Item 1A. Risk Factors
When evaluating Microchip and its business, you should give careful consideration to the factors below, as well as the information provided elsewhere in this Form 10-K and in other filings we make with the SEC.
Risk Factor Summary
Risks Related to Our Business, Operations, and Industry
• impact of global economic conditions on our operating results, net sales and profitability;
• impact of economic conditions on the financial viability and performance of our licensees, customers, distributors, or suppliers;
• impact of supplier disruptions affecting the availability and cost of raw materials, components, or equipment;
• impact of restrictions, export controls, or other limitations on critical materials sourced from concentrated suppliers reducing sales;
• dependence on wafer foundries and other contractors by our licensees and ourselves;
• dependence on foreign sales, suppliers, and operations, which exposes us to foreign political and economic risks;
• impact of geopolitical instability in the Middle East on the availability of critical semiconductor materials, fuel costs, and our ability to meet customer demand;
• dependence on orders received and shipped in the same quarter, limited visibility to product shipments other than those shipped through our certain LTSAs;
• intense competition in the markets we serve, leading to pricing pressures, reduced sales or market share;
• ability to introduce new products on a timely basis, including in response to market changes driven by AI and other factors, or by changing our product design and manufacturing to more advanced technology nodes;
• ineffective utilization of our manufacturing capacity or failure to maintain manufacturing yields;
• impact of seasonality and wide fluctuations of supply and demand in the industry;
• dependence on distributors;
• business interruptions affecting our operations or that of key vendors, licensees or customers;
• technology licensing business exposes us to various risks;
• the impact of the effects of sustained adverse climate change on our operations;
• reliance on sales into governmental projects, and compliance with associated regulations;
• risks related to grants from, or tax arrangements with, governments, agencies and research organizations;
• ability to realize anticipated benefits from completed or future acquisitions or divestitures;
• future impairments to goodwill or intangible assets;
• our failure to maintain proper and effective internal control and remediate future control deficiencies;
• customer demands to implement business practices that are more stringent than legal requirements;
• ability to attract and retain qualified personnel; and
• the occurrence of events for which we are self-insured, or which exceed our insurance limits.
Risks Related to Cybersecurity, Products, Privacy, Intellectual Property, and Litigation
• interruptions in and unauthorized access to our IT systems and security breaches or incidents impacting our systems, or data that we or our service providers maintain or otherwise process including, but not limited to, data belonging to us or our customers, suppliers, contractors or employees;
• impact of evolving risks related to artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and data privacy across our products, operations, regulatory compliance, intellectual property, talent, and transactions;
• exposure of our customers' business and proprietary confidential information due to security vulnerabilities of our products;
• risks related to internal use of artificial intelligence (AI);
• risks related to compliance with laws and regulations regarding privacy, data protection, AI, cybersecurity (including U.S. Department of War requirements), and handling of government-regulated data (e.g., controlled unclassified information, classified data, export-controlled data);
• risks related to legal proceedings, investigations or claims;
• risks related to contractual relationships with our customers and suppliers; and
• protecting and enforcing our intellectual property rights.
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Risks Related to Taxation, Laws and Regulations
• impact on our reported financial results by new accounting pronouncements or changes in existing accounting standards and practices;
• the issuance of new export controls or trade sanctions, tariffs or other trade barriers, fines, restrictions or delays in our ability to export or import products, or increase costs associated with the manufacture or transfer of products;
• outcome of future examinations of our income tax returns;
• exposure to greater than anticipated income tax liabilities, changes in or the interpretation of tax rules and regulations or unfavorable assessments from tax audits;
• impact of the legislative and policy changes implemented globally by the current or future administrations;
• impact of stringent environmental, climate change, conflict-free minerals and other regulations or customer demands;
• failure to meet ESG expectations, standards or disclosure requirements;
• impact regarding the responsible use of our technologies; and
• requirement to fund our foreign pension plans.
Risks Related to Capitalization and Financial Markets
• impact of various factors on our future trading price of our common stock;
• fluctuations in the amount and timing of our common stock repurchases;
• our ability to effectively manage current or future debt;
• our ability to generate sufficient cash flows or obtain access to external financing;
• impact of conversion of our convertible debt, Depositary Shares, and Series A Preferred Stock on the ownership interest of our existing stockholders and market price of our common stock; and
• fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates.
Risks Related to Our Business, Operations, and Industry
Our operating results are impacted by global economic conditions and may fluctuate in the future due to a number of factors that could reduce our net sales and profitability.
Our operating results are affected by a wide variety of factors that could reduce our net sales and profitability, many of which are beyond our control. Some of the factors that may affect our operating results include:
• general economic, industry, public health or political conditions in the U.S. or internationally, including uncertain economic conditions in U.S., China and Europe, changes in geopolitical conditions, interest rates, persistent inflation, tariffs or instability in the banking sector;
• trade restrictions and increase in tariffs, including those on business in China, or focused on specific companies or types of products;
• levels of inventories held by our customers and the customers of our distributors;
• the mix of inventory we hold and our ability to satisfy orders from our inventory;
• our ability to introduce new products that will achieve broad market acceptance at favorable prices and margins;
• the level of orders that are received and can be shipped in a quarter, including the impact of product lead times;
• disruptions in our business, our supply chain or our customers' businesses due to cybersecurity incidents, terrorist activity, armed conflict, war (including military conflict in the Middle East and Russia's invasion of Ukraine), worldwide oil prices and supply, transportation interruption, public health concerns (including viral outbreaks and pandemics), fires, natural disasters or disruptions in the transportation system;
• changes in demand or market acceptance of our products and products of our customers, and market fluctuations in the industries into which such products are sold;
• availability of raw materials including rare earth minerals, supplies and equipment due to supply chain constraints, disruptions in transportation systems, trade restrictions, or other factors;
• constrained availability from other electronic suppliers or disruptions in transit systems impacting our customers' ability to ship their products, which in turn may adversely impact our sales to those customers;
• the level of order cancellations or push-outs due to uncertain economic conditions or other factors;
• our ability to increase or decrease our factory capacity as needed to respond to changes in customer demand;
• our ability to secure sufficient wafer foundry, assembly and testing capacity;
• increased costs and availability of raw materials, supplies, equipment, utilities, labor, and/or subcontracted services for wafers, assembly and test;
• changes in utilization of our manufacturing capacity and fluctuations in manufacturing yields;
• changes or fluctuations in customer order patterns and seasonality;
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• fluctuations in our mix of product sales;
• changes in tax regulations in countries in which we do business;
• new accounting pronouncements or changes in existing accounting standards and practices;
• risk of excess and obsolete inventories;
• competitive developments including pricing pressures;
• unauthorized counterfeiting of our products resulting in pricing pressure and loss of sales;
• our ability to successfully transition to more advanced process technologies to reduce manufacturing costs or introduce more advanced products, and the ability to produce these products at desired volumes, such as our first 3nm PCIe Gen 6 Switch;
• the level of sell-through of our products through distribution or resale;
• our ability to realize the expected benefits of our past or future acquisitions;
• announcements of other significant acquisitions by us or our competitors;
• costs and outcomes of any current or future tax audits or any litigation, investigation or claims involving intellectual property, our acquisitions, customers or other issues; and
• property damage or other losses, whether or not covered by insurance.
Period-to-period comparisons of our operating results are not necessarily meaningful and you should not rely upon any such comparisons as indications of our future performance. In future periods, our operating results may fall below our public guidance or the expectations of public market analysts and investors, which would likely have a negative effect on the price of our common stock. Uncertain global economic and public health conditions have caused and may in the future cause our operating results to fluctuate significantly and make comparisons between periods less meaningful.
Our operating results may be adversely impacted by the inability of our key suppliers to provide us with necessary raw materials, components, or equipment .
Our manufacturing operations require a continuous supply of raw and processed materials, components, and production equipment that must meet stringent performance and quality standards. Although we generally maintain multiple sources for these items, only a limited number of suppliers may be capable of meeting our technical requirements. From time to time, we have experienced supply shortages, extended lead times, supplier announcements that certain orders could not be fulfilled, or the discontinuation of updates or parts for certain equipment. For example, in fiscal 2023 and fiscal 2022, we experienced cost increases from certain suppliers for materials used in our production processes; although conditions stabilized in fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2025, similar cost pressures may recur.
Any interruption in the supply of raw materials, components, or equipment - or reduced supplier support for key manufacturing tools - could adversely affect our ability to produce products in the required volumes or on expected timelines. Supply availability may be further limited as global semiconductor demand increases, suppliers shift production toward higher cost or more complex products, or as a result of supply chain disruptions, transit delays, or political instability. For example, as memory manufacturers transition to more advanced products, availability of the memory components we use may become constrained, have longer lead times, or become more expensive. Consolidation among suppliers may reduce supply alternatives or alter our commercial relationships. In addition, reduced labor availability or public health concerns may further impact the supply chain.
Any of these factors could increase our manufacturing costs, impair our sourcing flexibility, delay our production schedules, and adversely affect our operating results. Additionally, our sales may be adversely impacted if tariffs or government trade actions restrict access to needed supplies.
Tariffs, trade restrictions, and evolving global trade policies pose risks to our supply chain, cost structure, and customer demand. Beginning in 2018 and continuing through 2026, the U.S. imposed additional tariffs on various imports, and several countries have imposed retaliatory tariffs on goods originating from the U.S. Although semiconductors currently remain exempt from certain U.S. tariffs under the ongoing Section 232 investigation, many inputs used in semiconductor manufacturing - including chemicals, metals, and equipment - remain subject to country specific tariffs or may become subject to new duties. The tariff landscape remains uncertain and may change with limited notice.
New or increased tariffs imposed on raw materials, components, equipment, or other inputs used in our production processes could increase our manufacturing costs. We may also incur incremental costs associated with supply chain adjustments undertaken to mitigate the effects of trade restrictions or tariffs. While we attempt to reduce cost burdens and secure alternative supply arrangements, we may experience higher operating costs, reduced sourcing flexibility, or lower demand for our products if customers face higher input costs or trade related disruptions.
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Tariffs and trade restrictions also affect our customers. If customers face reduced availability of labor, materials, or components, whether due to trade restrictions, supplier disruptions, escalating shipping constraints, or public health issues, they may reduce or suspend production of their own products, leading to decreased demand for our products. For example, in 2025, government actions involving Nexperia (including export control measures and interventions affecting its operations and cross-border shipments) resulted in restricted availability of certain mature-node semiconductors (such as discrete devices and standard logic) that are widely used by automotive and consumer electronics manufacturers. As a result, some of our customers may experience shortages of these components which may reduce their production volumes and, in turn, reduce demand for our products. Any such customer side disruptions may negatively affect our revenue and operating results.
On February 20, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that certain tariffs collected pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) were unconstitutional. On April 20, 2026, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) began processing refunds through its Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) portal. Although Microchip was the importer of record for products that were subject to tariffs imposed under IEEPA and should be entitled to a refund, the timing and the amount of any such recovery is not yet clear. As such, this could have a favorable impact on our financial position, operations, or cash flows, but we cannot predict the timing, likelihood, or amount of any refunds or other recoveries we may realize.
We may lose sales if critical materials from concentrated sources become restricted or subject to export controls.
Certain materials used in semiconductor manufacturing, including rare earth elements, minerals, and metals, are available from a limited number of countries. Geopolitical tensions, trade disputes, economic conditions, transit disruptions, public health concerns, or regulatory actions may affect the availability or cost of these materials. Although we do not purchase significant amounts of materials, components or equipment from Russia, Belarus, or Ukraine, the broader semiconductor industry relies on raw materials sourced from these regions - such as neon, palladium, cesium, rubidium, and nickel. Current U.S. restrictions on imports of certain metals of Russian origin highlight the risk that geopolitical events or sanctions may limit access to critical materials. If we or our suppliers cannot obtain necessary inputs at commercially reasonable prices or in adequate quantities, our ability to manufacture products - or customer demand for such products - may be adversely affected.
China is a predominant producer of many rare earth materials essential to the global electronics industry. In 2025, China imposed and later expanded export restrictions and licensing requirements on certain rare earth elements and related magnets. Although some restrictions were subsequently suspended for certain U.S. end‑users, future restrictions or renewed implementation could constrain global supply. If China further restricts exports or pressures other countries to do so, our suppliers may face shortages, longer lead times, or increased costs. Limited access to these materials could impair our ability to manufacture certain products, increase our production costs, or reduce our competitiveness relative to manufacturers with alternative supply sources. These constraints may also affect downstream customers; for example, export controls on rare earth magnets have previously led certain automotive manufacturers to temporarily suspend operations.
Any such impacts on our customers’ production levels may reduce demand for our products and adversely affect our operating results.
We are dependent on wafer foundries and other contractors, as are our SuperFlash and other licensees.
We rely on outside wafer foundries for a significant portion of our wafer fabrication needs. Specifically, during fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2025, approximately 65% and 64%, respectively, of our net sales came from products that were produced at outside wafer foundries. We also use several contractors for a portion of the assembly and testing of our products. Specifically, during fiscal 2026, approximately 33% of our assembly requirements and 31% of our test requirements were performed by third-party contractors compared to approximately 33% of our assembly requirements and 33% of our test requirements during fiscal 2025. We have long-term commitment contracts with certain of our third-party suppliers to help ensure that we receive capacity from them to manufacture wafers and assemble and test our products. We may decide to still purchase products or services under these contracts even though we currently may not need all of them in order to take advantage of contract credits. This could result in excess inventory and inventory reserve charges that may negatively affect our gross margin and results of operations. Additionally, if we have a need for greater manufacturing, assembly or test capacity in the future, or greater capacity for certain types of products, there can be no assurance that we will be able to secure the necessary allocation of capacity from our wafer foundries and other contractors with the process technologies that we need, or that such capacity will be available on acceptable terms. As our manufacturing subcontractors move to more advanced process technologies over time, we may find that they do not invest in some of the trailing edge process technologies on which a large portion of our products are manufactured. As more companies focus on building leading edge products, our
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manufacturing subcontractors are becoming capacity constrained in their ability to manufacture such products. These events may limit the amounts of net sales that we can achieve or require us to make significant investments to be able to manufacture these products in our own facilities or at other foundries and assembly and testing contractors, but we believe that we will be able to obtain sufficient capacity from our manufacturing subcontractors.
