Item 1.

Business

General

Monolithic Power Systems, Inc. (“MPS”) is a fabless global company that provides high-performance, semiconductor-based power electronics solutions. Incorporated in 1997, our three core strengths include deep system-level knowledge, strong semiconductor design expertise, and innovative proprietary technologies in the areas of semiconductor processes, system integration, and packaging. These combined advantages enable us to deliver reliable, compact, and monolithic solutions found in storage and computing, enterprise data, automotive, industrial, communications and consumer applications. Our mission is to reduce energy and material consumption to improve all aspects of quality of life and create a sustainable future. We believe that we differentiate ourselves by offering solutions that are more highly integrated, smaller in size, more energy-efficient, more accurate with respect to performance specifications and, consequently, more cost-effective than many competing solutions. We plan to continue to introduce new products within our existing product families, as well as in new innovative product categories.

Our principal executive office is located in Kirkland, Washington. We have over 3,500 employees worldwide, with locations in Asia (primarily in China, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan), Europe (primarily in France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom) and the United States.

Industry Overview

Semiconductors comprise the basic building blocks of electronic systems and equipment. Within the semiconductor industry, components can be classified either as discrete devices, such as individual transistors or integrated circuits (“ICs”), in which a number of transistors and other elements are combined to form a more complicated electronic circuit. ICs can be further divided into three primary categories: digital, analog, and mixed-signal. Digital ICs, such as memory devices and microprocessors, can store or perform arithmetic functions on data that is represented by a series of ones and zeroes. Analog ICs, in contrast, handle real world signals such as temperature, pressure, light, sound, or speed. In addition, analog ICs also perform power management functions, such as regulating or converting voltages, for electronic devices. Mixed-signal ICs combine digital and analog functions onto a single chip and play an important role in bridging real world to digital systems.

Analog and Mixed-Signal Markets. We focus on the market for high performance analog and mixed-signal ICs. High performance products generally are differentiated by functionality and performance factors, which include integration of higher levels of functionality onto a single chip, greater precision, better power efficiency and density, higher speed and lower heat and noise. There are several key factors that distinguish the analog and mixed-signal IC markets from digital IC markets. These factors include longer product life cycles, numerous market segments, technology that is difficult to replicate, relative complexity of design and process technologies, importance of experienced design engineers, lower capital requirements and diversity of end markets. We have targeted product and market areas that we believe have the ability to offer above-average growth over the long term compared to the semiconductor industry as a whole.

End Markets and Applications

We design and develop our products for the storage and computing, enterprise data, automotive, industrial, communications and consumer markets, with the storage and computing market representing the largest portion of our revenue in 2023. The following table is a summary of the various end market applications for our products, and those markets’ contribution as a percentage of our total revenue:

		Percentage of Total Revenue
End Markets	Applications	2023			2022			2021
Storage and computing	Storage applications, commercial notebooks, and graphics cards		27.0	%		25.3	%		21.2	%
Automotive	Advanced driver assistance systems, infotainment, digital cockpit, USB connectors, body electronics, and lighting applications		21.7	%		16.7	%		16.9	%
Enterprise Data	Cloud-based CPU server applications, and server artificial intelligence (“AI”) applications		17.7	%		14.0	%		9.6	%
Consumer	Home appliances, gaming, smart TVs, lighting, monitors, and stereos		12.9	%		17.8	%		23.4	%
Communications	4G and 5G infrastructure, satellite communications, and other wireless applications		11.3	%		14.0	%		13.6	%
Industrial	Power sources, industrial meter, security applications, and other industrial equipment		9.4	%		12.2	%		15.3	%

Product Families

Our proprietary process and packaging technologies enable us to design and deliver smaller, single-chip power management ICs. These technologies simplify the design process and are applicable across a wide range of analog applications within the storage and computing, enterprise data, automotive, industrial, communications and consumer markets. Our product families are differentiated from those of our competitors with respect to their high degree of integration and strong levels of accuracy, power efficiency, quality and longevity, making them cost-effective and more sustainable relative to many competing solutions. Our key product families include the following:

Direct Current (“DC”) to DC Products. DC to DC ICs are used to convert and control voltages within a broad range of electronic systems, such as cloud-based CPU servers, server AI applications, storage applications, commercial notebooks, digital cockpit, power sources, home appliances, 4G and 5G infrastructure and satellite communications applications. We believe that our DC to DC products are differentiated in the market, particularly with respect to their high degree of integration, high voltage operation, high load current, high switching speed, small footprint, and high energy efficiency. These features are important to our customers as they are designed to result in fewer components that need to be produced and consumed, a smaller form factor, more accurate regulation of voltages, lower power consumption and, ultimately, lower system cost, increased reliability and lower carbon emissions through the elimination of many discrete components and power devices. The DC to DC product family accounted for 94% of our total revenue in 2023 and 95% of our total revenue in both 2022 and 2021.

