Dr. Fermi Wang
Analyst · Morgan Stanley
Thanks, Louis aAnd good afternoon everyone. Before I discuss our results, I will provide an update on geopolitical factors that may continue to impact our business. New and old hire tariffs, market share shifts between our customers and supply chain issues continue to be potentially disruptive and the several of our customers in China continue to face the risk that maybe added to the U.S. government entity list, which could limit or restrict our shipments to them. At the same time, our largest competitor in the security camera semiconductor market, HiSilicon, a unit of Huawei is facing challenges that are helping us gain market share. As you can see, there are multiple factors, positive and negative, that yield a wide range of outcomes for us. We continue to demonstrate strong progress toward our strategy to transform from a pure video processing company to an AI and the computer vision company. During Q2, three customers including one up in the automotive market generated Max production CV revenue. CV design activity remains strong. In Q2, we generated pre-production CV revenue for more than 40 customers, ordering engineering parts, evaluation kits and/or development boards. Driven by demand for our core video processing portfolio, our confidence in our fiscal year 2020 outlook has increased despite the geopolitical uncertainty. Our Q2 fiscal year 2020 revenue over $56.4 million was above the high end of our guidance range, and revenue increased 20% from the $47.2 million in the prior quarter. Three factors are driving the strong outlook in our core business. First, underlying demand at our largest security camera customer in China has improved, as noted by this customer in their recent earnings reports. Second, this solid demand outlook for security camera is being fortified by our global market share gains. And third, there's some inventory restocking in China. I will now talk about our progress in our target markets starting with the security. We've seen professional security camera makers increasing orders for shipments in the second half of the year. We are continuing to gain market shares at the customer outside of China, as well as Chinese customer for camera models to be exported to Europe and the U.S. We're also seeing widespread adoption of our CV solutions in the professional security camera market with both large established players, as well as with the new group of emerging private players. We're excited to announce that Avigilon a Motorola solution company will be releasing its new H5A AI powered camera line in the coming weeks. The new camera line lays the foundation for Avigilon's next generation of intelligent video solutions, and offer the new era of AI innovation in video security. Based on Ambarella's CV22, CVflow AI processor, the new cameras feature Avigilon's next generation video analytics that leverages the chip's neural network based video processing and events image capabilities to help recognize and to classify different objects with extremely high accuracy. And in July, German engineering giant, Bosch, honored Ambarella with its prestigious Bosch Global Supplier Award for their energy and building technology business. The award recognized Ambarella's performance in the manufacturing and the supply of products and services, notably in the area of innovation, quality, costs and logistics. This year, Bosch awarded 47,000 of its 43,000 suppliers, representing its top suppliers across an array of industry and in 15 different countries. Ambarella has been a supply of SoC for Bosch IP cameras for over 10 years. During the quarter, leading Korean security camera supplier Hanwha Techwin released its new Q series of camera with models ranging from 2 mega and 5 mega resolution and in-box minitone and the multi-PCB form factors. All of new models are based on Ambarella's S3L HEVC SoCs, our first wins in professional models as its customer. Hanwha has stated that they will use Ambarella's CVflow SoC as they introduce new camera with integrated AI capabilities. At the IFSEC, international security show held in London in June, real professional IP camera maker, Vaion introduced its vcam dome in the panoramic cameras based on Ambarella's CV22 CVflow SoCs, with embedded video and audio analytics powered by AI algorithms. Vaion’s end-to-end surveillance solutions can detect threats in their earlier stage and perform fast and effective investigations. And in August, U.S. based Verkada introduced its new Ambarella's based CM61 camera design to give customer the flexibility to add 4K video coverage everywhere. The solutions' hybrid cloud architecture supports ease of installation and the usability for minimize bandwidth usage without sacrificing 4K quality or performance. And in the consumer home monitoring market, which we previously mentioned, is the second wave our CV revenue we see increasing demand for camera solutions with greater intelligence as customers demand cameras with smart motion detection that notify user only in the event that something interesting is happening. In