Wolfspeed, Inc. (WOLF) Q1 FY2026 Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Wolfspeed's Fiscal First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Today's call will include prepared remarks from our Chief Executive Officer, Robert Feurle; and our Chief Financial Officer, Gregor Issum. Following their remarks, the call will conclude. We will not be conducting a Q&A session today. Please note that we will be presenting non-GAAP financial results during today's call, which we believe provide useful information to our investors. Non-GAAP results are not in accordance with GAAP and may not be comparable to non-GAAP information provided by other companies. Non-GAAP information should be considered as a supplement to and not a substitute for financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP. A reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is in our press release and posted in the Investor Relations section of our website, along with a historical summary of our other key metrics. Today's discussion includes forward-looking statements about our business outlook, and we may make other forward-looking statements during the call. Such forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties. Our press release today and the SEC filings noted in the release mention important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially. With that, I'll turn the call over to Robert.

Thank you, Tyler, and good afternoon, everyone. It's great to be speaking with you and providing an update on the business following the successful completion of our financial restructuring. We recognize this has been a significant journey for all of our stakeholders, and we sincerely appreciate your continued support and engagement throughout this process. I'd also like to acknowledge the exceptional efforts of our employees whose focus and dedication were critical to achieving this important milestone. Throughout this process, we remain committed to operating with discipline and integrity and continuing to run the business in the normal course. As we begin a new fiscal year in the next chapter of Wolfspeed story, our first priority is clear: to accelerate our path to profitability. The foundation for that journey is already taking shape as we emerge from restructuring with an improved balance sheet and a simplified operating model that can make us more efficient. I want to emphasize that we are treating this as a new starting point. We have a disciplined plan under development that can guide us towards sustainable self-funding operations. We are taking a hard look at every aspect of the business to better align our operations with customer needs, improving how we deliver, how we invest and how we grow. That means focusing on the areas that drive the most long-term value for our customers, while deploying capital where it can generate strong, sustainable revenue growth. Profitability with discipline can define the next phase for Wolfspeed, and it begins with growing alongside our customers and helping them succeed. Our second priority is to advance Wolfspeed's technology leadership. We remain the clear leader in silicon carbide with 10 consecutive quarters of revenue generation from our 200-millimeter Mohawk Valley Fab. A strong validation of our first-mover position in the industry shift from 150-millimeter to 200-millimeter technology. While we have faced challenges scaling production to meet robust customer demand in the past, we've made meaningful progress at Mohawk Valley and believe we are well positioned to support future growth as the market conditions improve. While peers are still ramping 200-millimeter device production for the last few years, we've been shipping devices and leveraging the learning curve that comes with that being first. Earlier this year, we launched our Gen 4 device platform, the most advanced generation of silicon carbide technology Wolfspeed has ever brought to the market. Gen 4 was purpose-built for the high-voltage, high-performance demands of next-generation applications, including AI data centers, aerospace and defense. Additionally, the company has also introduced commercially available full suite of 200-millimeter silicon carbide materials. This is another important milestone as it reinforces our technology leadership and opens additional potential with customers looking to accelerate their own silicon carbide road map. This leadership isn't accidental, it's the product of years of investment and unmatched materials capabilities and a team committed to continued innovation. As we look forward, technology leadership can continue to be Wolfspeed's competitive advantage, and it's essential to our ability to deliver profitable growth. We are aligning R&D priorities, customer programs and our manufacturing footprint to strengthen that lead. Our third priority is driving operational excellence, improving quality, cost and speed across every factory and process. This means executing with precision at our facilities and ensuring that every site in our network is aligned around throughput, yield and reliability. Operational excellence also means matching output to demand and tightening our supply chain. The steps we've already taken, expanding our product portfolio, optimizing our footprint and embedding sound manufacturing principles position us well to improve efficiency and enhance customer delivery performance in the quarters ahead. To achieve these priorities, we are rebuilding and strengthening the leadership team that can drive Wolfspeed's future. Over the past several months, we have made meaningful progress, bringing in proven leaders with deep semiconductor and operational experience across every part of the business. We're pairing new perspective with the experience of long-term leaders who know Wolfspeed's DNA. Together, we are creating a team that balances innovation with execution discipline, critical as we move from recovery into growth. This includes Gregor as our CFO; Dave Emerson as Chief Operating Officer; Matthias Buchner as Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Chief Marketing Officer; and Cengiz Balkas, who has been with Wolfspeed for several years, was appointed to Chief Business Officer, bringing greater focus and accountability to how we align our product road map and commercial strategy with the evolving needs of our customers. These leaders are driving a renewed focus on customer centricity and the performance culture, underpinned by deep experience in scaling complex businesses and managing cost structures with rigor. Equally important, we're seeing strong interest from top talent who want to be part of Wolfspeed's mission. We are attracting people who understand the magnitude of what's ahead, the opportunity