I would highly recommend that you LISTEN to the Call as well as reading the transcript to gain further context as well as nuance. In other words, simply reading a comment does not always convey the true implication of the statement. The excitation or frustration of the person making a statement can be discerned and will carry much more meaning. To me, I can hear the frustration in Scott’s speech in the inability to release more or other information when discussing ATOM’s partners and current status. I can also sense an increased excitement when compared from the last Earnings Call back in April to this one as he actually goes out on a limb (intentional or not) stating he “expects more news this Q”.
I know, feeling and facts are separate so let’s get started-
Snippets of Scott’s opening remarks:
“The bigger news is that progress with our customers in Phase 3 is going particularly well. We have a number of important wafer rounds underway with licensees, JDA partners and other customers… Although none of those lots are finished, we have been able to look at some data prior to lot completion and have been very encouraged by the promising interim test results. And in many cases, the actual results are exceeding both our expectations and those of our customers. ..
… Results may vary when the final test data becomes available, so we must be patient. But those early results have folks very excited.”
An interesting turn-
“One customer has been in phase two longer than normal, which reflects an extended experiment they're conducting in that face different than those done by most customers. We believe that results from this effort will lead to a deeper engagement into licensing and production opportunities.”
“We are seeing clear signs of interest in our technology across certain segments of the industry displaying the domino effect I've spoken about in the past. Engineers are more comfortable using a novel technology if it's being used by others. And we believe this is being initiated because of industry chatter, even before anyone has gotten into production.”
He then goes on to specifically mention:
" In particular, our work on RFSOI…”
{Joe iniowa@Microcapreturns (Twitter) has done extensive deep dives into the nuts and bolts of ATOM’s work in this new field segment) Recommend checking out the thread there for further elaboration.}
Scott then goes on to a new topic of ATOM-
“Now I'd like to take a few minutes to explain a quite important new discovery of made on MST for advanced nodes. Atomera’s technology is remarkable in the number of different benefits it can bring to semiconductor devices, and it does so through several mechanisms, including, importantly, enhanced electron mobility."
“,…our assumption was …MST primarily improved phonon scattering, leading to about a 5% overall improvement in electron mobility… To our surprise and delight, it showed that MST enhanced electron mobility related to surface roughness scattering by over 50% which is a massive improvement… Because this result is so new, a full peer reviewed journal article will not be available for some time. But today we did post a white paper describing the phenomenon in much more detail on our website. And this will be used to start discussions with our advanced node partners….”
… when a breakthrough in MST like this one is achieved, our team then goes to work documenting how it can be used in different applications. This is the valuable IP that forms the underpinning of Atomera’s business model. And I'm pleased to report that as of the end of Q2, we have reached 318 patents granted and pending with particularly strong growth in our foreign patent portfolio."
Scott then went on to discuss the Chips Act and how it affects ATOM-- pretty generic imo.
Frank then gave the financial status-
1) As of June 30 2022, we had 23.5 million shares outstanding
2) I'm reducing the full year guidance for non-GAAP operating expenses to a range between $14.75 and $15.25 million. Cool!
Then back to Scott for Q&A- Interesting opening before taking questions-
“We definitely believe we'll be reporting more good news soon. And I look forward to sharing it with you in the future. Mike, we can take questions now.”
Odd statement out of the blue…??
Q: Scott, you talked about some data from recent wafer runs…”
A: “…, I don't want to talk about specific schedules, I'd say we're getting close, I'd expect to learn a lot more this quarter, it might go out into Q4. But and by the way, we're not just talking about one wafer run we have, number of different wafer runs with different customers. And so I expect that we'll be seeing, getting some data out this quarter…”
Q: Was asked about increased interest in ATOM’s technology
A: “…we've been working in the industry for a while, if you're working at one customer, and you're bringing them a big potential solution for their problem, there's going to be a number of engineers in that company that know about it, they might change companies, they might have friends, they might go to trade shows, they might actually see our presentations and start just chatting among them in a specialty that certain engineers will have chat rooms and things set up around. And so we are seeing that people from companies are kind of reaching out to us unexpectedly, because they heard from some other sources…”
Cool- word of mouth now…
Q: Asked about their TCAD validation
A: “…And as they see that the TCAD predictions are actually being validated in the experiments they do run, then it helps to build more trust in our models, and if there's someone who is needs to be convinced, or they're -- they want sort of further evidence to continue to run experiments in a particular direction. I think it's helped us to gain a lot more credibility with customers around trying other experiments with MST than they would have previously so they are seeing, they'll always want to see it validated in silicon but that dynamic helps to, helps our engagement with customers a lot. We've seen that in playing out in real life.
Ok folks, that’s MY (Theo) take on things from a quick overview and what I consider to be the highlights of the call. Make no mistake- I wear no rose-colored glasses and I do not hype this stock. I’m simply stating why I like and continue to hold (and add at times). As in ANY investment, results are what matters. Until then, we are going to float up and down with the market tide until this stock breaks out with results- one way or another. So as long as I continue to see what I believe are progressions, I will continue to be an advocate of and for ATOM as an investment. Again, this is a high risk investment. My previous post outlines my reasons for positive conviction:
1) Low float
2) Low cash burn
3) Continued Institutional interest
4) Cash on hand
5) Low volume- nobody (institutional or insider) is bailing
GLTUA
