Sustainable financial performance

Our net revenues increased 7.2% to US$17.29 billion in 2023, driven by strong demand in Automotive and, to a lesser extent, Industrial, partially offset by lower revenues in Personal Electronics.

Gross margin was 47.9%, up from 47.3% in 2022; operating margin was 26.7%, compared to 27.5%; and net income increased 6.3% to US$4.21 billion.

We invested US$4.11 billion in net capital expenditure and increased our free cashflow by 11.3% to US$1.77 billion. Our net financial position increased to US$3.16 billion on December 31, 2023, from US$1.8 billion the previous year.

Full details of our financial results are available in our annual reports (Form 20-F and IFRS), which can be found on our website (investors.st.com).

Business dynamics

In Automotive, we again saw strong demand across all geographies, driven by increasing semiconductor pervasion and structural transformation. The year was also positively impacted by inventory replenishment and a high level of capacity reservation fees.

In 2023, we continued to execute our strategy to support car electrification. Our revenue for silicon carbide (SiC) products for the year was US$1.14 billion, a growth of more than 60% versus 2022.

In car digitalization, we saw continued design win momentum, with our latest generation of automotive microcontrollers across applications such as software-defined vehicle architectures and car electrification systems.

In Industrial, demand was still strong during 2023, especially in power and energy, factory automation and robotics, and industrial infrastructure. Towards the end of Q3 we saw a progressive weakening of demand, that accelerated during Q4. In power and energy management applications, such as EV charging stations, renewable energy systems, and factory automation, we had a broad range of design wins. We further strengthened our embedded processing solutions leadership with our STM32 microcontroller and microprocessor families and related ecosystem, introducing many new products and tools.

During the year, we had a strong focus on Edge AI. We announced and provided updates on multiple hardware products, including microcontrollers, microprocessors, and smart sensors. We unveiled the world’s first MCU–Edge AI Developer Cloud and held our first ST Edge AI Summit online, with over 2,000 attendees and participation from many customers and partners. We also made good progress with sensors for industrial applications, introducing new MEMS and optical sensors suitable for industrial robotics and embedded vision applications.

In Personal Electronics and Computer Peripherals, market demand remained weak in 2023, while Communications Equipment demand remained solid in our focus areas. In Personal Electronics, we continued to be successful with our focused approach, winning sockets in flagship devices with sensors, wireless charging, touch display controllers, and secure solutions.

In Communications Equipment, our RF communication business delivered strong results. We continued to progress well with engaged customer programs in satellite and cellular communication infrastructure. 2-63-3

Lorenzo Grandi

President, Finance, Purchasing, ERM & Resilience,
Chief Financial Officer

2023 was another year characterized by revenue growth and increased profitability, with our revenues and net income increasing 7.2% and 6.3%, respectively. The solidity and resilience of our financial results demonstrate the strength of our product and technology portfolio and the reliability of our integrated manufacturing and independent supply chain. The continued execution of our established strategy and operating model, the transformation of our manufacturing base, and our strong commitment to sustainability, enable our future growth and drive enhanced profitability. Our ultimate focus remains the creation of long-term value for our stakeholders.

Manufacturing

We continued to transform our manufacturing base in 2023 to enable our future growth and drive enhanced profitability, with the expansion of our 300mm capacity and a strong focus on wide- bandgap semiconductors.

In SiC, we continued to ramp our front-end device production at our Catania (Italy) and Singapore facilities, and we increased back-end manufacturing capacity at our sites in Morocco and China. We also started production at our new integrated SiC substrate manufacturing facility in Catania as a significant step in our SiC vertical integration strategy.

As part of our SiC strategy, we announced a joint venture with Sanan Optoelectronics for high-volume 200mm SiC device manufacturing in China. Production is expected to start in Q4 2025. These are important moves to further scale our global SiC manufacturing operations and they will be key enablers of the opportunity we see to reach above US$5 billion SiC yearly revenues by 2030.

We also advanced with our 300mm capacity expansion plans. At our Agrate site (Italy), our new 300mm wafer fab was qualified for production and capacity of slightly more than 1,000 wafers per week was installed as planned.

In June, we announced the conclusion of a three-party agreement among the State of France, GlobalFoundries and our Company, as approved by the European Commission for a new 300mm semiconductor manufacturing facility in Crolles.

All these initiatives are aligned with our sustainability strategy and our sustainable manufacturing commitment, in terms of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, air, and water quality.

EU Taxonomy

On July 12, 2020, EU Regulation 2020/852 of the European Parliament and of the Council of June 18, 2020 (EU Taxonomy Regulation) entered into force. The EU Taxonomy Regulation establishes the basis for a classification system to determine which economic activities can be considered environmentally sustainable. It is part of the EU’s efforts to achieve the objectives of the European ‘green deal’, Europe’s strategy towards climate neutrality in 2050. The EU Taxonomy Regulation is designed as a transparency tool to help companies and investors make sustainable investment decisions, with the overall purpose of steering finance towards more sustainable economic activities. Under the EU taxonomy regulation, we are required to disclose information on how and to what extent our activities qualify as environmentally sustainable, see EU taxonomy.

Extra-financial performance

Each year, socially responsible investment rating agencies, analysts, and investors evaluate our corporate behavior and performance based on a wide range of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) topics.

In 2023, we participated in the Dow Jones corporate sustainability assessment for the 25^th consecutive year, making us one of the very few companies who have participated continuously since its inception. We maintained our presence in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index World and Europe indices and maintained a strong presence in other major sustainability indices, including FTSE4Good, EuroNext VIGEO Europe 120, Eurozone 120 and Benelux 120, CAC 40 ESG, MIB ESG, ISS ESG Corporate Rating, and Vérité40. As of 2023, we received an MSCI ESG Rating of AAA⁽¹⁾. Furthermore, we have been included in the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index since 2018.

We received an A- score for CDP water security, which is in the ‘leadership’ band. This is higher than the Europe regional average of C, and higher than the electrical and electronic equipment sector average of C. We received an A- for CDP climate change, which is also in the leadership band. This is higher than the Europe regional average of B, and higher than the electrical and electronic equipment sector average of C.

These achievements acknowledge our longstanding commitment to conducting our business responsibly, and recognize our performance in many areas, ranging from business ethics, innovation, and quality to environment and labor practices. Participating in these evaluations provides an opportunity to assess our performance within a wider context, benchmark ourselves against our peers, measure our progress, and identify areas for further improvement.