to redefine the compound semiconductor industry and establish Wolfspeed as the backbone of the global transition to electrification. We've also reorganized Wolfspeed business around the markets where our technology delivers the greatest impact, automotive, industrial, energy, aerospace and defense and materials. In automotive, silicon carbide remains at the heart of next-generation electric vehicles. And our customer pipeline includes major global OEMs focused on EV performance and efficiency. Demand in the broader EV market has moderated near term, but the long-term fundamentals are intact. And Wolfspeed's more efficient 200-millimeter devices are well-positioned to lead the industry transition from silicon to silicon carbide. In Industrial & Energy, we're focused on data center power, renewable energy infrastructure and energy storage applications, areas where we have a clear and defined value proposition, even as customers work through elevated inventory levels, which moderates demand, interest in silicon carbide power solutions for high-efficiency systems continues to build. In aerospace and defense, Wolfspeed's high voltage devices are enabling mission-critical systems where performance and reliability matters most. These programs can diversify our revenue base and highlight the strategic importance of U.S.-based semiconductor manufacturing. Finally, in materials, Wolfspeed's vertically integrated model remains a key differentiator. The quality and scale of our materials output gives us a distinct advantage as we ramp 200-millimeter production. The John Palmer manufacturing center in Siler City, North Carolina provides a significant capacity to meet future customers' demand. Together, these segments give us diversified foundation, multiple growth engines built on one technology platform. Over time, the structure can limit our dependency on any single end market. As we execute this transformation, we're also exercising disciplined stewardship, making every decision with a long-term value mindset. We are taking a fresh look at every dollar we spend, prioritizing projects that directly advance our 3 priorities, moderating capital intensity where appropriate and aligning production to market demand. The transition to 200-millimeter manufacturing is central to this effort. By accelerating that conversion and consolidating production from legacy 150-millimeter lines, we expect to increase throughput and improve die cost. The previously planned transfer of remaining RTP operations completed in Q1 as part of the previously announced sale of our RF business to MACOM and the closure of our Durham 150-millimeter wafer fab facility targeted for Q2 are deliberate steps towards a leaner, more efficient manufacturing footprint. We're also strengthening our relationship across our supply base and maintaining clear communication with customers as we navigate a still uneven demand environment. Our objective is to emerge from this period stronger, more efficient and better positioned to capture share as markets recover. Finally, stewardship isn't just about cost, it's about accountability. We're measuring progress against clear milestones, financial, operational and technology and holding ourselves to those standards. Wolfspeed's mission has always been to pioneer and scale what's next in power semiconductors. That hasn't changed. We're simply approaching it now with a sharper focus and a greater discipline. Before I hand this to Gregor, I want to reiterate, Wolfspeed enters 2026 with a stronger foundation, a clear set of priorities and the right team to execute. Our focus on profitability, technology leadership and operational excellence will guide every decision we make. Gregor will now walk you through our financial performance for the quarter and provide more detail on the path forward.

Thanks, Robert, and good afternoon, everyone. We had a very productive start to fiscal year 2026 as we completed our financial restructuring. The team delivered strong revenue for the first quarter while taking steps to reduce inventory and operating expenses. Before we get into the quarter's results, I want to provide some additional context on an important upcoming change in how we report our financials. We expect to adopt fresh-start accounting next quarter as part of our emergence from Chapter 11. This will result in a new basis of accounting and a reset of our financial statements. This includes a revaluation of assets and liabilities, which will represent noncash adjustments. The results we're reporting today represent the final quarter under our historical reporting structure. Starting next quarter, our financials will reflect the reorganized company. And as a result, prior period comparison can no longer be done 1:1. We'll provide all necessary disclosures and walk-throughs at that time to help you understand the new starting point. From an investor perspective, this is more than just a technical reset. It's a defining inflection point. Fresh-start accounting provides a clean slate to align our financials with a restructured business, a more sustainable capital structure and a focused operating model. It allows the market to evaluate the new Wolfspeed on its own merits with transparency, comparability and a forward-looking lens. We will be focused on becoming a self-funded business by thoughtfully preserving our cash and carefully considering future investments. We ended the quarter with $926 million in cash and short-term investments, maintaining a strong liquidity position, giving us ample runway to execute our plans. The cash balance also reflects approximately $91 million of cash proceeds from the sale of MACOM equity that's received as part of the previously announced sale of our RF business to MACOM. Next, it will be very important to be highly disciplined in how we deploy capital with a clear focus on maximizing the return on the capacities we have already built. Our priority is to drive additional volume through our existing manufacturing footprint, improving asset utilization and enhancing financial performance over time. At the same time, we are continuing to invest in R&D to extend our technology leadership. This remains a core priority for the company as we balance near-term execution with long-term innovation. This means growing top line revenue wherever we can, efficiently and reliably. We see this as the most effective way to unlock scale benefits, drive operating leverage and building a stronger, more resilient business over the long term. Finally, we can ensure that in every decision we make, we are doing so with a view towards long-term sustainable success of the business. Consistent with this approach, we are aligning production with near-term demand to optimize efficiency whilst