We expect that our reliance on third party contractors may increase over time as our business grows, and any inability to secure necessary external capacity could adversely affect our operating results. Transitioning production of products to new manufacturers may result in delayed product launches, reduced yields, or decreased product performance. If we encounter issues with product quality, insufficient capacity from a third-party manufacturer, or if we discontinue using a particular manufacturer or contractor, we may face challenges in securing an alternative supply for specific products in a timely manner. This could lead to significant delays in product shipments, potentially having an adverse impact on our results of operations. If our reliance on third-party contractors increases over time, our inability to secure necessary external capacity could adversely affect our operating results.
Our use of third parties reduces our control over the subcontracted portions of our business. Our future operating results could suffer if a significant contractor were to experience production difficulties, insufficient capacity, decreased manufacturing, reduced availability of labor, assembly and test yields, or increased costs due to disruptions such as political upheaval, transit disruptions, infrastructure disruption or pandemics. Additionally, our future operating results could suffer if our wafer foundries and other contractors increase the prices of the products and services that they provide to us. If third parties do not timely deliver products or services in accordance with our quality standards, we may be unable to qualify alternate manufacturing sources in a timely manner or on favorable terms, or at all. Additionally, these subcontractors could abandon processes that we need, or fail to adopt technologies that we desire to control costs. In such event, we could experience an interruption in production, an increase in manufacturing costs or a decline in product reliability, and our business and operating results could be adversely affected. Further, use of subcontractors increases the risks of misappropriation of our intellectual property.
Certain of our SuperFlash and other technology licensees rely on wafer foundries. If our licensees experienced disruption in supply at such foundries, this would reduce the revenue from our technology licensing business and would harm our operating results.
Our operating results may be adversely impacted by the financial viability and performance of our licensees, customers, distributors, resellers or suppliers.
We regularly review the financial viability and performance of our licensees, customers, distributors, resellers and suppliers. Any downturn in global or regional economic conditions as a result of geopolitical conditions, broad sanctions or tariffs by the U.S. or other countries, high interest rates, high inflation, instability in the banking sector, public health concerns, industry work stoppages, transit stoppages or other factors, may adversely impact their financial viability. The financial decline of a large licensee, customer, reseller or distributor, an important supplier, or a group thereof, could have an adverse impact on our operating results and could result in our inability to collect our accounts receivable balances, higher allowances for credit losses, and higher operating costs as a percentage of net sales. Also, these parties may not comply with their contractual commitments, or may interpret them differently than we do, which could lead to termination of their performance with little or no notice to us, which could limit our ability to mitigate our exposure. If one of our counterparties becomes insolvent, files for bankruptcy, has business leverage, or favorable contractual terms, then our ability to recover any losses suffered as a result of that counterparty's cessation of performance may be limited by their liquidity, the applicable laws, or their willingness to negotiate a resolution. In the event of such default or cessation of performance, we could incur significant losses, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, or financial condition.
We have various arrangements with financial institutions for our cash deposits, and other banking activities, that subject us to risk if such institutions were to experience financial or regulatory difficulties. As a result, we may experience losses on our holdings of cash and cash equivalents due to failures of financial institutions or other related parties.
We are highly dependent on foreign sales, suppliers, and operations, which exposes us to foreign political and economic risks.
Sales to foreign customers account for a substantial portion of our net sales. During fiscal 2026, approximately 75% of our net sales were made to foreign customers, including 18% in China and 15% in Taiwan. During fiscal 2025, approximately 75% of our net sales were made to foreign customers, including 17% in China and 16% in Taiwan.
Having a strong position in the Chinese market is a key component of our global growth strategy. Although our sales in
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the Chinese market have been strong in the past, competition in China is intense. Throughout fiscal 2024, fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2026, changes in the Chinese market adversely impacted our sales volumes in China. As discussed above, the trade relationship between the U.S. and China remains challenging and could worsen, economic conditions in China remain uncertain, and we are unable to predict whether such uncertainty will continue or worsen in future periods. Any increase in tariffs on semiconductors and raw materials that have the U.S. as their country of origin could lower demand for our products in China and other countries. For example, on September 13, 2025, China's Ministry of Commerce initiated an antidumping investigation of imports into China of analog semiconductors originating in the United States. While we were not a subject of this investigation and the Chinese government is expected to suspend these investigations pursuant to the latest trade deal with the U.S., the Chinese government may resume this investigation at its election. If this takes place, additional tariffs are likely to be imposed as a result of this investigation and could have an adverse impact on our revenue. Also, on April 13, 2026, China's State Council released a regulation intended to be a retaliatory measure to combat the extraterritorial application of foreign laws pertaining to trade controls, sanctions, and similar measures. This regulation may expose us to potential civil liability, administrative measures, and other remedial actions if the Chinese government determines that we caused harm by complying with certain foreign laws. This could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations or financial conditions.
Further, increasing investment in the semiconductor industry by the Chinese government and various state-owned or affiliated entities are intended to advance China's stated national policy objectives. The Chinese government may restrict us from participating in the China market, or may prevent us from competing effectively with Chinese companies. Weakening of foreign markets, especially in China, has resulted in lower demand for our products, which has adversely impacted our revenue in the past and, if such conditions continue, it too could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations or financial conditions.
We purchase a substantial portion of our raw materials and equipment from foreign suppliers. Please see the risks related to access to raw materials, components, or equipment on page 16 . In addition, we own product assembly and testing facilities, and finished goods warehouses near Bangkok, Thailand, which has experienced periods of political instability and severe flooding in the past. There can be no assurance that any future flooding or political instability in Thailand would not have a material adverse impact on our operations. We have a test facility in Calamba, the Philippines, and specialized test and assembly facilities for our aerospace and defense products in Germany, France, Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Philippines, Thailand, and the United States. We use foundries and other foreign contractors for a significant portion of our assembly and testing and wafer fabrication requirements.
Our reliance on foreign operations, foreign suppliers, maintenance of substantially all of our finished goods inventory at foreign locations and significant foreign sales exposes us to foreign political and economic risks, including, but not limited to:
• economic uncertainty in the worldwide markets we serve;
• trade restrictions and changes in tariffs;
• political instability, including changes in relations between China and Taiwan which could disrupt the operations of our Taiwan-based third-party wafer foundries, and subcontractors;
• social and economic instability due to public health concerns, wars, or other factors;
• supply chain disruptions or delays;
• potentially adverse tax consequences;
• import and export license requirements and restrictions;
• changes in laws related to taxes, trade, environmental, health and safety, technical standards, climate change, and consumer protection;
• restrictions on the transfer of funds, including currency controls in China, which could negatively affect the amount and timing of certain customer payments, and as a results our cash flows;
• currency fluctuations and foreign exchange regulations;
• difficulties in staffing and managing international operations;
• employment regulations;
• disruptions due to cybersecurity incidents;
• disruptions in international transport or delivery;
• public health conditions (including viral outbreaks such as COVID-19); and
• difficulties in collecting receivables and longer payment cycles.
If any of these risks occur or are worse than we anticipate, our sales could decrease and our operating results could suffer, we could face an increase in the cost of components, production delays, business interruptions, delays in obtaining export licenses, or denials of such licenses, tariffs and trade restrictions, longer payment cycles, increased taxes, restrictions on the repatriation of funds and the burdens of complying with a variety of foreign laws, any of which could ultimately have a material adverse effect on our business. Further changes in trade policy, tariffs, additional taxes, or restrictions on supplies,
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equipment, and raw materials including rare earth minerals, may limit our ability to produce products, increase our selling and/or manufacturing costs, decrease margins, reduce the competitiveness of our products, or inhibit our ability to sell products or purchase necessary equipment and supplies, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, or financial conditions.
Geopolitical instability in the Middle East may disrupt critical semiconductor materials, increase fuel costs, and adversely affect our ability to meet customer demand.
Geopolitical instability and conflicts in the Middle East, including military activity and escalating tensions involving Iran, create significant uncertainty for global markets, including energy and materials markets, and could adversely impact our operations and financial results. The region is a major source of global oil production and a critical transit point for maritime shipping routes. Hostilities, infrastructure damage, sanctions, or blockages of key shipping lanes could disrupt oil production and distribution, reducing the availability of fuel or increasing fuel prices. Recent armed conflicts have already forced key state sponsored fuel production facilities in the region offline, contributing to global fuel price volatility.
In addition to fuel‑related risks, current conflict in the Middle East is disrupting supplies of critical semiconductor materials - including helium and bromine, both essential for wafer fabrication processes. For example, Qatar accounts for more than one‑third of the world’s helium production, and recent Iranian drone strikes halted operations at major helium facilities. Additionally, bromine supplies are also at risk, as approximately two‑thirds of the global production originates from Israel and Jordan, and disruptions in the region could affect semiconductor etching, detection, and circuit‑formation processes.
Our operations rely heavily on global logistics networks - including ocean freight, air freight, and long‑haul trucking - that depend on stable and cost‑effective fuel supplies. Significant increases in fuel costs, reductions in carrier capacity, or extended transit times could materially increase our transportation and distribution expenses. Shipping carriers may impose fuel surcharges, reroute vessels, reduce service frequency, or experience delays, each of which could impair our ability to obtain raw materials or deliver finished products to customers on expected timelines.
Because many of our semiconductor products support time‑critical applications in the automotive, industrial, communications, aerospace and defense, and consumer sectors, delays in obtaining critical materials or increases in logistics costs could negatively impact customer relationships and customers’ production schedules or purchasing decisions, reduce demand, and result in penalties under certain customer agreements. Prolonged or severe disruption - whether due to fuel shortages, materials constraints, logistics delays, or increased energy costs, or reduced customer demand - could adversely affect our ability to meet customer commitments and could materially harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We depend on orders that are received and shipped in the same quarter and have limited visibility to product shipments other than orders placed under certain LTSAs.
Our net sales in any given quarter depend upon a combination of shipments from backlog, and orders that are both received and shipped in the same quarter, which we call turns orders. We measure turns orders at the beginning of a quarter based on the orders needed to meet the shipment targets that we set entering the quarter. Historically, our ability to respond quickly to customer orders has been part of our competitive strategy, resulting in customers placing orders with relatively short delivery schedules. Shorter lead times generally mean that turns orders as a percentage of our business are relatively high in any particular quarter and reduce our visibility on future shipments. Turns orders correlate to overall semiconductor industry conditions and product lead times, and in light of current industry conditions, turns orders are once again key to our ability to meet our business objectives. Because turns orders can be difficult to predict, especially in times of economic volatility and changes in tariffs, as experienced in current and recent quarters, where customers may change order levels within the quarter, varying levels of turns orders make it more difficult to forecast net sales. The level of turns orders has in the past and may in the future decrease in periods where customers are holding excess inventory of our products. As a significant portion of our products are manufactured at foundries, foundry lead times may affect our ability to satisfy certain turns orders. If we do not achieve a sufficient level of turns orders in a particular quarter relative to our revenue targets or effectively manage our production based on changes in order forecasts, our revenue and operating results will likely suffer.
Starting in the first quarter of calendar 2022, we began entering into LTSAs, which offer our customers the ability to receive prioritized capacity. LTSAs are not a guarantee of supply; however, they were designed to provide the highest priority for those orders which were under this program, and the capacity priority was on a first-come, first-served basis until the available capacity was booked. This program and increases in customer order levels outside of this program resulted in some customers holding excess inventory of our products and thus decreased their need to place new orders, including turns
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orders, in fiscal 2023 and fiscal 2024. Because we built inventories in response to customer demand, the cancellation or deferral of product orders resulted in excess inventory, which then resulted in write-downs of inventory and an adverse effect on our gross margins in fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2026.
Intense competition in the markets we serve may lead to pricing pressures, reduced sales or reduced market share.
The semiconductor industry is intensely competitive and faces price erosion and rapid technological change. We compete with major domestic and international semiconductor companies, many of which have greater market recognition and substantially greater financial, technical, marketing, distribution and other resources than we do. In addition, some governments, such as China, may provide, or have provided and may continue to provide, significant assistance financial or otherwise, to some of our competitors, or to new entrants, and may intervene in support of national industries and/or competitors, including trying to disrupt the U.S. semiconductor industry. The semiconductor industry has experienced significant consolidation which has resulted in several of our competitors becoming much larger in terms of revenue, product offerings and scale. We may be unable to compete successfully in the future, which could harm our business. Our ability to compete successfully depends on a number of factors, including, but not limited to:
• changes in demand in the markets that we serve and the overall rate of growth or contraction of such markets, including but not limited to the automotive, personal computing and consumer electronics markets;
• our success in designing and manufacturing new products including those implementing new technologies, including AI, or complying with new governmental restrictions regarding implementation of new technologies;
• the rate at which customers incorporate our products into their applications and the success of such applications;
• product introductions by our competitors or by us in response to actions taken by our competitors;
• our ability to obtain adequate foundry and assembly and test capacity and supplies at acceptable prices;
• our ability to ramp production and increase capacity as needed, at our wafer fabrication and assembly and test facilities;
• the quality, performance, reliability, features, ease of use, pricing and diversity of our products;
• the rate at which the markets that we serve redesign and change their own products, including in response to market changes caused by developing technologies such as AI and other market forces;
• the number, nature and success of our competitors in a given market;
• our ability to protect our products and processes by effective utilization of intellectual property rights;
• our ability to address the needs of our customers;
• our ability to attract and retain talent, including talent with expertise in developing areas such as AI; and
• general market and economic conditions.
