APPLIED OPTOELECTRONICS INC

Board of Directors and Shareholders

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc.

Opinion on the financial statements

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (a Delaware corporation) and subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2023 and 2022, the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive income (loss), changes in shareholders’ equity, and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2023, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the “financial statements”). In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2023 and 2022, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2023, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (“PCAOB”), the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2023, based on criteria established in the 2013Internal Control—Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (“COSO”), and our report dated February 23, 2024 expressed an unqualified opinion.

Basis for opinion

These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

Critical audit matters

The critical audit matters communicated below are matters arising from the current period audit of the financial statements that were communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relate to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of critical audit matters does not alter in any way our opinion on the financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matters below, providing separate opinions on the critical audit matters or on the accounts or disclosures to which they relate.

Inventory Reserve

As described further in Note B to the financial statements, the Company assesses the valuation of its inventory on a periodic basis and provides a reserve based on several factors including products’ life span and management’s estimates of future demand. We identified the accounting for the inventory reserve as a critical audit matter.

The principal considerations for our determination that accounting for the inventory reserve is a critical audit matter are the judgments and estimates associated with management’s determination of inventory reserve adjustments, due to the nature of the inputs and assumptions used in the process and that the reserve is subject to estimation uncertainty and requires auditor subjectivity in evaluating reasonableness. Management developed certain percentages that determine the extent of inventory reserves based on the age and quantity of the inventory. Such percentages were determined through analysis of the inventory to determine each product's lifespan, a review of historical write-offs or scrapped inventory, and an assessment by product engineers of the possibility of obsolescence for each product.

Our audit procedures related to the accounting for the inventory reserve included the following:

Impairment of Long-Lived Assets

As described further in Note B to the financial statements, the Company accounts for impairment of long-lived assets in accordance with ASC 360, Property, Plant and Equipment (“ASC 360”). Long-lived assets consist primarily of property, plant and equipment, right-of-use assets and intangible assets. The Company evaluates the carrying value of long-lived assets when it determines a triggering event has occurred, or whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of an asset may not be recoverable. When indicators exist, recoverability of assets is measured by a comparison of the carrying value of the asset group to the estimated undiscounted future net cash flows expected to be generated by the asset group. If assets are determined not to be recoverable, the Company performs an analysis of the fair value of the asset group and will recognize an impairment loss when the fair value is less than the carrying amounts of such assets. The undiscounted future net cash flows, and any subsequent fair value determination, are based on assumptions and projections that require subjective judgments. We identified the long-lived assets impairment assessment and cash flow analysis as a critical audit matter.

The principal consideration for our determination that the long-lived assets impairment assessment and cash flow analysis represents a critical audit matter is the judgments and assumptions associated with management’s determination of the recoverability of the long-lived assets including any subsequent fair value assessments. Auditing the undiscounted future net cash flows involved a high degree of subjectivity, auditor judgment and audit effort in evaluating management’s significant assumptions primarily due to the sensitivity of the underlying significant assumptions used in the cash flow analysis. The Company used an undiscounted cash flow model to assess the recoverability of the long-lived assets, which included assumptions such as revenue growth rates, operating expenses, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (“EBITDA”) margins, capital expenditures, asset grouping, forecast period and future sales values. These significant assumptions are forward looking and could be affected by future economic and market conditions.

Our audit procedures related to the assessment of long-lived asset impairment and cash flow analysis included the following:

/s/GRANT THORNTON LLP

Houston, Texas

February 23, 2024