Item 1A. Risk Factors.
Investing in our securities involves a high degree of risk. Before you make a decision to buy our securities, you should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below together with all of the other information contained in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, including our unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements and related notes and in the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” If any of the events or developments described below were to occur, our business, prospects, operating results and financial condition could suffer materially, the trading price of our securities could decline and you could lose all or part of your investment. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently believe to be immaterial may also adversely affect our business. The risks facing our business have not changed substantively from those discussed in our Annual Report, except for those risks marked with an asterisk (*).
SUMMARY OF RISK FACTORS
Below is a summary of material factors that make an investment in our securities speculative or risky. Importantly, this summary does not address all of the risks and uncertainties that we face.
•We will need to improve our energy density, which requires us to implement higher energy density materials for both cathodes and anodes, which we may not be able to do.
•We rely on a new and complex manufacturing process for our operations: achieving volume production involves a significant degree of risk and uncertainty in terms of operational performance and costs.
•We currently do not have manufacturing facilities to produce our lithium-ion battery cell in sufficient quantities to meet expected demand, and if we cannot successfully locate and bring additional facilities online, our business will be negatively impacted and could fail.
•We may not be able to source or establish supply relationships for necessary components or may be required to pay costs for components that are more expensive than anticipated, which could delay the introduction of our product and negatively impact our business.
•We may be unable to adequately control the costs associated with our operations and the components necessary to build our lithium-ion battery cells.
•If our batteries fail to perform as expected, our ability to develop, market and sell our batteries could be harmed.
•If we are unable to qualify new customers, our ability to grow revenue or improve our financial results could be harmed.
•If we are unable to develop our business and effectively commercialize our products as anticipated, we may not be able to generate revenue or achieve profitability.
•Operational problems with our manufacturing equipment subject us to safety risks which, if not adequately addressed, could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition or prospects.
•We may not be able to source or establish supply relationships for necessary components or may be required to pay costs for components that are more expensive than anticipated, which could delay the introduction of our product and negatively impact our business.
•The battery market continues to evolve and is highly competitive, and we may not be successful in competing in this industry or establishing and maintaining confidence in our long-term business prospects among current and future partners and customers.
•If we are unable to attract and retain key employees and qualified personnel, our ability to compete could be harmed.
•We are an early-stage company with a history of financial losses and expect to incur significant expenses and continuing losses for the foreseeable future.
•We may become subject to product liability claims, which could harm our financial condition and liquidity if we are not able to successfully defend or insure against such claims.
•We have been, and may in the future be, adversely affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic.
•We may not have adequate funds to acquire our next manufacturing facilities and build them out, and may need to raise additional capital, which we may not be able to do.
•We rely heavily on our intellectual property portfolio. If we are unable to protect our intellectual property rights, our business and competitive position would be harmed.
•We could face state-sponsored competition from overseas and may not be able to compete in the market on the basis of price.
•In the past, we have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. If we are unable to maintain an effective system of internal controls in the future, we may not be able to accurately or timely report our financial condition or results of operations, which may adversely affect our business and stock price.
•Servicing our debt requires a significant amount of cash, and we may not have sufficient cash flow from our business to pay our substantial debt.
Item 1A. Risk Factors
Risks Related to Our Manufacturing and Scale-Up
We will need to improve our energy density, which requires us to implement higher energy density materials for both cathodes and anodes, which we may not be able to do.
Our roadmap to improve our energy density requires us to implement higher energy density materials for both cathodes and anodes. To successfully use these materials, we will have to optimize our cell designs including, but not limited to formulations, thicknesses, geometries, materials, chemistries and manufacturing tolerances and techniques. It could take us longer to incorporate these new materials, or we might not be able to achieve every cell performance specification required by customers. Further, we will need to make improvements in packaging technology to achieve our energy density roadmap. These improvements may not be possible, could take longer or be more difficult than forecasted. This could reduce the performance or delay the availability of products to customers. In addition, we have not yet achieved every specification for all of the products we plan to produce in our first year of commercial production. The failure to achieve all of these specifications or adequately address each of these other challenges could impact the performance of our cells or delay the availability of these products to our customers.
We rely on a new and complex manufacturing process for our operations: achieving volume production involves a significant degree of risk and uncertainty in terms of operational performance and costs.*
Although we have developed our Li-ion battery technology, we rely heavily on a new and complex manufacturing process for the production of our lithium-ion battery cells, all of which has not yet been qualified to operate at large-scale manufacturing volumes. To meet our projected future demand, we believe we need to increase our manufacturing throughput and yield metrics. Meeting our goals will be a multi-quarter endeavor and we have experienced delays in meeting these goals to date. We may experience further delays improving manufacturing yield, throughput and equipment availability.
In addition, it may take longer than expected to install, qualify and release the Gen 2 Autoline at Fab 2 and make further modifications to the Gen1 equipment to achieve our goals for throughput and yield. It may also take longer than anticipated to install our Agility Line.
The work required to develop these processes and integrate equipment into the production of our lithium-ion battery cells, including achieving our goals for throughput and yield, is time intensive and requires us to work closely with developers and equipment providers to ensure that it works properly for our unique battery technology. Such equipment may not arrive on schedule or may not be functioning as designed when it does arrive. This integration work will involve a significant degree of uncertainty and risk, and we have not in the past and may not in the future be able to achieve our goals for throughput and yield. Further, the integration work may result in the delay in the scaling up of production or result in additional cost to our battery cells, particularly if we encounter issues with performance or if we are unable to customize products for certain of our customers. Even after each of our Gen2 manufacturing line and Agility Line is installed, we expect that certain customers may require up to several months to complete technology qualification of the Gen2 line and/or the Agility Line before accepting product that is manufactured at high volume on the Gen2 line, if at all.
Our Fremont pilot line and our large-scale Gen1 and Gen2 manufacturing lines require large-scale machinery. Such machinery has in the past suffered, and is likely to in the future suffer, unexpected malfunctions from time to time and will require repairs and spare parts to resume operations, which may not be available when needed.
In addition, unexpected malfunctions of our production equipment have in the past significantly affected, and may in the future significantly affect, the intended operational efficiency. The people needed to remedy these malfunctions may not be readily available. Because this equipment has not previously been used to build lithium-ion battery cells, the operational performance and costs associated with this equipment can be difficult to predict and may be influenced by factors outside of our control, such as, but not limited to, failures by suppliers to deliver necessary components of our products in a timely manner and at prices and volumes acceptable to us, environmental hazards and remediation, difficulty or delays in obtaining governmental permits, damages or defects in systems, industrial accidents, fires, seismic activity and other natural disasters. Further, we have in the past experienced power outages at our facilities, and if these outages are more frequent or longer in duration than expected it could impact our ability to manufacture batteries in a timely manner.
Even if we are able to successfully complete development of and modify, as necessary, this new and complex manufacturing process, we may not be able to produce our lithium-ion batteries in commercial volumes in a cost-effective manner.
We currently do not have manufacturing facilities to produce our lithium-ion battery cell in sufficient quantities to meet expected demand, and if we cannot successfully locate and bring an additional facility online, our business will be negatively impacted and could fail.*
Currently, we are continuing to build-out our manufacturing facility in Fremont, California. Even if we are able to overcome the challenges in designing and refining our manufacturing process, this manufacturing facility is currently anticipated to have two manufacturing lines and only one of such manufacturing lines will include a packaging line. We expect these two manufacturing lines will be sufficient to produce batteries in commercial scale, but not in high enough volumes to meet our expected customer demand. We have entered into a non-binding Letter of Intent (“LOI”) with YBS International Berhad to locate our first Gen 2 Autoline in an existing YBS building at the Penang Science Park in Malaysia which, if we are able to overcome the challenges in designing and refining our manufacturing process, will have multiple lines to produce commercial volumes of our lithium-ion batteries to meet our expected customer demands. However, we have not yet entered into a definitive agreement for this facility and, even if we are able to do so, there is no guarantee that the financing for such facility will be secured on commercially reasonable terms or at all, or that our manufacturing process will scale to produce lithium-ion batteries in quantities sufficient to meet demand.
Even if we overcome the manufacturing challenges and achieve volume production of our lithium-ion battery, if the cost, performance characteristics or other specifications of the battery fall short of our or our customers’ targets, our sales, product pricing and margins would likely be adversely affected.
We may not be able to source or establish supply relationships for necessary components or may be required to pay costs for components that are more expensive than anticipated, which could delay the introduction of our product and negatively impact our business.
We rely on third-party suppliers for components necessary to develop and manufacture our lithium-ion batteries, including key supplies, such as our anode, cathode and separator materials. We are collaborating with key suppliers but have not yet entered into agreements for the supply of volume production quantities of these materials. If we are unable to enter into commercial agreements with these suppliers on beneficial terms, or these suppliers experience difficulties ramping up their supply of materials to meet our requirements, or these suppliers experience any delays in providing or developing the necessary materials, or these suppliers cease providing or developing the necessary materials, we could experience delays in delivering on our timelines. For example, cathode material vendors are transitioning from lithium cobalt oxide (“LCO”) to nickel cobalt manganese (“NCM”) or other chemistries due to EV adoption, and this has resulted in a downward trend of LCO supply and production. While we do not expect this to affect our near-term supply of LCO, it has induced us to identify a new LCO vendor.
The unavailability of any equipment component could result in delays in constructing the manufacturing equipment, idle manufacturing facilities, product design changes and loss of access to important technology and tools for producing and supporting our lithium-ion batteries production, as well as impact our capacity. Moreover, significant increases in our production or product design changes by us may in the future require us to procure additional components in a short amount of time. We have faced in the past, and may face suppliers who are unwilling or unable to sustainably meet our timelines or our cost, quality and volume needs, or to do so may cost us more, which may require us to replace them with other sources, which may further impact our timelines and costs. While we believe that we will be able to secure additional or alternate sources for most of our components, there is no assurance that we will be able to do so quickly or at all. Any inability or unwillingness of our suppliers to deliver necessary product components at timing, prices, quality and volumes that are acceptable to us could have a material impact on our business, prospects, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.
Our business depends on the continued supply of certain materials for our products and we expect to incur significant costs related to procuring materials required to manufacture and assemble our batteries. The cost of our batteries depends in part upon the prices and availability of raw materials such as lithium, silicon, nickel, cobalt, copper and/or other metals. The prices for these materials fluctuate and their available supply has been, and may continue to be, unstable depending on market conditions and global demand for these materials, including as a result of increased global production of EVs and energy storage products, recent inflationary pressures, supply chain disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and war or other armed conflicts, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. We also have
experienced a need for expedited freight services associated with supply chain challenges, resulting in higher logistics costs. Moreover, we may not be able to negotiate purchase agreements and delivery lead-times for such materials on advantageous terms. In addition, several large battery companies are developing and manufacturing key supplies such as cathode material on their own, and as a result such supplies may be proprietary to these companies. Reduced availability of these materials or substantial increases in the prices for such materials has increased, and may continue to increase, the cost of our components and consequently, the cost of our products. There can be no assurance that we will be able to recoup increasing costs of our components, including as a result of recent inflationary pressures, by increasing prices, which in turn would increase our operating costs and negatively impact our prospects.
Any disruption in the supply of components or materials could temporarily disrupt production of our batteries until an alternative supplier is able to supply the required material. Changes in business conditions, unforeseen circumstances, governmental changes, labor shortages, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors beyond our control or which we do not presently anticipate, could also affect our suppliers’ ability to deliver components to us on a timely basis.