Historically, average selling prices in the semiconductor industry decrease over the life of a product. The average selling prices of our mixed-signal microcontroller, FPGA products, and proprietary products in our analog product line have remained relatively constant over time, while average selling prices of our memory and non-proprietary products in our analog product line have declined over time. The overall average selling price of our products is affected by these trends; however, variations in our product and geographic mix of sales can cause wider fluctuations in our overall average selling price in any given period.
We have experienced, and may experience in the future, pricing declines in certain of our proprietary product lines, primarily due to competitive conditions. In the past, we have moderated average selling price declines in many of our proprietary product lines by introducing new products with more features and higher prices and we were able to pass cost increases on to our customers in the form of higher price for our products. However, we may not be able to do so in the future. We have experienced in the past, and may experience in the future, competitive pricing pressures on our products. However, in the future, we may be unable to maintain average selling prices due to an oversupply of product in the market or increased pricing pressure, including as a result of tariffs being applied to the products we sell or purchase, or actions taken by foreign governments such as China to favor companies located in their own country through tariffs or other actions, which could adversely impact our operating results.
We, and our competitors, seek to improve yields, and reduce die size, which could result in significant increases in worldwide supply and downward pressure on prices. Increases in worldwide supply of semiconductor products, if not accompanied by commensurate increases in demand, could lead to declines in average selling prices for our products, and could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, or financial condition.
Our success depends on our ability to introduce new products on a timely basis.
Our future operating results depend on our ability to develop and timely introduce new products that compete effectively on the basis of price and performance and which address customer requirements. The success of our new product
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introductions depends on various factors, including, but not limited to:
• understanding and predicting changes in the market segments that we serve, including changes driven by AI;
• effective new product selection;
• timely completion and introduction of new product designs, and the ability to produce these products at desired volumes, including those developed on more advanced technology nodes such as our first 3nm PCIe Gen 6 Switch;
• availability of skilled employees;
• procurement of licenses for intellectual property rights from third parties under commercially reasonable terms, including those that may be needed to offer interoperability between our products and third-party products;
• implementation of appropriate technical standards developed by standard setting organizations;
• timely filing and protection of intellectual property rights for new product designs;
• the level of competition for our new products and how the features and prices of our new products compare with competing products;
• availability of development and support tools and collateral literature that make complex new products easy for engineers to understand and use; and
• market acceptance of our customers' end products.
Because our products are complex, we have experienced delays from time to time in completing new product development. New products may not receive or maintain substantial market acceptance. We may be unable to timely design, develop and introduce competitive products, or produce them at desired volumes, which could adversely impact our future operating results.
Our success also depends upon our ability to develop and implement new design and process technologies. Semiconductor design and process technologies are subject to rapid technological change and require significant R&D expenditures. We and others in the industry have, from time to time, experienced difficulties in transitioning to advanced process technologies and have suffered reduced manufacturing yields or delays in product deliveries. Our future operating results could be adversely affected if any transition to future process technologies is substantially delayed or inefficiently implemented.
Our operating results will suffer if we ineffectively utilize our manufacturing capacity or fail to maintain manufacturing yields.
Integrated circuit manufacturing processes are complex and sensitive to many factors, including contaminants in the manufacturing environment or materials used, the performance of our personnel and equipment, and other quality issues. As is typical in the industry, we have from time to time experienced lower than anticipated manufacturing yields. Our operating results will suffer if we are unable to maintain yields at or above approximately the current levels. This could include delays in the recognition of revenue, loss of revenue, and penalties for failure to meet shipment deadlines. Our operating results are adversely affected when we operate below normal capacity. In fiscal 2026 and in fiscal 2025, we operated at below normal capacity levels resulting in unabsorbed capacity charges of $200.8 million and $173.0 million, respectively.
Our operating results are impacted by seasonality and wide fluctuations of supply and demand in the industry.
The semiconductor industry is characterized by seasonality and wide fluctuations of supply and demand. Historically, since a significant portion of our revenue is from international sales and consumer markets, our business generates stronger revenues in the first half of our fiscal year and comparatively weaker revenues in the second half of our fiscal year. However, broad fluctuations in our business, changes in semiconductor industry and global economic conditions have had and can have a more significant impact on our results than seasonality. In periods when broad fluctuations, changes in business conditions or acquisitions occur, it is difficult to assess the impact of seasonality on our business. The semiconductor industry has had significant economic downturns (including in fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2025), characterized by diminished product demand, production over-capacity and high inventory levels. We have sought to reduce our exposure to this industry cyclicality by selling proprietary products, that cannot be quickly replaced, to a geographically diverse customer base across a broad range of market segments. However, we have experienced substantial period-to-period fluctuations in operating results and expect, in the future, to experience period-to-period fluctuations in operating results due to general industry or economic conditions. In this regard, many of our customers felt the effects of slowing economic activity and increasing business uncertainty, and customer requests to push-out or cancel backlog increased in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023, in fiscal 2024 and in most of fiscal 2025, which adversely impacted our revenue. Consistent with the slowing macroeconomic environment during such periods, and the related inventory growth, we paused our factory expansion actions at Fab 4 and Fab 5 and reduced our planned capital investments through fiscal 2027. We are unable to predict the timing or impact of any future slowdown on
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our business.
Our business is dependent on distributors to service our end customers.
Sales to distributors accounted for approximately 47% of our net sales in fiscal 2026 and approximately 45% of our net sales in fiscal 2025. With the exception of certain orders placed under our LTSAs, we do not have long-term purchase agreements with our distributors, and we and our distributors may each terminate our relationship with little or no advance notice.
Future adverse conditions in the U.S. or global economies, labor markets, or credit markets, whether resulting from tariffs or other factors, could materially impact distributor operations. Any deterioration in the financial condition, disruption in the operations of our distributors, or disruption of our ability to conduct business with our distributors would likely adversely impact the flow of our products to our end customers and adversely impact our results of operation. For example, on October 8, 2025, certain subsidiaries of Arrow Electronics (Arrow) were placed on the U.S. Department of Commerce Entity List. As a result, we could not ship or transfer products or other items that are governed by the U.S. Export Administration regulations (EAR) to those entities until they were removed from the Entity List. Nine days later, the U.S. Department of Commerce authorized Arrow and its subsidiaries to continue with certain transactions and indicated that Arrow and its subsidiaries would be removed from the Entity List. We worked to minimize disruptions in our supply chain during this period. There was no material impact to Microchip or its customers as a result of this interruption in shipments to certain subsidiaries of Arrow. In addition, during an industry or economic downturn (including in recent periods), there may be an oversupply and decrease in demand for our products, which could reduce our net sales in a given period, increase order push-outs, increase inventory returns, and cause us to carry elevated levels of inventory. For example, in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023, in fiscal 2024 and in fiscal 2025, we accommodated requests by end customers to push-out certain distributor orders to help them manage inventory levels and, in some cases, to help other end customers that are experiencing supply shortages. As a result of the foregoing, we incurred charges in connection with obsolete or excess inventory, or we may not fully recover our costs, which would reduce our gross margins. Violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, export controls and sanction laws, or similar laws, by our distributors could have a material adverse impact on our business.
Business interruptions to our operations or those of our key vendors, licensees or customers could harm our business.
Operations at any of our facilities, at the facilities of any of our wafer fabrication or assembly and test subcontractors, or at any of our significant vendors, licensees or customers may be disrupted due to public health concerns (including outbreaks such as COVID-19), work stoppages or reduction in available labor, power loss, insufficient water, cyber-attacks, computer network compromises, incidents of terrorism or security risk, tariffs, political instability, governmental actions, telecommunications, transportation or other infrastructure failure, radioactive contamination, adverse changes in climate, or fires, earthquakes, floods, droughts, volcanic eruptions or other natural disasters. We have taken steps to mitigate the impact of some of these events should they occur; however, we cannot be certain that we will avoid a significant impact on our business in the event of a business interruption. For example, in August 2024, we determined that an unauthorized party disrupted our use of certain servers and some of our business operations. As a result, certain of our manufacturing facilities were operating at less than normal levels for a period of time, and our ability to fulfill orders was temporarily impacted. While we were able to bring the affected portions of our IT systems back online and restore normal business operations in response to this August 2024 incident without a material impact to our business, we cannot be certain that we would be able to achieve this result in the event of another cyber incident. Separately, in the first three months of fiscal 2023 and in fiscal 2022, COVID-19 related restrictions adversely impacted our manufacturing operations in the U.S., the Philippines and Thailand along with our subcontractors' manufacturing operations in Malaysia, Taiwan and China. Similar challenges arose for our logistics service providers, which adversely impacted their ability to ship product to our customers. Any future pandemic could adversely impact our business in future periods if public health issues again becomes severe in one or more of our key markets such as China or in areas where our suppliers or manufacturing operations are located. In the future, local governments could require us to reduce production or cease operations at any of our facilities, and we could experience constraints in fulfilling customer orders. Likewise, if our licensees are unable to manufacture and ship products incorporating our technology, or if there is a decrease in product demand due to a business disruption, our royalty revenue may decline.
Also, Thailand has experienced periods of severe flooding in recent years. While our facilities in Thailand have continued to operate normally, there can be no assurance that future flooding in Thailand would not have a material adverse impact on our operations. If operations at any of our facilities, or our subcontractors' facilities are interrupted, we may not be able to timely shift production to other facilities, and we may need to spend significant amounts to repair or replace our facilities and equipment. Business interruptions would likely cause delays in shipments of products to our customers, and alternate sources for production may be unavailable on acceptable terms. This could result in reduced revenues, cancellation of orders, or loss of customers. Although we maintain business interruption insurance, such insurance will likely not compensate us for
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any losses or damages, and business interruptions could significantly harm our business. For more information on adverse climate change see our risk " Sustained adverse climate change poses risks that could harm our results of operations" on page 38 .
Our technology licensing business exposes us to various risks .
Our technology licensing business is based on our SuperFlash and other technologies. The success of our licensing business depends on the continued market acceptance of these technologies and on our ability to further develop such technologies, to introduce new technologies, and to enforce our license terms. To be successful, any such technology must be able to be repeatably implemented by licensees, provide satisfactory yield rates, address licensee and customer requirements, and perform competitively. The success of our technology licensing business depends on various other factors, including, but not limited to:
• proper identification of licensee requirements;
• timely development and introduction of new or enhanced technology;
• our ability to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights for our licensed technology, and enforce the terms of our licenses;
• our ability to limit our liability and indemnification obligations to licensees;
• availability of development and support services to assist licensees in their design and manufacture of products;
• availability of foundry licensees with sufficient capacity to support OEM production; and
• market acceptance of our customers' end products.
Because our licensed technologies are complex, there may be delays from time to time in developing and enhancing such technologies. There can be no assurance that our existing or any enhanced or new technology will achieve or maintain substantial market acceptance. Our licensees may experience disruptions in production or reduced production levels which would adversely affect the revenue that we receive. Our technology license agreements generally include a clause that indemnifies the licensee against liability and damages (including legal defense costs) arising from certain intellectual property matters. We could be exposed to substantial liability for claims or damages related to intellectual property matters or indemnification claims. We have a program to audit the royalty payments made by our licensees to help ensure that the payments are in accordance with the terms of the applicable license agreements. From time to time, we or our licensees have contested the amount of royalty payments and related claims have resulted and could result in significant legal fees and require significant attention from our management. These issues may adversely impact the success of our licensing business and adversely affect our future operating results.
Sales into governmental projects, and compliance with associated regulations, could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.
A significant portion of our sales are from or are derived from government agencies or customers who sell to U.S. or foreign government agencies. Such sales are subject to federal contracting regulations as well as uncertainties regarding governmental spending levels, spending priorities, regulatory and policy changes. Future sales into U.S. or foreign government projects are subject to uncertain government appropriations and national defense policies and priorities, including the budgetary process, changes in the timing and spending priorities, the impact of any past or future government shutdowns, contract terminations or renegotiations, future sequestrations, changes in regulations that we must comply with to be eligible to accept new contracts, such as the U.S. Department of War's Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program requirements, or the impact of pandemics. Additionally, a section in the U.S. National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 (the FY2023 NDAA), signed into law on December 23, 2022, with provisions that go into effect in December 2027, prohibits U.S. government agencies from buying semiconductor products or services manufactured by SMIC, YMTC, CXMT and any other entity that the Secretary of Defense or the Secretary of Commerce determine is owned, controlled, or connected to the government of a foreign country of concern (Prohibited Companies). Some of our products are manufactured at SMIC, and some of our suppliers buy products manufactured at YMTC. If we are unable to alternately source or manufacture certain of our products, or discontinue use of products from Prohibited Companies, if any, when Section 5949 of the FY2023 NDAA go into effect in December 2027, this could adversely impact our sales to U.S. government agencies and their prime customers. Although such actions have not yet had a material adverse impact on our business, there can be no assurance as to the future costs or implications of such actions. Sales into government projects are also subject to uncertainties related to monetary, regulatory, and tax and trade policies implemented by current or future administrations.
Delays, reductions in or terminations of government contracts or subcontracts, including those caused by any past, current, or future shutdown of the U.S. federal or foreign governments, could materially and adversely affect our operating results. During any future government shutdown, we may experience delays, reductions in or terminations of government purchases, contracts or subcontracts, which could materially and adversely affect our operating results. While we generally
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function as a subcontractor in government transactions, further changes in U.S. or foreign government procurement regulations and practices, particularly surrounding initiatives to reduce costs or increase compliance obligations (such as the CMMC in the U.S.), may adversely impact the contracting environment, our ability to enter into or renew contracts, our ability to hire and retain employees, and our operating results.
