Company: LIDRW
Filing Date: 2025-02-24
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001437749-25-004906
Chunk: 85

Company: AEye, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-02-24
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 85
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 and allocation of overhead. Costs associated with development contracts include the direct costs and allocation of overhead costs involved in the execution of the contracts. 

       54

Operating Expenses

Research and Development

Our research and development, or R&D, efforts are focused primarily on hardware, software, and system engineering related to the design and development of our advanced lidar solutions. R&D expenses include:

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      personnel-related expenses, including salaries, benefits, bonuses, one-time termination benefits, and stock-based compensation expense; 

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      third-party engineering and contractor costs; 

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      lab equipment; 

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      engineering parts and test units; 

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      new hardware and software expenses; and 

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      allocated overhead expenses. 

R&D costs are expensed as they are incurred. With a reduced workforce and consolidated global footprint, we plan to be more focused on investments that support our strategy and product development goals in the future. We expect our R&D costs to increase slightly from 2024 as we continue to invest in the development of our Apollo product.

Sales and Marketing

Historically, our sales and marketing, or S&M, efforts were focused primarily on sales, business development, and marketing programs in pursuit of revenue contracts from potential and existing customers. S&M expenses include:

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      personnel-related expenses, including salaries, benefits, bonuses, one time termination benefits, and stock-based compensation expense; 

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      demonstration equipment; 

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      trade shows expenses, advertising, and promotions expenses for press releases and other public relations services; and 

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      allocated overhead expenses. 

We expect our S&M expenses to continue to be relatively low as we expect to leverage our Tier 1 partners to commercialize our products and manage relationships with the OEMs in the Automotive market. In the Non-Automotive market, we anticipate using the same supply chain to manufacture through global contract manufacturers, and we expect to sell our products primarily through system integrator channel partners that may integrate our lidar sensor and software as part of a larger solution for an end customer.

General and Administrative

Our general and administrative, or G&A, spending supports all business functions. G&A expenses include:

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      personnel-related costs, including salaries, benefits, bonuses, one-time termination benefits, and stock-based compensation expense for executive, finance, legal, operations, human resources, technical support, and other administrative personnel; 

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