실바코(SVCO) 2026년 3분기 실적 발표 콘퍼런스 콜: 사상 최대 TCAD 수주 및 견조한 4분기 가이던스

핵심 요약

• 실바코(Silvaco)는 2026 회계연도 3분기 수주액 1,930만 달러, 매출 1,630만 달러를 기록했다고 발표했다. 특정 IP 마일스톤이 해당 분기 이후로 연기되면서 매출은 가이던스 중간값을 소폭 밑돌았다.
• TCAD 수주액은 신규 티어 1(Tier 1) 고객사와의 대형 FTCO 계약 성사에 힘입어 전년 동기 대비 89% 증가한 1,030만 달러로 3분기 사상 최대치를 기록했다. IP 수주액은 믹셀(Mixel)의 견인으로 193% 증가했다.
• GAAP 기준 매출총이익률은 84%, 비GAAP(Non-GAAP) 기준 매출총이익률은 85.3%에 달했다. GAAP 기준 영업비용은 전 분기 대비 6% 감소한 1,800만 달러를 기록했으며, 2025 회계연도 3분기 대비로는 약 25% 감소했다.
• 실바코는 4분기 매출 가이던스로 2,200만 달러(±10%)를 제시했으며, 이는 중간값 기준 전 분기 대비 35%, 전년 동기 대비 21% 증가한 수준이다. 경영진은 비GAAP 기준 매출총이익률이 약 88%에 달할 것으로 예상하고 있다.
• 경영진은 2026 회계연도 연간 매출 성장률을 17%로 예상했으며, FTCO 도입과 IP 매출, 지바로 프로(Jivaro Pro)가 이끄는 EDA 수요 개선에 힘입어 2027년에는 10%대 중후반의 매출 성장을 기록할 것으로 전망했다.
• 현금 및 현금성 자산은 주로 마이크론의 1,000만 달러 규모 전환사채 발행에 힘입어 2분기 1,300만 달러에서 2,200만 달러로 증가했다. 영업현금 유출액은 2분기 550만 달러에서 80만 달러로 개선되었다.

핵심 재무 데이터

사업 및 영업 실적

FTCO 및 TCAD

영업 부문에서 가장 주목할 만한 성과는 반도체 관련 주요 티어 1 고객사와의 신규 FTCO 계약 체결이었다. 경영진은 해당 고객사가 통상적인 수준보다 큰 초기 규모로 플랫폼을 도입했으며, 이는 TCAD 수주액을 1,030만 달러로 끌어올리는 데 기여했다고 밝혔다.

실바코는 이번 계약이 향후 정기적인 계약 갱신 및 확장 기회로 이어질 것으로 기대하고 있다. 경영진은 유사한 신규 수주 시점이 불규칙할 수는 있으나, 장기적으로 해당 고객사가 자사 FTCO 사업 내에서 마이크론과 맞먹거나 그보다 큰 고객사로 자리 잡을 수 있다고 언급했다.

회사는 또한 대형 기술 기업 두 곳에서 에이전틱 AI(Agentic AI) 제품군을 시험 적용하고 있다. 경영진은 이러한 도구를 통해 전문적인 TCAD 지식이 없는 사용자도 FTCO를 활용할 수 있게 됨으로써 워크플로 사용량과 라이선스 수요가 확대될 수 있을 것으로 보고 있다. 실바코는 특정 다중물리 솔버를 지원하고 거대언어모델(LLM)과 자사 제품 간의 연계를 긴밀히 하기 위해 엔비디아(NVIDIA) 파트너십을 통한 사내 GPU 및 AI 인프라를 구축하고 있다.

EDA 및 지바로 프로

지바로 프로는 4곳의 티어 1 고객사가 RC 기생 성분 저감 제품을 도입하면서 분기 사상 최대 수주액을 기록했다. 경영진은 복잡한 모델을 처리하고 출시 기간을 단축하며 SPICE 관련 비용을 최대 50%까지 절감할 수 있는 역량이 이러한 수요를 견인했다고 설명했다.

EDA 부문은 당초 대체로 정체될 것으로 예상되었으나, 경영진은 현재 지바로 프로를 필두로 개선세가 나타나고 있다고 보고 있다. 지바로 프로는 이번 신규 티어 1 FTCO 고객사와의 계약에도 포함되어 잠재적인 교차 판매 기회를 보여주었다.