The U.S. government and its contractors may terminate their contracts with us at any time. Uncertainty in government spending and termination of contracts for government related projects could have a material adverse impact on the revenue from our government-related business. Our contracts with U.S. governmental agencies or prime customers require us to comply with the contract terms, and governmental regulations, particularly for our facilities, systems and personnel that service such customers and related to handling of government-regulated data. To be awarded new contracts after November 10, 2025 for the U.S. government, we may be required to meet a CMMC level that we may not meet, or may choose not to meet. Over time, more government contracts may require higher Cybersecurity Maturity Model requirements and if we do not meet them, we will become ineligible for certain contracts. We are also required to have facility security clearances to perform classified contracts and to build and sell classified products for U.S. governmental agencies. If personnel critical to our performance of these contracts are unable to obtain or maintain their security clearances, we may be unable to perform these contracts or compete for other projects of this nature, which could adversely affect our results of operations. We must also comply with regulations regarding the handling of controlled unclassified information and export-controlled data, as well as U.S. Department of War cybersecurity requirements (such as those under the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) and Defense Acquisition Regulations (DFARS)). Complying with these regulations, including audit requirements, requires that we devote significant resources to such matters in terms of training, personnel, information technology and facilities. The increased cost of compliance may adversely affect our operating results. In certain circumstances, failure to comply with these requirements, the terms of government contracts, or with other applicable regulations may result in fines and penalties, or loss of current or future business including our ability to continue as a supplier to U.S. governmental agencies and its contractors for a period of time. Any such suspension or debarment or other sanction may materially and adversely affect our operating results or reputation.
From time to time we receive grants from governments, agencies and research organizations, or enter into tax arrangements. If we are unable to comply with the terms of those grants or arrangements, we may not be able to receive or recognize benefits or we may be required to repay benefits, recognize related charges, or could be required to implement certain limitations on our business, which would adversely affect our operating results and financial position.
From time to time, we have received, and may in the future receive, economic incentive grants, tax benefits, and allowances from national, state and local governments, agencies and research organizations targeted at increasing employment, production or investment at specific locations. Tax arrangements and subsidy grant agreements typically contain economic incentive, headcount, capital and research and development expenditures and other covenants that must be met to receive and retain benefits, and these programs can be subjected to periodic review by the relevant governments. Regulations associated with government grants may contain certain restrictions on grant recipient technology licensing activities and the expansion of certain facilities. Compliance with these restrictions could add complexity to our operations and increase our costs. In addition, noncompliance with the conditions of the grants or arrangements could result in our forfeiture of all or a portion of any future amounts to be received, as well as the repayment of all or a portion of amounts received to date. We may be unable to obtain future incentives to continue to fund a portion of our capital expenditures and operating costs, without which our cost structure would be adversely impacted. Further, any decrease in amounts received could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, or financial condition.
We may not fully realize the anticipated benefits of our completed or future acquisitions or divestitures.
We have acquired, and expect in the future to acquire, additional businesses that we believe will complement or augment our existing businesses. Integration of our acquisitions is complex and may be costly and time consuming and include unanticipated issues, expenses and liabilities. We may not successfully or profitably integrate, operate, maintain and manage any newly acquired operations or employees. We may not be able to maintain uniform standards, procedures and policies. We may not realize the expected synergies and cost savings from the integration. There may be increased risk due to integrating financial reporting and internal control systems. It may be difficult to develop, manufacture and market the products of a newly acquired company, or grow the business at the rate we anticipate. There may be increased risk associated with the activities of the acquired company such as regulatory violations related to their use of AI in their operations, technology development or product offerings or cybersecurity or data governance risks. Following an acquisition, we may not achieve the revenue or net income levels that justify the acquisition. We may suffer loss of key employees, customers and strategic partners of acquired companies and it may be difficult to implement our corporate culture at acquired companies. We have been and may in the future be subject to claims from terminated employees, stockholders of Microchip or the acquired companies and other third parties related to the transaction. In particular, in connection with
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certain of our prior acquisitions, we became involved with third-party claims, litigation, governmental investigations and disputes related to such businesses and transactions. Acquisitions may also result in charges (such as acquisition-related expenses, write-offs, restructuring charges, or future impairment of goodwill), contingent liabilities, adverse tax consequences, additional share-based compensation expense and other charges that adversely affect our operating results. We may fund future acquisitions of new businesses or strategic alliances by utilizing cash, borrowings under our Revolving Credit Facility, issuing Commercial Paper, raising debt, issuing shares of our common stock, or other mechanisms.
Further, when we divest assets or a business, it may be difficult to find or complete divestiture opportunities or alternative exit strategies, which may include site closures, timely or on acceptable terms. These circumstances could delay the achievement of our strategic objectives or cause us to incur additional expenses with respect to the desired divestiture, or the price or terms of the divestiture may be less favorable than we had anticipated. Even following a divestiture or other exit strategy, we may have certain continuing obligations to former employees, customers, vendors, landlords or other third parties. We may also have continuing liabilities related to former employees, assets or businesses. Such obligations and liabilities may have a material adverse impact on our results of operations and financial condition.
In addition to acquisitions, we have in the past, and expect in the future, to enter into joint development agreements or other strategic relationships with other companies. These transactions are subject to a number of risks similar to those we face with our acquisitions including our ability to realize the expected benefits of any such transaction, to successfully market and sell products resulting from such transactions or to successfully integrate any technology developed through such transactions.
As a result of our acquisition activity our goodwill and intangible assets increased significantly and we may in the future incur impairments to goodwill or intangible assets.
When we acquire a business, a substantial portion of the purchase price of the acquisition is allocated to goodwill and other identifiable intangible assets. The amount of the purchase price which is allocated to goodwill is determined by the excess of the purchase price over the net identifiable assets acquired. As of March 31, 2026, we had goodwill of $6.70 billion and net intangible assets of $2.03 billion. We review our indefinite-lived intangible assets, including goodwill, for impairment annually in the fourth fiscal quarter or whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of those assets is more likely than not impaired. Factors that may be considered in assessing whether goodwill or intangible assets may be impaired include a decline in our stock price or market capitalization, reduced estimates of future cash flows and slower growth rates in our industry. Our valuation methodology for assessing impairment requires management to make judgments and assumptions based on experience and to rely heavily on projections of future operating performance. Because we operate in highly competitive environments, projections of our future operating results and cash flows may vary significantly from our actual results. Through March 31, 2026, we have never recorded a goodwill impairment charge. There were no material intangible asset impairment charges fiscal 2026. If in future periods, we determine that our goodwill or intangible assets are impaired, we will be required to write down these assets which would have a negative effect on our consolidated financial statements.
If we fail to maintain proper and effective internal control and remediate any future control deficiencies, our ability to produce accurate and timely financial statements could be impaired, which could harm our operating results, our ability to operate our business and our reputation with investors.
We have in the past identified a material weakness in our internal controls related to accounting for income taxes and we also identified a material weakness in our internal controls related to IT system access. Although such material weaknesses were remediated in fiscal 2020, there can be no assurance that similar control issues will not be identified in the future. If we cannot remediate future material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in a timely manner, or if we identify additional control deficiencies that individually or together constitute significant deficiencies or material weaknesses, our ability to accurately record, process, and report financial information and our ability to prepare financial statements within required time periods, could be adversely affected. Failure to maintain effective internal controls could result in violations of applicable securities laws, stock exchange listing requirements, and the covenants under our debt agreements, subject us to litigation and investigations, negatively affect investor confidence in our financial statements, and adversely impact our stock price and our ability to access capital markets.
Ensuring that we have adequate internal financial and accounting controls and procedures so that we can produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis is a costly and time-consuming effort that needs to be re-evaluated frequently. Our internal control over financial reporting is designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP. We are required to comply with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 which requires an annual management assessment of the effectiveness of our
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internal control over financial reporting and a report by our independent auditors. In addition to the identified material weaknesses related to accounting for income taxes and to IT system access, which were remediated as of March 31, 2020, we have from time to time identified other significant deficiencies. If we fail to remediate any future material weaknesses or significant deficiencies or to maintain proper and effective internal control over financial reporting in the future, our ability to produce accurate and timely financial statements could be impaired, which could harm our operating results, harm our ability to operate our business and reduce the trading price of our stock.
Customer demands for us to implement business practices that are more stringent than legal requirements may reduce our revenue opportunities or cause us to incur higher costs.
Some of our customers require that we implement practices that are more stringent than those required by applicable laws with respect to labor requirements, the materials contained in our products, energy efficiency, environmental impact or other items. To comply with such requirements, we may require our suppliers to adopt such practices. Our suppliers may in the future refuse to implement these practices, or may charge us more for complying with them. If certain of our suppliers refuse to implement the practices, we may be forced to source from alternate suppliers. The cost to implement such practices may cause us to incur higher costs and reduce our profitability, and if we do not implement such practices, such customers may disqualify us as a supplier, resulting in decreased revenue opportunities. Developing, enforcing, and auditing customer-requested practices at our own sites and in our supply chain will increase our costs and may require more personnel.
We must attract and retain qualified personnel to be successful, and competition for qualified personnel has intensified.
Our business relies on our ability to attract and retain qualified employees across various functions, including management, technical, marketing, sales, research and development, manufacturing, and operations. Competition for qualified personnel has intensified for a variety of reasons, including the high demand for employees in rapidly developing fields such as AI, the increase in work-from-home arrangements and increases in minimum wages and wage inflation in our industry. Our failure to attract and retain hardware and software engineers, as well as sales and marketing personnel, could delay product development and introduction, thereby adversely affecting our net sales. We depend on a direct labor force at our manufacturing facilities, and any inability to maintain this workforce could adversely affect our operations. This could lead to delays in production and shipments, hinder our ability to meet customer demand, and ultimately adversely impact our business, financial condition, and operational results. As the use and integration of AI becomes more prevalent, there is an anticipated shift in the skills required within the workforce, making AI literacy increasingly important for our employees. These competitive pressures and the resulting wage inflation may increase our labor costs and adversely impact our operational results.
In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025, we implemented a global reduction of our work force, which we completed in the first quarter of fiscal 2026. That reduction in force may have negatively affected employee morale and could diminish our attractiveness as an employer. If we lose existing qualified personnel or are unable to hire new qualified personnel, as needed, it could impair our ability to compete effectively.
Furthermore, changes in immigration laws and regulations, or more robust enforcement of new or existing laws, may hinder our ability to attract and retain qualified engineering personnel. In the U.S., where a portion of our research and development teams are based, stricter immigration controls could adversely affect the employment status of non-U.S. engineers and other key technical employees, as well as our ability to hire new non-U.S. employees. U.S. immigration policies may also make it more challenging to recruit and retain highly skilled foreign national graduates from U.S. universities.
Our success depends on the contributions of our senior management team. We have experienced transitions with respect to certain members of our senior management due to retirements or other reasons in the past and may do so in the future. Effective succession planning is important for our long-term success and we have a program designed to address this risk. Because we have no employment agreements with our U.S. senior management team, they could leave with little or no notice, which could make it more difficult for us to execute our planned business strategy. The inability to find suitable replacements for senior management could harm our ability to implement our business strategy and respond to the rapidly changing market conditions in which we operate.
The occurrence of events for which we are self-insured, or which exceed our insurance limits, may adversely affect our profitability and liquidity.
We have insurance coverage related to many different types of risk; however, we self-insure for some potentially significant risks and obligations, because we believe that it is more cost effective for us to self-insure than to pay the high
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premium costs. The risks and exposures that we self-insure include, but are not limited to, employee health matters, certain property matters, product defects, cybersecurity matters, employment risks, environmental matters, political risks, and intellectual property matters. Should there be a loss or adverse judgment in an area for which we are self-insured, then our financial condition, results of operations and liquidity may be materially adversely affected.
Risks Related to Cybersecurity, Products, Privacy, Intellectual Property, and Litigation
We continue to be the target of attacks on our IT systems. Interruptions in and unauthorized access to our IT systems, security breaches or incidents impacting our systems or data that we or our service providers maintain or otherwise process including data belonging to us, or our customers, suppliers, contractors or employees, could adversely affect our business.
We rely on the uninterrupted operation of complex IT systems and networks to operate our business. Any improper handling of confidential data, or significant disruption to our systems or networks, including, but not limited to, any that may relate to new system implementations, computer viruses, security breaches or incidents, cyber-attacks, ransom-style attacks, theft or tampering, inadvertent error, facility issues, natural disasters, terrorism, war, telecommunication failures or energy blackouts, security breaches or incidents in our customers’ or third-party providers’ networks, in third-party products we use, or in cloud-based services provided to, by, or enabled by us, or any data we or our service providers maintain or otherwise process, including but not limited to, data belonging to us or our customers, suppliers, contractors or employees, or any perception any of the foregoing has occurred, could have a material adverse impact on our business, operations, supply chain, sales and operating results, result in regulatory inquiries, investigations or other proceedings against us, result in claims, demands and litigation against us, or damage our reputation. Such improper handling of confidential data, or system or network disruption, or any cyber-attack or other means of effectuating a security breach or incident, could result in loss, unavailability or compromise of all or a portion of our systems and business operations, and a loss, unavailability, an unauthorized release of, or other unauthorized use or processing of, personal data, or our suppliers’ or our customers’ intellectual property or confidential, proprietary or sensitive information. Any such matter, or any perception that it has occurred, could harm our business or competitive position, result in a loss of customer confidence, and cause us to incur significant costs to remedy the damages, and may result in lower revenue, lower margins, regulatory investigations, inquiries or other proceedings, enforcement actions, remediation obligations, claims for damages, litigation, and fines, penalties, damages, other liabilities, and other sanctions.
