Good morning, everyone. If you'd like to listen to this session in English, please click the interpretation icon at the bottom of the screen and select English channel. [Foreign language]
[Foreign language]
The whole industry is working on this way. It's nothing really special, but we decided to execute at this timing. Last year, we also started to resume—we resumed the dividend, and this year we expect to pay out the same amount this year as well, a little over ¥50 billion. That would be the summary of this time. Now, I want to pass the floor over to Shinkai-san to give you more details. Shinkai-san, please. It is Shinkai from CFO. Let me go over Q4 and full-year results according to the presentation material. Next slide, please. Here's the disclaimer. We have retrospectively updated as well. Here's the Q4 results. Q4, please look at the numbers in the middle, in the blue boxes in the middle for Q4. The revenue was ¥292 billion. The gross margin was 54.9%. Operating profit was ¥75.4 billion, and the margin was 25.8%.
The income was ¥71.1 billion, EBITDA ¥98.2 billion, and the FX assumption ¥149 to a dollar and ¥162 to a euro. Three commas to the right is the change from the forecast. For the full-year actual, we have the direct blue column on the right. Revenue was ¥1,348.5 billion, and gross margin was 56.1%. Operating profit was ¥397.9 billion, and operating margin was 29.5%. Net profit was ¥360.4 billion. EBITDA was ¥486.2 billion. For the full-year, let me talk about the year-on-year change. Revenue was down by 8.2% year-on-year. Automotive slightly increased year-on-year, and industrial infrastructure IoT was down. Excluding the impact of FX translation by ¥11, the revenue declined by 11.7%. Gross margin compared to last fiscal year was down by 0.9 percentage points. For IoT, the global utilization and production cost and the revenue mix deteriorated.
For operating margin year-on-year, it was down by 4.6 percentage points. Mainly for R&D, the OPEX increased. Also, some acquisition cost was part of the increase in the OPEX. Next page, please. For Q4, please let me refer to this slide. For company total versus the forecast, please look at the top right. For revenue, compared to the midpoint of the forecast, it was higher by 5.1%. The FX impact was roughly two-thirds of the impact. Risk was the other factors other than FX. For the factors other than FX, with the forecast, we were expecting a risk of slowdown in the parts supply, but thanks to the recovery measures taken, the impact was smaller compared to your anticipation. All in all, for automotive, other than that, it was pretty much in line with the projection. We reduced the selling to cut the inventory.
For IoT, there was some change in the product mix, but the result was pretty much on par with the plan. Next, moving on to the gross margin. Compared to the forecast, it was higher by 2.4 percentage points. It was mainly coming from the improvement in the production cost. Two-thirds of the improvement came from the production cost improvement for two reasons. One is that from Q3 to Q4, we stepped on the brake hard for production and selling. As this was a short-term adjustment, we had assumed that production costs centered on utilities would not fall as much as we had hoped, but in reality, we were able to keep costs down. That's about 50% of the impact.
Another factor was the variable cost that would decrease in line with sales and production. Reflection was conservative. For example, materiality costs and logistics costs would come down with revenue decline, but we did not fully factor those impacts. All in all, we saw an improvement in the gross margin. The operating margin was better than forecast by 3.3 percentage points. This was partly due to the improvement in the gross margin, and also compared to the forecast, the OPEX slightly declined. Looking at the operating margin for Q4, as we had explained in the previous result meeting, it included one factor. Specifically, the effect of the reversal of the provision for bonuses is concentrated in the fourth quarter. For automotive, there was a big reversal of the R&D expenses. Please look at the QoQ change at bottom right. The revenue was down by 15.3%.
As we communicated in the previous earnings call, looking at the waterfall chart, the impact of the stronger yen and the stagnation on the parts supply was smaller than expected. This QoQ decline of 15% was mainly coming from the channel inventory reduction and the reduction in the sell- through. The impact was half each. For gross margin QoQ, it was down by 1 percentage point, mainly due to the lower utilization rate. For operating margin, it was down by 2.7 percentage points. It does include one factor, but OPEX on QoQ basis came down, but the operating margin was down because of the decline in revenue. Looking at the segment details, for automotive, the operating margin QoQ increased. The one-off development cost payment was made, that had a positive impact.
