Monolithic Power Systems Inc (MPWR) Q4 2020 Earnings Call Transcript

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Monolithic Power Systems Inc (MPWR 2.82%)
Q4 2020 Earnings Call
Feb 4, 2021, 5:00 p.m. ET

Contents:

• Prepared Remarks
• Questions and Answers
• Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Genevieve Cunningham -- Supervisor of Marketing Communications

Welcome, everyone, to the MPS Fourth Quarter 2020 Earnings Webinar. [Operator Instructions] My name is Genevieve Cunningham, and I will be the moderator for this webinar. Joining me today are Michael Hsing, CEO and Founder of MPS; and Bernie Blegen, VP and CFO.

In the course of today's conference call, we will make forward-looking statements and projections that involve risk and uncertainty, which could cause results to differ materially from management's current views and expectations. Please refer to the Safe Harbor statement contained in the earnings release published today. Risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ are identified in the Safe Harbor statements contained in the Q4 earnings release and in our SEC filings, including our Form 10-K filed on February 28, 2020, and Form 10-Q filed on November 6, 2020, both of which are accessible through our website. MPS assumes no obligation to update the information provided on today's call.

We will be discussing gross margin, operating expense, R&D and SG&A expense, operating income, interest and other income, net income and earnings on both a GAAP and a non-GAAP basis. These non-GAAP financial measures are not prepared in accordance with GAAP and should not be considered as a substitute for or superior to measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. A table that outlines the reconciliation between the non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP financial measures is included in our earnings release, which we have filed with the SEC. I would refer investors to the Q4 2019, Q3 2020 and Q4 2020 earnings releases as well as to the reconciling tables that are posted on our website.

I'd also like to remind you that today's conference call is being webcast live over the Internet and will be available for replay on our website for one year, along with the earnings release filed with the SEC earlier today.

Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Bernie Blegen.

Bernie Blegen -- Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Jen. For the full-year 2020, MPS achieved record revenue $844.5 million, growing 34.5% from the prior year. This performance represented consistent execution against our strategies and being recognized by more first-tier companies for our superior technologies, product quality and excellent customer support. As we see more high quality growth opportunities ahead of us, we continue to successfully invest in our infrastructure and capabilities that support that growth.

Here are a few highlights, which we achieved in 2020. Brought online a new 12-inch fab one year ahead of schedule, allowing for qualified parts to be shipped in Q4 of this year. We will continue to invest in the capacity and diversity of our supply chain with plans to bring up a new 8-inch fab in 2021. Began volume shipments of 48-volt QSMoD technology for AI applications, proving the commercial viability of our leading edge system solutions in this critically important market. Designed an integrated power management solution for autonomous driving vehicles, shipments began to ramp in Q3 of 2020. Launched our ESG website, aggregating all of our environmental, social and governance values, policies and practices into one easily access location. Customers, employees, shareholders are now able to fully appreciate MPS' commitment to sustainability, transparency of our business practices and our ongoing social responsibility.

While 2020 was very successful in terms of our financial performance, product development and new customer acquisition. Supply chain capacity constraints for much of the year limited our ability to fulfill all of our customers' demand. This is a result of demand increases during the year and industrywide capacity constraints. We can take some soul ones in having recognized this issue in 2019, which propelled us to bring up our second 12-inch fab. Maintaining our ability to meet strong demand, while delivering high quality products to our customers as represented an extraordinary challenge that continues into 2021. Despite these challenges, we will continue to execute on our strategic plan.

Turning back to full-year 2020 revenue by market segment compared with 2019 communications revenue up 67.9%, consumer revenue up 34.2%, computing and storage up 33.8%, automotive up 20.7% and industrial up 20.3%, demonstrating just how broad based our revenue improvement was. Communications revenue grew $57.5 million to $142.3 million. This improvement was primarily due to an infrastructure sales ramp. Communications revenue represented 16.9% of our 2020 revenue compared with 13.5% in 2019. Consumer revenue grew $56.2 million to $220.4 million, reversing two consecutive years sales declines. This growth reflected higher game console sales along with increased sales of wearables and home appliances. Consumer revenue represented 26.1% of MPS' full-year 2020 revenue compared with 26.2% in 2019.

