Heads-up display or HUD is another field gaining traction within automotive displays, driving increased adoption of local dimming Tcon technology and emerging as a particularly promising application. Our industry-leading local dimming Tcon provides distinct advancements with high contrast ratio and optimized power consumption. It effectively eliminates the so-called postcard effect often seen in HUDs, caused by backlight leakage typical of traditional conventional TFT LCD panels, ensuring clear and precise images on the windshield. Additionally, the Tcon features advanced transparency detection to prevent the display from obstructing the driver's view, thereby ensuring driver safety. Several SUV projects are already in progress, and we are excited about the potential opportunities ahead. We are well positioned for continuous growth in automotive Tcon over the next few years. Switching gears to the WiseEye ultra-low power AI sensing solution. The cutting-edge endpoint AI integration featuring industry-leading ultralow power AI processor, always-on CMOS image sensor and CNS-based AI algorithm. WiseEye AI delivers a significant competitive edge in the rapidly growing AI market through its ultralow power consumption and context aware on-device AI inferencing that seamlessly integrates vision and other sensor capabilities into endpoint applications, particularly battery-powered devices. This not only enhances intuitive user interaction, but also makes AI more practical and accessible. Additionally, WiseEye AI offloads tasks from the main processor, effectively extending battery life span and improving overall data processing efficiency. Building on the success with Dell notebooks, Himax WiseEye AI is continuing to expand its market presence with additional use cases expected across other leading notebook brands, some of which are set for production later this year. WiseEye also continues to achieve significant market success across various sectors. For smart door lock, we collaborated with DESMAN, a leading high-end brand in China to introduce the world's first smart door lock with 24/7 sentry monitoring and real-time event recording. Building on this achievement, we are expanding globally by collaborating with other leading door lock makers worldwide to integrate innovative AI features, including parcel recognition, anti-pinch protection and palm vein biometric access, further expanding applications possibilities. Several of these value-added solutions are set to enter production later this year. At CES 2025, Himax joined forces with ecosystem partners to unveil a suite of innovative production-ready AIoT applications powered by our tiny form factor plug-and-play WiseEye Modules. Himax offers a series of modules, which incorporating an ultralow power WiseEye AI processor, an AoS image sensor, and advanced algorithms. These modules feature no-code/low-code AI platform capabilities, simplifying AI integration and supporting diverse use cases such as human presence detection, gender and age recognition, gesture recognition, face mesh, voice command, thermal image sensing, post estimation, and people flow management. By streamlining development and reducing development costs, WiseEye Modules open new opportunities for automation, enhance interactivity and elevate user experiences across a variety of industries. The broad range of innovative ultralow power WiseEye Modules are also under development in collaboration with ecosystem partners, such as crying baby detection, dynamic gesture recognition and human sensing, among others. One standout in our WiseEye Module portfolio is the Himax WiseEye PalmVein solution, which has quickly gained traction since its introduction just a year ago. We have secured multiple design wins with mass production already underway by a U.S. customer for smart access applications and the Taiwan-based door lock vendor for its leading smart door lock brands. To meet the growing customer demand for flexibility across various environments, we upgraded WiseEye PalmVein suite now features bimodal authentication, combining both palm vein and face recognition. The dual authentication solution enhances security by offering 2 layers of biometric verification, which not only increases reliability, but also makes us highly adaptable to various environments. The rise of physical AI agents marks a significant shift in human machine interaction, enabling devices to perceive, process and respond to their surroundings in real time. The key emerging trend is the integration of cloud-based language model, which enables the agents advanced reason and language understanding, enhancing their ability to interact with and adapt to the physical world. Himax WiseEye AI is at the forefront of this revolution, delivering always-on sensor fusion, ultralow power on-device processing,, while seamlessly interfacing with LLMs to provide the essential real-time AI capabilities for