반도체 IP

실바코는 자사 IP 사업이 2025 회계연도 3분기 기준 직전 4개 분기 동안 기록한 550만 달러에 비해 크게 늘어난 약 2,000만 달러의 2026 회계연도 매출을 달성할 궤도에 올랐다고 밝혔다. IP 파이프라인은 전년 대비 1.8배 증가했다.

해당 분기 동안 실바코는 믹셀 MIPI PHY 제품이 적용된 첫 자체 개발 컨트롤러를 판매했으며, 실제 구동 가능한 2나노미터 MIPI C-PHY/D-PHY 콤보 솔루션을 공급했다. 경영진은 비교적 소규모 팀으로 현재의 파이프라인 성장을 이끌어낸 만큼 향후 IP 영업 역량을 확대할 계획이다.

비용 구조 및 AI 생산성

GAAP 기준 영업비용은 2025 회계연도 3분기 대비 2026 회계연도 3분기에 약 25% 감소했다. 실바코는 여러 지원 부서의 규모를 축소하는 한편, AI 제조 및 AI 설계 제품 팀을 중심으로 조직을 재편했다.

경영진에 따르면 사내에 구축된 AI 도구는 프로토타이핑 작업을 최대 30배, 소스코드 분석을 최대 11배, 스크립팅을 최대 10배, 디버깅을 최대 5배 가속화하는 등 주요 워크플로의 속도를 크게 높였다.

경영진 가이던스

매출 가이던스 중간값 기준 4분기 매출은 전 분기 대비 35%, 전년 동기 대비 21% 증가할 전망이다. 경영진은 해당 분기 현재 시점까지 확보된 매출이 수년 만에 최고 수준을 기록했다고 밝혔다.

실바코는 2026 회계연도 전체 매출 성장률을 17%로 예상하며, 비GAAP 기준으로 연간 흑자를 달성할 것으로 기대하고 있다. 2027년에는 FTCO, IP 및 주요 EDA 제품군에 힘입어 10%대 중후반의 매출 성장을 기록할 것으로 전망했다.

2027년 영업비용 증가율은 매출 성장률보다 낮을 것으로 예상된다. 크리스 제갈리(Chris Zegarelli) 최고재무책임자(CFO)는 지속적인 비용 지출 규율을 강조하면서, 영업비용 증가율을 매출 성장률의 약 2분의 1에서 3분의 1 수준으로 설정하는 것이 합리적인 출발점이라는 데 동의했다.

리스크 및 주목할 점

• IP 매출은 고객사 및 계약별 마일스톤에 따라 달라질 수 있다. 일정 변동으로 인해 매출 인식이 3분기에서 4분기로 넘어가면서 이번 분기 영업손실의 원인으로 작용했다.
• 3분기 매출총이익률은 매출이 기대에 미치지 못하면서 전 분기 대비 하락했다. 4분기에 약 88%로 회복될 것이라는 전망은 강력한 전 분기 대비 매출 성장에 달려 있다.
• 4분기 비GAAP 기준 영업비용은 성과급 보상, 수수료 및 3분기에서 이연된 IT 마일스톤 관련 비용으로 인해 증가할 것으로 예상된다.
• 경영진은 향후 1~2년에 걸쳐 대형 신규 계약이 추가될 것으로 기대하고 있으나, 신규 FTCO 고객 확보 주기는 불규칙할 수 있다.
• 현금 증가는 주로 마이크론의 1,000만 달러 규모 전환사채 발행에 따른 것이며, 3분기 영업활동에서는 여전히 80만 달러의 현금이 유출되었다.

애널리스트 질의응답(Q&A) 핵심 내용

애널리스트들은 2027년 예상 성장의 구성 요소에 주목했다. 경영진은 TCAD와 IP를 가장 강력한 성장 동인으로 꼽았으며, IP는 상대적으로 작은 매출 기반으로 인해 백분율 기준 성장 속도가 더 빠를 가능성이 있다고 설명했다. 아울러 EDA 역시 주로 지바로 프로를 통해 당초 예상보다 더 나은 모멘텀을 보이고 있다.

신규 FTCO 고객사와 관련해 경영진은 즉각적인 계약 체결이 아닌 장기간의 평가가 수반된 영업 주기였다고 설명했다. 성공적인 테스트 결과 초기 예상 규모보다 계약이 대폭 확대되었다. 실바코는 추가 라이선스, 계약 갱신 규모 확대, EDA 제품군으로의 교차 판매 등을 통해 추가 성장이 가능할 것으로 기대하고 있다.