Full-year 2020 computing and storage revenue grew $64.0 million over the prior year to $253.2 million. This 33.8% increase primarily resulted from strong sales growth for cloud computing and storage applications. Computing and storage revenue represented 30% of MPS' total revenue in 2020, compared with 30.1% in 2019.

Automotive revenue grew $18.7 million to $109.0 million in 2020. This growth primarily represented increased sales of infotainment, safety and connectivity application products. Automotive revenue represented 12.9% of MPS' full-year 2020 revenue compared with 14.4% in 2019.

Industrial revenue grew $20.2 million to $119.6 million in 2020. This growth primarily reflected higher sales for applications in power sources. Industrial revenue represented 14.2% [Phonetic] of MPS' full-year 2020 revenue compared with 15.8% in 2019.

Switching to Q4. MPS had a record fourth quarter with revenue of $233.0 million, 10.2% lower than revenue generated in the third quarter of 2020, but 39.8% higher than the comparable quarter of 2019. Our market segment revenue for a consumer grew 69.7% year-over-year. Automotive grew 63.1%. Industrial grew 38.8%. Communications grew 35.6%. And computing and storage grew 11.1%.

Fourth quarter 2020 GAAP gross margin was 55.3%, 20 basis points higher than both third quarter of 2020 and the fourth quarter of 2019. Our GAAP operating income was $40.0 million, compared to $60.0 million reported in the third quarter of 2020, and $30.7 million reported in the fourth quarter of 2019. Fourth quarter 2020 non-GAAP gross margin was 55.7%, 20 basis points higher than both the third quarter of 2020 and the fourth quarter of 2019. Our non-GAAP operating income was $66.3 million, compared to $84.9 million reported in the prior quarter, and $50.8 million reported in the fourth quarter of 2019.

Let's review our operating expenses. Our GAAP operating expenses were $88.9 million in the fourth quarter compared with $83.1 million in the third quarter of 2020, and $61.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2019. Our non-GAAP fourth quarter 2020 operating expenses were $63.6 million, up from the $59.1 million we spent in the third quarter of 2020, and up from $41.8 million reported in the fourth quarter of 2019. On both a GAAP and a non-GAAP basis, fourth quarter 2020 litigation expenses were $1.5 million, compared with a $1.8 million expense in Q3 2020, and a $991,000 expense in Q4 2019.

The differences between GAAP and non-GAAP operating expenses for the quarters discussed here are stock compensation and income or loss from an unfunded deferred compensation plan. Fourth quarter 2020 stock compensation expense, including $686,000 charged to cost of goods sold was $23.0 million, compared with $23.0 million recorded in the third quarter of 2020.

Switching to the bottom line. Fourth quarter 2020 GAAP net income was $42.9 million or $0.90 per fully diluted share compared with $1.18 per share in the third quarter of 2020, and $0.70 per share in the fourth quarter of 2019. Q4 2020 non-GAAP net income was $62.5 million or $1.31 per fully diluted share compared with $1.69 per share in the third quarter of 2020 and $1.04 per share in the fourth quarter of 2019. Fully diluted shares outstanding at the end of Q4 2020 were $47.6 million.

Now let's look at the balance sheet. As of December 31, 2020, cash, cash equivalents and investments totaled $598.0 million, compared with $554.5 million at the end of the third quarter of 2020. For the quarter, MPS generated operating cash flow of about $79.6 million compared with Q3 2020 operating cash flow of $77.4 million. Fourth quarter 2020 capital spending totaled $11.5 million.