Currency fluctuations, trade barriers, trade sanctions, export restrictions, tariffs, embargoes or shortages and other general economic or political conditions may limit our ability to obtain key components for our lithium-ion batteries or significantly increase freight charges, raw material costs and other expenses associated with our business, which could further materially and adversely affect our results of operations, financial condition and prospects. For example, our factory is located in Fremont, California and our products require materials and equipment manufactured outside the country, including the PRC. If tariffs are placed on these materials and equipment, it could materially impact our ability to obtain materials on commercially reasonable terms.
Any of the foregoing could materially and adversely affect our results of operations, financial condition and prospects.
We may be unable to adequately control the costs associated with our operations and the components necessary to build our lithium-ion battery cells.
We will require significant capital to develop and grow our business and expect to incur significant expenses, including those relating to raw material procurement, leases, sales and distribution as we build our brand and market our batteries, and general and administrative costs as we scale our operations. Our ability to become profitable in the future will not only depend on our ability to successfully market our lithium-ion batteries and services, but also to control our costs. A large fraction of the cost of our battery, like most commercial batteries, is driven by the cost of component materials like anode and cathode powder, separator, pouch material, current collectors, etc. It also includes machined parts that are part of the package. We have assumed based on extensive discussions with vendors, customers, industry analysts and independent research, target costs at startup of production and an assumed cost reduction over time. These estimates may prove inaccurate and adversely affect the cost of our batteries.
If we are unable to cost-efficiently manufacture, market, sell and distribute our lithium-ion batteries and services, our margins, profitability and prospects would be materially and adversely affected. We have not yet produced any lithium-ion battery cells at significant volume, and our forecasted cost advantage for the production of these cells at scale, compared to conventional lithium-ion cells, will require us to achieve certain goals in connection with rates of throughput, use of electricity and consumables, yield and rate of automation demonstrated for mature battery, battery material and manufacturing processes, that we have not yet achieved and may not achieve in the future. We are planning on improving the productivity and reducing the cost of our production lines relative to the first line we have built. In addition, we are planning continuous productivity improvements going forward. If we are unable to achieve these targeted rates or productivity improvements, our business will be adversely impacted.
Risks Related to Our Customers
Our relationships with our current customers are subject to various risks which could adversely affect our business and future prospects.
Our customers’ products are typically on a yearly or longer refresh cycles. If we miss qualification timing by even a small amount, the impact to our production schedule, revenue and profits could be large. While we intend to pass all qualification criteria, some field reliability risks remain such as cycle life, long-term high-temp storage capacity and swelling, etc. While we have product wins for which we are designing custom products for specific customers, we do not have volume production commitments for each of these products. Should we not be able to convert these design wins
into orders for volume production, our financial performance would be impacted. Batteries are known in the market to have historically faced risk associated with safety, and therefore customers can be reluctant to take risks on new battery technologies. Since new battery technologies have not been widely adopted by customers in the battery market, it may be difficult for us to overcome customer risk objections. If unanticipated problems arise, it may raise warranty costs and adversely affect revenue and profit.
In addition, one of our customers has exclusive rights to purchase our batteries for use in the augmented reality and virtual reality space through 2024, which could limit our ability to sell batteries to other customers in this space, which may limit our ability to grow our business in the augmented reality and virtual reality space through 2024.
If our batteries fail to perform as expected, our ability to develop, market and sell our batteries could be harmed.
We have experienced a limited number of returns of batteries that have failed to perform as expected. As commercial production of our lithium-ion battery cells increases, our batteries have in the past and may in the future contain defects in design and manufacture that may cause them to not perform as expected or that may require repairs, recalls and design changes. Our batteries are inherently complex and incorporate technology and components that have not been used for other applications and that may contain defects and errors, particularly when first introduced. We have a limited frame of reference from which to evaluate the long-term performance of our lithium-ion batteries. There can be no assurance that we will be able to detect and fix any defects in our lithium-ion batteries prior to the sale to potential consumers. If our batteries fail to perform as expected, we could lose design wins and customers may delay deliveries, terminate further orders or initiate product recalls, each of which could adversely affect our sales and brand and could adversely affect our business, prospects and results of operations.
Our 3D cell architecture is different than others and may behave differently in certain customer use applications that we have not evaluated. This could limit our ability to deliver to certain applications, including, but not limited to action cameras, portable gaming and smartwatches built for children. In addition, we have limited historical data on the performance and reliability of our batteries over time, and therefore it could fail unexpectedly in the field resulting in significant warranty costs or brand damage in the market. In addition, the electrodes and separator structure of our battery is different from traditional lithium-ion batteries and therefore could be susceptible to different and unknown failure modes leading our batteries to fail and cause a safety event in the field, which could further result in the failure of our end customers’ products as well as the loss of life or property. Such an event could result in severe financial penalties for us, including the loss of revenue, cancellation of supply contracts and the inability to win new business due to damage in the market. In addition, some of our supply agreements require us to fund some or all of the cost of a recall and replacement of end products affected by our batteries.
Our future growth and success depend on our ability to qualify new customers.
Our growth will depend in large part on our ability to qualify new customers. We have invested heavily in qualifying our customers and plan to continue to do so. We are in the very early stages of growth in our existing markets, and we expect to substantially raise brand awareness by connecting directly with our customers. We anticipate that these activities will lead to additional deliveries, and, as a result, increase our base of our qualified customers. An inability to attract new customers would substantially impact our ability to grow revenue or improve our financial results.
Our future growth and success depend on our ability to sell effectively to large customers.
Our potential customers are manufacturers of products that tend to be large enterprises and organizations, including the U.S. military. Therefore, our future success will depend on our ability to effectively sell our products to such large customers. Sales to these end-customers involve risks that may not be present (or that are present to a lesser extent) with sales to smaller customers. These risks include, but are not limited to, increased purchasing power and leverage held by large customers in negotiating contractual arrangements with us and longer sales cycles and the associated risk that substantial time and resources may be spent on a potential end-customer that elects not to purchase our solutions.
Large organizations often undertake a significant evaluation process that results in a lengthy sales cycle. In addition, product purchases by large organizations are frequently subject to budget constraints, multiple approvals and unanticipated administrative, processing and other delays. Finally, large organizations typically have longer implementation cycles, require greater product functionality and scalability, require a broader range of services, demand that vendors take on a larger share of risks, require acceptance provisions that can lead to a delay in revenue recognition and expect greater payment flexibility. All of these factors can add further risk to business conducted with these potential customers.
We may not be able to accurately estimate the future supply and demand for our batteries, which could result in a variety of inefficiencies in our business and hinder our ability to generate revenue. If we fail to accurately predict our manufacturing requirements, we could incur additional costs or experience delays.
It is difficult to predict our future revenue and appropriately budget for our expenses, and we may have limited insight into trends that may emerge and affect our business. We anticipate being required to provide forecasts of our demand to our current and future suppliers prior to the scheduled delivery of products to potential customers. Currently, there is no historical basis for making judgments on the demand for our batteries or our ability to develop, manufacture and deliver batteries, or our profitability in the future. If we overestimate our requirements, our suppliers may have excess inventory, which indirectly would increase our costs. If we underestimate our requirements, our suppliers may have inadequate inventory, which could interrupt manufacturing of our products and result in delays in shipments and revenue. Many factors will affect the demand for our batteries. For example, most of the end products in which our batteries are expected to be used are manufactured in the PRC. If the political situation between the PRC and the United States were to deteriorate, it could prevent our customers from purchasing our batteries.
Lead times for materials and components that our suppliers order may vary significantly and depend on factors such as the specific supplier, contract terms and demand for each component at a given time. If we fail to order sufficient quantities of product components in a timely manner, the delivery of batteries to our potential customers could be delayed, which would harm our business, financial condition and operating results.
Increases in sales of our lithium-ion battery cells may increase our dependency upon specific customers and our costs to develop and qualify our system solutions.
The development of our lithium-ion battery cells is dependent, in part, upon successfully identifying and meeting our customers’ specifications for those products. Developing and manufacturing lithium-ion batteries with specifications unique to a customer increases our reliance upon that customer for purchasing our products at sufficient volumes and prices in a timely manner. If we fail to identify or develop products on a timely basis, or at all, that comply with our customers’ specifications or achieve design wins with customers, we may experience a significant adverse impact on our revenue and margins. Even if we are successful in selling lithium-ion batteries to our customers in sufficient volume, we may be unable to generate sufficient profit if per-unit manufacturing costs exceed per-unit selling prices. Manufacturing lithium-ion batteries to customer specifications requires a longer development cycle, as compared to discrete products, to design, test and qualify, which may increase our costs and could harm our business, financial condition and operating results.
Risks Related to Our Business
We have a history of financial losses and expect to incur significant expenses and continuing losses for the foreseeable future.
We incurred net income (loss) of approximately $(73.6) million and $42.7 million, respectively, for the fiscal quarters ended April 2, 2023 and April 3, 2022 and an accumulated deficit of approximately $458.4 million as of April 2, 2023. We believe that we will continue to incur operating and net losses each quarter until at least the time we begin significant production of our Li-ion batteries.
We expect the rate at which we will incur losses to be significantly higher in future periods as we, among other things: continue to incur significant expenses in connection with the development of our manufacturing process and the manufacturing of our batteries; secure additional manufacturing facilities and invest in manufacturing capabilities; build up inventory of components for our batteries; increase our sales and marketing activities; develop our distribution infrastructure; and increase our general and administrative functions to support our growing operations. We may find that these efforts are more expensive than we currently anticipate or that these efforts may not result in substantial revenue, which would further increase our losses.
We are in the early stage of commercialization. In addition, certain aspects of our technology have not been fully field tested. If we are unable to develop our business and effectively commercialize our products as anticipated, we may not be able to generate revenue or achieve profitability.
The growth and development of our operations will depend on the successful commercialization and market acceptance of our products and our ability to manufacture products at scale while timely meeting customers’ demands.
There is no certainty that, once shipped, our products will operate as expected, and we may not be able to generate sufficient customer confidence in our latest designs and ongoing product improvements. There are inherent uncertainties in our ability to predict future demand for our products and, as a consequence, we may have inadequate production capacity to meet demand, or alternatively, have excess available capacity. Our inability to predict the extent of customer adoption of our proprietary technologies makes it difficult to evaluate our future prospects.
Beginning in the second quarter of 2022, we made commercial shipments to multiple customers. If we experience significant delays or order cancellations, or if we fail to develop our products in accordance with contract specifications, then our operating results and financial condition could be adversely affected. In addition, there is no assurance that if we alter or change our products in the future, that the demand for these new products will develop, which could adversely affect our business and any possible revenue. If our products are not deemed desirable and suitable for purchase and we are unable to establish a customer base, we may not be able to generate revenue or attain profitability. In addition, if we are unable to deliver our service on a timely basis, we may not be able to attract and engage new or existing customers for service contracts and we may not be able to generate revenue or attain profitability.
We face significant barriers in our attempts to produce our products, our products are still under development, and we may not be able to successfully develop our products at commercial scale. If we cannot successfully overcome those barriers, our business will be negatively impacted and could fail.
Producing lithium-ion batteries that meet the requirements for wide adoption by industrial and consumer applications is a difficult undertaking. We are still in the early stage of commercialization and face significant challenges achieving the long-term energy density targets for our products and producing our products in commercial volumes. Some of the challenges that could prevent the wide adoption of our lithium-ion batteries include difficulties with (i) increasing the volume, yield and reliability of our cells, (ii) increasing manufacturing capacity to produce the volume of cells needed to meet demand, (iii) installing and optimizing higher volume manufacturing equipment, (iv) packaging our batteries to ensure adequate cycle life, (v) material cost reductions, (vi) qualifying new vendors, (vii) expanding supply chain capacity, (viii) the completion of rigorous and challenging battery safety testing required by our customers or partners, including but not limited to, performance, cycle life and abuse testing and (x) the development of the final manufacturing processes.