경영진은 또한 3분기 IP 마일스톤 지연이 단순 시점 차이에 따른 것이라고 밝혔다. 이러한 지연이 없었다면 3분기 실적이 손익분기점에 근접하거나 흑자를 기록했을 것이라고 덧붙였다. 4분기 매출 전망치가 높아짐에 따라 비용 증가에도 불구하고 더 강력한 영업 레버리지 효과가 발생할 것으로 예상된다.

실적 발표 콘퍼런스콜 전문

전체 실적 발표 컨퍼런스 콜 녹취록

경영진 발표

Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to Silvaco's Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2026 Conference Call. Please note that this event is being recorded. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the conference over to Chris Zegarelli, Silvaco's CFO. Please proceed.

Chris Zegarelli

Thank you. Joining me on the call today is Wally Rhines, Silvaco's CEO and Director. As a reminder, a press release highlighting the company's results, along with supplemental financial results are available on the company's IR site at investors.silvaco.com. An archived replay of the call will be available on this website for a limited time after the call. Please note that during this call, management will be making remarks regarding future events and the future financial performance of the company.

These remarks constitute forward-looking statements for the purposes of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. It is important to also note that the company undertakes no obligation to update such statements, except as required by law.

The company cautions you to consider risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements contained in today's press release and on this conference call. The Risk Factors section in Silvaco's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended 12/31/2025, and the most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q provide descriptions of these risks. We will also discuss non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measures are in today's press release. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to our CEO, Wally Rhines. Wally?

Walden Rhines

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us. When I stepped into the CEO role with Silvaco just over one year ago, I said it would take about a year to see the results of our strategic transformation and restructuring initiatives. One year later, the facts are clear: a record Q3 for TCAD bookings, a record quarter for Jivaro Pro bookings, meaningfully reduced operating expenses, record revenue guided for Q4 and an outlook that takes us to mid- to high teens revenue growth in 2026 and 2027.

Now in Q3, we delivered $19.3 million in bookings, driven by FTCO and Jivaro. On the FTCO side, we secured a major new Tier 1 customer in the quarter. This win propelled TCAD bookings to a Q3 record of $10.3 million, up 89% year-on-year. We won the business on the strength of our differentiated multiphysics solutions embedded in our FTCO workflow. This strategic win has the potential to broaden in 2027 as we ramp our Agentic offerings, which are already at beta sites. Under the new leadership of Dave Dutton in sales, this is a model we intend to replicate across our sales regions in 2027.

This win also included multiple licenses for Jivaro Pro, our RC parasitic reduction solution. In fact, we won 4 Tier 1 customers with Jivaro Pro in the quarter, making Q3 a record for Jivaro Pro bookings. These customers chose Jivaro Pro for its ability to run complex models, reduce time to market by days or weeks and reduce SPICE spend by as much as 50%, potentially saving millions.

Jivaro Pro's compelling value proposition, coupled with strong responses from large customers gives us confidence that Jivaro Pro can deliver solid growth in 2027 and beyond. We believe that our Q4 guidance is a clear indication that this momentum is real. Our guidance calls for record quarterly revenue of $22 million at the midpoint, up 35% sequentially and 21% year-over-year.

Our guidance implies full year 2026 revenue growth of 17%. 2026 expected results steadily improved during the year, driven by continued adoption of v, now at another Tier 1 customer and also by growth in EDA, particularly Jivaro Pro and strength in IP driven by Mixel MIPI. Looking forward, we now expect to deliver similar top line growth in 2027. We'll keep driving FTCO adoption, which we believe will accelerate with our upcoming Agentic offerings, especially with larger customers.

We see IP growth broadening outside of MIPI. We also see promise in certain EDA tools like Jivaro Pro contributing to growth.

We expect to deliver mid- to high teens revenue growth on a leaner cost base, the combination of which should enable us to expand profitability as we grow. I'd like to highlight key drivers of these operational and financial improvements.

Well, one, our total GAAP OpEx is down almost 25% from Q3 '25 to Q3 '26, while revenue is now expected to grow 17% in 2026. We're doing more with a smaller, more focused team.

Two, FTCO momentum continues to build. We're winning with bigger customers and bundling more functionality in single sales.