Lighting Control Products. Lighting control ICs are used in backlighting and general illumination products. Lighting control ICs for backlighting are used in systems that provide the light source for LCD panels typically found in computers and notebooks, monitors, car navigation systems and televisions. Backlighting solutions are typically either white light emitting diode lighting sources or cold cathode fluorescent lamps. The Lighting Control product family accounted for 6% of our total revenue in 2023 and 5% of our total revenue in both 2022 and 2021.

In the future, we plan to continue to introduce new products within our existing product families, as well as in new innovative product categories. Our ability to achieve revenue growth will depend in part upon our ability to continue to innovate while fulfilling our customers’ evolving needs, enter new market segments, obtain design wins, grow our sales to customers in regions outside China, Taiwan and other Asian markets, expand our customer base and continue to secure manufacturing capacity.

Customers, Sales and Marketing

We have sales offices in China, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, the United States and throughout Europe. Our products typically require a highly technical sales and applications engineering effort where we assist our customers in the design and use of our products in their application. We maintain a staff of applications engineers who work directly with our customers’ engineers in the development of their systems’ electronics containing our products.

Once we secure our product positioning through our technical sales and applications engineers’ efforts, we then sell our products through third-party distributors, value-added resellers and directly to original equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”), original design manufacturers (“ODMs”), electronic manufacturing service (“EMS”) providers and other end customers. Our third-party distributors are subject to distribution agreements with us, which allow the distributors to sell our products to end customers and other resellers, including OEMs, ODMs or EMS providers. Our value-added resellers may second source our products and provide other services to customers. ODMs typically design and manufacture electronic products on behalf of OEMs, and EMS providers typically provide manufacturing services for OEMs and other electronic product suppliers.

In 2023, our three largest distributors accounted for 26%, 19% and 10% of our total revenue. In 2022, our two largest distributors accounted for 24% and 19% of our total revenue. In 2021, our three largest distributors accounted for 26%, 15% and 10% of our total revenue. No other distributors or end customers accounted for more than 10% of our full-year, total revenue in any of the periods presented.

Current distribution agreements with several of our major distributors provide that each distributor has the non-exclusive right to sell and shall use its best efforts to promote and develop a market for our products. These agreements provide that payment for purchases from us will generally occur within 30 to 90 days from the date of invoice. In addition, we allow for limited stock rotation in certain agreements.

Because our sales are primarily billed and payable in United States dollars, our sales are generally not subject to fluctuating currency exchange rates. However, because a majority of our revenue is attributable to sales to customers in Asia, changes in the relative value of the dollar may create pricing pressures for our products. In 2023, 2022 and 2021, our revenue from sales to customers in Asia was 87%, 86% and 90%, respectively.

Our sales are made primarily pursuant to standard individual purchase orders. Our backlog consists of orders that we have received from customers which have not yet shipped. Because orders in backlog are subject to cancellation or postponement, and backlog at any particular date is not necessarily representative of actual sales for any succeeding period, we believe that our backlog is not necessarily a reliable indicator of future revenue.

Typical supply chain lead times for orders are generally 16 to 26 weeks. We often build inventory in advance based on our forecast of future customer orders. This subjects us to certain risks, most notably the possibility that sales will not meet our forecast, which could lead to inventories in excess of demand. If excess inventory exists, it may be necessary for us to sell it at a substantial discount, take a significant write-down or dispose of it altogether, all of which would negatively affect our profit margins. In addition, in response to market conditions, we may slow the rate of manufacturing our products, which could result in insufficient inventory levels and reduced sales if we underestimate the demand for our products.

Research and Development

We have assembled a qualified team of engineers primarily in China, the United States, Taiwan, Spain, Switzerland, Hungary, Portugal and Germany with core competencies in analog and mixed-signal design. Through our research and development efforts, we have developed a collection of intellectual property and know-how that we are able to leverage across our products and markets. These include the development of high efficiency power devices, the design of precision analog circuits and systems, expertise in mixed-signal design, and integration and the development of proprietary semiconductor process technologies.