Accounts receivable ended the fourth quarter of 2020 at $66.8 million or 26 days of sales outstanding compared with the $93.5 million or 33 days reported at the end of the third quarter of 2020. And the $52.7 million or 29 days reported in the fourth quarter of 2019.

Our internal inventories at the end of the fourth quarter of 2020 were $157.1 million, up from $148.1 million at the end of the third quarter of 2020. Calculated on a basis consistent with our past practice, and as you can see from the webinar video, days of inventory rose to 137 days at the end of Q4 2020 from the 116 days at the end of the third quarter of 2020. Historically, we've calculated days of inventory on hand as a function of the current quarter revenue. We believe comparing current inventory levels with the following quarters revenue provides a better economic match. On this basis, again, you can see days of inventory increased to 132 days at the end of the fourth quarter of 2020 from 129 days at the end of the third quarter of 2020.

I would like to turn to our Q1 2021 outlook. We are forecasting Q1 2021 revenue in the range of $236 million to $248 million. We also expect the following: GAAP gross margin in the range of 55.1% to 55.7%. Non-GAAP gross margin in the range of 55.4% to 56%. Total stock-based compensation expense of $27.0 million to $29.0 million, including approximately $800,000 that would be charged to cost of goods sold. GAAP R&D and SG&A expenses between $89.0 million and $93.0 million. Non-GAAP R&D and SG&A expenses to be in the range of $62.8 million to $64.8 million. This estimate excludes stock compensation and litigation expenses. Litigation expenses to be in the range of $2.3 million to $2.7 million. Interest income is expected to range from $1.4 million to $1.8 million before foreign exchange gains or losses. Fully diluted shares to be in the range of 47.3 million shares to 48.3 million shares. Finally, we are pleased to announce a 20% increase in our quarterly dividend to $0.60 per share from $0.50 per share for shareholders of record as of March 31, 2021.

In conclusion, our performance in 2020 validated our strategy to grow through diversification and sustainability. We will continue to execute this strategy and invest in our future.

I will now open the phone lines for questions.

Questions and Answers:

Genevieve Cunningham -- Supervisor of Marketing Communications

Thank you, Bernie. Analysts, I would now like to begin our Q&A session. [Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Matt Ramsay from Cowen. Matt, your line is now open.

Matt Ramsay -- Cowen and Co. -- Analyst

Thank you very much. Good afternoon and good evening, everybody. Hey, Mike and Bernie, hope you're well. My first question is around the supply that you guys are bringing online. You talked about a couple of different efforts and you have done over the last few quarters to add supply. And I guess, Michael, I wonder if you might characterize it as -- anyway, one, how much supply can you bring online and say, the immediate term versus over the next couple of years to support what revenue levels? And two, do you feel like there is now situation where your own supply is expanding to support your share gains, where the rest of the industry might be tightening a bit. And how does that -- how does that play into your thoughts about revenue growth? Thanks. And then I have a follow-up.

Michael R. Hsing -- Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Well, we said that in a couple of quarters ago, we are building a capacity to about $2 billion [Phonetic] capability. And so that's our long-term strategy. We will do that anyway, that can be -- and just some reason -- reason from a last year, so we're pulling a little faster. Okay. We can anticipate these goes up and downs. Okay. And as we're playing for our long-term futures, and but in the recent years, obviously, with the pulling and increased capacities, OK, as we started in the early last year and we're a little bit ahead of the game, ahead of the market demands. And looking at a new futures the we continue to do so, and we are still facing delinquent.

Matt Ramsay -- Cowen and Co. -- Analyst

Got it. I know that makes sense in the long term. I guess for my follow-up question is a more near term oriented one. Bernie, if you might give us some color as how you're expecting, I mean, the guidance was well above consensus for the March quarter. Maybe you could talk about it by segment, what you're expecting the trends to be as you move from December into March? Thanks guys.