Three, we recently streamlined operations around two focused product teams, AI manufacturing and AI design. Grouping the right products under the right leadership is yielding benefits in planning, execution and growth.

Number four, our support functions are now more focused with some groups at about half the size they were when I joined the company. We strengthened the leadership team, most recently with the addition of our former CEO, David Dutton to lead the sales operations.

Stronger leadership is yielding tangible results. And number six, IP momentum continues to build. From a group that generated $5.5 million in revenue in the four quarters ending Q3 '25, we're now on track to grow IP revenue this year to almost $20 million. We also have a pipeline that is 1.8x larger today than it was one year ago. We expect IP to continue delivering strong growth in 2027.

These changes are foundational, which makes me believe that we'll continue to build on improvements made over the last year to drive growth and enhance profitability. We're also on stronger financial footing now than we were one year ago. As Chris will discuss later in the call, we saw a significant improvement in cash used in operations in Q3 and have the most unrestricted cash on the balance sheet since Q2 of last year.

We're gaining operational flexibility right when the business is accelerating. I'll now give you an update across our key product lines. In FTCO, we see evidence of broadening customer interest. As customers renew their TCAD licenses, we see them increasingly adding our FTCO workflow.

That workflow includes our core multiphysics solvers, analytics, design of experiments and other features. As our customers experience the power of FTCO, which accelerates time to yield and time to market, we see them renew earlier and increasing the number of licenses. This trend both increases our renewal rates and the value of those renewals. Looking forward, we expect this to be a growth driver for years to come.

Silvaco is expanding its market presence with invited speaker engagements at Semiconductor India and Semiconductor West as well as ICCAD in Q4 on the growing importance of Agentic AI. This topic is important to us as we expect our Agentic AI solutions to strengthen FTCO adoption by making it easier for non-TCAD experts to use our FTCO workflow, thereby increasing usage and licenses.

We believe that Agentic AI will not replace physics-based simulation, but it will multiply the need for it. An agent exploring hundreds of process variations still needs a calibrated physicsgrounded model to be right, and that means more FTCO usage and more licenses.

Two of the largest technology companies are already evaluating our Agentic offerings at beta sites. At SEMICON India, we signed multiple strategic memorandum of understanding to expand access to our tools across India's design and research ecosystem. We're also advancing similar partnerships with more universities and institutions, and we're also engaged with leading Indian foundry and design companies on process enablement.

We expect these engagements to contribute to growth in the quarters and years ahead. Building on our NVIDIA partnership announced today, we are also cost effectively building out our internal GPU and AI infrastructure. That infrastructure will set the foundation for selected multiphysics solvers to run on GPUs, and it will broaden our Agentic offerings by building tight interactions between large language models and our solutions.

Turning to IP. We're continuing to expand our MIFI portfolio. In the quarter, we sold our first internally developed controller in combination with our industry-leading MIFI PHYs. We also delivered a fully functional two-nanometer MIPI C-PHY/D-PHY combo solution. These developments are significant because we now offer a complete MIFI solution, integrating high-speed MIPI PHYs and MIPI CSI/DSI controllers to address customer imaging and display requirements.

We also continue to see measurable efficiencies from our cost-effective deployment of AI tools. We've seen examples of prototyping accelerating up to 30x, source code analysis up to 11x, scripting up to 10x and debugging up to 5x. We see the team generating higher quality code more quickly, which we believe will contribute to top line acceleration. We see AI adoption as a clear accelerant for FTCO usage among our customer set. The easier it is for customers to use our FTCO and TCAD solutions, the more benefit they'll realize.

In conclusion, we believe we are seeing a real inflection in the business as evidenced in our expanding pipeline, FTCO adoption with larger customers, our strong expected growth in Q4 and strong mid- to high teens growth expected again in 2027. I want to thank the team for a year of positive transition for Silvaco. And now I'd like to turn the call over to Chris, who will discuss our financial results and outlook in more detail. Chris?

Chris Zegarelli

Thanks, Wally. Good afternoon, everyone. In Q3, we secured $19.3 million in bookings above the midpoint of guidance, which is our strongest quarterly bookings so far this year. TCAD grew 89% year-over-year to a new Q3 record of $10.3 million, driven by a new FTCO win with a significant Tier 1 customer. IP bookings grew 193% year-over-year, driven by Mixel. We delivered $16.3 million in revenue in the quarter, slightly below the midpoint of the guided range, driven by timing as certain IP milestones moved out of the quarter.