For IoT, the gross margin decline on the QoQ was smaller, and this is thanks to the impact of the outstanding consolidation and the decline was made smaller. This is the QoQ revenue. For Q4, please look at the columns on the far right. For company total, year-on-year, it was down by 19.2%. QoQ, it was down by 15.3%. I have already explained the details. The second information is also illustrated on this slide. This is the trend for the financial KPIs. Please look at the next page. Regarding the inventory, we have the QoQ trend and the factors behind the change. First, looking at our in-house inventory on the left, and also look at the box at the top right, please. For Q4, on a QoQ basis, it increased. Initially, we expected to lower the utilization to cut the work in progress in the die bank, and also reduce what we procure from the outsourcing partners, but this was not happening at full speed. Also at the end of the year, yen was weaker.
Also DOI, because of the revenue decline, increased to 120 days. For Q1, overall, we expect the inventory to slightly go up, but the DOI is expected to come down because of the revenue increase. In Q4, we reduced the die bank, we are going to replenish that. That's why the utilization rate is expected to go up in Q1. Overall, the short-term lead time order is still coming in big volume. In order to support this, we will not reduce the inventory too much. With the revenue growth, we expect the DOI to go down.
We're growing in sales channel inventory. From these results, we have to change the definitions of some numerics here. Let me explain on that. When we manage the channel inventory, we revised the definition this year to match accounting management more with the reality. The price of inventory, which is in bar chart. We have been using the book value at a distributor, which was including the margin of ship and debit transactions, but instead, we changed it to the net selling price basis. The bar height at the price should be much closer to the actual sales price. I believe this will be more appropriate to reflect the reality. The WOI is just a result of division, so it won't be changing much, but due to the difference in the price, then the bar height will be smaller. On this slide, we have updated retrospectively with this new definition. In Q4, the sales channel inventory, both actual amount and WOI, decreased quarter-over-quarter.
In Q1, both automobile and IoT, we plan to reduce the channel distribution inventory furthermore. We'll maintain the inventory to stay lean. Next slide, please. Utilization and Capex. Starting with utilization in Q4, it was around 30% as forecasted, but it came out to be a little just under 35%, so we had a slight increase. In Q1, we plan to have a slight increase on utilization. A little over 40% is expected. We had the reduced reduction on WIP in Q4, but we plan to increase them into Q1, including die banks. Capex is as written or shown on the right-hand side. Next slide, please. Q1 forecast, right in the middle in blue, dark blue. The revenue midpoint forecast was ¥309 billion, and gross margin will be 54%. Operating margin will be 24%. The FX assumption by ¥155 to a dollar, ¥161 to a euro. Let me touch on more details on that. First, with revenue, the midpoint forecast is ¥309 billion. Year-over-year, it's down by 12.2%, and it's up by 5.6% quarter-over-quarter.
This quarter-over-quarter change, 5.6%, it's down by 0.1%, excluding foreign exchange impact, and for device revenue, plus 2.2%. Let me explain on these. Yen impact, it was 5.7% positive for FX impact. Then Altium consolidation impact is minus 2.3%, so device sales would be 2.2% accordingly. Starting with device, total revenue excluding FX and Altium software sales is excluded, is shown over here as device revenue. It's up by 2.2% quarter-over-quarter. Automotive and infrastructure, industrial infrastructure, IoT, both increasing quarter-over-quarter. Altium portion, this is down by 2.3%. From Q4 or Q1, we are changing the revenue recognition rule for this portion. Let me explain, elaborate a little bit more on this. At Altium, revenue for software license sales, it's both on the on-premise type and subscription types. They basically were recognized mostly upfront at the time of the contract. But at the same time, the business itself, it has been migrating to the cloud service.