We have experienced and continue to experience verifiable attacks on our IT systems and data, including network compromises, attempts to breach our security measures and attempts to introduce malicious software into our IT systems. For example, in August 2024, we determined that an unauthorized party disrupted our use of certain servers and some of our business operations. As a result, certain of our manufacturing facilities were operating at less than normal levels for a period of time, and our ability to fulfill orders was temporarily impacted. While we were able to bring the affected portions of our IT systems back online and restore normal business operations in response to this August 2024 incident without a material impact to our business, we cannot be certain that we would be able to achieve this result in the event of another cyber-attack. We routinely evaluate the effectiveness of the containment mechanisms that we have implemented and continue to implement additional measures. We analyzed the information that was compromised in August 2024 and we do not believe that this cyber incident has had a material adverse effect on our business or resulted in any material damage to us. New information can develop that may impact our assessment of cyber events, including information learned as we develop and deploy mitigations.
Due to the types of products we sell and the significant amount of sales we make to government agencies or customers whose principal sales are to U.S. government agencies, we have experienced and expect to continue to experience in the future, attacks on our IT systems and data, including attempts to breach our security, network compromises and attempts to introduce malicious software into our IT systems. Geopolitical events and tensions may increase these risks.
In recent years, we have regularly implemented improvements to our protective measures that have included, but have not been limited to, implementation of the following: firewalls, endpoint intrusion detection and response software, regular vulnerability scanning and risk-based remediation, automated patching, log monitors, AI-assisted event correlation tools, network segmentation, routine backups with offsite retention of storage media, system audits, dual factor identification, data partitioning and encryption, privileged account segregation and monitoring, routine password modifications, and an enhanced information security program including training classes and phishing exercises for employees and contractors with system access, along with tabletop exercises conducted by information security personnel. However, our system improvements have not been fully effective in preventing attacks on our IT systems and data, including breaches of our security measures, and there can be no assurance that any future system improvements will be effective in preventing cyber-attacks or disruptions, a ransom-style attack, or limiting the damage from any cyber-attacks or disruptions. Our ability to recover from ransomware and other ransom-style attacks may be limited if our backups have been affected by the attack, or
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if restoring data from backups is delayed or not feasible. Our system improvements have resulted in increased costs to us and we may be required to dedicate additional expenditures and resources to making system improvements and otherwise addressing cybersecurity matters in the future, whether in response to any disruption, interruption, breach, incident or otherwise. Further, any future improvements, attacks or disruptions could result in additional costs related to rebuilding our internal systems, defending litigation, complaints or other claims, providing notices to regulatory agencies or other third parties, responding to regulatory inquiries, actions or other proceedings, or paying damages, fines or penalties. Such attacks or disruptions could have a material adverse impact on our business, operations and financial results. Furthermore, our efforts to comply with evolving laws and regulations related to cybersecurity, such as SEC rules requiring disclosure of a material cybersecurity incident, may be costly and any actual or alleged failure to comply could result in investigations, proceedings, investor lawsuits and reputational damage.
In addition, employees and former employees, in particular former employees who become employees of our competitors, customers, licensees, or other third parties, including state actors, have in the past and may in the future misappropriate, wrongfully use, publish, access, process or provide to our competitors, customers, licensees or other third parties, including state actors, our technology, intellectual property, or other proprietary or confidential information. This risk would be exacerbated to the extent our competitors for talent, particularly engineering talent, hire our employees. Similarly, we provide access to certain of our technology, intellectual property, and other proprietary or confidential information to our direct and indirect customers and licensees and certain of our consultants, who may wrongfully use such technology, intellectual property or information, or wrongfully disclose such technology, intellectual property or information to third parties, including our competitors or state actors.
Third-party service providers, such as wafer foundries, assembly and test contractors, distributors, credit card processors, SaaS platforms, and other vendors have access to portions of our and our customers' data or software. These service providers also face significant cybersecurity threats, and they may be subject to cyber-attacks, disruptions, and interruptions to their networks and systems, and otherwise may suffer from security breaches and incidents. Any such breach or incident, including any involving misappropriation, loss or other unauthorized processing of data or software maintained or otherwise processed by our third-party service providers, or any perception any of these has occurred, could negatively impact our business, operations and financial results, as well as our relationship with our customers.
Our contracts may not contain limitations of liability, and even where they do, there can be no assurance that limitations of liability in our contracts are sufficient to protect us from liabilities, damages, or claims related to our cybersecurity practices or measures. We do not have insurance coverage specifically for cybersecurity matters. Other types of insurance coverage that we do have may not be adequate or sufficient to protect us from or to mitigate liabilities arising out of our cybersecurity practices or measures or otherwise relating to any cybersecurity breach or incident, and we cannot be sure that such coverage will continue to be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all, or that such coverage will pay future claims.
We face significant and evolving risks related to AI across our products, operations, cybersecurity, regulatory compliance, intellectual property, confidential information, privacy, workforce, customer transactions, and customer demand, any of which could adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and reputation.
Market dynamics and our product strategy are increasingly influenced by AI. Our ability to design, develop and timely introduce competitive products and processes - including those implementing new technologies such as AI, or complying with new governmental restrictions regarding implementation of new technologies - may be affected by how quickly we and our customers adapt to market changes driven by AI, and by the rate at which the markets we serve redesign and change their own products in response to AI and other market forces. Failure to respond timely could impair our competitive position, reduce design wins and sales, and negatively affect our margins.
Demand for AI-related products is subject to concentration and investment-cycle risk, and any slowdown or shift in AI spending could reduce demand for our products, pressure margins, and adversely affect our operating results.
AI also amplifies cybersecurity threats. As AI and machine learning evolve, they may lead to the development of dramatically more effective security tools, and cyber‑attackers may leverage these tools to enhance attack methods, identify novel security vulnerabilities, develop malicious code, sophisticated phishing attempts, and convincing deep fakes that manipulate our content or the voices or images of our leaders. Threats may also be introduced by our employees', our customers’, or our partners’ use of AI tools, including where AI‑generated source code incorporated into products or systems introduces malicious code or security vulnerabilities. We may be unaware of an incident, its magnitude or its effects until significant harm is done.
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Our internal and partner use of AI tools presents further risks. Employees, consultants or partners may use AI tools in a manner posing risks to proprietary, confidential or regulated information and to intellectual property rights. The use of AI tools may result in allegations or claims relating to violation of third‑party IP rights, unauthorized access to or use or processing of proprietary, confidential or personal information, failure to comply with open‑source software requirements, or other legal or contractual obligations. AI tools may also generate unreliable, inaccurate, inferential, unexplainable or biased outputs that could lead to errors in decision‑making, product development or other business activities.
Our products and intellectual property may face heightened security, safety and reliability risks when used in AI‑enabled applications, including in the cloud, IoT, automotive and other emerging use cases. Security vulnerabilities in our products, industry‑standard specifications, or licensed intellectual property may be exploited, and we or our customers may not promptly detect or fully assess the impact of such vulnerabilities. These risks could result in reduced demand, adverse publicity, remediation costs, customer claims, litigation or regulatory scrutiny.
AI‑related laws, regulations and national and regional governmental policies are rapidly evolving and inconsistent across jurisdictions. New and existing frameworks in the United States, the European Union and China - including the EU AI Act’s risk‑based approach - may impose additional compliance, transparency, conformity assessment, monitoring or usage‑restriction obligations on AI‑enabled products. Conflicting regulatory requirements across jurisdictions increase compliance complexity and costs, and failure or perceived failure to comply could result in fines, penalties, investigations, restrictions on product offerings, reputational harm, or lost sales or talent.
We also face AI‑related risks in acquisitions and strategic relationships, including regulatory violations or cybersecurity risks arising from an acquired company’s or partner’s use of AI. In addition, competition for talent with AI expertise has intensified, and our ability to attract, retain and train personnel with appropriate AI skills and literacy is critical to our innovation and product roadmap.
Uncertainty in intellectual property law relating to works created using AI technology may result in changing or inconsistent IP protections, which could adversely affect our ability to protect or commercialize innovations developed with AI. Collectively, these AI‑related risks could lead to operational disruption, increased costs, reputational harm, loss of market share, reduced revenue and margins, and adverse impacts on our financial condition and stock price.
We face risks related to security vulnerabilities in our products .
Our products, or IP that we purchase or license from third parties for use in our products, as well as industry-standard specifications that we implement in our products, may be subject to security vulnerabilities. While some of our products contain encryption or security algorithms to protect third-party content or user-generated data stored on our products, and we receive and process alerts regarding potential security vulnerabilities in our products through our public facing Product Security Incident Response Team, these products could still be hacked or the encryption schemes could be compromised, breached, or circumvented by motivated and sophisticated attackers, including attackers using powerful new AI-driven technologies. Our products are being used in application areas that create new or increased cybersecurity, privacy or safety risks including applications that gather and process data, such as the cloud or IoT, automotive applications, and applications that use AI. We, our customers, and the users of our products may not promptly learn of or have the ability to fully assess the magnitude or effects of a vulnerability, including the extent, if any, to which a vulnerability has been exploited. Additionally, new information can develop that may impact our assessment of a security vulnerability, including information learned as we develop and deploy mitigations, or become aware of additional variants or evaluate the competitiveness of products. The increasing use of our products in interconnected, autonomous, safety‑critical, defense‑related, and AI‑enabled systems may expose security vulnerabilities beyond traditional software exploits, including firmware, embedded functionality, or interactions with third‑party systems, which may only become apparent after large‑scale deployment.
Security vulnerabilities and any limitations of, or adverse effects resulting from, mitigation techniques can adversely affect our results of operations, financial condition, sales, customer relationships, share price, prospects, and reputation in a number of ways, any of which may be material. Adverse publicity about security vulnerabilities or mitigations could damage our reputation with customers or users and reduce demand for our products and services. These effects may be greater to the extent that competing products are not susceptible to the same vulnerabilities or if vulnerabilities can be more effectively mitigated in competing products. Moreover, third parties can release information regarding potential vulnerabilities of our products before mitigations are available. This, in turn, could lead to attempted or successful exploits of vulnerabilities, adversely affect our ability to introduce mitigations, or otherwise harm our business and reputation.
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We face risks to our business and proprietary confidential information due to use of AI.
We limit our employees’ use of AI tools, such as ChatGPT, in accordance with our internal guidelines and procedures. However, the internal governance of the use of these technologies can be challenging, and our employees and consultants may use these tools on an unauthorized basis and our partners may use these tools, which poses additional risks relating to the protection of data, including the potential exposure of our proprietary confidential or other controlled information to unauthorized recipients and the misuse of our or third-party intellectual property. Use of AI tools may result in claims related to violation of privacy or third-party intellectual property rights, unauthorized access to or use of proprietary information, or government regulated data (e.g., controlled unclassified information, ITAR, export-controlled data), and noncompliance with actual or asserted legal, contractual, or other obligations (including open source requirements). AI tools may also produce unreliable, inaccurate, inferential, unexplainable or biased outputs that could lead to errors in our decision-making, product 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 maintaining, training, monitoring and enforcement of appropriate guidelines and procedures governing the use of AI tools, and the results of any such use, by us or our partners.
Issues relating to the use of our technologies, including AI, may result in reputational or financial harm and liability.
Differing opinions and regulations regarding what constitutes the responsible use of technologies, including evolving technologies such as AI, in our internal operations, products and services may result in reputational or financial harm and liability and may cause us to incur costs to resolve such issues. If we enable or offer solutions that draw controversy due to their perceived or actual societal impact, such as solutions with unintended consequences, or those that raise concerns related to human rights, privacy, employment or other social or political issues, or if we are unable to maintain effective internal mechanisms for the responsible development, deployment, and use of technologies, including AI enabling products, we may experience brand or reputational harm, competitive harm or legal liability. AI introduces new legal, social and ethical issues, risks and challenges that may slow adoption of AI-enabled products and services, reduce market acceptance, delay commercialization, alter customer purchasing behavior, or adversely affect our business model, competitive position and operating results.
Our failure to comply with federal, state, or international laws and regulations regarding privacy, data protection and handling, and cybersecurity may materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We are subject to numerous laws and regulations in the U.S. and internationally regarding privacy, data protection and handling, and cybersecurity, such as the European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the U.K. equivalent to the GDPR, and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), the EU Cyber Resilience Act and Cybersecurity Act, and the CMMC program. The scope of such laws and regulations is rapidly evolving, subject to differing interpretations, and may be inconsistent among jurisdictions. Some of these laws create a broad definition of regulated, protected or personal information, establish data privacy rights, impose risk assessment, certification and/or data breach notification requirements, and potentially limit contractual opportunities or create severe statutory damages or other remedial frameworks and private rights of action for certain data breaches. Some of the laws and regulations also place restrictions on our ability to collect, store, use, transmit and process personal information and other data across our business. For example, the GDPR restricts the ability of companies to transfer personal data from the European Economic Area (EEA) to the U.S. and other countries. Some of these laws mandate data-handling and cybersecurity requirements, conformity assessments and incident reporting such as the CMMC program. Over time, failure to comply with CMMC requirements required by the U.S. Department of War and its prime customers may make us ineligible for government contracts. Such laws and regulations have resulted and will continue to result in significantly greater compliance burdens and costs for companies such as us that have employees, customers, and operations in the EEA or make sales into government-related projects.
We have relied mainly on the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs), for transfers of personal information from the EEA to the U.S. or other countries. However, the Court of Justice of the EU in a July 2020 decision (Schrems II) invalidated the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework (Privacy Shield) and also called for stricter conditions in the use of the SCCs. Following the Schrems II decision, certain data protection authorities in the EU have issued statements advising companies within their jurisdiction not to transfer personal data to the U.S. under the SCCs. The EU and U.S. have established a successor framework to the Privacy Shield, the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (EU-U.S. DPF), but it already has faced a legal challenge and may face additional legal challenges. If we are unable to implement sufficient safeguards to ensure that our transfers of personal information from the EEA are lawful, we may face increased exposure to regulatory actions and substantial fines and injunctions against processing personal information from the EEA. The loss of our ability to lawfully transfer personal data out of the EEA may cause reluctance or refusal by European customers to communicate with us as they
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are currently, and we may be required to increase our data processing capabilities in the EEA at significant expense. Additionally, other countries outside of the EEA have passed or are considering passing laws requiring local data residency, which could increase the cost and complexity of providing our products in those jurisdictions.
