Qorvo (QRVO) Risk Analysis

For many years, the Chinese economy has experienced periods of rapid growth and wide fluctuations in the rate of inflation. In response to these factors, the Chinese government has, from time to time, adopted measures to regulate growth and to contain inflation, including currency controls and measures designed to restrict credit, control prices or set currency exchange rates. Such actions in the future, as well as other changes in Chinese laws and regulations, including actions in furtherance of China's stated policy of reducing its dependence on foreign semiconductor manufacturers, could increase the cost of doing business in China (where a significant portion of our assembly and test services are performed), foster the emergence of China-based competitors, decrease the demand for our products in China and reduce the supply of critical materials for our products, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

We must hire and retain qualified employees, continue to develop leaders for key business units and functions, expand our presence in international locations, adapt to cultural norms of foreign locations and train and motivate our employee base in order to compete effectively. Labor is further subject to external factors that are beyond our control, including our industry's highly competitive market for skilled workers and leaders, cost inflation and workforce participation rates. Our future operating results and success depend on keeping key technical personnel and management and expanding our sales and marketing, R&D and administrative support. We do not have employment agreements with the vast majority of our employees. We must also continue to attract qualified personnel. The competition for qualified personnel is intense, and the number of people with experience, particularly in RF engineering, software engineering, integrated circuit and filter design, and technical marketing and support, is limited. In addition, existing or new immigration laws, policies or regulations in the U.S. may limit the pool of available talent. Difficulties obtaining visas and other restrictions on international travel could make it more onerous to effectively manage our international operations, operate as a global company or service our international customer base. Changes in the interpretation and application of employment-related laws to our workforce practices may also result in increased operating costs and less flexibility in how we meet our changing workforce needs. Further, any transition from flexible work arrangements to more stringent on-site work requirements may result in higher employee attrition and make it more difficult for us to compete in the job market. We cannot be sure that we will be able to attract and retain skilled personnel in the future, which could harm our business and our results of operations.

We purchase numerous component parts, substrates and silicon-based products from external suppliers. We also utilize third-party suppliers for numerous services, including die processing, wafer bumping, assembly, test and tape and reel. In the third quarter of fiscal 2024, we entered into a definitive agreement with Luxshare to divest our assembly and test operations in China. In connection with this transaction, which was completed on May 2, 2024, Luxshare is providing assembly and test services to us under a long-term supply agreement. The use of external suppliers involves a number of risks, including the possibility of material disruptions in the supply of key components and the lack of control over delivery schedules, capacity constraints, manufacturing yields, product quality and cost increases. Furthermore, supply chain disruptions and labor market constraints have created heightened risk that external suppliers may be unable to meet their obligations to us. If we experience any significant difficulty in obtaining the materials or services used in the conduct of our business, these supply challenges may limit our ability to fully satisfy customer demand. As the semiconductor industry may experience supply constraints for certain items, from time to time, we enter into certain supply agreements to address short-term and long-term supply requirements. However, even with supply agreements, we are still subject to risks that a supplier will be unable to meet its supply commitments, achieve anticipated manufacturing yields, produce wafers or other components on a timely basis, or provide additional capacity beyond contractual commitments sufficient to meet our supply needs. If so, we may experience delays in product launches or supply shortages for certain products, which could cause an unanticipated decline in our sales and damage our existing customer relationships and our ability to establish new customer relationships. In addition, if a supplier experiences financial difficulties or goes into bankruptcy, it could be difficult or impossible, or may require substantial time and expense, for us to recover any or all of our fees and deposits made as part of any supply agreement. Although our key suppliers commit to us to be compliant with applicable ISO 9001 and/or TS-16949 quality standards, we have experienced quality and reliability issues with suppliers in the past. Quality or reliability issues in our supply chain could negatively affect our products, our reputation and our results of operations.