preserving flexibility at all of our sites. We also believe this action can help us address the ongoing softness in the market that we and our peers are currently experiencing. We anticipate this weakness may continue through the remainder of fiscal 2026. We're also on track to close our 150-millimeter Durham device fab by the end of this calendar year, further consolidating our device production around the next-generation 200-millimeter manufacturing we've installed at our Mohawk Valley Fab in Upstate New York. Now I'd like to discuss our first quarter results in more detail. Fiscal first quarter results reflected the combination of a soft demand environment and several onetime items associated with our restructuring and leadership transitions. Revenue for the first quarter came in at $197 million, flat sequentially and up slightly compared to the same period a year ago and consistent with our expectations. Non-GAAP gross margin was negative 26%, including approximately $29 million in specific inventory reserves and other onetime charges related to realignment of our manufacturing footprint and transition costs. This also includes the impact of approximately $47 million in underutilization costs from both Mohawk Valley and the JP materials factory, where the latter was previously included as start-up costs and reported as part of OpEx. GAAP operating expenses were $84 million, which included $15 million of restructuring and transition-related items. As noted previously, our operating expenses included start-up costs related to the JP previously. Excluding these start-up costs related to the JP and restructuring-related and other charges, our operating expenses have declined $4 million sequentially and approximately $44 million compared to the same period a year ago. This reflects the impact of our cost efficiency actions we have already taken. In line with GAAP, all costs associated with the bankruptcy process prior to our emergence have been classified as reorganization items. On a GAAP basis, we have reported a net loss of $4.12 per share. Our GAAP loss per share includes $504 million of reorganization items related to our Chapter 11 proceeding. This includes $28 million of professional fees, along with $476 million of noncash debt-related adjustments, primarily in the form of the write-off of original issue discounts and deferred financial costs on debt that was restructured during the Chapter 11 process. These charges are nonrecurring and will be replaced by fresh-start accounting beginning at the start of fiscal Q2. On a non-GAAP basis, the net loss was $0.55 per share, an improvement of $0.36 per share compared to the same period last year. Inventory levels were $385 million at the end of Q1, down approximately $50 million sequentially. We are taking further steps to reduce our inventory and improve working capital over time with our effort to align production with current customer demand and the ramp down and closure of the 150-millimeter device fab in Durham. Capital expenditures were $104 million, directed primarily towards closing out former capital commitments. We've continued to reduce our capital expenditures as construction of the initial phase of the JP construction is complete, having decreased gross CapEx spend by $108 million sequentially and $333 million year-over-year, and we expect these to be substantially reduced going forward. Turning to the second quarter outlook. We expect fiscal second quarter revenue in the range of $150 million to $190 million. This quarter-over-quarter decline is driven primarily by accelerated customer purchase in our fiscal Q1 as certain customers build up inventory by placing last-time buy orders from the Durham fab prior to its closure at year-end as well as by certain customers pursuing second sourcing of products during the period Wolfspeed bankruptcy process was ongoing. As I mentioned earlier, we expect to adopt fresh-start accounting next quarter, which is why we are not providing specific guidance on profitability at this time. The company has not completed its fresh-start accounting procedures and is unable to sufficiently and accurately confirm the impact that emergence from Chapter 11 can have on its financial condition and results of operations. Having said that, we do expect to record material adjustments related to our plan of reorganization and the application of fresh-start accounting during the second quarter of fiscal 2026. We can provide full details and reconciliations when we report Q2 results to ensure transparency and comparability going forward. Now moving to our long-term outlook. We are seeing meaningful shift across several of our key end markets. In response, we are developing a new sustainable long-term plan built from the ground up with a fresh and realistic perspective. We are taking a disciplined approach to execution. As we complete our strategic and operational plan review, we can ensure that our plans are tightly aligned with the realities of the market and the scale of the opportunity in front of us. We can share further updates once we've completed this strategy process. And above all, we are focused on making decisions that continue to create long-term value for our shareholders. We expect to unveil our comprehensive long-range plan in the first half of calendar 2026, providing financial and operational milestones to measure our progress. We expect to provide a timing update for this release of the long-range plan during our next quarter earnings call in February. In summary, we are executing with discipline in a soft demand environment while laying a strong foundation for future profitable growth. The actions we are taking to streamline operations, align production and preserve cash can position us well as market conditions improve. I'll now turn it back to Robert for closing remarks.

Yes. Thank you, Gregor. Gregor and I are fully aligned in our commitment to delivering a long-term view of the business that's grounded, provides a clear basis for measuring progress and is flexible enough to adapt as market conditions evolve. Developing that level of rigor takes time, and we believe it's worth doing right. The long-term demand for energy-efficient power solutions remains one of the most compelling opportunities in the compound semiconductor, and we are well-positioned to lead it. I'm proud of the resilience of our team and the progress we've made in a short period of time. We are focused on our customers and earning back their trust through consistent delivery. We have work ahead of us, but we have the people, the technology and the mindset to deliver sustained value for our customers and shareholders. Thank you for joining us today, and thank you for your continued confidence in Wolfspeed.