Quarterlytics / Technology / Computer Hardware / Cray

Cray

cray · NASDAQ Technology
Claim this profile
Ticker cray
Exchange NASDAQ
Sector Technology
Industry Computer Hardware
Employees 501-1000
← All annual reports
FY2017 Annual Report · Cray
Sign in to download
Loading PDF…
Fellow Shareholders, 

Cray customers truly do change the world. Every year it’s an honor to partner with these visionaries and witness how 
they  combine  computation  and  creativity  to  produce  transformative  work.  You’ll  find  a  few  examples  of  these  amazing 
scientific  and  engineering  endeavors,  and  the  researchers  behind  them,  on  this  report’s  inside  front  cover.  The  discoveries 
represented range from treating bone fractures to capturing energy from ocean waves to designing jet engines to finding cures 
for memory-related diseases. What binds these diverse fields together is the scope of their questions. They’re continually asking 
“what  if”  because  with  Cray  systems  their  problem-solving  potential  is  expanded.  We’re  proud  to  help  our  customers  keep 
asking  the  next,  bigger  question.  In  turn,  their  vision  pushes  us  to  keep  asking  bigger  questions  of  ourselves  as  we  work  to 
support our customers’ need for high-performance technologies. 

As  we  reflect  on  2017,  our  story  for  the  year  has  two  distinct  narratives.  The  first  is  about  continued  difficult 
conditions in our core market. This drove weaker revenue for the year and produced correspondingly disappointing financial 
results — something we are working hard to improve upon in the coming years. We began seeing signs of a slow-down in the 
high-end  of  supercomputing  in  2016  as  new  sales  opportunities  slowed  compared  to  the  previous  years.  That  slow-down 
continued into 2017, impacting each of our product groups as well as most of our target geographies. But our story is primed 
for a rebound. While this market downturn has been longer and more pronounced than we’ve seen in previous cycles, the long-
term demand drivers for our technology and solutions remain intact, our business is well positioned for growth, and we believe 
the market will rally over the next couple of years.      

Our competitive position in the market remains strong, as evidenced by a few statistics. We hold over a quarter of the 
top  end of  the  Top500  list,  an  industry  list of  most  of  the  fastest  systems  in  the world,  with 29  systems  in  the  top 100.  Our 
leadership in the worldwide weather forecasting and climate research market continues to expand — more than 75 percent of 
the  world’s  global  modeling  centers  now  run  on  Cray  systems.  More  than  12  percent  of  our  revenue  in  2017  came  from 
commercial customers, representing a significant increase over 2016 on a percentage basis. We also completed several large 
installations throughout the year and won significant awards across all our product lines and geographies. 

The  second  narrative  is  about  growth  and  the  opportunity  to  drive  higher  revenue  in  the  coming  years.  We  are 
beginning to see a pickup of market activity, a welcome sign after the last couple of years. Customer plans are beginning to 
firm,  funding  is  coming  together,  and  new  opportunities  are  moving  through  their  acquisition  processes.  For  Cray,  our 
differentiated technology leads our efforts to respond here, empowering innovative products and services for each of our target 
markets, and we remain focused on growing faster than the market rate in each of them.   

Over  the  course  of  the  year,  we  also  continued  to  expand  in  our  three  strategic  growth  areas  —  big  data  analytics, 
high-performance storage, and artificial intelligence (AI). In fact, some of our most exciting wins in 2017 were in these areas. 
For  example,  Samsung’s  Strategy  and  Innovation  Center  chose  our  CS-Storm  for  use  in  its  AI  research,  the  Alan  Turing 
Institute, the UK’s national institute for data science, selected the Urika-GX for its analytics work, and in storage our list  of 
U.S. and international government customers continues to grow.  

One of our most significant achievements of 2017 was the strategic partnership we formed with Seagate, where we 
brought on Seagate’s ClusterStor storage business and combined it with our own efforts. We completed the transaction in the 
third quarter and have made excellent progress on the integration. Given the phenomenal growth of data, storage is becoming 
more  important  in  our  market  and  the  addition  of  the  ClusterStor  product  line  means  we  can  offer  a  more  complete  line  of 
storage solutions to our customers.  

Turning to our other products, leadership at the high-end of the market continues to drive us. What’s evolving is how 
our customers are using supercomputing. Whereas several years ago their focus may have been entirely on solving the largest 
scientific problems as quickly as possible, the kinds of questions our customers are now asking are getting broader. Along with 
simulation and modeling, they’re now weaving in big data, machine learning, and deep learning algorithms. These questions 
are all converging into common problems and workflows that need an integrated platform and our products and roadmap are 
well positioned to respond to these growing demands.   

For the supercomputing market, the Cray XC line of supercomputers and the Cray CS line of highly flexible clusters 
continue to lead the market for performance, efficiency, and scalability. What makes them so effective at traditional workloads 
—  the  combination  of  diverse  processing  technologies,  fast  system  interconnects,  and  Cray  software  expertise  in  a  unified 

architecture — is also what makes them able to handle the new demands of these converged workloads. Our contract wins this 
year provide ample evidence. The GW4 Alliance and the UK Met Office selected us to deliver a system for the unique purpose 
of  evaluating  multiple  advanced  architectures  and  comparing  different  CPUs  and  GPUs  against  different  applications.  We 
delivered both XC and CS systems to New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research for a broad range 
of uses — weather and climate research, numerical weather prediction, data analytics, and general scientific research.  

As we discuss converging workloads, AI warrants its own focus. It already commands a great deal of media attention 
and we believe its importance will continue to grow. In 2017, we launched the Cray Urika-XC analytics software suite which 
brings graph analytics, deep learning, and big data analytics tools to the XC series of supercomputers. What that means is users 
have the critical ability to run analytics and AI workloads alongside scientific modeling and simulations — and it points again 
to the convergence of HPC and data-intensive workloads. In response to the growth in AI, we also launched our Cray Accel AI 
fast start solutions. These are configurations of our Cray CS-Storm supercomputer coupled with software specifically meant to 
jumpstart our customer’s efforts to scale up machine and deep learning. Several notable wins in 2017 underscore that customers 
have confidence in our technology leadership. For example, leading energy, manufacturing, and financial services companies 
chose CS-Storm systems for their deep learning work as did multiple government customers.  

We  are  also  expanding  our  go-to-market  strategies  as  we  explore  new  ways  to  deliver  the  value  of  a  Cray 
supercomputer  and  drive  growth.  Several  partnerships  we  formed  in  2017  highlight  these  efforts.  Partnerships  with  cloud 
computing  providers  Microsoft  Azure  and  Markley  are  improving  customer  access  to  Cray  technology.  Through  Microsoft, 
customers can access dedicated, customized, and fully managed Cray systems in an Azure datacenter. This is a unique offering 
in the public cloud today. With Markley, our supercomputing technologies are also available as a hosted offering. Additional 
efforts  include  agreements  with  solution  providers,  such  as  Mark  III  Systems,  to  deliver  solutions  that  leverage  our  product 
portfolio, and a partnership with big data company Phizzle on a data aggregation solution. 

Turning  to  corporate  transitions, we were pleased  to welcome  Catriona  Fallon  to our board of directors.  She brings 
many years of technology industry leadership experience to Cray, having held executive-level positions with companies such as 
Itron, Silver Springs Networks, Cognizant, HP, and Marin Software. Ms. Fallon replaces Marty Homlish who stepped down 
due to the growing demands for his time from his new company. 

As we turn to 2018 and beyond, our focus remains the same — to win new business and expand our presence in the 
big data and commercial markets. The high-end supercomputing market looks to be on track to begin to rebound in 2018, and 
there are long-term, large, exascale-level opportunities in the coming years. Our supercomputing expertise, our focus on how 
workloads are changing and converging, the highly-differentiated solutions we’ve developed, the expanded delivery methods 
we’re  establishing  for  our  technologies,  and  the  R&D  investment  we  continue  to  make  in  developing  highly  adaptable  and 
scalable solutions puts us in an excellent position to capitalize on the coming growth opportunities. 

On behalf of our board of directors and management, I would like to thank all of our customers, partners, employees, 

and shareholders for your continued support of Cray. 

Sincerely, 

Peter J. Ungaro 
President and Chief Executive Officer  

 
UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION 
Washington, D.C. 20549 
________________ 
FORM 10-K
_________________ 

(cid:59)(cid:3) ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES 

EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 

For the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2017  

(cid:133)(cid:3) TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES 

EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 

For the Transition Period From                      to                     . 
Commission File Number: 000-26820 

CRAY INC.

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter) 

Washington 
(State or Other Jurisdiction of 
Incorporation or Organization) 

901 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1000 
Seattle, Washington 
(Address of Principal Executive Offices) 

93-0962605 
(I.R.S. Employer 
Identification No.) 

98164 
(Zip Code) 

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: 
(206) 701-2000 
Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act: 

Title of Each Class 

Name of Each Exchange on Which Registered 

Common Stock, $.01 par value 

Nasdaq Stock Market LLC 

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: NONE 

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act: 
Yes  (cid:59)        No  (cid:133)
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act:    Yes  (cid:133)        No  (cid:59)
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange 
Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been 
subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days:    Yes  (cid:59)(cid:3)(cid:3)No (cid:133)

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive 
Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months 
(or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).    Yes  (cid:59)        No  (cid:133)

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K (§ 229.405 of this chapter) is not contained 
herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in 
Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.    (cid:133)

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting 
company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and 
“emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. 

Large accelerated filer  (cid:58)(cid:3)

Non-accelerated filer  (cid:133)  (Do not check if a smaller reporting company)(cid:3)

Accelerated filer 

(cid:133)

Smaller reporting company  (cid:133)

Emerging growth company  (cid:133)

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying 

with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act (cid:133)

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act).    Yes  (cid:133)        No  (cid:59)
The  aggregate  market  value  of  the  Common  Stock  held  by  non-affiliates  of  the  registrant  as  of  June  30,  2017,  was  approximately 

$730,642,233 based upon the closing price of $18.40 per share as reported on June 30, 2017, on The Nasdaq Global Market. 

As of February 13, 2018, there were 40,475,586 shares of Common Stock issued and outstanding. 

Portions of the Proxy Statement to be delivered to shareholders in connection with the registrant’s Annual Meeting of Shareholders to be 

held on or around June 12, 2018, are incorporated by reference into Part III.

________________ 
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE 

 
 
CRAY INC. 

FORM 10-K 
For Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2017  

Item 1.  Business 
Item 1A.  Risk Factors 
Item 1B.  Unresolved Staff Comments 
Item 2. 
Item 3. 
Item 4.  Mine Safety Disclosures 

Properties 
Legal Proceedings 

INDEX 

PART I

PART II

Item 5.  Market for the Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Shareholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity 

Securities
Selected Consolidated Financial Data 

Item 6. 
Item 7.  Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations 
Item 7A.  Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk 
Item 8. 
Item 9.  Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure 
Item 9A.  Controls and Procedures 
Item 9B.  Other Information 

Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 

PART III
Item 10.  Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 
Item 11.  Executive Compensation 
Item 12.  Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Shareholder Matters 
Item 13.  Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence 
Item 14.  Principal Accounting Fees and Services 

Item 15.  Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules 
Item 16.  Form 10-K Summary 

PART IV

_________________ 

Page 

1
10
23
23
23
23

24

27
28
45
46
47
47
49

50
50
50
50
50

51
54

CRAY and URIKA are registered trademarks of Cray Inc. in the United States and other countries. The CS and XC 
families of supercomputers, Chapel, ClusterStor, CS-Storm, DataWarp and other Cray technologies are all trademarks of 
Cray  Inc.  This  annual  report  on  Form  10-K  contains  additional  trade  names,  trademarks,  and  service  marks  of  other 
companies that are the property of their respective owners. 

_________________ 

 
Forward-Looking Statements 

This annual report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, as well as 
assumptions that, if they never materialize or if they prove incorrect, could cause our actual results to differ materially from
those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on our management’s 
beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to them. In some cases you can identify forward-looking 
statements  by  terms  such  as  “may,”  “will,”  “should,”  “could,”  “would,”  “expect,”  “plans,”  “anticipates,”  “believes,” 
“continue,” “estimates,” “projects,” “predicts” and “potential” and similar expressions, but the absence of these words does 
not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that 
could  be  deemed  forward-looking  statements,  and  examples  of  forward-looking  statements  include  any  projections  of 
earnings, revenue or other results of operations or financial results; any statements of the plans, strategies, objectives and 
beliefs  of  our  management;  any  statements  concerning  proposed  new  products,  technologies  or  services;  any  statements 
regarding potential new markets or applications for our products; any statements regarding the effects of the acquisition of 
Seagate’s  ClusterStor  line  of  business;  any  statements  regarding  technological  developments  or  trends;  any  statements 
regarding future research and development or co-funding for such efforts; any statements regarding future expansions of our 
facilities and offices; any statements regarding future market and economic conditions; any statements regarding the expected 
vesting of our performance-based equity awards; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. These 
forward-looking statements are subject to the safe harbor created by Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, 
and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act). Our actual results could differ 
materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements for many reasons, including the risks faced by us and 
described in Item 1A. Risk Factors in Part II and other sections of this report and our other filings with the U.S. Securities 
and Exchange Commission (SEC). You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which apply 
only as of the date of this report. You should read this report completely and with the understanding that our actual future 
results  may  be  materially  different  from  what  we  expect.  We  assume  no  obligation  to  update  these  forward-looking 
statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as otherwise required by law. 

Item 1.  Business

General 

PART I 

For over 40 years we have been developing highly advanced computing solutions for the world’s most complex science, 
engineering  and  analytics  challenges.  Ever since  we  introduced  the first  Cray  supercomputer  in  1976, our  technologies have 
helped  solve  today’s  problems  and  made  tomorrow’s  questions  possible.  We  exist  to  provide  the  right  tools  to  the  world’s 
visionaries to help them solve questions they need answered. 

We focus on designing, developing, manufacturing, marketing and servicing computing products that magnify and enhance 
human capital, foster innovation and create competitive advantages. That means our products are aimed primarily at the high-end
of the high performance computing (HPC) and data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) markets - the segments populated by
the pioneers, executives and entrepreneurs leading their industries in both the public and private sectors. These products include 
compute  systems  commonly  known  as  supercomputers,  as  well  as  storage,  data  analytics  and AI  solutions.  We  offer  them 
individually, integrated into a complete solution or hosted in the cloud, depending on a customer’s need. We also provide related
software and system maintenance, support, and engineering services. 

We provide solutions based on four main models: (1) tightly integrated supercomputing designed throughout for scalability 
and  sustained  performance;  (2)  customizable  cluster  supercomputing  based  on  highest-performance  industry-standard 
components; (3) robust high-performance storage solutions; and (4) integrated solutions for graph analysis, large-scale analytics 
and AI applications. 

Close customer partnerships are fundamental to our business. The questions driving our customers’ work inform our product 
direction  and,  in  turn,  our  products  combined  with  our  customer  engagement  enable  users  to  ask  the  next,  more  complex 
questions.  To  ensure  customer  success,  we  also  provide  customized  service  from  installation  to  24x7  onsite  support.  Our 
customers  include  domestic  and  foreign  government  and  government-funded  entities,  academic  institutions  and  commercial 
companies. 

Our continuing strategy is to gain market share by extending our technology leadership and differentiation and expanding 
our share and addressable market in areas where we can leverage our experience and technology, such as in AI applications and 
data  analytics.  Underpinning  this  strategy  is  our  focus  on  understanding  our  customers’  needs  and  building  products  that 
continually extend their capabilities. 

Overview 

Huge growth in data volumes and data complexity, the development of advanced algorithmic techniques, and increased 
time-to-value expectations are driving the need for supercomputing-class architectures. We believe that our experience building
some of the largest supercomputers in the world has positioned us to address the data analytics and emerging AI markets with 
products that apply supercomputing technologies to solve the most challenging use cases at scale. 

Our supercomputing products span a broad performance spectrum and address the critical computing resource challenges 
HPC users face today: achieving massive scaling to tens of thousands of processors; ease of use for increased productivity; and
very high levels of sustained performance on real applications. We achieve this by partnering with users to understand what is 
limiting them and then designing and integrating supercomputers that help clear those obstacles. Our systems combine highly 
capable processors, high-speed interconnect technology, and innovative packaging to address increased thermal requirements 
driven  by  density  and  processor  power  requirements,  upgradability,  energy  efficiency  and  system  reliability.  In  addition,  our 
robust, HPC-optimized software environment enhances performance, productivity and manageability at supercomputing scale. 

Our storage and data management products include integrated data storage solutions designed to support systems requiring 
the highest performance requirements needed for supercomputing and data-intensive workloads. These solutions leverage years 
of  experience  delivering  high-performance  parallel  storage  and  file  systems  to  leading-edge  customers.  With  our  storage 
solutions, users can also rapidly deploy highly scalable and extremely fast file systems that integrate with supercomputer and 
cluster computing solutions from both Cray and third-party HPC vendors. 

1

Products, Services and Customer Support 

We concentrate on building product solutions in two major markets: the supercomputing portion of the HPC market and big 
data, including storage and AI solutions. We also provide related software and system maintenance, support, and engineering 
services that leverage our intimate understanding of our customers and their requirements. 

Cray Supercomputing Systems 

Our “Adaptive Supercomputing” vision has expanded the concept of heterogeneous computing to a fully integrated view 

of hardware and software supporting multiple processing technologies and diverse workloads. 

This approach means our supercomputers integrate diverse technologies into a unified architecture enabling customers to 
match the computational solution to their desired outcome. Our Cray XC series supercomputers, including the Cray XC40 and 
Cray  XC50  supercomputers,  provide  significantly  higher  sustained  performance  on  challenging  applications  that  require  the 
highest levels of scaling, with substantial performance improvements over competing solutions. Our Cray CS series of cluster 
supercomputer solutions, including the Cray CS500 and Cray CS-Storm systems, emphasize flexibility, capacity, custom design 
and integration for compute-intensive customer needs. 

Our supercomputer systems offer a variety of benefits, including: 

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

superior price-performance compared to other supercomputer systems, cluster computing solutions, and traditional 
cloud computing solutions; 

productivity, quality, reliability and resiliency at the highest scale; 

scalability to the world’s fastest supercomputers for HPC, analytics and AI workloads leveraging the innovative Aries 
network; 

support  for  open  standards:  Linux-based  operating  systems,  containers,  open  file  systems  (e.g.,  Lustre),  open 
programming models (e.g., MPI, PGAS, shared memory, OpenMP and OpenACC), popular programming languages 
such as Python, Scala and R, traditional HPC languages such as Fortran, C and C++, new languages such as Chapel, 
big  data  environments  (Apache  Spark  and  distributed  Dask)  and  machine  learning  frameworks  (TensorFlow  and 
BigDL); 

flexible and customizable upgrade paths that enable customers to leverage their investments over longer periods of 
time and thereby reduce total costs of ownership; 

integrated operating system software and Cray programming environment, including energy-aware features; 

excellent energy efficiency optimized for minimum energy consumed to solution; 

flexibility of processor type, memory, network configuration, storage configuration and system software tools; and  

the Cray service experience, which brings with it a proven research and development team and a global sales and 
service organization dedicated to the needs of HPC users. 

We  expect  the  continued  advancement  of  many-core  and  accelerator  processors,  the  increasing  diversity  of  processor 
architectures, as well as changing memory and storage hierarchy to be advantageous trends for Cray as they complement our 
technical  strengths  in  networking,  scaling,  system  software  and  cooling  and  power  management  technologies.  The  growing 
number  of  cores  on  each  processor  continues  to  amplify  the  scaling  issues  that  customers  face  today,  and  accelerators  or 
coprocessors will further stress the system’s communications network. We believe our balanced approach to system design and 
support  for  innovative  parallel  programming  methodologies  will  become  increasingly  critical  in  enabling  customers  to  take 
advantage of the benefits of many-core processing. 

Cray XC Series Supercomputer.  The Cray XC series supercomputer is our highly integrated supercomputing system. It 
provides extreme scale, sustained performance, and heterogeneous computational resources through the combination of processor 
options,  including  Intel  Xeon  Scalable  processors  and  the  Cavium ThunderX2 Arm  processor,  the Aries  interconnect  and  its 
flexible and unique Dragonfly network topology, our robust and fully-integrated software environment and innovative power and 

2

cooling technologies. In addition, the XC series includes Intel Xeon Phi processors and NVIDIA Tesla graphics processor units 
(GPU).

The Cray XC series supercomputer utilizes the Cray Linux Environment, a suite of high-performance software which has 
been enhanced and hardened over more than a decade on our supercomputing systems. Customers may buy a single Cray XC 
series supercomputer to run both a highly scalable custom workload as well as an industry-standard, independent software vendor
workload.  The  XC  series  system  also  includes  our  powerful  compiler,  runtime  and  related  software  which  leverages  the 
underlying hardware components. Users have access to a variety of carefully optimized applications on the XC series system, 
including Fortran and C++ applications, applications written in languages like Python, Scala as well as Cray’s Chapel parallel 
programming language designed to make parallel programming more productive and more generally accessible. Applications can 
run natively in the Cray Linux Environment or can leverage container technologies familiar to cloud and enterprise application 
developers. Additionally, XC customers can run analytics and AI workloads alongside modeling and simulation workloads, using 
Urika-XC, familiar system tools and schedulers. 

The  Cray  XC50  supercomputer  supports  the  newest  generation  of  CPU  and  GPU  processors  -  Intel  Xeon  Scalable 
processors, Cavium ThunderX2 processors, NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe GPUs and Intel Xeon Phi - coupled with the Aries network 
and Cray’s HPC-optimized software stack including the Cray Linux Environment and Cray Programing Environment, to deliver 
our fastest system with peak system performance of 500 petaflops (PF) and 1 PF in a single cabinet. 

The Cray XC50-AC air-cooled supercomputer, supporting NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe GPUs, Intel Xeon Scalable processors 
and Arm-based ThunderX2 processors, currently is capable of delivering up to 236 teraflops peak performance in a 24” cabinet 
with no requirement for liquid cooling or extra blower cabinets. Ideal for dedicated test, development, AI and analytics use cases,
the air-cooled XC50 system offers all of the benefits of our XC50 supercomputer in a smaller form factor. 

The Cray XC40 system is designed for production supercomputing and user productivity. It offers the combined advantages 
of  the Aries  interconnect  and  Dragonfly  network  topology,  Intel  Xeon  multi-core  and  Intel  Xeon  Phi  many-core  processors, 
bringing more than 125 PF of peak system performance. 

Cray CS500 Cluster Supercomputer.  The Cray CS500 cluster supercomputing system is a modular, highly scalable, high 
availability platform designed for a broad range of workloads. It offers an energy-efficient, air-cooled architecture and comes
integrated with a comprehensive and easy to manage HPC software stack, software tools compatible with most open source and 
commercial compilers, tools, schedulers and libraries. This solution supports both Cray and third-party systems  management 
software solutions.

Cray  CS-Storm Accelerated  GPU Supercomputer.  The CS-Storm  supercomputer  is a  purpose-built  solution  employing 
NVIDIA Volta or NVIDIA Pascal GPUs in a high-density architecture to deliver industry-leading performance, density and energy 
efficiency for HPC  and AI  applications. The  Cray  CS-Storm  500NX system  combines an  innovative architecture  design  that 
supports  up  to  eight  GPUs  connected  by  the  NVIDIA  NVLink  high-speed  network.  The  Cray  CS-Storm  500GT  provides 
configurations that can maximize network bandwidth with up to four network links per node with up to 10 GPU or FPGA cards 
per node all running at full power. These configurations are all provided with the same HPC software environment available on 
the Cray CS500 cluster system. Additionally, an available analytics and AI software environment, including popular machine and 
deep learning frameworks (e.g. TensorFlow, MXNet, Torch, Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit, Caffe, Caffe2 and others) makes the 
Cray  CS-Storm  ideal  for  machine  and  deep  learning  training  workloads.  A  CS-Storm  supercomputer  chassis  may  also  be 
incorporated  within  a  CS500  cluster  supercomputer.  The  software  stack,  programming  environment  and  management 
infrastructure are shared, making such integration seamless.

Cray Analytics and AI Products 

Cray Urika-XC Analytics and AI Software Suite. The Cray Urika-XC software suite extends the use of the Cray XC series 
supercomputer to the world of big data analytics and AI. It includes the widely used Apache Spark cluster framework for big data
processing, popular Python-based tools (Anaconda, distributed Dask), and open source deep learning frameworks (BigDL and 
TensorFlow) optimized to take advantage of the performance and scale of the XC series.

3

Google’s  widely  used  TensorFlow  library  for  machine  learning  is  enhanced  with  the  Cray  Programming  Environment 
Machine  Learning  Plugin  -  a  Cray  innovation  delivering  highly  efficient  scaling.  By  leveraging  the Aries  interconnect  and 
eliminating  many  of  the  mundane  administrative  tasks  required  for  distributed  deep  learning,  data  scientists  can  train  neural 
networks at scale on an XC supercomputer - leveraging either CPUs or GPUs to more than 500 nodes. Finally, the Urika-XC 
software suite includes an implementation of the world’s most scalable graph database - the Cray Graph Engine. With the Cray 
Graph Engine, customers can tackle multi-terabyte datasets comprised of billions of objects to uncover hidden relationships in 
even the noisiest of data. It can run in conjunction with open analytics tools, enabling users to build complete end-to-end analytics
workflows and avoid unnecessary data movement. 

Cray Urika-GX Platform. The Cray Urika-GX platform is architected for production-class big data analytics workloads. It 
comes  pre-integrated  with Apache  Hadoop  and Apache  Spark  frameworks  as  well  as  Cray’s  high-performance  Cray  Graph 
Engine. The Cray Urika-GX system features Intel Xeon E5 processors, up to 22 terabytes of DRAM memory, up to 176 terabytes 
of  local  SSD  storage  capacity,  and  the  high-speed Aries  network  interconnect,  which  together  provide  leading  in-memory 
compute and network performance necessary to solve the most demanding big data problems.

Cray Storage and Data Management Products 

Cray ClusterStor Storage Systems. Our flagship storage product line, the Cray ClusterStor HPC storage system, embeds the 
Lustre parallel file system and other software in an optimal configuration to reduce deployment time and total cost of ownership
while  increasing  reliability,  capacity  and  performance.  ClusterStor  systems  offer  an  optimal  combination  of  modular  scaling 
capacity from terabytes to petabytes and sustained input/output (I/O) performance from several gigabytes per second to over one
terabyte per second in a single file system. ClusterStor systems are engineered to be installed and put into production more quickly 
than other HPC storage solutions and can be attached to Cray XC and Cray CS series systems, as well as industry-standard Linux 
clusters. Together with ClusterStor storage, we offer storage management software.

Cray  DataWarp  Applications  Accelerator.  Our  DataWarp  technology  addresses  a  key  problem  experienced  by 
supercomputing customers:  disk-based storage I/O has not kept up with improvements in processor performance and delivering 
sustainable performance on a spectrum of applications with varying I/O-intensive workloads has become costly and impractical. 
DataWarp provides a new tier of storage featuring SSD and software that is tightly integrated with Cray XC series supercomputing
resources.  DataWarp  supports  high  application  I/O  requirements  while  reducing  overall  application  computing  time  for 
I/O-intensive workloads. Production customers have increased the I/O bandwidth of their production supercomputing systems by 
over two times, enhancing their ability to make scientific discoveries faster.

Engineering and Customer Support 

Custom  Engineering.   When  a  customer’s  needs  cannot  be  met  through  our  standard  product  offerings,  we  provide  an 
alternative. Our custom engineering business leverages our amassed intellectual property and technology portfolio, deep domain 
expertise and know-how to design and build solutions and services designed to match a customer’s specific needs.

Customer Support.  Our worldwide customer support organization delivers the “Cray experience.” This unique, high-quality 
support relationship gives us a competitive advantage and plays an important role in our ability to maintain long-term customer
relationships. Support services are important to our customers, and in many cases we locate our support personnel at or near 
customer  sites  globally,  supported  by  a  central  service  organization.  Our  support  services  include  hardware  and  software 
maintenance  in  support  of  our  systems,  applications  support,  installation  project  management,  system  installation  and  de-
installation,  site  preparation  and  technical  training  for  our  systems.  In  addition,  we  offer  ancillary  services  in  application 
consulting,  third-party  software  support,  site  engineering,  on-site  analysts  for  defined  projects  and  specialized  training.  Our
support arrangements generally provide for support services on an annual basis, although many cover multiple years. While most 
customers pay for support on an annual basis, others pay on a monthly, quarterly or multi-year basis. Typically, customers may 
select levels of support and response times, ranging from delivery of parts only, to 24x7 coverage with two-hour response times.

Sales and Marketing 

We focus our sales and marketing activities on both horizontal and vertical marketing activities ranging from government 
agencies or government-funded research laboratories, to academic institutions and commercial entities requiring HPC, big data 

4

systems and storage. Our primary sales model is direct, and we offer solutions through a highly-trained direct sales force operating
throughout North America, South America, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Australia and Africa. More than half of our sales force
is  located  in  the  United  States  and  Canada,  with  the  remainder  overseas.  Our  ClusterStor  storage  systems  are  available  both 
through our direct sales force as well as through a partner network of global and regional resellers. 

A  formal  request-for-proposal  process for HPC  systems  or  technology drives  a  majority  of  our  large  systems  sales  and 
engineering  service  engagements  in  the academic  and  government  markets. We  utilize  pre-sales  technical  experts  to  develop 
technical proposals that meet customer requirements and benchmarking teams to demonstrate the advantages of our particular 
supercomputing  products  or  service  being  proposed.  For  a  majority  of  our  larger  sales  opportunities,  the  proposal  process, 
including establishing system size, options, pricing and other commitments, involves a number of resources outside of our sales
organization. While we often tailor our supercomputer (including cluster) solutions for individual customers, there is substantial
commonality in the underlying components and systems, allowing us to leverage manufacturing and supply chain operations. 

Government agencies and government-funded scientific research institutions around the world comprise a large portion of 

our customer base. We actively manage our relationship with U.S. government agencies and Congress. 

Our Technology 

We  are  dependent  on  the  successful  early  identification,  development  and  timely  introduction  of  new  products  and 
capabilities.  This process relies on developing and maintaining close customer and user partnerships - an activity we embrace 
and which we believe sets us apart from our competitors. Our research and development activities include identification of new 
trends, technologies and workload needs in the ever changing HPC and big data markets, and then leveraging our specialized 
expertise and research in the design of system architectures, hardware and software necessary to implement our expanding product
portfolio to address customer needs. 

Product Architectures 

Our  product  portfolio  covers  a  breadth  of  architectures  including  tightly  integrated  massively  parallel  supercomputers, 
highly  flexible  and  configurable  cluster  supercomputers,  purpose-built  big  data  analytics  products  and  world  class  storage 
solutions. 

Hardware 

We have extensive experience and expertise in the definition, design and integration of the hardware components required 
of HPC system solutions. This includes processors, board design, memory, storage, network and interconnect technologies, I/O 
subsystems, power, cooling and packaging infrastructures, along with the low-level hardware system software required to manage 
key components. The majority of our hardware research and development investments are in the following areas: 

•

•

Compute and storage architectures, high-speed interconnect and board integration and design. We integrate a variety 
of  processor,  volatile  and  nonvolatile  memory  hierarchies  and  network  devices  using  a  combination  of  custom  and 
industry standard printed circuit boards, high-density connectors, carefully chosen transmission and storage media and 
optimized topologies. 

Power,  packaging  and  cooling.  We  use  a  variety  of  dense  packaging  techniques  to  produce  systems  with  superior 
performance, socket densities and energy efficiency. This packaging combines industry standard and custom-designed 
technologies in the areas of printed circuit board assemblies, power distribution and liquid and air cooling. 

Software 

We have extensive experience designing, developing and adapting system software such as the operating system, system 
management, optimized data management, movement and analysis, as well as programming environment software as an integral 
aspect of our product portfolio and distributing that software as part of system sales. Our software research and development 
expertise and experience includes operating system optimizations and scalable hardware control, monitoring and management, 
including power control, monitoring of environmental data, and hardware diagnostics.  Our integrated system software together 
provides reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) for Cray systems. The Cray programming environment includes our 

5

own and commercially available third-party compilers, communication and scientific libraries as well as a rich suite of application 
development tools and software for achieving the best possible application performance. We believe this suite of products provide 
Cray with competitive advantage and allow us more flexibility in adopting new processing technologies as they become available.

Additionally, we research, evaluate and develop innovative software for advanced data analytics, machine learning, and 
deep learning at scale. This work includes industry leading graph analytics and associated algorithms for discovering previously
unknown  insights  from  large,  disparate  data  sets,  as  well  as  optimizations  to  Hadoop  and  Spark  for  performance  and 
manageability at scale. Our research includes techniques and optimizations to scale advanced analytics, machine learning, and 
deep learning across distributed scalable systems, and in large, shared memory architectures. 

When  necessary,  we  purchase  or  license  certain  software  and  technologies  from  third  parties  to  meet  certain  specific 

customer requirements, while focusing our own resources where we believe we add the highest value. 

For information relating to amounts spent on research and development, see Note 19 - Research and Development in the 
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 15. Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules in Part IV of this annual 
report on Form 10-K. 

Manufacturing and Supply Chain 

We subcontract the manufacture of a majority of the hardware sub-assemblies and certain components for our high-end 
products and custom-engineered systems, including integrated circuits, printed circuit boards, storage enclosures, connectors, 
cables and power supplies, on a sole or limited source basis to third-party suppliers. We use contract manufacturers to assemble
certain components. Our manufacturing strategy currently centers on build-to-order systems, focusing on obtaining competitive 
assembly and component costs while concentrating our resources on the final assembly, test and quality assurance stages to ensure
a  positive  customer  experience. This  strategy  allows  us  to  avoid  the  large  capital  commitment  and  overhead  associated  with 
establishing full-scale manufacturing facilities, helps us to maintain the flexibility to adopt new technologies as they become
available without the risk of equipment obsolescence, provides near real-time configuration changes to exploit faster and/or less
expensive technologies and provides a higher level of large scale system quality. Our manufacturing personnel are located in 
Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. 

Our systems designed for the supercomputer market segment and our custom-engineered solutions incorporate components 
that  are  available  from  single  or  limited  sources,  often  containing  our  design  input  or  proprietary  designs.  Such  components 
include  integrated  circuits,  interconnect  systems  and  certain  memory  devices.  Prior  to  development  of  a  particular  product, 
components are typically competitively bid to a short list of technology partners. The technology partner that provides the highest 
value solution for the component is often awarded the contract for the life of the component. Once we have engaged a technology
partner,  changing our product  designs  to utilize  another  supplier’s standard  or  custom  components  can  be  a costly  and  time-
consuming process. We also have sole or limited sources for less critical components, such as peripherals, power supplies, cooling
and chassis hardware. We obtain key processor components from Intel, NVIDIA and other vendors from time to time for our 
Cray XC and cluster systems. We have a license for the Aries interconnect chip from Intel which we purchase through Broadcom 
Corporation (formerly Avago) that contracts with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company for the manufacture of the 
application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Our procurements from these vendors are primarily through purchase orders. We 
have chosen to deal with sole sources in specific cases due to the availability of specific technologies, economic advantages and 
other factors. Reliance on single or limited source vendors involves several risks, including the possibility of shortages of key 
components, long lead times, reduced control over delivery schedules, design or persistent quality issues and changes in direction 
by vendors. We have been adversely affected by delays in obtaining qualified competitive components previously. 

