Super Micro Computer (SMCI) Risk Factors

The market for server and storage solutions is intensely competitive and rapidly changing. The market continues to evolve with the growth of public cloud shifting server and storage purchasing from traditional data centers to lower margin public cloud vendors. Barriers to entry in our market are relatively low and we expect increased challenges from existing as well as new competitors. Some of our principal competitors offer server solutions at a lower price, which has resulted in pricing pressures on sales of our server solutions. We expect further downward pricing pressure from our competitors and expect that we will have to price some of our server and storage solutions aggressively to increase our market share with respect to those products or geographies, particularly for internet data center and cloud customers and other large sale opportunities. If we are unable to maintain the margins on our server and storage solutions, our operating results could be negatively impacted. In addition, if we do not develop new innovative solutions, or enhance the reliability, performance, efficiency and other features of our existing server and storage solutions, our customers may turn to our competitors for alternatives. In addition, pricing pressures and increased competition generally may also result in reduced sales, less efficient utilization of our manufacturing operations, lower margins or the failure of our products to achieve or maintain widespread market acceptance, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. Our principal competitors include global technology companies such as Cisco, Dell, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and Lenovo. In addition, we also compete with a number of other vendors who also sell application optimized servers, contract manufacturers/OEMs and ODMs, such as Foxconn, Inspur, Quanta Computer and Wiwynn Corporation. ODMs sell server solutions marketed or sold under a third-party brand. Many of our competitors enjoy substantial competitive advantages, such as: - Greater name recognition and deeper market penetration;- Longer operating histories;- Larger sales and marketing organizations and research and development teams and budgets;- More established relationships with customers, contract manufacturers and suppliers and better channels to reach larger customer bases and larger sales volume allowing for better costs;- Larger customer service and support organizations with greater geographic scope;- A broader and more diversified array of products and services; and - Substantially greater financial, technical and other resources. Some of our current or potential ODM competitors are also currently or have in the past been suppliers to us. As a result, they may possess sensitive knowledge or experience which may be used against us competitively and/or which may require us to alter our supply arrangements or sources in a way which could adversely impact our cost of sales or results of operations. Our competitors may be able to respond more quickly and effectively than we can to new or changing opportunities, technologies, standards or customer requirements. Competitors may seek to copy our innovations and use cost advantages from greater size to compete aggressively with us on price. Certain customers are also current or prospective competitors and as a result, assistance that we provide to them as customers may ultimately result in increased competitive pressure against us. Furthermore, because of these advantages, even if our application optimized server and storage solutions are more effective than the products that our competitors offer, potential customers might accept competitive products in lieu of purchasing our products. The challenges we face from larger competitors will become even greater if consolidation or collaboration between or among our competitors occurs in our industry. Also, initiatives to establish more industry standard data center configurations, could have the impact of supporting an approach which is less favorable to the flexibility and customization that we offer. These changes could have a significant impact on the market and impact our results of operations. For all of these reasons, we may not be able to compete successfully against our current or future competitors, and if we do not compete effectively, our ability to increase our net sales may be impaired.

We depend on our indirect sales channel partners to assist us in promoting market acceptance of our products. To maintain and potentially increase our revenue and profitability, we will have to successfully preserve and expand our existing distribution relationships as well as develop new channel relationships. Our indirect sales channel partners also sell products offered by our competitors and may elect to focus their efforts on these sales. If our competitors offer our indirect sales channel more favorable terms or have more products available to meet the needs of their customers, or utilize the leverage of broader product lines sold through the indirect sales channel, those channel partners may de-emphasize or decline to carry our products. In addition, the order decision-making process in our indirect sales channel is complex and involves several factors, including end customer demand, warehouse allocation and marketing resources, which can make it difficult to accurately predict total sales for the quarter until late in the quarter. We also do not control the pricing or discounts offered by our indirect sales channel partners to the end customers. To maintain our participation in the marketing programs of our indirect sales channel partners, we have provided and expect to continue to offer cooperative marketing arrangements and offer short-term pricing concessions. The discontinuation of cooperative marketing arrangements or pricing concessions could have a negative effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. Our indirect sales channel partners could also modify their business practices, such as payment terms, inventory levels or order patterns. If we are unable to maintain successful relationships in our indirect sales channel or expand our channel or we experience unexpected changes in payment terms, inventory levels or other practices in our indirect sales channel, our business will suffer.

