Ambarella, Inc. develops semiconductor solutions for video that enable high-definition (HD) and ultra HD compression, image processing, and deep neural network processing worldwide. The company's system-on-a-chip designs integrated HD video processing, image processing, artificial intelligence computer vision algorithms, audio processing, and system functions onto a single chip for delivering video and image quality, differentiated functionality, and low power consumption. Its solutions are used in automotive cameras, such as automotive video recorders, electronic mirrors, front advanced driver assistance system camera, cabin monitoring system and driver monitoring system camera, and central domain controllers for autonomous vehicle; and professional and home internet protocol security camera; robotics and industrial application, including identification/authentication cameras, robotic products, and sensing cameras, as well as cameras for the home, public spaces, and consumer leisure comprising wearable body cameras, sports action cameras, social media cameras, drones for capturing aerial video or photographs, video conferencing, and virtual reality applications. The company sells its solutions to original design manufacturers and original equipment manufacturers through its direct sales force and distributors. Ambarella, Inc. was incorporated in 2004 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.
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Here are 1-3 brief analogies for Ambarella (AMBA):
- A focused NVIDIA for power-efficient AI vision chips, used in everything from security cameras to autonomous vehicles.
- Like Mobileye, but as a chip supplier for a wider array of AI-powered cameras beyond just cars, including security systems and robotics.
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AI Vision Processors for Automotive: System-on-chips specifically designed for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), autonomous driving, in-cabin monitoring, and electronic mirrors, integrating high-resolution video and AI processing.
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AI Vision Processors for Security Cameras: System-on-chips tailored for IP security cameras, smart home devices, and video doorbells, featuring advanced image processing and AI analytics for robust surveillance.
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AI Vision Processors for Robotics and Other Edge Devices: System-on-chips providing powerful computer vision and AI capabilities for applications in robotics, drones, industrial automation, and various other intelligent edge devices.
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Ambarella (AMBA) Major Customers
Ambarella (AMBA) is a fabless semiconductor company that designs and sells System-on-Chips (SoCs) and AI vision processors. As such, the company sells its products primarily to other companies (B2B) that integrate these chips into their own end products. These direct customers often include Original Design Manufacturers (ODMs), contract manufacturers, and Tier 1 suppliers.
Based on Ambarella's most recent annual report (10-K filing for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2024), its major customers that accounted for 10% or more of its net revenue are:
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Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd. (Taiwan Stock Exchange: TWSE: 2383)
Chicony Electronics is a major Taiwanese manufacturer of PC peripherals, power supplies, and various electronic components. They integrate Ambarella's chips into camera modules for a range of applications, including professional and consumer security cameras, as well as automotive solutions. Chicony Electronics accounted for 15% of Ambarella's net revenue in fiscal year 2024.
Additionally, in fiscal year 2023, another customer accounted for more than 10% of Ambarella's net revenue:
While Chicony Electronics and Primax Electronics are the direct major customers reported in financial filings, Ambarella's processors are ultimately incorporated into products sold by numerous brands across various market segments, including:
- **Automotive:** Their AI vision processors are designed for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving solutions used by various Tier 1 automotive suppliers and car manufacturers.
- **Security Cameras:** Ambarella's chips are integral to professional and consumer security cameras from leading global brands, often via ODMs like Chicony.
- **Robotics and Industrial:** Their technology is also deployed in various robotics applications and industrial sensing systems.
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- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSM)
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Fermi Wang, Chief Executive Officer, President, Co-founder, and Chairman of the Board of Directors
Fermi Wang co-founded Ambarella in 2004. He is a serial entrepreneur and an expert in video compression technology. Before Ambarella, Wang was the CEO and co-founder of Afara Websystems, which was acquired by Sun Microsystems in July 2002. Prior to Afara, he held senior engineering and business management roles at C-Cube Microsystems, where his team developed the world's first MPEG CODEC chip. Wang holds several digital video-related patents. He earned his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University.
John Young, Chief Financial Officer
John Young was elected Ambarella's CFO in February 2024. He previously served as Ambarella's Vice President of Finance since December 2019 and as Corporate Controller from March 2017 to December 2019. Young also served as the company's Principal Accounting and Financial Officer from November 2021 to April 2022. Before joining Ambarella, he held various roles at Mellanox Technologies from 2009 to 2016, most recently as Corporate Controller. Young began his career as a CPA at Ernst & Young.
Les Kohn, Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder
Les Kohn co-founded Ambarella in 2004. He is recognized in Silicon Valley as a leading chip architect. Prior to Ambarella, Kohn was the CTO and co-founder at Afara, which was acquired by Sun Microsystems. At Sun, he continued to develop Afara's throughput computing technology. Kohn was also chief architect at C-Cube, where he led the development of three generations of digital video CODECs. Before C-Cube, he was a distinguished engineer at Sun and chief architect of UltraSPARC I and II, and previously chief architect of the Intel i860.
Didier LeGall, Executive Vice President and Co-founder
Didier LeGall co-founded Ambarella Corporation. Before Ambarella, he was a co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of C-Cube Microsystems until its acquisition by LSI Logic in 2001. Following the acquisition, LeGall served as Vice President and General Manager of LSI Corporation. Earlier in his career, he was manager of the Visual Communication group at Bell Communications Research. LeGall initiated the standardization effort of the Moving Picture Expert Group (MPEG) and served as Chairman of the MPEG Video group, delivering two international standards: MPEG-1 and MPEG-2. He is the author or co-author of over twenty digital video-related patents.
Chan Lee, Chief Operating Officer
Prior to Ambarella, Chan Lee was the director of VLSI at Afara, where he managed both the design and verification teams. He spent a significant portion of his career at Intel, holding roles such as manager of the silicon debug team, design manager of the first-generation Pentium 4, and manager and technical lead on the P6 (Pentium Pro).