In order to ensure availability of our products for some of our largest end customers, we purchase materials and start manufacturing certain products in advance of receiving purchase orders based on forecasts provided by these customers. These forecasts, however, do not represent binding purchase commitments and we do not recognize sales for these products until they are shipped to, or consumed by, the customer. As a result, we incur significant inventory and manufacturing costs in advance of anticipated sales. Because demand for our products may not materialize, or may be lower than expected, purchasing materials and manufacturing based on forecasts subjects us to heightened risks of higher inventory carrying costs, increased obsolescence, and higher operating costs. These inventory risks are exacerbated when our customers purchase indirectly through contract manufacturers or hold component inventory levels greater than their consumption rate because this reduces our visibility regarding the customers' accumulated levels of inventory. In fiscal 2022, amidst industry-wide supply constraints, we entered into a long-term capacity reservation agreement with a foundry supplier to purchase a certain number of silicon wafers for each year over a term of five years. In periods subsequent to fiscal 2022, we experienced unexpectedly weakened demand for 5G handsets in China and EMEA resulting, in part, from measures taken in China to control the COVID-19 pandemic, and the war in Ukraine. As a result, the minimum purchase commitments in the agreement exceeded our forecasted demand and we recorded total charges of $181.0 million to "Cost of goods sold" over the course of fiscal 2023 based on the actual and estimated purchase shortfalls. During fiscal 2024, the agreement was terminated effective December 31, 2023, and we are no longer obligated to order silicon wafers from the foundry supplier. Total charges of $38.4 million were recorded to "Cost of goods sold" in fiscal 2024, primarily due to a contract termination fee. Future circumstances may warrant us to enter into similar agreements, and to the extent management's estimates of anticipated future demand are incorrect, we may incur charges which would have a negative impact on our gross margin and other operating results.

Our largest markets are characterized by the frequent introduction of new products in response to evolving product requirements. Our largest customers typically refresh some or all of their product portfolios by releasing new models each year. In some cases, product designs we pursue represent either opportunities to substantially increase our revenue by winning a new design or a risk of a substantial decrease in revenue by losing a product on which we are the incumbent. Our success depends on our ability to develop and introduce new products in a timely and cost-effective manner and secure production orders from our customers. The development of new products is a highly complex process, and we have experienced delays in completing the development and introduction of new products at times. Our successful product development depends on a number of factors, including the following: - our ability to predict market requirements and define and design new products that address those requirements;- our ability to design products that meet our customers' cost, size and performance requirements;- our ability to introduce new products that are competitive and can be manufactured at lower costs or that command higher prices based on superior performance;- acceptance of our new product designs;- the availability of qualified product design engineers;- our timely completion of product designs and ramp up of new products according to our customers' needs with acceptable manufacturing yields; and - market acceptance of our customers' products and the duration of the life cycle of such products. We may not be able to design and introduce new products in a timely or cost-efficient manner, and our new products may fail to meet market or customer requirements. Most major product design opportunities that we pursue involve multiple competitors, and we could lose a new product design opportunity to a competitor that offers a lower cost or equal or superior performance. If we are unsuccessful in achieving design wins, our revenue and operating results will be adversely affected. Even when a design win is achieved, our success is not assured. Design wins may require significant expenditures by us before realizing revenue six to nine months or more later. Many customers seek a second source for all major components in their devices, which can significantly reduce the revenue obtained from a design win. In many cases, the average selling prices of our products decline over the products' lives, and we must achieve yield improvements, cost reductions and other productivity enhancements in order to maintain profitability. The actual value of a design win to us will ultimately depend on the commercial success of our customers' products.