Our Fab 1 is in the early production stage and there are significant yield, material cost, performance and manufacturing process challenges to be solved prior to volume commercial production. We are likely to encounter further engineering challenges as we increase the capacity of our batteries and efficiency of our manufacturing process. If we are not able to overcome these barriers in producing our batteries, our business could fail.
The Gen1 manufacturing equipment requires qualified labor to inspect the parts to ensure proper assembly. We have already experienced equipment malfunctions during the scaling up of the manufacturing process, and the lack of qualified labor to inspect our batteries may further slow our production and impact our manufacturing costs and production schedule.
Even if we complete development and achieve volume production of our lithium-ion batteries, if the cost, performance characteristics or other specifications of the batteries fall short of our targets, our sales, product pricing and margins would likely be adversely affected.
Operational problems with our manufacturing equipment subject us to safety risks which, if not adequately addressed, could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition or prospects.
Operational problems with our manufacturing equipment subject us to safety risks which, if not adequately addressed, could result in the personal injury to or death of workers, the loss of production equipment, damage to manufacturing facilities, monetary losses, delays and unanticipated fluctuations in production. We have retained industry experts and designed our factory with appropriate safety precautions to address the fire risk of manufacturing batteries and minimize the impact of any event. Should these precautions be inadequate or an event be larger than expected, we could have significant equipment or facility damage that would impact our ability to deliver product and require additional cash to recover. In addition, operational problems may result in environmental damage, administrative fines, increased insurance costs and potential legal liabilities. All of these operational problems could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition or prospects.
Lithium-ion battery modules in the marketplace have been observed to catch fire or vent smoke and flame, and such events have raised concerns over the use of such batteries.
We develop lithium-ion battery cells for industrial and consumer equipment and intend to supply these lithium-ion battery cells for industrial and consumer applications. Historically, lithium-ion batteries in laptops and cellphones have been reported to catch fire or vent smoke and flames, and more recently, news reports have indicated that several EVs that use high-power lithium-ion batteries have caught on fire. As such, any adverse publicity and issues as to the use of high-power batteries in automotive or other applications will affect our business and prospects. In addition, any failure of our battery cells may cause damage to the industrial or consumer equipment or lead to personal injury or death and may subject us to lawsuits.
Our risks in this area are particularly pronounced given our lithium-ion batteries and our BrakeFlowTM technology have not yet been commercially tested or mass produced. We may have to recall our battery cells, which would be time-consuming and expensive. A product liability claim could generate substantial negative publicity about our batteries and business and inhibit or prevent commercialization of other future battery candidates, which would have a material adverse effect on our brand, business, prospects and operating results. Any insurance coverage might not be sufficient to cover all potential product liability claims. Any lawsuit seeking significant monetary damages either in excess of our coverage, or outside of our coverage, may have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business and financial condition. We may not be able to secure additional product liability insurance coverage on commercially acceptable terms or at reasonable costs when needed, particularly if we do face liability for our products and are forced to make a claim under our policy.
Further, product liability claims, injuries, defects or other problems experienced by other companies in the lithium-ion battery market could lead to unfavorable market conditions for the industry as a whole, and may have an adverse effect on our ability to attract new customers, thus harming our growth and financial performance.
The battery market continues to evolve and is highly competitive, and we may not be successful in competing in this industry or establishing and maintaining confidence in our long-term business prospects among current and future partners and customers.
The battery market in which we compete continues to evolve and is highly competitive. To date, we have focused our efforts on our silicon anode technology, which has been, and is being, designed to outperform conventional lithium-ion battery technology and other battery technologies. However, lithium-ion battery technology has been widely adopted, and our current competitors have, and future competitors may have, greater resources than we do and may also be able to devote greater resources to the development of their current and future technologies. These competitors also may have greater access to customers and may be able to establish cooperative or strategic relationships amongst themselves or with third parties that may further enhance their resources and competitive positioning. Furthermore, existing and potential customers have developed, and may in the future develop, their own lithium-ion battery technology and other battery technologies. In addition, lithium-ion battery manufacturers may make improvements in energy density faster than they have historically and what we have assumed, continue to reduce cost and expand supply of conventional batteries and therefore reduce our energy density advantage and price premium, which would negatively impact the prospects for our business or negatively impact our ability to sell our products at a market-competitive price and sufficient margins.
There are a number of companies seeking to develop alternative approaches to lithium-ion battery technology. We expect competition in battery technology to intensify. Developments in alternative technologies, improvements in batteries technology made by competitors, or changes in our competitors' respective business models may materially adversely affect the sales, pricing and gross margins of our batteries. For example, large battery companies are becoming increasingly vertically integrated with respect to cathode materials, with the consequence being that next generation LCO material development will be proprietary to large battery companies. If a competing technology is developed that has superior operational or price performance, our business will be harmed. Further, our financial modeling assumes that, in addition to improving our core architecture over time, we are able to retain access to state-of-the-art industry materials as they are developed. If industry battery competitors develop their own proprietary materials, we would be unable to access these and would lose our competitive advantage in the market. If we fail to accurately predict and ensure that our battery technology can address customers’ changing needs or emerging technological trends, or if our customers fail to achieve the benefits expected from our lithium-ion batteries, our business will be harmed.
We must continue to commit significant resources to develop our battery technology in order to establish a competitive position, and these commitments will be made without knowing whether such investments will result in products potential customers will accept. There is no assurance we will successfully identify new customer requirements or develop and bring our batteries to market on a timely basis, or that products and technologies developed by others will not render our batteries obsolete or noncompetitive, any of which would adversely affect our business and operating results. Further, if we are unable to improve our energy density at a rate faster than the industry, our competitive advantage will erode.
Customers will be less likely to purchase our batteries if they are not convinced that our business will succeed in the long term. Similarly, suppliers and other third parties will be less likely to invest time and resources in developing business relationships with us if they are not convinced that our business will succeed in the long term. Accordingly, in order to build and maintain our business, we must maintain confidence among current and future partners, customers, suppliers, analysts, ratings agencies and other parties in our long-term financial viability and business prospects. Maintaining such confidence may be particularly complicated by certain factors including those that are largely outside of our control, such as our limited operating history, market unfamiliarity with our products, any delays in scaling manufacturing, delivery and service operations to meet demand, competition and uncertainty regarding our production and sales performance compared with market expectations.
We could face state-sponsored competition from overseas and may not be able to compete in the market on the basis of price.
One or more foreign governments, including the PRC, have concluded that battery technology and battery manufacturing is a national strategic priority and therefore have instituted official economic policies meant to support these activities. These policies may provide our competitors with artificially lower costs. If these lower costs materialize and enable competitive products to be sold into our markets at prices that, if applied to us, would cause us to become unprofitable, our ability to continue operating could be threatened.
Our failure to keep up with rapid technological changes and evolving industry standards may cause our batteries to become less marketable or obsolete, resulting in a decrease in demand for our batteries and harm our ability to grow revenue and expand margins.
The lithium-based battery market is characterized by changing technologies and evolving industry standards, which are difficult to predict. This, coupled with frequent introduction of new products and models, has shortened product life cycles and may render our batteries less marketable or obsolete. Also, our ability to grow revenue and expand margins will depend on our ability to develop and launch new product designs. If we fail to invest in the development of new products and technologies, we may lose the opportunity to compete effectively or at all, particularly in the electric vehicle space, which has been the subject of significant progress in recent years. Third parties, including our competitors, may improve their technologies or even achieve technological breakthroughs that could decrease the demand for our batteries. Our ability to adapt to evolving industry standards and anticipate future standards and market trends will be a significant factor in maintaining and improving our competitive position and our prospects for growth.
If we are unable to attract and retain key employees and qualified personnel, our ability to compete could be harmed.
Our success depends on our ability to attract and retain our executive officers, key employees and other qualified personnel, and, as a relatively small company with key talent residing in a limited number of employees, our operations and prospects may be severely disrupted if we lose any one or more of their services. There have been, and from time to time, there may continue to be, changes in our management team resulting from the hiring or departure of executives and key employees, or the transition of executives within our business, which could disrupt our business. For example, Dr. Raj Talluri began serving as our new Chief Executive Officer, replacing Harrold Rust on January 18, 2023. Such changes in our executive management team may be disruptive to our business. Some of our executive officers and members of our management team have been with us for a short period of time and we continue to develop key functions within various aspects of our business. We are also dependent on the continued service of our other senior technical and management personnel because of the complexity of our products. Our senior management, including Dr. Talluri, and key employees are employed on an at-will basis. We cannot ensure that we will be able to retain the services of any member of our senior management or other key employees or that we would be able to timely replace members of our
senior management or other key employees should any of them depart. The loss of one or more of our senior management or other key employees could harm our business.
Further, as we locate our new manufacturing facilities, build it out and bring it online, we will need to hire personnel to staff and maintain this facility with the technical qualifications, which we may not be able to do in the location at which this facility is located. Labor is subject to external factors that are beyond our control, including our industry’s highly competitive market for skilled workers and leaders, cost inflation, and workforce participation rates. As we build our brand and become more well known, there is increased risk that competitors or other companies will seek to hire our personnel. While some of our employees are bound by non-competition agreements, these may prove to be unenforceable. The failure to attract, integrate, train, motivate and retain these personnel could seriously harm our business and prospects.
We have been, and may in the future be, adversely affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic.
We face various risks related to epidemics, pandemics and other outbreaks, including the recent COVID-19 pandemic. The impact of COVID-19, including changes in consumer and business behavior, pandemic fears and market downturns, restrictions on business and individual activities, labor shortages, supply chain disruptions and inflation, has created significant volatility in the global economy and led to reduced economic activity. The spread of COVID-19 has also impacted our potential customers and suppliers by disrupting the manufacturing, delivery and overall supply chain of battery and device manufacturers. As a result, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic could impact the availability of materials and resources necessary to install, bring-up and supply materials to our first production line.
The ultimate duration and extent of the impact from the COVID-19 pandemic depends on future developments that cannot be accurately forecasted at this time. We do not yet know how businesses, customers, or our partners will operate in a post COVID-19 environment. There may be additional costs or impacts to our business and operations, which could harm our business.
In the past, we had identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. If we are unable to implement and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting in the future, investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, and the market price of our common stock may be materially adversely affected.
In the past, we and our independent registered public accounting firm identified two material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, all of which have since been remediated. For the first quarter of fiscal year 2023, we have conducted a review of our internal control for the purpose of providing the reports required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. During our review and testing, we did not identify any material weakness for the first quarter of fiscal year 2023.
Furthermore, if, in the future, we have a material weakness in our internal controls over financial reporting, we may not detect errors on a timely basis and our financial statements may be materially misstated. We or our independent registered public accounting firm may not be able to conclude on an ongoing basis that we have effective internal control over financial reporting, which could harm our operating results, cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information and cause the trading price of our stock to fall. In addition, as a public company, we are required to file accurate and timely quarterly and annual reports with the SEC under the Exchange Act. Any failure to report our financial results on an accurate and timely basis could result in sanctions, lawsuits, delisting of our shares from The Nasdaq Global Select Market or other adverse consequences that would materially harm our business. In addition, we could become subject to investigations by the stock exchange on which our securities are listed, the SEC and other regulatory authorities and litigation from investors and stockholders, which could harm our reputation and our financial condition, or divert financial and management resources from our core business.
