Welcome to our Q3 analyst meeting. Today we have so many attendees, so many visitors coming to join our 3Q 2025 analyst meeting. As usual, we will have Rodney to report the financial numbers at the beginning, and then we will have the Q&A session.
As usual, we are going to review the financial numbers of Q3. Q3 revenues reached TWD 150.3 billion, marking a record high quarterly result. This represents a 34% year-on-year growth and a 21% sequential increase, driven by strong shipments from server powers and liquid cooling systems. Q3 revenue was above normal seasonality. Gross profit in Q3 was TWD 52.4 billion, up 34% year-over-year and 19% quarter-over-quarter, marking a new all-time high. Gross margin for Q3 was 34.9%, slightly down from 35.5% in Q2 and flattish from a year ago.
OpEx in Q3 increased by 21% year-over-year and 9% quarter-over-quarter, with SG&A expenses growing faster than R&D spending. Benefiting from improved economies of scale, OpEx ratio declined to 18.4% compared to 20.3% a year ago and 20.4% in Q2. R&D expenses as a percentage of revenues stood at 8.5% versus 9.6% a year ago and 9.5% in Q2. SG&A expenses as a percentage of revenues were 9.9% compared to 10.6% a year ago and 10.9% in Q2. Supported by operating leverage, OP margin in Q3 further improved to 16.5%, up from 15.1% in Q2 and 14.6% a year ago, reaching another record high. Operating profit increased by 51% year-over-year and 33% quarter-over-quarter. Segment-wise, driven by robust data center demand, Infrastructure recorded both the strongest year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter revenue growth, followed by Power Electronics.
In contrast, Mobility continued to face challenges amid market weakness, while Automation was also affected by broader macro headwinds. From an earnings perspective, all segments except Automation saw varying degrees of sequential improvement. On a year-over-year basis, Infrastructure delivered the strongest profit growth, followed by Power Electronics. On the other hand, Mobility swung to a loss, and Automation also came under pressure from the slow economy. So in terms of the non-operating income, Q3 was TWD 2.2 billion versus TWD 900 million in Q2 and TWD 1.3 billion a year ago. In Q3, we had TWD 27 billion profit before tax, up 53% year-on-year and 38% quarter-over-quarter. Q3 EBITDA reached TWD 35.4 billion, up 45% year-on-year and 32% quarter-over-quarter, setting another all-time high. So the Q3 tax expense was about TWD 6.1 billion. The effective tax rate in Q3 was 22.5%. Net profit after tax was about TWD 18.6 billion, up 51% year-on-year and 33% 2Q.
The Q3 EPS was 7.16, achieving a new historical high. Now we have a look at the cumulative numbers for the first three quarters of the year. The revenue was TWD 393.3 billion in the first three quarters, up 28% from a year ago. Gross profit increased by 32% year-over-year, with a gross margin of 34.1% compared to 33% in the same period last year. The operating expense in the first three quarters was up by 19% year-on-year, with SG&A up 20% and R&D up 17%. OpEx ratio dropped to 19.85% from 21% a year ago, with the SG&A expense ratio contracting to 10.4% from 11.1% a year ago, and R&D expense ratio decreased to 9.1% from 9.9%. OP increased by 56% year-on-year, and the OP margin in the first three quarters improved to 14.6% from 12% a year ago.
For the first three quarters, the Infrastructure segments again showed the strongest growth, followed by Power Electronics and a modest 4% increase from Automation. And while Mobility continued to struggle due to the sluggish demand. And then earnings-wise, both Power Electronics and Infrastructure showed substantial profit improvement, while the profits of Automation and Mobility both shrank from a year ago. For the first three quarters, we had about TWD 4.7 billion non-operating income, slightly higher than a year ago. In terms of the profit before tax, we had TWD 62.2 billion pre-tax income, up 50% from a year ago. And our EBITDA was TWD 85.2 billion, up 40% from a year ago. The tax expense was around TWD 13.9 billion, representing a 22.4% effective rate, and the net profit after tax in the first three quarters was TWD 42.8 billion versus TWD 28.1 billion a year ago.
The EPS in the first three quarters of the year was $16.47 versus $10.8 a year ago, representing a 53% year-on-year growth.
First of all, big congrats on your very strong performance for the third quarter. My first question is related to your capacity planning for your liquid cooling and other data center-related businesses. And then can you also please walk us through the company's latest progress in the solid-state transformers and then also the 800V HVDC? How should we think of the sales contributions in 2027? Can you give us a rough idea?
In terms of the current capacity, the capacity is actually pretty tight. It's actually pretty tight. We are actually building many new factories. By the end of this year, we may complete some of these factories.