We rely on trade secrets, technical know-how and other unpatented proprietary information relating to our product development and manufacturing activities to provide us with competitive advantages. We protect this information by entering into confidentiality agreements with our employees, consultants, strategic partners and other third parties. We also design our computer systems and networks and implement various procedures to restrict unauthorized access to, or dissemination of, our proprietary information. We face internal and external data security threats. Current, departing or former employees or third parties could attempt to improperly use or access our computer systems and networks to copy, obtain or misappropriate our proprietary information or otherwise interrupt our business. We are also subject to significant system or network disruptions from numerous causes, including computer viruses and other cyber-attacks, facility access issues, new system implementations and energy blackouts. Geopolitical tensions or conflicts, such as the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine and the tensions between China and Taiwan, may create a heightened risk of cybersecurity incidents. We have, from time to time, experienced threats to and breaches of our data and systems. Security breaches, computer malware, phishing, spoofing and other cyber-attacks have become more prevalent and sophisticated in recent years. Because the techniques used by computer hackers and others to access or sabotage networks constantly evolve and generally are not recognized until launched against a target, we may be unable to anticipate, detect, or counter all of these techniques or identify all security vulnerabilities. Evolving AI capabilities could be used in new and significantly more sophisticated ways to identify vulnerabilities, craft targeted social engineering and fraud attempts, generate malicious code and launch phishing attempts or other cyber-attacks. As a result, our and our customers' proprietary information may be misappropriated, and the impact of any future incident cannot be predicted. Any misappropriation could harm our competitive position, result in a loss of customer confidence in the adequacy of our threat mitigation and detection processes and procedures, cause us to incur significant costs to remedy the damages caused by the incident and divert management and other resources. We routinely implement improvements to our network security safeguards and we are devoting increasing resources to the security of our IT systems. We cannot, however, assure that such system improvements will be sufficient to prevent or limit the damage from any future cyber-attack or network disruptions. Furthermore, we rely on products and services provided by third-party suppliers, which may include open-source code, to operate certain critical business systems, including without limitation, cloud-based infrastructure, encryption and authentication technology, employee email and other functions, which exposes us to supply chain attacks or other business disruptions. The use of AI applications could increase the risk of cybersecurity incidents, such as through unintended or inadvertent transmissions of proprietary or sensitive information. We cannot guarantee that third parties and infrastructure in our supply chain or our partners' supply chains have not been compromised or that they do not contain exploitable defects or bugs that could result in a breach of or disruption to our IT systems, including our products and services, or the third-party IT systems that support our services. Our ability to identify all security vulnerabilities and monitor these third-parties' information security practices is limited, and these third parties may not have adequate information security measures in place. In addition, if one of our third-party suppliers suffers a security breach, our response may be limited or more difficult because we may not have direct access to their systems, logs and other information related to the security breach. If any of our systems are damaged, fail to function properly or otherwise become unavailable, we may incur substantial costs to repair or replace them and may experience loss or corruption of critical data and interruptions or delays in our ability to perform critical functions, which could adversely affect our business and results of operations. Furthermore, the costs related to cyber-attacks or other security threats or computer systems disruptions typically would not be fully insured or indemnified by others. Our efforts to comply with evolving laws and regulations related to cybersecurity incidents may be costly, and any failure to comply could result in investigations, proceedings, lawsuits and reputational damage. Occurrence of any of the events described above could also result in loss of competitive advantages derived from our R&D efforts or our IP. Moreover, these events may result in the early obsolescence of our products, product development delays, or diversion of the attention of management and key IT and other resources, or otherwise adversely affect our operations and reputation.

We operate globally with sales offices and R&D activities as well as manufacturing, assembly and test facilities in multiple countries, and some of our business activities are concentrated in Asia. As a result, we are subject to regulatory, geopolitical and other risks associated with doing business outside the U.S., including: - global and local economic, social and political conditions and uncertainty;- currency controls and currency exchange rate fluctuations;- inflation, as well as changes in existing and expected rates of inflation, which vary across the jurisdictions in which we do business;- formal or informal imposition of export, import or doing-business regulations, including trade sanctions, tariffs and other related restrictions;- labor market conditions and workers' rights affecting our manufacturing operations or those of our customers or suppliers;- disruptions in capital and securities and commodities trading markets;- occurrences of geopolitical crises such as terrorist activity, armed conflict, civil or military unrest or political instability, or global hostilities such as the war in Ukraine and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, may disrupt manufacturing, assembly, logistics, security and communications and result in reduced demand for our products;- compliance with laws and regulations that differ among jurisdictions, including those covering taxes, IP ownership and infringement, imports and exports, anti-corruption and anti-bribery, antitrust and competition, cybersecurity, data privacy, and social, environment, health, and safety;- markets for 5G infrastructure not developing in the manner or in the time periods we anticipate, including as a result of unfavorable developments with evolving laws and regulations worldwide; and - pandemics and similar major health concerns, which could adversely affect our business and our customer order patterns. Sales to customers located outside the U.S. accounted for approximately 42% of our revenue in fiscal 2024, of which approximately 19% was attributable to sales to customers located in China. We expect revenue from international sales to China and other markets will continue to be a significant part of our total revenue. Any weakness in the Chinese economy, heightened tensions between the U.S. and China, China and Taiwan, or other countries, could result in a decrease in demand for consumer products that contain our products, which could materially and adversely affect our business. The imposition by the U.S. of tariffs on goods imported from China, countermeasures imposed by China in response, U.S. export restrictions on sales of products to China and other government actions that restrict or otherwise adversely affect our ability to sell our products to customers in China may have a material adverse impact on our business, including our ability to sell products and to manufacture or source components and materials. As a global company, our results are affected by movements in currency exchange rates. Our exposure may increase or decrease over time as our foreign business levels fluctuate in the countries where we have operations, and these changes could have a material impact on our financial results. The functional currency for most of our international operations is the U.S. dollar. We have foreign operations in Asia, Europe and Central America. Our international revenue is primarily denominated in U.S. dollars. Operating expenses and certain working capital items related to our foreign-based operations are, in some instances, denominated in the local foreign currencies and therefore are affected by changes in the U.S. dollar exchange rate in relation to foreign currencies, such as the Costa Rican Colon, Euro, Renminbi and Singapore Dollar. If the U.S. dollar weakens compared to these and other currencies, our operating expenses for foreign operations will be higher when remeasured back into U.S. dollars.