The subscription-based contracts are expanding right now as a form of software provision. The cloud service percentage is increasing year by year. Cloud service, subscription service, assume continuous service provision. It is consistent to recognize revenue over the period of provision. Therefore, instead of booking the revenue upfront at the time of the contract, we decided to change the revenue recognition to be prorated over the service period. This is starting this fiscal year. From PMI perspective, we believe it would be best to apply from FY 2025 because of the consolidation. At the time of the change, the revenue booking timing will be temporarily delayed, resulting in a decrease in sales temporarily. After that, the stable revenue recognition becomes possible. From Q4 into Q1, we will see a temporary decrease because of this, and that is about 2% or so, as I mentioned earlier. But the fundamental business continued to grow.
From Q2 beyond, along with the business expansion and contract accumulation, we expect to see increases to come quarter-over-quarter. That was for the revenue. Let me talk about gross margin, 54%. The Altium, the revenue recognition rule change excluding this impact, it's almost flat. Improvement due to increased capacity utilization will be largely offset by price and mixes. Then OP margin, 24%. The excluding Altium impact, it's going to be almost flat quarter-over-quarter. One of the impacts, seen in Q4, will be offset by controlling the expenses. Those are the forecast for Q1. Going into appendix, let me also touch on some of the pages, first on page 14, balance sheet. We have completed a the final Altium PPA calculation. We have retroactively revised the results. The acquisition cost is ¥6.4 billion, and of that, 70% would be the goodwill and roughly 30% intangible fixed assets.
Amortization period became weighted average to be 14 years, and annual amortization cost is going to be about $149 million. Going to page 16, right here, we have added the impact of Altium in the recurring item. In Q4, we have ¥8.4 billion as non-recurring items. This is mainly structural reform-related costs, such as one-time impact. Next, on page 18, the learning curve highlights on the left. Altium PMI PPA is completed, and PMI progressed, especially we made progress on financials. We changed the revenue recognition standard starting from this week 25. In the middle, dividend, continuing last year, we will continue to pay out dividends. It's in Gen 5 updates on the far right. This is all from me.
Thank you very much. We'd like to move into the Q&A session. Let me explain how you can ask your questions. If you have a question, please use the raise hand button on the screen. In order, we will call upon your name and your affiliation. When you're appointed, please unmute yourself and ask your questions. Given the time, we'd like to limit to two questions per person. First, from Goldman Sachs, Takayama-san, please. Please unmute yourself and ask your question.
Hello, thank you for this opportunity. Looking at the Q1 revenue mix and also the profit, how you built those plans. Earlier, you mentioned about the automotive and non-auto. The revenue is likely to go up. I think this is the 2.2% growth. Within automotive, can you give us the breakdown by region? Also for the non-auto business, like industrial machinery and data centers and other applications, are there any differences in the recovery of those end markets? I think you mentioned that in Q1, the product mix is going to deteriorate a little bit. Maybe the automotive business is going to grow faster, but in Q2, looking at the sales benefit, if the revenue is set to go up, I guess there's no one-off from the Altium. If the revenue goes up, your margin should go up. Is that going to be the way we should be looking at your performance for Q2 and beyond?
This is Shibata. Let me first respond to your question, and Shinkai-san can follow later. Looking at Q2 and beyond, of course, there are a lot of uncertainties, but looking at the direction of the margin, like Takayama-san said, I think that's how we see things play out. I will be repeating your comment, but the Altium revenue recognition change will be absent in a way because it's going to be concentrated in Q1. Also, I think what's going to be growing has a relatively good margin. That's the feeling we have for the future outlook. Looking at the Q1 specifically, like Takayama-san rightly pointed out, there's nothing to refute your comment, but looking at the region, Europe, and I guess Japan as well, Europe may be bigger in terms of impact, but it's not going to be a rapid growth, but it's going to be growing from the low base in Q4 because in Q4, mainly with the European clients, a lot of attention was paid to the balance sheet. Short-term, there was a movement to reduce the inventory.
As a rebound from that, I believe Q1 is going to grow versus Q4, and that's how we see the automotive business. At the same time, looking at China, with the Chinese New Year holidays, I think there were some pooling of demand in Q4, taking the demand from Q1. Because of that, I think there's going to be a sequential decline. Other than that, we do not see any abnormal trend. Have I answered your question?