And then we may have like three new factories in Thailand are likely to be, I mean, complete in terms of the constructions by the end of this year. And then in the meanwhile, we also have the discussions with our customers. So for example, for those non-American market orders, customers, our most customers, they actually agree that their products to be made in China. So that is also pretty helpful and beneficial in terms of our capacity flexibility. But anyway, in terms of the capacity, we continue to expand the capacity because we are seeing pretty strong demand from our customers. So in terms of the 800V HVDC, I think it's still going to take some time before it becomes more meaningful to our revenues.
And then in terms of the dollar amount of the CapEx for this year, actually for the first three quarters, it was around $29.7 billion. For the whole year, I think it's going to be somewhere around $40 billion. For the next year, I think in terms of the dollar amount, it should be quite similar to this year. But in terms of the composition of the CapEx, I think for the next year, it's going to be more related to the Automation, the factory Automation, and equipment procurement and setting.
The next question is related to the gross margin. Could you please give us more color regarding why the GP margin, I mean, in Q3 was lower than Q2?
I think the main reason, I mean, was still related to the inventory reversal and inventory write-down. The difference between that.
So between Q2 and Q3, I think the difference was around like 0.6 percentage point. But generally speaking, the GP margin is still mostly related to the product mix. Despite that, I mean, despite the fact that we actually saw a pretty strong growth, I mean, increase in our revenues in Q3. But mostly, I mean, the revenue was driven by the data center-related, I mean, business. And then for that part of business, in terms of the GP margin, inherently, it's actually not higher than the component business. So it's still mostly, I mean, the GP margin is still mostly related to the product mix.
So my next question is also related to the margins. So first, I mean, first of all, related to the GP margin, as you said, the GP margin was mostly related to the product mix.
Given that, I mean, the AI-related or data center-related businesses actually are becoming more and more meaningful within the portfolio. But still, I mean, we saw a higher GP margin in Q2 compared to Q3. So can you give us more colors? Can you give us more colors regarding the margins? And secondly, how should we think of the OpEx rate going forward?
So first of all, I think I already covered the question before. So because the component, I mean, the strong or the rapid growth, I mean, in our revenues was mainly driven by Infrastructure in Q3. But the solution or the Infrastructure system business in terms of the margins is not, I mean, necessarily higher or is not going to be higher than the component business, the margin of component business. So I think that is actually the main reason.
And then speaking of the OpEx ratio, so I mean, if we are able to continue, I mean, continue to accelerate our, I mean, revenue growth, that, I mean, it is likely or it's possible that we will continue to enjoy some operating leverage and to see the OpEx ratio, I mean, continue to decline a little bit.
So the first question is related to the tariffs. So in terms of the tariffs, basically, as we are in the ODM business, so theoretically, I mean, the tariffs are all on the customer side. But in reality, how we pay for the tariffs, how we really pay the tariffs, sorry, how the tariffs really be paid,
it can be negotiable. So for example, sometimes for some orders or customers, the customers, they may pay the tariffs directly by themselves.
But sometimes we may pay the tariffs first. And then our customers will pay us back like maybe one or two months later. And in terms of the tariffs, I think 95% of our revenues or more than 95% of our businesses are on this FOB basis, which means that it's our customers to pay the tariffs. So that's my answer related to the tariff question. So for your second question related to the capacity, when I said we actually had a pretty tight capacity, but still we have, I mean, some alternative ways to actually run up our capacity. For example, actually most of the equipment, I mean, in our factories are made in-house by Delta. And then also for most of the manufacturing process are the assembling process.
So we actually have some flexibility to switch lines or to actually ramp up the capacity in a relatively faster pace. But actually, in reality, for example, you know that actually it always takes, I mean, at least a few years to construct a new plant. So for example, the plant we have today, which was, I mean, built like two years ago. And then by then, I mean, two years ago, the capacity was planned for maybe different business. But over time, I mean, the business landscape and the demand landscape can change. So that's why we always need to have such flexibility to switch the production lines maybe from one product line to another.
So as I said, I mean, in order to fulfill the customer's, I mean, demand, so we actually have the discussions with our customers. So for those, I mean, non-American market orders, they actually agreed their products to be made in China because in China, we still have pretty much capacity. And then in India, because of the tariffs, so if we are not maybe not able to see the further decline in terms of the tariffs in India, so we may not be able to shift our productions there. And then in Taiwan, basically in Taiwan, I think there is some, I mean, natural ceiling in terms of the capacity because of the electricity and in terms of the laborers and in terms of the lands. And then also in America, in the U.S., we are building some new factories.