Our Markets 

Our key target markets are (i) the supercomputing portion of the HPC market and (ii) the big data market, encompassing 
high-end analytics, storage and AI markets. High performance, real-time analytics and machine learning on large volumes of data
is developing into an important success driver for business, government and academia, and successfully addressing this market 
is important to our future success. Several of our core strengths and technologies, such as the abilities to process vast amounts of 
unique data at very high speeds and to drive faster time to actionable insights, are demonstrated capabilities of our supercomputing 

6

solutions.  Bringing  these  technologies  to  market  is  core  to  our  ability  to  address  anticipated  and  emerging  analytics  and AI 
challenges, enabling us to bring highly differentiated analytics offerings to market. Our target markets are as follows: 

• Scientific Research.  Scientific research includes government research laboratories and research universities 
around  the  world.  In  the  United  States,  the  Department  of  Defense,  through  its  High  Performance  Computing 
Modernization Program, funds a number of research organizations that are our target customers. The Office of Science 
in the Department of Energy and its laboratories are key customers, as are the National Science Foundation and the 
National Aeronautics  and  Space Administration  and  similar  agencies  around  the  world.  These  research  centers  also 
provide  supercomputing  and  big  data  resources  to  their  affiliated  organizations  (such  as the  Department  of  Defense 
contractors) and industrial partners.

• National Security.  Classified work in various worldwide government agencies has represented an important 
market for us over many years. Certain U.S. government departments have on occasion provided funding support for 
our research  and development  efforts  to  meet  their objectives.  Current and potential  customers  include  a  number of 
Department of Defense-related classified organizations, the National Nuclear Security Administration of the Department 
of Energy and analogous foreign counterparts who have interest in our full range of products.

• Defense.  The defense segment has wide-ranging needs for HPC systems that in some ways are unique and in 
other ways are similar to our other market segments. HPC systems can assist in the development of defense technologies, 
equipment and secure communications infrastructure, as well as in the identification and analysis of military intelligence. 
Intelligence supports real-time development of defense strategy and decision making, while technology advancements 
are necessary to maintain military advantages, including deterrents, and to protect the warfighter.

• Earth Sciences.  Weather forecasting and climate modeling applications require increasing speed and larger 
volumes of data. Forecasting models and climate applications have grown increasingly complex with an ever-increasing 
number  of  interactive  variables,  making  improved  supercomputing,  analytics  and  storage  capabilities  increasingly 
critical. We have a number of customers running weather and climate applications, including customers in Germany, the 
United Kingdom, Korea, Brazil, Switzerland, Singapore, Denmark, Finland, India, Spain, Canada, Japan, Australia, New 
Zealand and the United States.

• Energy.  Supercomputing in the energy sector is driven largely by oil and gas exploration and processing, from 
seismic analysis to reservoir simulations. The simulation methods used often require high performance networks and 
storage  subsystems.  We  currently  have  commercial  customers  utilizing  both  our  systems  and  storage  solutions  in 
production.

• Financial Services.  Analytics and supercomputing systems are providing competitive advantage in areas as 
disparate as trading, compliance, marketing optimization and risk analysis. Financial services applications are very time 
sensitive, so high performance data analytics solutions are highly sought after. Our customers are using a range of our 
solutions and systems to derive a competitive advantage in this segment.

• Life Sciences.  The life sciences industry has demanding data and simulation requirements that test the limits 
of HPC and big data systems. In the life sciences, HPC methods cover a vast area ranging across modeling systems from 
the  molecular  level  to  the  whole  cell,  next-generation  genomic  sequencing  and  healthcare  optimization.  Machine 
learning and analytics are key to making sense and creating insight in the enormous volumes of data being generated. 
Our solutions can help discover new relationships that can allow existing drugs to help address new medical issues. Our 
customers are utilizing our products and solutions across these ranges of use cases today.

• Manufacturing.  Supercomputers are used to design lighter, safer and more durable vehicles, study wind noise 
and  airflow  around  vehicles,  improve  airplane  flight  characteristics  and,  in  many  other  computer-aided  engineering 
applications,  to  improve  time-to-market  and  product  quality.  We  currently  have  aerospace,  automotive  and 
manufacturing customers around the globe that are actively using our HPC and big data solutions.

• Emerging  Markets.    The  rise  of  analytics  and AI  across  industries  has  resulted  in  growing  interest  in  Cray 
supercomputers. AI is rapidly becoming the next major driver in the HPC market. Deep learning and machine learning, 

7

both subsets of AI, are specific use cases within the broader advanced analytics space. Scientific computing is a natural 
area for both identifying and driving a broader set of deep learning-enabled applications. Further, deep learning core 
computational motifs are rooted in linear algebra and mathematical optimization, which map well to long-standing focus 
areas for systems research within the HPC community. Finally, several use cases in scientific data analysis typically 
require large-scale pattern recognition on multi-dimensional image and time series datasets, and machine learning and 
deep learning are emerging as valuable tools to handle these use cases. Deep learning applications run at scale on the 
Cray XC series and Cray CS series supercomputers.

Sales  to  the  United  States  federal  government  (U.S.  Government)  and  system  acquisitions  primarily  funded  by  the 
U.S. Government, accounted for approximately 53% of our total revenue in 2017, 47% of our total revenue in 2016 and 47% of 
our total revenue in 2015. Significant customers with over 10% of our annual total revenue were the U.S. Government and a 
foreign weather center in 2017, the U.S. Government and a foreign weather center in 2016 and the U.S. Government in 2015. 
International customers accounted for 35% of our total revenue in 2017, 46% of our total revenue in 2016 and 36% of our total 
revenue in 2015. 

We  have  four  operating  segments  that  are  reportable  for  financial  reporting  purposes.  Segment  information  and  related 
disclosures are set forth in Note 18 — Segment Information in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 15. Exhibits 
and Financial Statement Schedules in Part IV of this annual report on Form 10-K.

Competition 

The broad HPC market is very competitive. Many of our competitors are established, well-known companies in the HPC 
market, including IBM, HPE, Lenovo, Dell/EMC, Huawei, NEC, Hitachi, Fujitsu and Atos-Bull. We also compete with systems 
builders  and  resellers  of  systems  that  are  constructed  from  commodity  components  using  processors  manufactured  by  Intel, 
NVIDIA, AMD and others. IBM, Intel, NEC and Fujitsu also build systems leveraging their own processors. In addition, certain 
Chinese companies are investing significantly in HPC and are becoming more aggressive and competitive in the HPC global 
arena.  Our  competitors  include  the  previously  named  companies  as  well  as  smaller  companies  that  assemble  systems  from 
commercially available commodity products. The Cray CS500 and CS-Storm supercomputing cluster products are designed to 
help us better address this market by providing flexible HPC alternatives with competitive pricing. To the extent that IBM and 
other processor suppliers develop processors or networks with greater capabilities or at lower cost than the processors we use 
from Intel and NVIDIA, our systems may be at a competitive disadvantage to systems utilizing such other processors. 

We compete primarily on the basis of product performance, scalability, breadth of features, price/performance, total cost of 
ownership, quality, reliability, upgradability, service and support, corporate reputation, brand image and account relationships. 
Our market approach here is more focused than many of our competitors, with the Cray XC Series designed with high levels of 
integration to meet the exacting needs of this performance and scalability driven market. We work to offer systems that provide
greater performance on the largest, most difficult computational problems and superior price-performance on many important 
applications in the high-end of the supercomputer market segment. Our highly-integrated systems often offer superior total cost
of ownership advantages as they typically use less electric power, require less cooling and occupy less space than lower bandwidth 
cluster systems. 

The market for our Cray CS product line is very competitive. The majority of competition is from Lenovo, HPE, Huawei, 
Dell/EMC, Atos-Bull and Fujitsu, all of which offer open-standards cluster solutions to address the growth in the supercomputing
market. We compete primarily on the basis of price-performance, open-standards architecture, flexible configurations, energy-
efficiency, reliability, scalability, corporate reputation and account relationships. Our market approach is to offer cluster solutions 
that better address large and complex computational problems, a superior integration, support and relationship experience. 

The  competitive  landscape  in  the  big  data  market  is  quite  varied,  with  competition  from  vendors  offering  integrated 
solutions,  such  as  Oracle,  commodity  cluster  systems  with  either  open  source  or  proprietary  data  analytics  software,  and 
traditional business intelligence vendors such as Teradata, Oracle, IBM and SAP. The analytics market for pattern recognition 
and knowledge discovery using graph databases is still nascent and fragmented as no dominant applications have yet emerged, 
with the result that custom and open source software approaches such as Hadoop and Spark are often used. However, customers 
with  large,  mission-critical  graph  problems  have  discovered  that  commodity  approaches  do  not  scale  or  deliver  results  in  an 

8

acceptable timeframe, and have recognized the advantages of specialized solutions. We introduced the Cray Urika-XC and Urika-
GX offerings - which compete primarily on the basis of performance, scalability, integration and total cost of ownership - as an
alternative for users of big data and analytics. The AI market is nascent and rapidly evolving. Competition will include cloud 
infrastructure companies, systems and subsystems developed by processor vendors, start-up companies and our traditional system 
competitors. 

Our storage products compete with a number of manufacturers and integrators of parallel storage solutions, including IBM 
with its Spectrum Scale parallel file system, as well as solutions from Data Direct Networks, Lenovo, NetApp, Dell EMC and 
other  storage  companies.  The  parallel  storage  and  file  system  market  is  currently  fragmented  with  a  number  of  competing 
providers in the HPC marketplace. We believe that our strong storage products, along with our extensive experience and excellent
reputation as an HPC systems vendor, compete effectively against our competition, especially when the prospective target market
overlaps with our HPC systems target market. 

Intellectual Property 

We  attempt  to  protect  our  trade  secrets  and  other  proprietary  rights  through  formal  agreements  with  our  employees, 
customers, suppliers and consultants, and others who may have access to such information. Although we intend to protect our 
rights vigorously, there can be no assurance that our contractual and other security arrangements will be successful. 

Our general policy is to seek patent protection for those inventions and improvements that give us a competitive advantage 
and are likely to be incorporated into our products and services. We have a number of patents and pending patent applications 
relating to our hardware and software technologies. While we believe our patents and applications have value, no single patent 
or group of patents is in itself essential to us as a whole or to any of our key products. Any of our proprietary rights could be
challenged, invalidated or circumvented and may not provide significant competitive advantage. 

We have licensed certain patents and other intellectual property from others in our industry. These licenses often contain 
restrictions on our use of the underlying technology. We have also entered into cross-license arrangements with other companies
involved in the HPC industry. 

Employees 

As of December 31, 2017, we had 1,273 employees. We have no collective bargaining agreement with our employees. We 

have not experienced a work stoppage and believe that our employee relations are very good. 

Corporation Information 

We were incorporated in the State of Washington in December 1987 under the name Tera Computer Company. We changed 
our  corporate  name  to  Cray  Inc.  in  connection  with  our  acquisition  of  the  Cray  Research,  Inc.  operating  assets  from  Silicon 
Graphics, Inc. in 2000. Our corporate headquarters are located at 901 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1000, Seattle, Washington 98164. Our 
telephone number is (206) 701-2000 and our website address is www.cray.com. The contents of our website are not incorporated 
by reference into this annual report on Form 10-K or our other SEC reports and filings. 

Available Information 

Our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those 
reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act, are available free of charge at our website at
www.cray.com, as soon as reasonably practicable after we file such reports with the SEC electronically. The public may read and
copy any materials that we file with the SEC at the SEC’s Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, NE, Washington, DC 20549. 
The public may obtain information on the operation of the Public Reference Room by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. The 
SEC  also  maintains  an  internet  site  that  contains  reports,  proxy  and  information  statements, and other  information  regarding 
issuers  that  file  electronically  with  the  SEC  at  www.sec.gov.  In  addition,  we  have  set  forth  our  Code  of  Business  Conduct, 
Corporate Governance Guidelines, the charters of the Audit, Compensation, Corporate Governance and Strategic Technology 
Assessment  Committees  of  our  Board  of  Directors  and  other  governance  documents  on  our  website,  www.cray.com,  under 
“Company - Investors - Corporate Governance.” The contents of our website are not incorporated by reference into this annual 
report on Form 10-K or our other SEC reports and filings. 

9

Item 1A. Risk Factors

In addition to the other information contained in this annual report on Form 10-K, you should carefully read and consider 
the following risk factors. If any of these risks occur, our business, financial condition or operating results could be materially
adversely  affected  and  the  trading  price of our  common  stock  could decline. Additional  risks  and uncertainties  not  presently 
known to us or that we currently believe are not material may also impair our business, financial condition or operating results.

Our operating results fluctuate significantly and we may not achieve profitability in any given period. Our operating 
results are subject to significant fluctuations which make predicting revenue and operating results for any specific period very
difficult, particularly because a material portion of product revenue recognized in any given quarter or year typically depends on 
a limited number of system sales expected for that quarter or year and product revenue generally depends on the timing of product
acceptances by  customers  and  contractual provisions  affecting revenue recognition.  Receiving  less  than  anticipated  customer 
orders, delays in achieving customer acceptances of installed systems and recognizing revenue from a product transaction or 
transactions due to development or product delivery delays, customer site readiness delays, unexpected manufacturing delays or 
defects,  not  receiving  needed  components  on  time,  not  receiving  components  with  anticipated  quality  and  performance,  the 
inability of a system to meet performance requirements or targets or other contractual obligations, among other factors, could 
have a material adverse effect on our operating results in any specific quarter or year, such as by reducing or delaying associated
revenue, gross profit and cash receipts from one quarter to another, or even from one year to another, particularly in the case of 
revenue expected to be realized in the fourth quarter of any year, as has happened in the past. In addition, because our revenue
can  be  concentrated  in  particular  quarters,  often  the  fourth  quarter,  we  generally  do  not  expect  to  sustain  profitability  over 
successive quarters even if we are profitable for the year.

Although we recorded positive annual net income between 2010 and 2016, we recorded a net loss in 2017 and we expect 
to report a net loss in 2018 and may well experience a net loss in any year in addition to quarterly losses. Net income may fluctuate 
significantly as a result of many factors, including as a result of reduced revenue, gross margins or significant investments we
may make to grow our business which often require many years to come to fruition and may not be realized when expected, if at 
all.  For  example,  we  anticipate  incurring  significant  expenditures  in  connection  with  continued  investments  in  research  and 
development. Due to the inherent difficulty in estimating costs associated with projects of this scale and nature, certain of the 
costs associated with these potential projects may be higher than estimated and it may take longer than expected to complete, if
at all. In addition, while we were profitable in 2016, our revenue and profitability declined year over year in both 2016 and 2017, 
substantially driven by a slow-down in the segments of the high-end of the supercomputing market that we target. It is uncertain
whether or when the segments of the high-end of the supercomputing market that we target will rebound and resume growing. 

Whether  we  will  be  able  to  increase  our  revenue  and  achieve  and  sustain  profitability  on  a  quarterly  and  annual  basis 

depends on a number of factors, including: 

•

•

•

•

•

•

our ability to secure sufficient orders at high enough gross margins for our Cray XC and Cray CS systems as well 
as upgrades and successor systems, such as our next generation “Shasta” system; 

successfully  delivering  and  obtaining  sufficient  customer  acceptances  of  ordered  systems,  including  attached 
storage systems; 

our  ability  to  successfully  integrate  the  ClusterStor  product  line,  business  and  associated  sales  channel  and  our 
ability to successfully generate revenue and profitability from sales of our storage, data analytics and AI solutions; 

our ability to successfully and timely design for, procure and integrate competitive processors for our Cray XC and 
Cray CS systems and upgrades and successor systems, such as our next generation Shasta system;  

our expense levels, including research and development expense; 

delays  in  delivery  of  upgraded  or  new  systems,  longer  than  expected  customer  acceptance  cycles  or  penalties 
resulting from system acceptance issues; 

10

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

our  ability  to  resolve  and  the  costs  incurred  in  connection  with  any  actual  or  alleged  issues  with  our  products, 
including third-party components of such products, such as those that relate to product defects, such as the current 
“Meltdown” and “Spectre” processor vulnerabilities or intellectual property rights;   

our  ability  to  efficiently  scale  our  internal  processes  to  meet  necessary  peak  requirements  and  growth  in  our 
business; 

the level of revenue recognized in any given period, which is affected by the very high average sales prices and 
limited number of significant system sales and resulting potential acceptances in any quarter, the timing of product 
orders  and  acceptances  by  customers  and  contractual  provisions  affecting  the  timing  and  amount  of  revenue 
recognition; 

our ability to continue to broaden our customer base beyond our traditional customers;  

revenue delays or losses due to customers postponing purchases as a result of delays in available budgets or waiting 
for the availability of future upgraded or new systems, including those containing new processors, such as our next 
generation Shasta systems;  

the  level  of  product  gross  profit  contribution  in  any  given  period  due  to  volume,  competition  or  product  mix, 
particularly  with  the  introduction  of  flexible  commodity-based  supercomputers,  competitive  factors,  strategic 
transactions, product life cycle, currency fluctuations, acceptance penalties and component costs; 

the competitiveness of our products, services and prices; 

our ability to secure additional government funding for future development projects; 

• maintaining  and  successfully  completing  our  product  development  projects  on  schedule  and  within  budgetary 

limitations; 

•

•

the level and timing of maintenance contract renewals with existing customers; and 

the terms and conditions of sale or lease for our products and services. 

The receipt of orders and the timing of shipments and acceptances impacts our quarterly and annual results, including cash 

flows, and is affected by events outside our control, such as: 

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

whether or when the segments of the high-end of the supercomputing market that we target, which are currently 
experiencing a slow-down, rebound and resume growing; 

the timely availability of acceptable components, including, but not limited to, processors and memory, in sufficient 
quantities  to  meet  customer  delivery  schedules  and  other  customer  commitments  at  a  competitive  cost  and  the 
identification of issues with already-delivered components, including processors, that require remediation and/or 
impact the performance of our products; 

the  timing  and  level  of  government  funding  and  resources  available  for  product  acquisitions  and  research  and 
development contracts, which have been, and may continue to be, adversely affected by the current global economic 
and  fiscal  uncertainties,  increased  governmental  budgetary  limitations  and  disruptions  in  the  operations  of  the 
United  States and other governments; 

competitor and supplier pricing strategies; 

currency fluctuations, international conflicts or economic crises, including the ongoing economic challenges in the 
United States, Japan and Europe, and fluctuations in oil prices that can affect the resources available to potential 
customers to purchase products; 

new tariffs or taxes imposed on components and products sourced or manufactured outside of the United States; 

the introduction or announcement of competitive or key industry supplier products; 

11

•

•

•

•

price fluctuations or product shortages in the processors and other commodity electronics and memory markets; 

the availability of adequate customer facilities to install and operate new Cray systems;  

general economic trends, including changes in levels of customer capital spending; and 

our customers’ ability to make future payments in accordance with contractual terms of their purchase or sales-type 
lease agreements. 

Because of the numerous factors affecting our operating results, we may not achieve profitability on a quarterly or annual 
basis in the future. We anticipate that our quarterly results will fluctuate significantly, and include losses, even in years where we 
expect  or  achieve  positive  annual  net  income.  Delays  in  the  availability  of  acceptable  third-party  components,  product 
development, receipt of orders, product acceptances, issues with third-party component performance or reliability, reductions in
outside  funding  for  our  research  and  development  efforts,  a  reduction  in  the  size  in  the  segments  of  the  high-end  of  the 
supercomputing market that we target, the level and timing of approved government fiscal budgets and achieving contractual 
development milestones have had a substantial adverse effect on our past results and are expected to continue to have such an 
effect on our operating results in 2018 and in future years. 

Our business could be adversely affected by conditions affecting the HPC market. A substantial portion of our business 
depends on the demand for HPC products by large enterprise, the U.S. Government and foreign government customers, and we 
are dependent upon the overall economic health of the high-end of the supercomputing market. Demand for our products and 
services depends substantially upon the general demand for supercomputers and associated services, as well as technological 
needs in the data analytics, AI and storage markets, which fluctuate based on numerous factors, including capital spending levels
and growth of our current and prospective customers. Moreover, the purchase of our products is often discretionary and may 
involve  a  significant  commitment  of  capital  and  other  resources. As  a  result,  spending  priorities  for  our  current  and  future 
customers may vary and demand for our products and services may also fluctuate. For instance, while we were profitable in 2016,
our revenue and profitability declined year over year in both 2016 and 2017, substantially driven by a slow-down in the segments
of the high-end of the supercomputing market that we target, and we believe that this downturn has continued into 2018. It is 
uncertain whether or when these segments will recover from the ongoing downturn. While we believe that the market’s long-
term growth drivers remain intact, there is no assurance that these markets will rebound and resume growing. A prolonged slow-
down in these markets could continue to harm our financial condition and results of operations.

If we are unable to successfully develop, sell and deliver our Cray XC systems and successor systems, such as our 
next generation Shasta system, our operating results will be adversely affected. We expect that a substantial portion of our 
revenue in the foreseeable future will come from the sale of Cray XC systems and successor systems, such as our next generation
Shasta  system,  including  systems  integrating  future  processors  and  accelerators  where  we  are  dependent  upon  third-party 
suppliers to deliver according to expected plans. The development efforts related to these systems are lengthy and technically 
challenging processes, and require a significant investment of capital, engineering and other resources often years ahead of the
time when we can be assured that they will result in competitive products. We may invest significant resources that may prove 
ultimately  unsuccessful.  Unanticipated  performance  and/or  development  issues  may  require  more  engineers,  time  or  testing 
resources than are currently available. Given the breadth of our engineering challenges, changes in the market and technology 
and our limited engineering and technical personnel resources, we periodically review the anticipated contributions and expense
of  our  product  programs  to  determine  their  long-term  viability,  and  we  may  substantially  modify  or  terminate  one  or  more 
development programs. We may not be successful in meeting our development schedules for technical reasons, including those 
related  to  our  dependence  on  third-party  suppliers  of  components  such  as  processors  and  accelerators,  and/or  because  of 
insufficient engineering resources, which could result in an uncompetitive product or cause a lack of confidence in our capabilities 
among our key customers. To the extent that we incur delays in completing the design, development and production of hardware 
components, delays  in  development  of  requisite  system  software,  cancellation  of  or  changes  to programs  due  to  technical or 
economic infeasibility, inability to source acceptable third-party components such as processors and accelerators or investment
in unproductive development efforts, our revenue, results of operations and cash flows, and the reputation of such systems in the 
market, could be adversely affected.

12

In  addition,  many  factors  affect  our  ability  to  successfully  sell  and  recognize  revenue  for  these  systems,  including  the 

following: 

•

•

•

•

the level of product differentiation in our Cray XC systems and successor systems, such as our next generation 
Shasta system. We need to compete successfully against HPC systems from both large, established companies and 
smaller  companies  and  demonstrate  the  value  of  our  balanced,  tightly  integrated  systems  to  our  customers  in  a 
variety of markets; 

our ability to meet all customer requirements for acceptance. Even after a system has been delivered, we sometimes 
do not meet all of the contract requirements for customer acceptance and ongoing reliability of our systems within 
the provided-for acceptance period, which has resulted in contract penalties and delays in our ability to recognize 
revenue from system deliveries. Most often these penalties have adversely affected revenue and gross profit at the 
time of revenue recognition through the provision of additional equipment and services and/or service credits to 
satisfy delivery delays and performance shortfalls. The risk of contract penalties is increased when we bid for new 
business prior to us or our suppliers completing development of new products and when we must estimate future 
system performance and costs, such as has been and will be required with our Cray XC systems, next generation 
Shasta systems and ClusterStor storage systems;  

our ability to source competitive, key components in appropriate quantities (to have enough to sell without ending 
up with excess inventory that can lead to obsolescence charges), in a timely fashion and with reasonable costs and 
terms and conditions and that meet the performance criteria required; and  

whether potential customers delay purchases of our products because they decide to wait for successor systems or 
upgrades that we or our suppliers have announced or they believe will be available in the future. 

Failure to successfully develop and sell our Cray XC systems and successor systems, such as our next generation Shasta 

system, will adversely affect our operating results. 

If  our  current  and  future  products  targeting  markets  outside  of  our  traditional  markets,  primarily  products 
targeting the data analytics, AI and commercial markets, are not successful, our ability to grow or even maintain our 
revenues and achieve and sustain profitability will be adversely affected. Our ability to materially grow or even maintain our 
revenues and achieve and sustain profitability will be adversely affected if we are unable to generate sufficient revenue from 
products targeting markets outside of our traditional markets, including if those market segments do not grow significantly. We
are currently focusing on data analytics, AI and storage opportunities as well as the commercial market for all of our products.
To grow outside our primary markets, we must successfully and in a cost-effective manner design and develop products utilizing 
technologies different from our traditional supercomputing products, compete successfully with many established companies and 
new entrants in these markets, win awards for new contracts, timely perform on existing contracts, develop our capability for 
broader  market  sales  and  business  development  and  successfully  develop  and  introduce  new  solution-oriented  offerings, 
notwithstanding that these are relatively new businesses for us and we do not have significant experience targeting these markets.
Data analytics, AI and storage and data management opportunities require significant monetary investments ahead of revenue, 
including product development efforts, adding experienced personnel and initiating new marketing and sales efforts and therefore
may reduce net income in the short term even if ultimately successful in the longer term. In addition, if we do not successfully
integrate the ClusterStor product line and related business, including its more than 125 employees and contractors, our ability to 
generate revenue from our storage business may be adversely affected.

Our reliance on third-party suppliers poses significant risks to our operating results, business and prospects. We 
rely upon third-party vendors, particularly Intel, to supply processors including graphics processing units and memory, and for
most  of  the  products,  we  sell  and  use  service  providers  to  co-develop  key  technologies.  We  purchase  or  subcontract  the 
manufacturing of a majority of the hardware components for our high-end products, including integrated circuits, printed circuit
boards, memory parts, hard disk drives and storage product enclosures, cables and power supplies, on a sole or limited source 
basis to third-party suppliers. We use contract manufacturers to assemble certain important components for all of our systems. 
We also rely on third parties to supply key software and hardware capabilities, such as file systems, solution-specific servers, disk 
drives  and  storage  subsystems.  Because  specific  components  must  be  designed  into  our  systems  well  in  advance  of  initial 

13

deliveries of those systems, we are particularly reliant on our processor vendors, particularly Intel, to deliver on the capabilities
and pricing expected at the time we design key elements of the system and make binding bids to customers. We are subject to 
substantial risks because of our reliance on these and other limited or sole source suppliers, including the following risks:

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

if  a  supplier  does  not  provide  components  or  systems  that  meet  specifications  in  sufficient  quantities  and  with 
acceptable performance, price or quality on time or deliver when required, or delays future components or systems 
beyond anticipated delivery dates, then sales, production, delivery, acceptance and revenue from our systems could 
be  delayed  and/or  reduced  and  we  could  be  subject  to  costly  repair  and/or  delay  costs  and  penalties  even  once 
delivered and accepted, which is currently happening and has happened multiple times in the past and has at times 
significantly lowered our revenue for a particular quarter or year; 

if  a  supplier  provides  us  with  hardware  or  software  that  contains  bugs  or  other  errors,  defects  or  security 
vulnerabilities, such as the recent “Meltdown and “Spectre” processor vulnerabilities, or is different from what we 
expected,  our  development  projects  and  production  systems  may  be  adversely  affected  through  reduced 
performance or capabilities, additional design testing and verification efforts, including of required patches, re-spins 
of integrated circuits and/or development of replacement components, and the production and sales of our systems 
could  be  delayed  and  systems  installed  at  customer  sites  could  require  significant,  expensive  field  component 
replacements or other remediation and/or we might be required to pay penalties; 

if our relationship with a key supplier, such as Intel, is adversely affected for any reason, such as due to competitive 
pressures or changes in company strategies and priorities, our ability to obtain components on competitive financial 
terms could be adversely affected; 

if  a  supplier  cannot  provide  a  competitive  key  component,  for  example,  due  to  inadequate  performance  or  a 
prohibitive  price,  or  eliminates  key  features  from  components,  such  as  with  the  processors  we  design  into  our 
systems, our systems may be less competitive than systems using components with greater capabilities; 

if  an  interruption  of  supply  of  our  components,  services  or  capabilities  occurs  because  a  supplier  changes  its 
technology roadmap, suffers damage to its manufacturing facilities, decides to no longer provide those products or 
services, increases the price of those products or services significantly or imposes reduced delivery allocations on 
its customers, it could take us a considerable period of time to identify and qualify alternative suppliers, to redesign 
our products as necessary and to begin to manufacture the redesigned components or otherwise obtain those services 
or capabilities. In some cases, such as with key integrated circuits and memory parts or processors, we may not be 
able to redesign such components or find alternate sources that we could use in any realistic timeframe, if at all; 

if a supplier plans future processors that are made available in a way that encourages customers to delay purchases 
of our products because they decide to wait for successor systems or upgrades they believe will be available in the 
future or to purchase products with future processors from our competitors who are willing to take greater risk on 
delivery, our operating results will be adversely affected;  

if Cray systems at customer sites develop significant issues with third-party components, as has occurred in the past, 
the cost to Cray to repair or replace the components or otherwise address such issue may be material. If we are 
unable  to  effectively  address  such  problem  or  a  problem  causes  customer  disruption,  our  relationship  with  our 
customers may also be harmed; 

if a supplier of a component is subject to a claim that the component infringes a third-party’s intellectual property 
rights, as has happened with multiple suppliers, we may not be able to obtain necessary components or our cost to 
obtain such components could increase significantly; 

if a key supplier is acquired or undergoes a significant business change, as has occurred in the past, the production 
and sales of our systems and services may be delayed or adversely affected, or our development programs may be 
delayed or may be impossible to complete; 

14

•

•

if a supplier providing us with key research and development and design services or core technology components 
with respect to integrated circuit design, network communication capabilities or software is late, fails to provide us 
with effective functionality or loses key internal talent, our development programs may be delayed or prove to be 
impossible to complete; and 

some of our key component and service suppliers are small companies with limited financial and other resources, 
and  consequently  may  be  more  likely  to  experience  financial  and  operational  difficulties  than  larger,  well-
established companies, which increases the risk that they will be unable to deliver products as needed. 

Delays in the availability of components with acceptable performance, features and reliability, or our inability to obtain 
such  acceptable  components  in  the  quantities  we  need  or  at  all,  the  discovery  of  issues  with  components  after  delivery  and 
introduction into our products and increases in prices and order lead times for certain components, have occurred in the past. We 
have also experienced increased prices and/or delivery timelines of memory and other key components and the “Meltdown” and 
“Spectre”  security  vulnerabilities  in  processors  included  in  our  products.  These  types  of  issues  have  adversely  affected  our 
revenue and operating results in multiple prior periods, in some cases significantly, and could result in significant costs and/or
effort  to  address.  For  instance,  we  expect  that  significant  costs  and  efforts  may  be  required  to  address  the  “Meltdown”  and 
“Spectre” processor vulnerabilities, which could adversely affect our future results. 

If  we  are  unable  to  compete  successfully  in  the  highly  competitive  HPC  market,  our  business  will  not  be 
successful. The market for HPC systems is very competitive. An increase in competitive pressures in our market or our failure to 
compete effectively may result in pricing reductions, reduced gross margins and loss of market share and revenue. Many of our 
competitors are established well-known companies in the HPC market, including IBM, HPE, Lenovo, Dell/EMC, Huawei, NEC, 
Hitachi,  Fujitsu  and  Atos-Bull.  Most  of  these  competitors  have  substantially  greater  research,  engineering,  manufacturing, 
marketing and financial resources than we do. In addition, certain Chinese companies are investing significantly in HPC and are
becoming more aggressive and more competitive in the HPC global arena.

We also compete with systems builders and resellers of systems that are constructed from commodity components using 
processors manufactured and/or designed by Intel, ARM, AMD, NVIDIA and others. These competitors include the companies 
named above, as well as smaller companies that benefit from the low research and development costs needed to assemble systems 
from commercially available commodity products. Such companies, because they can offer high peak performance per dollar, 
can put pricing pressure on us in certain competitive procurements. In addition, to the extent that Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, IBM and
other processor suppliers develop processors with greater capabilities or at a lower cost than the processors we currently use, our 
Cray XC systems may be at a competitive disadvantage to systems utilizing such other processors until we can design in, integrate 
and  secure  competitive  processors,  if  at  all.  Also,  to  the  extent  any  component  supplier  successfully  adds  differentiating 
capabilities to their HPC products that compete with what we provide, such as Intel, we may experience greater competitive 
pressures. 

Our growth initiatives in the data analytics, AI and storage markets must also compete successfully with many established 
companies and new entrants, many of whom have significantly greater resources and brand recognition in these markets than we 
do. 

Periodic announcements by our competitors of new HPC, storage or data analytics systems or plans for future systems and 
price adjustments may reduce customer demand for our products. Many of our potential customers already own or lease high 
performance computer, storage or data analytics systems. Some of our competitors have offered substantial discounts to potential
customers. We have in the past been and may again be required to provide substantial discounts to make strategic sales, which 
may reduce or eliminate any gross profit on such transactions, or we may be required to provide lease financing for our products,
which could result in a multi-year deferral of our receipt of cash and revenue for these systems. These developments limit our 
revenue and financial resources and reduce our ability to be profitable and grow. 

The continuing commoditization of HPC hardware and software has resulted in increased pricing pressure and may 
adversely affect our operating results. The continuing commoditization of HPC hardware, such as processors, interconnects, 
storage  and  other  infrastructure,  and  the  growing  commoditization of  software,  including  plentiful  building  blocks  and  more 

15

capable open source software, as well as the potential for integration of differentiated technology into already-commoditized 
components, has resulted in, and may result in increased pricing pressure that may cause us to reduce our pricing in order to 
remain competitive, which can negatively impact our gross margins and adversely affect our operating results.

If the U.S. Government and other governments purchase, or fund the purchase of, fewer supercomputers or delay 
such purchases, our revenue would be reduced and our operating results would be adversely affected. Historically, sales to 
the  U.S.  Government  have  represented  the  largest  single  market  segment  for  supercomputer  sales  worldwide,  including  our 
products and services. In 2015, 2016 and 2017, approximately 47%, 47% and 53%, respectively, of our total revenue was derived 
from  such  sales.  Our  plans  for  the  foreseeable  future  contemplate  significant  sales  to  the  U.S.  Government.  Sales  to  the 
U.S. Government and other governments, including further sales pursuant to existing contracts, have been, and may continue to 
be, adversely affected by factors outside our control, such as by:

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

uncertainties relating to priorities of the current administration or adverse decisions by the current administration to 
reduce or eliminate budgets for governmental agencies or departments that purchase or fund the purchase of our 
products and services;  

Congressional and executive branch decisions in addressing budget concerns and current policy;  

disruptions  in  the  operations  of  the  U.S.  Government,  including  impacts  of  the  current  administration  and 
government “shutdowns” such as recently occurred; 

“sequestration”;

the downgrading of U.S. Government debt or the possibility of such action; 

the  political  climate  in  the  United  States  focusing  on  cutting  or  limiting  budgets  and  its  effect  on  government 
budgets;  

the limits on federal borrowing capacity;  

changes in procurement policies;  

budgetary considerations, including Congressional delays in completing appropriation bills as has occurred in the 
past; 

domestic crises, such as costs of addressing the damage associated with natural disasters; 

international political developments, such as the downgrading of European debt or the United Kingdom’s departure 
from the European Union; or 

political efforts to limit the activities of U.S. intelligence community agencies, including proposed state legislation 
that would limit or even criminalize doing business with the U.S. National Security Agency for certain companies 
doing business with state governments.  

If  agencies  and  departments  of  the  United  States  or  other  governments  were  to  stop,  reduce  or  delay  their  use  and 

purchases of supercomputers, our revenue and operating results would be adversely affected. 