next-generation applications. A good illustration of this innovation was showcased at CES 2025, where Himax and Seeed Studio introduced the SenseCAP Watcher, a physical AI agent powered by WiseEye AI. Equipped with vision and audio sensor vision along with a speaker, this battery-powered IoT device combines on-device AI with cloud-based LLMs to interpret commands, recognize objects, respond to events, and facilitate real-time interaction. Drawing from the success of SenseCAP Watcher, Himax is actively working on multiple projects leveraging WiseEye AI to further drive advancements in physical AI agent applications. Separately, we are excited about our collaboration with a leading AI player to integrate WiseEye AI into the next generation of AI glasses. As I mentioned earlier, at CES, there was a renewed enthusiasm on AI glasses with AI becoming an integral component to enhance intuitive and seamless human-device interaction. WiseEye AI addresses 2 critical challenges in AI glasses, namely real-time responsiveness and power efficiency. For example, WiseEye supports always-on sensing, enabling AI glasses to detect and analyze the surrounding environment with real-time context-aware AI. This capability powers instant response, real time object recognition, navigation assistance, translation, and environmental mapping, enhancing the overall AR experience. Notably, WiseEye AIââ¬â¢s exceptional ultralow power consumption, measured in single digit milliwatts, also make it perfectly suited for AR glasses for all-day wear. In another example, we collaborate with Ganzin on eyeball tracking technology, which, powered by WiseEye, precisely detects subtle eyeball movements, gaze direction, pupil size, and blinking, thereby providing critical data for the enhancement of user interaction in AR glasses. In June 2024, Himax in partnership with FOCI, the world leader in silicon photonics connector, unveiled an industry-leading co-packaged optics, CPO, technology, leveraging Himax state-of-the-art WLO technology. This innovation integrates silicon photonics chips and optical connectors within MCM, replacing traditional metal wire transmission with high-speed optical communication. The technology significantly enhances bandwidth, boosts data transmission rates, reduces signal loss and latency, lowers power consumption, and significantly minimizes the size and cost of MCM. In working closely with FOCI, we are making significant strides through a solid partnership with leading AI semiconductor companies and foundry, with small-scale production of the first-generation CPO solution already underway. As mentioned earlier, the significant increase in Q1 engineering validation and trial production volume combined with the anticipated sample volume increases in the coming quarters is a strong indication that CPO technology is being accelerated towards mass production. In addition, in close collaboration with leading AI customers/partners, we are speeding up the development of CPO technology for the next few generations. We are more optimistic than ever about the outlook for our WLO business, which is poised to generate significant growth opportunities and become a major revenue and profit contributor in the years ahead. Alongside the CPO progress, we are witnessing a rise in engineering collaborations with global technology leaders who are utilizing our WLO expertise to make advanced waveguides for AR glasses, highlighting the growing recognition of our WLO capabilities. For an update on LCoS, we recently introduced our industry-leading 400K nits ultra-luminous Front-lit LCoS Microdisplay, setting a new benchmark for brightness with extremely low power consumption of nearly 300 millwatts. At CES 2025, we showcased an AR glasses POC, proof of concept, featuring the microdisplay with a third-party waveguide, achieving over 1,000 nits of brightness to the eye. This demonstration highlighted its suitability for outdoor, high ambient light conditions. With a lightweight of just 0.98 grams and ultra-compact form factor of less than 0.5 c.c., combined with excellent color performance, Himaxââ¬â¢s Front-lit LCoS Microdisplay is ideal for all-day AR glasses and underscores the technology's readiness for real-world applications. Following the recent release of our 400K nits ultra-luminous Front-lit LCoS Microdisplay, we are actively engaged in significant projects through strategic collaborations with industry leaders. Himax's proven track record of over a decade in LCoS technology, coupled with a history of successful production shipments, highlights our readiness to meet the demands of large-scale production of AR glasses. That concludes my report for this quarter. Thank you for your interest in Himax. We appreciate you joining today's call and are now ready to take questions.
Operator
[操作员指示] 现在我们将进行第一个问题,来自野村证券的Donnie Teng。
Operator
[Operator Instructions] Now we'll have our first question, Donnie Teng, Nomura.