We may also run some more factories in the U.S. to build up new capacity. For the third question, I mean, which is related to this year and last year's driver for the company, I think if you happen to notice recent news, I mean, in the U.S., actually a data center, I mean, recently, very recently, just signed a deal with an operator. This operator is actually a data center infrastructure construction or, sorry, building company, which actually provides or offers data center infrastructure. The deal size was around $40 billion. Of course, I mean, the company operator is a private equity. We couldn't really see its revenues.
But still, it means that if data center are willing to pay such a high multiple to buy a data center infrastructure company, which means that data centers, I mean, the data center companies, they are still very highly committed to the AI CapEx investment. So given that all those reasons, we do believe that, I mean, at least for this fourth quarter or for the whole next years, I think the momentum should be fine. At least for the fourth quarter and for the first quarter, I think we are quite optimistic. But still, I think that, I mean, the environment, I mean, always changes so fast. So we still need to be cautious and be prepared.
So for our next question, which is related to whether we are going to have new capacity in Thailand for your liquid cooling solution products, I think, as I said, actually for the non-U.S. orders or non-U.S., I mean, products or solutions, it's not just, I mean, they can actually be produced in China because in terms of the components, especially those mechanical parts, the ecosystem as a supply chain is most comprehensive in China. So that can also kind of, I mean, ease the capacity tightness a little bit.
So my next question is related to your DC/DC converter business because earlier you mentioned that this year the revenues is likely to drop maybe by 25% because of the platform, because of the site changes. So how should we think of this business going forward?
Have you seen any? I mean, the big customers, they decided to use the DC/DC modules again for their new generation products. For this year, I mean, the new generation products, they are still not using the DC/DC modules. But still, I think for not just the big customers, actually for other customers, we have been seeing increasing penetration, increasing our adoption rates, I mean, from other customers for our DC/DC converters. So my last question is related to your ESS, Energy Storage System, and your BBU business. So I think for the large-scale, I mean, Energy Storage System, in terms of the application, it's not just for the data centers. But indeed, I mean, we have been seeing increasing demand for this, I mean, Energy Storage Systems.
Then in terms of the Energy Storage Systems, there are actually some critical components and critical functions within the Energy Storage System, including the BMS system and the battery management. But because we actually don't make the battery cells, so we will need to carefully select the competitive, I mean, suppliers. But speaking of, I mean, for the Energy Storage System, as I said, they are used in many different, I mean, a wide range of different applications. But in terms of SST, because I think it's still a relatively or plenty new, I mean, technology and idea to the customers, so it still takes time to see the penetration rate to ramp up.
Okay. So for your first question, which is related to the revenue contribution in terms of our server powers and our cooling solutions.
So in Q3, our server powers was around, sorry, 23% of our total revenues, while the cooling solutions was around 11% of our total revenues. So and the second question is related to our customers, they may actually think of to look for some second source, I mean, for second source for their solutions. But the question is actually, I think there are actually pretty few, I mean, companies in the market, just like Delta, being able to provide the total solutions for customers.
So how do your customers, I mean, or how are your customers able to find a second source? Because given that there are maybe just pretty limited, I mean, candidates or pretty limited suppliers, I mean, in the market being able to provide the total solutions.
I think we, I mean, of course, we do always want to provide the total solutions, I mean, or provide as much as we can to the customers. But still, if we already account for a big portion of our customers, I mean, in terms of their orders, if you were the customers, you would definitely think of, "Okay, I should find a second source." So it's actually pretty natural. And they also want to actually increase, or I mean, the competition among the suppliers. So I think it's definitely, I mean, it's something that is definitely going to happen.
Okay. So my next question is, could you walk us through the motivation and background behind your acquisition of the Japanese company, which you announced yesterday?
Actually, our acquisition of this company is driven by our goal to integrate critical technologies in semiconductor power systems to expand both the depth and the breadth of our offerings in this space, and this Japanese company brings leading RF power expertise with a strong product portfolio and design capabilities. On the other hand, Delta has strengths in global operations, large-scale manufacturing, and efficient supply chain management, so together, we believe the two companies are expected to create strong synergies across both technology and market fronts, so technically, the companies, I mean, these companies, RF power and Delta's DC power are highly complementary. Commercially, our combined customer base helps expand product reach and R&D momentum, and the fundamental reason we, I mean, acquired this company is because we believe the RF power is becoming increasingly important in advanced, I mean, semiconductor process.
So that's the reason why we believe that it's actually a good deal for us to make.