We have incurred and will incur significant increased expenses and administrative burdens as a public company, which could negatively impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We face increased legal, accounting, administrative and other costs and expenses as a public company that we did not incur as a private company. We expect such expenses to further increase now that we are no longer an “emerging growth company” as defined in Section 2(a)(19) of the Securities Act, as modified by the Jumpstart our Business Startups Act. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, including the requirements of Section 404, as well as rules and regulations subsequently implemented by the SEC, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 and the rules and regulations promulgated and to be promulgated thereunder, the PCAOB and the securities
exchanges, impose additional reporting and other obligations on public companies. Compliance with public company requirements will increase costs and make certain activities more time consuming. A number of those requirements require us to carry out activities that we had not done previously. For example, we have created new board committees and adopted new internal controls and disclosure controls and procedures. In addition, expenses associated with SEC reporting requirements have been and will be incurred. Furthermore, if any issues in complying with those requirements are identified (for example, if we identify a material weakness or significant deficiency in the internal control over financial reporting), we could incur additional costs rectifying those issues, and the existence of those issues could adversely affect our reputation or investor perceptions of us. It may also be more expensive to obtain director and officer liability insurance. Risks associated with our status as a public company may make it more difficult to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors or as executive officers. The additional reporting and other obligations imposed by these rules and regulations have increased and will increase legal and financial compliance costs and the costs of related legal, accounting and administrative activities. These increased costs will require us to divert a significant amount of money that could otherwise be used to expand the business and achieve strategic objectives. Advocacy efforts by stockholders and third parties may also prompt additional changes in governance and reporting requirements, which could further increase costs.
In addition, we implemented an enterprise resource planning (“ERP”), system for our company. An ERP system is intended to combine and streamline the management of our financial, accounting, human resources, sales and marketing and other functions, enabling us to manage operations and track performance more effectively. However, an ERP system will likely require us to complete many processes and procedures for the effective use of the system or to run our business using the system, which may result in substantial costs. Additionally, in the future, we may be limited in our ability to convert any business that we acquire to the ERP. Any disruptions or difficulties in using an ERP system could adversely affect our controls and harm our business, including our ability to forecast or make sales and collect our receivables. Moreover, such disruption or difficulties could result in unanticipated costs and diversion of management attention.
Our failure to timely and effectively implement controls and procedures required by Section 404(a)of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 that are applicable to us could negatively impact our business.
We are subject to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The standards required for a public company under Section 404(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 are significantly more stringent than those that were required of us as a privately held company. Management may not be able to effectively and timely implement controls and procedures that adequately respond to the increased regulatory compliance and reporting requirements that are applicable to us. If we are not able to implement the additional requirements of Section 404(a) in a timely manner or with adequate compliance, we may not be able to assess whether our internal controls over financial reporting are effective, which may subject us to adverse regulatory consequences and could harm investor confidence and the market price of our securities.
We are required, pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, to furnish a report by management on, among other things, the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of January 1, 2023. This assessment includes disclosure of any material weaknesses identified by our management in our internal control over financial reporting. In addition, our independent registered public accounting firm is required to attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. Our compliance with Section 404 requires that we incur substantial expenses and expend significant management efforts. We engaged a third party service provider to perform a review of our internal control over financial reporting. As we continue to grow, we will hire additional accounting and finance staff with appropriate public company experience and technical accounting knowledge to update the process documentation and internal controls for compliance with Section 404.
During the evaluation and testing process of our internal controls, if we identify one or more material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, we will be unable to certify that our internal control over financial reporting is effective. We cannot assure you that there will not be material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting in the future. Any failure to maintain internal control over financial reporting could severely inhibit our ability to accurately report our financial condition or results of operations. If we are unable to conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm determines we have a material weakness or significant deficiency in our internal control over financial reporting, we could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, the market price of our common stock could decline, and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by the SEC or other regulatory authorities. Failure to remedy any material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, or to implement or
maintain other effective control systems required of public companies, could also restrict our future access to the capital markets.
We have previously been and may in the future be involved in class-action lawsuits and other litigation matters that are expensive and time-consuming. If resolved adversely, lawsuits and other litigation matters could seriously harm our business.
We have previously been and may in the future be subject to litigation such as putative class action and shareholder derivative lawsuits brought by stockholders. We anticipate that we will be a target for lawsuits in the future, as we have been in the past. For example, on April 5, 2021, Derek Boxhorn, a purported stockholder in RSVAC, filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against RSVAC and its board of directors. The Boxhorn complaint alleged, among other things, that the defendants violated Sections 14(a) and 20(a) of the Exchange Act, and that the individual defendants breached their fiduciary duties, in connection with the terms of the Business Combination, and that RSVAC’s registration statement contained materially incomplete and misleading information regarding the Business Combination. The case was voluntarily dismissed on October 19, 2021. After the dismissal and on December 3, 2021, the plaintiff filed a motion for attorneys’ fees and costs. On August 23, 2022, the court denied the plaintiff's motion for attorney's fees and the case is closed.
On January 6, 2023, a purported Company stockholder filed a securities class action complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against us and certain of its current and former officers and directors. The complaint alleges that defendants violated Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder by making material misstatements or omissions in public statements related to our manufacturing scaleup. The complaint seeks unspecified damages, interest, fees and costs on behalf of all persons and entities who purchased and/or acquired shares of our common stock between February 22, 2021 and January 3, 2023. A substantially identical complaint was filed on January 25, 2023 by another purported Company stockholder. We and the other defendants intend to vigorously defend against the claims in these actions. Any litigation to which we are a party may result in an onerous or unfavorable judgment that may not be reversed on appeal, or we may decide to settle lawsuits on similarly unfavorable terms. Any such negative outcome could result in payments of substantial monetary damages and accordingly our business could be seriously harmed. The results of lawsuits and claims cannot be predicted with certainty. Regardless of the final outcome, defending these claims, and associated indemnification obligations, are costly and can impose a significant burden on management and employees, and we may receive unfavorable preliminary, interim, or final rulings in the course of litigation, which could seriously harm our business.
Risks Related to Our Capital Needs and Capital Strategy
We may not have adequate funds to finance our operating needs and our growth, and may need to raise additional capital, which we may not be able to do.
The design, manufacture and sale of batteries is a capital-intensive business. As a result of the capital-intensive nature of our business, we can be expected to continue to sustain substantial operating expenses without generating sufficient revenue to cover expenditures. We may need to raise additional capital to acquire our next manufacturing facility and build it out. Adequate additional funding may not be available to us on acceptable terms or at all, and if the financial markets become difficult or costly to access, including due to rising interest rates, fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates or other changes in economic conditions, our ability to raise additional capital may be negatively impacted. Our failure to raise capital in the future would have a negative impact on our ability to complete our manufacturing facilities, our financial condition and our ability to pursue our business strategies. The amount of capital that we will be required to raise, and our ability to raise substantial additional capital, will depend on many factors, including, but not limited to:
•our ability and the cost to develop our new and complex manufacturing process that will produce lithium-ion batteries in a cost-effective manner;
•our ability to continue to build-out and scale our Fremont manufacturing facility in a timely and cost-effective manner;
•our ability to locate and acquire new, larger manufacturing facilities on commercially reasonable terms;
•our ability to build out our new, larger manufacturing facilities in a cost-effective manner;
•the cost of preparing to manufacture lithium-ion batteries on a larger scale;
•the costs of commercialization activities including product sales, marketing, manufacturing and distribution;
•our ability to hire additional personnel;
•the demand for our lithium-ion batteries and the prices for which we will be able to sell our lithium-ion batteries;
•the emergence of competing technologies or other adverse market developments;
•the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business, results of operations and financial condition; and
•volatility in the equity markets, including as a result of war or other armed conflict, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Our long-term financial model assumes we expand both on our own and by partnering with other battery companies. Should we not be able to achieve these partnering goals we would have to expand purely on our own. This would require additional capital and could impact how fast we can ramp revenue and achieve profitability. It could also impact our ability to service some customers that require second sources for supply. Additionally, if we can achieve these partnerships but not on the financial terms we are assuming, it could impact our financial performance.
Further, we cannot guarantee that our business will generate sufficient cash flow from operations to fund our capital expenditures or other liquidity needs. Over time, we expect that we will need to raise additional funds through the issuance of equity, equity-related or debt securities or through obtaining credit from financial institutions to fund, together with our principal sources of liquidity, ongoing costs such as research and development relating to our batteries, any significant unplanned or accelerated expenses and new strategic investments.
As discussed in the condensed consolidated financial statements, in Part II, item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we are not profitable and have incurred losses in each year since our inception. We incurred net income (loss) of $(73.6) million and $42.7 million, respectively, for the fiscal quarters ended April 2, 2023 and April 3, 2022. As of April 2, 2023, we had an accumulated deficit of $458.4 million. We expect to continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future, and we anticipate these losses will increase as we continue our manufacturing scale up, add additional manufacturing capacity, continue commercialization and continue to operate as a public company and comply with legal, accounting and other regulatory requirements. We cannot be certain that additional capital will be available on attractive terms, if at all, when needed, which could be dilutive to stockholders, and our financial condition, results of operations, business and prospects could be materially and adversely affected.
Raising additional funds may cause dilution to existing stockholders and/or may restrict our operations or require us to relinquish proprietary rights.*
To the extent that we raise additional capital by issuing equity or convertible debt securities, our existing stockholders’ ownership interest may experience substantial dilution, and the terms of these securities may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect the rights of a holder of our Common Stock. Any agreements for future debt or preferred equity financings, if available, may involve covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as raising additional capital, incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends. In addition, if we raise additional funds through collaborations, strategic alliances or marketing, distribution or licensing arrangements with third parties, we may be required to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies or future revenue streams. If we incur additional debt, the debt holders, together with holders of our outstanding Convertible Senior Notes, would have rights senior to holders of common stock to make claims on our assets, and the terms of any future debt could restrict our operations, including our ability to pay dividends on our common stock.
Risks Related to Our Convertible Senior Notes
Servicing our debt requires a significant amount of cash, and we may not have sufficient cash flow from our business to pay our substantial debt.*
Our ability to make scheduled payments of the principal of, to pay interest on or to refinance our indebtedness, including the Convertible Senior Notes, depends on our future performance, which is subject to economic, financial, competitive and other factors beyond our control. Our business may not continue to generate cash flow from operations in the future sufficient to service our debt and make necessary capital expenditures. If we are unable to generate such cash flow, we may be required to adopt one or more alternatives, such as selling assets, restructuring debt or obtaining
additional equity capital on terms that may be onerous or highly dilutive. Our ability to refinance our indebtedness will depend on the capital markets and our financial condition at such time. We may not be able to engage in any of these activities or engage in these activities on desirable terms, which could result in a default on our debt obligations, including the Convertible Senior Notes.
The conditional conversion feature of the Convertible Senior Notes, if triggered, may adversely affect our financial condition and operating results.*
In the event the conditional conversion feature of the Convertible Senior Notes is triggered, holders of the Convertible Senior Notes will be entitled to convert their notes at any time during specified periods at their option. If one or more holders elect to convert their notes, unless we elect to satisfy our conversion obligation by delivering solely shares of our common stock (other than paying cash in lieu of delivering any fractional share), we would be required to settle a portion or all of our conversion obligation through the payment of cash, which could adversely affect our liquidity. In addition, even if holders do not elect to convert their notes, we could be required under applicable accounting rules to reclassify all or a portion of the outstanding principal of the Convertible Senior Notes as a current rather than long-term liability, which would result in a material reduction of our net working capital.