Our future success depends in large part upon the continued service of our current executive management team and other key employees. In particular, Charles Liang, our President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, is critical to the overall management of our company as well as to our strategic direction. Mr. Liang co-founded our company and has been our Chief Executive Officer since our inception. His experience in leading our business and his personal involvement in key relationships with suppliers, customers and strategic partners are extremely valuable to our company. We currently do not have a succession plan for the replacement of Mr. Liang if it were to become necessary. Additionally, we are particularly dependent on the continued service of our existing research and development personnel because of the complexity of our products and technologies. Our employment arrangements with our executives and employees do not require them to provide services to us for any specific length of time, and they can terminate their employment with us at any time, with or without notice, without penalty. The loss of services of any of these executives or of one or more other key members of our team could seriously harm our business.

We rely on our close working relationships with our suppliers, including Intel, AMD and NVIDIA, to anticipate and deliver new products on a timely basis when new generation materials and key components are made available. If we are not able to maintain our relationships with our suppliers or continue to leverage their research and development capabilities to develop new technologies desired by our customers, our ability to quickly offer advanced technology and product innovations to our customers would be impaired. We have no long-term agreements that obligate our suppliers to continue to work with us or to supply us with products.

Prices of certain materials and core components utilized in the manufacture of our server and storage solutions, such as GPUs, serverboards, chassis, CPUs, memory, hard drives and SSDs, represent a significant portion of our cost of sales. While we have increased our purchases of certain critical materials and core components in response to the supply and demand uncertainties, we do not have long-term supply contracts for all critical materials and core components, but instead often purchase these materials and components on a purchase order basis. Prices and availability of these core components and materials are volatile, and, as a result, it is difficult to predict expense levels and operating results. In addition, if our business growth renders it necessary or appropriate to transition to longer term contracts with materials and core component suppliers, our costs may increase, and our gross margins could correspondingly decrease. Because we often acquire materials and key components on an as needed basis, we may be limited in our ability to effectively and efficiently respond to customer orders because of the then-current availability or the terms and pricing of these materials and key components, particularly for GPUs during periods of growth of new emerging markets (such as for AI). Our industry has experienced materials shortages and delivery delays in the past, including as a result of increased demand during periods of growth of new emerging markets (such as for AI), the negative impact of COVID-19, the global economic downturn and recent events in eastern Europe on global supply chains, and we may experience shortages or delays of critical materials or increased logistics costs to obtain necessary materials in a timely manner in the future. The COVID-19 pandemic, other macroeconomic factors exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, lingering effects from the COVID-19 pandemic, and other factors, have in the past resulted in, and may in future result in additional shortages of key semiconductors. From time to time, we have been forced to delay the introduction of certain of our products or the fulfillment of customer orders as a result of shortages of materials and key components, which can adversely impact our revenue. If shortages, supply or demand imbalances or delays arise, the prices of these materials and key components may increase or the materials and key components may not be available at all. In the event of shortages, some of our larger competitors may have greater abilities to obtain materials and key components due to their larger purchasing power. We may not be able to secure enough key components or materials at reasonable prices or of acceptable quality to build new products to meet customer demand, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. In addition, from time to time, we have accepted customer orders with various types of component pricing protection. Such arrangements have increased our exposure to component pricing fluctuations and have adversely affected our financial results in certain quarters. If we were to lose any of our current supply or contract manufacturing relationships, the process of identifying and qualifying a new supplier or contract manufacturer who meets our quality and delivery requirements, and who will appropriately safeguard our intellectual property, may require a significant investment of time and resources, adversely affecting our ability to satisfy customer purchase orders and delaying our ability to rapidly introduce new products to market. Similarly, if any of our suppliers were to cancel, materially change contracts or commitments to us or fail to meet the quality or delivery requirements needed to satisfy customer demand for our products, whether due to shortages or other reasons, our reputation and relationships with customers could be damaged. We could lose orders, be unable to develop or sell some products cost-effectively or on a timely basis, if at all, and have significantly decreased revenues, margins and earnings, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

One of our key strategies is to focus on being consistently first-to-market with flexible and application optimized server and storage systems that take advantage of our own internal development and the latest technologies offered by microprocessor manufacturers and other component vendors. Consistent with this strategy, we believe we spend higher amounts, as a percentage of revenues, on research and development costs than many of our competitors. If we cannot sell our products in sufficient volume and with adequate gross margins to compensate for such investment in research and development, our earnings may be materially and adversely affected.