If we cannot retain, attract and motivate key personnel, we may be unable to effectively implement our business 
plan. Our success depends in large part upon our ability to retain, attract and motivate highly skilled management, development, 
marketing, sales and service personnel. The loss of and failure to replace key technical management and personnel could adversely 
affect multiple development efforts, including those related to our next generation Shasta system. Recruitment and retention of
senior management and skilled technical, sales and other personnel is very competitive, and we may not be successful in either 
attracting  or  retaining  such  personnel.  We  have  lost  key  personnel  to  other  high  technology  companies,  and  many  larger 
companies  with  significantly  greater  resources  than  us  have  aggressively  recruited,  and  continue  to  aggressively  recruit,  key 
personnel. As part of our strategy to attract and retain key personnel, we may offer equity compensation through grants of stock
options, restricted stock awards or restricted stock units. Potential employees, however, may not perceive our equity incentives
as attractive enough. In addition, due to the intense competition for qualified employees, we may be required to, and have had to,

16

 
increase the level of compensation paid to existing and new employees, which could materially increase our operating expenses. 
In July 2017, we implemented a restructuring plan that included a reduction of our workforce and as a result we may have lost 
important talent and skill sets and may have a more difficult time retaining and motivating those employees not directly impacted 
by the restructuring as well as attracting new employees.

We may infringe or be subject to claims that we infringe the intellectual property rights of others. We are and may in 
the future be subject to patent infringement and other intellectual property claims and lawsuits in various jurisdictions, and we 
cannot be certain that our products or activities do not violate the patents, trademarks, or other intellectual property rights of third-
parties. Companies in the technology industry, and other patent, copyright, and trademark holders seeking to profit from royalties,
own large numbers of patents, copyrights, trademarks, domain names, and trade secrets and frequently commence litigation based 
on allegations of infringement, misappropriation, or other violations of intellectual property or other rights. As we face increasing 
competition and gain an increasingly high profile, the intellectual property rights claims against us have grown and will likely
continue to grow. For example, we are currently involved in litigation with Raytheon Company (Raytheon) which is described in 
Note 13 - Commitments and Contingencies in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 15. Exhibits and Financial 
Statement Schedules in Part IV of this annual report on Form 10-K.

We intend to vigorously defend and prosecute these litigation matters and, based on our reviews to date, we believe we have 
valid defenses with respect to each of these matters. However, litigation is inherently uncertain, and any judgment or injunctive
relief  entered  against  us  or  any  adverse  settlement  could  materially  and  adversely  impact  our  business,  financial  condition, 
operating results, and prospects. As a result of these or other intellectual property infringement claims, we could be required or 
otherwise decide that it is appropriate to: 

•

•

•

•

•

pay third-party infringement claims; 

discontinue manufacturing, using or selling particular products subject to infringement claims; 

discontinue using the technology or processes subject to infringement claims; 

develop other technology not subject to infringement claims, which could be time-consuming and costly or may 
not be possible; and/or 

license technology from third-parties, which license may not be available on commercially reasonable terms, or 
at all. 

In  addition,  litigation  can  involve  significant  management  time  and  attention  and  be  expensive,  as  it  has  been  with 
Raytheon, regardless of outcome. During the course of these litigation matters, there may be announcements of the results of 
hearings and motions, and other interim developments related to the litigation matters. If securities analysts or investors regard 
these announcements as negative, the market price of our common stock may decline. 

If our cluster systems are not successful, our operating results could be adversely affected. Our cluster products were 
first introduced in late 2012. Cluster-based solutions face intense competition in the marketplace with buying decisions often 
driven by price, and if we cannot successfully sell these solutions with acceptable margins, our operating results will be adversely
affected.

We have made and entered into in the past, and may make and enter into in the future, acquisitions or strategic 
transactions  which  could  require  significant  management  attention,  disrupt  our  business,  result  in  dilution  to  our 
shareholders, deplete our cash reserves, increase our business risks and adversely affect our financial results. Acquisitions 
and  strategic  transactions,  such  as  our  recent  acquisition  of  the  ClusterStor  business  from  Seagate,  involve  numerous  risks, 
including the following:

•

•

difficulties  in  successfully  integrating  the  operations,  systems,  technologies,  products,  sales  channels, 
manufacturing processes, offerings and personnel of the acquired company or companies, assets and/or business; 

insufficient revenue, margin or other benefits to offset increased expenses or other negative impacts associated with 
acquisitions or strategic transactions; 

17

•

•

•

•

•

•

diversion of management’s attention from normal daily operations of the business and the challenges of managing 
larger  and  more  widespread  operations  resulting  from  acquisitions  or  strategic  transactions,  including  other 
customers of an acquired business; 

potential difficulties in completing projects associated with in-process research and development intangibles; 

difficulties in entering markets in which we have no or limited direct prior experience and where competitors in 
such markets have stronger market positions; 

initial dependence on unfamiliar supply chains or relatively small supply partners; 

the potential loss of key employees, customers, distributors, vendors and other business partners of the companies 
or businesses we acquire following and continuing after announcement of any transaction; and 

the potential to invest significant time and resources into a potential acquisition or strategic transaction that does 
not ultimately complete or close. 

Acquisitions or strategic transactions may also cause us to: 

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

use a substantial portion of our cash reserves or incur debt; 

issue equity securities or grant equity incentives to acquired employees that would dilute our current shareholders’ 
percentage ownership; 

assume or incur liabilities, including potentially unknown or underestimated liabilities; 

record goodwill and non-amortizable intangible assets that are subject to impairment testing on a regular basis and 
potential periodic impairment charges; 

incur amortization expenses related to certain intangible assets; 

incur large and immediate write-offs and restructuring and other related expenses; or 

become subject to intellectual property litigation or other litigation. 

Acquisitions  of  high-technology  companies,  assets  and/or  businesses  are  inherently  risky  and  subject  to  many  factors 
outside of our control, and no assurance can be given that our previously completed, currently planned or future acquisitions or
strategic  transactions  will  be  successful  and  will  not  materially  adversely  affect  our  business,  operating  results,  or  financial
condition. Failure to manage and successfully integrate acquisitions could materially harm our business and operating results. 

We maintain confidential and proprietary information on our computer networks and employ security measures 
designed  to  protect  this  information  from  unauthorized  access.  If  our  security  measures  are  breached,  we  could  lose 
proprietary data and may suffer economic losses. We maintain confidential information on our computer networks, including 
information and data that are proprietary to our customers and third parties, as well as to us. Although we have designed and 
employed and continue to enhance a multitude of security measures to protect this information from unauthorized access, security
breaches may occur, and in the past have occurred, as a result of third-party action, including computer hackers, employee error, 
inherent  hardware  or  software  vulnerabilities,  malfeasance  or  otherwise.  Security  breaches  can  result  in  someone  obtaining 
unauthorized  access  to  our  data  or  our  customers’  data,  including  our  intellectual  property  and  other  confidential  business 
information. Because the techniques employed by hackers to obtain unauthorized access or to sabotage systems change frequently,
we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures. A security breach could result 
in disclosure of our trade secrets or disclosure of confidential customer, supplier or employee data. If this should happen, we
could be exposed to potentially significant legal liability, remediation expense, harm to our reputation and other harm to our 
business.

We may not be able to protect our proprietary information and rights adequately. We rely on a combination of patent, 
copyright, trademark and trade secret protection, nondisclosure agreements and licensing arrangements to establish, protect and
enforce our proprietary information and rights. We have a number of patents and have additional applications pending. There can
be no assurance, however, that patents will be issued from the pending applications or that any issued patents will adequately 

18

protect  those  aspects  of  our  technology  to  which  such  patents  will  relate.  Despite  our  efforts  to  safeguard  and  maintain  our 
proprietary rights, we cannot be certain that we will succeed in doing so or that our competitors will not independently develop
or patent technologies that are substantially equivalent or superior to our technologies. The laws of some countries do not protect 
intellectual property rights to the same extent or in the same manner as do the laws of the United States. Additionally, under 
certain conditions, the U.S. government might obtain non-exclusive rights to certain of our intellectual property. Although we 
continue  to  implement  protective  measures  and  intend  to  defend  our  proprietary  rights  vigorously,  these  efforts  may  not  be 
successful.

We are subject to market and financial risks due to our international operations that could adversely affect those 
operations or our profitability and operating results. Our international operations include sales and service offices in Europe, 
the Middle East, South America, Asia, Australia and Canada. Our operations in countries outside of the United States, which 
accounted for approximately 35% of our total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2017, expose us to greater risks associated
with international sales and operations. Our profitability and international operations are, and will continue to be, subject to a 
number of risks and potential costs, including:

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

supporting multiple languages; 

recruiting sales and technical support personnel internationally with the skills to sell and support our products and 
the potentially high cost related to employee separations; 

complying with governmental regulations, including obtaining required import or export approval for our products; 

increased complexity and costs of managing international operations; 

increased exposure to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations; 

trade protection measures and business practices that favor local competition; 

risks and costs associated with employee-favorable labor laws in many foreign jurisdictions; 

longer sales cycles and manufacturing lead times; 

financial risks such as longer payment cycles and difficulties in collecting accounts receivable; 

difficulties associated with repatriating cash generated or held abroad in a tax-efficient manner; 

ineffective legal protection of intellectual property rights; 

• more complicated logistics and distribution arrangements; 

•

•

•

•

additional taxes and penalties; 

inadequate local infrastructure that could result in business disruptions; 

global political and economic instability; and 

other factors beyond our control such as natural disasters, terrorism, civil unrest, war and infectious disease. 

Our global operations are also subject to numerous U.S. and foreign laws and regulations, including those related to anti-
corruption, tax, corporate governance, imports and exports, privacy and data security, financial and other disclosures and labor
relations. These  laws  and  regulations  are  complex  and  may  have  differing,  conflicting  and  evolving  legal  standards,  making 
compliance difficult and costly. If we or our employees, contractors or agents violate these laws and regulations, we could be 
subject to fines, penalties or criminal sanctions and may be prohibited from conducting business in one or more countries. Any 
violations, individually or in the aggregate, could have a material adverse effect on our operations and financial condition. 

In addition, the United Kingdom gave formal notice of withdrawal from the European Union in March 2017. Consequently, 
the British government is currently negotiating the terms of the United Kingdom’s future relationship with the European Union. 
The negotiated measures could potentially disrupt some of our target markets and jurisdictions in which we operate, including 
the United Kingdom and Germany, such as by adversely affecting tax benefits or liabilities in these or other jurisdictions or by

19

restricting the movement of employees between the United Kingdom and other countries. Any such changes may adversely affect 
our operations and financial results. 

Customers and other third parties may make statements speculating about or announcing the purchase, acceptance 
or intention to complete purchases or acceptances of our products before such purchases or acceptances are substantially 
certain, and these proposed purchases or acceptances may not be completed when or as expected, if at all. From time to 
time, customers and other third parties may make statements speculating about or announcing a potential purchase of our products
before we have obtained an order for such purchases or completed negotiations and signed a contract for the purchase of such 
products. In some instances, government and government-funded customers may announce possible purchases even before they 
have obtained the necessary budget to procure the products. As a result, these statements, postings or announcements do not mean
that  we  will  ultimately  be  able  to  secure  the  sale  when  or  as  expected  or  at  all  as  it  is  not  certain  that  the  contract  or  order
negotiations will be completed successfully or as expected or that the customer will be able to obtain the budget they hope for or 
expect. In addition, from time to time, customers and other third parties may make statements speculating about or announcing 
the completion of an acceptance process of a delivery system before such acceptance is completed or certain. As a result, these
statements  or  announcements  do  not  mean  that  we  will  ultimately  be  able  to  obtain  the  acceptance  when  or  as  expected  or 
recognize revenue.

We  are  subject  to  increasing  government  regulations  and  other  requirements  due  to  the  nature  of  our  business, 
which may adversely affect our business operations. In 2015, 2016 and 2017, approximately 47%, 47% and 53%, respectively, 
of  our  total  revenue  was  derived  from  the  U.S.  Government.  In  addition  to  normal  business  risks,  our  contracts  with  the 
U.S. government are subject to unique risks, some of which are beyond our control. Our contracts with the U.S. government are 
subject to particular risks, including:

The  funding  of  U.S.  government  programs  is  subject  to  Congressional  appropriations. Many  of  the  U.S.  government 
programs in which we participate may extend for several years; however, these programs are normally funded annually. Changes 
in U.S. strategy and priorities may affect our future procurement opportunities and existing programs. Long-term government 
contracts and related orders are subject to cancellation, or delay, if appropriations for subsequent performance periods are not
made. The termination of funding for existing or new U.S. government programs could result in a material adverse effect on our 
results of operations and financial condition.

The U.S. government may modify, curtail or terminate its contracts with us. The U.S. government may modify, curtail or 
terminate  its  contracts  and  subcontracts  with  us,  without  prior  notice  at  its  convenience  upon  payment  for  work  done  and 
commitments made at the time of termination. Modification, curtailment or termination of our major programs or contracts could 
have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.

Our U.S. government contract costs are subject to audits by U.S. government agencies. U.S. government representatives 
may audit the costs we incur on our U.S. government contracts, including allocated indirect costs. Such audits could result in 
adjustments to our contract costs. Any costs found to be improperly allocated to a specific contract will not be reimbursed, and
such costs already reimbursed must be refunded. If any audit uncovers improper or illegal activities or non-compliance with the
terms of a specific contract, we may be subject to civil and criminal penalties and administrative sanctions, including termination 
of  contracts,  forfeiture  of  profits,  suspension  of  payments,  fines  and  suspension  or  prohibition  from  doing  business  with  the 
U.S. government.

Our business is subject to potential U.S. government inquiries and investigations. We may be subject to U.S. government 
inquiries  and  investigations  of  our  business  practices  due  to  our  participation  in  government  contracts. Any  such  inquiry  or 
investigation could potentially result in a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.

Our  U.S.  government  business  is  also  subject  to  specific  procurement  regulations  and  other  requirements. These 
requirements, although customary in U.S. government contracts, increase our performance and compliance costs. These costs 
might increase in the future, reducing our margins, which could have a negative effect on our financial condition. Failure to 
comply  with  these  regulations  and  requirements  could  lead  to  suspension  or  debarment,  for  cause,  from  U.S.  government 
contracting or subcontracting for a period of time or the inability to participate in certain procurements and could have a negative
effect on our reputation and ability to secure future U.S. government contracts.

20

U.S.  export  controls  could  hinder  our  ability  to  make  sales  to  foreign  customers  and  our  future  prospects.  The 
U.S. government regulates the export of HPC systems such as our products. We have experienced delays for up to several months 
in receiving appropriate approvals necessary for certain sales, which have delayed the shipment of our products. Delay or denial
in the granting of any required licenses could make it more difficult to make sales to certain foreign customers, eliminating an
important source of potential revenue. Restrictions on the export of information needed to manufacture our products has in the 
past impacted and could in the future impact our ability to have certain products and components made in certain lower cost 
jurisdictions.

Our stock price is volatile. The trading price of our common stock is subject to significant fluctuations in response to 
many factors, including stock market trends and shareholder profile, our quarterly operating results, changes in analysts’ estimates 
or our outlook, our capital raising activities, announcements of technological innovations and customer contracts by us or our 
competitors, others in the industry or our customers, a significant aggressive seller or buyer, litigation activities, general economic 
conditions  and  conditions  in our  industry.  From  January 1, 2017  through December 31, 2017,  the  closing  sales price  of  our 
common stock on The Nasdaq Global Market ranged from $16.35 to $26.55 per share. Because our stock price has been volatile, 
investing in our common stock is risky.

We incorporate software licensed from third parties into the operating systems for our products as well as in our 
tools  to  design  products  and  any  significant  interruption  in  the  availability  of  these  third-party  software  products  or 
defects in these products could reduce the demand for our products or cause delay in development. The operating system 
as well as other software we develop for our supercomputers contains components that are licensed to us under open source 
software licenses. Our business could be disrupted if this software, or functional equivalents of this software, were either no
longer available to us or no longer offered to us on commercially reasonable terms. In either case we would be required to redesign 
our operating system software to function with alternative third-party software, or develop these components ourselves, which 
would result  in  increased  costs  and  could result  in  delays  in  product  shipments.  Our  supercomputer  systems  utilize  software 
system variants that incorporate Linux technology. The open source licenses under which we have obtained certain components 
of our operating system software may not be enforceable. Any ruling by a court that these licenses are not enforceable, or that
Linux-based operating systems, or significant portions of them, may not be copied, modified or distributed as provided in those
licenses, would adversely affect our ability to sell our systems. In addition, as a result of concerns about the risks of litigation and 
open source software generally, we may be forced to protect our customers from potential claims of infringement. In any such 
event, our financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected.

We also incorporate proprietary software from third parties, such as for file systems, job scheduling and storage subsystems. 
We have experienced functional issues in the past with implementing such software with our supercomputer systems. In addition, 
we may not be able to secure needed software systems on acceptable terms, or at all, which may make our systems less attractive
to potential customers. These issues may result in lost revenue, additional expense by us and/or loss of customer confidence. 

The  “conflict  minerals”  rule  of  the  SEC,  has  caused  us  to  incur  additional  expenses,  could  limit  the  supply  and 
increase the cost of certain metals used in manufacturing our products, and could make us less competitive in our target 
markets. The SEC requires public companies to disclose the origin, source and chain of custody of specified minerals, known as 
conflict minerals, that are necessary to the functionality or production of products manufactured or contracted to be manufactured 
by us. Companies must obtain sourcing data from suppliers, engage in supply chain due diligence, and file annually with the SEC
a specialized disclosure report on Form SD covering the prior calendar year. Implementation of our conflict minerals policy could
limit our ability to source at competitive prices and to secure sufficient quantities of certain minerals used in the manufacture of 
our products, specifically tantalum, tin, gold and tungsten, as the number of suppliers that provide conflict-free minerals may be 
limited. In addition, we have incurred, and may continue to incur, material costs associated with complying with the conflict 
minerals rule, such as costs related to the determination of the origin, source and chain of custody of the minerals used in our
products, the adoption of conflict minerals-related governance policies, processes and controls, and possible changes to products
or sources of supply as a result of such activities. Within our supply chain, we may not be able to sufficiently verify the origins 
of the relevant minerals used in our products through the data collection and due diligence procedures that we implement, which
may harm our reputation. Furthermore, we may encounter challenges in satisfying those customers that require that all of the 

21

components of our products be certified as conflict free, and if we cannot satisfy these customers, they may choose a competitor’s 
products. We continue to investigate the presence of conflict materials within our supply chain.

We are required to evaluate our internal control over financial reporting under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley 
Act of 2002 at the end of each fiscal year, and any adverse results from such future evaluations could result in a loss of 
investor confidence in our financial reports and have an adverse effect on our stock price. Pursuant to Section 404 of the 
Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, we are required to furnish a report by our management and a report by our independent registered 
public accounting firm on our internal control over financial reporting in our annual reports on Form 10-K as to whether we have
any  material  weaknesses  in  our  internal  controls  over financial reporting. Depending  on  their  nature  and  severity,  any  future 
material weaknesses could result in our having to restate financial statements, could make it difficult or impossible for us to
obtain an audit of our annual financial statements or could result in a qualification of any such audit. In such events, we could 
experience  a  number  of  adverse  consequences,  including  our  inability  to  comply  with  applicable  reporting  and  listing 
requirements, a loss of market confidence in our publicly available information, delisting from The Nasdaq Global Market, an 
inability to complete a financing, loss of other financing sources such as our line of credit, and litigation based on the events 
themselves or their consequences.

Our reported financial results may be adversely affected by changes in accounting principles generally accepted in 
the United States. Generally accepted accounting principles in the United States are subject to interpretation by the Financial 
Accounting Standards Board, the SEC and various bodies formed to promulgate and interpret appropriate accounting principles. 
A change in these principles or interpretations could have a significant effect on our reported financial results, and could affect 
the reporting of transactions completed before the announcement of a change.

U.S. federal income tax reform could adversely affect us. On December 22, 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed 
into law, enacting a broad range of changes to the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, among other things, 
includes  changes  to  U.S.  federal  tax  rates,  imposes  significant  additional  limitations  on  the  deductibility  of  interest  and  net
operating losses, allows for the expensing of certain capital expenditures and puts into effect a number of changes impacting 
operations  outside  of  the  United  States.  In  the  fourth  quarter  of  2017,  we  reduced  our  deferred  tax  asset  by  approximately 
$28.9 million as a result. The Company will continue to assess the impact of the new tax legislation on its net deferred tax assets 
and liabilities and will continue to examine the impact this tax legislation may have on our business.

Provisions of our Restated Articles  of Incorporation and Amended and Restated Bylaws could make a proposed 
acquisition of our business that is not approved by our Board of Directors more difficult. Provisions of our Restated Articles 
of Incorporation and Amended and Restated Bylaws could make it more difficult for a third-party to acquire us. These provisions
could limit the price that investors might be willing to pay in the future for our common stock. For example, our Restated Articles
of Incorporation and Amended and Restated Bylaws provide for:

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

removal of a director only in limited circumstances and only upon the affirmative vote of not less than two-thirds 
of the shares entitled to vote to elect directors; 

the ability of our Board of Directors to issue up to 5,000,000 shares of preferred stock, without shareholder approval, 
with rights senior to those of the common stock; 

no cumulative voting of shares; 

the right of shareholders to call a special meeting of the shareholders only upon demand by the holders of not less 
than 30% of the shares entitled to vote at such a meeting; 

the affirmative vote of not less than two-thirds of the outstanding shares entitled to vote on an amendment, unless 
the amendment was approved by a majority of our continuing directors, who are defined as directors who have 
either served as a director since August 31, 1995, or were nominated to be a director by the continuing directors; 

special  voting  requirements  for  mergers  and  other  business  combinations,  unless  the  proposed  transaction  was 
approved by a majority of continuing directors; 

special procedures to bring matters before our shareholders at our annual shareholders’ meeting; and 

special procedures to nominate members for election to our Board of Directors. 

22

These provisions could delay, defer or prevent a merger, consolidation, takeover or other business transaction between us 

and a third-party that is not approved by our Board of Directors. 

Item 1B.    Unresolved Staff Comments

None. 

Item 2.    Properties

Our principal properties are as follows: 

Location of Property 

Uses of Facility 

Chippewa Falls, WI 

Bloomington, MN 
Seattle, WA 

San Jose, CA 
Austin, TX 
Longmont, CO 

Manufacturing, hardware development, central service and 
warehouse 
  Software development, sales and marketing 
Executive offices, hardware and software development, sales 
and marketing 

  Hardware and software development 
Hardware development 
  ClusterStor product development 

Approximate 

213,600

87,705
51,643

21,733
20,916
14,292

We own 205,478 square feet of manufacturing, development, service and warehouse space in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, 

and lease the remaining space described above. 

We lease a total of 5,600 square feet of office space, primarily for software development, in Pleasanton, California. We also 
lease a total of approximately 11,000 square feet, primarily for sales and service offices, in other domestic locations. In addition, 
various foreign sales and service subsidiaries have leased an aggregate of approximately 30,000 square feet of office space, in
international locations. We believe our facilities are adequate to meet our needs at least through 2018. 

Item 3.    Legal Proceedings

For  a  discussion  of  legal  proceedings,  see  Note 13 —  Commitments  and  Contingencies  in  the  Notes  to  Consolidated 

Financial Statements in Item 15. Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules in Part IV of this annual report on Form 10-K. 

Item 4.    Mine Safety Disclosures

Not applicable. 

23

 
 
 
PART II 

Item 5.    Market for the Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Shareholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Price Range of Common Stock and Dividend Policy 

Our common stock is traded on The Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol CRAY. As of February 13, 2018, we had 
40,475,586 shares of common stock outstanding that were held by 456 holders of record. The actual number of shareholders is 
greater than this number of registered record holders, and includes shareholders who are beneficial owners, but whose shares are
held in “street name” by brokers and other nominees. 

The quarterly high and low sales prices of our common stock for the periods indicated are as follows: 

Year Ended December 31, 2017: 

    First Quarter 
    Second Quarter 
    Third Quarter 
    Fourth Quarter 

Year Ended December 31, 2016: 

    First Quarter 
    Second Quarter 
    Third Quarter 
    Fourth Quarter 

High 

Low 

22.55   $ 
21.98 $
20.95   $ 
26.65 $

43.79 $
43.40   $ 
32.30 $
23.68   $ 

16.10
16.50
17.35
17.90

28.25
27.39
20.60
16.77

$
$
$
$

$
$
$
$

We have not paid cash dividends on our common stock and we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends on our common 
stock in the foreseeable future. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors 
and will be dependent on a number of factors, including our earnings, capital requirements and overall financial conditions. In
addition, the terms of our credit agreement with Wells Fargo Bank currently restrict our ability to pay dividends. 

Equity Compensation Plan Information 

The following table provides information as of December 31, 2017, with respect to compensation plans under which shares 
of  our  common  stock  are  authorized  for  issuance,  including  plans  previously  approved  by  our  shareholders  and  plans  not 
previously approved by our shareholders. 

Plan Category 
Equity compensation plans approved by 
shareholders(1)
Equity compensation plans not approved by 
shareholders(2)
Total 

Number of Shares of 
Common Stock to be 
Issued Upon  Exercise of 
Outstanding Options 

Weighted-Average 
Exercise Price of 
Outstanding Options 

Number of Shares of 
Common Stock Available 
for Future Issuance  Under 
Equity Compensation 
Plans (excluding shares 
reflected in 1st column) 

2,008,538 $

25,936 $

2,034,474

17.42

4.88

3,107,064

—

3,107,064

(1) The  shareholders  approved  our  1995,  1999  and  2003  stock  option  plans,  our  2004,  2006  and  2009  long-term  equity 
compensation plans, our 2013 equity incentive plan, as amended and restated, and our 2001 employee stock purchase plan, 
as amended. Our 1995, 1999 and 2003 stock option plans and our 2004, 2006 and 2009 long-term equity compensation 
plans have terminated and no more awards may be granted under those plans. Pursuant to our 2013 equity incentive plan, 
incentive options may be granted to employees (including officers) and nonqualified options may be granted to employees, 
officers, directors,  agents  and  consultants with  exercise prices  at  least equal  to  the fair  market  value  of  the underlying 
common stock at the time of grant. While our Board of Directors may grant options with varying vesting periods under 

24

these plans, most options granted to employees vest over four years, with 25% of the options vesting after one year and the 
remaining options vesting monthly over the next three years, and most option grants to non-employee directors vesting 
immediately. Also pursuant to our 2013 equity incentive plan, our Board of Directors may grant restricted stock awards, 
stock  bonus  awards,  stock  appreciation  rights,  restricted  stock  units,  performance  shares  and  performance  units  to 
employees, directors, consultants, independent contractors and advisors. As of December 31, 2017, under our 2013 equity 
incentive plan, an aggregate of 3,107,064 shares were available for grant as stock options or stock appreciation rights and 
an aggregate of 2,004,557 shares were available for restricted stock awards, stock bonus awards, restricted stock units, 
performance shares or performance units to employees, directors, consultants, independent contractors and advisors. 

(2) The  shareholders  did  not  approve  our  2000  non-executive  employee  stock  option  plan.  Under  the  2000 non-executive 
employee  stock option  plan approved by our  Board  of Directors  on  March 30,  2000, an  aggregate  of 1,500,000 shares 
pursuant to non-qualified options could be issued to employees, agents and consultants but not to officers or directors. 
Otherwise, our 2000 non-executive employee stock option plan is similar to the stock option plans described in footnote 
(1) above. On March 30, 2010, our 2000 non-executive employee stock option plan was terminated, which ended future 
grants but did not affect then outstanding options. As of December 31, 2017, under our 2000 non-executive employee stock 
plan, we had options for 25,936 shares outstanding. 

Unregistered Sales of Securities 

We had no unregistered sales of our securities in 2017 not previously reported. 

Issuer Repurchases 

We did not repurchase any of our common stock in 2017, other than in connection with the forfeiture of common stock by 
holders of restricted  stock  and restricted  stock  units  in  exchange  for  payments  by  the  Company  of  statutory  tax withholding 
amounts on behalf of the holders arising as a result of the vesting of restricted stock and restricted stock units. 

25

STOCK PERFORMANCE GRAPHS 

The graph below compares the cumulative total return to shareholders for our common stock with the comparable return 
of the Nasdaq OMX Global Indexes Nasdaq US Benchmark TR Index and the Nasdaq OMX Global Indexes ICB: 9572 Computer 
Hardware Index. 

The graph assumes that a shareholder invested $100 in our common stock on December 31, 2012, and that all dividends 
were  reinvested.  We  have  never  paid  cash  dividends  on  our  common  stock. All  return  information  is  historical  and  is  not 
necessarily indicative of future performance. 

COMPARISON OF CUMULATIVE TOTAL RETURN AMONG OUR COMMON STOCK, 

THE NASDAQ US BENCHMARK TR INDEX AND THE ICB: 9572 

COMPUTER HARDWARE INDEX THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2017 

s
r
a
l
l
o
D

260

240

220

200

180

160

140

120

100

80

12/31/2012

12/31/2013

12/31/2014

12/31/2015

12/31/2016

12/31/2017

Cray Inc.

Nasdaq US Benchmark TR Index

ICB: 9572 Computer Hardware

Cray Inc. 
Nasdaq US Benchmark TR Index 
ICB: 9572 Computer Hardware Index 

12/31/2012  12/31/2013  12/31/2014  12/31/2015  12/31/2016  12/31/2017 

$

100.0 $
100.0
100.0

172.2 $
133.5
117.6

216.2 $
150.1
159.5

203.4 $
150.8 
145.2 

129.8 $
170.5
167.4

151.7
206.9
240.7

26

Item 6.    Selected Consolidated Financial Data

The  following  table  presents  selected  historical  consolidated  financial  data  for  Cray  Inc.  and  its  subsidiaries,  which  is 

derived from our audited consolidated financial statements: 

Operating Data: 

    Product revenue 
    Service revenue 

        Total revenue 
    Cost of product revenue 
    Cost of service revenue 

        Total cost of revenue 

    Gross profit 
    Research and development, net
    Sales and marketing 
    General and administrative 
    Restructuring 
    Operating expenses 
    Income (loss) from operations 
    Other income (expense), net 
    Interest income, net 
    Gain on strategic transaction 
    Income (loss) before income taxes 
    Benefit (provision) for income taxes 

Net income (loss) 

Net income (loss) per common share: 

    Basic 

    Diluted

Weighted average outstanding shares: 

    Basic 

    Diluted 

Cash Flow Data: 

    Cash provided by (used in): 
        Operating activities 
        Investing activities 
        Financing activities 
    Depreciation and amortization 
    Purchases of property and equipment 

Balance Sheet Data: 
Cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and 
investments 
Working capital 
Total assets 
Shareholders’ equity 

$

$

$

$

$

Years Ended December 31, 

2017

2016

2015

2014 

2013

(In thousands, except for per share data)

250,195 $
142,314
392,509
188,830
72,975
261,805
130,704
98,777
59,894
29,113
8,568
196,352
(65,648)
5,002
3,276
4,480
(52,890)
(80,939)
(133,829) $

499,432 $
130,377
629,809
332,016
77,578
409,594
220,215
112,130
64,893
34,053
—
211,076
9,139
(1,365)
2,147
—
9,921
694
10,615 $

601,294   $ 
123,395
724,689  
426,821
72,185  
499,006
225,683  
96,563
60,150  
27,966
—
184,679

41,004  
365
1,408  
—

42,777  
(15,240)
27,537   $ 

460,748 $
100,858
561,606
321,554
55,638
377,192
184,414
94,048
57,785
23,381
—
175,214
9,200
(9)
506
—
9,697
52,626
62,323 $

(3.33) $

(3.33) $

0.27 $

0.26 $

0.70   $ 

0.68 $

1.61 $

1.54 $

40,139

40,139

39,833

41,012

39,257

40,691  

38,634

40,435

436,330
89,419
525,749
298,244
43,179
341,423
184,326
87,728
51,345
23,603
—
162,676
21,650
(1,378)
757
—
21,029
11,194
32,223

0.85

0.81

37,832

39,776

(73,341) $
(13,663)
(332)
16,760
17,467

(52,313) $
8,998
(540)
14,684
7,503

147,756 $
7,216  
(1,373)
17,017  
7,467

(58,109) $
(22,755)
(70)
16,324
17,193

(87,350)
27,211
(93)
14,242
13,136

$

147,317 $

224,617 $

284,891 $

145,796 $

220,449

354,300
618,757
400,297

373,028
714,572
525,476

376,559  
694,175
492,510  

325,541
651,434
453,854

325,733
603,366
375,587

27

   
 
 
 
   
 
Item 7.    Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

Overview and Executive Summary 

We focus on designing, developing, manufacturing, marketing and servicing computing products that magnify and enhance 
human capital, foster innovation and create competitive advantages. That means our products are aimed primarily at the high-end
of the high performance computing (HPC) and data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) markets - the segments populated by
the pioneers, executives and entrepreneurs leading their industries in both the private and public sectors. These products include 
compute systems commonly known as supercomputers, and storage, data analytics and AI solutions. We offer them individually, 
integrated into a complete solution or hosted in the cloud, depending on a customer’s need. We also provide related software and
system  maintenance,  support,  and  engineering  services.  Our  customers  include  domestic  and  foreign  government  and 
government-funded entities, academic institutions and commercial companies. We provide customer-focused solutions based on 
four  main  models:  (1)  tightly  integrated  supercomputing  designed  throughout  for  scalability  and  sustained  performance; 
(2) customizable  cluster  supercomputing  based  on  highest-performance  industry-standard  components;  (3)  robust  high-
performance storage solutions; and (4) integrated solutions for graph analysis and large-scale analytics and AI applications. All 
of our solutions also emphasize total cost of ownership, scalable performance and data center flexibility as key features. Our 
continuing strategy is to gain market share by extending our technology leadership and differentiation and expanding our share 
and  addressable  market  in  areas  where  we  can  leverage  our  experience  and  technology,  such  as  in AI  applications  and  data 
analytics. We also meet diverse customer requirements by combining supercomputing, cluster supercomputing, and data analytics 
and AI into unique offerings that work in a workflow-driven datacenter environment. 

Summary of 2017 Results 

Total  revenue decreased  by $237.3  million  in 2017  compared  to  2016, from  $629.8  million  to  $392.5  million.  Product 
revenue decreased by $249.2 million and service revenue increased by $11.9 million over the same period. The year over year 
decrease in product revenue was substantially driven by a slow-down in the high-end segments of the supercomputing market 
that we target, as well as the timing of contracts and deliveries. Some 2017 deliveries were impacted by certain customer site 
readiness issues. The year over year increase in service revenue was primarily driven by increased maintenance revenue, which 
continues to be driven by our larger installed system base, including the benefit from longer lifetimes of installed systems due to 
the slowdown in acquisitions of new replacement systems. 

Product gross profit margin decreased from 34% in 2016 to 25% in 2017. In the third quarter of 2017, we determined that 
a large contract currently scheduled for acceptance in 2018 would be performed at a loss of $4.1 million. The loss is attributable 
in part to higher component costs, predominantly for memory, changes in the configuration of the system from the time of bid, 
and changes in exchange rate. We recorded the full amount of the loss in 2017, which negatively affected margins. One relatively
large sale to a U.S. government customer in the second quarter of 2017 and one relatively large sale to a foreign customer in the 
fourth quarter of 2017, both carrying lower margins, also significantly contributed to the decrease in product gross profit margin 
from 2016 to 2017. Gross profit margin from services increased from 40% in 2016 to 49% in 2017. Service gross profit margins 
for 2016 were unusually low as the result of $3.0 million of costs incurred to replace a high-value third party component in a 
customer system. The improved gross profit margin for 2017 also benefited, in part, from the leveraging of our fixed service 
costs.

We recorded a loss from operations of $65.6 million in 2017 compared to income from operations of $9.1 million in 2016. 
The decrease was primarily attributable to lower revenue and product gross profit margin and increased costs due to restructuring 
charges in 2017, partially offset by a decrease in our other operating expenses. 