Yes. If I may ask a follow-up question for the automotive business, I was expecting the key client in Japan to recover, but I guess it's not going to be such a big recovery, but I guess more recovery is expected from a European client from the end of last fiscal year. Is that the correct understanding?
Yes. As I mentioned earlier, in Q4, with the European clients, many of them cut their inventory quite significantly. I think that's going to go back to the run rate we saw prior to Q4, what we have been seeing in Q3. For non-automotive, industrial, IoT, and infrastructure, within infrastructure, the AI-related thing that were pushed back, I guess it's going to come back.
Do you see any change in the recovery of different end markets for the non-auto business?
For the industrial machinery, we expect to see continued inventory correction. We are a little bit negative on that, but having said that, I've said this many times, but the inventory correction trend, I think, is now very close to the bottom because the rate of reduction has moderated. For things like AI and the cloud infrastructure, our outlook is expecting a big growth. From the overall business portfolio, the exposure is still relatively small. Also, we have to be cautious about this point. For the home appliances, we expect a big growth in Q1. I'm thinking that there could be some pooling of demand to address the tariff issue and also some one-off demand that's supported by the subsidy that is provided when consumers buy new appliances. Our view is cautiously optimistic. It's not the event-driven spike, and we do not expect a big rebound from that with the demand declining. At the same time, we don't expect this growth from Q4 to Q1 to continue at this level.
For the home appliances, I think we can expect some substantial growth. For PC and mobile, there's the seasonality, so they will be coming down. I see. Also, my second question is, looking at the FY 25 from the management perspective, you want to grow higher than the industry average so that you will be evaluated in a good way from the equity market. I think last year, you tried to build up inventory in the first half quite actively and tried to capture the demand in the second half. I think you're going to be more cautious for this fiscal year. The operation may be slightly different. From a long-term perspective, you have done many initiatives such as acquisition of Altium. Would you be able to enjoy the fruit of those initiatives so that you will be able to outpace the industry growth?
I understand your expectations. Regarding how we manage inventory and also the shipping, I think Shinkai-san mentioned this partially. For the channel, we're still cautious. We want to ship in accordance with the demand in the end market. For our in-house inventory, we would like to have some robust level of inventory. The strategy is not that different from that of last year. Compared to last year, it's not like we're very cautious, but we will focus on the short-term trend and not to have too much inventory. It's difficult to say how things will play out for this fiscal year. Short-term, our efforts to date should bear fruit. If the competitors are required to conduct inventory correction, we're hoping that we can outpace the growth of those competitors. Also, in terms of growth, the size is not that big, but for the automotive, the ADAS application is an area that we see steady growth. We expect that to continue.
Also AI, cloud. Also, last year, we were able to really walk our talk, but the DDR5 finally, we were able to resolve the power management issue for DDR5. From Q3 this fiscal year, we expect a big contribution. It's not just AI, but cloud infrastructure, including AI and also the automotive ADAS applications are areas where we can uphold our expectations.
Thank you very much for the detailed response. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question from UBS Securities. Yasui-san, please unmute to ask your questions.
Thank you. This is Yasuhi from UBS. My first question is on automotive business in Q4 and Q1 forecast, so ¥180 billion revenue. I think there's a lot of adjustment for them. At some point, hoping to get back to ¥180 billion. That's what we hope to see at some point. But when would that be? Also, increased contents to bring you back on a growth trend. When do you expect that to happen? That would be my first question. My second question is data center business, which is still a small business, but that's attracting a lot of attention. Can you maybe elaborate as far as you can disclose, especially PMIC and market share because of NVIDIA's situation attracting a lot of attention? Please share with us about the market share. Data center itself forecast would be also appreciated.
Automotive, when to go back to the past record number, it's hard to tell. But in Q4, we took a deep breath. We were able to moderate the situation. We're not too concerned about the future. The speed of the growth, there are little additional R&D for Gen 4. May come maybe not this year, but in the year after. We'll need to run the business based on Gen 3 for the time being. Some of the contents from 2023 are launching so far. We expect to see them to grow. But contents increase, 10% growth. If we are able to sustain this level of growth, we're not too optimistic about the growth level. Not so bad, but it's a gradual increase. That's what we hope to see. We cannot have a forecast clearly for such big growth because there could be potentially the tariff impact. The biggest concern or the uncertainty would be the Chinese player, also non-China, OEM market share trend. That will be the affecting factor. We're having big growth in China business in a short-term period.