So I think, sorry, Chairman didn't really answer that. What is the estimated sales contribution from the AI-related business next year? So I think it's really hard to say because we actually shared the numbers, I mean, shared the percentage, sales percentage of the server powers and cooling solutions, I mean, Q3. So we do hope to, I mean, see the further increase, I mean, from the data center-related business. But still, I think there are so many swing factors, so it's really difficult to forecast the percentage.
Okay. So my first question is still related to your capacity planning. Sorry, capacity planning.
So, because you actually mentioned in your previous earnings call, you said no matter how high the tariffs are going to be in Thailand, in terms of the overall manufacturing costs, making the products in the U.S. is going to be much, much higher than making the products in Thailand in terms of the manufacturing costs. So, does that mean that you have actually different thoughts in terms of the U.S. manufacturing?
So, I think, as I previously, I mean, elaborated, I think it's not just about the manufacturing costs in the U.S. is indeed, I mean, pretty expensive. But also, there are some other factors making the U.S., I mean, made in U.S. is even more challenging. So, for example, the labor is actually one of the key bottlenecks when you think of, I mean, make the products in the U.S.
There are actually many different factors you need to think of when you consider the capacity planning for your products.
But still, we do continue to expand our capacity in the U.S., but it's not going to run up, I mean, run up very quickly. So I think it's probably going to take maybe two years before we see the bigger or more meaningful, I mean, capacity in the U.S.
So before that, I think we may just rent the factories in the U.S. in order to fulfill the needs, I mean, the needs of our customers. But still, I don't think the capacity, the U.S. capacity is going to account for a really big part as a percentage of overall capacity.
So my first question is related to your hydrogen energy.
Can you please give us some updates on the hydrogen energy batteries, including your technology deployment, capacity build-out, and the timeframe? When will it begin to contribute to Delta's revenues and profit?
Delta's hydrogen energy technology is licensed from the U.K.'s Ceres Power and used solid oxide stacks. For example, hydrogen fuel cells can generate electricity, water, and heat from oxygen and hydrogen with maybe around 60% efficiency. With the heat recovery, the overall efficiency can reach up to 85%, which is notably higher than the centralized gas turbine generators at maybe around 40%-50%. Because of the energy efficiency in terms of is much higher than the traditional gas turbine generators. That is the reason why we acquired this company in the first place.
However, as this is a new business, it requires significant resources and time, and within the next one, two years, we do not expect hydrogen to make a meaningful contribution to Delta's financials,
so the second question is related to your M&A strategy. I think we actually keep looking for the good targets, I mean, in the market, either for the new technology or for the market assets, but still, I mean, when it comes to the deal, whether or not we are able to close a deal, it's actually subject to many different factors.
For example, I think timing is actually one of the issues, one of the factors because, I mean, for example, even though we may believe that a company is a really good target to acquire, but if the multiple, I mean, the valuation is too high for us, and we are not able to have good return, I mean, from this investment, so I don't think that we will, I mean, we will go on, I mean, or we will make this deal, and then sometimes, I mean, if a target, I mean, with really good, I mean, for example, technologies, but with very poor financials, so we may also think twice or maybe very likely to decide not to acquire because we don't really want to, I mean, spend so many years to turn a company around.
There are actually many reasons or many factors to consider when it comes to, I mean, the M&A strategy. Overall, we do always keep an eye in the market, and we do view this, I mean, M&A as one of our main tools or growth engines to accelerate our growth.
Because everybody is really concerned about the AI, I want to ask the questions. I mean, I want to ask a question which is related to your non-AI business. Can you give us some updates on your Mobility and your Automation business?
I think the Mobility business and Automation business, these two businesses have been very challenged this year with evolving U.S. tariff policies. Many manufacturers are in wait-and-see mode on capacity investment. So IA demand remains very weak.
However, I mean, with a lower base, growth has recently turned positive, and we hope for further improvement by year-end. Our Automation division's losses primarily, I mean, are primarily related from the building Automation, lacking scale, especially under soft commercial demand in Europe and the U.S., which has widened the losses. And the EV components market also remains depressed. Outside China, nearly all major OEMs are seeing clear declines in EV sales this year, and many have paused or even stopped new pure EV platform development. So I think having said that, we still remain positive on the long-term EV trend, especially with solid-state battery technology. Once there is a meaningful breakthrough, it could transform the industry. So we will continue to strengthen our technology and operational base.
So what we have been always doing is, I mean, there are always, I mean, up cycles and down cycles for different businesses. But for example, in terms of the Automation business, it's actually a very long-term business. So we do hope to be prepared before the market, I mean, recover. So that is the whole idea.
So if you don't have any other questions, I think thank you for joining us today. Thank you.