GAAP gross margin in Q3 was 84% and non-GAAP gross margin was 85.3%, down sequentially due to lower-than-expected revenue. GAAP and non-GAAP gross margin are up roughly 6 and 5 full percentage points year-over-year, respectively. We believe GAAP and non-GAAP gross margins will return to around 88% in Q4, given expected strong sequential revenue growth.

In the quarter, GAAP operating expenses were down 6% sequentially to $18 million. Non-GAAP operating expenses were sequentially up slightly to $14.9 million. Operating expenses came in slightly above the midpoint of the guided range, primarily due to a higher-than-expected incentive accrual given our strong guidance. GAAP operating loss of $4.3 million and non-GAAP operating loss of $1 million were both below expectations, primarily due to softer-than-expected revenue.

GAAP net loss in the quarter was $4.6 million and GAAP EPS was a $0.14 loss. Non-GAAP net loss in the quarter was $1.3 million and non-GAAP EPS was a $0.04 loss.

Next, turning to the balance sheet and cash flow. Cash and cash equivalents at quarter end were $22 million, up from $13 million in Q2, driven by the $10 million Micron convertible note. Q3 marks the third consecutive quarter of growth in unrestricted cash and the highest level of unrestricted cash on the balance sheet since Q2 of last year.

Net cash used in operating activities in Q3 was $0.8 million, our best result since the IPO and a sharp improvement from $5.5 million used in Q2 and $11 million used in Q1. Looking forward, we expect this momentum to continue.

Now turning to guidance. For Q4 2026, we expect bookings of $21 million, plus or minus 10%, revenue of $22 million, plus or minus 10%, non-GAAP gross margin around 88%, non-GAAP operating expenses of $16 million, plus or minus 5%.

We already see indications that Q4 will be strong. For example, revenue booked so far this quarter is already at a multiyear high for this point in the quarter. Looking into 2027, we expect to deliver mid- to high teens revenue growth. Our confidence is driven by our growing pipeline, strong early customer feedback on our Agentic offerings, continued proliferation of FTCO and strong growth in the sale of our IP products. With that, operator, we will now take questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions]

Our first question comes from the line of Craig Ellis of B. Riley Securities.

질의응답

Craig Ellis

Congratulations on the booking strength and the turnaround momentum guys. Wally, I wanted to start with you. Encouraging to hear that as you look at '27, it feels like the business could grow mid- to high teens. Can you just help us understand the relative strength of the three businesses and what you see right now, TCAD, IP and the other businesses, EDA?

Walden Rhines

Yes. So the outlook for 2027, as you say, is looking very good, mid- to high digits for double digits for revenue growth. And it's coming strongly from the core business in TCAD. There's a lot of underlying strength, new customers, FTCO growing. It's also helped along by the continuing IP business. And the surprise to us really is that EDA, which we expect it to be really pretty flat, is actually improving, driven by products like Jivaro Pro.

Craig Ellis

A follow-up there before I ask one to Chris. What do you think is really driving the Jivaro Pro. strength because that was really a call out in the quarter in terms of its booking momentum.

Walden Rhines

Yes. It's been a real, I guess, momentum builder during the quarter. The sales organization has just found some very significant customers, Tier 1 kinds of semiconductor companies who have realized the value. So they've gotten very excited. Dave Dutton, our new sales manager, has put emphasis behind it. We've provided some support, and it started to spread. It's one of these things that goes viral. A few salespeople start realizing success. Salespeople like to generate commissions. And so all of a sudden, customers that we thought would be small users are becoming bigger users and new customers. who we didn't expect to adopt as quickly are now doing so. So it's a very pleasant surprise.

Craig Ellis

Great to hear. And then, Chris, the follow-up for you is on operating expense. So you've done a really good job bringing operating expense down. I see that they're up in the fourth quarter. Is that performance-based comp on the real strong revenue growth? Or what's happening there? And in a year like '27 where revenues grow mid- to high teens, what should we expect for operating expense?

Chris Zegarelli

Great question. Craig, thanks so much. So what's driving the sequential growth in OpEx, I think you're exactly right. It's incentive and commission-related items in Q4 based on strength in the underlying business. That's a piece of it. Another piece is we had some IT milestones pushed out of Q3 into Q4, and they do carry some OpEx with them. So the timing element is contributing to the increase in Q4 as well.