I think it may not be bad for us, but it may not be directly answering your question, but the business in China has been, of course, we're facing some different challenges from Western countries and Japan, but we want to continue monitoring this situation. Cloud center, I don't want to say too much because I don't want to take it back later after talking about certain things. But things around the processors, the power supplies around the processor, I think it depends on the timing, but maybe half or one-third of the market could be maintained as market share. With the customer of a specific customer, when we look at the schedule of the product development, it seems like there will be some ups and downs expected. It's not like a straight line growth, but trend-wise, we have an optimistic view. DDR5 power management issue is now resolved, and that is actually giving us more visibility to start kicking in from Q3 onward. If that happens, that can be a strong supporting factor for the business.
Thank you. Thank you. Additional question about data center. For the past 12 months and for different applications you had for the coming year or so, can you give us how much growth you're expecting to come for different applications?
Hard to tell as well. We will try our best. 10%. Maybe we can grow around 10%. Hoping to go more than that. 10%. I think we can go beyond 10%, maybe stronger than 10%. Looking at numbers we have right now for AI, rather than 10%, it's more like something X or multiples of some multiples. Maybe 3X or more than 2X. That's the impression we have. The general purpose servers, rather than 10%, I think it would be bigger growth. That's what we expect. Cloud infrastructure business in total, maybe 2X or so. That's how we forecast, but so many things could happen in the short term with this application. We need to, while we are looking at upside, but at the same time, we want to be also cautious, not being too optimistic. We want to forecast on a quarterly basis. Thank you. Let me ask you once again, sorry for being so persistent. 2X would be including three applications for data center, the total 2X, or just talking about PMIC, is expected to go 2X. It's about the power.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. The next question is from Hirakawa-san from BofA Securities. Please unmute yourself and ask a question.
Thank you very much. This is Hidekawa from BOV. I have two questions. Earlier, you mentioned about the R-Car in FY 24. It had design wins. I think you may talk about this in the May IR day. Looking back at 24, how did things go, especially for the automotive? We talked about the MCU share. Can you tell us, to the extent possible, how things went in 2024? This is related to your outlook. Earlier, Shinkai-san mentioned that there is going to be a big volume of shipping for the short-term orders. At this point, from demand to shipment, I guess there are different patterns. Can you tell me the details behind the production to shipment?
Maybe Shinkai-san can answer the latter part of your question. I will try to address the first part of your question. Shinkai-san, please. For the short-term lead time orders, the proportion vis-à-vis the total order is increasing slightly. The average lead time is they come in before or disrupting the average lead time product. There is going to be some disruption. Distributors would have some of those products, and we also have those products in our distribution centers. It really depends on product. Something we can ship out right away after receiving the order. Sometimes you have to have other inventory as an intermediary format. We have to have that die bank.
When we receive the order, we can ship out by just doing the back-end of the process. We will have the finished product and also the die bank to address the short-term lead time orders. Also something slightly longer. We have been creative to address that type of demand. I hope this suffices your question. During COVID, I think five to six months before you had to fix your order.
Now, I guess there are many different patterns. You can only have visibility over the firm order of the next two months or three months, is that right?