Donnie Teng
我的第一个问题是关于CPO(共封装光学器件)的,因为在过去几个月里,一些投资者询问我们的CPO是首先被横向扩展(scale out)还是纵向扩展(scale up)服务器系统采用。所以想请您详细阐述一下。另外,您提到已经有一些小规模生产。能否给我们更新一下,在接下来的几年里,我们何时能看到更大规模的量产?同时,能否稍微更新一下竞争格局?我们目前相对于多个竞争对手的定位如何?
Donnie Teng
My first question is regarding to CPO because maybe in the past few months, some investors were asking about whether our CPO is firstly adopted by scale out or scale up server systems. So wondering if you could elaborate more there. And also, you mentioned about there has been already some small-scale production. And could you give us some update on when should we see more sizable mass production scale in the coming years. And also, could you update a little bit on the competition landscape there? It's like how well our position right now compared with the multiple peers?
Jordan Wu
这不是一个容易回答的问题。我试着从稍微不同的角度来探讨这个问题。但我想,可以理解的是,你们现在真正关心的问题是,这在可预见的未来乃至长期内,对奇景光电(Himax)究竟能带来多少贡献。我猜这基本上就是你们问题的核心。正如我刚才提到的,今年(2025年)对我们来说将是一个工程验证年,只有样品出货。因此,虽然样品出货将逐季度加速,但与我们总收入相比,其收入贡献将相当有限。第四季度(预计是今年的高峰期),根据目前的预测,收入将达到数百万美元。但再次强调,与我们总体规模相比,这仍然很小,而且由于时间尚早,情况仍可能发生变化。 现在,大规模生产很可能在2026年开始。但我们不知道具体如何,当然也不会评论2026年的确切时间点。这可能还需要一年多的时间。仍存在许多未知因素,比如有多少客户、多少项目,或者它们的收入曲线等等。因此,虽然2026年很可能是大规模生产的第一年,但现在还为时过早,目前仍难以给出该年的收入指引。 如果我们看得更远,暂时忽略确切的时间点和收入曲线等,让我们试着描绘一下,我称之为奇景光电年度化潜在收入的图景,因为第一年的生产可能只有一个季度或其他情况,我不确定。但让我们试着将其年度化,并分析当CPO业务可能进入大规模生产早期阶段时,奇景光电的潜在收入。也许这就是我能给你们一个初步指引的方式。 我之所以说可能是大规模生产的早期阶段,是因为我相信CPO的最终需求可能远超我们目前的想象。所以,当我提到早期阶段时,我指的是行业可能还在试水的前几年,也许只有高端型号配备CPO。 在进行评估时,我们考虑了领先AI客户的总先进GPU出货前景(你们提供了很多相关信息),以及领先代工厂的总CoWoS产能计划(这是非常公开的信息)。我们对两者的CPO搭载率都假设了一个非常低的百分比。这就是我所说的早期大规模生产的含义——两者的搭载率在百分比上仍然非常非常低。 基于如此保守的假设,我可以说,当我们达到那个阶段时,我们的年度化CPO收入仍可能达到数亿美元。再次强调,这是早期阶段,这是我能提供的最佳指引。 所以对我来说,这实际上不是一个是否甚至何时会发生的问题,因为在我们看来它一定会发生,而是CPO技术将以多快的速度渗透。虽然我们相信,凭借其明显的优势,如提高传输带宽、降低功耗且成本相对较低,CPO技术有潜力快速上量。然而,归根结底,这仍然是由我们的终端客户做出的决定。因此,我们所能做的就是做好充分准备,以满足任何客户需求或上量计划,而这正是我们将要做的。
Jordan Wu
It's not an easy question. I'll try to address the question perhaps from a slightly different angle. But I think, understandably, the one issue you guys are really interested in now is that exactly how much contribution this will be for Himax in the foreseeable future and even the long term. I assume that is basically the essence of your question. As I just mentioned, this year, 2025 will be a year for engineering validation with only sample shipments for us. So while the sample shipment will accelerate quarter-by-quarter, the revenue contribution will be rather limited if you compare that with our total revenues. The fourth quarter, which presumably will be the peak of this year, the revenue is set to be in millions of dollars based on current forecast. But again, it's still quite small compared to our total size and things can still change as it is still early. Now in all likelihood, mass production will commence in 2026. But we don't know how and certainly, we won't comment on exactly when in 2026. It's probably still more than a year from now. There are still many unknowns like how many customers, how many projects or their revenue curve, et cetera. And therefore, while 2026 is likely to be the first year of mass production, it is still early and it still difficult to give a revenue indication for the year at this point. Now if we look further ahead and ignore the exact timing and revenue curve, et cetera, for the time being, and let's just try to paint the picture for, I would call it annualized potential revenue for Himax because the first year production could be just a quarter or whatever, I don't know. But let's try to annualize it, and analyze the potential revenue for Himax when the CPO business reaches in probably early stage of mass production. So maybe that is how I can try to give you a preliminary indication. And the reason why I say probably early stage of mass production is because