Bernie Blegen -- Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

I think that we saw in 2020 that revenue in both automotive and industrial were probably most heavily impacted because of the COVID pandemic. So what we saw in the second half of the year is that both of those two markets showed marked improvement and have significant momentum as we go into 2021. But really, we're broad-based. So a lot of the trends that we saw that we benefited from in 2020 will continue on, possibly the only exception is communications, which had a strong three quarters that will be bit difficult to compare against.

Genevieve Cunningham -- Supervisor of Marketing Communications

Our next question is from Tore Svanberg from Stifel. Tore, your line is now open.

Tore Svanberg -- Stifel Nicolaus & Co. -- Analyst

Yes, thank you. Congratulations on the execution. So far, I think you are the only company that I've seen actually increasing your inventory day. So congratulations on that too. The last quarter, you talked about the size of the delinquencies you had in '19. Could you give us a ballpark for where they stand right now?

Michael R. Hsing -- Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

I think it's a -- we in last quarter -- we talked about in a last couple of quarters. So we have continued facing delinquencies. And this quarter and the last quarter were relatively similar, and two quarters ago, we are facing a quite a bit -- quite a bit more.

Bernie Blegen -- Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. And I think that that's a reflection of continued strong demand in the face of industrywide capacity constraints. So, we've actually had to manage at this level now for about the last three to four quarters. And I'm not saying that we're getting good at it. But we're certainly believe we have it as well under control as possible, a good handle on it. So that we're escalating shipments only based on the needs of the end-user, as opposed to anyone building inventory in either the channel or on customer shelves. And the reason we can meet the most off our customer's demand is -- due to we end -- we add a capacity at the beginning of last year and now we can fulfill most of it.

Tore Svanberg -- Stifel Nicolaus & Co. -- Analyst

Very good. And as my follow-up on capacity, you talked about the second 12-inch, also new 8-inch, I know you typically don't name your foundries on these calls. But could you at least talk about sort of the geographical aspect to where your foundry partners are at this point?

Michael R. Hsing -- Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

No, we tried to diversify outside of China, as we're speaking, that came in -- and these fabs are -- what could be, we are still exploring and engaged -- at the beginning of engagement with the both of fab -- with the fab, within China and outside of China.

Tore Svanberg -- Stifel Nicolaus & Co. -- Analyst

Great. Thank you very much. Congrats again.

Michael R. Hsing -- Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Tore.

Genevieve Cunningham -- Supervisor of Marketing Communications

Our next question is from Ross Seymore from Deutsche Bank. Ross, your line is now open.

Ross Seymore -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Hi, guys, can you hear me?

Michael R. Hsing -- Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yes, loud and clear.

Bernie Blegen -- Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Hi, Ross.

Ross Seymore -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Hi, there. So congratulations on the growth, especially impressive, not only relative to the analog group, but the diversity of it. As you looked at 2020 as a whole, other than the year-over-year in comms, which I know is difficult. You talked a little bit about you expected to be diverse. If you just said, what some of the idiosyncratic drivers, company specific things in 2020 would be just a kind of by end market, obviously, not customer specific.

Bernie Blegen -- Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Sure. I think that in the computing, we had seen in 2018 and 2019 a run up in notebooks and really in 2020 it was increased demand in the data center, both in terms of powering servers, as well as the storage. In the consumer market, we've benefited from the once every three year refresh of the gaming console. And also we saw a nice uptick, both in home appliances as well as wearables or mobility. And then when we look at industrial and automotive, as I said earlier, both of those seem to be handicapped at the beginning of the year where we have design wins, but we can't guarantee what the market circumstances are going to be. So the unit sales on some of the new products we introduced were a little limited, but certainly showed a lot of strength in the second half of the year.

Ross Seymore -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

And actually, Bernie, forgive me if I misspoke. I was actually talking more about 2021. What those drive -- similar sort of story, but '21 more looking forward than back.