It really depends because we do have some long-term lead time orders and also other short-term lead time orders. Compared to before, the short-term lead time orders are increasing. During COVID, when demand was very strong, the production planning had to be established for us to stably supply. From a long-term perspective, we fixed the demand and the orders. That's not the environment that we live in today. It's different. We do get those type of short-term lead orders as a natural course of our business. For the design wins, from last year, we had made some changes. This year, we are considering how we can change this. Focusing on your particular question, how things went last year, if I may offer some indications. If we track the design win trend as we have done to date, last year for automotive, it did grow by a high single digit. There's a big portion from RCAR and MCU was also very brisk. In terms of looking at the direction,
I would say that it was not bad. That's my frank opinion. Having said that, from some time ago, I have been trying to make some implications, but the tracking of our design wins needs to be fundamentally changed, in my view. Today, we will have an internal discussion on that topic. We are now trying to revise this. In terms of how we treat the numbers, we want to start from scratch. At the autumn, revenue recognition was made into a pro-rata basis rather than upfront. We would have to make changes accordingly because that type of indication will give you a sense of is it going up or going down, but it's hard to give you a long-term trend. We'd like to revisit how we track this. On an apples-to-apples basis, as a direction, as I mentioned earlier, the automotive is growing by a high single digit. Thank you. As a follow-up question, looking at the apples, not looking at the apples-to-apples number, but I want to get your feelings, Shibata-san. I guess as a direction, it's moving into the positive direction.
That's your view. Is that correct? For the automotive MCU, it's not bad. It's actually pretty big, frankly speaking. Also for the big business negotiation, the RCAR, this was true for Gen 4, but it's something that we cannot really foresee. When things are good, it will grow and vice versa because it's a very limited market. It's a rapid cycle and very volatile. MCU is not bad, actually.
I see. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Next question. Yoshikawa-san from Morgan Stanley, MUFG. Please unmute to ask your questions.
This is Yoshikawa from Morgan Stanley. Thank you for the explanation. I have one question. Non-GAAP SG&A and R&D. In Q4, the number was about ¥85 billion. Q1 will be from the difference between gross profit to OP, it will be a little less than ¥93 billion. Q4, you had, and I think you had drops in various elements, but in the coming quarter, the Q1 level is going to be the base level. Looking at Q1 and the percentage, it will be about 30% of the sales, the revenue. Looking at your financial model, R&D will be 16%, SG&A, and it will be 8%, total 24%. Currently, the revenue being low, I guess you're exceeding by about 6 percentage points. If you were to grow revenue along with a gradual recovery, how are you going to control the level of this spending?
Shinkai-san to answer this question. About the numbers, that is correct, about the ¥93 billion for Q1, that is correct. The trend from there. We are focused on R&D and SG&A, but including costs. Cost run rate to be lower. We are currently working on that. Cost improvement impact will be seen throughout the year and worse into the second half gradually. Part of the impact is also included partly in the first half forecast. On a run rate base, the latter half of the year, maybe around a little over 2 percentage points improvement on the base cost. That will be executed at the cost level. Other than that, the revenue growth is expected. That's my answer.
Thank you. Thank you for your question. Next question is from Nakano-san from Nikkei. Please unmute yourself and ask your question.
Thank you for this opportunity. My name is Nakano-san from Nikkei. I have two questions. My first question is, in FY 24, can you give us a summary of FY 24? The competitors said that last year was the worst year in the last 10 plus years. What is your view of how you did last fiscal year? The overall summary of last fiscal year, I guess things trended as they should. I see. The second question is the timing of the mass production for Kofu and also the production commencement of MCU SiCs at Takasaki. I don't have any update, but as a trend, it's going to be pushed out. As I communicated in the last earnings call, we have become more cautious. Is that because of the market environment?
When you say you're more cautious compared to the last time, the market is one factor. We look at our portfolio. What needs to be mainly manufactured in Kofu is something that we are going to discuss as a fundamental strategy, not just for the short term. For power semiconductors, now the market is weak. I guess you have to compete against the Chinese players in terms of cost in the future. Looking at the business environment, how do you see things playing out? How are you going to compete in the current market environment? For power semiconductors, at this juncture, we have a very severe view. On the other hand, the AI data centers, switching devices, and other products that are used in that application, it's not going to be customers sacrificing quality over price. In the power semi segment, we never had intended to become a big player. We are focusing on the target customer in this adjustable market.
That's the main direction that we are pursuing, which is unchanged. We have considered to use the silicon IGBT, but in the last two years, the market has dramatically changed. Also with the rise of the Chinese players, our thinking has changed from that. We're not looking at the silicon IGBT that much.
With the factory operation, do you have a major change in your business strategy?
I'm not sure about your question.