future, such camera will also be capable of identifying people, as well as classifying objects and that this level of intelligence while increasingly require dedicated AI hardware in the cameras. We also see cameras being offered as part of a broader IoT ecosystem that support similar integration with other devices in the home. During the quarter, U.S. based alarm.com introduced its V723 and V523 intelligent outdoor and indoor cameras based on Ambarella's S5L SoC, an operating Wi-Fi connectivity, full HD video and night vision. And Samsung SmartThings introduced its SmartThings camera [indiscernible] camera based on the Ambarella's H2LM SoC, clearly for $90 it offers full HD video, wide-angle operation, HDR processing and a two-way audio. LifeShield, an AT&T Company, introduced its LifeShield HD Video Doorbell, which integrates seamlessly with it's the security systems. Based on Ambarella's S2L SoC, the camera offers voice support for Amazon Alexa, allowing it to control alarm systems, adjust lightings and managing thermostat via voice command. We are also seeing new opportunity for cameras being integrated into smart locks. During this quarter, Hikvision's consumer division, EZVIZ, introduced its DL30VS smart-lock with building 720p wide-angle camera and night vision capabilities. Based on Ambarella's H3LM SoCs, the lock camera can detect when intruders are lurking and take a snapshot or record a video clip to send to the homeowner. In summary for IP security camera market, our sales are expanding both professional and the consumer markets are growing as we take market share and as we continue to make excellent progress in designing our CVflow SoCs into a next generation of AI cameras. I will now update you on our automotive market progress. In July, leading Korean automotive tier 1 Hyundai Mobis announced that it had developed a camera monitor system using cameras and monitors to replace a vehicle's rear and the side view mirrors. The system enables vehicles to achieve greater fuel economy by eliminating the track of the side mirrors, while the cameras widefield of view enhance driver safety by reducing blind spots. Ambarella's A9AQ Automotive SoC provides the image processing for all three of the video channels. We're also seeing increasing interest in our computer vision SoC from companies that provide a fleet management solution for commercial vehicles, such as trucks and buses. Existing camera solutions for commercial market typically lack intelligent features and can only run analytics in the cloud. With Ambarella's CVflow portfolio of AI chips, the solution providers can now deploy AI based applications, such as front ADAS, active driver monitoring system and blind spot detection in vehicles. Our CVflow solution has been chosen by multiple providers in Asia and USA with one generating mass production revenue in Q2, and others expect to be entering production by the end of the year. We continue to win car recorder designs as Asian automotive OEMs increasingly offer this feature in new car models as a pre-installed option. During the quarter, Chinese car maker Geely introduced its new Emgrand GS and GR models featuring full HD car recorder based on Ambrella's A12 automotive SoCs. Additionally, Great Wall Motors introduced its WEY VV6 SUV with one camera and three camera DVR options based on Ambrella's A12A and H22A automotive SoC, and the new electric car, the ORAR2 featuring a recorder based on our A12A. In aftermarket dash camera category, Korean supplier Thinkware announced its QXD MEGA recorder based on Ambrella's A9AQ Automotive SoC, the first four channel full HD car recorder in Korea. Additionally, Thinkware introduced its V500 Plus 2-channel dash camera based on Ambrella's A12 SoC. Also in Korea, Fine Digital, introduced its GX200 and GX2000 model based on Ambrella's A12 SoC, featuring Quad HD front and full HD rear recording, smartphone connectivity and auto night vision. In summary, we're just starting to realize our vision to enable Big Data analytics in video HD endpoint devices or AI in the camera. As this play out, we expect to see multibillion dollar increases in our addressable market. Our CV solution integrates our state-of-the-art video processing heritage with our recently deployed deep neural network AI processor. This is evident now that customers who are experienced with our video processors are able to efficiently migrate to our CV solutions, and our CV portfolio is also attracting new customers and expanding our customer base. We are on schedule to realize the three ways of CV revenue articulated on our last earning call, and we're pleased to see the improvements in our Q3 forecast of core video processing models. There are many distractions in the market today and I'm thankful Ambarella's global team is keeping up with a strong pace of execution. And also thanks to all of our stakeholders, including our 754 employees, customers, vendors and shareholders for our support. Now, I will turn the call over to Casey for the second quarter financial details and guidance for our third quarter of fiscal year 2020.