Our ability to prevent competitors from gaining access to our technology is essential to our success. If we fail to protect our intellectual property rights adequately, we may lose an important advantage in the markets in which we compete. Trademark, patent, copyright and trade secret laws in the United States and other jurisdictions as well as our internal confidentiality procedures and contractual provisions are the core of our efforts to protect our proprietary technology and our brand. Our patents and other intellectual property rights may be challenged by others or invalidated through administrative process or litigation, and we may initiate claims or litigation against third parties for infringement of our proprietary rights. Such administrative proceedings and litigation are inherently uncertain and divert resources that could be put towards other business priorities. We may not be able to obtain a favorable outcome and may spend considerable resources in our efforts to defend and protect our intellectual property. Furthermore, legal standards relating to the validity, enforceability and scope of protection of intellectual property rights are uncertain. Effective patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret protection may not be available to us in every country in which our products are available. The laws of some foreign countries may not be as protective of intellectual property rights as those in the United States, and mechanisms for enforcement of intellectual property rights may be inadequate. Accordingly, despite our efforts, we may be unable to prevent third parties from infringing upon or misappropriating our intellectual property and using our technology for their competitive advantage. Any such infringement or misappropriation could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Our workforce may use AI tools on an unauthorized basis which poses additional risks relating to the protection of data, including the potential exposure of our proprietary confidential information to unauthorized recipients and the misuse of our or third-party intellectual property. Use of AI technology by our workforce may result in allegations or claims against us related to violation of third-party intellectual property rights, unauthorized access to or use of proprietary information and failure to comply with open source software requirements. AI technology may also produce inaccurate responses that could lead to errors in our decision-making, solution development or other business activities, which could have a negative impact on our business, operating results and financial condition. Our ability to mitigate these risks will depend on our continued effective training, monitoring and enforcement of appropriate policies and procedures governing the use of AI technology, and compliance by our workforce.

Our business depends on the overall demand for accelerated compute platforms. Global financial developments and downturns seemingly unrelated to us or our industry may harm us. If economic conditions, including inflation, increased interest rates, economic output and currency exchange rates, in these markets and other key potential markets for our Total IT Solutions remain uncertain or further deteriorate, including as a result of the downturn in the global economy, the Russia-Ukraine conflict and related sanctions and trade restrictions, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic or other reasons, customers may delay or reduce their spending. General economic weakness may also lead to longer collection cycles for payments due from our customers, an increase in customer bad debt, and impairment of investments. Furthermore, continued weakness and uncertainty in worldwide credit markets may harm our customers' available budgetary spending, which could lead to cancellations or delays in planned purchases of our Total IT Solutions. If our customers or potential customers experience economic hardship, this could reduce the demand for our Total IT Solutions, delay and lengthen sales cycles, increase requests for customer credit which may increase our risks in the event customers do not pay or make timely payment, lower prices for our Total IT Solutions, and lead to slower growth or even a decline in our revenues, operating results and cash flows. Inflation in the U.S. has recently increased at a rate not seen in several decades, which may result in decreased demand for our Total IT Solutions, increases in our operating costs including our labor costs, constrained credit and liquidity, reduced spending and volatility in financial markets. Inflation may continue to increase, both in the U.S. and globally, which could increase our operating costs and reduce demand for our Total IT Solutions. The Federal Reserve has significantly raised, and may again raise, interest rates in response to concerns over inflation risk, which may increase our own borrowing costs and/or reduce our clients' access to debt financing, reduce technology expenditures and demand for our Total IT Solutions.

Since inception, we have conducted a majority of our manufacturing operations in San Jose, California. We continue to increase our manufacturing capacity in Taiwan and in the Netherlands and have sought to accelerate manufacturing in Taiwan in order to better diversify our geographical manufacturing concentration. In order to continue to successfully increase our operations in Taiwan, we must efficiently manage our Taiwan operations from our headquarters in San Jose, California and continue to develop a strong local management team. We are also pursuing an expansion of our manufacturing operations into Malaysia. During the second quarter of fiscal year 2023, we entered into a letter of understanding to acquire land in Malaysia. A definitive agreement to acquire such land, subject to various conditions, was subsequently executed in January 2023. We are obtaining early access to such land prior to acquisition, and we anticipate significant capital expenditures will be required for such initiative. To the extent we are unable to recoup expenditures made during our period of early access to such land and we are subsequently unable to complete the acquisition of the land, we could be materially and adversely affected. Furthermore, if we are unable to successfully ramp up our international manufacturing capacity in Taiwan, the Netherlands, Malaysia, or any other jurisdictions we pursue, including the associated construction, increased logistics and warehousing, we may incur unanticipated costs, difficulties in making timely delivery of products or suffer other business disruptions which could adversely impact our results of operations.