What is your intention of your question? The SiC production, could that be suspended? Or the production plan can be scrapped out?
It's not just for SiC business, but those things can happen for any other businesses.
I see. Thank you very much.
Thank you so much. Next question. Okawa-san from Daiwa Securities, please unmute to ask your questions.
Thank you very much today. I am Okawa from Daiwa. I have two questions. First is on automotive business. MCU is going strong so far. What is the reason for you being so confident about strong MCU at this point? Also the software-defined vehicles being the trend so far. How do you feel the response? The ASICs are out there. What are the opportunities and the risks? Can you comment on this? That would be my first question.
For MCU, at the beginning of last year, we have been talking about MCU and nothing really changed from what I said. We are trying hard and other players also, competitors are trying hard as well. Sometimes our target may be a half, or sometimes the target is right on the spot. We're all doing the same thing, and the others are also doing things. Last year, we saw the drop in MCU share in automotive. That was because of the misspecification. We thought we were taking ahead of the trend, but it wasn't going that direction. We redefined the roadmap. Recently, the redefined roadmap has been really aligned with the trend so far. It's fit. We are providing what clients want, and we get designation for our product, and we are receiving large product projects. That's what we saw last year. SDV, still there's no clear direction. It's not visible yet. At the super high level, rather than SoC over the high computer, trying to have a concentration on computing, that's been visible.
Like a gateway product for that. Gen 5 usage covering this section. Inside MCU itself, SDV impact or not, how it plays out. Honestly speaking, we don't really see clear direction yet. Our card scalability, we'll pursue and make sure to reinforce that. At the customers, we want to offer flexibility in architecture definition of customers. I know this is nothing new, but we want to continue reinforcing this. I think that is the best approach for us. As we see more SDVs, then software-oriented development need is increasing. Preparing the virtual environment and the customer software development shift left. They can start early. We provide tools to allow that to happen. That is going to be important. We're working on that, and we'll continue to do so.
Thank you. My second question is industrial. FA and mass market, can you explain splitting these two compared to three months ago? Any change in your forecast? What would be the bottom for those two categories? Can you give us your comment, feedback on that? What I said in the past were not really correct.
Actually, it makes it difficult for me to make a future forecast comment.
As far as we forecast, as mentioned earlier, inventory correction is moving forward towards zero. Still, small-size inventory correction could actually drag the demand situation. That could continue through the year throughout this fiscal year. I know there's a different view on that. There's some voices to see the increase recovery in the second half, but it could stay stagnant throughout the year in other voices. This year, we want to go back to basics. We want to address the basics. From that perspective, throughout the year, this situation could drag and continue. That's how we intend to operate this year. Last year, sometime from Q4 into this Q1, this level, this size of inventory correction would not be expected to come. It's going to be quite small, if any, in the second quarter or beyond. Industrial mass market, how different these are. That's hard to tell because mass market is very difficult to forecast. I won't be able to give you any meaningful response,
I guess. It's hard to tell. Looking at our numbers only, I think mass market could show a faster recovery, I feel. Quarter on quarter sequence show numbers. Looking at them, mass market shows the bottom, I guess, hitting the bottom earlier than the industrial. The mass market's moving faster. Also, Octopart, held by Altium, this also can be utilized for all the indicators for the overall sector. It doesn't seem to have a big improvement in movement, but there's a slight increase so far. Compared to industrial, mass market could moderate slightly earlier than industrial. I know. Sorry, I won't be able to give you any clear answer to that. I know.
Thank you very much. I know it's difficult.
Thank you very much. I know that we have more questions, but we are now close to the time to finish. Lastly, we'd like to invite Mr. Shibata for his closing remark.
I know that the expectation is building up for idiosyncratic growth for us, but we don't have that kind of a view. We now have a more steady outlook. In a real sense, we can really focus on rolling out initiatives for achieving long-term growth without being disrupted by the short-term challenges. That's the reflection on the result and also the outlook for this fiscal year. I hope to enjoy your continued support. Thank you very much. With that, we'd like to complete Renesas Electronics' fourth quarter and full year earnings call for FY24. Thank you very much for joining us today.