We recorded a net loss of $133.8 million in 2017 compared to net income of $10.6 million in 2016. The year over year 
change was primarily driven by the decrease in operating income discussed above and an increase of $81.6 million in income tax 
expense for 2017 compared to 2016. Income tax expense for 2017 included $28.9 million directly attributable to the enactment 
of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that required us to revalue our U.S. deferred tax assets as a result of a reduction in the U.S. federal 
corporate income tax rate to 21% and income tax expense of $74.1 million as a result of our decision to increase the valuation 
allowance held against our U.S. deferred tax assets. These amounts were partially offset by the gain on the strategic transaction
with Seagate and a $3.3 million gain from the sale of an investment in a private company. 

28

Net cash used in operations during 2017 was $73.3 million, compared to net cash used in operations of $52.3 million in 
2016. Net cash used in operations during 2017 was primarily driven by an increase of $97.7 million in inventory as a result of 
system  builds  for  future  deliveries  and  our  net  loss,  adjusted  for  non-cash  and  non-operating  items,  of  $31.7  million. These 
amounts were partially offset by collections from customers that resulted in a decrease of $38.7 million in accounts and other 
receivables. Working capital decreased from $373.0 million at December 31, 2016 to $354.3 million at December 31, 2017. 

Market Overview and Challenges 

Significant trends in the HPC industry include: 

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

convergence of traditional supercomputing modeling simulation with big data analytics and AI; 

supercomputing with many-core commodity processors driving increasing scalability requirements; 

increased micro-architectural diversity, including increased usage of many-core processors and accelerators, as the rate 
of increases in per-core performance slows;  

data I/O and capacity needs growing much faster than computational needs;  

the rise of AI along with machine learning and deep learning technologies which utilize HPC technologies for performance 
and scale;  

technology innovations in memory and storage allowing for faster data access such as high bandwidth memory, NVRAM, 
SSDs and flash devices;  

the increasing commoditization of HPC hardware, particularly processors and system interconnects; 

the growing concentration of very large suppliers of key computing, memory and storage components in the industry;  

the growing commoditization of software, including plentiful building blocks and more capable open source software; 

electrical power requirements becoming a design constraint and driver in total cost of ownership determinations; 

increasing use of analytics technologies (Hadoop, Spark, NoSQL and Graph) in both the HPC and big data markets;  

increased adoption of cloud computing as a solution for loosely-coupled HPC applications;  

large increases in memory prices during the past year; and 

decreasing demand for supercomputers and significant variability in market demand from quarter-to-quarter and year-to-
year. 

Several of these trends have recently impacted the growth rate and related improvements in price-performance of products 
in  the  industry  and  has  contributed  to  the  expansion  and  acceptance  of  loosely-coupled  cluster  systems  using  processors 
manufactured by Intel, AMD and others combined with commercially available, commodity networking and other components, 
particularly in the middle and lower portions of the supercomputing market. These systems may offer higher theoretical peak 
performance for equivalent cost, and “price/peak performance” is sometimes the dominant factor in HPC procurements. Vendors 
of such systems often put pricing pressure on us, resulting in lower margins in competitive procurements. 

In the market for the largest, and most scalable systems, those often costing in excess of $10 million, the use of generally 
available network components can result in increasing data transfer bottlenecks as these components do not balance processor 
power with network communication and system software capability. With increasing processor core counts due to new many-
core  processors,  these  unbalanced  systems  will  typically  have  lower  productivity,  especially  in  larger  systems  running  more 
complex applications. We and others augment standard microprocessors with other processor types, such as graphics processing 
units, in order to increase computational power, further complicating programming models. In addition, with increasing scale, 
bandwidth and processor core counts, large computer systems use progressively higher amounts of power to operate and require 
special cooling capabilities. 

29

To  position  ourselves  to  meet  the  market’s  demanding  needs,  we  concentrate  our  research  and  development  efforts  on 
technologies that enable our supercomputers to perform at scale - that is, to continue to increase actual performance as systems
and  applications  grow  ever  larger  in  size  -  and  in  areas  where  we  can  leverage  our  core  expertise  in  other  markets  whose 
applications demand these tightly coupled architectures. We also invest relatively significantly in next-generation technology to
successfully and uniquely address the challenges of “Exascale computing” (systems with exaflops-levels of performance). In 
addition, we have demonstrated expertise in system and performance software and several processor technologies. We expect to 
be  in  a  comparatively  advantageous  position  as  larger  many-core  processors  become  available  and  as  multiple  processing 
technologies become integrated into single systems in heterogeneous environments. In addition, we have continued to expand 
our  addressable  market  by  leveraging  our  technologies,  customer  base,  the  Cray  brand  and  by  introducing  complementary 
products and services to new and existing customers, as demonstrated by our emphasis on strategic initiatives, such as big data
analytics, AI and storage. 

In  analytics  and AI,  we  are  developing  and  delivering  high  performance  data  discovery,  advanced  analytics,  machine 
learning and deep learning solutions. These solutions compete with open source software, running on commodity cluster or cloud 
systems. Although  these  competitive  systems  have  low  acquisition  costs,  the  total  cost  of  ownership  (TCO)  is  driven  up  by 
management, power, efficiency and scaling challenges. We concentrate our efforts on developing solutions that minimize the 
TCO, delivering faster  time-to-solution  and  advanced  capabilities  that  are  key  drivers for  many  of  our data  analytics  and AI 
customers. We support open source technologies such as Hadoop, Spark and Jupyter Notebook to design large-scale data analytics 
stacks that simplify analyses of scientific and commercial application and Python and R, distributed Dask, BigDL, TensorFlow 
and TensorBoard for advanced AI solutions. 

In storage, we are developing and delivering high value products for the high performance parallel storage market. Our 
recent transaction with Seagate enhances our capabilities in storage and data management. Our storage products are primarily 
positioned to enable tight integration of storage to computing solutions and/or utilize parallel file processing technologies and 
facilitate storage across multiple data tiers. We support open source parallel file systems and protocols such as Lustre. 

We have also expanded our addressable market by providing cluster systems and solutions to the supercomputing market 
that allow us to offer flexible platforms to incorporate best of breed components to allow customers to optimize the system to fit
their unique requirements. 

Key Performance Indicators 

Our management monitors and analyzes several key performance indicators in order to manage our business and evaluate 

our financial and operating performance, including: 

Revenue.    Product revenue  generally  constitutes  the  major  portion of our  revenue  in  any  reporting  period  and, for the 
reasons discussed in this annual report on Form 10-K, is subject to significant variability from period to period and is difficult to 
forecast. In the short term, we closely review the status of customer proposals, customer contracts, product shipments, installations 
and acceptances in order to forecast revenue and cash receipts. In the longer-term, we monitor the status of the pipeline of product 
sales  opportunities  and product  development  cycles. We believe product  revenue  growth  measured over  several  quarters  is  a 
better indicator of whether we are achieving our objective of increased market share in the supercomputing market. The Cray XC 
and Cray CS products, along with our longer-term product roadmap are efforts to increase product revenue. We have increased 
our business and product development efforts in big data analytics, AI and storage and data management. Service revenue related
to our maintenance offerings is subject to less variations in the short term and may assist, in part, to offset the impact that the 
variability in product revenue has on total revenue.

Gross profit margin.    Gross profit margin is impacted by the level of revenue, different customer requirements, competitive 
considerations, product type and our cost to build and deliver our products and services. Our services tend to carry higher gross 
profit margins than our products. We often bid contracts and commit to future system performance where certain key components 
are not available in the market at the time of bid and/or whose price might change from what was expected.  While we have 
significant experience doing so, such actions are inherently risky and can impact our gross profit margin significantly in any 
period.   For  example,  memory  prices have  more  than doubled  in  less  than  a  year which has had  a significant  impact  on our 

30

reported product gross profit margin.  To mitigate this and other similar risks, we monitor the cost of components, manufacturing, 
and installation of our products. In assessing our service gross profit margin, we monitor headcount levels and third-party costs.

Operating expenses.    Our operating expenses are driven primarily by headcount and compensation expense, including 
variable incentive compensation and contracted third-party research and development services. As part of our ongoing expense 
management  efforts,  we  continue  to  monitor  headcount  levels  in  specific  geographic  and  operational  areas.  With  the  recent 
reduction in revenue levels, we reduced the size of our workforce in 2017. However, the recent transaction with Seagate has 
partially offset this reduction but should help increase revenue and improve storage gross profit margin in the future.

Liquidity and cash flows.   Due to the variability in product revenue, new contracts, acceptance and payment terms, our 
cash  position  also  varies  significantly  from  quarter-to-quarter  and  within  a  quarter.  We  monitor  our  expected  cash  levels, 
particularly in light of increased inventory purchases for large system installations and the risk of delays in product shipments,
customer acceptances and, in the long-term, product development. Cash receipts generally lag customer acceptances.

Results of Operations 

Revenue and Gross Profit 

Our product and service revenue for the indicated years ended December 31 were (in thousands, except for percentages): 

Product revenue 
Less: Cost of product revenue 
Product gross profit
Product gross profit percentage 

Service revenue 
Less: Cost of service revenue 
Service gross profit 
Service gross profit percentage

Total revenue 
Less: Total cost of revenue 
Total gross profit

Total gross profit percentage 

Product Revenue 

Year Ended December 31, 

2017
250,195
188,830
61,365

25%

142,314
72,975
69,339

49%

392,509
261,805
130,704

$

$

$ 

$ 

$

$

2016 
499,432
332,016
167,416

34%

130,377
77,578
52,799

40%

629,809
409,594
220,215

$

$

$

$

$

$

2015
601,294
426,821
174,473

29%

123,395
72,185
51,210

42%

724,689
499,006
225,683

33%

35%

31%

$

$

$

$

$

$

Product revenue for 2017 decreased by $249.2 million, or 50%, compared to 2016, substantially driven by a slow-down in 
the high-end segments of the supercomputing market that we target, as well as the timing of contracts and deliveries. Some 2017
deliveries were impacted by certain customer site readiness issues. 

Product revenue for 2016 decreased by $101.9 million, or 17%, compared to 2015, substantially driven by a slow-down in 
the high-end segments of the supercomputing market that we target compared to recent years. In addition, the year over year 
comparison was impacted by two large systems that were accepted in the first quarter of 2015, accounting for approximately 
$40.0 million in revenue, for which we had previously anticipated acceptance to occur in the fourth quarter of 2014. 

Service Revenue 

Service revenue for 2017 increased by $11.9 million, or 9%, compared to 2016. The year over year increase in service 
revenue was primarily driven by increased maintenance revenue, which continues to be driven by our larger installed system 
base, including the benefit from longer lifetimes of installed systems due to the slowdown in acquisitions of new replacement 
systems. 

31

Service  revenue  for  2016  increased  by  $7.0  million,  or  6%,  compared  to  2015. The  year  over  year  increase  in  service 

revenue was primarily driven by increased maintenance revenue which benefited from a larger installed system base. 

Cost of Product Revenue and Product Gross Profit 

Cost  of  product  revenue  for  2017  decreased  by  $143.2  million  compared  to  2016,  driven  primarily  by  lower  product 
revenue. Product gross profit percentage was 25% in 2017 compared to 34% in 2016. In the third quarter of 2017, we determined 
that  a  large  contract  currently  scheduled  for  acceptance  in  2018  would  be  performed  at  a  loss  of  $4.1  million.  The  loss  is 
attributable in part to higher component costs, predominantly for memory, changes in the configuration of the system from the 
time of bid, and changes in exchange rate. We recorded the full amount of the loss in 2017, which negatively affected margins. 
One relatively large sale to a U.S. government customer in the second quarter of 2017 and one relatively large sale to a foreign
customer in the fourth quarter of 2017, both carrying lower margins, also significantly contributed to the decrease in product 
gross profit margin from 2016 to 2017. 

Cost of product revenue for 2016 decreased by $94.8 million compared to 2015, driven primarily by lower product revenue 
and an improved product gross margin percentage. Product gross profit percentage was 34% in 2016 compared to 29% in 2015. 
The year over year increase in product gross margin percentage was driven by lower memory costs, partially offset by concessions
and penalties and an increase in write-offs for excess and obsolete inventory. 

Cost of Service Revenue and Service Gross Profit 

Cost of service revenue decreased by $4.6 million in 2017 compared to 2016, primarily driven by $3.0 million of costs 
incurred in 2016 to replace a high-value third party component in a customer system and lower outside service costs in 2017. 
Service gross profit margin increased from 40% in 2016 to 49% in 2017. Service gross profit margins for 2016 were unusually 
low as the result of the $3.0 million of costs incurred to replace a high-value third party component in a customer system. The
improved gross profit margin also benefited, in part, from the leveraging of fixed costs with improved revenue. 

Cost of service revenue increased by $5.4 million in 2016 compared to 2015, driven by the costs to support a larger installed 
base of systems which also resulted in higher service revenue, and $3.0 million of costs incurred to replace a high-value third-
party component in a customer system that is under a service contract. Service gross profit margin decreased from 42% in 2015 
to 40% in 2016. The service gross profit margin decreased primarily due to the impact of the $3.0 million described previously,
higher headcount and related base compensation expense as well as higher third-party costs. These amounts were partially offset
by a decrease in incentive compensation expense. 

Operating Expenses 

Research and Development 

Research and development expenses for the indicated years ended December 31 were as follows (in thousands, except for 

percentages): 

Gross research and development expenses 
Less: Amounts included in cost of revenue 
Less: Reimbursed research and development (excludes amounts in revenue) 

Net research and development expenses 

Percentage of total revenue 

Year Ended December 31, 

2017
141,289

$

2016 

$ 130,006

2015
$ 126,060

(9,473 )   

(33,039 )

(12,621) 
(5,255)

(16,515) 
(12,982)

$

98,777   $  112,130

$

96,563

25 %

18%

13%

Gross research and development expenses in the table above reflect all research and development expenditures. Research 
and  development  expenses  include  personnel  expenses,  depreciation,  allocations  for  certain  overhead  expenses,  software, 
prototype materials and third party contract engineering expenses. 

In 2017, gross research and development expenses increased by $11.3 million compared to 2016, primarily due to increased 
investments in the development of new products. We also increased our average headcount which resulted in compensation costs 

32

increasing by $6.4 million compared to 2016. Net research and development expenses decreased by $13.4 million compared to 
2016 as a result of increased reimbursements from third-parties related to projects for the development of new products, primarily 
our next generation “Shasta” system. We anticipate that reimbursed research and development will continue to vary significantly
from period to period but will remain at relatively high levels over the next couple of years as a result of these projects. 

In 2016, gross research and development expenses increased by $3.9 million compared to 2015, primarily due to increased 
investments in the development of new products. Total compensation costs increased by $1.7 million compared to 2015, driven 
by higher average headcount, partially offset by lower incentive compensation expense. Expenses for outside services increased 
by $1.3 million over the same period. Net research and development expenses increased by $15.6 million compared to 2015 as a 
result of the increase in gross research and development expenses described above and a decrease in amounts included in cost of
revenue and reimbursed research and development. The decrease in reimbursements was primarily driven by lower funding in 
2016 compared to 2015 and the timing of milestone and project completions. 

Other Operating Expenses 

Our  sales  and marketing  and  general  and  administrative  expenses  for  the  indicated  years  ended December  31 were  (in 

thousands, except for percentages): 

Sales and marketing

Percentage of total revenue 

General and administrative 

Percentage of total revenue 

Year Ended December 31, 

$

$

2017
59,894

15% 

29,113

$

$

2016 
64,893

10%

34,053

$

$

7% 

5%

2015
60,150

8%

27,966

4%

Sales and Marketing.    Sales and marketing expense decreased by $5.0 million in 2017 compared to 2016. We lowered our 

average headcount which resulted in compensation costs decreasing by $4.7 million compared to 2016.

Sales  and  marketing  expense  increased  by  $4.7  million  in  2016  compared  to  2015. Total  compensation  costs  for  2016 
increased  by  $3.6  million  compared  to  2015,  driven  by  higher  headcount,  partially  offset  by  lower  incentive  compensation 
expense. Marketing program spending also increased by $0.8 million over the same period. 

General and Administrative.    General and administrative expense decreased by $4.9 million in 2017 compared to 2016, 
primarily due to a $2.3 million termination fee for our St. Paul facility that was expensed in 2016 and a $2.0 million decrease in 
legal costs, from $7.5 million in 2016 to $5.5 million in 2017, related to our ongoing litigation with Raytheon, see Note 13 — 
Commitments and Contingencies in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 15. Exhibits and Financial Statement 
Schedules in Part IV of this annual report on Form 10-K. Due to our ongoing litigation with Raytheon, legal expenses may vary 
over the next several quarters but will likely remain at above historical levels until the matter is resolved. We also lowered our 
average headcount which resulted in compensation costs decreasing by $0.8 million compared to 2016

The  $6.1  million  increase  in  general  and  administrative  expense  in  2016  compared  to  2015  was  primarily  due  to  a 
$6.0 million increase in legal costs associated with our ongoing litigation with Raytheon. We also incurred a $2.3 million lease
termination fee for our St. Paul facility in 2016. These amounts were partially offset by a $2.1 million decrease in incentive 
compensation expense in 2016 compared to 2015. 

Restructuring

In the third quarter of 2017, we implemented a restructuring plan to reduce our operating costs and better align our workforce 
with  long-term  business  strategies. The  restructuring  plan  reduced  our  workforce  by  approximately  190  employees,  with  the 
majority of such terminations effective in July 2017. For the year ended December 31, 2017, we recorded $8.6 million in expense
in connection with the restructuring plan, primarily related to employee severance. 

33

Other Income (Expense), Net 

We  recorded  $5.0  million  and  $0.4  million  of  net  other  income  for  the  years  ended  December  31,  2017  and  2015, 
respectively, and $1.4 million of net other expense for the year ended December 31, 2016. Net other income and expense includes
gains and losses from foreign currency transactions, investments and disposals of assets. Net other income for 2017 included a 
$3.3 million gain from the sale of an investment in a private company. 

Interest Income, Net 

Our interest income and interest expense for the indicated years ended December 31 were (in thousands): 

Interest income 
Interest expense 
Net interest income 

Year Ended December 31, 

2017

2016 

2015

$

$

3,386 $
(110)  
3,276 $

2,120 $
27
2,147 $

1,465
(57)
1,408

Interest income is earned on cash and cash equivalents, investment balances and the investment in sales-type lease. 

Gain on Strategic Transaction 

In the third quarter of 2017, we completed a strategic transaction with Seagate Cloud Systems Inc. centered around the 
transfer of Seagate’s ClusterStor high-performance storage business to Cray. As part of the transaction, we have assumed customer 
support obligations associated with the ClusterStor product line and have added more than 125 employees and contractors. For 
the year ended December 31, 2017, we recognized a gain of approximately $4.5 million associated with the transaction. 

Taxes 

We recorded income tax benefit (expense) for the indicated years ended December 31 as follows (in thousands): 

Net income (loss) before income taxes 
Tax benefit (expense) 
Net income (loss)
Effective tax rate 

Year Ended December 31, 

2017
$ (52,890)
(80,939) 
$(133,829)

$

2016 
9,921
694
$ 10,615

2015
$ 42,777

(15,240) 

$ 27,537

(153)%

(7)%

36%

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was signed into law on December 22, 2017, made significant changes to existing U.S. 
tax law, including, but not limited to, a permanent reduction to the U.S. federal corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%, 
imposition of a one-time tax on deferred foreign income (“Repatriation Transition Tax”), adoption of a participation exemption 
system with respect to the taxation of future dividends received from foreign corporations, and repeal of the corporate alternative 
minimum tax system. Other significant changes in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act include taxing payments made to foreign related 
parties  that  are  deemed  to  be  excessive,  imposing  a  minimum  tax  on  certain  foreign  earnings,  requiring  (beginning  after 
December 31, 2021) the capitalization and subsequent amortization of certain research and development related expenses, and 
placing additional limits on the use of net operating losses and the deductibility of certain executive compensation. 

Amounts we recorded during the year ended December 31, 2017 directly attributable to the enactment of the Tax Cuts and 
Jobs Act included a reduction, in the amount of $28.9 million, in the carrying value of our U.S. deferred tax assets as a result of 
a reduction in the U.S. federal corporate income tax rate to 21%, the estimated impact, in the amount of $0.3 million, associated
with the Repatriation Transaction Tax, and the estimated impact, in the amount of $0.3 million, associated with our decision to
no  longer  consider  the  undistributed  earnings  of  our  foreign  subsidiaries  to  be  permanently  reinvested  outside  of  the  U.S. 
Estimated amounts have been recorded on a provisional basis in accordance with Securities and Exchange Commission Staff 
Accounting Bulletin 118 and may be adjusted, during a one-year measurement period, when we have had sufficient time to obtain, 
prepare and analyze historical tax returns, financial statements and related accounts that is required to finalize our accounting
with respect to those items. 

34

 
For the year ended December 31, 2017, the difference between the income tax benefit at the federal statutory rate of 35% 
and our income tax expense at the effective rate of (153)% was primarily attributable to the reduction in the U.S. federal corporate 
income tax rate as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and its impact on the carrying value of our U.S. deferred tax assets and 
our decision after the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was enacted to increase the valuation allowance held against our U.S. deferred tax
assets, offset, in part, by research and development tax credits. For the year ended December 31, 2016, the difference between 
the income tax provision at the federal statutory rate of 35% and our income tax benefit at the effective income tax rate of (7)%
was  the  result of  research  and development  tax  credits  and additional  tax deductions from  share-based  payments,  sometimes 
referred to as excess tax benefits, partially offset by state taxes, non-deductible expenses and other permanent items. Excess tax
benefits arise when tax deductions that we recognize with respect to share-based compensation exceed the compensation cost 
attributable  to  share-based  compensation  that  was  recognized  in  our  consolidated  financial  statements.  For  the  year  ended 
December 31, 2015, the difference between the income tax provision at the federal statutory rate of 35% and our income tax 
expense at the effective rate of 36% was the result of state taxes, non-deductible expenses and other permanent items, partially
offset by research and development tax credits. 

During 2017, our valuation allowance increased by $74.1 million, substantially all of which was attributable to our decision 

to increase the valuation allowance held against our U.S. deferred tax assets on December 31, 2017. 

The assessment of our ability to utilize our U.S. deferred tax assets was based upon all available positive and negative 
evidence, which included, among other things, our recent results of operations, forecasted domestic and international earnings 
over a number of years, all known business risks and industry trends, and applicable tax planning strategies. We consider our 
actual historical results over several years to have stronger weight than other more subjective indicators, including forecasts,
when  considering whether  to  establish or  reduce  a valuation  allowance on  deferred  tax  assets. We have  significant  difficulty 
projecting future results due to the nature of the business and the industry in which we operate. As of December 31, 2017, we had
experienced a significant decline in revenue, gross profit, and operating income since 2015, had reported a cumulative pre-tax 
loss in recent years and are currently forecasting to report a pre-tax loss for the year ending December 31, 2018.  Our conclusion 
about  the  realizability  of  our  deferred  tax  assets,  and  therefore  the  appropriateness  of  the  valuation  allowance,  is  reviewed 
quarterly and could change in future periods depending on our future assessment of all available evidence. If we had determined
that it was appropriate to increase the valuation allowance held against our U.S. deferred tax assets prior to enactment of the Tax 
Cuts and Jobs Act total tax expense for the year ended December 31, 2017 would not have changed. The decrease in the carrying 
value of our U.S. deferred tax assets as a result of the reduction in the U.S. federal corporate income tax rate would have been
completely offset by a reduction in the valuation allowance that would have been previously established against those deferred 
tax assets. 

As of December 31, 2017, we had U.S. federal net operating loss carryforwards of approximately $72.6 million and U.S. 
federal  research  and  development  tax  credit  carryforwards  of  approximately  $36.0  million.  The  federal  net  operating  loss 
carryforwards  will  expire  between  2019  through  2037,  and  the  research  and  development  tax  credits  will  expire  from  2021 
through 2037 if not utilized. 

New Accounting Pronouncements 

In  May  2014,  the  Financial  Accounting  Standards  Board  (FASB)  issued  Accounting  Standards  Update  No.  2014-09, 
Revenue from Contracts with Customers: Topic 606 (ASU 2014-09) to supersede nearly all existing revenue recognition guidance 
under GAAP. The core principle of ASU 2014-09 is to recognize revenues when promised goods or services are transferred to 
customers in an amount that reflects the consideration that is expected to be received for those goods or services. ASU 2014-09
defines a five step process to achieve this core principle and, in doing so, it is possible more judgment and estimates may be 
required  within  the  revenue  recognition  process  than  required  under  existing  GAAP,  including  identifying  performance 
obligations in the contract, estimating the amount of variable consideration to include in the transaction price and allocating the 
transaction price to each separate performance obligation. Adoption of ASU 2014-09 was initially required for fiscal and interim
reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2016 using either of two methods: (i) retrospective to each prior reporting period 
presented with the option to elect certain practical expedients as defined within ASU 2014-09 (full retrospective method); or 

35

(ii) retrospective with the cumulative effect of initially applying ASU 2014-09 recognized at the date of initial application and 
providing certain additional disclosures as defined per ASU 2014-09 (modified retrospective method). 

In August  2015,  FASB  issued Accounting  Standards  Update  No.  2015-14,  Revenue  from  Contracts  with  Customers  - 
Deferral of the Effective Date: Topic 606 (ASU 2015-14) that deferred the effective date of ASU 2014-09 by one year. Application
of the new revenue standard is permitted for fiscal and interim reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2016 and required
for fiscal and interim reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2017. We believe the impact of adopting the new guidance 
will be immaterial to our annual and interim financial statements. We believe that the impact will be limited to the identification 
of  a  significant  financing  component  in  a  small  number  of  our  contracts  with  customers. We  will  also  be  required  to  make 
additional disclosures under the new guidance. We plan to adopt this standard in the first quarter of 2018 using the modified 
retrospective method. 

In  July  2015,  FASB  issued  Accounting  Standards  Update  No.  2015-11,  Simplifying  the  Measurement  of  Inventory: 
Topic 330 (ASU 2015-11) to amend Topic 330, Inventory. Topic 330 previously required an entity to measure inventory at the 
lower of cost or market. Market could be replacement cost, net realizable value, or net realizable value less an approximately 
normal profit margin. ASU 2015-11 requires that inventory measured using either the first-in, first-out (FIFO) or average cost 
method now be measured at the lower of cost and net realizable value. Net realizable value is the estimated selling prices in the
ordinary course of business, less reasonably predictable costs of completion, disposal and transportation. We adopted ASU 2015-
11 at the beginning of the first quarter of 2017. Adoption of ASU 2015-11 did not have a material impact on our consolidated 
financial statements. 

In  November  2015,  FASB  issued Accounting  Standards  Update  No.  2015-17,  Balance  Sheet  Classification  of  Deferred 
Taxes: Topic 740 (ASU 2015-17). Current GAAP requires the deferred taxes for each jurisdiction to be presented as a net current
asset  or  liability  and  net  noncurrent  asset  or  liability.  This  requires  a  jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction  analysis  based  on  the 
classification of the assets and liabilities to which the underlying temporary differences relate, or, in the case of loss or credit 
carryforwards, based on the period in which the attribute is expected to be realized. Any valuation allowance is then required to 
be allocated on a pro rata basis, by jurisdiction, between current and noncurrent deferred tax assets. The new guidance requires
that all deferred tax assets and liabilities, along with any related valuation allowance, be classified as noncurrent on the balance 
sheet. As a result, each jurisdiction will now only have one net noncurrent deferred tax asset or liability. The guidance does not 
change the existing requirement that only permits offsetting within a jurisdiction. We adopted ASU 2015-17 at the beginning of 
the first quarter of 2017. At the time of adoption, all of our deferred tax assets and liabilities, along with any related valuation 
allowance, were classified as noncurrent on our Consolidated Balance Sheet. We adopted ASU 2015-17 on a retrospective basis. 
As  such,  prior  period  amounts  have  been  adjusted  to  reflect  the  retrospective  application  of ASU  2015-17.  This  resulted  in 
$19.1 million of current net deferred tax assets being reclassified as noncurrent on our December 31, 2016 Consolidated Balance
Sheet.

In  January  2016,  FASB  issued Accounting  Standards  Update  No.  2016-01,  Recognition  and  Measurement  of  Financial 
Assets and Financial Liabilities: Topic 825 (ASU 2016-01).  The updated guidance enhances the reporting model for financial 
instruments, which includes amendments to address aspects of recognition, measurement, presentation and disclosure. Adoption 
of ASU 2016-01 is required for fiscal reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2017, including interim reporting periods 
within those fiscal years. We do not expect the adoption of ASU 2016-01 to have a material impact on our consolidated financial
statements. 

In February 2016, FASB issued Accounting Standards Update No. 2016-02, Leases: Topic 842 (ASU 2016-02), that replaces 
existing lease guidance. The new standard is intended to provide enhanced transparency and comparability by requiring lessees 
to record right-of-use assets and corresponding lease liabilities on the balance sheet. Under the new guidance, leases will continue 
to be classified as either finance or operating, with classification affecting the pattern of expense recognition in the Consolidated
Statements of Operations. Lessor accounting is largely unchanged under ASU 2016-02. Adoption of ASU 2016-02 is required for 
fiscal reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018, including interim reporting periods within those fiscal years with 
early adoption being permitted. As of December 31, 2017, the new standard requires application with a modified retrospective 
approach to each prior reporting period presented with various optional practical expedients. While we expect adoption to lead 

36

to a material increase in the assets and liabilities recorded on our Consolidated Balance Sheet, we are still evaluating the overall
impact on our consolidated financial statements. 

In  August  2016,  FASB  issued  Accounting  Standards  Update  No.  2016-15,  Statement  of  Cash  Flows  (Topic  230): 
Classification  of  Certain  Cash  Receipts  and  Cash  Payments  (ASU  2016-15). The  updated  guidance  clarifies  how  companies 
present and classify certain cash receipts and cash payments in the statement of cash flows. Adoption of ASU 2016-15 is required
for fiscal reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2017, including interim reporting periods within those fiscal years with
early adoption being permitted. We do not expect the adoption of ASU 2016-15 to have a material impact on our consolidated 
financial statements. 

In  November  2016,  FASB  issued Accounting  Standards  Update  No.  2016-18,  Statement  of  Cash  Flows  (Topic  230): 
Restricted  Cash  (ASU  2016-18)  which  amends ASC  230  to  add  or  clarify  guidance  on  the  classification  and  presentation  of 
restricted cash in the statement of cash flows. The amended guidance requires that amounts that are deemed to be restricted cash
and  restricted  cash  equivalents  be  included  in  the  cash  and  cash-equivalent  balances  in  the  statement  of  cash  flows.  A 
reconciliation between the consolidated balance sheet and the statement of cash flows must be disclosed when the consolidated 
balance sheet includes more than one line item for cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and restricted cash equivalents. The
guidance also requires that changes in restricted cash and restricted cash equivalents that result from transfers between cash, cash 
equivalents, and restricted cash and restricted cash equivalents should not be presented as cash flow activities in the statement of 
cash flows. An entity with a material balance of amounts generally described as restricted cash and restricted cash equivalents
must disclose information about the nature of the restrictions.  Adoption of ASU 2016-18 is required for fiscal reporting periods 
beginning  after  December  15,  2017,  including  interim  reporting  periods  within  those  fiscal  years  with  early  adoption  being 
permitted. We do not expect the adoption of ASU 2016-18 to have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements. 

In January 2017, FASB issued Accounting Standards Update No. 2017-04, Intangibles - Goodwill and Other (Topic 350): 
Simplifying  the  Test  for  Goodwill  Impairment  (ASU  2017-04)  which  eliminates  Step  2  from  the  goodwill  impairment  test. 
ASU 2017-04  also  eliminates  the  requirements  for  any  reporting  unit  with  a  zero  or  negative  carrying  amount  to  perform  a 
qualitative assessment and, if it fails that qualitative test, to perform Step 2 of the goodwill impairment test. An entity still has the 
option to perform the qualitative assessment for a reporting unit to determine if the quantitative impairment test is necessary.
Adoption  of  ASU  2017-04  is  required  for  annual  or  interim  goodwill  impairment  tests  in  fiscal  years  beginning  after 
December 15, 2019 with early adoption being permitted for annual or interim goodwill impairment tests performed on testing 
dates after January 1, 2017. We adopted ASU 2017-04 at the beginning of the second quarter of 2017. Adoption of ASU 2017-04 
did not have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements. 

In August 2017, FASB issued Accounting Standards Update No. 2017-12, Derivatives and Hedging (Topic 815): Targeted 
Improvements  to Accounting  for  Hedging Activities  (ASU  2017-12).  The  new  standard  simplifies  and  expands  the  eligible 
hedging strategies for financial and nonfinancial risks. It also enhances the transparency of how hedging results are presented and 
disclosed. Further, the new standard provides partial relief on the timing of certain aspects of hedge documentation and eliminates 
the  requirement  to  recognize  hedge  ineffectiveness  separately  in  earnings. Adoption  of ASU  2017-12  is  required  for  fiscal 
reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018, including interim reporting periods within those fiscal years with early 
adoption  being  permitted. We  are  currently  evaluating  the  potential  impact  of  the  pending  adoption  of ASU  2017-12  on  our 
consolidated financial statements. 

Liquidity and Capital Resources 

We  generate  cash  from  operations  predominantly  from  the  sale  of  supercomputing  systems  and  related  services.  We 
typically have a small number of significant contracts that make up the majority of total revenue. We have also entered into a 
sales-type lease agreement with a customer, under which we will receive quarterly payments over the term of the lease, which 
expires in September 2020. Material changes in certain of our balance sheet accounts were due to the level and timing of: product 
deliveries and customer acceptances, contractually determined billings, cash collections of receivables, inventory purchased for
future deliveries, and incentive compensation. Working capital requirements, including inventory purchases and normal capital 
expenditures, are generally funded with cash from operations. 

37

In the third quarter of 2017, we implemented a restructuring plan to reduce our operating costs and better align our workforce 
with long-term business strategies. The restructuring plan reduced our workforce by approximately 190 employees, with the vast 
majority of such terminations effective in July 2017. We recorded $8.6 million in expense associated with the restructuring plan,
primarily related to employee severance, in 2017. The majority of the cash payments related to the restructuring charges were 
paid in 2017. 

In September of 2017, we completed a strategic transaction with Seagate Cloud Systems Inc. centered around the addition 
of  Seagate’s  ClusterStor  high-performance  storage  business. As  part  of  the  transaction,  we  have  assumed  customer  support 
obligations associated with the ClusterStor product line and have added more than 125 employees and contractors. Assets received
as part of the transaction included cash of $8.0 million. We expect to receive approximately $1.8 million in additional cash in the 
first half of 2018 as part of post-closing adjustments based on the final analysis of obligations to be assumed 

Total cash and investments decreased from $224.6 million at December 31, 2016 to $147.3 million at December 31, 2017. 
As  of  December 31,  2017,  $19.1  million  of  our  total  cash  and  investments  balance  was  held  by  foreign  subsidiaries. As  of 
December 31, 2017, we had $3.0 million in restricted cash associated with certain letters of credit outstanding to secure customer 
prepayments. As of December 31, 2017, we had working capital of $354.3 million compared to $373.0 million as of December 31, 
2016.  