Certain provisions in the indenture governing the Convertible Senior Notes may delay or prevent an otherwise beneficial takeover attempt of us.*
Certain provisions in the indenture governing the Convertible Senior Notes may make it more difficult or expensive for a third party to acquire us. For example, the indenture governing the Convertible Senior Notes will require us to repurchase the Convertible Senior Notes for cash upon the occurrence of a fundamental change and, in certain circumstances, to increase the conversion rate for a holder that converts its notes in connection with a make-whole fundamental change. A takeover of us may trigger the requirement that we repurchase the Convertible Senior Notes and/or increase the conversion rate, which could make it costlier for a potential acquirer to engage in such takeover. Such additional costs may have the effect of delaying or preventing a takeover of us that would otherwise be beneficial to investors.
Conversion of the Convertible Senior Notes may dilute the ownership interest of our stockholders or may otherwise depress the price of our common stock.*
The conversion of some or all of the Convertible Senior Notes may dilute the ownership interests of our stockholders. Upon conversion of the Convertible Senior Notes, we have the option to pay or deliver, as the case may be, cash, shares of our common stock, or a combination of cash and shares of our common stock. If we elect to settle our conversion obligation in shares of our common stock or a combination of cash and shares of our common stock, any sales in the public market of our common stock issuable upon such conversion could adversely affect prevailing market prices of our common stock. In addition, the existence of the Convertible Senior Notes may encourage short selling by market participants because the conversion of the Convertible Senior Notes could be used to satisfy short positions, or anticipated conversion of the Convertible Senior Notes into shares of our common stock could depress the price of our common stock.
The accounting method for the Convertible Senior Notes could adversely affect our reported financial condition and results.*
The accounting method for reflecting the Convertible Senior Notes on our Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet, accruing interest expense for the Convertible Senior Notes and reflecting the underlying shares of our common stock in our reported diluted earnings per share may adversely affect our reported earnings and financial condition.
In August 2020, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) published Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2020-06 (“ASU 2020-06”), which simplified certain of the accounting standards that apply to convertible notes. ASU 2020-06 eliminated the cash conversion and beneficial conversion feature modes used to separately account for embedded conversion features as a component of equity. Instead, an entity would account for convertible debt or convertible preferred stock securities as a single unit of account, unless the conversion feature requires bifurcation and recognition as derivatives. Additionally, the guidance requires entities to use the “if-converted” method for all convertible instruments in the diluted earnings per share calculation and to include the effect of potential share settlement for instruments that may be settled in cash or shares. ASU 2020-06 became effective for us beginning on January 1, 2022.
In accordance with ASU 2020-06 and subject to our full accounting assessment, which is not complete as of the date of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, we expect that the Convertible Senior Notes will be reflected as a liability on our Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets, with the initial carrying amount equal to the principal amount of the Convertible Senior Notes, net of issuance costs. The issuance costs will be treated as a debt discount for accounting purposes, which will be amortized into interest expense over the term of the Convertible Senior Notes. As a result of this amortization, the interest expense that we expect to recognize for the Convertible Senior Notes for accounting purposes will be greater than the cash interest payments we will pay on the Convertible Senior Notes, which will result in lower reported income.
In addition, we expect that the shares of common stock underlying the Convertible Senior Notes will be reflected in our diluted earnings per share using the “if converted” method, in accordance with ASU 2020-06. Under that method, diluted earnings per share would generally be calculated assuming that all the Convertible Senior Notes were converted solely into shares of common stock at the beginning of the reporting period, unless the result would be anti-dilutive. The application of the if-converted method may reduce our reported diluted earnings per share to the extent we are profitable in the future, and accounting standards may change in the future in a manner that may adversely affect our diluted earnings per share.
Furthermore, if any of the conditions to the convertibility of the Convertible Senior Notes is satisfied, then we may be required under applicable accounting standards to reclassify the liability carrying value of the Convertible Senior Notes as a current, rather than a long-term, liability. This reclassification could be required even if no noteholders or holders of affiliate notes convert their notes or affiliate notes, respectively, following the satisfaction of those conditions and could materially reduce our reported working capital.
The capped call transactions may affect the value of the Convertible Senior Notes and our common stock.*
In connection with the pricing of the Convertible Senior Notes and the exercise by the initial purchasers of their option to purchase additional Convertible Senior Notes, we entered into capped call transactions (the “Capped Call Transactions”) with certain of the initial purchasers or affiliates thereof and/or other financial institutions (the “Option Counterparties”). The Capped Call Transactions will cover, subject to customary adjustments, the number of shares of our common stock initially underlying the Convertible Senior Notes. The Capped Call Transactions are expected generally to reduce the potential dilution to our common stock upon any conversion of notes and/or offset any cash payments we are required to make in excess of the principal amount of converted notes, as the case may be, with such reduction and/or offset subject to a cap.
In connection with establishing their initial hedges of the Capped Call Transactions, the Option Counterparties or their respective affiliates likely entered into various derivative transactions with respect to our common stock and/or purchased shares of our common stock concurrently with or shortly after the pricing of the Convertible Senior Notes, including with, or from, as the case may be, certain investors in the Convertible Senior Notes.
In addition, the Option Counterparties and/or their respective affiliates may modify their hedge positions by entering into or unwinding various derivatives with respect to our common stock and/or purchasing or selling our common stock or other securities of ours in secondary market transactions prior to the maturity of the Convertible Senior Notes (and are likely to do so on each exercise date of the Capped Call Transactions, or, to the extent we exercise the relevant election under the Capped Call Transactions, following any repurchase, redemption, or conversion of the Convertible Senior Notes).
We cannot make any prediction as to the direction or magnitude of any potential effect that the transactions described above may have on the price of the Convertible Senior Notes or the shares of our common stock. Any of these activities could adversely affect the value of the Convertible Senior Notes and our common stock.
We are subject to counterparty risk with respect to the Capped Call Transactions.*
The Option Counterparties are financial institutions, and we will be subject to the risk that any or all of them might default under the Capped Call Transactions. Our exposure to the credit risk of the Option Counterparties will not be secured by any collateral.
If an Option Counterparty becomes subject to insolvency proceedings, we will become an unsecured creditor in those proceedings with a claim equal to our exposure at that time under the capped call transaction with such Option Counterparty. Our exposure will depend on many factors but, generally, an increase in our exposure will be correlated to an increase in the market price and in the volatility of our common stock. In addition, upon a default by an Option
Counterparty, we may suffer more dilution than we currently anticipate with respect to our common stock. We can provide no assurances as to the financial stability or viability of the Option Counterparties.
Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property
We rely heavily on our intellectual property portfolio. If we are unable to protect our intellectual property rights, our business and competitive position would be harmed.
We may not be able to prevent unauthorized use of our intellectual property, which could harm our business and competitive position. We rely upon a combination of the intellectual property protections afforded by patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws in the United States and other jurisdictions, as well as license agreements and other contractual protections, to establish, maintain and enforce rights in our proprietary technologies. In addition, we seek to protect our intellectual property rights through nondisclosure and invention assignment agreements with our employees and consultants and through non-disclosure agreements with business partners and other third parties. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, third parties may attempt to copy or otherwise obtain and use our intellectual property or be able to design around our intellectual property. Monitoring unauthorized use of our intellectual property is difficult and costly, and the steps we have taken or will take to prevent misappropriation may not be sufficient. Any enforcement efforts we undertake, including litigation, could be time-consuming and expensive and could divert management’s attention, which could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition. Moreover, our intellectual property is stored on computer systems that could be penetrated by intruders and potentially misappropriated. There is no guarantee that our efforts to protect our computer systems will be effective. In addition, existing intellectual property laws and contractual remedies may afford less protection than needed to safeguard our intellectual property portfolio.
Patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws vary significantly throughout the world. A number of foreign countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as do the laws of the United States. Therefore, our intellectual property rights may not be as strong or as easily enforced outside of the United States, and efforts to protect against the unauthorized use of our intellectual property rights, technology and other proprietary rights may be more expensive and difficult outside of the United States. Further, we have not established our intellectual property rights in all countries in the world, and competitors may copy our designs and technology and operate in countries in which we have not prosecuted out intellectual property. Failure to adequately protect our intellectual property rights could result in our competitors using our intellectual property to offer products, and competitors’ ability to design around our intellectual property would enable competitors to offer similar or better batteries, in each case potentially resulting in the loss of some of our competitive advantage and a decrease in our revenue, which would adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results.
We may need to defend ourselves against intellectual property infringement claims, which may be time-consuming and could cause us to incur substantial costs.
Companies, organizations or individuals, including our current and future competitors, may hold or obtain patents, trademarks or other proprietary rights that would prevent, limit or interfere with our ability to make, use, develop or sell our products, which could make it more difficult for us to operate our business. From time to time, we may receive inquiries from holders of patents or trademarks inquiring whether we are infringing their proprietary rights and/or seek court declarations that they do not infringe upon our intellectual property rights. Companies holding patents or other intellectual property rights relating to batteries, electric motors or electronic power management systems may bring suits alleging infringement of such rights or otherwise asserting their rights and seeking licenses. In addition, if we are determined to have infringed upon a third party’s intellectual property rights, we may be required to do one or more of the following:
•cease selling, incorporating or using products that incorporate the challenged intellectual property;
•pay substantial damages;
•obtain a license from the holder of the infringed intellectual property right, which license may not be available on reasonable terms or at all; or
•redesign our batteries.
In the event of a successful claim of infringement against us and our failure or inability to obtain a license to the infringed technology, our business, prospects, operating results and financial condition could be materially adversely
affected. In addition, any litigation or claims, whether or not valid, could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and management’s attention.
We also license patents and other intellectual property from third parties, and we may face claims that our use of this intellectual property infringes the rights of others. In such cases, we may seek indemnification from our licensors under our license contracts with them. However, our rights to indemnification may be unavailable or insufficient to cover our costs and losses, depending on our use of the technology, whether we choose to retain control over conduct of the litigation and other factors.
Our patent applications may not result in issued patents or our patent rights may be contested, circumvented, invalidated or limited in scope, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our ability to prevent others from interfering with our commercialization of our products.
Our patent applications may not result in issued patents, which may have a material adverse effect on our ability to prevent others from commercially exploiting products similar to ours. The status of patents involves complex legal and factual questions and the breadth of claims allowed is uncertain. As a result, we cannot be certain that the patent applications that we file will result in patents being issued or that our patents and any patents that may be issued to us will afford protection against competitors with similar technology. Numerous patents and pending patent applications owned by others exist in the fields in which we have developed and are developing our technology. In addition to those who may claim priority, any of our existing or pending patents may also be challenged by others on the basis that they are otherwise invalid or unenforceable. Furthermore, patent applications filed in foreign countries are subject to laws, rules and procedures that differ from those of the United States, and thus we cannot be certain that foreign patent applications related to issued U.S. patents will be issued.
Even if our patent applications succeed and we are issued patents in accordance with them, it is still uncertain whether these patents will be contested, circumvented, invalidated or limited in scope in the future. The rights granted under any issued patents may not provide us with meaningful protection or competitive advantages, and some foreign countries provide significantly less effective patent enforcement than in the United States. In addition, the claims under any patents that issue from our patent applications may not be broad enough to prevent others from developing technologies that are similar or that achieve results similar to ours. The intellectual property rights of others could also bar us from licensing and exploiting any patents that issue from our pending applications. In addition, patents issued to us may be infringed upon or designed around by others, and others may obtain patents that we need to license or design around, either of which would increase costs and may adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results.
Risks Related to Our Regulatory Compliance
We may encounter regulatory approval difficulties which could delay our ability to launch our lithium-ion battery cells, and compliance with regulatory laws may limit their usefulness.