I believe the ultimate demand for CPO is probably above and beyond anything we can imagine at this point. So by comical early stage, I'm thinking probably the first couple of years when the industry is perhaps still testing the water with maybe only premium models equipped with CPO. In making the assessment, we have considered leading AI customer total advanced GPU shipment outlook, for which you guys have provided a lot. And leading foundry's total CoWoS capacity plan, which is very much public information. And we have assumed a very low percentage of CPO attach rate for both. So when I say early stage of mass production, this is what I mean. The attach rate for both is still very, very low percentage-wise. So with such conservative assumptions, I can say that our annualized CPO revenue could still reach hundreds of millions of dollars when we get there. Again, this is early stage, and this is the best I can do in terms of providing a very good indication. So to me, this is not really a question of whether or even when it will happen because it will definitely happen in our view, but rather how fast the CPO technology will penetrate. While we believe with all its obvious benefits like raising transmission bandwidth and lowering power consumption at relatively very low cost, the CPO technology has the potential of ramping quickly, we believe. Because of all these benefits, it has the potential ramping quickly. However, at the end of the day, that is still a decision to be made by our end customers. So all we can do is to get ourselves well prepared to meet any customer demand or ramping plan, and that's exactly what we will do.
Donnie Teng
但我想问的是,如果谈到2026年,您认为CPO主要会用于交换机,还是可以直接用于GPU与GPU之间的连接?
Donnie Teng
But I'm wondering if we talk about 2026, do you think that CPO is mainly used for the on switches or it can be directly used for the connection between GPUs and GPUs?
Jordan Wu
再次强调,我们处于产业链非常上游的位置。我们可能不是回答这类问题的最佳人选。不过,据我们所知,CPO将首先在交换机中采用,这将在早期阶段占据大部分用量。这是我们得到的信息,尽管再次说明,您可能问错了人,因为归根结底,我们提供的是那些关键的光学组件,而我们的客户如何将其用于任何应用,这确实是他们的核心业务,他们不一定需要与我们分享这些信息。然而,正如我在准备好的发言中提到的那样,除了云应用之外,我们也相信这项技术最终在汽车和机器人等领域也具有巨大潜力。对于非常消费类的产品来说,CPO技术相比那些应用成本较低。但如果是笔记本电脑或智能手机,成本仍然相对较高。所以我不了解那些潜在应用,而且我肯定没有将这些纳入我们的评估中。我甚至没有将汽车或机器人等应用计算在内。我只是说从长远来看,我们认为这些也是使用CPO的好领域。然而,我想强调的是,在我们的评估中,我们只考虑了云应用。我们只假设了云应用中非常低的采用率。仅此一项就很容易为我们带来数亿美元的年销售额。
Jordan Wu
Again, we are so upstream. We are probably not the best person to answer such questions. However, as far as we are told, it will be firstly adopted in switches and that is going to account for the bulk of the volume in early stage. That's what we're told, although again, you're probably not asking the right person because at the end of the day, what we provide is those critical optical components, and how our customers are going to use it for whatever application it's really their core and they don't necessarily need to share such information with us. However, we also know as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, in addition to cloud application, we believe eventually, this also has great potential for things like automotive and robot. When it comes to very consumer products, CPO technology is low cost compared to those applications. But if you're talking about like notebook or smartphone, it is still relatively high cost. So I don't know about those potentials and I'm certainly not counting those in our assessment. I'm not even counting automotive or robot or whatever. I'm just saying in long term, we believe those are also good areas to use CPO. However, so I want to emphasize in our assessment, we are only counting cloud application. We are only assuming a very low attach rate for the cloud application only. And that can easily result in hundreds of millions of annual sales for us.
