DURHAM – Wolfspeed CEO Gregg Lowe says there’s billions in business in the semiconductor manufacturer’s pipeline so getting production at its new plant in New York, expanded operations in Durham and a new plant under construction in Chatham up and running are essential.

“We are very pleased with our progress in fiscal 2023 as we secured $5 billion of funding to support our continued capacity expansion plans, initiated construction on our 200mm materials factory in North Carolina, and generated initial revenue from the Mohawk Valley 200mm device fab,”  Lowe said in Wolfspeed’s latest earnings announcement.

Then he noted the “design-ins” for revenue.

‘Must remain keenly focused’

“With approximately $8.3 billion of customer design-ins secured in the last 12 months, customers are continuing to select Wolfspeed for their future silicon carbide device needs, so we must remain keenly focused on scaling our materials and device capacity in fiscal 2024,” he added.

For example, a deal signed with Japan-based Renesas Electronics in July – thus not included in the quarter ending June 30 for Wednesday’s report – for $2 billion in chips with $1 billion provided as a deposit.

However, investors drove down Wolfspeed (NYSE” WOLF) shares in after-hours trading following the financials by nearly 12% to 46.72 as of early evening. Revenues did increase but its loss also grew.

On a per-share basis, the Durham-based company said it had a loss of 91 cents. Losses, adjusted for stock option expense and non-recurring costs, were 42 cents per share.

The results fell short of Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for a loss of 20 cents per share.

Wolfspeed reported revenue of $235.8 million in the period, topping Street forecasts. Eight analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $223.4 million.

From Wolfspeed:

  • Revenue of $235.8 million, compared to $228.5 million
  • GAAP gross margin of 27.4%, compared to 34.5%
  • Non-GAAP gross margin of 29.0%, compared to 36.5%
  • GAAP net loss from continuing operations of $113.3 million, or $0.91 per diluted share, compared to $61.8 million, or $0.50 per diluted share
  • Non-GAAP net loss from continuing operations of $52.8 million, or $0.42 per diluted share, compared to $26.0 million*, or $0.21* per diluted share
  • Quarterly design-ins of $1.6 billion

The Associated Press contributed to this report.