Cash flow information for the indicated years ended December 31 included the following (in thousands): 

Cash provided by (used in):
Operating Activities 
Investing Activities 
Financing Activities 

2017 

2016 

2015 

$

(73,341) $
(13,663)
(332)

(52,313)   $ 
8,998 
(540 )  

147,756
7,216
(1,373)

Operating Activities.    For the year ended December 31, 2017, cash used in operating activities was primarily driven by an 
increase of $97.7 million in inventory as a result of system builds for future deliveries and the net loss, adjusted for non-cash and 
non-operating  items,  of  $31.7  million.  These  amounts  were  partially  offset  by  collections  from  customers  that  resulted  in  a 
decrease  of  $38.7  million  in  accounts  and  other  receivables.  For  the  year  ended  December  31,  2016,  cash  used  in  operating 
activities was primarily driven by a $78.4 million increase in our accounts and other receivable balance from December 31, 2015
to December  31,  2016. This was  due  to  a  number  of  large  customer  acceptances in  the  fourth quarter of  2016 for which we 
collected cash in the first quarter of 2017. For the year ended December 31, 2015, cash provided by operating activities was 
primarily driven by net income of $27.5 million and the positive impact of adding back non-cash operating items of $42.4 million, 
customer acceptances of our systems that resulted in a decrease of $21.3 million in inventory, and collections from customers 
that resulted in a decrease of $36.7 million in accounts and other receivables.

Investing  Activities.    For  the  year  ended  December 31,  2017,  cash  used  in  investing  activities  was  primarily  due  to 
purchases  of  debt  securities  of  $94.9  million  and  purchases  of  property  and  equipment  of  $17.5  million,  mostly  related  to 
leasehold  improvements  for  our  new  facilities  in  Bloomington,  Minnesota. These  amounts  were  partially  offset  by  sales  and 
maturities of debt securities of $87.5 million and $8.0 million of cash received as part of the strategic transaction with Seagate,
respectively.  For  the  year  ended  December 31,  2016,  cash  provided  by  investing  activities  was  principally  due  to  sales  and 
maturities of debt securities of $31.0 million, partially offset by purchases of debt securities of $16.2 million and purchases of 
property  and  equipment  of  $7.5  million.  For  the  year  ended  December  31,  2015,  cash  provided  by  investing  activities  was 
principally due to sales and maturities of debt securities of $16.2 million and a release of $13.4 million in restricted cash related 
to a prepayment on a system from a customer that was released at the time of delivery, partially offset by purchases of debt 
securities of $15.0 million and purchases of property and equipment of $7.5 million.

Financing Activities.    Net cash used in financing activities in 2017, 2016 and 2015 resulted primarily from statutory tax 
withholding amounts made in exchange for the forfeiture of common stock by holders of vesting restricted stock, partially offset
by cash received from the issuance of common stock from the exercise of options and from the issuance of stock through our 
employee stock purchase plan.

38

Over the next twelve months, we expect our significant cash requirements will relate to operational expenses. Operational 
expenses  consist  primarily  of  personnel  costs,  costs of  inventory  associated  with  certain  large-scale product  deliveries,  spare
parts, outside engineering expenses, and the acquisition of property and equipment. In addition, we lease certain equipment and
facilities used in our operations under operating leases in the normal course of business. 

The following table summarizes our contractual cash obligations as of December 31, 2017 (in thousands): 

Contractual Obligations 
Development agreements 
Operating leases 
Total contractual cash obligations 

Total

1 Year

Years 2-3

Years 4-5 

Thereafter

$

$

25,061 $
53,933
78,994 $

19,930 $
7,461
27,391 $

5,131 $

13,150
18,281 $

— $

12,613  
12,613 $

—
20,709
20,709

Amounts Committed by Year 

As of December 31, 2017, we had a $50.0 million revolving line of credit (Credit Facility) with Wells Fargo Bank, National 
Association, designed to be used for general corporate purposes, including working capital requirements and capital expenditures.  
The Credit Facility also supports the issuance of letters of credit. The Credit Facility is secured by a first priority lien in all of our 
accounts receivable and other rights to payment, general intangibles, inventory and equipment. 

Any borrowings under the Credit Facility bear interest at either a fluctuating rate equal to the daily one month LIBOR rate 
plus a margin of 1.25% or a fixed interest rate for one, three or six months equal to the LIBOR rate for the applicable period plus 
a margin of 1.25%.  We are also required to pay the lender customary letter of credit fees, and a commitment fee of 0.18% per 
annum in respect of the unutilized commitment amount under the Credit Facility. The Credit Facility requires that we maintain 
certain financial ratios and restricts our ability to incur additional indebtedness, pay dividends or distributions, create liens on 
assets, and engage in certain other activities. We were in compliance with all of our financial covenants as of the end of each
quarter for the year ended December 31, 2017. The Credit Facility matures in March 2018. We have begun discussions with the 
bank that may result in changes to the size and terms of this arrangement. 

We made no draws and had no outstanding cash borrowings on the line of credit as of December 31, 2017. 

As of December 31, 2017, we had $15.0 million in USD equivalent value in outstanding letters of credit and $3.0 million 
in restricted cash associated with certain letters of credit to secure customer prepayments and other customer related obligations. 

In  our  normal  course  of  operations,  we  have  development  arrangements  under  which  we  engage  outside  engineering 
resources to work on our research and development projects. For the year ended December 31, 2017, we incurred $17.5 million 
for such arrangements. 

At any particular time, our cash position is affected by the timing of cash receipts for product sales, maintenance contracts, 
government  co-funding  for  research  and  development  activities  and  our  payments  for  inventory,  resulting  in  significant 
fluctuations in our cash balance from quarter-to-quarter and within a quarter. Our principal sources of liquidity are our cash and
cash equivalents, short-term investments and cash from operations. We expect our cash resources to be adequate for at least the
next twelve months. 

Beyond  the  next  twelve  months,  the  adequacy  of  our  cash  resources  will  largely  depend  on  our  success  in  achieving 

profitable operations and positive operating cash flows on a sustained basis. 

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates 

This discussion, as well as disclosures included elsewhere in this annual report on Form 10-K, is based upon our financial 
statements,  which  have  been  prepared  in  accordance  with  GAAP. The  preparation  of  these  consolidated  financial  statements 
requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses, and 
related disclosure of contingencies. In preparing our financial statements in accordance with GAAP, there are certain accounting
policies that are particularly important. These include revenue recognition, inventory valuation, accounting for income taxes, 
research and development expenses and share-based compensation. We believe these accounting policies and others set forth in 
Note 2 — Summary of Significant Accounting Policies of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 15. Exhibits 

39

 
and Financial Statement Schedules in Part IV of this annual report on Form 10-K should be reviewed as they are integral to 
understanding our results of operations and financial condition. In some cases, these policies represent required accounting. In
other  cases,  they  may  represent  a  choice  between  acceptable  accounting  methods  or  may  require  substantial  judgment  or 
estimation. 

Additionally, we consider certain judgments and estimates to be significant, including those relating to the estimated selling 
price determination used in revenue recognition, percentage of completion accounting, estimates of proportional performance on 
co-funded engineering contracts, collectibility of receivables, determination of inventory at the lower of cost or net realizable 
value, the value of used equipment returned or to be returned associated with customer contracts, useful lives for depreciation
and amortization, determination of future cash flows associated with impairment testing of long-lived assets, including goodwill
and  other  intangibles,  determination  of  the  implicit  interest  rate  used  in  the  sales-type  lease  calculation,  estimated  warranty
liabilities, determination of the fair value of stock options and other assessments of fair value, evaluation of the probability of 
vesting  of  performance-based  restricted  stock  and  restricted  stock  units,  calculation  of  deferred  income  tax  assets,  including 
estimates of future financial performance in the determination of the likely recovery of deferred income tax assets, our ability to 
utilize such assets, potential income tax assessments, the outcome of any legal proceedings and other contingencies. We base our
estimates  on  historical  experience,  current  conditions  and  on  other  assumptions  that  we  believe  to  be  reasonable  under  the 
circumstances. Actual results may differ materially from these estimates and assumptions. 

Our management has discussed the selection of significant accounting policies and the effect of judgments and estimates 

with the Audit Committee of our Board of Directors. 

Revenue Recognition 

We  recognize  revenue,  including  transactions  under  sales-type  leases,  when  it  is  realized  or  realizable  and  earned. We 
consider revenue realized or realizable and earned when we have persuasive evidence of an arrangement, delivery has occurred, 
the sales price is fixed or determinable, and collectibility is reasonably assured. Delivery does not occur until the products have 
been  shipped  or  services  provided  to  the  customer,  the  risk  of  loss  has  transferred  to  the  customer,  and,  where  applicable,  a 
customer  acceptance  has  been  obtained.  The  sales  price  is  not  considered  to  be  fixed  or  determinable  until  all  material 
contingencies related to the sales have been resolved. We record revenue in the Consolidated Statements of Operations net of any
sales, use, value added or certain excise taxes imposed by governmental authorities on specific sales transactions. In addition to 
the aforementioned general policy, the following are our statements of policy with regard to multiple-element arrangements and 
specific revenue recognition policies for each major category of revenue. 

Multiple-Element Arrangements. We commonly enter into revenue arrangements that include multiple deliverables of our 
product and service offerings due to the needs of our customers. Products may be delivered in phases over time periods which 
can be as long as five years. Maintenance services generally begin upon acceptance of the first equipment delivery and future 
deliveries of equipment generally have an associated maintenance period. We consider the maintenance period to commence 
upon acceptance of the product, or installation of the product where a formal acceptance is not required, which may include a 
warranty period and accordingly allocate a portion of the arrangement consideration as a separate deliverable which is recognized
as service revenue over the entire service period. Other services such as training and engineering services can be delivered as a 
discrete  delivery  or  over  the  term  of  the  contract. A  multiple-element  arrangement  is  separated  into  more  than  one  unit  of 
accounting if the following criteria are met:

•

•

The delivered item(s) has value to the customer on a standalone basis; and 

If the arrangement includes a general right of return relative to the delivered item(s), delivery or performance of the 
undelivered item(s) is considered probable and substantially in our control. 

If these criteria are met for each element, the arrangement consideration is allocated to the separate units of accounting 
based on each unit’s relative selling price. If these criteria are not met, the arrangement is accounted for as one unit of accounting 
which would result in revenue being recognized ratably over the contract term or being deferred until the earlier of when such 
criteria are met or when the last undelivered element is delivered. 

40

We follow a selling price hierarchy in determining the best estimate of the selling price of each deliverable. Certain products
and  services  are  sold  separately  in  standalone  arrangements  for  which  we  are  sometimes  able  to  determine  vendor  specific 
objective evidence (VSOE). We determine VSOE based on normal pricing and discounting practices for the product or service 
when sold separately. 

When we  are not  able  to  establish VSOE for  all deliverables  in  an  arrangement  with multiple  elements, we  attempt  to 
establish the selling price of each remaining element based on third-party evidence (TPE). Our inability to establish VSOE is 
often due to a relatively small sample of customer contracts that differ in system size and contract terms which can be due to 
infrequently selling each element separately, not pricing products within a narrow range, or only having a limited sales history, 
such as in the case of certain advanced and emerging technologies. TPE is determined based on our prices or competitor prices 
for similar deliverables when sold separately. However, we are often unable to determine TPE, as our offerings usually contain a
significant level of customization and differentiation from those of competitors and we are often unable to reliably determine 
what similar competitor products’ selling prices are on a standalone basis. 

When we are unable to establish selling price using VSOE or TPE, we use estimated selling price (ESP) in our allocation 
of arrangement consideration. The objective of ESP is to determine the price at which we would transact a sale if the product or
service were sold on a standalone basis. In determining ESP, we use the cost to provide the product or service plus a margin, or
consider other factors. When using cost plus a margin, we consider the total cost of the product or service, including customer-
specific and geographic factors. We also consider the historical margins of the product or service on previous contracts and several 
factors including any changes to pricing methodologies, competitiveness of products and services and cost drivers that would 
cause future margins to differ from historical margins. 

Products. We most often recognize revenue from sales of products upon delivery or customer acceptance of the system. 
Where  formal  acceptance  is  not  required,  we  recognize  revenue  upon  delivery  or  installation. When  the  product  is  part  of  a 
multiple element arrangement, we allocate a portion of the arrangement consideration to product revenue based on estimates of 
selling price.

Services. Maintenance  services  are  provided  under  separate  maintenance  contracts  with  customers.  These  contracts 
generally provide for maintenance services for one year, although some are for multi-year periods, often with prepayments for 
the term of the contract. We consider the maintenance period to commence upon acceptance of the product or installation in 
situations where a formal acceptance is not required, which may include a warranty period. When service is part of a multiple 
element arrangement, we allocate a portion of the arrangement consideration to maintenance service revenue based on estimates 
of  selling  price.  Maintenance  contracts  that  are  billed  in  advance  of  revenue  recognition  are  recorded  as  deferred  revenue. 
Maintenance revenue is recognized ratably over the term of the maintenance contract.

Revenue from engineering services is recognized as services are performed. 

Project  Revenue. Revenue  from  design  and  build  contracts  is  recognized  under  the  percentage-of-completion  (or  POC 
method). Under the POC method, revenue is recognized based on the costs incurred to date as a percentage of the total estimated
costs to fulfill the contract. If circumstances arise that change the original estimates of revenues, costs, or extent of progress 
toward completion, revisions to the estimates are made. These revisions may result in increases or decreases in estimated revenues
or costs, and such revisions are recorded in income in the period in which the circumstances that gave rise to the revision become 
known by management. We perform ongoing profitability analyses of our contracts accounted for under the POC method in order 
to determine whether the latest estimates of revenue, costs and extent of progress require updating. If at any time these estimates 
indicate that the contract will be unprofitable, the entire estimated loss for the remainder of the contract is recorded immediately.

We record revenue from certain research and development contracts which include milestones using the milestone method 
if the milestones are determined to be substantive. A milestone is considered to be substantive if management believes there is
substantive uncertainty that it will be achieved and the milestone consideration meets all of the following criteria: 

•

It is commensurate with either of the following: 

•

Our performance to achieve the milestone; or 

41

•

The enhancement of value of the delivered item or items as a result of a specific outcome resulting from 
our performance to achieve the milestone. 

•

•

It relates solely to past performance. 

It  is  reasonable  relative  to  all  of  the  deliverables  and  payment  terms  (including  other  potential  milestone 
consideration) within the arrangement. 

The individual milestones are determined to be substantive or non-substantive in their entirety and milestone consideration 

is not bifurcated. 

Revenue from projects is classified as Product Revenue or Service Revenue, based on the nature of the work performed. 

Nonmonetary Transactions. We value and record nonmonetary transactions at the fair value of the asset surrendered unless 

the fair value of the asset received is more clearly evident, in which case the fair value of the asset received is used.

Inventory Valuation 

We record our inventory at the lower of cost or net realizable value, with cost computed on a first-in, first-out basis (FIFO).
We regularly evaluate the technological usefulness and anticipated future demand for our inventory components. Due to rapid 
changes in technology and the increasing demands of our customers, we are continually developing new products. Additionally, 
during periods of product or inventory component upgrades or transitions, we may acquire significant quantities of inventory to
support estimated current and future production and service requirements. As a result, it is possible that older inventory items we 
have purchased may become obsolete, be sold below cost or be deemed in excess of quantities required for production or service 
requirements. When we determine it is not likely we will recover the cost of inventory items through future sales, we write-down
the related inventory to our estimate of its net realizable value. Prior to the adoption of ASU 2015-11 at the beginning of the first 
quarter of 2017, inventory was valued at the lower of cost or market. The adoption of ASU 2015-11 did not have a material impact
on our consolidated financial statements. 

Because  the  products  we  sell  have  high  average  sales  prices  and  because  a  high  number  of  our  prospective  customers 
receive funding from U.S. or foreign governments, it is difficult to estimate future sales of our products and the timing of such 
sales. It also is difficult to determine whether the cost of our inventories will ultimately be recovered through future sales. While 
we believe our inventory is stated at the lower of cost or net realizable value and that our estimates and assumptions to determine 
any adjustments to the cost of our inventories are reasonable, our estimates may prove to be inaccurate. We have sold inventory
previously reduced in part or in whole to zero, and we may have future sales of previously written-down inventory. We also may 
incur additional expenses to write-down inventory to its estimated net realizable value. Adjustments to these estimates in the 
future may materially impact our operating results. 

Accounting for Income Taxes 

Deferred tax assets and liabilities are determined based on differences between financial reporting and tax bases of assets 
and liabilities and operating loss and tax credit carryforwards and are measured using the enacted tax rates and laws that will be 
in effect when the differences and carryforwards are expected to be recovered or settled. 

A valuation allowance for deferred tax assets is provided when we estimate that it is more likely than not that all or a portion
of  the  deferred  tax  assets  will  not  be  realized  through  future  operations. This  assessment  is  based  upon  consideration  of  all 
available positive and negative evidence, which includes, among other things, our recent results of operations, forecasted domestic 
and international earnings over a number of years, all known business risks and industry trends, and applicable tax planning 
strategies that should, if implemented, enable us to utilize our deferred tax assets before they expire. We consider our actual
historical  results  over  several  years  to  have  stronger  weight  than  other  more  subjective  indicators,  including  forecasts,  when 
considering whether to establish or reduce a valuation allowance on deferred tax assets. We have significant difficulty projecting 
future results due to the nature of the business and the industry in which we operate. 

We provided a valuation allowance against our U.S. deferred tax assets and against the majority of our foreign deferred tax 
assets at December 31, 2017 as the realization of such assets is not considered to be more likely than not at this time. In a future 

42

period our assessment of the realizability of our deferred tax assets and therefore the appropriateness of the valuation allowance 
could change based on an assessment of all available evidence, both positive and negative in that future period. If our conclusion 
about the realizability of our deferred tax assets and therefore the appropriateness of the valuation allowance changes in a future 
period we could record a substantial tax benefit in our Consolidated Statement of Operations when that occurs. We recognize the
income tax benefit from a tax position only if it is more likely than not that the tax position will be sustained on examination by 
the  applicable  taxing  authorities,  based  on  the  technical  merits  of  our  position.  The  tax  benefit  recognized  in  the  financial 
statements from such a position is measured based on the largest benefit that has a greater than fifty percent likelihood of being 
realized upon ultimate settlement. 

As of December 31, 2017, we had approximately $84.0 million of net deferred tax assets before application of a valuation 
allowance. As of December 31, 2017, net deferred tax assets after reduction by the valuation allowance of $82.9 million were 
$1.1  million.  Included  in  our  deferred  tax  assets  is  a  deferred  tax  asset  of  $15.2  million  related  to  federal  net  operating  loss
carryforwards that will expire between 2019 and 2037 and a deferred tax asset of $36.0 million related to federal research and 
development tax credits that will expire between 2021 and 2037. 

Estimated interest and penalties are recorded as a component of interest expense and other expense, respectively. 

Research and Development Expenses 

Research  and  development  expenses  include  costs  incurred  in  the  development  and  production  of  our  hardware  and 
software, costs incurred to enhance and support existing product features, costs incurred to support and improve our development
processes, and costs related to future product development. Research and development costs are expensed as incurred, and may 
be offset by  co-funding from  third  parties. We  may  also  enter  into  arrangements  whereby we  make  advance,  non-refundable 
payments to a vendor to perform certain research and development services. These payments are deferred and recognized over 
the vendor’s estimated performance period. 

Amounts to be received under co-funding arrangements with the U.S. government or other customers are based on either 
contractual milestones or costs incurred. These co-funding milestone payments are recognized in operations as performance is 
estimated  to  be  completed  and  are  measured  as  milestone  achievements  occur  or  as  costs  are  incurred.  These  estimates  are 
reviewed on a periodic basis and are subject to change, including in the near term. If an estimate is changed, net research and
development expense could be impacted significantly. 

We  do  not  record  a  receivable  from  the  U.S.  government  prior  to  completing  the  requirements  necessary  to  bill  for  a 
milestone or cost reimbursement. Funding from the U.S. government is subject to certain budget restrictions and milestones may 
be subject to completion risk, and as a result, there may be periods in which research and development costs are expensed as 
incurred for which no reimbursement is recorded, as milestones have not been completed or the U.S. government has not funded 
an agreement. Accordingly, there can be substantial variability in the amount of net research and development expenses from 
quarter to quarter and year to year. 

We classify amounts to be received from funded research and development projects as either revenue or a reduction to 
research and development expense based on the specific facts and circumstances of the contractual arrangement, considering total
costs expected to be incurred compared to total expected funding and the nature of the research and development contractual 
arrangement. In the event that a particular arrangement is determined to represent revenue, the corresponding costs are classified 
as cost of revenue. 

Share-based Compensation 

We measure compensation cost for share-based payment awards at fair value and recognize it as compensation expense 
over the service period for awards expected to vest. We recognize share-based compensation expense for all share-based payment 
awards, net of an estimated forfeiture rate. We recognize compensation cost for only those shares expected to vest on a straight-
line basis over the requisite service period of the award. 

Determining  the  appropriate  fair  value  model  and  calculating  the  fair  value  of  share-based  payment  awards  requires 
subjective assumptions, including the expected life of the share-based payment awards and stock price volatility. We utilize the

43

Black-Scholes  options  pricing  model  to  value  the  stock  options  granted  under  our  options  plans.  In  this  model,  we  utilize 
assumptions related to stock price volatility, stock option term and forfeiture rates that are based upon both historical factors as 
well as management’s judgment. 

The fair value of restricted stock and restricted stock units is determined based on the number of shares or units granted 

and the quoted price of our common stock at the date of grant. 

We have granted performance vesting restricted stock and performance vesting restricted stock units to executives as one 
of the ways to align compensation with shareholder interests. Vesting of these awards is contingent upon achievement of certain
performance conditions. Compensation expense for these awards is only recognized when vesting is deemed to be “probable”. 
Awards  are  evaluated  for  probability  of  vesting  during  each  reporting  period.  We  do  not  currently  believe  that  any  of  our 
performance vesting restricted stock or performance vesting restricted stock units are “probable” of vesting. 

Business Combinations 

We  account  for  business  combinations  using  the  purchase  method  of  accounting  and  allocate  the  purchase  price  to  the 
tangible and intangible assets acquired and the liabilities assumed based upon their estimated fair values at the acquisition date. 
The excess of the purchase price over the fair value of the net assets acquired is recorded as goodwill. If the fair value of the net 
assets acquired exceeds the purchase price we record a bargain purchase gain. We use estimates and assumptions to value assets 
acquired and liabilities assumed at the acquisition date. During the measurement period, which may be up to one year from the 
acquisition date, any refinements made to the fair value of the assets and liabilities assumed are recorded in the period in which 
the adjustments are recognized. 

The fair values of intangible assets acquired are estimated using a discounted cash flow approach with Level 3 inputs. 
Under this method, an intangible asset’s fair value is equal to the present value of the incremental after-tax cash flows (excess 
earnings) attributable solely to the intangible asset over its remaining useful life. To calculate fair value, we use risk-adjusted 
cash flows discounted at rates considered appropriate given the inherent risks associated with each type of asset. We believe the
level and timing of cash flows appropriately reflects market participant assumptions. 

44

Item 7A.    Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

We are exposed to financial market risks, including changes in interest rates and equity price fluctuations. 

Interest Rate Risk:    We invest our available cash in money market mutual funds whose underlying investments include 
investment-grade debt instruments of corporate issuers and in debt instruments of the U.S. government and its agencies. We do 
not have any derivative instruments or auction rate securities in our investment portfolio. We protect and preserve invested funds 
by limiting default, market and reinvestment risk. Investments in both fixed-rate and floating-rate interest earning instruments
carry a degree of interest rate risks. Fixed-rate securities may  have their fair market value adversely affected due to a rise in
interest  rates, while  floating-rate  securities  may  produce  less  income  than  expected  if  interest  rates fall.  Due  in part  to  these 
factors, our future investment income may fall short of expectations due to changes in interest rates or we may suffer losses in
principal if forced to sell securities which have declined in market value due to changes in interest rates. Although we are subject 
to the above noted risks, we believe that a 0.5% change in interest rates would not be material.

Foreign Currency Risk:    We sell our products primarily in North America, Asia and Europe. As a result, our financial 
results could be affected by factors such as changes in foreign currency exchange rates or weak economic conditions in foreign 
markets. Our products are generally priced based on U.S. dollars, and a strengthening of the U.S. dollar could make our products
less competitive in foreign markets. While we often sell products with payments in U.S. dollars, our product sales contracts may
call for payment in foreign currencies and to the extent we do so, or engage with our foreign subsidiaries in transactions deemed
to be either short-term or long-term in nature, we are subject to foreign currency exchange risks.

As  of December 31,  2017,  we  had  entered into  foreign  currency  exchange  contracts  that  were designated  as  cash flow 
hedges  that  hedge  approximately  $96.3  million  of  anticipated  cash  receipts  on  specific  foreign  currency  denominated  sales 
contracts. These foreign currency exchange contracts hedge the risk of foreign exchange rate changes between the time that the 
related contracts were signed and when the cash receipts are expected to be received. As of December 31, 2017, we had entered 
into foreign currency exchange contracts that had been dedesignated for the purposes of hedge accounting treatment totaling 
$46.9 million. Unrealized gains or losses recorded in the Consolidated Statements of Operations related to these contracts are 
generally offset by foreign currency adjustments on related receivables. These foreign currency exchange contracts are considered 
to be economic hedges. 

Our foreign maintenance contracts are typically paid in local currencies and provide a partial natural hedge against foreign 
exchange exposure. To the extent that we wish to repatriate any of these funds to the United States, however, we are subject to
foreign  exchange  risks.  We  do  not  hold  or  purchase  any  currency  forward  exchange  contracts  for  trading  purposes. As  of 
December 31,  2017,  a  hypothetical  10%  unfavorable  change  in  foreign  currency  exchange  rates  would  impact  our  annual 
operating results and cash flows by approximately $0.5 million. 

45

Item 8.    Financial Statements and Supplementary Data

INDEX TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS* 

Consolidated Balance Sheets at December 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016 
Consolidated Statements of Operations for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015 
Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income (Loss) for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 
and 2015 
Consolidated Statements of Shareholders’ Equity for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015 
Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015 
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements 
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm 

F-1
F-2

F-3

F-4
F-5
F-7
F-42

________________________________

* The Financial Statements are located following page F-1. 

The  selected  quarterly  financial  data  required  by  this  item  is  set  forth  in  Note 22  -  Quarterly  Data  of  the  Notes  to 
Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 15. Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules in Part IV of this annual report on 
Form 10-K 

46

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Item 9.    Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure

None. 

Item 9A.    Controls and Procedures

Disclosure Controls and Procedures 

We maintain disclosure controls and procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our 
reports under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s 
rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to management, as appropriate, to allow timely 
decisions regarding required disclosure. Our management, with the participation and under the supervision of our Chief Executive
Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Accounting Officer/Corporate Controller, evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure 
controls and procedures as of the end of the period covered by this report, and based on that evaluation, our Chief Executive 
Officer and Chief Financial Officer determined that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective. 

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting 

There have been no changes in our internal controls over financial reporting during the fourth quarter of 2017 that have 

materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal controls over financial reporting. 

Management’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting 

Our  management  is  responsible  for  establishing  and  maintaining  adequate  internal  control  over  financial  reporting  as 
defined by Rule 13a-15(f) under the Exchange Act. Internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide 
reasonable  assurance  regarding  the  reliability  of  financial  reporting  and  the  preparation  of  financial  statements  for  external 
purposes in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. 

Our internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (i) pertain to the maintenance of 
records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect our transactions and dispositions of assets; (ii) provide reasonable 
assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with accounting 
principles generally accepted in the United States of America, and that our receipts and expenditures are being made only in 
accordance with authorizations of our management and directors; and (iii) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or 
timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of our assets that could have a material effect on the financial 
statements. 

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, 
projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because 
of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate. 

Our  management,  including  our  Chief  Executive  Officer  and  Chief  Financial  Officer,  conducted  an  evaluation  of  the 
effectiveness  of  our  internal  control  over  financial  reporting  based  on  the  framework  in  “Internal  Control  —  Integrated 
Framework  (2013)”  issued  by  the  Committee  of  Sponsoring  Organizations  of  the  Treadway  Commission.  Based  on  this 
evaluation, our management concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2017. 

Peterson  Sullivan  LLP,  an  independent  registered  public  accounting  firm,  has  expressed  an  unqualified  opinion  on  the 

effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2017. 

47

REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM 

To the Shareholders and Board of Directors 
Cray Inc. 

Opinion on Internal Control over Financial Reporting 

We have audited Cray Inc. and Subsidiaries' (“the Company”) internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2017, 
based  on  criteria  established  in  Internal  Control  -  Integrated  Framework  (2013)  issued  by  the  Committee  of  Sponsoring 
Organizations  of  the  Treadway  Commission  (“COSO”).  In  our  opinion,  the  Company  maintained,  in  all  material  respects, 
effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2017, based on the criteria established in Internal Control 
- Integrated Framework (2013) issued by COSO. 

We  have  also audited,  in  accordance with  the  standards of the  Public  Company Accounting Oversight  Board (United States) 
(“PCAOB”),  the  consolidated  balance  sheets  of  the  Company  as  of  December  31,  2017  and  2016,  the  related  consolidated 
statements of operations, comprehensive income (loss), shareholders' equity, and cash flows for each of the years in the three-
year period ended December 31, 2017, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”)
and our report dated February 15, 2018, expressed an unqualified opinion on those consolidated financial statements. 

Basis for Opinion 

The  Company's  management  is  responsible  for  maintaining  effective  internal  control  over  financial  reporting,  and  for  its 
assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting included in the accompanying Management's Report 
on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company's internal control over
financial  reporting  based  on  our  audit.  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 audit in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the 
audit  to  obtain  reasonable  assurance  about  whether  effective  internal  control  over  financial  reporting  was  maintained  in  all 
material respects. Our audit of internal control over financial reporting included obtaining an understanding of internal control 
over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, and testing and evaluating the design and operating 
effectiveness  of  internal  control based on  the  assessed  risk. Our  audit  also  included  performing  such other procedures  as we 
considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion. 

Definition and Limitations of Internal Control Over Financial Reporting 

A  company's  internal  control  over  financial  reporting  is  a  process  designed  to  provide  reasonable  assurance  regarding  the 
reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with accounting
principles generally accepted in the United States. A company's internal control over financial reporting includes those policies 
and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions 
and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to 
permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States, and
that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors
of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use,
or disposition of the company's assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements. 

Because  of  its  inherent  limitations,  internal  control  over  financial  reporting  may  not  prevent  or  detect  misstatements. Also, 
projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because 
of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate. 

/S/ PETERSON SULLIVAN LLP 

We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2005. 
Seattle, Washington  
February 15, 2018 

48

Item 9B.    Other Information

None. 

49

Item 10.    Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance

PART III 

The information required by this Item is contained in the proxy statement for our annual meeting of shareholders scheduled 

to be held on or around June 12, 2018, and such information is incorporated herein by reference. 

Item 11.    Executive Compensation

The information required by this Item is contained in the proxy statement for our annual meeting of shareholders scheduled 

to be held on or around June 12, 2018, and such information is incorporated herein by reference. 

Item 12.    Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Shareholder Matters

The information required by this Item is contained in the proxy statement for our annual meeting of shareholders scheduled 

to be held on or around June 12, 2018, and such information is incorporated herein by reference. 

Item 13.    Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence

The information required by this Item is contained in the proxy statement for our annual meeting of shareholders scheduled 

to be held on or around June 12, 2018, and such information is incorporated herein by reference. 

Item 14.    Principal Accounting Fees and Services

The information required by this Item is contained in the proxy statement for our annual meeting of shareholders scheduled 

to be held on or around June 12, 2018, and such information is incorporated herein by reference. 

50

Item 15.    Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules

PART IV 

(a)(1) 

  Financial Statements 

  Consolidated Balance Sheets at December 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016 

  Consolidated Statements of Operations for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015 

Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income (Loss) for the years ended December 31, 2017, 
2016 and 2015 

Consolidated Statements of Shareholders’ Equity for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 
2015 

  Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015 

  Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements 

  Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm 

(a)(2) Financial Statement Schedules

Schedule II — Valuation and Qualifying Accounts — The financial statement schedule for the years ended December 31, 
2017, 2016 and 2015 should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements of Cray Inc. filed as part of this
annual report on Form 10-K. 

Schedules other than that listed above have been omitted since they are either not required, not applicable, or because the 

information required is included in the consolidated financial statements or the notes thereto. 

(a)(3) Exhibits

The Exhibits listed in the Exhibit Index are filed as part of this annual report on Form 10-K. Each management contract or 

compensatory plan or agreement listed on the Exhibit Index is identified by an asterisk. 

51

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Exhibit

Exhibit Description 

Incorporated by Reference 

EXHIBIT INDEX 

Form 

File No. 

Filing

Exhibit/

Filed 

8-K 

000-26820 

04/25/12 

2.1 

8-K 
8-K 
8-K 

8-K 

S-8
S-8

10-K 

DEF 
14A 
DEF 
14A 
DEF 
14A 
DEF 
14A 
DEF 
14A 
DEF
14A 

10-K 

10-K 

10-K 
8-K 
8-K 

000-26820 
000-26820 
000-26820 

06/08/06   
02/12/07 
04/19/12   

3.3 
3.1 
3.1 

000-26820 

02/28/17 

3.1 

333-57970 
333-57970 

03/30/01   
03/30/01 

4.1 
4.2 

000-26820 

03/04/11   

10.28 

000-26820 

03/31/03 

000-26820 

03/24/04   

000-26820 

04/28/06 

000-26820 

03/31/09   

000-26820 

04/24/13 

000-26820 

04/25/16   

A

B 

B

A 

A

A 

000-26820 

04/01/05 

10.32 

000-26820 

04/01/05   

10.33 

000-26820 
000-26820 
000-26820 

03/09/07 
06/08/06   
07/03/13 

10.11 
10.1 
99.1 

8-K 

000-26820 

07/03/13   

99.2 

8-K 

000-26820 

12/17/14 

10.1 

2.1 

3.1 
3.2 
3.3 

3.4 

10.0* 
10.1* 

10.2* 

Asset Purchase Agreement between Intel 
Corporation and the Company, dated April 24, 
2012

  Restated Articles of Incorporation
Amended and Restated Bylaws
First Amendment to Amended and Restated 
Bylaws

Second Amendment to Amended and Restated 
Bylaws

  1999 Stock Option Plan

2000 Non-Executive Employee Stock Option 
Plan

Amended and Restated 2001 Employee Stock 
Purchase Plan

10.3* 

2003 Stock Option Plan

10.4* 

2004 Long-Term Equity Compensation Plan

10.5* 

2006 Long-Term Equity Compensation Plan

10.6* 

2009 Long-Term Equity Compensation Plan

10.7* 

2013 Equity Incentive Plan

10.8* 

10.9* 

10.10* 

10.11* 
10.12* 
10.13* 

10.14* 

10.15* 

Amended and Restated 2013 Equity Incentive 
Plan
Form of Officer Non-Qualified Stock Option 
Agreement
Form of Officer Incentive Stock Option 
Agreement

Form of Employee Restricted Stock Agreement

  Form of Director Restricted Stock Agreement
Form of 2013 Equity Incentive Plan Notice of 
Stock Option Grant and Stock Option Award 
Agreement
Form of 2013 Equity Incentive Plan Notice of 
Restricted Stock Award and Restricted Stock 
Purchase Agreement

Form of 2013 Equity Incentive Plan Notice of 
Restricted Stock Award and Restricted Stock 
Purchase Agreement

52

 
   
 
 
 
Exhibit

Exhibit Description 

Incorporated by Reference 

10.16* 

10.17* 

10.18* 

10.19* 

10.20* 

10.21* 

10.22* 

10.23* 

10.24* 

10.25* 

10.26* 

10.27* 

10.28* 

10.29* 

Form of 2013 Equity Incentive Plan Notice of 
Stock Option Grant and Stock Option Award 
Agreement

Form of 2013 Equity Incentive Plan Notice of 
Restricted Stock Unit Award and Restricted 
Stock Unit Award Agreement

Form of 2013 Equity Incentive Plan Notice of 
Stock Appreciation Right Award Grant and Stock 
Appreciation Right Award Agreement

Letter Agreement between the Company and 
Peter J. Ungaro, dated March 4, 2005

Offer Letter between the Company and Brian C. 
Henry, dated May 16, 2005

Offer Letter between the Company and 
Frederick A. Kohout, dated January 31, 2016

Offer Letter between the Company and 
Charles A. Morreale, dated March 14, 2004

Offer Letter between the Company and 
Efstathios Papaefstathiou, dated November 11, 
2016

Offer Letter between the Company and 
Michael C. Piraino, dated August 31, 2009

Offer Letter between the Company and Steve 
Scott, dated August 30, 2014

Form of Management Retention Agreement 
entered into with executive officers prior to 
September 27, 2011 (including Annex A-1 and 
Annex A-2 applicable only to Peter J. Ungaro 
and Brian C. Henry)
Form of Management Retention Agreement 
entered into with executive officers from 
September 27, 2011 forward

Executive Severance Policy, as adopted on 
December 13, 2010

Form 

8-K 

File No. 