Donnie Teng
我的第二个问题与核心驱动IC业务相关。对于汽车驱动IC业务在第一季度环比下降,正如您刚才指引的那样,我想知道这是否像前几个季度一样,只是客户进行正常的库存调整或订单调整,还是在竞争格局方面发生了变化?另外,看起来第一季度的毛利率与第四季度保持相似水平,但汽车业务的销售贡献较低。那么是第一季度相比第四季度有更好的产品组合,还是有其他原因使得毛利率仍能维持在类似第四季度的水平?
Donnie Teng
My second question is related to the core driver IC business. So for automotive driver IC business to be sequentially declining into the first quarter, as you just guided, I'm wondering if it is just like the previous quarters that customers have some normal inventory adjustment or order adjustment, or is there anything changed in terms of the competition landscape? And it looks like gross margin in the first quarter remains at a similar level in fourth quarter, but with lower sales contribution from automotive. So do we have better product mix in the first quarter versus fourth quarter, or there are other reasons behind that gross margin can still hang over there similarly as fourth quarter?
Jordan Wu
那么基本上是两个问题。第一个问题是关于第一季度展望,销售额方面。我认为环比下降确实只是反映了季节性因素,即农历新年假期。如果考虑到这一点,将这一营收指引与以往任何年份相比,我认为这对我们来说并不一定是一个糟糕的第一季度。同样,在我们的预先准备好的发言中,我们提到注意到我们的一些同行,他们的客户因为关税考虑而推迟订单。我们在汽车领域没有看到同样的情况。我想原因有很多,我不想具体评论原因,因为我确实不知道确切的细节。但我们肯定已经与客户核实过,这是我们从他们那里得到的反馈。我们收到的是正常水平的订单,客户在考虑第一季度订单时没有考虑关税因素。所以我认为环比下降只是对农历新年假期的合理反映。而且,我在预先准备好的发言中也说得非常具体,我们认为在整个汽车显示IC生态系统中,库存水平相当健康。所以这对我们展望全年前景来说绝对是利好消息。您还提到了毛利率。是的,这是产品组合的结果。具体来说,我们看到DDIC仍然相当强劲,尽管TDDI我们看到了一些下降。同样,这只是单个季度的现象。我不确定是否应该推测原因或评论为什么两个产品领域的方向变化是单个季度的现象。所以我没有看到任何异常情况。只是碰巧DDIC会略有上升,而TDDI会略有下降。因此,总体考虑,我们的毛利率将保持大致持平。
Jordan Wu
So basically, 2 questions. The first question is about Q1 outlook, the sales. I think the sequential decline really just reflects the seasonal factor, the Lunar New Year holidays. If you take that into consideration, if you compare this revenue guidance with any other previous years, I think this is not necessarily a bad first quarter for us. Again, in our prepared remarks, we mentioned that we noticed some of our peers, their customers are giving them pulling orders because of tariff considerations. We are not seeing the same in automotive. I guess for a variety of reasons, I don't want to comment exactly on the reasons, but because I truly don't know exactly in detail. But we have certainly checked with our customers, and that's the feedback we get from them. We are getting that normal level of orders without customers considering tariff factor for their pulling orders for Q1. So I think the sequential decline is just a fair reflection of the Chinese New Year holidays. And also, I said quite specifically in our prepared remarks, we believe across the automotive display IC ecosystem, the inventory level is quite healthy. So that is definitely good news for us as we look forward to the whole year's outlook. And you also mentioned gross margin. Yes, it is a result of product mix. And specifically, we are seeing DDIC remains quite strong, although TDDI, we are seeing some decline. Again, it's just one single quarter phenomenon. I'm not sure I should speculate on the reasons or comment on why the the change of direction in both product areas is one single quarter phenomenon. So I don't see anything unusual there. Just that it just happens that DDIC is going to be up slightly, while TDDI will be down slightly. So all in all consider our gross margin is going to remain about flat.