As we look at 2027, Craig, you're spot on. We want to make sure we're driving leverage in the model. So while revenue is looking like it will grow mid- to high teens, as we said, you can expect much lower year-on-year growth in OpEx overall so that we're delivering leverage to the bottom line as we grow. So we're going to stay diligent on the spending items. It does grow year-on-year, but not nearly as much as revenue does.

Craig Ellis

So 1/2 to 1/3 of revenue growth, is that a reasonable starting point?

Chris Zegarelli

Yes, that's reasonable, Craig.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Kevin Garrigan of Jefferies.

Kevin Garrigan

Wally and Chris, let me echo my congrats. On the FTCO customer, can you just give us a sense of which semiconductor vertical the customer is in and help us size the engagement? How does it kind of compare to the size of your other FTCO customer?

Walden Rhines

So this is sort of a change. I know you've heard us in the past say, well, customers come on slowly and they buy a little initially and then it grows. This is one. It's a semiconductor-related company, a true Tier 1, very large company, but it's one that is taking a big dive, and they are -- as you saw, the bookings were substantial, bookings of $10.3 million and there will be revenue to follow there. So they will be a significant user. Not all of our FTCO customers ramp that quickly, but this one is.

Kevin Garrigan

Okay. Perfect. And then, Chris, one for you. So you said Q3 revenue came in below the midpoint because something got pushed from Q3 into Q4. Can you just quantify for us how much revenue was pushed from Q3 into Q4 and what segment that was in? And then if that didn't happen, would Q3 have been profitable?

Chris Zegarelli

Good question. The pushouts were on the IP side. There are some engagements on the IP front that are milestone driven. And when the milestone pushes out, the associated revenue with that milestone pushes out as well. If we didn't see those push out, it would have been very close to profitable or breakeven on the quarter. What you're going to see in Q4 is a pretty big strong growth in operating income driven by the move of revenue up to $22 million. Even with the increase in OpEx, as we talked about, you'll see good leverage there. We should be profitable on the year from a non-GAAP perspective, which is encouraging as well and looking at more leverage going into 2027 as well, driven by top line growth and continued tight management of operating expenses.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Krish Sankar of TD Cowen.

Robert Mertens

This is Robert Mertens on for Krish. I guess just going to one of the initial questions in terms of the outlook for next year. It sounds like EDA could be up a little bit. And then just in terms of the scale of the business, TCAD would maybe be the larger driver there. But similar to calendar year '26, would you still expect SIP to be the fastest grower of those three divisions? Or is '26 really helped by the compares against the prior year?

Walden Rhines

Well, both of them are good growers. Relatively -- I'm not sure, actually, Chris, do you have an estimate on that?

Chris Zegarelli

Well, I mean the short answer is we see there's good growth potential in both, Wally. I mean those are the kind of the two of the strongest growth elements going into next year. I mean you heard the momentum on the FTCO side, which is encouraging and should continue. But we're also looking at good continued growth on the IP front. as Wally pointed out in his prepared remarks, that was a business that was running mid-single digits a year annualized about a year ago, looking at getting to 20% this year. And I can tell you the team is not satisfied even getting to 20%. They are looking at driving more growth up into the right. It has a lower base than TCAD does, so maybe grows a little faster from a percentage perspective, but both have a really good strong outlook, which is contributing to getting us into that mid- to higher teens growth rate next year.

Robert Mertens

Great. That's helpful. And then just one more, if I may. Just on the FTCO side for next year, is there any way to sort of triangulate where the growth is coming from? Would you expect just expansion at your core Micron business being sort of the major driver there? Is it actually ramping with the new customers that you've talked about in the last few quarters?

Walden Rhines

Well, I think our emphasis is new customers. We're working on a number of them. As you mentioned, Micron has been a good customer and has been in deployment and has lots of licenses. But really, the big opportunity, I think, comes from new ones like the one we showed this quarter, which is -- has the potential to be as big or bigger than Micron. I think they're more like that. And I think we'll see them coming in maybe a little irregularly, but steadily over the next year or two years.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Christian Schwab of Craig-Hallum.

Unknown Analyst

This is Ben Taxdahl on for Christian here. Great work, guys. Great guide. You guys are always kind of calling for Q4 to be a record and double-digit next year. So this Q4 guide now seems even higher than expectations in '27. So is this all mainly developments in between this earnings call or last earnings call? Or was this kind of always the expectation?