Our research and development efforts are generally targeted at three areas: systems architecture, circuit design and implementation, and process technologies. In the area of systems architecture, we are exploring new ways of solving our customers’ system design challenges and are investing in the development of systems expertise in new markets and applications that align well with our core capabilities. In the area of circuit design and implementation, our initiatives include expanding our portfolio of products and adding new features to our products. In the area of process technologies, we are investing in research and development resources to provide leading-edge analog power processes for our next generation of ICs. We believe process technologies are key strategic components to our future growth.

Our growth is fueled by our customers’ need for our power-efficient solutions. Consequently, we focus on continually improving the energy efficiency of our products in our research and development efforts in all three targeted areas. Our products are principally positioned to achieve lower power loss and enable significant reductions in circuit board space by shrinking or eliminating many passive components that are otherwise needed by competitors’ offerings. In addition, the life cycles of our products are typically over 10 years, reducing the manufacturing needs and associated carbon emissions associated with the production of replacement products.

Patents and Intellectual Property Matters

We rely on our proprietary technologies, which include both our proprietary circuit designs for our products and our proprietary manufacturing process technologies. Our future success and competitive position depend in part upon our ability to obtain and maintain protection of our proprietary technologies.

In general, we have elected to pursue patent protection for aspects of our circuit and device designs that we believe are patentable and to protect our manufacturing process technologies by maintaining those process technologies as trade secrets. As of December 31, 2023, we had 1,701 patents/applications issued or pending, of which 585 patents have been issued in the United States. Our issued patents are scheduled to expire at various times through December 2043. Our patents are material to our business, but we do not rely on any one particular patent for our success. We also rely on a combination of nondisclosure agreements and other contractual provisions, as well as our employees’ commitment to confidentiality and loyalty, to protect our technology, know-how and processes. We also seek to register certain of our trademarks as we deem appropriate. We have not registered any of our copyrights and do not believe registration of copyrights is material to our business. Despite precautions that we take, it may be possible for unauthorized third parties to copy aspects of our current or future technology or products or to obtain and use information that we regard as proprietary. There can be no assurance that the steps we take are adequate to protect our proprietary rights, that our patent applications will lead to issued patents, that others will not develop or patent similar or superior products or technologies, or that our patents will not be challenged, invalidated or circumvented by others. Furthermore, the laws of the countries in which our products are or may be developed, manufactured or sold may not protect our products and intellectual property rights to the same extent as laws in the United States. Our failure to adequately protect our proprietary technologies could materially harm our business.

The semiconductor industry is characterized by frequent claims of infringement and litigation regarding patent and other intellectual property rights. Patent infringement is an ongoing risk, in part because other companies in our industry could have patent rights that may not be identifiable when we initiate development efforts. Litigation may be necessary to enforce our intellectual property rights, and we may have to defend ourselves against infringement claims. Such litigation can be very costly and may divert our management resources. Further, we have agreed to indemnify certain of our customers and suppliers in some circumstances against liability from infringement by our products. In the event any third party were to make an infringement claim against us or our customers, we could be enjoined from selling selected products, could be required to indemnify our customers or suppliers, or could pay royalties or other damages to third parties. If any of our products are found to infringe and we are unable to obtain necessary licenses or other rights on acceptable terms, we would either have to change our product so that it does not infringe or stop making the infringing product, which could have a material adverse effect on our operating results, financial condition and cash flows.

Manufacturing

We utilize a fabless business model, working with third parties to manufacture and assemble our ICs. This fabless approach allows us to focus our engineering and design resources on our strengths and to reduce our fixed costs and capital expenditures. In contrast to many fabless semiconductor companies, which utilize standard process technologies and design rules established by their foundry partners, we have developed our own proprietary process and packaging technologies and collaborate with our foundry partners to install our technologies on their equipment in their facilities for use on our behalf. This close collaboration and control over the manufacturing process has historically resulted in favorable yields and product performance for our ICs.