Operator
[接线员指示]
Operator
[Operator Instructions]
Jordan Wu
有几个来自在线问答框的问题。我来读一下。这些问题都与汽车业务相关。如果可以的话,我快速复述一下这些问题。问题1:汽车业务收入在中国和非中国汽车之间的构成。在这方面没有明显差异。考虑到我们的市场份额,我们必须两者兼顾。事实上,所谓的非中国汽车,我们指的是欧洲、美国、日本、韩国等主要汽车市场,我们的市场份额可以说在所有主要市场都相当均匀地分布。尽管中国客户在将我们最新技术引入量产方面往往更为积极,这是我们观察到的明显趋势。除此之外,在市场份额方面,我们没有看到中国和非中国客户之间存在显著差异。 前三大汽车客户及其各自的收入贡献百分比。我们的直接客户、付费客户是面板制造商。由于触控业务,我们也从一级供应商那里获得一些业务,但规模要小得多。我们实际上并不从原始设备制造商和终端客户那里获得收入。因此,在这方面,如果你问我前三大汽车客户,它们显然是拥有最大产能的LCD制造商。所以我现在不想点名,但可能不难猜到。它们是拥有最大产能的主要面板制造商。 剩余70%的汽车设计中标中,尚未进入量产的部分预计会在2025年实现吗?不一定。通常,客户会收到询价,可能会有招标过程,或者客户直接授予我们设计中标。但无论如何,在某个时间点会有正式启动,这时我们将其定义为设计中标。正式启动通常涉及一级供应商。所以是配备我们IC的面板制造商向一级供应商推广。当一级供应商从原始设备制造商那里收到询价时,他们会决定使用哪种面板和哪种IC。他们经过评估阶段,最终确定并做出最终决定。这时正式的设计流程启动,这就是我们定义设计中标的方式。所以当我们收到询价时,我们不计入,甚至概念验证,我们称之为设计导入,但它们不被定义为我们的项目设计中标数量。因此,我们的产品设计中标数量实际上相当严格。 从设计中标(即项目启动)到量产,时间差异很大,取决于是非常成熟的技术还是非常新的技术。也取决于客户类型。我想说,确实,与其他客户相比,中国客户的设计周期往往更短、更快。因此,时间可以从非常特殊的9个月到2.5年不等,有时甚至更长。所以你可以想象,它们可能几乎均匀地分布在1年到2年以上的这个时间段内。因此,2025年只会是其中的一部分。有些还会等到更晚。 你们是与一个还是多个CPO客户合作使用你们的解决方案?我们已经与FOCI发布了公告。所以FOCI是我们明确的客户/合作伙伴。虽然其他人也接触过我们,但我觉得这个问题有点敏感。当然,我只想说FOCI是我们非常强大、稳固和亲密的合作伙伴,他们的需求和要求,无论是研发、量产还是其他方面,对我们来说在目前以及任何可预见的未来都是最高优先级的。所以我想我只会这样说,而不直接回答你的问题。我认为我们两家公司一起,应该能够承担。说实话,我们几乎没有看到竞争。所以对我们来说,问题是一起合作,解决客户的所有问题,进入量产,并确保我们有顺利的交付和质量等等,而不是考虑多元化我们的客户或供应商基础,这在可预见的未来绝对不是优先事项。
Jordan Wu
There are a few questions from online Q&A box. They are read through. They are all related to automotive. So if I may quickly repeat their questions. Question 1, automotive revenue mix between Chinese and non-Chinese cars. No obvious difference there. Given our market share, we have to do both. In fact, for the so-called non-Chinese cars, we are talking about Europe, U.S.A., Japan, Korea, and all these major car markets, our market share, I would say, is quite evenly spread across all major markets. Although Chinese customers tend to be more aggressive in terms of bringing our newest technology to mass production, which is a clear trend we are observing. Other than that, in terms of market share, we don't see a significant difference between Chinese and non-Chinese. Top 3 automotive customers and their respective revenue percentage contributions. Our direct customers, our paying customers, are panel makers. And we also get to a lesser extent because of touch business. We also get some businesses to a much lesser extent from Tier 1s. And we don't really get revenues from OEMs and customers. So in this regard, if you ask me the top 3 automotive customers, they are obvious customers with LCD makers with the biggest capacity. So I don't want to name their names right now, but it's probably not too difficult to guess. They are major panel makers with the biggest capacity. Percentage of the remaining 70% of auto design wins, those that have not yet entered is that expected to in 2025? Not necessarily. Typically, customer will get inquiries and there could be a bidding process or customer will just grant us the design win. But anyway, at some point, there will be the official