Furthermore, the GDPR and the U.K. equivalent of the GDPR expose us to two parallel data protection regimes in Europe, each of which potentially authorizes fines and enforcement actions for certain violations. Substantial fines may be imposed for breaches of data protection requirements, which can be up to 4% of a company’s worldwide revenue or 20 million Euros, whichever is greater, and classes of individuals or consumer protection organizations may initiate litigation related to our processing of their personal data. Although the U.K. data protection regime currently permits data transfers from the U.K. to the EEA and other third countries, covered by a European Commission 'adequacy decision' through the continued use of SCCs and binding corporate rules, these laws and regulations are subject to change, and any such changes could have adverse implications for our transfer of personal data from the U.K. to the EEA and other third countries. Additionally, new and updated AI regulations could impose onerous obligations that may disadvantage us and require us to change our business practices.
In the U.S., federal, state, and local governments have enacted numerous laws and regulations relating to privacy, data protection and handling, and cybersecurity. For example, California has enacted the CCPA, which creates new individual privacy rights for California consumers (as defined in the law) and places increased privacy and security obligations on entities handling personal data of consumers or households. The CPRA, which became operative January 1, 2023, expands the CCPA’s requirements, including applying to personal information of business representatives and employees and establishing a new regulatory agency to implement and enforce the law. Additionally, numerous other states have proposed or enacted laws addressing privacy and security, many of which impose obligations similar to those of the CCPA. The U.S. federal government also has rules, regulations and laws regarding handling of government-regulated data (e.g., controlled unclassified information, classified data, and export-controlled data) and continues to contemplate federal privacy legislation. The CCPA, and other evolving legislation relating to privacy, data protection, and information security may impact our business activities and require us to modify our policies and practices.
If other jurisdictions enact similar cross-border personal data transfer laws and local personal data residency laws, it would increase the cost and complexity of doing business and non-compliance could result in fines or other sanctions from regulators. The inability to transfer personal data to the U.S. could significantly and negatively impact our business operations, limit our ability to collaborate with parties that are subject to European and other data privacy and security laws, or require us to increase our personal data processing capabilities in Europe and/or elsewhere at significant expense. Some European regulators have prevented companies from transferring personal data out of Europe for allegedly violating the GDPR’s cross-border data transfer limitations, which could negatively impact our business.
While we continue to undertake efforts to conform to current legal and regulatory obligations and to account for relevant best practices, such efforts may be unsuccessful or result in significant costs. We may also experience reluctance, or refusal by European or multi-national customers to continue to provide us with personal data due to the potential risk exposure of personal data transfers and the current data protection obligations imposed on them by applicable data protection laws or by certain data protection authorities. These and any other laws relating to privacy or data protection and handling and their interpretations continue to develop and their uncertainty and inconsistency may increase the cost of compliance, cause compliance challenges, restrict our ability to offer products in certain locations in the same way that we have been, and potentially adversely affect certain third-party service providers. Further, any actual or alleged failure by us or our service providers to comply with laws, regulations, or other actual or asserted obligations relating to privacy, data protection and handling, or cybersecurity may subject us to claims, demands, and litigation, sanctions or fines by regulators, and other damages and liabilities. Any of the foregoing may harm our reputation and market position and otherwise could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We are exposed to various risks related to legal proceedings, investigations or claims.
We are currently, and in the future may be, involved in legal proceedings, investigations or claims regarding intellectual property rights, product defects, breach of contracts, tax matters, export controls and sanctions, and other matters. As is typical in the semiconductor industry, we receive notifications from third parties from time to time who believe that we owe them indemnification or other obligations related to claims made against us, our direct or indirect customers, or our licensees. These legal proceedings and claims, even if meritless, have in the past and could in the future result in unexpected and substantial costs to us. If we are unable to resolve or settle a matter, obtain necessary licenses on reasonable terms, reengineer products or processes to avoid infringement, provide a cost-effective remedy, or successfully prosecute or defend our position, we could incur uninsured liability in any of them, be required to take a charge to operations, be enjoined from selling a material portion of our products or using certain processes, suffer a reduction or elimination in the value of our
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inventories, incur reputational damage, and our business, financial condition or results of operations could be harmed.
It is also possible that from time to time we may be subject to claims related to the manufacture, performance, or use of our products. These claims may be due to injuries, economic damage, lost intellectual property, or environmental exposures related to manufacturing, a product's nonconformance to our or our customer’s specifications, changes in our manufacturing processes, security vulnerabilities, or unexpected customer system issues due to the integration of our products or insufficient design or testing by our customers. We could incur significant expenses related to such matters, including, but not limited to:
• costs related to writing off the value of our inventory of nonconforming products;
• recalling nonconforming products;
• providing support services, product replacements, or modifications to products and the defense of such claims;
• diversion of resources from other projects;
• lost revenue or a delay in the recognition of revenue due to cancellation of orders, unpaid receivables, or reimbursement of costs or damages;
• customer imposed fines or penalties for failure to meet contractual requirements; and
• a requirement to pay damages, penalties or recall costs.
Because the systems into which our products are integrated have a higher cost of goods than the products we sell, the expenses and damages we are asked to pay may be significantly higher than the revenue and profits we received. While we exclude consequential damages in our standard terms and conditions, certain of our contracts do not exclude such liabilities. Further, our ability to avoid such liabilities may be limited by law. We have liability insurance which covers certain damages arising out of product defects, but we do not expect that insurance will fully protect against such claims. Payments we may make in connection with these customer claims may adversely affect the results of our operations.
Further, we sell to customers in industries such as automotive, aerospace, defense, safety, security, and medical, where failure of the application could cause damage to property or persons. We may be subject to claims if our products, or the integration of our products, cause system failures. We will face increased exposure to claims if there are substantial increases in either the volume of our sales into these applications or the frequency of system failures integrating our products.
Our contractual relationships with our customers expose us to risks and liabilities.
We do not typically enter into long-term contracts with our non-distributor customers, and therefore we cannot be certain about future order levels from our customers. Further, except for a few LTSAs that are still in place, the customer contracts that we enter into generally do not require any specified level of purchases and allow customers to cancel orders or terminate the contract with limited restrictions. Under our LTSAs, customers may cancel orders in the event of price increases. While we had approximately 101,000 customers, and our ten largest direct customers accounted for approximately 11% of our total revenue in fiscal 2026, and two of our top ten direct customers are contract manufacturers that perform manufacturing services for many customers, cancellation of customer contracts could have an adverse impact on our revenue and profits. For example, due to uncertainty related to the COVID-19 pandemic, we experienced an increase in order cancellations and requests to reschedule deliveries to future dates in the first quarter of fiscal 2021. Also, many of our customers felt the effects of slowing economic activity and increasing business uncertainty, and customer requests to push-out or cancel backlog and our accommodation of their requests increased in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023 and continued throughout fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2025.
Certain customer contracts differ from our standard terms of sale due to the negotiating leverage held by the customer. For example, under certain contracts we have committed to supply products on scheduled delivery dates, or extended our obligations for liabilities such as warranties or indemnification for quality issues or intellectual property infringement. If we are unable to supply the customer as contractually required, the customer may incur additional production costs, lost revenues due to delays in their manufacturing schedule, or quality-related issues. We may be liable for costs and damages associated with customer claims, and we may be obligated to defend the customer against claims of intellectual property infringement and pay associated legal fees. While we try to minimize the number of contracts which contain such provisions, manage the risks of such liabilities, and set caps on our liability exposure, sometimes we are unable to do so. In order to win important designs, avoid losing business to competitors, maintain existing business, or be permitted to bid on new business, we have, and may in the future, have to agree to uncapped liability for such items as intellectual property infringement or product failure, or have to agree to liquidated damage provisions. This exposes us to risk of liability far exceeding the purchase price of the products sold under such contracts, the lifetime revenues we receive under such contracts, or potential consequential damages. Further, where we do not have negotiated customer contracts, our customer's order terms may govern the transaction and contain terms unfavorable to us. These risks could result in a material adverse impact on our results of operations and financial condition.
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Failure to adequately protect our intellectual property could result in competitive harm, lost revenue or market opportunities.
Our ability to obtain patents, licenses and other intellectual property rights covering our products and manufacturing processes is important for our success. To that end, we have acquired certain patents and licenses and intend to continue to seek patents on our technology and manufacturing processes. The process of seeking patent protection can be expensive, and patents may not be issued from currently pending or future applications. In addition, our existing and new patents, trademarks and copyrights that are issued may not have sufficient scope or strength to provide meaningful protection or commercial advantage to us. We may be subject to, or may initiate, interference proceedings in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, patent offices of a foreign country or U.S. or foreign courts, which can require significant financial resources. In addition, the laws of certain foreign countries do not protect our intellectual property rights to the same extent as the laws of the U.S. Infringement of our intellectual property rights by a third-party could result in harm to our competitive position, uncompensated lost market and revenue opportunities for us. Although we continue to aggressively defend and protect our intellectual property on a worldwide basis, there can be no assurance that we will be successful.
Certain of our software is derived from "open source" software that is generally made available to the public by its authors. Certain of the software of our suppliers and customers may also be derived from open source software. Open source software licenses impose certain obligations on us in the event we were to distribute derivative works of the open source software. These obligations may require us to make source code for the derivative works available to the public and/or license such derivative works under a particular type of license, rather than the forms of license we customarily use to protect our intellectual property. While we believe we have complied with our obligations under the various applicable licenses for open source software, in the event that the copyright holder of any open source software were to legally establish that we had not complied with the terms of a license for a particular work, we could be required to release the source code of that work to the public and/or stop distribution of that work if the license is terminated which could adversely impact our business and results of operations.
Risks Related to Taxation, Laws and Regulations
Our reported financial results may be adversely affected by new accounting pronouncements or changes in existing accounting standards and practices.
We prepare our financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP. These accounting principles are subject to interpretation or changes by the FASB and the SEC. New accounting pronouncements and interpretations of accounting standards and practices have occurred in the past and are expected to occur in the future. New accounting pronouncements or a change in the interpretation of accounting standards or practices may have a significant effect on our reported financial results and may affect our reporting of transactions completed before the change is effective.
Regulatory authorities in jurisdictions into or from which we ship our products or import supplies could issue new export controls or trade sanctions, levy fines, restrict or delay our ability to export products or import supplies, or increase costs associated with the manufacture or transfer of products.
A significant portion of our sales involve export and import activities. Our U.S.-manufactured products or products based on U.S. technology or U.S. software, or products incorporating U.S. content may be subject to laws and regulations administrated by various agencies including those under the U.S. Departments of State, Commerce, and Treasury, that govern international trade, including but not limited to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Export Administration Regulations (EAR), International Traffic in Arms Regulations, economic embargoes and tariffs or other trade sanctions against certain countries and parties. Licenses or license exceptions are often required for the shipment of our products to certain countries as well as for releases of our technology and software to foreign nationals. Our inability to timely obtain a license, for any reason, not limited to a delay in license processing due to a federal government shutdown, or changes in government policies of approval or denial of licenses, could cause a delay in scheduled shipments which could have a material adverse impact on our revenue within the quarter of a shutdown, and in following quarters depending on the extent that license processing is delayed. Further, determination by a government that we have failed to comply with trade regulations or anti-bribery regulations can result in penalties which may include denial of export privileges, fines, penalties, and seizure of products, or loss of reputation, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, sales and earnings. A change in laws and regulations could restrict our ability to transfer product to previously permitted countries, customers, distributors or others. For example, in October 2022, the U.S. Department of Commerce published a regulation that imposed restrictions on activities in or involving China, Hong Kong, and Macau related to advanced computing integrated circuits (ICs), advanced-node ICs, computers and other commodities that contain such ICs, certain semiconductor manufacturing items, and supercomputers. The regulation also expanded controls on transactions involving semiconductor manufacturing and
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semiconductor equipment manufacturing end-uses. Further, this regulation and others expanded the scope of foreign-produced items subject to license requirements under U.S. law.
Export controls, sanctions, and trade restrictions are increasingly complex and subject to discretionary interpretation by regulatory authorities, with requirements that may change through guidance, enforcement, or licensing decisions. Even where we believe authorizations apply, differing or changing regulatory interpretations could disrupt shipments, delay revenue recognition, require product or customer changes, and adversely affect our operating results.