Filing

Exhibit/

Filed 

000-26820 

12/17/14   

10.2 

8-K 

000-26820 

12/17/14 

10.3 

8-K 

000-26820 

12/17/14   

10.4 

8-K 

000-26820 

03/08/05 

10.1 

10-Q 

000-26820 

11/09/05   

10.1 

10-Q 

000-26820 

05/02/17   

10.2 

10-Q 

000-26820 

04/29/14   

10.2 

10-Q 

000-26820 

10/28/14 

10.1 

8-K 

000-26820 

12/22/08   

10.1 

10-K 

000-26820 

02/13/14 

10.20 

8-K 

000-26820 

12/17/10   

10.1 

X

X

Amended and Restated Non-Employee Director 
Compensation Policy

10-Q 

000-26820 

04/29/14 

10.3 

10.30* 

  2017 Executive Bonus Plan

10.31* 

Form of Indemnification Agreement

10-Q 

8-K 

000-26820 

05/02/17   

10.1 

000-26820 

02/08/11 

10.1 

53

 
   
 
 
Exhibit

Exhibit Description 

Incorporated by Reference 

Form 

8-K 

File No. 

Filing

Exhibit/

Filed 

000-26820 

04/27/16   

10.10 

8-K 

000-26820 

05/03/12 

10.1 

8-K 

000-26820 

01/11/16 

10.2 

10.32 

10.33 

10.34 

10.35 

21.1 

23.1 

24.1 

31.1 

31.2 

32.1 

Lease Agreement between North Pad Office, 
LLC and the Company, dated as of April 21, 
2016

Intellectual Property Agreement between Intel 
Corporation and the Company, dated May 2, 
2012

Amended and Restated Credit Agreement 
between Wells Fargo Bank, National Association 
and the Company, dated January 7, 2016, as 
amended

Revolving Line of Credit Note between Wells 
Fargo Bank, National Association and the 
Company, dated January 7, 2016

  Subsidiaries of the Company

Consent of Peterson Sullivan LLP, Independent 
Registered Public Accounting Firm

Power of Attorney for directors and officers 
(included on the signature page of this report)

Rule 13a-14(a)/15d-14(a) Certification of 
Mr. Ungaro, Chief Executive Officer

Rule 13a-14(a)/15d-14(a) Certification of 
Mr. Henry, Chief Financial Officer

Certification pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350 
by the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief 
Financial Officer

101.INS 

  XBRL Instance Document 

101.SCH  XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema Document 

101.CAL  XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation 

Linkbase Document 

101.LAB  XBRL Taxonomy Extension Label Linkbase 

Document 

101.PRE  XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation 

Linkbase Document 

* 

  Management contract or compensatory plan or arrangement. 

X 

X 

X

X 

X

X 

X

X 

X

X 

X

X 

Excluded from this list of exhibits, pursuant to Paragraph (b)(4)(iii)(a) of Item 601 of Regulation S-K, may be one or more 
instruments  defining  the  rights  of  holders  of  long-term  debt  of  the  Company. The  Company  hereby  agrees  that  it  will,  upon 
request of the Securities and Exchange Commission, furnish to the Commission a copy of any such instrument.  

Item 16.    Form 10-K Summary

None. 

54

 
   
 
 
   
 
 
   
 
 
   
 
 
   
 
 
   
 
 
   
 
 
   
Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused 
this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized, in the City of Seattle, State of Washington, 
on February 15, 2018. 

SIGNATURES 

CRAY INC. 
By 

/s/    PETER J. UNGARO
Peter J. Ungaro
Chief Executive Officer and President 

Each of the undersigned hereby constitutes and appoints Peter J. Ungaro, Brian C. Henry and Michael C. Piraino and each 
of them, the undersigned’s true and lawful attorney-in-fact and agent, with full power of substitution, for the undersigned and in 
his or her name, place and stead, in any and all capacities, to sign any or all amendments to this Annual Report on Form 10-K 
and any other instruments or documents that said attorneys-in-fact and agents may deem necessary or advisable, to enable Cray 
Inc. to comply with the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and any requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission in 
respect thereof, and to file the same, with all exhibits thereto, with the Securities and Exchange Commission, granting unto said 
attorneys-in-fact and agents and each of them full power and authority to do and perform each and every act and thing requisite
and necessary to be done, as fully to all intents and purposes as the undersigned might or could do in person, hereby ratifying and 
confirming all that each such attorney-in-fact and agent, or his substitute, may lawfully do or cause to be done by virtue hereof. 

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this report has been signed below by the following 

persons on behalf of the Company and in the capacities indicated on February 15, 2018. 

Signature 

Title 

By   /s/    PETER J. UNGARO 

Chief Executive Officer, President and Director 

Peter J. Ungaro 

(Principal Executive Officer) 

By  /s/    BRIAN C. HENRY 

Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President 

Brian C. Henry 

(Principal Financial Officer) 

By  /s/     CHARLES D. FAIRCHILD 

Chief Accounting Officer, Controller and Vice President 

Charles D. Fairchild 

(Principal Accounting Officer) 

By  /s/    PRITHVIRAJ BANERJEE 

Prithviraj Banerjee 

By  /s/    CATRIONA M. FALLON

Catriona M. Fallon 

    By  /s/    STEPHEN C. KIELY 

Stephen C. Kiely 

        By  /s/     SALLY G. NARODICK 

Sally G. Narodick 

  By  /s/    DANIEL C. REGIS 

Daniel C. Regis 

     By  /s/    MAX L. SCHIRESON 

Max L. Schireson 

     By  /s/    BRIAN V. TURNER 

Brian V. Turner 

55

Director 

Director 

Director 

Director 

Director 

Director 

Director 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS 
(In thousands, except share data) 

December 31, 
 2017 

December 31, 
 2016 

222,962
—
—
197,941
88,254
20,006
529,163

1,655
31,050
30,620
3,023
14,182
1,637
85,613
17,629
714,572

45,504
17,199
10,303
83,129
156,135

27,258
5,703
189,096

Current assets: 

  Cash and cash equivalents 
  Restricted cash 
  Short-term investments 
  Accounts and other receivables, net 
  Inventory 
  Prepaid expenses and other current assets 

  Total current assets 

  Long-term restricted cash 
  Long-term investment in sales-type lease, net 
  Property and equipment, net 
  Service spares, net 
  Goodwill 
  Intangible assets other than goodwill, net 
  Deferred tax assets, net 
  Other non-current assets 
  TOTAL ASSETS 

ASSETS

$

137,326   $ 
1,964
6,997
162,034
186,307  
25,015
519,643  

1,030  

23,367
36,623  
2,551
14,182  
4,345
1,106  

15,910

$

618,757   $ 

LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY 

Current liabilities: 

  Accounts payable 
  Accrued payroll and related expenses 
  Other accrued liabilities 
  Deferred revenue 

  Total current liabilities 

  Long-term deferred revenue 
  Other non-current liabilities 
  TOTAL LIABILITIES 

Commitments and contingencies (Note 13) 
Shareholders’ equity: 

Preferred stock — Authorized and undesignated, 5,000,000 shares; no shares issued or 
outstanding 
Common stock and additional paid-in capital, par value $.01 per share — Authorized, 
75,000,000 shares; issued and outstanding 40,464,963 and 40,757,458 shares, 
respectively 

Accumulated other comprehensive income 
Accumulated deficit 

  TOTAL SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY 
  TOTAL LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY

$

$

57,207 $
18,546  
9,471
80,119  

165,343

38,622
14,495  

218,460

—

—

633,408

622,604

915  
(234,026)
400,297  
618,757 $

2,782
(99,910)
525,476
714,572

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements 

F-1

 
   
 
   
CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS 
(In thousands, except per share data) 

Revenue: 
Product 
Service

Total revenue 

Cost of revenue: 

  Cost of product revenue 
  Cost of service revenue 
  Total cost of revenue 

  Gross profit
Operating expenses: 

  Research and development, net 
  Sales and marketing 
  General and administrative 
  Restructuring 

  Total operating expenses 
Income (loss) from operations 

Other income (expense), net 
Interest income, net 
Gain on strategic transaction 
Income (loss) before income taxes 
Income tax benefit (expense) 
Net income (loss)

Basic net income (loss) per common share 

Diluted net income (loss) per common share 

Basic weighted average shares outstanding 

Diluted weighted average shares outstanding

Years Ended December 31, 

2017

2016 

2015

$

250,195 $
142,314
392,509

499,432   $ 
130,377
629,809  

188,830
72,975
261,805
130,704

98,777
59,894
29,113
8,568
196,352
(65,648)

5,002
3,276
4,480
(52,890)
(80,939)
(133,829) $

(3.33) $

(3.33) $

40,139

40,139

332,016  
77,578
409,594  
220,215

112,130
64,893  
34,053
—
211,076

9,139  

(1,365)  
2,147
—
9,921

694  
10,615 $

0.27 $

0.26   $ 

39,833  

41,012

$

$

$

601,294
123,395
724,689

426,821
72,185
499,006
225,683

96,563
60,150
27,966
—
184,679
41,004

365
1,408
—
42,777
(15,240)
27,537

0.70

0.68

39,257

40,691

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements 

F-2

 
 
   
CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME (LOSS) 
(In thousands) 

Net income (loss) 
Other comprehensive income (loss), net of tax: 

Years Ended December 31, 

2017 

2016 

2015 

$

(133,829) $

10,615 $

27,537

Unrealized gain (loss) on available-for-sale investments 
Foreign currency translation adjustments 
Unrealized gain (loss) on cash flow hedges 
Reclassification adjustments on cash flow hedges included in net 
income (loss)

(7)
(490)
(1,457)

87

8
426  

8,030

(13,324)  

Other comprehensive income (loss) 
Comprehensive income (loss) 

(1,867)
(135,696) $

$

(4,860)
5,755   $ 

(20)
(394)
5,251

(3,698)

1,139
28,676

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements 

F-3

 
 
   
CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY 
(in thousands) 

BALANCE, December 31, 2014 
Issuance of shares under employee stock 
purchase plan
Exercise of stock options 
Restricted shares issued for compensation, 
net of forfeitures and taxes 
Share-based compensation 
Other comprehensive income 
Net income 

Common Stock 
and Additional 
Paid In Capital

Number 
of Shares 

Amount 

Accumulated 
Other 
Comprehensive
Income 

Accumulated
Deficit 

40,822 $

598,390 $

6,503 $

(151,039) $

27

229

711  

2,289

Total 
453,854

711

2,289

(384)

(2,464)  

(1,909)

(4,373)

—

11,353

1,139    

27,537

11,353
1,139
27,537

BALANCE, December 31, 2015 

40,694 $

610,279 $

7,642   $ 

(125,411) $

492,510

Issuance of shares under employee stock 
purchase plan
Exercise of stock options 
Restricted shares issued for compensation, 
net of forfeitures and taxes 

Share-based compensation 
Other comprehensive loss 
Cumulative-effect adjustment resulting from 
adoption of ASU 2016-09 (Note 14) 

Net income 

27

169

718  

2,121

718

2,121

(133)

(1,665)  

(1,714)

(3,379)

—

11,151

(4,860)    

11,151
(4,860)

16,600

16,600

10,615

10,615

BALANCE, December 31, 2016 

40,757 $

622,604 $

2,782 $

(99,910) $

525,476

Issuance of shares under employee stock 
purchase plan 
Exercise of stock options 
Restricted shares issued for compensation, 
net of forfeitures and taxes 

Share-based compensation 
Other comprehensive loss 
Net loss 

20

157

365

1,342  

(469)

(1,752)

—

10,849  

365

1,342

(287)

(2,039)

(1,867)

(133,829)

10,849
(1,867)
(133,829)

BALANCE, December 31, 2017 

40,465 $

633,408 $

915 $

(234,026) $

400,297

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements 

F-4

   
 
   
 
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
 
 
 
   
 
   
   
 
 
 
CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS 
(In thousands) 

Operating activities: 
Net income (loss) 

Adjustments to reconcile net income (loss) to net cash provided by (used in) 
operating activities: 

  Depreciation and amortization 
  Share-based compensation expense 
  Deferred income taxes 
  Gain on strategic transaction 
  Gain on sale of equity investment 
  Other 

Cash provided (used) due to changes in operating assets and liabilities: 

  Accounts and other receivables 
  Long-term investment in sales-type lease, net 
  Inventory 
  Prepaid expenses and other assets 
  Accounts payable 
  Accrued payroll and related expenses and other accrued liabilities 
  Deferred revenue 

Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities 
Investing activities: 

  Sales and maturities of available-for-sale investments 
  Purchases of available-for-sale investments 
  Cash received in strategic transaction 
  Proceeds from sale of equity investment 
  Change in restricted cash 
  Purchases of property and equipment 

Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities 

Financing activities: 

  Proceeds from issuance of common stock through employee stock purchase plan 
  Purchase of employee restricted shares to fund related statutory tax withholding 
  Proceeds from exercise of options 

Net cash used in financing activities 
Effect of foreign exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents 

Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents 
Cash and cash equivalents: 

  Beginning of period 

  End of period 

Supplemental disclosure of cash flow information: 

  Cash paid for interest 
  Cash paid for income taxes 

F-5

Years Ended December 31, 

2017 

2016 

2015 

$ (133,829)  $

10,615 $

27,537

16,760  
10,849
81,468  
(4,480)
(3,349) 
837

38,660
10,129  
(97,688)
(5,306) 
11,527
7,572  
(6,491)

14,684
11,151
(1,861)
—
—
2,850

(78,396)
(17,224)
15,343
2,265
16,903
(21,073)
(7,570)

17,017
11,353
12,103
—
—
1,945

36,665
11,510
21,292
(3,972)
(19,849)
23,841
8,314

(73,341) 

(52,313)

147,756

87,513  
(94,902)
8,000  
4,481
(1,288) 
(17,467)

(13,663) 

365  
(2,039)
1,342  

(332)
1,700  

30,990
(16,159)
—
—
1,670
(7,503)

8,998

718
(3,379)
2,121

(540)
157

16,229
(14,991)
—
—
13,445
(7,467)

7,216

711
(4,373)
2,289

(1,373)
428

(85,636)

(43,698)

154,027

222,962

266,660

112,633

$ 137,326   $ 222,962 $ 266,660

$

14   $

31 $

930

2,441

4
3,890

Non-cash investing and financing activities: 

  Inventory transfers to property and equipment and service spares 

Strategic transaction: 

Non-cash assets acquired: 

Receivable from Seagate 
Inventory 
Property and equipment 
Intangible assets 
Liabilities assumed: 
Deferred revenue 
Deferred tax liabilities 
Other liabilities 

$

$

$

2,429 $

5,292 $

8,177

1,782   $
4,120
2,915  
3,350

12,168 $
3,019  
500

— $
—
—
—

— $
—
—

—
—
—
—

—
—
—

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements 

F-6

   
   
CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 

NOTE 1    DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS 

Cray Inc. (Cray or the Company) designs, develops, manufactures, markets and services products primarily at the high-end 
of the high performance computing (HPC) and data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) markets. These products include 
compute systems commonly known as supercomputers, and storage, data analytics and AI solutions leveraging more than four 
decades  of  delivering  the  world’s  most  advanced  computing  systems.  The  Company  also  provides  related  software,  system 
maintenance  and  support  and engineering services. The Company’s  customers  include domestic  and foreign government  and 
government-funded entities, academic institutions and commercial entities. 

NOTE 2    SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES 

Accounting Principles 

The  consolidated  financial  statements  and  accompanying  notes  are  prepared  in  accordance  with  accounting  principles 

generally accepted in the United States of America (GAAP). 

Principles of Consolidation 

The consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Company and its wholly-owned subsidiaries. All material 

intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated. 

Reclassifications 

Certain prior year amounts have been reclassified to conform with the current year presentation. There has been no impact 

on previously reported net income (loss) or shareholders’ equity from such reclassifications. 

Use of Estimates 

The preparation of financial statements in accordance with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions 
that affect the amounts reported in the Company’s consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. Actual results could
differ materially from those estimates. 

Cash, Cash Equivalents and Restricted Cash 

Cash  and  cash  equivalents  consist  of  highly  liquid  financial  instruments  that  are  readily  convertible  to  cash  and  have 
maturities of three months or less at the time of acquisition. The Company maintains cash and cash equivalent balances with 
financial institutions that exceed federally insured limits. As of December 31, 2017 and 2016, the Company had $3.0 million and
$1.7 million, respectively, in restricted cash associated with certain letters of credit to secure customer prepayments and other 
customer related obligations. 

Investments 

The  Company’s  investments  consist  primarily  of  commercial  paper,  corporate  debt,  and  other  debt  securities.  Debt 
securities are classified as available-for-sale and are reported at fair value with unrealized gains and losses, net of applicable 
taxes, recorded in accumulated other comprehensive income, a component of shareholders’ equity. The realized gains and losses 
for available-for-sale securities are included in other income and expense in the Consolidated Statements of Operations. Realized 
gains and losses are calculated based on the specific identification method. 

The  Company  monitors  its  investment  portfolio  for  impairment  on  a  periodic  basis.  When  the  carrying  value  of  an 
investment in debt securities exceeds its fair value and the decline in value is determined to be an other-than-temporary decline, 
and when the Company  does not intend to sell the debt security and it is not more likely than not that the Company will be 

F-7

CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

required to sell the debt securities prior to recovery of its amortized cost basis, the Company records an impairment charge in the 
amount of the credit loss and the balance, if any, to other comprehensive income (loss). 

Investments that mature between three months and one year from the purchase date are initially classified as short-term 
investments in the Consolidated Balance Sheet. Investments that mature beyond one year from the purchase date are initially 
classified as long-term investments in the Consolidated Balance Sheet.  

Foreign Currency Derivatives 

The Company uses foreign currency exchange contracts to hedge certain foreign currency exposures. Foreign currency 
exchange  contracts  are  cash  flow  hedges  of  the  Company’s  foreign  currency  exposures  on  certain  revenue  contracts  and  are 
recorded at the contract’s fair value. Most of the Company’s foreign currency exchange contracts are designated as cash flow 
hedges for the purposes of hedge accounting treatment and any gains or losses on the effective portion of the foreign currency 
exchange contract is initially reported in “Accumulated other comprehensive income,” a component of shareholders’ equity, with 
a corresponding asset or liability recorded based on the fair value of the foreign currency exchange contract. When the hedged 
transaction is recognized, any unrecognized gains or losses on the hedged transaction are reclassified into results of operations in 
the  same  period. Any  hedge  ineffectiveness  is  recorded  to  operations  in  the  current  period.  The  Company  measures  hedge 
effectiveness by comparing changes in fair values of the foreign currency exchange contract and expected cash flows based on 
changes in the spot prices of the underlying currencies. Cash flows from foreign currency exchange contracts accounted for as 
cash flow hedges are classified in the same category as the cash flows from the items being hedged. Unrealized gains or losses 
related to foreign currency exchange contracts that are not designated as cash flow hedges for the purposes of hedge accounting
treatment are recorded in other income (expense) in the Consolidated Statements of Operations and are generally offset by foreign 
currency adjustments on related receivables. The Company does not use derivative financial instruments for speculative purposes.

Concentration of Credit Risk 

Financial instruments that potentially subject the Company to significant concentrations of credit risk consist primarily of 
cash  and  cash  equivalents,  available-for-sale  investments,  accounts  receivable,  short-term  and  long-term  restricted  cash  and 
foreign currency exchange contracts. 

The Company maintains cash and cash equivalents, available-for-sale securities and foreign currency exchange contracts 
with various financial institutions. As part of its risk management process, the Company performs periodic evaluations of the 
relative credit standing of the financial institutions. The Company has not sustained any credit losses from instruments held at
financial institutions. The Company utilizes foreign currency exchange contracts to protect against the effects of foreign currency
fluctuations. Such contracts involve the risk of non-performance by the counterparty, which could result in a material loss. 

The  Company  currently  derives  a  significant  portion  of  its  revenue  from  sales  of  products  and  services  to  the 
U.S. Government. See Note 18 — Segment Information for additional information. Given the type of customers, the Company 
does not believe its accounts receivable represent significant credit risk. 

The  Company  currently  has a  long-term  investment  in  a sales-type  lease  it  entered  into with one of its  customers. See 
Note 8 — Sales-type Lease for additional information. Given the credit standing of the customer, the Company does not believe 
that this investment represents a significant credit risk. 

Other Concentration 

The Company obtains certain components from single-source suppliers due to technology, availability, price, quality or 
other considerations. The loss of a single-source supplier, the single-source supplier’s inability to deliver the required components 
or intellectual property due to natural disaster or other reasons, the deterioration of the relationship with a single-source supplier, 
or any unilateral modification of contract terms under which the Company is supplied components by a single-source supplier 
could have a significant adverse effect on the Company’s revenue and gross margins. 

F-8

CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

Accounts Receivable 

Accounts  receivable  are  stated  at  principal  amounts  and  are  primarily  comprised  of  amounts  contractually  due  from 
customers  for  products  and  services  and  amounts  due  from  government  research  and  development  contracts.  The  Company 
provides  an  allowance  for  doubtful  accounts  based  on  an  evaluation  of  customer  past  due  account  balances.  In  determining 
whether to record an allowance for a specific customer, the Company considers a number of factors, including prior payment 
history and financial information for the customer. 

Fair Values of Financial Instruments

The  Company  measures  certain  financial  assets  and  liabilities  at  fair  value  based  on  the  exchange  price  that  would  be 
received for an asset or paid to transfer a liability (an exit price) in the principal or most advantageous market for the asset or 
liability in an orderly transaction between market participants. The Company’s financial instruments primarily consist of debt 
securities, time deposits, money market funds, and foreign currency derivatives. See Note 4 — Fair Value Measurement for a 
further discussion on fair value of financial instruments. 

Inventories 

Inventories are valued at the lower of cost or net realizable value, with cost computed on a first-in, first-out basis (FIFO). 
The Company regularly evaluates the technological usefulness and anticipated future demand for various inventory components 
and the expected use of the inventory. When the Company determines it is not likely the cost of inventory items will be recovered
through future sales, the Company writes-down the related inventory to its estimated net realizable value. Prior to the adoption
of ASU 2015-11 at the beginning of the first quarter of 2017, inventories were valued at the lower of cost or market. The adoption 
of ASU 2015-11 did not have a material impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements. 

In  connection  with  certain  of  its  sales  agreements,  the  Company  may  receive  used  equipment  from  a  customer.  This 
inventory generally will be recorded at no value based on the expectation that the Company will not be able to resell or otherwise
use the equipment. In the event that the Company has a specific contractual plan for resale or there is an expected scrap value at 
the date the inventory is acquired, the inventory is recorded at its estimated fair value. 

Property and Equipment and Intangible Assets, Net 

Property and equipment are recorded at cost less accumulated depreciation and amortization. Additions and improvements 
are capitalized and maintenance and repairs are expensed as incurred. Depreciation is calculated on a straight-line basis over the 
estimated useful lives of the related assets, ranging from eighteen months to seven years for furniture and fixtures, three years for 
computer  equipment,  and  eight  to  twenty-five  years  for  buildings  and  land  improvements.  Leasehold  improvements  are 
depreciated over the life of the lease or asset, whichever is shorter. 

The  Company  amortizes  purchased  intangible  assets  with  finite  lives  using  the  straight-line  method  over  the  estimated 

economic lives of the assets, ranging from two to ten years. 

Service Spares 

Service spares are valued at the lower of cost or net realizable value and represent inventory used to support service and 
maintenance agreements with customers. As inventory is utilized, replaced items are returned to the Company and are either 
repaired or scrapped. Costs incurred to repair inventory to a usable state are charged to expense as incurred. Service spares are
recorded at cost and amortized over the estimated service life of the related product platform (generally four years). Prior to the 
adoption of ASU 2015-11 at the beginning of the first quarter of 2017, service spares were valued at the lower of cost or market.
The adoption of ASU 2015-11 did not have a material impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements. 

F-9

CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

Impairment of Long-Lived Assets and Intangibles 

The  Company  evaluates property, plant  and  equipment  and  intangible assets with finite  lives for  impairment  whenever 
events or changes in circumstances indicate the carrying value of an asset may not be recoverable. The Company assesses the 
recoverability of the assets based on the undiscounted future cash flow the assets are expected to generate and recognizes an 
impairment loss when estimated undiscounted future cash flow expected to result from the use of the asset plus net proceeds 
expected  from  disposition of  the  asset,  if  any,  are  less  than  the  carrying value of  the asset. When  the  Company  identifies  an 
impairment, the carrying value of the asset is reduced to its estimated fair value based on a discounted cash flow approach or,
when available and appropriate, to comparable market values. 

Goodwill 

Goodwill is not amortized but is tested for impairment at least annually. The Company reviews goodwill for impairment 
annually and whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the fair value of a reporting unit may be less than its 
carrying amount (a triggering event). In the second quarter of 2017, the Company determined that declining revenues in recent 
years, coupled with the anticipated loss for 2017, should be construed as a triggering event for the purposes of impairment testing 
of goodwill in accordance with ASC 350.  The Company performed a quantitative goodwill impairment test on June 30, 2017. 
Due to the proximity of the triggering event to the October 1 annual testing date, the Company has elected to change the date of
its annual goodwill impairment test from the beginning of its fourth fiscal quarter to the beginning of its second fiscal quarter. 
The Company first assesses qualitative factors to determine whether it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting
unit  is  less  than  its  carrying  amount  as  a  basis  for  determining  whether  it  is  necessary  to  perform  the  quantitative  goodwill 
impairment test described in ASC Topic 350. The more likely than not threshold is defined as having a likelihood of more than 
50 percent. If, after assessing the totality of events or circumstances, the Company determines that it is not more likely than not 
that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount, then performing the quantitative goodwill impairment test 
is  unnecessary  and  goodwill  is  considered  to  be  unimpaired.  However,  if  based  on  the  qualitative  assessment  the  Company 
concludes that it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount, the Company will 
proceed with performing the quantitative goodwill impairment test. 

In performing the quantitative goodwill impairment test, the Company determines the fair value of each reporting unit and 
compares it to its carrying value. If the fair value of the reporting unit exceeds the carrying value of the net assets assigned to that 
unit, goodwill is not impaired. If the carrying value of a reporting unit exceeds its fair value, the Company records an impairment 
loss equal to the difference. 

The Company performed a quantitative goodwill impairment test during the second fiscal quarter of 2017 and concluded 

that the fair values of its reporting units were greater than their carrying amounts. 

Business Combinations 

The Company accounts for business combinations using the purchase method of accounting and allocates the purchase price 
to the tangible and intangible assets acquired and the liabilities assumed based upon their estimated fair values at the acquisition 
date. The excess of the purchase price over the fair value of the net assets acquired is recorded as goodwill. If the fair value of 
the net assets acquired exceeds the purchase price the Company records a bargain purchase gain. The Company uses estimates 
and assumptions to value assets acquired and liabilities assumed at the acquisition date. During the measurement period, which 
may be up to one year from the acquisition date, any refinements made to the fair value of the assets and liabilities assumed are 
recorded in the period in which the adjustments are recognized. 

The fair values of intangible assets acquired are estimated using a discounted cash flow approach with Level 3 inputs. 
Under this method, an intangible asset’s fair value is equal to the present value of the incremental after-tax cash flows (excess 
earnings) attributable solely to the intangible asset over its remaining useful life. To calculate fair value, the Company uses risk-

F-10 

 
 
 
CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

adjusted cash flows discounted at rates considered appropriate given the inherent risks associated with each type of asset. The
Company believes the level and timing of cash flows appropriately reflects market participant assumptions. 

Revenue Recognition 

The  Company  recognizes  revenue,  including  transactions  under  sales-type  leases,  when  it  is  realized  or  realizable  and 
earned. The Company considers revenue realized or realizable and earned when it has persuasive evidence of an arrangement, 
delivery has occurred, the sales price is fixed or determinable, and collectibility is reasonably assured. Delivery does not occur 
until the products have been shipped or services provided to the customer, risk of loss has transferred to the customer, and, where 
applicable, a customer acceptance has been obtained. The sales price is not considered to be fixed or determinable until all material 
contingencies related to the sales have been resolved. The Company records revenue in the Consolidated Statements of Operations
net of any sales, use, value added or certain excise taxes imposed by governmental authorities on specific sales transactions. In
addition to the aforementioned general policy, the following are the Company’s statements of policy with regard to multiple-
element arrangements and specific revenue recognition policies for each major category of revenue. 

Multiple-Element  Arrangements. The  Company  commonly  enters  into  revenue  arrangements  that  include  multiple 
deliverables of its product and service offerings due to the needs of its customers. Products may be delivered in phases over time 
periods which can be as long as five years. Maintenance services generally begin upon acceptance of the first equipment delivery
and future deliveries of equipment generally have an associated maintenance period. The Company considers the maintenance 
period to commence upon acceptance of the product or installation in situations where a formal acceptance is not required, which
may include a warranty period and accordingly allocates a portion of the arrangement consideration as a separate deliverable 
which is recognized as service revenue over the entire service period. Other services such as training and engineering services
can be delivered as a discrete delivery or over the term of the contract. A multiple-element arrangement is separated into more
than one unit of accounting if the following criteria are met:

•

•

The delivered item(s) has value to the customer on a standalone basis; and 

If the arrangement includes a general right of return relative to the delivered item(s), delivery or performance of the 
undelivered item(s) is considered probable and substantially in the control of the Company. 

If these criteria are met for each element, the arrangement consideration is allocated to the separate units of accounting 
based on each unit’s relative selling price. If these criteria are not met, the arrangement is accounted for as one unit of accounting 
which would result in revenue being recognized ratably over the contract term or being deferred until the earlier of when such 
criteria are met or when the last undelivered element is delivered. 

The Company follows a selling price hierarchy in determining the best estimate of the selling price of each deliverable. 
Certain  products  and  services  are  sold  separately  in  standalone  arrangements  for  which  the  Company  is  sometimes  able  to 
determine vendor specific objective evidence (VSOE). The Company determines VSOE based on normal pricing and discounting 
practices for the product or service when sold separately. 

When  the  Company  is  not  able  to  establish  VSOE  for  all  deliverables  in  an  arrangement  with  multiple  elements,  the 
Company attempts to establish the selling price of each remaining element based on third-party evidence (TPE). The Company’s 
inability to establish VSOE is often due to a relatively small sample of customer contracts that differ in system size and contract
terms which can be due to infrequently selling each element separately, not pricing products within a narrow range, or only having 
a  limited  sales  history,  such  as  in  the  case  of  certain  advanced  and  emerging  technologies. TPE  is  determined  based  on  the 
Company’s prices or competitor prices for similar deliverables when sold separately. However, the Company is often unable to 
determine TPE, as the Company’s offerings usually contain a significant level of customization and differentiation from those of
competitors  and  the  Company  is often unable  to reliably determine  what  similar  competitor products’  selling prices  are on  a 
standalone basis. 

F-11 

CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

When the Company is unable to establish selling price using VSOE or TPE, the Company uses estimated selling price 
(ESP) in its allocation of arrangement consideration. The objective of ESP is to determine the price at which the Company would
transact a sale if the product or service were sold on a standalone basis. In determining ESP, the Company uses the cost to provide 
the product or service plus a margin, or considers other factors. When using cost plus a margin, the Company considers the total
cost of the product or service, including customer-specific and geographic factors. The Company also considers the historical 
margins  of  the  product  or  service  on  previous  contracts  and  several  factors  including  any  changes  to  pricing  methodologies, 
competitiveness of products and services and cost drivers that would cause future margins to differ from historical margins. 

Products. The Company most often recognizes revenue from sales of products upon customer acceptance of the system. 
Where formal acceptance is not required, the Company recognizes revenue upon delivery or installation. When the product is 
part of a multiple element arrangement, the Company allocates a portion of the arrangement consideration to product revenue 
based on estimates of selling price.

Services.  Maintenance  services  are  provided  under  separate  maintenance  contracts  with  customers.  These  contracts 
generally provide for maintenance services for one year, although some are for multi-year periods, often with prepayments for 
the  term  of  the  contract.  The  Company  considers  the  maintenance  period  to  commence  upon  acceptance  of  the  product,  or 
installation of the product where a formal acceptance is not required, which may include a warranty period. When service is part
of a multiple element arrangement, the Company allocates a portion of the arrangement consideration to maintenance service 
revenue based on estimates of selling price. Maintenance contracts that are billed in advance of revenue recognition are recorded
as deferred revenue. Maintenance revenue is recognized ratably over the term of the maintenance contract.

Revenue from engineering services is recognized as services are performed. 

Project  Revenue.  Revenue  from  design  and  build  contracts  is  recognized  under  the  percentage-of-completion  (POC) 
method. Under the POC method, revenue is recognized based on the costs incurred to date as a percentage of the total estimated 
costs to fulfill the contract. If circumstances arise that change the original estimates of revenues, costs, or extent of progress 
toward completion, revisions to the estimates are made. These revisions may result in increases or decreases in estimated revenues
or costs, and such revisions are recorded in income in the period in which the circumstances that gave rise to the revision become 
known by  management. The  Company  performs  ongoing  profitability  analyses  of  its  contracts  accounted  for under  the  POC 
method in order to determine whether the latest estimates of revenue, costs and extent of progress require updating. If at any time 
these estimates indicate that the contract will be unprofitable, the entire estimated loss for the remainder of the contract is recorded 
immediately.

The  Company  records  revenue  from  certain  research  and  development  contracts  which  include  milestones  using  the 
milestone method if the milestones are determined to be substantive. A milestone is considered to be substantive if management 
believes there is substantive uncertainty that it will be achieved and the milestone consideration meets all of the following criteria: 

•

It is commensurate with either of the following: 

•

•

The Company’s performance to achieve the milestone; or 

The enhancement of value of the delivered item or items as a result of a specific outcome resulting from 
the Company’s performance to achieve the milestone. 

•

•

It relates solely to past performance. 

It  is  reasonable  relative  to  all  of  the  deliverables  and  payment  terms  (including  other  potential  milestone 
consideration) within the arrangement. 

The individual milestones are determined to be substantive or non-substantive in their entirety and milestone consideration 

is not bifurcated. 

F-12 

CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

Revenue from projects is classified as Product Revenue or Service Revenue, based on the nature of the work performed. 

Nonmonetary  Transactions. The  Company  values  and  records  nonmonetary  transactions  at  the  fair  value  of  the  asset 
surrendered unless the fair value of the asset received is more clearly evident, in which case the fair value of the asset received is 
used.

Sales-type leases 

When the Company leases a system to a customer, the accounting involves specific determinations, which often involve 
complex  provisions  and  significant  judgments.  The  four  criteria  of  the  accounting  standard  that  the  Company  uses  in  the 
determination of whether a lease is a sales-type lease or an operating lease are: (a) a review of the lease term to determine if it is 
equal to or greater than 75% of the economic life of the system; (b) a review of the minimum lease payments to determine if they
are equal to or greater than 90% of the fair value of the system; (c) a determination of whether or not the lease transfers ownership 
to the lessee at the end of the lease term; and (d) a determination of whether or not the lease contains a bargain purchase option. 
If the lease transaction meets one of the four criteria, then it is recorded as a sales-type lease; otherwise it is an operating lease. 
Additionally, the Company assesses whether collectibility of the lease payments is reasonably assured and whether there are any
significant uncertainties related to costs that it has yet to incur with respect to the lease. 