kickoff and that is when we define it as design win. It's the official kickoff typically involving Tier 1s. So it is panel makers equipped with our ICs promoting to Tier 1s. And when Tier 1s get their inquiries from OEMs and they make a decision which panel to use and which IC to use. And they've gone through the evaluation stage and they finalize it and they make the final call. And that's when the official design process gets kicked off and that's how we define design win. So when we are getting inquiries and we don't count that or even a proof of concept, we call it design in, but they are not defined as our number of project design win. So our number of product design win is actually quite strict. And so from design win, meaning project kickoff to mass production, it varies quite a lot depending on whether it's a very mature technology or it's very, very new technology. Also it depends on the type of customers. And I would say, indeed, Chinese customers tend to be quicker with shorter design cycles compared to others. So the time can vary from as far as very exceptional, but we have seen as far as 9 months to 2.5 years or sometimes even longer. So you imagine they probably spread across almost evenly across this period between 1 year to 2-plus years. So 2025 will only be a portion of it. Some will still wait until later. Are you working with one or multiple CPO customers to utilize your solution? We have made announcement with FOCI. So FOCI is our clear customer/partner. And while we've been approached by others, I think this is a bit sensitive question to answer. I think certainly, I would just say FOCI is our very strong solid and close partner and their request and demands R&D or ramping or otherwise is of the utmost priority to us for the time being for any foreseeable future in fact. So I think I would just say that without directly answering your question. And I think the 2 of us together, we should be able to take up. To be honest, we are seeing little competition. So the issue for us is to work together and resolve all issues for customers and enter into mass production and making sure we have a smooth delivery and quality and whatnot, rather than thinking about diversifying our customer or supplier base, that is definitely not a priority for the foreseeable future.
Operator
目前没有其他问题。谢谢。
Operator
Then there are no questions at the moment. Thank you.
Jordan Wu
最后补充一点,我们的首席投资者关系官Eric Li将继续负责投资者营销活动,并继续参加投资者会议。相关细节将在确定后公布。谢谢,祝大家有美好的一天。
Jordan Wu
As a final note, Eric Li, our Chief IRP Officer, will maintain investor marketing activities and continue to attend investor conferences. We'll announce the details as they come about. Thank you, and have a nice day.
Operator
谢谢,Jordan。女士们、先生们,2024年第四季度及全年业绩电话会议到此结束。您现在可以挂断电话。感谢各位,再见。
Operator
Thank you, Jordan. And ladies and gentlemen, this concludes Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Earnings Conference Call. You may now disconnect. We thank you, and goodbye.