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The clear emerging threat to Ambarella (AMBA) is the increasing trend of large customers, particularly in the automotive and large-scale enterprise vision markets, to design and develop their own custom silicon for AI vision processing. This shift towards vertical integration and in-house chip development by major Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and tech giants, exemplified by companies like Tesla designing its own Full Self-Driving (FSD) chip or large cloud providers developing custom AI accelerators, reduces the total addressable market for merchant silicon providers like Ambarella. As these key customers increasingly develop their bespoke solutions, Ambarella faces a diminishing pool of opportunities for its specialized AI vision processors.
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Ambarella Addressable Market Sizes
Ambarella (symbol: AMBA) primarily focuses on AI vision System-on-Chips (SoCs) for the automotive and Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) markets, which include security cameras and robotics. The addressable markets for their main products and services are as follows:
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Overall Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM): Ambarella's management estimates their total serviceable addressable market to be approximately $2.5 billion today and projected to grow to $7.5 billion by 2028. This market size is global.
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Automotive Segment: The serviceable addressable market in the automotive sector, which includes advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), autonomous driving, and automotive video recorders, is expected to grow from $1.5 billion in 2018 to more than $5 billion by 2025. This market size is global.
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IoT Security Cameras (Smart Cameras): This market, encompassing enterprise, public, and home security cameras utilizing AI, is projected to grow from a current serviceable addressable market of $2 billion to $3.5 billion by 2028. This market size is global.
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Here are the expected drivers of future revenue growth for Ambarella (AMBA) over the next 2-3 years:
Expected Drivers of Future Revenue Growth for Ambarella (AMBA)
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Growth in Edge AI and AI Inference Processors: Ambarella is a leading developer of low-power semiconductor solutions specializing in AI processing, with significant revenue growth driven by increased shipments and sales of AI inference processors. Edge AI is projected to constitute approximately 80% of total sales in fiscal year 2026.
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Expansion into New Markets and Applications: The company is experiencing strong demand and securing design wins in diverse applications beyond its traditional security and automotive segments. These include portable video devices, robotic aerial drones, and edge infrastructure. For instance, Ambarella anticipates production shipments from its first robotic aerial drone win by the end of fiscal year 2026 and its first edge infrastructure win to commence production in fiscal year 2027.
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Increasing Average Selling Prices (ASPs) from Advanced SoCs: Ambarella's strategic emphasis on edge AI processing, incorporating more advanced reasoning models like DeepSeek-R1, is leading to higher average selling prices. The strong demand for their new, higher-priced 5nm AI Systems-on-Chip (SoCs) is a key factor contributing to their increased revenue guidance.
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Automotive Sector Growth with Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Autonomous Driving (AD): While the Internet of Things (IoT) segment currently shows faster growth, the automotive sector remains a crucial long-term revenue driver. Ambarella's AI processors and software are integral to ADAS, electronic mirrors, driver/cabin monitoring, and autonomous driving systems. The company expects significant acceleration in automotive design wins by fiscal years 2027-2028.
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Introduction and Ramp-up of New Product Families (CV5, CV7, CV3-AD, N1655): Ambarella's continuous introduction of new product lines, such as the CV5 and CV7 families, is expected to fuel future revenue growth. The CV5 family is performing well in both automotive and IoT markets, while the CV7 family is slated for production in late fiscal year 2025 (calendar year 2024), initially targeting computer vision applications in automotive and IoT, with future plans to power vision-language models in data centers. Additionally, the company has launched its first edge AI infrastructure SoC, the N1655 (also referred to as NYC55 or N1-655).
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Share Repurchases
- Ambarella's Board approved an extension of the share repurchase program through June 2026, with approximately $48.0 million remaining available for repurchases.
- In the first quarter of fiscal year 2026 (ended April 30, 2025), the company repurchased 24,152 shares for approximately $1.0 million.
- The share repurchase program does not obligate the company to acquire any particular amount of ordinary shares and may be suspended at any time.
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Share Issuance
- For the fiscal year ending January 31, 2025, Ambarella's stock-based compensation was $107.80 million.
- During the six months ended July 31, 2025, the company issued shares through employee equity plans (375,046 shares) and an employee stock purchase plan (98,755 shares).
- Net cash received from stock activities during the six months ended July 31, 2025, was approximately $1.1 million less compared to the same period in the prior fiscal year.
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Inbound Investments
- In June 2025, Ambarella's shares surged over 20% amid rumors of a potential sale, with the company reportedly reaching out to chipmakers and private equity firms as possible buyers.
- Stephens Inc. acquired a new stake in Ambarella, purchasing 3,667 shares valued at approximately $242,000 during the second quarter of 2025.
- Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in Ambarella by 268.8% during the second quarter of 2025, owning 5,407 shares valued at $357,000.
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Outbound Investments
- Ambarella completed the acquisition of Oculii Corp for $307.5 million in November 2021.
- This acquisition was intended to enhance Ambarella's capabilities in AI vision and radar technology, expanding its market reach into radar perception for automotive and IoT applications.
- As a result of the merger, Oculii's CEO and CTO joined Ambarella's leadership team.
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Capital Expenditures
- Net cash used in investing activities increased for the six months ended July 31, 2025, primarily due to approximately $5.0 million higher payments for the purchase of capital assets and software licenses.
- In the third quarter of fiscal year 2024 (ended October 31, 2023), capital expenditures for tangible and intangible assets totaled $2.4 million.
- Ambarella anticipates that its existing cash balances will be sufficient to meet its operating and capital expenditure needs for at least the next 12 months, as stated in a September 3, 2025 filing.