In November 2023, the U.S. Department of Commerce added restrictions and export license requirements to end uses and product categories previously described in the October 2022 regulation. To date, the U.S. Department of Commerce has issued a number of regulations that further restrict transactions involving semiconductors and related products. In addition, the U.S. Departments of Commerce, State, and Treasury have been adding parties to the restricted parties lists, and imposing prohibitions and export licensing requirements on transactions with them and entities that are 50% or more owned by them. The BIS has temporarily suspended its 50% Affiliates Rule, until November 10, 2026. The result of these additional restrictions and the change in the U.S. administration in 2025 is that there has been a slow-down in the processing of export license applications by the U.S. Government and an increased burden on us to conduct additional due diligence imposed by the regulations, as well as by sanctions imposed on Russia for invading Ukraine. At this time, there has not been a material impact on our ability to obtain necessary licenses for exportation. A previous example occurred in fiscal 2020, when the U.S. Department of Commerce effectively banned U.S. companies from selling products or transferring technology to certain Chinese companies, including Huawei and their related companies worldwide. In fiscal 2020, the U.S. Federal Acquisition Regulation prohibited U.S. governmental agencies from buying equipment incorporating covered telecommunications equipment, as a substantial component or critical technology, where the technology came from certain Chinese companies. In July 2020, this was expanded to prohibit U.S. governmental agencies from entering into a contract with any company that uses covered telecommunications equipment whether or not the Chinese technology is related to the procurement. Since then, similar restrictions have been imposed under the National Defense and Authorization Act when the supply chain includes certain Chinese entities. The EAR also effectively prohibits sales of items for a "military end use," to a "military end-user," or for a "military intelligence" end-user, or end-use to certain countries, such as Belarus, Burma, Cambodia, Cuba, China, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria and Venezuela. The U.S. Department of Commerce also currently imposes restrictions on importation and sale of certain Vehicle Connectivity System (VCS) hardware and covered software designed, developed, manufactured, or supplied by persons with a nexus to China, Hong Kong, Macau, or Russia. Any of the foregoing changes to the regulatory requirements could adversely impact our operational costs due to the administrative impacts of complying with these regulations and may limit those with whom we conduct business. Any one or more of these sanctions, future sanctions, a change in laws or regulations, or a prohibition on shipment of our products or transfer of our technology to significant customers could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The U.S. and other countries have levied tariffs and taxes on certain goods, implemented trade restrictions, and introduced national security protection policies. Trade tensions between the U.S. and China, have continued to escalate from 2018 to present, and include the U.S. increasing tariffs on Chinese origin goods and China increasing tariffs on U.S. origin goods. Additionally, the U.S. has imposed a baseline 10% tariff on almost all imported goods globally. We continue to take steps to mitigate the costs of these tariffs on our business by adjusting our operations and supply chain but may be unable to completely mitigate the costs of such tariffs, including those imposed in recent years or in the future.
On August 1, 2025, the U.S. administration implemented additional changes to its tariff policy, including the suspension of the de minimis exemption, expiration of the 10% baseline tariff, implementation of revised reciprocal tariffs tailored to each trading partner, and the imposition of tariffs on particular goods (e.g., copper). Although semiconductors remain exempt from most of the recent tariff actions, an increase in tariffs on semiconductors is expected to be imposed once the Section 232 investigation into the impact on U.S. national security by imports of semiconductors, semiconductor manufacturing equipment and their derivative products is concluded. Semiconductors may also be subject to tariffs resulting from ongoing trade negotiations. Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that IEEPA-based tariffs are unconstitutional, we cannot predict the timing, likelihood, or amount of any refunds or other recoveries.
Increased tariffs on our customers' products could adversely impact their sales, and increased tariffs on our products in comparison to those of our competitors could each result in lower demand for our products. Further, governments may impose restrictions on the sale to certain customers of our products, or any applications containing our products. For example, the Chinese government has announced restrictions relating to sales of certain raw materials and to sales of products containing certain products made by Micron, and they may direct companies within China to purchase Chinese-made products. The Chinese government may also re-initiate the suspended antidumping investigation into imports of analog chips originating in the United States and aggressively enforce the new regulation intended to combat the extraterritorial application of foreign trade controls, sanctions and other measures, which would likely have an adverse impact on our
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revenue if additional tariffs are imposed by the Chinese government on products subject to the investigation. Similar restrictions on our products or the products of our customers or suppliers could negatively impact our business and financial results. It is also possible that evolving U.S. export controls may encourage our non-U.S. customers to purchase from companies not subject to U.S. export controls, thereby harming our business, market position, and financial results. Excessive export controls increase the risk of investing in U.S. advanced semiconductor products, because by the time a new product is ready for market, it may be subject to new unilateral export controls restricting its sale. At the same time, such controls may increase investment in foreign competitors, which would be less likely to be restricted by U.S. controls.
Further changes in trade or national security protection policy, tariffs, additional taxes, restrictions on exports or other trade barriers, including those taken against the U.S. in retaliation for U.S. policies, may limit our ability to obtain equipment, components or raw materials (including rare earth minerals), limit our ability to produce products, increase our selling and/or manufacturing costs, decrease margins, reduce the competitiveness of our products, reduce our ability to sell products, or reduce our ability to have mergers and acquisitions approved by governmental agencies, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations or financial conditions.
The outcome of future examinations of our income tax returns and existing tax disputes could have an adverse effect on our results of operations.
We are subject to examination of our U.S. and certain foreign income tax returns for fiscal 2007 and later. We regularly assess the likelihood of adverse outcomes of these examinations to determine the adequacy of our provision for income taxes and have reserved for potential adjustments that may result from current or future examinations. There can be no assurance that the final determination of any of these or any future examinations will not have a material adverse effect on our effective tax rates, financial position and results of operations.
In September 2021, we received a Statutory Notice of Deficiency (2007 to 2012 Notice) from the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for fiscal 2007 through fiscal 2012. The disputed amounts largely relate to transfer pricing matters. In December 2021, we filed a petition in the U.S. Tax Court challenging the 2007 to 2012 Notice. In September 2023, we received a Revenue Agent Report (RAR) from the IRS for fiscal 2013 and fiscal 2016. In October 2023, we received a Statutory Notice of Deficiency (2014 to 2015 Notice) from the IRS for fiscal 2014 and fiscal 2015. The disputed amounts for fiscal 2013 to fiscal 2016 largely relate to transfer pricing matters. In December 2023, we filed a petition in the U.S. Tax Court challenging the 2014 to 2015 Notice. In September 2025, we reached a settlement with the IRS for fiscal 2007 to fiscal 2015.
In May 2023, we received a proposed income adjustment from the Malaysian Inland Revenue Board (IRB) for fiscal 2020. In December 2023, we received a Notice of Assessment from the IRB asserting the same proposed income adjustment. In March 2025, we entered into a Consent Judgment before the High Court, agreeing that the dispute will be heard before the Special Commissioners of Income Tax (SCIT). It was also agreed that the payment on the taxes assessed is stayed and the IRB will pause all enforcement and proceedings against the collection of the taxes assessed until the appeal before the SCIT is concluded. If the adjustment is upheld by the highest court that has jurisdiction over this matter in Malaysia, it could result in income taxes and penalties up to MYR 1.9 billion (approximately $480.2 million based on the exchange rate as of March 31, 2026). The disputed amounts largely relate to the characterization of certain assets. The timing of adjudicating this matter is uncertain but could occur in the next 18 months. The ultimate outcome of disputes of this nature is uncertain, and if the IRB were to prevail on its assertions, the assessed tax, penalties, and deficiency interest could have a material adverse impact on our financial position, results of operations or cash flows.
Exposure to greater than anticipated income tax liabilities, changes in tax rates, laws and regulations, changes in the interpretation of tax laws and regulations, or unfavorable assessments from tax audits and examinations could affect our effective tax rates, financial condition and results of operations.
We are a U.S.-based multinational company subject to tax in many U.S. and foreign jurisdictions. Our income tax obligations could be affected by many factors, including changes to our operating structure, intercompany arrangements and tax planning strategies.
Our income tax expense is computed based on tax rates at the time of the respective financial period. Our future effective tax rates, financial condition and results from operations could be unfavorably affected by several factors. These include changes in tax rates, tax laws, and tax regulations and how those laws are interpreted in jurisdictions where our income is earned. This also applies to jurisdictions that align with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Base Erosion Profit Shifting recommendations. Other risks include changes to the valuation of our deferred tax assets and changes in where we earn our income geographically. We may also face challenges from tax authorities to our tax positions and intercompany transfer pricing agreements. Additional risks include not meeting performance obligations
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with respect to tax incentive agreements, changes in foreign currency exchange rates, and adverse resolution of audits and examinations of previously filed tax returns.
Our business, financial condition and operating results may be adversely impacted by policies implemented globally by the current or future administrations.
The U.S. and certain other global jurisdictions in which we operate, have taken and have threatened to take significant legislative and policy changes in areas including but not limited to tariffs, taxes and trade, labor, and the environment. If implemented, these changes could increase our effective tax rate, decrease our revenue and increase our selling, general, administrative and/or manufacturing costs, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations or financial conditions. Changes in tariffs, tax policy, trade regulations or other matters, and any uncertainty surrounding the scope or timing of such changes, could negatively impact the stock market, and reduce the trading price of our stock or otherwise impact our business. For example, in February 2022, the U.S. began implementing widescale sanctions against Russia due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Sanctions against Belarus and certain Ukrainian regions were later implemented. Because the actions by Russia against Ukraine are in conflict with our Guiding Values, we chose to cease shipments into Russia and Belarus, and we will continue to comply with applicable U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia, Belarus, and Russia-controlled areas of Ukraine. While sales of our products into these regions, and to customers that sell into these regions, have been negatively impacted, at this time, we have not experienced a material adverse impact on our revenue. Retaliatory acts by Russia in response to the sanctions could include cyber-attacks, sanctions, or other actions that could disrupt the U.S. economy. As a result of the foregoing risks or similar risks, the imposition of sanctions could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations or financial condition.
New technology trends, such as cyber resiliency and security requirements and the rapid adoption of AI, require us, and our customers and suppliers, to keep pace with evolving regulations and industry standards. In the U.S., the EU, and China, there are various current and proposed regulatory frameworks relating to cybersecurity, AI development, and the deployment of automation and AI in products, services and operations, including the EU AI Act, China’s generative AI regulations, and various current or proposed U.S. federal and state AI and/or cybersecurity legislative or governance frameworks, executive orders, rules, regulations and laws. The EU AI Act, which has a phased implementation schedule, imposes requirements on AI systems based on their risk classification, and may require conformity assessments, registration, and ongoing monitoring for certain AI systems. We expect that the legal and regulatory environment relating to emerging technologies such as AI will continue to develop and impact us and our customers and supply chain.
We are subject to stringent environmental, climate change and other regulations, which may force us to incur significant expenses and impact our operations.
We must comply with federal, state, local and foreign governmental regulations related to the use, storage, emissions, discharge and disposal of hazardous substances used in our products and manufacturing processes, or that are the result of our manufacturing operations, such as greenhouse gases. We must also comply with rules and regulations regarding limiting greenhouse gas emissions, public reporting of environmental metrics such as greenhouse gas emissions and hazardous substances, and obtain third-party assurance of greenhouse gas reporting. Regulations could require us to change manufacturing processes, substitute materials which may cost more or be less available, obtain new permits and undertake other costly activities.
Our failure to comply, or the failure of entities that we have acquired over time to have complied, with regulations could result in significant fines, litigation or administrative actions by regulators or others, liability for clean-up, criminal and civil liabilities, import/export restrictions, reduction or suspension of production, cessation of operations or future liabilities. Restrictions on emissions could result in significant costs such as the need for additional equipment, higher energy costs, carbon taxes, and emission cap and trade programs, and could also result in reduction or suspension of production, or even cessation of operations. Such regulations have required us in the past, and could require us in the future, to incur significant expenses to comply with such regulations. Our failure to control the use of, or adequately restrict the discharge of, hazardous substances could not only impact the health of our employees, customers and communities in which we operate, but could also impact our ability to operate. Such failure could also restrict our ability to ship certain products to certain countries, require us to modify our products, shipping materials or logistics, or require us to incur other significant costs and expenses. Environmental laws continue to expand with a focus on reducing or eliminating hazardous substances in electronic products and shipping materials. Future environmental regulations could require us to close or reduce production at certain facilities, reengineer certain of our existing products and may prevent us or make it more expensive for us to manufacture, sell and ship our products. Regulations restricting greenhouse gas emissions could cause us to incur significant additional costs of compliance due to the need for changes in manufacturing methods or installation of abatement equipment, expanded data collection, analysis, and certification. Because we have contractual obligations to certain customers to assess the impact that
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manufacturing process changes may have on the products that we provide to such customers, we have to take a measured approach when implementing changes to our facilities, manufacturing processes, and manufacturing inputs. If we are unable to implement the necessary abatement plan, we may be required to ramp down our existing operations significantly or risk noncompliance with regulations.
The number and complexity of laws and customer requirements focused on the energy efficiency of electronic products, the recycling of electronic products, the reduction of chemicals used in and to manufacture electronic products, and the reduction in the amount of packing materials and the increase in the required recycling of packing materials have expanded significantly. It may be difficult for us to timely comply with these laws and we may have insufficient quantities of compliant products to meet customers' needs, thereby adversely impacting our sales and profitability. We may have to write off inventory if we hold unsaleable inventory as a result of changes to regulations. We expect these risks to continue. These requirements may increase our own costs, as well as those passed on to us by our supply chain.
S ustained adverse climate change poses risks that could harm our results of operations.
Sustained adverse changes in climate could have a direct adverse economic impact on us due to the effects of extreme weather and climate events on our production facilities , our supply chain and customers. Utility shortages, higher costs of utilities, and reduced availability of water could disrupt our operations as well as those of our customers and suppliers . Certain of our operations are located in arid or tropical regions, which some experts believe may become vulnerable to more frequent fires, storms, severe floods and droughts. While our business recovery plans are intended to allow us to recover from natural disasters or other disruptive events, our plans may not protect us from all events.
Voluntary actions we may take or have taken as part of our ESG initiatives could require us to limit emissions, change manufacturing processes, substitute materials which may cost more or be less available, fund offset projects, or undertake other costly activities. Voluntary restrictions on emissions could result in significant costs such as the need for additional equipment, higher energy costs, carbon taxes, and emission cap and trade programs. The cost of compliance with such voluntary efforts could restrict our manufacturing operations, increase our costs, and have an adverse effect on our operating results.
Customer demands and regulations related to conflict-free minerals and other substances incorporated into or used to manufacture our products may force us to incur additional expenses.