Walden Rhines

Well, we indicated in the last earnings call that we thought that the back half of the year was going to be strong. What we have now is we're halfway into the fourth quarter. As Chris noted earlier, the amount already booked is substantially above trend, and we have a funnel we can track where we know basically the kinds of numbers customers are interested in and where the range is and what's likely to go up and where there's any risk. So greater visibility since the last call, but we've had an indication that Q4 was going to be record revenue for a number of weeks now, and I think we feel stronger than ever.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Blair Abernethy of Rosenblatt Securities.

Blair Abernethy

Nice quarter. Just a couple of things for me. Just to clarify, Chris, the milestones that weren't met for these IP deals that weren't able to be recognized in Q3, were those customers that didn't make the milestones? It wasn't something within your control. Is that the right way to look at it?

Chris Zegarelli

Yes, that's fair, Blair. I mean a lot of these milestones are deal specific. But no, it wasn't -- it just kind of where the milestones are landing is what I would say, nothing more than that.

Blair Abernethy

Right. Okay. Okay. And the RPO at the end of the quarter is $53 million? Is that the right number?

Chris Zegarelli

Yes. And then you'll find that in the supplemental materials online. Go ahead, sir.

Blair Abernethy

Yes. And that the growth so it's pretty good sequential growth. Is that what was driving that?

Chris Zegarelli

Well, I think it's timing and mix. I mean you saw we put up good bookings in Q3, but revenue was a little below expectations. And so you're seeing a very strong revenue view into Q4. And so some of that is just a timing issue being recognized in Q4. For example, that should bring it down to more historical ranges.

Blair Abernethy

Okay. Great. And then just, Wally, on the FTCO -- so this new Tier 1 customer that has signed on with you, maybe you could just give us some sense of how this came about? Is this something that's happened rather rapidly? Or just trying to get a sense of the selling cycles. And I guess this is, what, your fifth FTCO customer. Is that right?

Walden Rhines

Yes, but we have disclosed since I moved into the position. I think we had Micron before that, maybe some minor ones. This one is not just a bluebird overnight. We've been working on this for a while. But the advantage in this case is we're able to run a lot of tests and show what could be achieved. And so the actual amount increased substantially from where it started. If I just went back a quarter or two, we would not have expected this level of magnitude. And this is a customer, it's among the 10 largest companies in the world or in the U.S. So it's not a trivial customer. They have the ability to pay. They have the desire to achieve exceptional results. And it's just -- the evaluation went very, very well.

Blair Abernethy

And from your sense, a customer such as this, is this a recurring kind of revenue base that's being -- that can be built up here over the next few years and like there's opportunity to expand from where you start out at?

Walden Rhines

Yes, absolutely. So it comes in two forms. One is as they start doing more and more, potentially they require more licenses. And then every time they do a renewal, they typically grow the total commitment for the next period of time. So yes, I look for these to continuously grow over time. And as the results become more and more beneficial for them, then I think the enthusiasm grows and the chance to spread to other products, in this case, even spread into our EDA products at this customer. So the engagement alone creates relationships that allow us to introduce customers to other capabilities that they might not have thought of before.

Blair Abernethy

Okay. Great. And then just if I can, on the IT side, you've had obviously great traction there. This year, your bookings have been up substantially over last year, particularly with Mixel. But just wondering, how are you thinking about the sales team, the go-to-market effort you're putting forward there? Is that something you'll be expanding next year? Just want to get a sense of how you're feeling about the opportunity set in IP.

Walden Rhines

Yes, we will indeed. It's really remarkable what's been achieved in terms of the funnel growth with a very minimal sales force. Actually just a few people generating most of the sales. And that needs to be gets corrected or expanded upon, and this is one of the priorities that Dave Dutton has. He's bringing in sort of making changes in the sales force to get better capabilities so we can interact with the customers more directly and become aware of more deals.

I think because of our small size, there are a lot of opportunities we just hadn't seen before. And then you have, in addition, the reputation of Mixel is pretty remarkable. I don't know if you caught that a two-nanometer design is pretty much the leading edge. And you start doing those, people start paying attention. So I think Mixel has a lot of momentum and you put some sales behind it, I think it can grow very, very successfully.

Operator

I'm showing no further questions at this time. Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.