We currently contract with several suppliers to manufacture our wafers in foundries located in China, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore. Once our silicon wafers have been produced, they are shipped to the facilities in China, Taiwan, and Singapore that we and our partners utilize for wafer sort, which is a testing process performed to identify non-functioning dies. Our semiconductor products are then assembled and packaged by independent subcontractors in China, Taiwan and Malaysia. The assembled ICs are then sent for final testing to the facilities in China, Taiwan and Malaysia that we and our partners utilize prior to shipping to our customers. The manufacturing facilities we utilize in Asia enable us to benefit from shorter manufacturing cycle times and lower labor and overhead costs. We have expanded our product testing capabilities in these facilities and are able to take advantage of the rich pool of local engineering talent to expand our manufacturing support and engineering operations.

Competition

The analog and mixed-signal semiconductor industry is highly competitive, and we expect competitive pressures to continue. Our ability to compete effectively and to expand our business will depend on our ability to continue to recruit both applications engineering and design engineering personnel, our ability to introduce new products, and our ability to maintain the rate at which we introduce these new products, and our ability to meet our and customers’ energy efficiency goals. Our industry is characterized by decreasing average selling prices over the life of a product. We compete with domestic and international semiconductor companies, many of which have substantially greater financial and other resources with which to pursue engineering, manufacturing, marketing, and distribution of their products and, in some cases, have a broader number of product offerings that may enable them to more effectively market and sell to customers and engage sales partners. We are in direct and active competition, with respect to one or more of our product lines, with several manufacturers of such products, of varying size and financial strength. We consider our primary competitors to include Analog Devices, Infineon Technologies, NXP Semiconductors, ON Semiconductor, Power Integrations, Renesas Electronics, ROHM Semiconductor, Semtech, STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments.

We expect continued competition from existing competitors as well as competition from new entrants into the semiconductor market. We believe that we are competitive in the markets in which we sell and on the basis of key competitive factors in our industry, particularly because our ICs typically are smaller in size, are highly integrated with lower energy consumption, possess higher levels of power management functionalities and achieve high performance specifications at lower price points than most of our competitors. However, there is no assurance that our products will continue to compete favorably or that we will be successful in the face of increasing competition from new products and enhancements introduced by existing competitors or new companies entering our markets. In addition, there has recently been a high level of consolidation in the semiconductor industry. If these or future acquisitions are successful, competition may intensify and our competitors may have additional resources to compete against us.

We operate in the cyclical semiconductor industry. While we are subject to industry downturns, we have targeted product and market areas that we believe have the ability to offer above average industry performance over the long term.

Historically, our revenue has generally been higher in the second half of the year than in the first half although various factors, such as market conditions and the timing of key product introductions, could impact this trend.

Government Regulations

We are subject to international, federal and local legislation, regulations, and other requirements relating to the discharge of substances into the environment; the treatment, transport, and disposal of hazardous wastes; recycling and product packaging; worker health and safety; and other activities affecting the environment, our workforce, and the management of our manufacturing operations. We believe that our operations and facilities comply in all material respects with applicable environmental laws and worker health and safety laws.

We are also subject to import/export controls, tariffs, and other trade-related regulations and restrictions in the countries in which we have operations or otherwise do business. Government regulations and import/export controls can be complex and are subject to change in the future, and accordingly, we are unable to assess the possible effect of compliance with future requirements. Our efforts to comply with these government regulations could have material impacts on our capital expenditures and operating expenses, revenue, resource allocation, operations, competitive position, or financial condition, though the magnitude and duration of such impacts are uncertain and difficult to quantify. Refer to “Item 1A. Risk Factors” for further discussion of material risks related to government policies and regulations on environmental laws, international trade policies and restrictions, including tariffs on imports of foreign goods and regulations restricting the export of goods and services between the U.S. and China.

Human Capital Management

Our performance is substantially dependent on the performance of our executive officers and key employees. Due to the relative complexity of the design of our analog and mixed-signal ICs, our engineers generally have many years of experience and greater circuit design aptitude. Analog engineers with advanced skills are limited in number and difficult to replace. The loss of the services of key officers, managers, engineers and other technical personnel would materially harm our business. Our future success depends, in part, on our ability to attract, train, retain, and motivate highly qualified technical and managerial personnel, and there can be no assurance we will be successful. As of December 31, 2023, we employed 3,564 employees primarily in Asia, Europe, South America and the United States, compared with 3,247 employees as of December 31, 2022. Certain employees are subject to collective bargaining agreements and we believe that we have good relations with these employees. We have never experienced an employee-based work stoppage or strike.