Any delay in the development and manufacturing scale-up of our lithium-ion battery cells would negatively impact our business as it will delay time to revenue and negatively impact our customer relationships. For example, although we plan on passing all the required regulatory abuse testing, because our design is new and has very high energy density, there may be unanticipated failure modes that occur in the field which could delay or prevent us from launching our batteries. Further, there are current limits on the amount of energy that can be transported via different methods, particularly air travel. These limits have been historically based on the energy of batteries currently on the market. These limits may have to be increased in the future if they are not to limit the transportation of our batteries. If these limits are not increased, it could increase the costs and duration of shipping of our finished product and limit customer use of our batteries in certain cases. This could increase our inventory costs and limit sales of our batteries in some markets.
We are subject to substantial regulation, and unfavorable changes to, or our failure to comply with, these regulations could substantially harm our business and operating results.
Our batteries are subject to substantial regulation under international, federal, state and local laws, including export control laws. We expect to incur significant costs in complying with these regulations. Regulations related to the battery and alternative energy are currently evolving, and we face risks associated with changes to these regulations.
To the extent the laws change, our products may not comply with applicable international, federal, state or local laws, which would have an adverse effect on our business. Compliance with changing regulations could be burdensome,
time consuming and expensive. To the extent compliance with new regulations is cost prohibitive, our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results would be adversely affected.
Internationally, there may be laws in jurisdictions we have not yet entered or laws we are unaware of in jurisdictions we have entered that may restrict our sales or other business practices. The laws in this area can be complex, difficult to interpret and may change over time. Continued regulatory limitations and other obstacles that may interfere with our ability to commercialize our products could have a negative and material impact on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.
We are subject to a variety of laws and regulations related to the safety and transportation of our batteries. Our failure to comply with these laws and regulations may have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
Many federal, state and local authorities require certification by Underwriters Laboratory, Inc., an independent, not-for-profit corporation engaged in the testing of products for compliance with certain public safety standards, or other safety regulation certification prior to marketing battery cells. Foreign jurisdictions also have regulatory authorities overseeing the safety of consumer products. Our products may not meet the specifications required by these authorities. A determination that any of our products are not in compliance with these rules and regulations could result in the imposition of fines or an award of damages to private litigants.
In addition, lithium batteries have been identified as a Class 9 dangerous good during transport. To be safely transported (by air, sea, rail or roadways), they must meet various international, national, state and local authorities, including, for example, the provisions laid out in United Nations standard UN 38.3. This standard applies to batteries transported either on their own or installed in a device. UN 38.3 has been adopted by regulators and competent authorities around the world, thus making it a requirement for global market access. The failure to manage the transportation of our products could subject us to increased costs or future liabilities.
We are subject to requirements relating to environmental and safety regulations and environmental remediation matters which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and reputation.
We are subject to numerous federal, state and local environmental laws and regulations governing, among other things, solid and hazardous waste storage, treatment and disposal and remediation of releases of hazardous materials. There are significant capital, operating and other costs associated with compliance with these environmental laws and regulations. Environmental laws and regulations may become more stringent in the future, which could increase costs of compliance or require us to manufacture with alternative technologies and materials.
Federal, state and local authorities also regulate a variety of matters, including, but not limited to, health, safety and permitting in addition to the environmental matters discussed above. New legislation and regulations may require us to make material changes to our operations, resulting in significant increases to the cost of production.
Our manufacturing process will have hazards such as, but not limited to, hazardous materials, machines with moving parts and high voltage and/or high current electrical systems typical of large manufacturing equipment and related safety incidents. There may be safety incidents that damage machinery or product, slow or stop production or harm employees. Consequences may include litigation, regulation, fines, increased insurance premiums, mandates to temporarily halt production, workers’ compensation claims or other actions that impact the company brand, finances or ability to operate.
A failure to properly comply (or to comply properly) with foreign trade zone laws and regulations could increase the cost of our duties and tariffs.
Our manufacturing facility in Fremont, California has been established as a foreign trade zone through qualification with U.S. Customs. Materials received in a foreign trade zone are not subject to certain U.S. duties or tariffs until the material enters U.S. commerce. We benefit from the adoption of foreign trade zones by reduced duties, deferral of certain duties and tariffs and reduced processing fees, which help us realize a reduction in duty and tariff costs. However, the operation of our foreign trade zone requires compliance with applicable regulations and continued support of U.S. Customs with respect to the foreign trade zone program. If we are unable to maintain the qualification of our foreign trade zones, or if foreign trade zones are limited or unavailable to us in the future, our duty and tariff costs would increase, which could have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
Risks Related to Ownership of Our Securities
The trading price of our Common Stock may be volatile, and the value of our Common Stock may decline.
Historically, our stock price has been volatile. During the fiscal year ended January 1, 2023, our stock traded as high as $28.17 per share and as low as $7.26 per share, and from January 2, 2023 to May 1, 2023, our stock price has ranged from $15.48 per share to $6.50 per share. The trading price of our securities could be volatile and subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our control. Any of the factors listed below could have a material adverse effect on your investment in our securities and our securities may trade at prices significantly below the price you paid for them. In such circumstances, the trading price of our securities may not recover and may experience a further decline.
Factors affecting the trading price of our securities:
•actual or anticipated fluctuations in our quarterly financial results or the quarterly financial results of companies perceived to be similar to us;
•changes in the market’s expectations about our operating results;
•success of competitors;
•our operating results failing to meet the expectation of securities analysts or investors in a particular period;
•changes in financial estimates and recommendations by securities analysts concerning us or the market in general;
•operating and stock price performance of other companies that investors deem comparable to us;
•our ability to develop product candidates;
•changes in laws and regulations affecting our business;
•commencement of, or involvement in, litigation involving us;
•changes in our capital structure, such as future issuances of securities or the incurrence of additional debt;
•the volume of shares of our securities available for public sale;
•any major change in our board of directors or management;
•sales of securities convertible into shares of our capital stock by us;
•sales of substantial amounts of Common Stock by our directors, executive officers or significant stockholders or the perception that such sales could occur; and
•general economic and political conditions such as recessions, interest rates, fuel prices, international currency fluctuations and acts of war or other armed conflict or terrorism.
Broad market and industry factors may materially harm the market price of our securities irrespective of our operating performance. The stock market in general and The Nasdaq Global Select Market in particular have experienced price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of the particular companies affected. The trading prices and valuations of these stocks, and of our securities, is not predictable. A loss of investor confidence in the market for battery company stocks or the stocks of other companies which investors perceive to be similar to us could depress our stock price regardless of our business, prospects, financial conditions or results of operations. A decline in the market price of our securities also could adversely affect our ability to issue additional securities and our ability to obtain additional financing in the future.
Furthermore, short sellers may engage in manipulative activity intended to drive down the market price of target company stock. We have in the past been the subject of a short seller report containing certain allegations against us. While we reviewed the allegations in such report and believe them to be unsubstantiated, we may in the future become subject to additional unfavorable reports, which may cause us to expend a significant number of resources to investigate such allegations and may lead to increased volatility in the price of our Common Stock.
If securities or industry analysts do not publish or cease publishing research or reports about us, our business, or our market, or if they change their recommendations regarding our securities adversely, the price and trading volume of our securities could decline.
The trading market for our securities is influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts may publish about us, our business, our market, or our competitors. If any of the analysts who currently cover us change their recommendation regarding our stock adversely, or provide more favorable relative recommendations about our competitors, the price of our securities would likely decline. If any analyst who currently cover us were to cease coverage of us or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline. If we obtain additional coverage and any new analyst issues, an adverse or misleading opinion regarding us, our business model, our intellectual property or our stock performance, or if our operating results fail to meet the expectations of analysts, our stock price could decline.
The future sales of shares by existing stockholders may adversely affect the market price of our Common Stock.
Sales of a substantial number of shares of our Common Stock in the public market could occur at any time. If our stockholders sell, or the market perceives that our stockholders intend to sell, substantial amounts of our Common Stock in the public market, the market price of our Common Stock could decline. As of May 1, 2023, we have outstanding a total of 158,160,110 shares of Common Stock. All of our outstanding shares are eligible for sale in the public market, other than shares and options held by directors, executive officers, and other affiliates that are subject to volume limitations under Rule 144 of the Securities Act, various vesting agreements, and shares that must be sold under an effective registration statement. Additionally, the shares of Common Stock subject to outstanding options and restricted stock unit awards under our equity incentive plans and the shares reserved for future issuance under our equity incentive plans will become eligible for sale in the public market upon issuance, subject to applicable insider trading policies.
To the extent our Private Placement Warrants are exercised, additional shares of Common Stock will be issued, which will result in dilution to the holders of Common Stock and increase the number of shares eligible for resale in the public market. Sales, or the potential sales, of substantial numbers of shares in the public market by the selling security holders, could increase the volatility of the market price of Common Stock or adversely affect the market price of Common Stock.
A market for our securities may not continue, which would adversely affect the liquidity and price of our securities.
The price of our securities may fluctuate significantly due to general market and economic conditions and an active trading market for our securities may not be sustained. In addition, the price of our securities can vary due to general economic conditions and forecasts, our general business condition and the release of our financial reports. If our securities are not listed on, or for any reason become delisted from, The Nasdaq Global Select Market and are quoted on the OTC Bulletin Board, an inter-dealer automated quotation system for equity securities that is not a national securities exchange, the liquidity and price of our securities may be more limited than if we were quoted or listed on The Nasdaq Global Select Market or another national securities exchange. You may be unable to sell your securities unless a market can be established or sustained.
There can be no assurance that we will be able to comply with the continued listing standards of The Nasdaq Global Select Market.
If The Nasdaq Global Select Market delists our securities from trading on its exchange for failure to meet the listing standards, we and our stockholders could face significant material adverse consequences including:
•a limited availability of market quotations for our securities;
•a determination that our Common Stock is a “penny stock” which will require brokers trading in our Common Stock to adhere to more stringent rules, possibly resulting in a reduced level of trading activity in the secondary trading market for our Common Stock;
•a limited amount of analyst coverage; and
•a decreased ability to issue additional securities or obtain additional financing in the future.
Private Placement Warrants are exercisable for our Common Stock, which would increase the number of shares eligible for future resale in the public market and result in dilution to our stockholders.
In connection with the RSVAC initial public offering (“RSVAC IPO”), RSVAC issued Private Placement Warrants to purchase 6,000,000 shares of Common Stock to the Sponsor. Each Warrant is exercisable to purchase one share of Common Stock at $11.50 per share. To the extent such warrants are exercised, additional shares of our Common Stock will be issued, which will result in dilution to the then existing holders of our Common Stock and increase the number of shares eligible for resale in the public market. Sales of substantial numbers of such shares in the public market could adversely affect the market price of our Common Stock. The Warrants became exercisable 12 months from the closing of the RSVAC IPO, and they expire five years after the completion of the Business Combination or earlier upon redemption or liquidation, as described in our Registration Statement on Form S-1, filed with the SEC on August 2, 2021, as may be amended.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware and the federal district courts of the United States of America will be the exclusive forums for certain disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to choose the judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers or employees.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware (or, if and only if the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware lacks subject matter jurisdiction, any state court located within the State of Delaware or, if and only if all such state courts lack subject matter jurisdiction, the federal district court for the District of Delaware) is the exclusive forum for:
•any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf;
•any action asserting a claim of breach of fiduciary duty owed by any of our current or former directors, officers or other employees to us or our stockholders;
•any action asserting a claim against us by any of our current or former directors, officers or other employees to us or our stockholders arising under the Delaware General Corporation Law, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or our amended and restated bylaws;
•any action or proceeding to interpret, apply, enforce or determine the validity of the amended and restated certificate of incorporation or the amended or restated bylaws (including any right, obligation or remedy thereunder);
•any action or proceeding as to which the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware (the “DGCL”) confers jurisdiction to the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware; and
•any action asserting a claim against us or any of our current or former directors, officers or other employees that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine, in all cases to the fullest extent permitted by law and subject to the court’s having personal jurisdiction over the indispensable parties named as defendants.