Under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, in August 2012, the SEC released investigation, and disclosure requirements regarding the use of "conflict" minerals mined from the Democratic Republic of Congo and adjoining countries. We have filed a Form SD with the SEC regarding such matters annually since June 2, 2014. Other countries are considering similar regulations. If we cannot certify that our supply chain is free from the risk of irresponsible sourcing, customers and others may demand that we change the sourcing of materials used in the manufacture of our products, even if the costs for compliant materials significantly increases or availability is limited. If we change materials or suppliers, there will likely be costs associated with qualifying new suppliers and production capacity, delivery times and quality could be negatively impacted. Our relationships with customers, suppliers and stockholders may be adversely affected if we are unable to certify that our products are free from the risk of irresponsible sourcing. We have incurred, and expect in the future to incur, additional costs associated with complying with these disclosure requirements, such as costs related to determining the source of any conflict minerals used in our products. We may be unable to satisfy those that require that all of the components of our products be certified as conflict free in a materially different manner than advocated by the Responsible Minerals Initiative or the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. If we are unable to meet customer requirements, customers may disqualify us as a supplier, resulting in a permanent or temporary loss of sales to such customer or a reduction in purchases from us, and we may have to write off inventory if it cannot be sold.
In addition to concerns over "conflict" minerals mined from the Democratic Republic of Congo, our customers may require that other minerals and substances used within our supply chain, manufacturing processes, or contained in our products be evaluated and reported on. An increase in reporting obligations will increase associated operating costs. This could have negative effects on our overall operating profits.
Failure to meet ESG expectations, standards or disclosure requirements or achieve our corporate responsibility goals, could adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition, or stock price.
In recent years, there has been an increased focus on corporate responsibility matters, including greenhouse gas emissions and climate-related risks, renewable energy, water stewardship, waste management, data privacy, cybersecurity, trade controls, responsible sourcing and supply chain, use of products for illegal or unethical purposes, human rights, and
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social responsibility. We are committed to corporate responsibility and actively manage these issues in accordance with applicable law and including through our guiding values and our internal policies. As an example, since we do not support the actions of Russia against Ukraine, in March 2022 we stopped selling products to customers and distributors located in Russia and Belarus. However, we have been made aware that there are entities in Russia that indirectly obtained our products after March 2022 despite the preventative measures we took and continue to take. Though we continue to improve our processes and procedures to prevent the unauthorized flow of our products, our actions have not been fully successful. We operate in an extensive, ever-changing global supply chain, an expectation of complete traceability of standard semiconductor products to every end use and prevention of product misuse and diversion is unachievable. Thus, despite our efforts, our products may be used for illegal or objectionable applications and third parties may engage in conduct that we do not support or condone.
We have publicly announced environmental goals including those related to greenhouse gas emissions reduction, achieving net zero carbon emissions and renewable energy usage, however, we may refine or modify such goals in the future. These goals reflect our current plans and aspirations and are not guarantees that we will be able to achieve them. These goals could expose us to heightened scrutiny and financial, legal, reputational, operational, compliance, and other risks, including lost customer opportunities, which could negatively impact us. Further, any failure to set or achieve corporate responsibility initiatives that meet our stakeholders' evolving expectations could also negatively impact us.
In addition, we are or expect to become subject to various new or proposed climate-related and other sustainability laws and regulations, including, for example, the state of California's new climate change disclosure requirements and the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. Compliance with such laws and regulations, as well as the overall increased focus and scrutiny from certain regulators, investors, customers, vendors, employees, and other stakeholders concerning ESG and climate matters, could impose additional costs on us and expose us to new risks, including resulting in changes to our current ESG goals.
Evolving stakeholder expectations, voluntary and required reporting regimes that are not harmonized and continue to change, and our efforts to manage these issues, report on them, and accomplish our goals, present numerous operational, regulatory, reputational, financial, legal, and other risks, any of which could have a material adverse impact, including on our reputation and stock price. It is also possible that government, customers, investors and other stakeholders might not be satisfied with our policies, programs, goals, performance and related disclosures, or the speed of their adoption, implementation and measurable success, or that we have adopted such policies, programs and commitments.
Such risks and uncertainties include:
• reputational harm, including damage to our relationship with customers, suppliers, investors, governments, or other stakeholders;
• some customers may choose not to do business with us, or we may choose to discontinue or restrict business with certain customers due to our policies;
• liabilities or penalties associated with inadequate processes to collect, audit, or disclose information;
• adverse impacts on our ability to sell and manufacture products;
• increased risk of litigation, investigations, or regulatory enforcement action;
• unfavorable ESG ratings or investor sentiment;
• diversion of resources and increased costs to control, assess, and report on ESG metrics;
• our ability to achieve our goals within announced timeframes;
• increased costs and resources to monitor, report and achieve our goals;
• unforeseen operational and technological difficulties;
• access to and increased cost of capital; and
• adverse impacts on our stock price.
Any failure, or perceived failure, to meet evolving stakeholder expectations or industry standards, or achieve our corporate responsibility goals could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, reputation, or stock price.
Risks Related to Capitalization and Financial Markets
The future trading price of our common stock could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to a variety of factors.
The market price of our common stock has fluctuated significantly in the recent past and is likely to fluctuate in the future. The future trading price of our common stock could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to a variety of factors, many of which are beyond our control, including, but not limited to:
• global economic and financial uncertainty due to changes in geopolitical conditions or military conflicts, interest
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rates, persistent inflation, instability in the banking sector, tariffs, public health concerns or other factors;
• political events, trends, and unexpected developments occurring nationally, globally, or in any of our key sales regions;
• quarterly variations in our operating results, financial condition, including our liquidity, or the operating results of other technology companies;
• changes in our financial guidance or our failure to meet such guidance;
• changes in analysts' estimates of our financial performance or buy/sell recommendations;
• general conditions in the semiconductor industry;
• actual or anticipated announcements of technical innovations or new products by us or our competitors;
• the amount and timing of repurchases of shares of our common stock;
• our ability to realize the expected benefits of our completed or future acquisitions; and
• announcements of restructurings, reductions in force, departure of key employees, and/or consolidations of operations.
In addition, the stock market has recently and in the past experienced significant price and volume fluctuations that have affected the market prices for many companies and that often have been unrelated to their operating performance. These broad market fluctuations and other factors have harmed and may harm the market price of our common stock. The foregoing factors could also cause the market price of our Convertible Debt, Series A Preferred Stock or Depositary Shares to decline or fluctuate substantially. In the past, following volatile periods in the price of their stock, many companies became the target of securities class action litigation. If we are sued in a securities class action, we could incur substantial costs, and it could divert management's attention and resources and have an adverse impact on our financial performance and the price of our common stock or Series A Preferred Stock.
The amount and timing of our share repurchases may fluctuate in response to a variety of factors.
The amount, timing, and execution of repurchases of shares of our common stock may fluctuate based on the share price of our common stock, general business and market conditions, tax regulations impacting share repurchases and other factors including our operating results, level of cash flow, leverage ratios, capital expenditures and dividend payments on our common stock and preferred stock. Although our Board of Directors has authorized share repurchases of up to $4.00 billion, of which $1.56 billion is still available, the authorization does not obligate us to acquire any particular amount of shares. We cannot guarantee that our share repurchase authorization will be fully consummated or that it will enhance long-term stockholder value. The repurchase authorization may be suspended or discontinued at any time at our discretion and may affect the trading price of our common stock and increase volatility. We did not repurchase any shares in fiscal 2026.
Our financial condition and results of operations could be adversely impacted if we do not effectively manage or refinance our current or future debt.
As of March 31, 2026, the principal amount of our outstanding indebtedness was $5.54 billion. At March 31, 2026, we had no outstanding borrowings under our Revolving Credit Facility, which provides $2.25 billion of revolving loan commitments that terminate in 2030, and $349.0 million outstanding principal amount under our Commercial Paper program. As of March 31, 2026, we had $3.00 billion in aggregate principal amount of Senior Notes and $2.19 billion in aggregate principal of Convertible Debt outstanding. We intend to finance the repayment of our fixed rate debt maturing within the next 12 months using new fixed rate debt, new notes or convertible debt or by using available borrowings under our Revolving Credit Facility, our Commercial Paper program or other instruments. Changes in interest rates will have a more significant impact on our interest expense if we refinance our fixed rate debt with variable rate debt. There can be no assurance that we will be able to refinance our current or future debt on reasonable terms, if at all.
Servicing our debt requires a significant amount of cash, we may not have sufficient cash to fund payments and adverse changes in our credit ratings could increase our borrowing costs and adversely affect our ability to access the debt markets.
Our ability to make scheduled payments of principal, interest, or to refinance our indebtedness, including our outstanding Senior Notes, Convertible Debt, and Commercial Paper, depends on our future performance, which is subject to economic, competitive and other factors. Our business may not continue to generate sufficient cash flow to service our debt and to fund capital expenditures, dividend payments, share repurchases or acquisitions. If we are unable to generate such cash flow, due to financial, contractual, regulatory, or other reasons, we may be required to reduce or suspend dividends, share repurchases, or undertake alternatives, such as selling assets, restructuring debt or obtaining additional equity capital on onerous or highly dilutive terms. In several recent quarters, we have used borrowings to finance a portion of our quarterly dividend payments and we may continue to do so in future periods. Our ability to refinance our indebtedness will depend on the capital markets and our financial condition at such time. Our Senior Notes and Commercial Paper are rated by certain major credit rating
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agencies. These credit ratings impact our cost of borrowing and our ability to access the capital markets and are based on our financial performance and financial metrics including debt levels. While we have maintained our investment grade rating, in March 2025 we were downgraded by one rating agency and there is no assurance that we will maintain our current credit ratings. A downgrade of our credit rating by a major credit rating agency could result in increased borrowing costs and could adversely affect our ability to access the debt markets to refinance our existing debt or finance future debt. Our maintenance of substantial levels of debt could adversely affect our ability to take advantage of opportunities and could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.
Conversion of our Convertible Debt, Series A Preferred Stock or Depositary Shares, or the payment of dividends on Series A Preferred Stock in shares of common stock, will dilute the ownership interest of our existing stockholders.
The conversion of some or all of our shares of Series A Preferred Stock or Depositary Shares, the payment of dividends on our Series A Preferred Stock in the form of common stock or the conversion of our outstanding Convertible Debt will dilute the ownership interest of our existing stockholders to the extent we deliver common stock upon conversion of such debt. Following our irrevocable settlement election made on April 1, 2022 with respect to the 2017 Senior Convertible Debt, upon conversion, we are required to satisfy our conversion obligation with respect to such converted Convertible Debt by delivering cash equal to the principal amount of such converted Convertible Debt and cash and shares of common stock or any combination, at our option, with respect to any conversion value in excess thereof (i.e., the conversion spread). There would be no adjustment to the numerator in the net income per common share computation for the cash settled portion of the Convertible Debt as that portion of the debt instrument will always be settled in cash. The conversion spread will be included in the denominator for the computation of diluted net income per common share. Any sales in the public market of any common stock issuable upon conversion of our Convertible Debt, Series A Preferred Stock or Depositary Shares or the payment of dividends on our Series A Preferred Stock in the form of common stock could adversely affect prevailing market prices of our common stock. In addition, the existence of the Convertible Debt, Series A Preferred Stock or Depositary Shares may encourage short selling by market participants because the conversion of the Convertible Debt, Series A Preferred Stock or Depositary Shares, as applicable, could be used to satisfy short positions, or anticipated conversion of the Convertible Debt, Series A Preferred Stock or Depositary Shares into shares of our common stock could depress the price of our common stock.
The Convertible Debt, Series A Preferred Stock or Depositary Shares may adversely affect the market price of our common stock.
The market price of our common stock is likely to be influenced by our Convertible Debt, Series A Preferred Stock or Depositary Shares. The market price of our common stock could become more volatile and could be depressed by: (1) investors’ anticipation of the potential resale in the market of a substantial number of additional shares of common stock received upon conversion of the Convertible Debt, Series A Preferred Stock or Depositary Shares; (2) possible sales of our common stock by investors who view the Series A Preferred Stock or Depositary Shares as a more attractive means of equity participation in us than owning shares of common stock; and (3) hedging or arbitrage trading activity that we expect to develop involving the Series A Preferred Stock or Depositary Shares and our common stock.
Our common stock ranks junior to our Series A Preferred Stock with respect to dividends and amounts payable in the event of our liquidation, winding-up or dissolution.
Our common stock ranks junior to our Series A Preferred Stock with respect to the payment of dividends and amounts payable in the event of our liquidation, winding-up or dissolution. This means that, unless accumulated dividends have been paid or set aside for payment on all our outstanding Series A Preferred Stock through the most recently completed dividend period, no dividends may be declared or paid on our common stock subject to limited exceptions. Likewise, in the event of our voluntary or involuntary liquidation, winding-up or dissolution, no distribution of our assets may be made to holders of our common stock until we have paid to holders of our Series A Preferred Stock a liquidation preference equal to $1,000 per share plus accumulated and unpaid dividends.
Fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates could adversely impact our operating results.
We use forward currency exchange contracts in an attempt to reduce the adverse earnings impact from the effect of exchange rate fluctuations on our non-U.S. dollar net balance sheet exposures. Nevertheless, in periods when the U.S. dollar significantly fluctuates in relation to the non-U.S. currencies in which we transact business, the value of our non-U.S. dollar transactions can have an adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition. In particular, in periods when the value of a non-U.S. currency significantly declines relative to the U.S. dollar, customers transacting in that currency may be unable to fulfill their contractual obligations or to undertake new obligations to make payments or purchase products. In periods when the U.S. dollar declines significantly relative to the British pound, Euro, Thai baht and Taiwan dollar, the
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operational costs in our European and Thailand subsidiaries are adversely affected. Although our business has not been materially adversely impacted by recent changes in the value of the U.S. dollar, there can be no assurance as to the future impact that any weakness or strength in the U.S. dollar will have on our business or results of operations.