Michael R. Hsing -- Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

I think it's a repeat of same story, it's [Technical Issues] 2020 to 2021.

Bernie Blegen -- Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

I'd say the only thing in the first half that gives us a little pause aside from the communications comparable is that there's probably going to be some softness in the first half of the year related to computing on the -- at the data center. But outside of that, Michael is exactly right.

Ross Seymore -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Well, maybe that's a good --

Michael R. Hsing -- Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

But the softness -- it's not going down. So, [Indecipherable] still going as not as a strong, OK. But the demand is still -- slightly more than we expected.

Ross Seymore -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Got it. And then I guess as my real follow-up. A lot of companies are questioning the sustainability of this demand and I know crystal balls are always foggy. But you guys would grow if I just analyze your first quarter guidance, 15%. I know seasonality might not be the best framework, but there seems to be an active debate among investors on is, are things just too hot and there's got to be a stumble because there's excess ordering, inventory is going to build etc., etc. How are you guys viewing that kind of supply versus demand balance and the trust in the quality of the orders?

Michael R. Hsing -- Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Well -- and if you look at in the past three or four years, OK, I mean, we grow some things like in -- from 17% to 25% in the levels. In 2019, right, we grow only 8% and -- but our designing -- all these opportunities still there. Okay? I mean, we just shifted to -- from 2019 to 2020. And so again, in the automotive, industrial in the first half of the year, wasn't there, so like -- but the catch up in the second half of the year. And in a computing, communications and -- what else I'm missing.

Bernie Blegen -- Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Consumer.

Michael R. Hsing -- Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, consumers, OK. In the beginning, is a stronger than -- a little bit stronger than normal. And I will say that it's probably even out from 2019s and this year we can see that -- we never forecast a macro economy condition, but we do see these product and we're facing a shortages on Amazon's, on the -- on these Best Buy's and we believe that these orders are real.

Ross Seymore -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Okay. Thank you and congrats.

Operator

Our next question is from Rick Schafer from Oppenheimer. Rick, your line is now open.

Rick Schafer -- Oppenheimer & Co. -- Analyst

Thanks. And let me add my congratulations on the execution guys. I'm sure it wasn't easy up there this quarter, especially. A couple of questions. I guess, I'd like to ask about a couple of your bigger growth pillars, maybe start with auto. I think it grew about 15% [Phonetic] last year, with SAR down about 15. So just optically, it looks like you guys could do something around 50% growth this year. I mean, maybe you could talk about what leads that growth. I mean, is it ADAS, body control? Does BMS kick-in at all and kind of add -- give a little more wind to the sales this year. And I guess the second part of that question, I'm just curious, are you worried at all about indirect supply constraints, potentially limiting -- limiting your upside here?

Michael R. Hsing -- Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Let me talk about your second part first, OK. And growth overall for MPS is limiting by our capacities and utilization of a total capacity. As you know, we have a few thousand -- 4,000 parts and it's inconceivable. We can utilize it in the entire capacities. For the auto growth, yes, OK, we -- as Bernie said earlier, we have ADAS that came in and start to ramp in the last quarter or so. And we have more customers start to ramp that can -- these are the very high end product and we are very pleased with it. Other products in orders, and we talk about it in the past, OK, from a lighting to liftgates to -- all the other power modules in auto and now we see start to ramp. We just -- just at the beginning we see all these products start to ramp. But these are still at the beginning.

Bernie Blegen -- Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

And Rick, just one more point is that, I think we've read that the auto industry is suffering from its own capacity issues or being able to have a stable supply chain. As I look at our Q1 numbers that is not directly impacting our demand or our ability to ship.

Michael R. Hsing -- Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. We are so small in a market presence in auto industry, but all of these initial ramp and it changes the needles in a revenue stream, OK.