This exclusive-forum provision would not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction, or the Securities Act. In addition, to prevent having to litigate claims in multiple jurisdictions and the threat of inconsistent or contrary rulings by different courts, among other considerations, the Amended Charter provides that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, to the fullest extent permitted by law, the federal district courts of the United States of America will be the exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act. However, Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act or the rules and regulations thereunder. Accordingly, both state and federal courts have jurisdiction to entertain such claims. As noted above, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the federal district courts of the United States will be the exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause of action under the Securities Act. Due to the concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts created by Section 22 of the Securities Act over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act or the rules and regulations thereunder, there is uncertainty as to whether a court would enforce the exclusive form provision. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation further provides that any person or entity holding, owning or otherwise acquiring any interest in any of our securities shall be deemed to
have notice of and consented to these provisions. Investors also cannot waive compliance with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.
These exclusive-forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees. While the Delaware courts have determined that such choice of forum provisions are facially valid, a stockholder may nevertheless seek to bring such a claim arising under the Securities Act against us or our directors, officers or other employees in a venue other than in the federal district courts of the United States of America. In such instance, we would expect to vigorously assert the validity and enforceability of the exclusive forum provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. This may require significant additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions and we cannot assure you that the provisions will be enforced by a court in those other jurisdictions. If a court were to find either exclusive-forum provision in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur further significant additional costs associated with resolving the dispute in other jurisdictions, all of which could harm our business.
General Risk Factors
We have been, and may in the future be, involved in legal proceedings and commercial or contractual disputes, which could have an adverse impact on our profitability and condensed consolidated financial position.
We may be involved in legal proceedings and commercial or contractual disputes that, from time to time, are significant. These are typically claims that arise in the normal course of business including, without limitation, commercial or contractual disputes, including warranty claims and other disputes with potential customers and suppliers, intellectual property matters, personal injury claims, environmental issues, tax matters and employment matters. For example, on January 21, 2022, two former machine operator employees filed a putative wage and hour class action lawsuit against Enovix and co-defendant Legendary Staffing, Inc. in the Superior Court of California, County of Alameda. The case is captioned Sopheak Prak & Ricardo Pimentel v Enovix Corporation and Legendary Staffing, Inc., 22CV005846. The Prak complaint alleges, among other things, on a putative class-wide basis, that the defendants failed to pay all overtime wages and committed meal period, rest period and wage statement violations under the California Labor Code and applicable Wage Orders. The plaintiffs are seeking unpaid wages, statutory penalties and interest, and reasonable costs and attorney fees. In September 2022, we began the mediation process with the plaintiff.
It is difficult to predict the outcome or ultimate financial exposure, if any, represented by these matters, and there can be no assurance that any such exposure will not be material. Such claims may also negatively affect our reputation.
Global conflicts could adversely impact our business, costs, supply chain, sales, financial condition or results of operations.
In late February 2022, Russia initiated significant military action against Ukraine. In response, the U.S. and certain other countries imposed significant sanctions and trade actions against Russia and Belarus, and the U.S. and certain other countries could impose further sanctions, trade restrictions and other retaliatory actions should the conflict continue or worsen. It is not possible to predict the broader consequences of the conflict, including related geopolitical tensions, and the measures and retaliatory actions taken by the U.S. and other countries in respect thereof, as well as any counter measures or retaliatory actions by Russia and Belarus in response, have caused and are likely to continue to cause regional instability and geopolitical shifts. Further, such conflict has materially adversely affected and is likely to continue to materially adversely affect global trade, currency exchange rates, regional economies and the global economy. While it is difficult to anticipate the impact of any of the foregoing on the Company, such conflict, and any similar future conflicts, including as a result of rising tensions between China and Taiwan, and actions taken in response could increase our costs, disrupt our supply chain, reduce our sales and earnings, impair our ability to raise additional capital when needed on acceptable terms, if at all, or otherwise adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We may become subject to product liability claims, which could harm our financial condition and liquidity if we are not able to successfully defend or insure against such claims.
Highly publicized incidents of laptop computers and cell phones bursting into flames have focused attention on the safety of lithium-ion batteries. If one of our products were to cause injury to someone or cause property damage, including as a result of product malfunctions, defects or improper installation leading to a fire or other hazardous condition, we may become subject to product liability claims, even those without merit, which could harm our business,
prospects, operating results and financial condition. We face inherent risk of exposure to claims in the event our batteries do not perform as expected or malfunction resulting in personal injury or death. Our risks in this area are particularly pronounced given our batteries have a limited history of commercial testing and mass production. A successful product liability claim against us could require us to pay a substantial monetary award. Moreover, a product liability claim could generate substantial negative publicity about our batteries and business and inhibit or prevent commercialization of other future battery candidates, which would have material adverse effect on our brand, business, prospects and operating results. Any insurance coverage might not be sufficient to cover all potential product liability claims. Any lawsuit seeking significant monetary damages either in excess of our coverage, or outside of our coverage, may have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business and financial condition. We may not be able to secure additional product liability insurance coverage on commercially acceptable terms or at reasonable costs when needed, particularly if we do face liability for our products and are forced to make a claim under our policy.
Our batteries and our website, systems and data we maintain may be subject to intentional disruption, other security incidents or alleged violations of laws, regulations or other obligations relating to data handling that could result in liability and adversely impact our reputation and future sales.
In the ordinary course of business, we collect, receive, store, process, generate, use, transfer, disclose, make accessible, protect, secure, dispose of, transmit, and share (collectively, process) personal data and other sensitive information, including proprietary and confidential business data, trade secrets, intellectual property, and sensitive third-party data. Cyber-attacks, malicious internet-based activity, online and offline fraud, and other similar activities threaten the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of our sensitive information and information technology systems, and those of the third parties upon which we rely. Such threats are prevalent and continue to rise, are increasingly difficult to detect, and come from a variety of sources, including traditional computer “hackers,” threat actors, “hacktivists,” organized criminal threat actors, personnel (such as through theft or misuse), sophisticated nation states, and nation-state-supported actors. Some actors now engage and are expected to continue to engage in cyber-attacks, including without limitation nation-state actors for geopolitical reasons and in conjunction with military conflicts and defense activities. During times of war and other major conflicts, we, the third parties upon which we rely, and our customers may be vulnerable to a heightened risk of these attacks, including retaliatory cyber-attacks, that could materially disrupt our systems and operations, supply chain, and ability to produce, sell and distribute our goods and services.
We and the third parties upon which we rely are subject to a variety of evolving threats, including but not limited to social-engineering attacks (including through phishing attacks), malicious code (such as viruses and worms), malware (including as a result of advanced persistent threat intrusions), denial-of-service attacks (such as credential stuffing), credential harvesting, personnel misconduct or error, ransomware attacks, supply-chain attacks, software bugs, server malfunctions, software or hardware failures, loss of data or other information technology assets, adware, telecommunications failures, earthquakes, fires, floods, and other similar threats. In particular, severe ransomware attacks are becoming increasingly prevalent – particularly for companies like ours that are engaged in manufacturing – and can lead to significant interruptions in our operations, loss of sensitive data and income, reputational harm, and diversion of funds. Extortion payments may alleviate the negative impact of a ransomware attack, but we may be unwilling or unable to make such payments due to, for example, applicable laws or regulations prohibiting such payments.
Remote work has become more common and has increased risks to our information technology systems and data, as more of our employees utilize network connections, computers and devices outside our premises or network, including working at home, while in transit and in public locations. Additionally, future or past business transactions (such as acquisitions or integrations) could expose us to additional cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities, as our systems could be negatively affected by vulnerabilities present in acquired or integrated entities’ systems and technologies. Furthermore, we may discover security issues that were not found during due diligence of such acquired or integrated entities, and it may be difficult to integrate companies into our information technology environment and security program.
We rely on third-party service providers and technologies to operate critical business systems to process sensitive information in a variety of contexts, including, without limitation, cloud-based infrastructure, data center facilities, encryption and authentication technology, employee email, and other functions. Our ability to monitor these third parties’ information security practices is limited, and these third parties may not have adequate information security measures in place. If our third-party service providers experience a security incident or other interruption, we could experience adverse consequences. While we may be entitled to damages if our third-party service providers fail to satisfy their privacy or security-related obligations to us, any award may be insufficient to cover our damages, or we may be unable to recover such award.
Any of the previously identified or similar threats could cause a security incident or other interruption that could result in unauthorized, unlawful, or accidental acquisition, modification, destruction, loss, alteration, encryption, disclosure of, or access to our sensitive information or our information technology systems, or those of the third parties upon whom we rely. A security incident or other interruption could disrupt our ability (and that of third parties upon whom we rely) to provide our products. We may expend significant resources or modify our business activities to try to protect against security incidents. Certain data privacy and security obligations may require us to implement and maintain specific security measures or industry-standard or reasonable security measures to protect our information technology systems and sensitive information.
While we have implemented security measures designed to protect against security incidents, there can be no assurance that these measures will be effective. We take steps to detect and remediate vulnerabilities, but we may not be able to detect and remediate all vulnerabilities because the threats and techniques used to exploit the vulnerability change frequently and are often sophisticated in nature. Therefore, such vulnerabilities could be exploited but may not be detected until after a security incident has occurred. These vulnerabilities pose material risks to our business. Further, we may experience delays in developing and deploying remedial measures designed to address any such identified vulnerabilities.
Applicable data privacy and security obligations may require us to notify relevant stakeholders of security incidents. Such disclosures are costly, and the disclosure or the failure to comply with such requirements could lead to adverse consequences. If we (or a third party upon whom we rely) experience a security incident or are perceived to have experienced a security incident, we may experience adverse consequences, such as government enforcement actions (for example, investigations, fines, penalties, audits, and inspections); additional reporting requirements and/or oversight; restrictions on processing sensitive information (including personal data); litigation (including class claims); indemnification obligations; negative publicity; reputational harm; monetary fund diversions; interruptions in our operations (including availability of data); financial loss; and other similar harms. Security incidents and attendant consequences may cause customers to stop using our products, deter new customers from using our products, and negatively impact our ability to grow and operate our business.
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 data privacy and security obligations. We cannot be sure that our insurance coverage will be adequate or sufficient to protect us from or to mitigate liabilities arising out of our privacy and security practices, that such coverage will continue to be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all, or that such coverage will pay future claims.
We are subject to stringent and evolving U.S. and foreign laws, regulations, rules, contractual obligations, policies and other obligations related to data privacy and security. Our actual or perceived failure to comply with such obligations could lead to regulatory investigations or actions; litigation; fines and penalties; disruptions of our business operations; reputational harm; loss of revenue or profits; loss of customers or sales; and other adverse business consequences.
In the ordinary course of business, we collect, receive, store, process, generate, use, transfer, disclose, make accessible, protect, secure, dispose of, transmit, and share (collectively, process) personal data and other sensitive information, including proprietary and confidential business data, trade secrets, intellectual property, and sensitive third-party data. Our data processing activities may subject us to numerous data privacy and security obligations, such as various laws, regulations, guidance, industry standards, external and internal privacy and security policies, contractual requirements, and other obligations relating to data privacy and security. In the United States, federal, state, and local governments have enacted numerous data privacy and security laws, including data breach notification laws, personal data privacy laws, consumer protection laws (e.g., Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act), and other similar laws. For example, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (“CPRA”) (collectively, “CCPA”) applies to personal data of consumers, business representatives, and employees who are California residents, and requires businesses to provide specific disclosures in privacy notices and honor requests of such individuals to exercise certain privacy rights. The CCPA provides for administrative fines of up to $7,500 per violation and allows private litigants affected by certain data breaches to recover significant statutory damages. In addition, the CPRA expanded the CCPA’s requirements, including by adding a new right for individuals to correct their personal data and establishing a new regulatory agency to implement and enforce the law. Other states, such as Virginia and Colorado, have also passed comprehensive privacy laws, and similar laws are being considered in several other states, as well as at the federal and local levels. These developments further complicate compliance efforts and increase legal risk and compliance costs for us and the third parties upon whom we rely.
