ReRAM tech developer Weebit Nano [ASX:WBT] released its FY22 results on Friday.
The company’s share price was largely unmoved on the release, trading flat at $2.68 a share.
In a year where WBT rose as high as $4.50 and fell as low as $1.90, the stock is back trading at a price from 12 months ago.
Over the year, WBT shares are down 2%:
www.TradingView.com
Weebit’s FY22
As a pre-revenue company, WBT had unsurprisingly no sales to boast of in its FY22 report.
Its research and development expenses rose from $5.3 million in FY21 to $16.8 million in FY22.
Weebit ended the year with a net loss of $28 million, up from FY21’s net loss of $11.1 million.
Weebit hasn’t accumulated more than $78 million in losses as it pursues the commercialisation of its ReRAM tech.
Cash at the end of the year totalled $50.2 million, more than doubling 2021’s balance of $22 million, as WBT’s net tangible asset backing per share went from 17.19 cents in 2021 to 31.91 cents in 2022.
WBTs cash balance was boosted by capital raises and options exercises, which in total brought in more than $50 million.
The cash injection was needed.
Weebit started the year with $21.7 million in the bank and ended up paying suppliers and employees $21.8 million in FY22.
Weebit’s ‘most significant year’
Weebit Chairman David Perlmutter painted FY22 as the ‘most significant year to-date in Weebit Nano’s commercialisation journey’ as the first of its ReRAM technology’s commercial deals was snapped up by US company SkyWater Technology.
SkyWater will be using Weebit’s embedded software to install CMOS processes for mixed-signal, motorised, industrial, and medical applications.
This has opened the company to further potential deals, with Weebit already in discussions with possible future customers.
Weebit praised its partnership with CEA-Leti as supporting its standing as a market leader in flash memory technology, and, together with SkyWater, believes an acceleration in developmental progress and commercialisation is imminent.
Weebit taped-out its first silicon demo chip in 2022 and scaled its ReRAM down to 28nm, with customers now able to prototype their own Systems-on-Chips (SoCs) with the ReRAM demo chips.
Weebit believes it can soon commercialise its ‘faster, more efficient memory technology’ products in the near future.
Coby Hanoch, Weebit Nano’s CEO, declared that all ‘planned technical and commercial milestones’ were achieved in 2022, derisking company projects and validating its commercialisation.
Weebit outlook
Mr Hanoch said demand for semiconductor chips ‘remains high and will only continue to grow’, with governments pouring more money into the sector.
Weebit cited figures suggesting nearly US$600 billion has been put into fab production across the US, Europe, and Asia in 2022, increasing capital expenditures by semiconductor companies by 40%.
Chairman Perlmutter added:
‘Digitisation continues to drive semiconductor demand, with memory technology and data storage now required for virtually every industry, application and device. This demand continues to outstrip supply despite record global investment in new fabrication facilities, which typically cost billions of dollars and take years to become operational.
‘ Weebit’s next-generation ReRAM technology is well-placed to be the winner of emerging non-volatile memories, with significant competitive advantages including excellent endurance, robustness, reliability, and retention at high temperatures as well as ultra-low power consumption.
‘Our competitive advantages combined with a growing addressable market reaffirm the confidence of Weebit’s Board about the market opportunity for our ReRAM technology. We have now started qualifying the technology, a key step towards mass production, and are receiving excellent feedback to the initial results.’
While the need for faster and more efficient memory tech is rapidly increasing, so too is the need for battery tech designed for powering electric vehicles.
This will soon be the main means of transport for when ‘global net-zero’ takes full effect, and EVs will require high volumes of lithium, copper, graphite, and nickel.
This offers opportunities.
And certain ways to play them…
Our small-cap expert, Callum Newman, has just published a research report on three battery material stocks even Elon Musk could get behind.
Regards,
Kiryll Prakapenka