Rick Schafer -- Oppenheimer & Co. -- Analyst

Thanks. And that's kind of what I was asking about. Just worried if those secondary supply constraints could end up hurting, somebody else can't ship. Maybe my second question, Michael, just on cloud server. If you could talk about how that data center ramp looks like for QSMoD this year? I mean, it's isolate still a needle mover, or is it really more Sapphire Rapids later this year where you were kind of maybe potentially see a step function in revenues as that starts to pick up?

Michael R. Hsing -- Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. I can't relate those acronym, these are names with that. I know the VR 13.5 is mostly -- is a ramp -- is ramping now, as we see the revenue growth. Now VR 14, I think is a -- that'll be a next year story.

Rick Schafer -- Oppenheimer & Co. -- Analyst

Got it. Thanks.

Genevieve Cunningham -- Supervisor of Marketing Communications

Our next question is from Alex Vecchi from William Blair. Alex, your line is now open.

Alessandra Vecchi -- William Blair -- Analyst

Hi, guys. Congratulations on the impressive quarter from me as well. Maybe Bernie, just on a more housekeeping question, your guidance for gross margin at the midpoint is looking flat quarter-over-quarter. Is that a -- is that due to end market mix or are you seeing any increasing manufacturing costs weighing on margins? And then, how should we think about sort of that resumption back to the 10 basis points to 20 basis points going forward?

Michael R. Hsing -- Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yes. Okay. We -- obviously now you see the consumers segments growth too, and we have some -- and the slightly, or even with the lower gross margin. On the other hand, yes. The manufacturer costs is going up.

Alessandra Vecchi -- William Blair -- Analyst

Okay. That's helpful.

Michael R. Hsing -- Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah.

Alessandra Vecchi -- William Blair -- Analyst

And then just on your inventory days, you guys have talked in the past about the 180, 200 day target. You've made some improvements this quarter. How do we think about getting back to an ideal inventory level in terms of timing?

Michael R. Hsing -- Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Well, it's like demand keep coming as it is now. It wouldn't be difficult. Okay. We think about it end of the year, we hope we can go back to 180 to 200 days of inventory.

Bernie Blegen -- Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. I think if you look at whether it's the inventory that we hold on our books or particularly in the channel, it's very lean right now, and then we've already discussed delinquencies. So, we have a lot of catch up to do before we really can get the model to the 180 to 200-day goal.

Alessandra Vecchi -- William Blair -- Analyst

Understood. That's it for me. I'll pass it along to the next.

Genevieve Cunningham -- Supervisor of Marketing Communications

Our next question is from Quinn Bolton from Needham. Quinn, your line is now open.

Quinn Bolton -- Needham & Company -- Analyst

Hey, guys, I will offer my congratulations as well. Just wanted to follow-up on Alex's question on the delinquencies and your ability to catch up with some of those delinquencies. I mean, how much of the ability to meet those delinquencies is going to come from the new 12-inch fab that you brought online in the fourth quarter of last year. Are you able to qualify more parts and other high volume runners on that fab? Or just kind of curious your ability to actually get to secure more wafer capacity from your five foundry partners in this very tight environment. I guess, a lot of companies are saying that they think supply constraints, do supply is going to remain constrained all year, which makes it sound like being able to get back to 180 to 200 days, delinquencies is a pretty tall order in calendar 2021.

Bernie Blegen -- Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. It's a great question. And thanks for allowing us the opportunity to give a little more context here. With the new fab, I mean, we were very pleased to report is one of our highlights that we were able to qualify parts and be able to inventory and ship them. But that process of qualifying more parts so that it can be meaningful as far as both deliveries and the dressing our delinquencies is ongoing. And it's going to require an investment both in the 12-inch capability, as well as this new fab that we're bringing up in 2021. So just because we've qualified a few parts and we've got the process started, it still takes about nine to 12 months before you have the full capability of.

Michael R. Hsing -- Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. In 2020, we increase our capacity by 25%. It's -- pointing of off from my head, my rough calculations is about 20% to 25% increase last year.