Outside the United States, an increasing number of laws, regulations, and industry standards may govern data privacy and security, for example, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (“EU GDPR”) and the United Kingdom’s GDPR (“UK GDPR”). Under the EU GDPR, companies may face temporary or definitive bans on data processing and other corrective actions; fines of up to 20 million Euros or 4% of annual global revenue, whichever is greater; or private litigation related to processing of personal data brought by classes of data subjects or consumer protection organizations authorized at law to represent their interests.
In the ordinary course of business, we may transfer personal data from Europe and other jurisdictions to the United States or other countries. Europe and other jurisdictions have enacted laws requiring data to be localized or limiting the transfer of personal data to other countries. In particular, the European Economic Area (“EEA”) and the United Kingdom (“UK”) have significantly restricted the transfer of personal data to the United States and other countries whose privacy laws it believes are inadequate. Other jurisdictions may adopt similarly stringent interpretations of their data localization and cross-border data transfer laws. Although there are currently various mechanisms that may be used to transfer personal data from the EEA and UK to the United States in compliance with law, such as the EEA and UK’s standard contractual clauses, these mechanisms are subject to legal challenges, and there is no assurance that we can satisfy or rely on these measures to lawfully transfer personal data to the United States. If there is no lawful manner for us to transfer personal data from the EEA, the UK or other jurisdictions to the United States, or if the requirements for a legally-compliant transfer are too onerous, we could face significant adverse consequences, including the interruption or degradation of our operations, the need to relocate part of or all of our business or data processing activities to other jurisdictions at significant expense, increased exposure to regulatory actions, substantial fines and penalties, the inability to transfer data and work with partners, vendors and other third parties, and injunctions against our processing or transferring of personal data necessary to operate our business. Additionally, companies that transfer personal data out of the EEA and UK to other jurisdictions, particularly to the United States, are subject to increased scrutiny from regulators, individual litigants, and activist groups. Some European regulators have ordered certain companies to suspend or permanently cease certain transfers out of Europe for allegedly violating the GDPR’s cross-border data transfer limitations.
We are also bound by contractual obligations related to data privacy and security, and our efforts to comply with such obligations may not be successful. For example, certain privacy laws, such as the GDPR and the CCPA, require our customers to impose specific contractual restrictions on their service providers. We publish privacy policies, marketing materials and other statements regarding data privacy and security. If these policies, materials or statements are found to be deficient, lacking in transparency, deceptive, unfair, or misrepresentative of our practices, we may be subject to investigation, enforcement actions by regulators or other adverse consequences.
Obligations related to data privacy and security are quickly changing, becoming increasingly stringent, and creating regulatory uncertainty. Additionally, these obligations may be subject to differing applications and interpretations, which may be inconsistent or conflict among jurisdictions. Preparing for and complying with these obligations requires us to devote significant resources, which may necessitate changes to our services, information technologies, systems, and practices and to those of any third parties that process personal data on our behalf. In addition, these obligations may require us to change our business model. We may at times fail (or be perceived to have failed) in our efforts to comply with our data privacy and security obligations. Moreover, despite our efforts, our personnel or third parties on whom we rely may fail to comply with such obligations, which could negatively impact our business operations. If we or the third parties on which we rely fail, or are perceived to have failed, to address or comply with applicable data privacy and security obligations, we could face significant consequences, including but not limited to: government enforcement actions (e.g., investigations, fines, penalties, audits, inspections, and similar); litigation (including class-action claims); additional reporting requirements and/or oversight; bans on processing personal data; and orders to destroy or not use personal data. Any of these events could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, or financial condition, including but not limited to: loss of customers; inability to process personal data or to operate in certain jurisdictions; limited ability to develop or commercialize our products; expenditure of time and resources to defend any claim or inquiry; adverse publicity; or substantial changes to our business model or operations.
Our facilities or operations could be damaged or adversely affected as a result of natural disasters and other catastrophic events.
Our facilities or operations could be adversely affected by events outside of our control, such as natural disasters, wars or other armed conflicts, health epidemics such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the long-term effects of climate change and other calamities. Our headquarters and initial manufacturing facilities are located in Fremont, California, which is prone to earthquakes. We cannot assure you that any backup systems will be adequate to protect us from the
effects of fire, floods, typhoons, earthquakes, power loss, telecommunications failures, break-ins, war, riots, terrorist attacks or similar events. Any of the foregoing events may give rise to interruptions, breakdowns, system failures, technology platform failures or internet failures, which could cause the loss or corruption of data or malfunctions of software or hardware as well as adversely affect our ability to provide services.
Any financial or economic crisis, or perceived threat of such a crisis, including a significant decrease in consumer confidence, may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Global economic conditions have impacted, and will likely continue to impact, businesses around the world, including ours. Inflation and other macroeconomic pressures in the United States and the global economy such as rising interest rates and recession fears are creating a complex and challenging environment for us and our customers.
The United States and certain foreign governments have taken actions in an attempt to address and rectify these extreme market and economic conditions by providing liquidity and stability to the financial markets. If the actions taken by these governments are not successful, the return of adverse economic conditions may negatively impact the demand for our lithium-ion battery cells and may negatively impact our ability to raise capital, if needed, on a timely basis and on acceptable terms or at all.
Our ability to utilize our net operating losses and certain other tax attributes to offset future taxable income and taxes may be subject to certain limitations.
Under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, (the “Code”), a corporation is generally allowed a deduction for net operating losses (“NOLs”) carried over from a prior taxable year. Under the Code, we can carryforward our NOLs to offset our future taxable income, if any, until such NOLs are used or expire. The same is true of other unused tax attributes, such as tax credits. Under current U.S. federal income tax law, U.S. federal NOLs generated in taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017, may be carried forward indefinitely, but the deductibility of such U.S. federal NOLs is limited to 80 percent of taxable income. It is uncertain if and to what extent various states will conform to current U.S. federal income tax law, and there may be periods during which states suspend or otherwise limit the use of NOLs for state income tax purposes.
In addition, under Sections 382 and 383 of the Code and corresponding provisions under state law, a corporation that undergoes an “ownership change” is subject to limitations on its ability to use its pre-change NOL carryforwards and other pre-change tax attributes to offset future taxable income and taxes. The limitations apply if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” which is generally defined as a greater than 50 percentage point change (by value) in its equity ownership by certain stockholders over a three-year period. We have experienced ownership changes and are subject to limitations on our ability to utilize a portion of our NOLs and other tax attributes to offset taxable income or tax liability. In addition, future changes in our stock ownership, which may be outside of our control, may trigger additional ownership changes. Similar provisions of state tax law may also apply to suspend or otherwise limit our use of accumulated state tax attributes. As a result, even if we earn net taxable income in the future, our ability to use our or Legacy Enovix’s NOL carryforwards and other tax attributes to offset such taxable income or tax liability may be subject to limitations, which could potentially result in increased future income tax liability to us.
Changes in tax laws or regulations that are applied adversely to us or our customers may have a material adverse effect on our business, cash flow, financial condition or results of operations.
New income, sales, use or other tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations or ordinances could be enacted at any time, which could adversely affect our business operations and financial performance. Further, existing tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations or ordinances could be interpreted, changed, modified or applied adversely to us. For example, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act of 2020 and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 enacted many significant changes to the U.S. tax laws. Further guidance from the Internal Revenue Service and other tax authorities with respect to such legislation may affect us, and certain aspects of such legislation could be repealed or modified in future legislation. In addition, it is uncertain if and to what extent various states will conform to federal tax laws. Future tax reform legislation could have a material impact on the value of our deferred tax assets and could increase our future U.S. tax expense.
In addition, effective January 1, 2022, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 requires taxpayers to capitalize and subsequently amortize research and development expenses over five years for research activities conducted in the United States and over 15 years for research activities conducted outside the United States. Unless the United States Department of the Treasury issues regulations that narrow the application of this provision to a smaller subset of our research and
development expenses or the provision is deferred, modified, or repealed by Congress, it could harm our future operating results by effectively increasing our future tax obligations. The actual impact of this provision will depend on multiple factors, including the amount of research and development expenses we will incur, whether we achieve sufficient income to fully utilize such deductions and whether we conduct our research and development activities inside or outside the United States.
We are subject to anti-corruption, anti-bribery, anti-money laundering, import and export controls, financial and economic sanctions and similar laws, and non-compliance with such laws can subject us to administrative, civil and criminal fines and penalties, collateral consequences, remedial measures and legal expenses, all of which could adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and reputation.*
We are subject to anti-corruption, anti-bribery, anti-money laundering, import and export controls, financial and economic sanctions and similar laws and regulations in various jurisdictions in which we conduct or in the future may conduct activities, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”), the U.K. Bribery Act 2010 and other anti-corruption laws and regulations. The FCPA and the U.K. Bribery Act 2010 prohibit us and our officers, directors, employees and business partners acting on our behalf, including agents, from directly or indirectly corruptly offering, promising, authorizing or providing anything of value to foreign government officials for the purposes of influencing official decisions or obtaining or retaining business or otherwise obtaining favorable treatment. The FCPA also requires companies to make and keep books, records and accounts that accurately reflect transactions and dispositions of assets and to maintain a system of adequate internal accounting controls. The U.K. Bribery Act also prohibits non-governmental “commercial” bribery and soliciting or accepting bribes. A violation of anti-corruption laws or regulations could adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and reputation. Our policies and procedures designed to ensure compliance with these regulations may not be sufficient and our directors, officers, employees, representatives, consultants, agents and business partners could engage in improper conduct for which we may be held responsible.
We are also subject to import and export control laws and regulations, including the U.S. Export Administration Regulations, U.S. Customs regulations, and various economic and trade sanctions regulations administered by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, and similar laws in other jurisdictions in which we conduct business. Exports of our products must be made in compliance with these laws and regulations. In addition, these laws may restrict or prohibit altogether the provision or supply of certain of our products to certain governments, persons, entities, countries, and territories, including those that are the target of comprehensive sanctions, unless there are license exceptions that apply or specific licenses are obtained. Any changes in import, export control, or sanctions laws and regulations, shift in the enforcement or scope of existing laws and regulations, or change in the countries, governments, persons, or technologies targeted by such laws and regulations, could result in decreased ability to export our products internationally.
Significant increases in import and excise duties or other taxes on, as well as any tariffs, particularly on our products to China, could materially increase our costs of our products and have an adverse effect on our business, liquidity, financial condition, and/or results of operations.
Non-compliance with anti-corruption, anti-bribery, anti-money laundering, import and export control, or financial and economic sanctions laws could subject us to whistleblower complaints, adverse media coverage, investigations, and severe administrative, civil and criminal sanctions, collateral consequences, remedial measures and legal expenses, all of which could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and reputation.
Our insurance coverage may not be adequate to protect us from all business risks.
We may be subject, in the ordinary course of business, to losses resulting from products liability, accidents, acts of God and other claims against us, for which we may have no insurance coverage. As a general matter, the policies that we do have may include significant deductibles or self-insured retentions, and we cannot be certain that our insurance coverage will be sufficient to cover all future losses or claims against us. A loss that is uninsured or which exceeds policy limits may require us to pay substantial amounts, which could adversely affect our financial condition and operating results.