The Company considers the economic lives of most of its products to range from three to four years. There is no significant 
after-market for the Company’s used products and the Company believes that the economic lives are representative of the periods
during which its products are expected to be economically usable, with normal service, for the purposes for which they were 
intended. Residual values are not significant. 

The discount rate implicit in the sales-type lease is used to calculate the present value of minimum lease payments, which 
the Company records as a lease receivable. The minimum lease payment consists of the gross lease payments net of executory 
costs and contingencies, if any. While revenue is recognized at inception of the lease, the cash flow from the sales-type lease
occurs over the course of the lease, which results in interest income. Unearned interest income is recorded at inception of the
lease and amortized over the lease term using the effective interest method. 

Foreign Currency Translation

The Company uses the U.S. dollar predominantly as its functional currency. Assets and liabilities of foreign subsidiaries 
that have a functional currency denominated in non-U.S. dollars are translated into U.S. dollars at year-end exchange rates, and
revenue  and  expenses  of  these  foreign  subsidiaries  are  translated  at  average  rates  prevailing  during  the  year.  Translation 
adjustments  are  included  in  “Accumulated  other  comprehensive  income,”  a  separate  component  of  shareholders’  equity. 
Transaction gains and losses arising from transactions denominated in a currency other than the functional currency of the entity 
involved  are  included  in  “Other  income  (expense),  net”  in  the  accompanying  Consolidated  Statements  of  Operations.  Net 
transaction gains were $1.7 million and $1.6 million for 2017 and 2015, respectively. Net transaction losses were $1.0 million 
for 2016. 

Research and Development 

Research and development expenses include costs incurred in the development and production of hardware and software, 
costs incurred to enhance and support existing product features, costs incurred to support and improve development processes, 
and costs related to future product development. Research and development costs are expensed as incurred, and may be offset by 
co-funding  from  third  parties.  The  Company  may  also  enter  into  arrangements  whereby  it  makes  advance,  non-refundable 
payments to a vendor to perform certain research and development services. These payments are deferred and recognized over 
the vendor’s estimated performance period. 

Amounts to be received under co-funding arrangements with the U.S. government or others are based on either contractual 
milestones or costs incurred. These co-funding milestone payments are recognized in operations as performance is estimated to 

F-13 

CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

be completed and are measured as milestone achievements occur or as costs are incurred. These estimates are reviewed on a 
periodic basis and are subject to change, including in the near term. If an estimate is changed, net research and development 
expense could be impacted significantly. 

The Company does not record a receivable from the U.S. government prior to completing the requirements necessary to 
bill  for  a  milestone  or  cost  reimbursement.  Funding  from  the  U.S.  government  is  subject  to  certain  budget  restrictions  and 
milestones may be subject to completion risk, and as a result, there may be periods in which research and development costs are
expensed as incurred for which no reimbursement is recorded, as milestones have not been completed or the U.S. government 
has not funded an agreement. Accordingly, there can be substantial variability in the amount of net research and development 
expenses from quarter to quarter and year to year. 

The Company classifies amounts to be received from funded research and development projects as either revenue or a 
reduction to research and development expense based on the specific facts and circumstances of the contractual arrangement, 
considering total costs expected to be incurred compared to total expected funding and the nature of the research and development 
contractual arrangement. In the event that a particular arrangement is determined to represent revenue, the corresponding research 
and development costs are classified as cost of revenue. 

Income Taxes 

Deferred tax assets and liabilities are determined based on differences between financial reporting and tax bases of assets 
and liabilities and operating loss and tax credit carryforwards and are measured using the enacted tax rates and laws that will be 
in effect when the differences and carryforwards are expected to be recovered or settled. 

A valuation allowance for deferred tax assets is provided when the Company estimates that it is more likely than not that 
all  or  a  portion  of  the  deferred  tax  assets  will  not  be  realized  through  future  operations.  This  assessment  is  based  upon 
consideration of all available positive and negative evidence, which includes, among other things, the Company’s recent results
of operations, forecasted domestic and international earnings over a number of years, all known business risks and industry trends, 
and applicable tax planning strategies that should, if implemented, enable the Company to utilize its deferred tax assets before
they  expire. The  Company  considers  its  actual  historical  results  over  several  years  to  have  stronger  weight  than  other  more 
subjective indicators, including forecasts, when considering whether to establish or reduce a valuation allowance on deferred tax 
assets. The Company has significant difficulty projecting future results due to the nature of the business and the industry in which 
it operates. 

The Company provided a valuation allowance against its U.S. deferred tax assets and against the majority of its deferred 
tax assets arising in foreign jurisdictions at December 31, 2017 as the realization of such assets is not considered to be more likely 
than not at this time. In a future period, the Company’s assessment of the realizability of its deferred tax assets and therefore the 
appropriateness of the valuation allowance could change based on an assessment of all available evidence, both positive and 
negative in that future period. If the Company’s conclusion about the realizability of its deferred tax assets and therefore the
appropriateness of the valuation allowance changes in a future period, the Company could record a substantial tax benefit in its
Consolidated Statements of Operations when that occurs. The Company recognizes the income tax benefit from a tax position 
only if it is more likely than not that the tax position will be sustained on examination by the applicable taxing authorities, based 
on the technical merits of the Company’s position. The tax benefit recognized in the financial statements from such a position is 
measured based on the largest benefit that has a greater than fifty percent likelihood of being realized upon ultimate settlement. 

Estimated interest and penalties are recorded as a component of interest expense and other expense, respectively. 

Share-Based Compensation 

The Company measures compensation cost for share-based payment awards at fair value and recognizes it as compensation 
expense over the service period for awards expected to vest. Share-based compensation expense is recognized for all share-based

F-14 

CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

payment awards, net of an estimated forfeiture rate. Compensation cost is only recognized for those shares expected to vest on a
straight-line basis over the requisite service period of the award. 

Determining  the  appropriate  fair  value  model  and  calculating  the  fair  value  of  share-based  payment  awards  requires 
subjective assumptions, including the expected life of the share-based payment awards and stock price volatility. The Company 
utilizes the Black-Scholes options pricing model to value the stock options granted under its options plans. In this model, the
assumptions utilized  relate  to  stock price  volatility,  stock option term  and forfeiture  rates  that  are based upon both historical 
factors as well as management’s judgment. 

The fair value of restricted stock and restricted stock units is determined based on the number of shares or units granted 

and the quoted price of the Company’s common stock at the date of grant. 

The Company has granted performance vesting restricted stock and performance vesting restricted stock units to executives 
as one of the ways to align compensation with shareholder interests. Vesting of these awards is contingent upon achievement of 
certain  performance  conditions.  Compensation  expense  for  these  awards  is  only  recorded  when  vesting  is  deemed  to  be 
“probable.” 

Awards are evaluated for probability of vesting each reporting period. 

Shipping and Handling Costs 

Costs related to shipping and handling are included in “Cost of product revenue” and “Cost of service revenue” in the 

accompanying Consolidated Statements of Operations. 

Advertising Costs 

Sales and marketing expenses in the accompanying Consolidated Statements of Operations included advertising expenses 
of $3.4 million, $3.2 million, and $2.3 million in 2017, 2016, and 2015, respectively. The Company incurs advertising costs for
representation  at  certain  trade  shows,  promotional  events  and  sales  lead  generation,  as  well  as  design  and  printing  costs  for 
promotional materials. The Company expenses all advertising costs as incurred. 

Earnings Per Share (EPS) 

Basic EPS is computed by dividing net income (loss) available to common shareholders by the weighted average number 
of common shares, excluding unvested restricted stock, outstanding during the period. Diluted EPS is computed by dividing net 
income  (loss)  available  to  common  shareholders  by  the  weighted  average  number  of  common  and  potential  common  shares 
outstanding during the period, which includes the additional dilution related to conversion of stock options, unvested restricted
stock and unvested restricted stock units as computed under the treasury stock method. 

For the year ended December 31, 2017, outstanding stock options, unvested restricted stock and unvested restricted stock 
units were antidilutive because of the net loss and, as such, their effect has not been included in the calculation of basic or diluted 
net loss per share. For the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015, the added shares from these items included in the calculation 
of  diluted  shares  and  EPS  totaled  approximately  1.2  million,  and  1.4  million,  respectively.  Potentially  dilutive  shares  of 
3.1 million, 1.2 million, and 0.9 million, respectively, have been excluded from the denominator in the computation of diluted 
EPS  for  the  years  ended  December  31,  2017,  2016  and  2015,  respectively,  because  they  were  antidilutive.  An  additional 
0.5 million, 1.2 million and 1.2 million performance vesting restricted stock and performance vesting restricted stock units were 
excluded from the computation of diluted EPS for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively, because the 
conditions for vesting had not been met as of the balance sheet date. 

F-15 

CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income 

Accumulated other comprehensive income, a component of shareholders’ equity, consisted of the following at December 31 

(in thousands): 

Accumulated unrealized net loss on available-for-sale investments
Accumulated currency translation adjustments 
Accumulated unrealized net gain (loss) on cash flow hedges 
Accumulated other comprehensive income 

Recent Accounting Pronouncements 

2017 

2016 

(7) $

1,611  
(689)
915   $ 

—
2,101
681
2,782

$

$

In  May  2014,  the  Financial  Accounting  Standards  Board  (FASB)  issued  Accounting  Standards  Update  No.  2014-09, 
Revenue from Contracts with Customers: Topic 606 (ASU 2014-09) to supersede nearly all existing revenue recognition guidance 
under GAAP. The core principle of ASU 2014-09 is to recognize revenues when promised goods or services are transferred to 
customers in an amount that reflects the consideration that is expected to be received for those goods or services. ASU 2014-09
defines a five step process to achieve this core principle and, in doing so, it is possible more judgment and estimates may be 
required  within  the  revenue  recognition  process  than  required  under  existing  GAAP,  including  identifying  performance 
obligations in the contract, estimating the amount of variable consideration to include in the transaction price and allocating the 
transaction price to each separate performance obligation. Adoption of ASU 2014-09 was initially required for fiscal and interim
reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2016 using either of two methods: (i) retrospective to each prior reporting period 
presented with the option to elect certain practical expedients as defined within ASU 2014-09 (full retrospective method); or 
(ii) retrospective with the cumulative effect of initially applying ASU 2014-09 recognized at the date of initial application and 
providing certain additional disclosures as defined per ASU 2014-09 (modified retrospective method). 

In August  2015,  FASB  issued Accounting  Standards  Update  No.  2015-14,  Revenue  from  Contracts  with  Customers  - 
Deferral of the Effective Date: Topic 606 (ASU 2015-14) that deferred the effective date of ASU 2014-09 by one year. Application
of the new revenue standard is permitted for fiscal and interim reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2016 and required
for fiscal and interim reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2017. The Company believes the impact of adopting the 
new guidance will be immaterial to its annual and interim financial statements. The Company believes that the impact will be 
limited to the identification of a significant financing component in a small number of its contracts with customers. The Company 
will also be required to make additional disclosures under the new guidance. The Company plans to adopt this standard in the 
first quarter of 2018 using the modified retrospective method. 

In  July  2015,  FASB  issued  Accounting  Standards  Update  No.  2015-11,  Simplifying  the  Measurement  of  Inventory: 
Topic 330 (ASU 2015-11). Topic 330 previously required an entity to measure inventory at the lower of cost or market. Market 
could be replacement cost, net realizable value, or net realizable value less an approximately normal profit margin. ASU 2015-
11 requires that inventory measured using either the first-in-first-out (FIFO) or average cost method now be measured at the 
lower of cost and net realizable value. Net realizable value is the estimated selling prices in the ordinary course of business, less 
reasonably predictable costs of completion, disposal and transportation. The Company adopted ASU 2015-11 at the beginning of 
the first quarter of 2017. Adoption of ASU 2015-11 did not have a material impact on the Company’s consolidated financial 
statements. 

In  November  2015,  FASB  issued Accounting  Standards  Update  No.  2015-17,  Balance  Sheet  Classification  of  Deferred 
Taxes: Topic 740 (ASU 2015-17). Current GAAP requires the deferred taxes for each jurisdiction to be presented as a net current
asset  or  liability  and  net  noncurrent  asset  or  liability.  This  requires  a  jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction  analysis  based  on  the 
classification of the assets and liabilities to which the underlying temporary differences relate, or, in the case of loss or credit 
carryforwards, based on the period in which the attribute is expected to be realized. Any valuation allowance is then required to 

F-16 

CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

be allocated on a pro rata basis, by jurisdiction, between current and noncurrent deferred tax assets. The new guidance requires
that all deferred tax assets and liabilities, along with any related valuation allowance, be classified as noncurrent on the balance 
sheet. As a result, each jurisdiction will now only have one net noncurrent deferred tax asset or liability. The guidance does not 
change the existing requirement that only permits offsetting within a jurisdiction. The Company adopted ASU 2015-17 at the 
beginning of the first quarter of 2017. At the time of adoption, all of the Company’s deferred tax assets and liabilities, along with 
any  related  valuation  allowance,  were  classified  as  noncurrent  on  its  Consolidated  Balance  Sheet.    The  Company  adopted 
ASU 2015-17 on a retrospective basis. As such, prior period amounts have been adjusted to reflect the retrospective application
of  ASU 2015-17.  This  resulted  in  $19.1  million  of  current  net  deferred  tax  assets  being  reclassified  as  noncurrent  on  the 
Company’s December 31, 2016 Consolidated Balance Sheet.  

In  January  2016,  FASB  issued Accounting  Standards  Update  No.  2016-01,  Recognition  and  Measurement  of  Financial 
Assets and Financial Liabilities: Topic 825 (ASU 2016-01).  The updated guidance enhances the reporting model for financial 
instruments, which includes amendments to address aspects of recognition, measurement, presentation and disclosure. Adoption 
of ASU 2016-01 is required for fiscal reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2017, including interim reporting periods 
within those fiscal years. The Company does not expect the adoption of ASU 2016-01 to have a material impact on its consolidated
financial statements. 

In February 2016, FASB issued Accounting Standards Update No. 2016-02, Leases: Topic 842 (ASU 2016-02), that replaces 
existing lease guidance. The new standard is intended to provide enhanced transparency and comparability by requiring lessees 
to record right-of-use assets and corresponding lease liabilities on the balance sheet. Under the new guidance, leases will continue 
to be classified as either finance or operating, with classification affecting the pattern of expense recognition in the Consolidated
Statements of Operations. Lessor accounting is largely unchanged under ASU 2016-02. Adoption of ASU 2016-02 is required for 
fiscal reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018, including interim reporting periods within those fiscal years with 
early adoption being permitted. As of December 31, 2017, the new standard requires application with a modified retrospective 
approach  to  each  prior  reporting  period  presented  with  various  optional  practical  expedients.  While  the  Company  expects 
adoption to lead to a material increase in the assets and liabilities recorded on its Consolidated Balance Sheet, the Company is
still evaluating the overall impact on its consolidated financial statements. 

In  August  2016,  FASB  issued  Accounting  Standards  Update  No.  2016-15,  Statement  of  Cash  Flows  (Topic  230): 
Classification  of  Certain  Cash  Receipts  and  Cash  Payments  (ASU  2016-15). The  updated  guidance  clarifies  how  companies 
present and classify certain cash receipts and cash payments in the statement of cash flows. Adoption of ASU 2016-15 is required
for fiscal reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2017, including interim reporting periods within those fiscal years with
early adoption being permitted. The Company does not expect the adoption of ASU 2016-15 to have a material impact on its 
consolidated financial statements. 

In  November  2016,  FASB  issued Accounting  Standards  Update  No.  2016-18,  Statement  of  Cash  Flows  (Topic  230): 
Restricted  Cash  (ASU  2016-18)  which  amends ASC  230  to  add  or  clarify  guidance  on  the  classification  and  presentation  of 
restricted cash in the statement of cash flows. The amended guidance requires that amounts that are deemed to be restricted cash
and  restricted  cash  equivalents  be  included  in  the  cash  and  cash-equivalent  balances  in  the  statement  of  cash  flows.  A 
reconciliation between the consolidated balance sheet and the statement of cash flows must be disclosed when the consolidated 
balance sheet includes more than one line item for cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and restricted cash equivalents. The
guidance also requires that changes in restricted cash and restricted cash equivalents that result from transfers between cash, cash 
equivalents, and restricted cash and restricted cash equivalents should not be presented as cash flow activities in the statement of 
cash flows. An entity with a material balance of amounts generally described as restricted cash and restricted cash equivalents
must disclose information about the nature of the restrictions.  Adoption of ASU 2016-18 is required for fiscal reporting periods 
beginning  after  December 15,  2017,  including  interim  reporting  periods  within  those  fiscal  years  with  early  adoption  being 

F-17 

CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

permitted. The Company does not expect the adoption of ASU 2016-18 to have a material impact on its consolidated financial 
statements. 

In January 2017, FASB issued Accounting Standards Update No. 2017-04, Intangibles - Goodwill and Other (Topic 350): 
Simplifying the Test for Goodwill Impairment (ASU 2017-04) which eliminates Step 2 from the goodwill impairment test. 
ASU 2017-04 also eliminates the requirements for any reporting unit with a zero or negative carrying amount to perform a 
qualitative assessment and, if it fails that qualitative test, to perform Step 2 of the goodwill impairment test. An entity still 
has the option to perform the qualitative assessment for a reporting unit to determine if the quantitative impairment test is 
necessary. Adoption of ASU 2017-04 is required for annual or interim goodwill impairment tests in fiscal years beginning after 
December 15, 2019 with early adoption being permitted for annual or interim goodwill impairment tests performed on testing 
dates after January 1, 2017. The Company adopted ASU 2017-04 at the beginning of the second quarter of 2017. Adoption of 
ASU 2017-04 did not have a material impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements.

In August 2017, FASB issued Accounting Standards Update No. 2017-12, Derivatives and Hedging (Topic 815): Targeted 
Improvements  to Accounting  for  Hedging Activities  (ASU  2017-12).  The  new  standard  simplifies  and  expands  the  eligible 
hedging strategies for financial and nonfinancial risks. It also enhances the transparency of how hedging results are presented and 
disclosed. Further, the new standard provides partial relief on the timing of certain aspects of hedge documentation and eliminates 
the  requirement  to  recognize  hedge  ineffectiveness  separately  in  earnings. Adoption  of ASU  2017-12  is  required  for  fiscal 
reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018, including interim reporting periods within those fiscal years with early 
adoption being permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the potential impact of the pending adoption of ASU 2017-12 on 
its consolidated financial statements. 

NOTE 3    STRATEGIC TRANSACTION 

On September 25, 2017, the Company completed a strategic transaction with Seagate Cloud Systems Inc. (Seagate) centered 
around the transfer of Seagate’s ClusterStor high-performance storage business (ClusterStor) to Cray. The ClusterStor business 
consists of the ClusterStor L300, ClusterStor L300N and the ClusterStor SL220 storage solutions. The Company will sell, support,
develop, manufacture, and test the ClusterStor storage solutions. The addition of ClusterStor will allow the Company to have 
more control over its storage products and to increase the value added in its solutions. It will also enhance the opportunity for the 
Company to sell its storage products through other resellers and to consolidate its service capability. 

The transaction was accounted for under the acquisition method of accounting. The assets acquired and liabilities assumed 
by the Company were primarily recognized at their fair value at the acquisition date using significant inputs that are not observable 
in the market (i.e., Level 3 inputs). The Company utilized a third-party appraisal in its determination of the fair value of the
various intangible assets acquired and deferred revenue. 

The Company received assets valued at $20.2 million and assumed liabilities valued at $15.7 million. The excess of assets 
received over liabilities assumed of $4.5 million has been accounted for as a bargain purchase and recognized as a gain in the 
line item gain on strategic transaction in the Consolidated Statements of Operations for the year ended December 31, 2017. The 
bargain purchase gain was primarily the result of the seller’s planned exit from the business. Assets received included cash of
$8.0 million. The Company expects to receive approximately $1.8 million in additional cash in the first half of 2018 as part of
post-closing adjustments based on the final analysis of obligations to be assumed. 

The Company has assumed customer support obligations associated with the ClusterStor business and has added more than 
125 employees and contractors. Because the fair value of the assets acquired exceeded the amount of liabilities assumed, resulting 
in  a  $4.5  million  gain  on  the  transaction,  the  Company  reassessed  and  reaffirmed  that  the  recognition  and  measurement  of 
identifiable assets acquired and liabilities assumed were appropriate as required by the accounting standards applicable to bargain 
purchase transactions.  

F-18 

CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

The Company incurred approximately $0.5 million of legal and other transaction costs directly related to the transaction, 
all of which were expensed and included in general and administrative expenses in the Consolidated Statements of Operations 
for the year ended December 31, 2017. 

The Company estimated the fair value of the assets acquired and liabilities assumed as of the acquisition date based on 
information that is currently available. The Company may obtain additional information to assist it in determining the fair value
of  the  net  assets  acquired  at  the  acquisition  date  during  the  measurement  period  and,  as  such,  additional  purchase  price 
adjustments  may  be  recorded. The  Company  will  record  measurement  period  adjustments,  if  any,  in  the  period  in  which  the 
adjustments are recognized. 

Pro forma financial results are not presented as it is impractical to obtain the necessary information. The seller did not 
operate  the  acquired  assets  as  a  standalone  business  and,  therefore,  historical  financial  information  is  not  available.  It  is 
impractical  to  determine  the  revenue  or  net  income  (loss)  included  in  the  Consolidated  Statements  of  Operations  related  to 
ClusterStor  since  the  date  of  acquisition  because  ClusterStor  has  been  fully  integrated  into  the  Company’s  storage  and  data 
management segment. The Company was also previously purchasing the same ClusterStor products from Seagate for resale that 
it acquired as part of the transaction. For these reasons, the operating results of ClusterStor cannot be separately identified.

The following are the estimated values of the assets acquired and the liabilities assumed (in thousands): 

Cash
Receivable from Seagate 
Inventory 
Property and equipment 
Deferred revenue 
Deferred tax liabilities 
Other liabilities 

Net tangible assets 

Trademarks 
Developed technology 
Customer relationships 
Supply agreement 

Total net assets acquired 

$

$

8,000
1,782
4,120
2,915
(12,168)
(3,019)
(500)

1,130

90
1,400
260
1,600

4,480

The fair values of the major components of the intangible assets acquired and their estimated useful lives are as follows (in 

thousands): 

Trademarks 
Developed technology 
Customer relationships 
Supply agreement 

Intangible Asset Class 

Fair Value 

$
 $ 
$
 $ 

90
1,400
260
1,600

Useful Life 
(in Years) 
5
3
10 
4

F-19 

CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

The carrying amount of the major components of intangible assets acquired are as follows as of December 31, 2017 (in 

thousands): 

Trademarks 
Developed technology 
Customer relationships 
Supply agreement 

Total 

Gross 
Carrying 
Amount 

Accumulated 
Amortization 

Net Carrying 
Amount 

$

$

90 $

5 $

1,400
260
1,600

117
7
100

3,350 $

229  $

85
1,283
253
1,500

3,121

Aggregate amortization expense of these intangible assets expected for the years ending December 31 are as follows (in 

thousands): 

2018 
2019 
2020 
2021 
2022 
Thereafter 

Total 

$

911
911
794
344
40
121

$

3,121

NOTE 4    FAIR VALUE MEASUREMENTS 

Under  FASB Accounting  Standards  Codification  Topic  820,  Fair  Value  Measurements  and  Disclosures,  based  on  the 
observability  of  the  inputs  used  in  the  valuation  techniques  used  to  determine  the  fair  value  of  certain  financial  assets  and 
liabilities, the Company is required to provide the following information according to the fair value hierarchy. The fair value
hierarchy ranks the quality and reliability of the information used to determine fair values. 

F-20 

CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

In general, fair values determined by Level 1 inputs utilize quoted prices (unadjusted) in active markets for identical assets 
or liabilities. Fair values determined by Level 2 inputs utilize observable inputs other than Level 1 prices, such as quoted prices 
for  similar  assets  or  liabilities,  quoted  prices  in  markets  that  are  not  active  or  other  inputs  that  are  observable  or  can  be 
corroborated by observable market data for substantially the full term of the related assets or liabilities. Fair values determined 
by Level 3 inputs are unobservable data points for the asset or liability, and include situations where there is little, if any, market 
activity for the asset or liability. The following table presents information about the Company’s financial assets and liabilities that 
have been measured at fair value on a recurring basis as of December 31, 2017 and 2016, and indicates the fair value hierarchy 
of the valuation inputs utilized to determine such fair value (in thousands): 

Description 

Assets:
Cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash 
Available-for-sale investments (1) 
Foreign currency exchange contracts (2) 

Assets measured at fair value at December 31, 2017

Liabilities: 
Foreign currency exchange contracts (3) 

Liabilities measured at fair value at December 31, 2017

Description 

Assets:
Cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash 
Foreign currency exchange contracts (2) 

Assets measured at fair value at December 31, 2016

Liabilities: 
Foreign currency exchange contracts (3) 

Liabilities measured at fair value at December 31, 2016

 _______________________________ 

Fair Value 
as of  
December 31, 
2017 

Quoted 
Prices in 
Active 
Markets 
(Level 1)

Significant
Other 
Observable 
Inputs 
  )
(
Level 2

140,320 $ 
6,997
3,251
150,568 $

140,320 $
6,997
—
147,317 $

2,431
2,431 $ 

—
— $

—
—
3,251
3,251

2,431
2,431

Fair Value 
as of  
December 31, 
2016 

Quoted 
Prices in 
Active 
Markets 
(Level 1)

Significant
Other 
Observable 
Inputs 
)
(
Level 2

224,617   $ 

11,250
235,867   $ 

224,617 $
—
224,617 $

41  
41 $

—
— $

—
11,250
11,250

41
41

$

$

$

$

$

$

(1) Included in “Short-term investments” on the Company’s Consolidated Balance Sheets. 

(2) Included in “Prepaid expenses and other current assets” and “Other non-current assets” on the Company’s Consolidated 

Balance Sheets. 

(3) Included in “Other accrued liabilities” and “Other non-current liabilities” on the Company’s Consolidated Balance Sheets. 

Foreign Currency Derivatives 

The Company may enter into foreign currency derivatives to hedge future cash receipts on certain sales transactions that 

are payable in foreign currencies. 

F-21 

CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

As  of  December  31,  2017  and  2016,  the  Company  had  outstanding  foreign  currency  exchange  contracts  that  were 
designated  and  accounted  for  as  cash  flow  hedges  of  anticipated  future  cash  receipts  on  sales  contracts  payable  in  foreign 
currencies. The outstanding notional amounts were approximately (in millions): 

Euros (EUR) 
Swiss Francs (CHF) 
Japanese Yen (JPY) 
Canadian Dollars (CAD) 
New Zealand Dollars (NZD) 

December 31, 

2017 

2016 

2.1
—
4,345.6
56.0
16.2

1.5
3.6
—
54.4
—

The  Company  had  hedged  foreign  currency  exposure  related  to  these designated cash flow hedges of approximately
million and $46.9 million as of December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively. 

 $96.3

As  of  December  31,  2017  and  2016,  the  Company  had  outstanding  foreign  currency  exchange  contracts  that  had  been 
dedesignated for the purposes of hedge accounting treatment. The Company dedesignates cash flow hedges when the receivable 
related to the hedged cash flow is recorded. The outstanding notional amounts were approximately (in millions):  

British Pounds (GBP) 
Euros (EUR) 
Japanese Yen (JPY) 
Canadian Dollars (CAD) 
Swiss Francs (CHF) 

December 31, 

2017 

2016 

26.1
4.7
—
0.3
2.6

33.8
8.0
2,464.7
32.4
—

The foreign currency exposure related to these contracts was approximately $46.9 million as of December 31, 2017 and 
$107.5 million as of December 31, 2016. Unrealized gains or losses related to these dedesignated contracts are recorded in other
income  (expense)  in  the  Consolidated  Statements  of  Operations  and  are  generally  offset  by  foreign  currency  adjustments  on 
related receivables. These foreign currency exchange contracts are considered to be economic hedges. 

Cash receipts associated with the hedged contracts are expected to be received from 2018 through 2022, during which time 
the revenue on the associated sales contracts is expected to be recognized, or in the case of receivables denominated in a foreign
currency, the receivables balances will be collected. Any gain or loss on hedged foreign currency will be recognized at the time 
of  customer  acceptance,  or  in  the  case  of  receivables  denominated  in  a  foreign  currency,  each  period  during  which  hedged 
receivables denominated in a foreign currency are outstanding.

As of December 31, 2017 and 2016, the fair value of outstanding foreign currency exchange contracts totaled a net gain of 

$0.8 million and $11.2 million, respectively. 

F-22 

 
 
 
 
 
 
CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

Fair  values  of  derivative  instruments,  consisting  of  foreign  currency  exchange  contracts,  designated  as  cash  flow  hedges  (in 
thousands): 

Balance Sheet Location 

Prepaid expenses and other current assets 
Other non-current assets 
Other accrued liabilities 
Other non-current liabilities 

December 31, 

2017 

2016 

  $ 

546 $
—
(129)
(1,907)

Total fair value of derivative instruments designated as cash flow hedges 

  $ 

(1,490) $

71
367
(9)
(5)

424

As  of  December  31,  2017,  unrecognized  losses,  net  of  tax,  of  $0.7  million  were  included  in  “Accumulated  other 
comprehensive income” on the Company’s Consolidated Balance Sheets. As of December 31, 2016, unrecognized gains, net of 
tax,  of  $0.7  million,  were  included  in  “Accumulated  other  comprehensive  income”  on  the  Company’s  Consolidated  Balance 
Sheets.

Fair values of derivative instruments, consisting of foreign currency exchange contracts, not designated as cash flow hedges (in
thousands): 

Balance Sheet Location 

Prepaid expenses and other current assets 
Other non-current assets 
Other accrued liabilities 

Total fair value of derivative instruments not designated as cash flow hedges 

December 31, 

2017 

2016 

  $ 

$

1,252 $
1,453
(395)

2,310 $

5,344
5,468
(27)

10,785

NOTE 5    ACCUMULATED OTHER COMPREHENSIVE INCOME 

The  following  table  shows  the  impact  on  product  revenue  of  reclassification  adjustments  from  accumulated  other 
comprehensive  income  resulting  from  hedged  foreign  currency  transactions  recorded  by  the  Company  for  the  years  ended 
December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015 (in thousands). The gross reclassification adjustments decreased product revenue for the year 
ended December 31, 2017 and increased product revenue for the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015.  

Gross of Tax Reclassifications 
Net of Tax Reclassifications 

Year Ended 
December 31, 

2017 

2016 

2015 

$
$

(146 ) $
(87 )   $ 

22,207 $
13,324 $

6,163
3,698

F-23 

 
 
CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

The following tables show the changes in Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income by component for the years ended 

December 31, 2017 and 2016 (in thousands): 

Year Ended December 31, 2017 

Unrealized Loss on 
Investments 

Foreign Currency 
Translation 
Adjustments 

Unrealized Gain 
(Loss) on Cash 
Flow Hedges 

Accumulated Other 
Comprehensive 
Income 

Beginning balance 
Current-period change, net of tax 

Ending balance 

Income tax expense (benefit) associated with 
current-period change 

$

$

$

— $
(7)

(7) $

2,101 $
(490)

1,611 $

681 $
(1,370)   

(689) $

2,782
(1,867)

915

(3) $

1,110 $

(1,399)   $ 

(292)

Year Ended December 31, 2016 

Unrealized Loss on 
Investments 

Foreign Currency 
Translation 
Adjustments 

Unrealized Gain on 
Cash Flow Hedges 

Accumulated Other 
Comprehensive 
Income 

Beginning balance 
Current-period change, net of tax 

Ending balance 

Income tax expense (benefit) associated with 
current-period change 

$

$

$

(8) $
8

— $

1,675 $
426

2,101 $

5,975 $
(5,294)   

681 $

7,642
(4,860)

2,782

6 $

(152) $

(2,425)   $ 

(2,571)

NOTE 6    INVESTMENTS 

The  Company’s  investments  in  debt  securities  with  maturities  at  purchase  greater  than  three  months  are  classified  as 
“available-for-sale.”   Changes  in  fair  value  are  reflected  in  other  comprehensive  income  (loss).  The  carrying  amount  of  the 
Company’s investments in available-for-sale securities are shown in the table below (in thousands): 

Short-term available-for-sale securities cost 
Short-term available-for-sale securities unrealized loss 

Short-term available-for-sale securities fair value 

December 31, 
2017 

$

$

7,007
(10)

6,997

The Company’s investments in debt securities were investment grade and carried a long-term rating of A2/A or higher. 

F-24 

 
CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

NOTE 7    ACCOUNTS AND OTHER RECEIVABLES, NET 

A summary of net accounts and other receivables follows (in thousands): 

Trade accounts receivable 
Unbilled receivables 
Advance billings 
Short-term investment in sales-type lease 
Other receivables 

Allowance for doubtful accounts 
Accounts and other receivables, net 

December 31, 

2017 

2016

131,151 $
9,321  
3,569
10,684  
7,337
162,062  
(28)
162,034   $ 

156,705
17,264
1,915
8,683
13,395
197,962
(21)
197,941

$

$

Unbilled receivables represent amounts where the Company has recognized revenue in advance of the contractual billing 

terms. Advance billings represent billings made based on contractual terms for which revenue has not been recognized. 

As of December 31, 2017 and 2016, accounts receivable included $45.3 million and $104.6 million, respectively, due from 
the  U.S. Government.  Of  these  amounts,  $2.1  million  and  $1.4  million  were  unbilled  as  of  December  31,  2017  and  2016, 
respectively,  based  upon  contractual  billing  arrangements  with  these  customers.  As  of  December 31,  2017,  two  non-
U.S. Government customers accounted for 38% of total accounts and other receivables.  As of December 31, 2016, two non-U.S. 
Government customers accounted for 24% of total accounts and other receivables. 

NOTE 8    SALES-TYPE LEASE 

The Company has a sales-type lease with one non-U.S. Government customer, under which it will receive quarterly 
payments  over  the  term  of  the  lease,  which  expires  in  September  2020. The  lease  is  denominated  in  British  Pounds  and  the 
Company has entered into certain foreign currency exchange contracts that act as an economic hedge for the foreign currency 
exposure associated with this arrangement. 

The following table shows the components of the net investment in the sales-type lease as of December 31, 2017 and 

2016 (in thousands): 

December 31 

2017 

2016 

Total minimum lease payments to be received 
Less: executory costs 

Net minimum lease payments receivable 

Less: unearned income 

Net investment in sales-type lease 

Less: long-term investment in sales-type lease 

$

42,268  $
(6,831)   

35,437
(1,386)   

34,051
(23,367)   

Investment in sales-type lease included in accounts and other receivables 

$

10,684  $

52,224
(10,139)

42,085
(2,352)

39,733
(31,050)

8,683

F-25 

 
 
CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

As of December 31, 2017, minimum lease payments for each of the succeeding three fiscal years were as follows (in 

thousands): 

2018 
2019 
2020 

Total minimum lease payments to be received 

NOTE 9    INVENTORY 

A summary of inventory follows (in thousands): 

Components and subassemblies 
Work in progress 
Finished goods 

$

$

15,197
15,478
11,593

42,268

December 31 

2017 

2016

$

$

37,219 $
59,456  
89,632

186,307   $ 

31,695
39,894
16,665
88,254

As of December 31, 2017 and 2016, $48.1 million and $10.5 million, respectively, of finished goods inventory was located 
at  customer  sites  pending  acceptance. At  December 31,  2017,  two  customers  accounted  for  $67.7  million  of  finished  goods 
inventory and at December 31, 2016, two customers accounted for $11.9 million of finished goods inventory. 