Quinn Bolton -- Needham & Company -- Analyst

I guess, my follow-up question was just on the comms space. Obviously, you had three very strong quarters in 2020, and then one of your large customers was no longer able to ship. I believe you may now have a license to resume shipments to that customer. And I'm just wondering if that's the case, do you have now perhaps a better outlook than you might have 90 days ago for the comms business in 2021?

Michael R. Hsing -- Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Absolutely. We will have a more clear [Indecipherable] and the customer start to place -- placing orders now.

Bernie Blegen -- Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. And I think there's two forms. There's a -- you identified one customer in particular. And I think we might see that begin to ramp in the second half of this year. But I think more broadly other opportunities are starting to come on not just with the top tier, but some of the second tier customers in the 5G and infrastructure area.

Quinn Bolton -- Needham & Company -- Analyst

Great. Thank you.

Genevieve Cunningham -- Supervisor of Marketing Communications

Our next question is from William Stein from Truist. William, your line is now open.

William Stein -- Truist Securities -- Analyst

Great. Thanks for taking my question. Michael, I'm wondering if you can update us on the longer term transition to selling more modules. I know that's something that is from a long-term perspective, potentially very accretive to growth and margins. I think we're still pretty early in that process, but any movement in the quarter that you'd like to highlight?

Michael R. Hsing -- Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

I think it's -- the result is a very good in the middle of this high demand. And actually, Bernie can tell you what is the ramps, OK, what is the increase. Okay.

Bernie Blegen -- Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. We had -- revenue doubled in 2020, and we exited the year where it continued to increase sequentially quarter. And it's interesting because we thought that it would have more narrow applications, particularly in industrial. But in fact, it's proven to be very broad based and also is sustainable.

What I mean by that last point is that we thought that if people want to unit volumes, they might be more likely to go to components and just buy silicon. And in fact, we're seeing a lot of people that are going into volume shipments with the modules as well.

Michael R. Hsing -- Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. It's all across our product lines. So I don't have a total numbers for the modules that are -- in roughly, so like a $30 million, $40 million now, OK, I mean, compare a year ago. As Bernie said, it is half of that.

William Stein -- Truist Securities -- Analyst

Great. And then one other thing I'd like to ask about is your MPS NOW service, did you see any change in that in the quarter? I know that's something that seemed to come online sort of just in time for the work-from-home COVID situation that I think was very helpful for you. Any change in that and any anticipated change if we hopefully are able to return to offices in the next quarter or two?

Michael R. Hsing -- Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. This is -- it's a great help. Again, we set it up, OK, just at the beginning of our -- just the right before pandemics that came in. All these softwares, videos everything's and also the bench, OK, the working bench, we just set that up, OK. We turn it on when the pandemic happens and it's received enormous praise from our customers. And in terms of how many new customers, that's we are really, really careful about. We increased a few thousand percent from the videos, from the virtual bench. Yeah.

William Stein -- Truist Securities -- Analyst

Great. Thank you.

Genevieve Cunningham -- Supervisor of Marketing Communications

Our next question is from Kevin Garrigan from Rosenblatt. Kevin, your line is now open.

Kevin Garrigan -- Rosenblatt -- Analyst

Hi, guys. Congrats on the quarter and thanks for taking my question. Just a quick one for me. You alluded a little to this earlier, but in your automotive segment, you've expanded into several other features of the automobile besides kind of infotainment. But can you give us -- can you talk a little bit about some of your design wins there? Are you kind of seeing more design wins and the ones you already have, how are kind of those progressing?

Michael R. Hsing -- Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Well, I think I should answer Rick Schafer's questions more precisely. The BMS is not -- we don't have a clear design wins in all those sites. And -- but to answer -- your question is we have pretty much across the board in from the body controls to ADAS and to lightings and to ADAS and also to all the sensors. And we have pretty much across the board, but our content that we expanded from $150, $140, and essentially doubled it. And -- but everything's at the beginning, while MPS' revenue so small, so we just -- but you see the net change.