We strive to maintain a culture that encourages innovation and create a workplace that values diverse backgrounds, a healthy and safe environment, and professional growth opportunities.

• We continue to recruit new talent from a diverse candidate pool through various university recruitment programs and employment websites targeting underrepresented groups. We provide unconscious bias training to promote an environment of inclusivity. We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind and have adopted policies for reporting concerns or violations.

• We are an equal-opportunity employer, and we make employment decisions based on merit and business needs. Our total compensation packages are competitive, fair, and structured to encourage employees to invest in our future.

• We provide employees with access to various learning tools and resources to explore their interests and develop their business skills and knowledge.

• We have occupational health and safety management systems and environmental management plans in place. They include our standards for chemical and hazardous waste management, rules on use of personal protective equipment, and safety training plans. Our largest testing facilities in Chengdu, China are ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 certified.

• We support the well-being of our employees. In certain offices, we offer onsite flu shot clinics and other annual health checkups and workshops. Our largest facilities have amenities including fitness centers, sports courts and private rooms for nursing. We also offer free exercise classes, strength training and yoga in some of our offices.

Available Information

Our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports that are filed or furnished pursuant to Sections 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, are available free of charge. They may be obtained from our website at www.monolithicpower.com under “Investor Relations” as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such documents with, or furnish them to, the SEC, or at the SEC website at www.sec.gov. We also make available on our website the charters for our audit committee, compensation committee, and nominating and corporate governance committee, our code of ethics, our director voting policy and our code of social responsibility. In addition, we will disclose on our website any amendments to, or waivers from, our code of ethics. We also disclose on our website our report on environment, social responsibility and governance. Information contained on our website is not a part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Information About Executive Officers

Information regarding our executive officers as of February 29, 2024 is as follows:

Name	Age	Position
Michael Hsing	64	President, Chief Executive Officer and Director
Bernie Blegen	66	Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Deming Xiao	61	Executive Vice President and President of Asia Operations
Maurice Sciammas	64	Executive Vice President and Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Marketing
Saria Tseng	53	Executive Vice President, Strategic Corporate Development, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary

Michael Hsing has served as the chairman of our Board of Directors and has served as our President and Chief Executive Officer since founding MPS in August 1997. Prior to founding MPS, Mr. Hsing was a Senior Silicon Technology Developer at several analog IC companies, where he developed and patented key technologies, which set new standards in the power electronics industry. Mr. Hsing is an inventor on numerous patents related to the process development of bipolar mixed-signal semiconductor manufacturing. Mr. Hsing holds a B.S.E.E. from the University of Florida.

Bernie Blegen has served as our Chief Financial Officer since July 2016 and is responsible for finance, accounting, tax, treasury and investor relations. From August 2011 to June 2016, Mr. Blegen served as our Corporate Controller. Prior to joining MPS, Mr. Blegen held a number of executive finance and accounting positions for other publicly traded technology companies, including Xilinx, Inc. and Credence Systems. Mr. Blegen holds a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Deming Xiao has served as our President of Asia Operations since January 2008. Since joining us in May 2001, Mr. Xiao has held several executive positions, including Foundry Manager and Senior Vice President of Operations. Before joining MPS, from June 2000 to May 2001, Mr. Xiao was Engineering Account Manager at Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, Inc. Prior to that, Mr. Xiao spent six years as Manager of Process Integration Engineering at Fairchild Imaging Sensors. Mr. Xiao holds a B.S. in Semiconductor Physics from Sichuan University, Chengdu, China and an M.S.E.E. from Wayne State University.

Maurice Sciammas has served as our Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Marketing since 2007. Mr. Sciammas joined MPS in July 1999 and served as Vice President of Products and Vice President of Sales (excluding greater China) until he was appointed to his current position. Before joining MPS, he was Director of IC Products at Supertex from 1990 to 1999. He has also held positions at Micrel, Inc. He holds a B.S.E.E. degree from San Jose State University.

Saria Tseng has served as our Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary since 2004 and additionally as our Vice President, Strategic Corporate Development since 2009. Ms. Tseng joined the Company from MaXXan Systems, Inc., where she was Vice President and General Counsel from 2001 to 2004. Previously, Ms. Tseng was an attorney at Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich, LLP and Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue. Ms. Tseng is a member of the state bar in both California and New York and is a member of the bar association of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Ms. Tseng holds Master of Laws degrees from the University of California at Berkeley and the Chinese Culture University in Taipei.

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