Our worldwide operations and business could be, and in some cases have been, disrupted by natural disasters, industrial accidents, cybersecurity incidents, telecommunications failures, power or water shortages, extreme weather conditions, public health issues (including pandemics such as COVID-19), terrorist attacks, political and/or civil unrest, acts of war or other military actions, political or regulatory issues and other man-made disasters or catastrophic events. Global climate change could result in certain natural disasters occurring more frequently or with greater intensity, such as drought, wildfires, storms and flooding. We carry commercial property damage and business interruption insurance against various risks, with limits we deem adequate, for reimbursement for damage to our fixed assets and resulting disruption of our operations. However, the occurrence of any of these business disruptions could harm our business and result in significant losses, a decline in revenue and an increase in our costs and expenses. Any disruptions from these events could require substantial expenditures and recovery time to fully resume operations and could also have a material adverse effect on our operations and financial results to the extent that losses are uninsured or exceed insurance recoveries, and to the extent that such disruptions adversely impact our relationships with our customers. Furthermore, even if our own operations are unaffected or recover quickly, if our customers or suppliers cannot timely resume their own operations due to a business disruption, natural disaster or catastrophic event, customers may reduce or cancel their orders and suppliers may delay manufacturing and delivery of our products, which may adversely affect our results of operations.

The U.S. and foreign governments have taken and may continue to take administrative, legislative or regulatory action that could materially interfere with our ability to export, reexport, import and transfer products and other items to certain countries, particularly China. For example, the imposition of tariffs has resulted in higher duties owed on certain products that are imported from China to the United States. Furthermore, we have experienced and may continue to experience restrictions on our ability to export, reexport, and transfer our products and other items to certain foreign customers and suppliers where exports, reexports, or transfers of products require export licenses or are prohibited by government action. The U.S. government has in the past imposed export restrictions that effectively banned American companies from exporting, reexporting, and transferring products to certain of our customers, and imposed significant restrictions on the ability to obtain export licenses for our products. Such restrictions could have a continuing negative impact on our future revenue and results of operations. In addition, our customers or suppliers affected by U.S. government sanctions or threats of sanctions may respond by developing their own solutions to replace our products or by adopting our foreign competitors' solutions and products. Importantly, governments such as China have the ability to impose countermeasures in reaction to increasing U.S. government sanctions and restrictions imposed on their companies which may impact our operations and future revenue as the compliance landscape becomes more challenging. We cannot predict what further actions may ultimately be taken with respect to tariffs, export restrictions or other trade measures between the U.S. and China or other countries, what products or entities may be subject to such actions, or what actions may be taken by other countries in response. The loss of foreign customers or suppliers or the imposition of restrictions on our ability to sell or transfer products to such customers or suppliers as a result of tariffs, export restrictions or other U.S. regulatory actions could materially adversely affect our sales, business and results of operations.