Bernie Blegen -- Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. On the dollar content, I just want to go back to that because it's an important part is this is not just unit sales, but some of the new applications that we're bringing on. We go from having $10 of available content to upwards of $40 or $50 for a complete system. So, we're getting both the unit as well as the ASP expansion.

Michael R. Hsing -- Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. When I'm talking about revenue small is to compare the market opportunity. As we said, we address the $6 billion market segments. And as now all MPS' product became as a total -- that's a total state. And we only have over hundred some million dollars in revenues.

Bernie Blegen -- Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

$110 million.

Michael R. Hsing -- Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. $110 million in the most of a new product and ramping started from last year, second half of the year.

Bernie Blegen -- Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah.

Kevin Garrigan -- Rosenblatt -- Analyst

Okay. Got it. Thank you.

Genevieve Cunningham -- Supervisor of Marketing Communications

Our next question is from Ross Seymore from Deutsche Bank. Ross, your line is now open.

Ross Seymore -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Hey guys, thanks for letting me ask a couple of quick follow-ups. Just two quick ones. First, you mentioned an answering a prior question about your ability to ship to the formerly banned product or banned customer. Is that just in the comms space or is that ban some of why your computing and storage segment also went down sequentially in the fourth quarter?

Bernie Blegen -- Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Again, we don't generally talk about individual customers, since this one has gotten so much visibility. We actually have three primary lines of business with them. One is in the consumer, one is in the data center and the other is in the infrastructure.

Ross Seymore -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Infrastructure meaning comms, right?

Bernie Blegen -- Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yes.

Ross Seymore -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Got you. Okay. And is there any difference in what you're able to ship going forward out of those three things? Are you able to ship all of them, or is it just -- not the 5G stuff, but the other two?

Michael R. Hsing -- Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Well, our products there -- again, there's the building blocks, OK. I mean, particularly in the former comm business and also what's that --

Bernie Blegen -- Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Data center.

Michael R. Hsing -- Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

The data centers, OK. And the shared same product. And we don't know exactly what they -- how they divide it. But consumer device -- consumer device more in the chargers, in the -- that we know. It's a pretty much -- it continues.

Bernie Blegen -- Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah.

Ross Seymore -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Got you. And then, the last question is a little bit more housekeeping wise. Bernie, what are you thinking about tax rate for 2021?

Bernie Blegen -- Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. So, on a non-GAAP basis, we've historically used 7.5% and now we've moved to 10%, which represents that there's certain stock comp that is not as a deductible as it was in prior years. And then, looking ahead, we're not going to try to out guess what the Biden administration is going to do. But I think that we need to be sensitive to the fact that there may be increases both in the domestic rate as well as a higher tax rate on any international profits.

Michael R. Hsing -- Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. We don't know at this point.

Ross Seymore -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Got it. Thanks guys.

Genevieve Cunningham -- Supervisor of Marketing Communications

[Operator Instructions] As there are no further questions, I'd like to turn the webinar back over to Bernie.

Bernie Blegen -- Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Great. Thank you everybody. Appreciate your joining us for this conference call and look forward to talking to you again in the first quarter of 2021, which should likely be in the April timeframe. Thanks again, and have a nice day.

Duration: 46 minutes

Call participants:

Genevieve Cunningham -- Supervisor of Marketing Communications

Bernie Blegen -- Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Michael R. Hsing -- Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Matt Ramsay -- Cowen and Co. -- Analyst

Tore Svanberg -- Stifel Nicolaus & Co. -- Analyst

Ross Seymore -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Rick Schafer -- Oppenheimer & Co. -- Analyst

Alessandra Vecchi -- William Blair -- Analyst

Quinn Bolton -- Needham & Company -- Analyst

William Stein -- Truist Securities -- Analyst

Kevin Garrigan -- Rosenblatt -- Analyst

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