Our ability to create energy saving products will be a part of climate change mitigation, and we believe one of the keys to our business success. In addition, climate change reporting and product certification are increasingly sought by customers and regulators. If we do not satisfy customer requirements for products that help mitigate climate change, and document how they contribute to such change, it could have a material adverse impact on our business, operating results, and financial conditions.

Because our products and services store, process and use data, some of which contains personal information, we are subject to complex and evolving domestic and international laws and regulations regarding privacy, data protection, rights of publicity, content, protection of minors and consumer protection. Many of these laws and regulations, which can be particularly restrictive outside of the U.S., are subject to change and uncertain interpretation. Even our inadvertent failure to comply with such laws and regulations could result in investigations, claims, damages to our reputation, changes to our business practices, increased cost of operations and declines in user growth, retention or engagement, any of which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. Costs to comply with and implement these privacy-related and data protection measures could be significant. Global privacy legislation, enforcement, and policy activity for privacy and data protection are rapidly expanding and creating a complex regulatory compliance environment. Costs to comply with and implement these privacy-related and data protection measures could be significant. For example, the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 ("GDPR"), and further amendments and interpretations thereof, impose stringent EU data protection requirements on companies established in the European Union or companies that offer goods or services to, or monitor the behavior of, individuals in the European Union. The GDPR establishes a robust framework of data subjects' rights and imposes onerous accountability obligations on companies, including certain data transfer and security mechanisms. Noncompliance with the GDPR can trigger steep fines of up to the greater of 20 million euros or four percent of annual global revenue. Jurisdictions outside of the European Union are also considering and/or enacting comprehensive data protection legislation. For example, on July 8, 2019, Brazil enacted the General Data Protection Law, or the LGPD, and on June 5, 2020, Japan passed amendments to its Act on the Protection of Personal Information, or the APPI. Both laws broadly regulate the processing of personal information in a manner comparable to the GDPR, and violators of the LGPD and APPI face substantial penalties. We also continue to see jurisdictions, such as Russia, imposing data localization laws, which under Russian laws require personal information of Russian citizens to be, among other data processing operations, initially collected, stored, and modified in Russia. Similarly, on November 1, 2021, China's Personal Information Protection law came into effect, which places restrictions on the transfer of personal information to third parties within China or overseas. These regulations may deter customers from using services such as ours, and may inhibit our ability to expand into those markets or prohibit us from continuing to offer services in those markets without significant financial burden. In addition, numerous states in the U.S. are also expanding data protection through legislation. For example, California's Consumer Privacy Act ("CCPA") gives California residents expanded privacy rights and protections and provides for civil penalties for violations and a private right of action for data breaches. Further, California voters approved the ballot initiative known as the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 ("CPRA"), enforcement of which began on July 1, 2023. The CPRA significantly expands privacy rights for California consumers and creates additional obligations on businesses, which could subject us to additional compliance costs as well as potential fines, individual claims and commercial liabilities. The CPRA also establishes the California Privacy Protection Agency, which has the power to implement and enforce the CCPA and CPRA through administrative actions, including administrative fines. The effects of the CCPA and the CPRA are potentially significant and may require us to modify our data collection or processing practices and policies and to incur substantial costs and expenses in an effort to comply and increase our potential exposure to regulatory enforcement and/or litigation. Other U.S. states have also enacted data privacy laws that began to take effect in 2023 and impose similar privacy obligations to the CCPA and CPRA. We anticipate that more states may enact legislation similar to these laws, by providing consumers with new privacy rights and increasing the privacy and security obligations of entities handling certain personal information of such consumers. The CCPA continues to prompt a number of proposals for new federal and state-level privacy legislation. Such proposed legislation, if enacted, may add additional complexity, variation in requirements, restrictions and potential legal risk, require additional investment of resources in compliance programs, impact strategies and the availability of previously useful data and could result in increased compliance costs and/or changes in business practices and policies. We have developed and implemented policies and procedures to address applicable data privacy and protection law requirements. However, because the interpretation and application of many privacy and data protection laws, commercial frameworks, and standards are uncertain, it is possible that these laws, frameworks, and standards may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent with our existing data protection practices. If so, we and our customers are at risk of enforcement actions taken by data protection authorities or litigation from consumer advocacy groups acting on behalf of data subjects. In addition to the possibility of fines, lawsuits, breach of contract claims, and other claims and penalties, we could be required to fundamentally change our business activities and practices or modify our solutions, which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.