The Company did not write-off any inventory in 2017. During 2016 and 2015, the Company wrote-off $4.8 million and 

$0.5 million, respectively, of excess and obsolete inventory. 

NOTE 10    PROPERTY AND EQUIPMENT, NET 

A summary of property and equipment follows (in thousands): 

Land
Buildings 
Furniture and equipment 
Computer equipment 
Leasehold improvements 

Accumulated depreciation and amortization 
Property and equipment, net 

December 31, 

2017 

2016

203 $

20,480  
13,219
58,358  
9,961
102,221  
(65,598)
36,623   $ 

498
20,679
11,740
54,541
2,976
90,434
(59,814)
30,620

$

$

Depreciation  expense  on  property  and  equipment  for  2017,  2016  and  2015  was  $14.4  million,  $12.5  million  and  
million, respectively. 

 $13.3

F-26 

CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 

NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

NOTE 11    SERVICE SPARES, NET 

A summary of service spares follows (in thousands): 

Service spares 
Accumulated depreciation 
Service spares, net

December 31, 

2017 

2016

$

$

7,670 $
(5,119)  
2,551 $

6,503
(3,480)
3,023

Depreciation expense on service spares for 2017, 2016 and 2015 was $1.6 million, $1.5 million and $1.1 million, respectively.  

NOTE 12    DEFERRED REVENUE 

A summary of deferred revenue follows (in thousands): 

Deferred product revenue 
Deferred service revenue 
Total deferred revenue 

Less long-term deferred revenue 

Deferred revenue in current liabilities 

December 31 

2017 

2016

22,245 $
96,496  
118,741
(38,622)  
80,119 $

14,274
96,113
110,387
(27,258)
83,129

$

$

As of December 31, 2017 and 2016, the U.S. Government accounted for $32.5 million and $60.3 million, respectively, of 
total deferred revenue. As of December 31, 2017 and 2016, no non-U.S. Government customers accounted for more than 10% of 
total deferred revenue. 

NOTE 13    COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES 

The Company has recorded rent expense under leases for buildings or office space, which were accounted for as operating 
leases, in 2017, 2016 and 2015 of $8.7 million, $8.4 million, and $5.9 million, respectively. The 2016 rent expense includes a 
$2.3 million lease termination fee for the Company’s St. Paul facility. 

Minimum contractual commitments as of December 31, 2017, were as follows (in thousands): 

2018 
2019 
2020 
2021 
2022 
Thereafter 
Minimum contractual commitments 

Operating 
Leases

Development 
Agreements

$

$

7,461 $
6,918  
6,232
6,271
6,342
20,709
53,933 $

19,930
5,116
15
—
—
—
25,061

In  its  normal  course  of  operations,  the  Company  engages  in  development  arrangements  under  which  it  hires  outside 
engineering  resources  to  augment  its  existing  internal  staff  in  order  to  complete  research  and  development  projects,  or  parts 
thereof.  For  the  years  ended  December  31,  2017,  2016  and  2015,  the  Company  incurred  $17.5  million,  $15.6  million  and 
$14.3 million, respectively, for such arrangements. 

F-27 

CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 

NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

Litigation 

From time to time, the Company is subject to various legal proceedings that arise in the ordinary course of business. Other 

than as outlined below, none of these legal proceedings are deemed to be material to the Company’s business. 

The  Company  is  subject  to  patent  lawsuits  brought  by  Raytheon  Company  (Raytheon).  The  first  suit  was  brought  by 
Raytheon on September 25, 2015 in the Eastern District of Texas (Civil Action No. 2:15-cv-1554) asserting infringement of four 
patents owned by Raytheon. Two of the asserted patents relate to computer hardware alleged to be encompassed by Cray’s current 
and past products, and the two remaining asserted patents relate to features alleged to be performed by certain third-party software 
that Cray optionally includes as part of its product offerings.  A second suit was brought by Raytheon on April 22, 2016 in the
Eastern District of Texas (Civil Action No. 2:16-cv-423) asserting infringement of five patents owned by Raytheon. In this second 
suit, all five asserted patents relate to features alleged to be performed by certain third-party software that Cray optionally includes 
as part of its product offerings. As of July 18, 2017, trial in the first action has been stayed by the trial court until further notice 
from the court.  The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted Cray’s petition for writ of mandamus and 
overturned  the  trial  court’s  determination  that  venue  was  proper  in  the  Eastern  District  of  Texas.   The  Federal  Circuit  also 
remanded so the district court could determine where the case should be transferred, but the trial court has not yet ruled on that 
issue.  Trial in the second action is currently stayed pending resolution of the first action.  The Company is vigorously defending 
these actions. The probable outcome of either litigation cannot be determined, nor can the Company estimate a range of potential
loss. Based on its review of the matters to date, the Company believes that it has valid defenses and claims in each of the two
lawsuits.  As a result, the Company considers the likelihood of a material loss related to these matters to be remote. 

NOTE 14    INCOME TAXES 

Income taxes are recognized for the amount of taxes payable for the current year and for the impact of deferred tax assets 
and liabilities, which represent consequences of events that have been recognized differently in the financial statements under
GAAP than for tax purposes. 

On December 22, 2017, the President of the United States signed into law H.R. 1, “An Act to Provide for Reconciliation 
Pursuant to Titles II and V of the Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2018” (the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act”). ASC
Topic 740, Accounting for Income Taxes, requires companies to recognize the effect of tax law changes in the period of enactment.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act made significant changes to existing U.S. tax law, including, but not limited to, a permanent reduction 
to  the  U.S.  federal  corporate  income  tax  rate  from  35%  to  21%,  imposition  of  a  one-time  tax  on  deferred  foreign  income 
(“Repatriation Transition Tax”), adoption of a participation exemption system with respect to the taxation of future dividends 
received from foreign corporations, and repeal of the corporate alternative minimum tax system. Other significant changes in the
Tax  Cuts  and Jobs Act  include  taxing payments  made  to  foreign  related  parties  that are  deemed  to  be  excessive, imposing  a 
minimum  tax  on  certain  foreign  earnings,  requiring  (beginning  after  December  31,  2021)  the  capitalization  and  subsequent 
amortization of certain research and development related expenses, and placing additional limits on the use of net operating losses 
and the deductibility of certain executive compensation. 

Given  the  significance  of  the  Tax  Cuts  and  Jobs Act,  the  Securities  and  Exchange  Commission  (“SEC”)  issued  Staff 
Accounting Bulletin 118 (“SAB 118”) that expresses the views of the SEC regarding ASC Topic 740 in the reporting period that 
includes the date of enactment. The SEC staff issuing SAB 118 recognized that a company’s review of the income tax effects 
attributable to the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act may be incomplete at the time financial statements are issued for the
reporting  period  that  included  the date of  enactment  and allows  a  company  to  record provisional  amounts during  a  one  year 
measurement period similar to the principles adopted in ASC Topic 805, Business Combinations. During the measurement period, 
income tax effects attributable to the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act are expected to be recorded at the time a reasonable 
estimate for all or a portion of the effects can be made, and provisional amounts can be adjusted and recognized, as a discreet
item  in  the  applicable  reporting  period,  as  information  becomes  available,  prepared  or  analyzed. The  measurement  period  is 

F-28 

CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 

NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

deemed  to  have  ended  when  the  company  has  obtained,  prepared  and  analyzed  the  information  necessary  to  finalize  its 
accounting.

SAB 118 summarizes a three-step process to be applied to each reporting period to account for and qualitatively disclose 
income tax effects attributable to the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act: (1) the effects of the change in tax law for which 
accounting is complete; (2) provisional amounts (including subsequent adjustments to those amounts) for the effects of the tax 
law where accounting is not complete, but that a reasonable estimate has been determined; and (3) a reasonable estimate cannot 
yet be made and therefore taxes are reflected in accordance with the law prior to the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. 

Amounts recorded by the Company during the year ended December 31, 2017 where the accounting is considered to be 
complete relate to a reduction, in the amount of $28.9 million, in the carrying value of the Company’s U.S. deferred tax assets
resulting from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s reduction in the U.S. federal corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%. The Tax 
Cuts and Jobs Act also includes a Repatriation Transaction Tax on the net accumulated and previously untaxed earnings and 
profits of a U.S. taxpayer’s foreign subsidiaries. As of December 31, 2017, the Company has recorded provisional tax expense, 
in  the  amount  of  $0.3  million,  attributable  to  the  Repatriation Transition Tax  and  provisional  tax  expense,  in  the  amount  of 
$0.3 million, as a result of the Company’s decision to no longer consider the undistributed earnings of its foreign subsidiaries to 
be permanently reinvested outside of the U.S. The Company has not had sufficient time to obtain, prepare and analyze historical
tax returns, financial statements and related accounts that is required to finalize its accounting with respect to the items for which 
provisional tax expense has been recorded 

A majority of the Company’s deferred tax assets result from net operating loss carryforwards and research and development 
tax  credits.  As  of  December 31,  2017,  the  Company  had  U.S.  federal  net  operating  loss  carryforwards  of  approximately 
$72.6 million  and  U.S.  federal  research  and  development  tax  credit  carryforwards  of  approximately  $36.0  million.  Upon  the 
adoption of ASU 2016-09, Compensation-Stock Compensation (Topic 718): Improvements to Employee Share-Based Payment 
Accounting in March of 2016, the Company recognized $16.6 million in deferred tax benefits from approximately $47.4 million 
of federal net operating losses attributable to share-based income tax deductions that exceeded amounts that had been recognized
for financial reporting purposes. These deferred tax benefits were recorded as a cumulative-effect adjustment to accumulated 
deficit.  The  federal  net  operating  loss  carryforwards  will  expire  from  2019  through  2037,  and  the  federal  research  and 
development tax credits will expire from 2021 through 2037 if not utilized. Utilization of $21.2 million of the Company’s federal
net operating loss carryforwards generated prior to May 10, 2001 is limited under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code to 
$4.3  million  per  year. As  of  December 31, 2017,  the  Company  had  approximately  $7.1  million  of  foreign  net  operating  loss 
carryforwards in various jurisdictions. Most of the Company’s foreign net operating losses can be carried forward indefinitely,
with certain amounts expiring from 2018 to 2027. 

Income (loss) before income taxes consisted of the following (in thousands): 

United States 
International 

Total 

Year Ended December 31, 

2017
(53,201) $
311  
(52,890) $

$

$

2016 

2015

2,648 $
7,273
9,921 $

38,362
4,415
42,777

F-29 

CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 

NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

The tax provision (benefit) for income taxes related to operations consisted of the following (in thousands): 

Current provision (benefit):

Federal 
State
Foreign 
Total current provision 

Deferred provision (benefit): 

Federal 
State
Foreign 
Total deferred provision (benefit) 

Total provision (benefit) for income taxes 

Year Ended December 31, 

2017

2016 

2015

$

$

445   $ 
310
1,735  
2,490

77,152
1,185  
112
78,449  
80,939 $

3 $

(279)
1,443
1,167

(2,127)
416
(150)
(1,861)

(694) $

725
1,389
1,023
3,137

12,198
(52)
(43)
12,103
15,240

The tax provision (benefit) differs from the amount computed by applying the federal statutory income tax rate as follows 

(in thousands): 

Income tax provision (benefit) at statutory rate 
State taxes, net of federal benefit 
Foreign income taxes 
Additional increases (deductions) from share-based compensation 
Deemed dividends for U.S. income tax purposes 
Nondeductible expenses 
Disallowed compensation 
Audit accrual (settlement) 
Research and development tax credit 
Tax effect of repatriation transition tax on unremitted earnings 
Gain on strategic transaction 
Deferred tax impact from tax rate change 
Effect of change in valuation allowance on deferred tax assets 
Effective income tax provision (benefit) 

Year Ended December 31, 

2017
(18,511) $
(1,066)  
135
1,036  
—
222  
60
1,156  
(3,827)
605  
(1,568)
28,907  
73,790
80,939   $ 

$

$

2016 

2015

3,472 $
89
(407)
(1,815)
329
231
331
(297)
(2,470)
—
—
—
(157)
(694) $

14,972
897
(12)
—
407
283
455
—
(1,733)
—
—
—
(29)
15,240

F-30 

 
   
 
CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 

NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

Significant components of the Company’s deferred income tax assets and liabilities follow (in thousands): 

Deferred Income Tax Assets 

Inventory 
Accrued compensation 
Deferred revenue 
Research and development credit carryforwards 
Net operating loss carryforwards 
Property and equipment 
Goodwill 
Research and development expenses 
Share-based compensation 
Other 
Gross deferred tax assets 
Valuation allowance 
Deferred tax assets 

Deferred Income Tax Liabilities

Investment in sales-type lease, net
Intangible assets 
Other
Deferred tax liabilities 
Net deferred tax asset 

December 31, 

2017 

2016

6,495   $ 
262
8,285  
32,218
22,775  
4,136

289  

9,944
4,124  
2,592
91,120  
(82,875)
8,245  

(3,084)
(205)
(3,850)
(7,139)
1,106   $ 

4,127
511
14,742
28,241
38,348
8,188
106
—
7,016
12,939
114,218
(8,727)
105,491

(13,728)
(421)
(5,729)
(19,878)
85,613

$

$

The Company recorded income tax expense of $80.9 million during the year ended December 31, 2017, an income tax 
benefit of $0.7 million during the year ended December 31, 2016 and income tax expense of $15.2 million during the year ended 
December 31, 2015. The difference between the income tax benefit at the statutory rate and the Company’s effective income tax 
expense for the year ended December 31, 2017 was primarily attributable to the reduction in the U.S. federal corporate income 
tax rate as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and its impact on the carrying value of the Company’s U.S. deferred tax assets
and the Company’s decision after the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was enacted to increase the valuation allowance held against its U.S.
deferred tax assets, offset, in part, by research and development tax credits. The difference between the income tax provision at 
the statutory rate and the Company’s effective income tax benefit for the year ended December 31, 2016 was the result of research
and development tax credits and additional tax deductions from share-based compensation, sometimes referred to as excess tax 
benefits, partially offset by state taxes, non-deductible expenses and other permanent items. Excess tax benefits arise when tax
deductions recognized by the Company with respect to share-based compensation exceed the compensation cost attributable to 
share-based compensation that was recognized in the Company’s consolidated financial statements. The difference between the 
income tax provision at the statutory rate and the Company’s effective income tax provision for the year ended December 31, 
2015  was  the  result  of  state  taxes,  non-deductible  expenses  and  other  permanent  items,  partially  offset  by  research  and 
development tax credits. 

The  valuation  allowance  on  deferred  tax  assets  increased by  $74.1  million  in  2017  and  decreased  by  $0.8  million  and 
$0.7 million  in  2016  and  2015,  respectively.    Substantially  all  of  the  increase  in  the  valuation  allowance  during  2017  was 
attributable  to  the  Company’s  decision  to  increase  the  valuation  allowance  held  against  its  U.S.  deferred  tax  assets  on 
December 31, 2017. 

F-31 

CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 

NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

 The Company’s assessment of its ability to utilize its U.S. deferred tax assets was based upon all available positive and 
negative evidence, which included, among other things, the Company’s recent results of operations, forecasted domestic and 
international earnings over a number of years, all known business risks and industry trends, and applicable tax planning strategies. 
The  Company  considers  its  actual  historical  results  over  several  years  to  have  stronger  weight  than  other  more  subjective 
indicators, including forecasts, when considering whether to establish or reduce a valuation allowance on deferred tax assets. The 
Company has significant difficulty projecting future results due to the nature of its business and the industry in which it operates. 
As of December 31, 2017, the Company had experienced a significant decline in revenue, gross profit, and operating income 
since 2015, had reported a cumulative pre-tax loss in recent years and is currently forecasting to a report a pre-tax loss for the 
year ending December 31, 2018. If the Company had determined that it was appropriate to increase the valuation allowance held 
against  our  U.S.  deferred  tax  assets  prior  to  enactment  of  the  Tax  Cuts  and  Jobs Act  total  tax  expense  for  the  year  ended 
December 31, 2017 would not have changed. The decrease in the carrying value of our U.S. deferred tax assets as a result of the
reduction  in  the  U.S.  federal  corporate  income  tax  rate  would  have  been  completely  offset  by  a  reduction  in  the  valuation 
allowance that would have been previously established against those deferred tax assets. 

The  Company’s  conclusion  about  the  realizability  of  its  deferred  tax  assets,  and  therefore  the  appropriateness  of  the 
valuation allowance, is reviewed quarterly and could change in future periods depending on the Company’s future assessment of 
all available evidence in support of the likelihood of realization of its deferred tax assets. If the Company’s conclusion about the 
realizability of its deferred tax assets and therefore the appropriateness of its valuation allowance changes in a future period, it 
could record a substantial tax benefit in the Consolidated Statements of Operations when that occurs. 

The  following  table  summarizes  changes  in  the  amount  of  the  Company’s  unrecognized  tax  benefits  for  uncertain  tax 

positions for the three years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015 (in thousands): 

Balance at December 31, 2014 
Increase related to prior year income tax positions 
Increase related to current year income tax positions 
Balance at December 31, 2015 
Increase related to prior year income tax positions 
Decrease related to prior year income tax positions 
Increase related to current year income tax positions 

Balance at December 31, 2016 
Increase related to prior year income tax positions 
Increase related to current year income tax positions 

Balance at December 31, 2017 

$

$ 

$ 

$

5,630
151
433

6,214
53
(365)
565

6,467
1,440
673

8,580

Included  in  the  balance of unrecognized  tax benefits  as of December 31, 2017 was  $1.2  million of  tax benefits  that,  if 
recognized, would affect the effective tax rate. It is not anticipated that the balance of unrecognized tax benefits will significantly
change over the next twelve months. 

The  Company  or  its  subsidiaries  file  income  tax  returns  in  the  U.S. federal  jurisdiction  and  various  state  and  foreign 
jurisdictions. The Company defines its major tax jurisdictions to include United Kingdom and the United States. The Company 
is no longer subject to income tax examinations with respect to periods before 2016 in the United Kingdom and before 2014 in 
the United States, although in the United States net operating loss and tax credit carryforwards generated in a year are subject to 
examination and adjustment for at least three years following the year in which such losses or credits are actually used to offset
taxable income. 

F-32 

CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 

NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

Estimated interest and penalties are recorded as a component of interest expense and other expense, respectively. Such 

amounts were not material for 2017, 2016 and 2015. 

NOTE 15    CREDIT FACILITIES 

As of December 31, 2017, the Company had a $50.0 million revolving line of credit (Credit Facility) with Wells Fargo 
Bank,  National Association,  designed  to  be  used  for  general  corporate  purposes,  including  working  capital  requirements  and 
capital expenditures.  The Credit Facility also supports the issuance of letters of credit. The Credit Facility is secured by a first 
priority  lien  in  all  of  the  Company’s  accounts  receivable  and  other  rights  to  payment,  general  intangibles,  inventory  and 
equipment. 

Any borrowings under the Credit Facility bear interest at either a fluctuating rate equal to the daily one month LIBOR rate 
plus a margin of 1.25% or a fixed interest rate for one, three or six months equal to the LIBOR rate for the applicable period plus 
a margin of 1.25%.  The Company is also required to pay the lender customary letter of credit fees, and a commitment fee of 
0.18% per annum in respect of the unutilized commitment amount under the Credit Facility. The Credit Facility requires that the
Company maintain certain financial ratios and restricts its ability to incur additional indebtedness, pay dividends or distributions, 
create liens on assets, and engage in certain other activities. The Company was in compliance with all of its financial covenants
as of the end of each quarter for the year ended December 31, 2017. The Credit Facility matures in March 2018. The Company 
has begun discussions with the bank that may result in changes to the size and terms of this arrangement. 

The Company made no draws and had no outstanding cash borrowings on the credit facility as of December 31, 2017.  

As of December 31, 2017, the Company had $15.0 million in USD equivalent value in outstanding letters of credit and 
$3.0 million in restricted cash associated with certain letters of credit to secure customer prepayments and other customer related 
obligations. 

NOTE 16    SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY 

Preferred  Stock:    The  Company  has  5,000,000 shares  of  undesignated  preferred  stock  authorized,  and  no  shares  of 

preferred stock outstanding.

Common Stock:    The Company has 75,000,000 authorized shares of common stock with a par value of $0.01 per share.

Stock Plans:    As of December 31, 2017, the Company had one active equity incentive plan that provides shares available 

for option, restricted stock and restricted stock unit grants to employees, directors, executives and others.

Stock Options:    In determining the fair value of stock options, the Company uses the Black-Scholes option pricing model. 
The following key weighted average assumptions were employed in the calculation for the indicated years ended December 31:

Risk-free interest rate 
Expected dividend yield 
Volatility 
Expected life (in years) 
Weighted average Black-Scholes value of options granted 

2017 

2016 

2015 

1.64%
—%
54.14%
4.0

1.12%
—%
50.92%
4.0  

$

7.91

$

13.16

$

1.31%
—%
50.55%
4.0

11.23

The risk-free interest rate is based on the U.S. Treasury yield curve in effect at the time of grant. The Company does not 
anticipate declaring dividends in the foreseeable future. Volatility is based on historical data. The expected life of an option is 
based on the assumption that options will be exercised, on average, about two years after vesting occurs. The Company recognizes
compensation expense for only the portion of options that are expected to vest. Therefore, management applies an estimated 
forfeiture rate that is derived from historical employee termination data and adjusted for expected future employee turnover rates. 

F-33 

CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 

NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

The estimated forfeiture rates applied to the Company’s stock option grants for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 
2015  was  8.0%.  If  the  actual  number  of  forfeitures  differs  from  those  estimated  by  management,  additional  adjustments  to 
compensation  expense  may  be  required  in  future  periods.  The  Company’s  stock  price  volatility,  option  lives  and  expected 
forfeiture rates involve management’s best estimates at the time of such determination, which impact the fair value of the option
calculated under the Black-Scholes methodology and, ultimately, the expense that will be recognized over the vesting period or 
requisite service period of the option. The Company typically issues stock options with a four-year vesting period (the requisite
service period) and amortizes the fair value of stock options (share-based compensation cost) ratably over the requisite service
period. Options to purchase shares expire no later than ten years after the date of grant. 

A summary of the Company’s stock option activity and related information follows: 

Outstanding at January 1, 2015 

Granted 
Exercised 
Canceled and forfeited 

Outstanding at December 31, 2015 

Granted 
Exercised 
Canceled and forfeited 

Outstanding at December 31, 2016 

Granted 
Exercised 
Canceled and forfeited 

Outstanding at December 31, 2017 

Exercisable at December 31, 2017 

Available for grant at December 31, 2017 

Weighted 
Average 
Exercise 
Price 

Weighted Average 
Remaining 
Contractual 
Term (Years) 

12.34
27.86
9.99
20.00
14.83
32.65
12.57
26.60
16.99
18.36
8.51
27.02
17.26

15.39

5.2

4.0

Options 

1,930,990 $
307,450
(229,118)
(60,847)
1,948,475
240,075
(168,825)
(30,588)
1,989,137
324,500
(157,257)
(121,906)
2,034,474

1,532,691

3,107,064

Outstanding and exercisable options by price range as of December 31, 2017, were as follows: 

Range of Exercise 
Prices per Share 

$  0.00 - $  10.00 
$  10.01 - $  20.00 
$  20.01 - $  30.00 
$  30.01 - $  42.40 
$  0.00 - $  42.40 

Outstanding Options 
Weighted 
Average 
Remaining 
Life (Years) 

Weighted 
Average 
Exercise 
Price 

Number 
Outstanding 

673,584
619,941
507,844
233,105
2,034,474

1.9 $
6.7
6.6
7.5
5.2

5.49
16.78
26.30
32.86
17.26

Exercisable Options 

Number 
Exercisable 

673,584 $
327,941
411,552
119,614
1,532,691

Weighted 
Average 
Exercise 
Price 

5.49
15.71
26.15
33.34
15.39

As of  December 31, 2017,  there was $17.4 million of aggregate  intrinsic  value of outstanding  stock options,  including 
$15.5 million of aggregate intrinsic value of exercisable stock options. Intrinsic value represents the total pretax intrinsic value 
for all “in-the-money” options (i.e., the difference between the Company’s closing stock price on the last trading day of 2017 and 

F-34 

 
 
CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 

NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

the  exercise price,  multiplied  by  the number of  shares of common  stock  underlying  the  stock  options)  that would have been 
received by the option holders if all option holders had exercised their options on December 31, 2017. This amount changes, 
based on the fair market value of the Company’s stock. Total intrinsic value of options exercised was $1.8 million, $4.0 million,
and $5.0 million for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively. 

Restricted Stock:    During 2017, 2016 and 2015, the Company issued an aggregate of 44,002, 9,893, and 45,175 shares 
of restricted stock, respectively, to certain directors, executives and other employees. The grant date fair value of these grants was 
approximately $0.8 million, $0.3 million, and $1.4 million for 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively. Share-based compensation 
expense is recorded over the vesting period, which is generally one year for non-employee directors and four years for officers
and employees of the Company. 

A summary of the Company’s unvested restricted stock grants and changes during the indicated years ended December 31 

is as follows: 

Service Vesting Restricted 
Shares 

Performance Vesting Restricted 
Shares 

Total Restricted Shares 

Weighted 
Average 
Grant Date 
Fair Value 

19.48
30.44
24.00
15.34
24.12
34.86
24.73
22.14
26.43
17.55
28.15
25.25
24.09

Shares 

1,033,602 $
45,175
(48,998)
(513,336)
516,443
9,893
(18,685)
(250,849)
256,802
44,002
(32,207)
(156,272)
112,325

Weighted 
Average  
Grant Date  
Fair Value 

15.41

—  

15.60
28.20  
15.07

—  

15.57

—  

15.00

—  

15.00

—  
—

Weighted 
Average 
Grant Date 
Fair Value 

17.68
30.44
17.14
15.64
19.31
34.86
17.46
22.14
18.81
17.55
15.78
25.25
24.09

Shares 

1,850,602 $
45,175
(267,998)
(525,836)
1,101,943
9,893
(90,685)
(250,849)
770,302
44,002
(545,707)
(156,272)
112,325

Shares 

817,000 $
—
(219,000)
(12,500)
585,500
—
(72,000)
—
513,500
—
(513,500)
—
—

Outstanding at January 1, 2015 

Granted 
Forfeited 
Vested 

Outstanding at December 31, 2015 

Granted 
Forfeited 
Vested 

Outstanding at December 31, 2016 

Granted 
Forfeited 
Vested 

Outstanding at December 31, 2017 

The  estimated  forfeiture  rates  applied  to  the  Company’s  service  vesting  restricted  stock  grants  during  the  years  ended 
December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015 was 8.0%. The aggregate fair value of restricted shares vested during 2017, 2016 and 2015 
was $2.9 million, $7.7 million, and $14.2 million, respectively. There are no longer any performance vesting restricted shares 
outstanding. 

Restricted  Stock  Units:    During  2017,  2016  and  2015,  the  Company  issued  an  aggregate  of  825,000,  244,160  and 
984,850 restricted stock and performance vesting restricted stock units, respectively, to certain executives and other employees.
The grant date fair value of these grants was approximately $15.2 million, $8.0 million and $29.5 million for 2017, 2016 and 
2015, respectively. Restricted stock units have similar vesting characteristics as restricted stock but are not outstanding shares 
and do not have any voting or dividend rights. The Company records share-based compensation expense over the vesting period. 
At the time of vesting, a share of common stock representing each restricted stock unit vested will be issued by the Company.

F-35 

CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 

NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

A  summary  of  the  Company’s  unvested  restricted  stock  unit  grants  and  changes  during  the  indicated  years  ended 

December 31 is as follows: 

Service Vesting Restricted 
Stock Units

Performance Vesting 
Restricted Stock Units 

Total Restricted Stock Units

Weighted 
Average  
Grant Date 
Fair Value 

—
29.78
30.48
—

29.75
31.89
29.44
29.57

30.89
18.40
25.75
30.91

21.29

Units 

— $

285,550
(12,500)
—

273,050
220,575
(7,700)
(60,204)

425,721
799,000
(95,001)
(141,697)

988,023

Weighted 
Average  
Grant Date  
Fair Value 

—
30.04
30.04  
—

30.04  
42.65

—  
—

Units 

— $

984,850
(79,100)
—

905,750
244,160
(7,700)
(60,204)

30.49   1,082,006
825,000
20.25
(294,801)
30.04  
— (141,697)

30.13   1,470,508

Units 

— $

699,300
(66,600)
—

632,700
23,585
—
—

656,285
26,000
(199,800)
—

482,485

Weighted 
Average 
Grant Date 
Fair Value 

—
29.97
30.11
—

29.95
32.93
29.44
29.57

30.65
18.46
28.66
30.91

24.19

Outstanding at January 1, 2015 

Granted 
Forfeited 
Vested 

Outstanding at December 31, 2015 

Granted 
Forfeited 
Vested 

Outstanding at December 31, 2016 

Granted 
Forfeited 
Vested 

Outstanding at December 31, 2017 

The estimated forfeiture rates applied to the Company’s service vesting restricted stock unit grants during the years ended 
December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015 was 8.0%. The aggregate fair value of restricted stock units vested during 2017 and 2016 
was  $2.7  million  and  $1.9  million,  respectively.    The  performance  vesting  restricted  stock  units  are  subject  to  performance 
measures that are currently not considered “probable” of attainment and as such, no compensation cost has been recorded for 
these units. The performance vesting restricted stock units are eligible to vest between 2018 and 2020. 

Share-based Compensation Expense:    Including performance-based equity awards, the Company had $33.0 million of 
total unrecognized compensation cost related to unvested stock options, unvested restricted stock and unvested restricted stock
units as of December 31, 2017. Excluding the $14.5 million of unrecognized compensation cost related to unvested restricted 
stock units that are subject to performance measures that are currently not considered “probable” of attainment, unrecognized 
compensation cost is $18.5 million. No compensation expense is recognized for unvested restricted stock or unvested restricted 
stock units subject to performance measures that are not considered “probable” of attainment. Unrecognized compensation cost 
related  to  unvested  stock  options,  unvested  non-performance-based  restricted  stock  and  unvested  non-performance-based 
restricted stock units is expected to be recognized over a weighted average period of 2.9 years.

F-36 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 

NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

The following table sets forth the gross share-based compensation cost resulting from stock options, unvested restricted 
stock and unvested restricted stock units that were recorded in the Company’s Consolidated Statements of Operations for the 
indicated years ended December 31 (in thousands): 

Cost of product revenue 
Cost of service revenue 
Research and development 
Sales and marketing 
General and administrative 
Total share-based compensation expense 

2017 

2016 

2015 

$

$

294 $
290  

3,759
2,432  
4,074
10,849   $ 

320 $
211
3,113
3,710
3,797
11,151 $

254
276
3,770
3,047
4,006
11,353

Employee  Stock  Purchase  Plan  (ESPP):    The  Company’s  non-compensatory  employee  stock  purchase  plan  was 
discontinued in the third quarter of 2017. The maximum number of shares of the Company’s common stock that employees could 
acquire under the ESPP was 1,750,000 shares. Eligible employees were permitted to acquire shares of the Company’s common 
stock through payroll deductions not exceeding 15% of base wages. The purchase price per share under the ESPP was 95% of 
the closing market price on the fourth business day after the end of each offering period. As of December 31, 2017, 2016 and 
2015, an aggregate of 1,118,151, 1,098,085 and 1,070,343 shares, respectively, had been issued under the ESPP.

NOTE 17    BENEFIT PLANS 

401(k) Plan 

For the three years ended December 31, 2017, the Company’s retirement plan covered substantially all U.S. employees and 
provided for voluntary salary deferral contributions on a pre-tax basis in accordance with Section 401(k) of the Internal Revenue 
Code of 1986, as amended. The Company matches a portion of employee contributions. The 2017, 2016 and 2015 Company 
match expense was $3.0 million, $2.9 million and $2.6 million, respectively. 

Pension Plan 

The Company’s German subsidiary maintains a defined benefit pension plan. At December 31, 2017, the excess of plan 
assets over the projected benefit obligation of $2.0 million was $0.2 million. At December 31, 2016, the excess of plan assets 
over the projected benefit obligation of $2.0 million was $0.2 million.  Plan assets are invested in insurance policies payable to 
employees. Net pension expense was not material for any period. Contributions to the plan are not expected to be significant to
the financial position of the Company. 

NOTE 18    SEGMENT INFORMATION 

The Company has the following reportable segments: Supercomputing, Storage and Data Management, Maintenance and 
Support, and Engineering Services and Other. The Company’s reportable segments represent components of the Company for 
which separate financial information is available that is utilized on a regular basis by the Chief Executive Officer, who is the
Chief  Operating  Decision  Maker,  in  determining  how  to  allocate  the  Company’s  resources  and  evaluate  performance.  The 
segments are determined based on several factors, including the Company’s internal operating structure, the manner in which the
Company’s  operations  are  managed,  client  base,  similar  economic  characteristics  and  the  availability  of  separate  financial 
information. 

F-37 

CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 

NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

Supercomputing 

Supercomputing includes a suite of highly advanced, tightly integrated and cluster supercomputer systems which are used 
by large research and engineering centers in universities, government laboratories, and commercial institutions. Supercomputing
also includes the ongoing maintenance of these systems as well as system analysts. 

Storage and Data Management 

Storage and Data Management offers Cray DataWarp and ClusterStor, as well as other third-party storage products and 

their ongoing maintenance as well as system analysts. 

Maintenance and Support 

Maintenance and Support provides ongoing maintenance of Cray supercomputers, big data storage and analytics systems, 

as well as system analysts. 

Engineering Services and Other 

Included  within  Engineering  Services  and  Other  are  the  Company’s  analytics  and  artificial  intelligence  businesses  and 

Custom Engineering. 

The  following  table  presents  revenues  and gross  margin  for  the  Company’s operating  segments  for the  indicated  years 

ended December 31 (in thousands): 

Revenue: 

Supercomputing 
Storage and Data Management 
Maintenance and Support 
Engineering Services and Other 
Elimination of inter-segment revenue 

Total revenue 

Gross Profit: 

Supercomputing 
Storage and Data Management 
Maintenance and Support 
Engineering Services and Other 
Elimination of inter-segment gross profit 

Total gross profit

2017 

2016 

2015 

$

$

$

$

282,217   $ 
63,620
124,840  
46,672
(124,840) 
392,509 $

510,403 $
89,438
107,795
29,968
(107,795)
629,809 $

93,272   $ 
20,288
61,305  
17,144
(61,305) 
130,704 $

173,245 $
34,125
43,147
12,845
(43,147)
220,215 $

581,733
112,862
97,091
30,094
(97,091)
724,689

177,048
37,181
41,487
11,454
(41,487)
225,683

Revenue  and  cost  of  revenue  is  the  only  discrete  financial  information  the  Company  prepares  for  its  segments.  Other 

financial results or assets are not separated by segment. 

F-38 

CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 

NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

The Company’s geographic operations outside the United States include sales and service offices in Europe and the Middle 
East, South America, Asia Pacific and Canada. The following data represents the Company’s revenue and long-lived assets for 
the United States and all other countries (in thousands): 

For the year ended December 31, 2017: 
Product revenue 

Service revenue 
Long-lived assets 
For the year ended December 31, 2016: 
Product revenue 

Service revenue 
Long-lived assets 
For the year ended December 31, 2015: 
Product revenue 

Service revenue 
Long-lived assets 

United 
States 

All
Other 
Countries 

$

$
$

$

$
$

$

$
$

159,279   $ 

90,916 $

96,406 $
48,989   $ 

45,908 $
28,009 $

251,317   $ 

248,115 $

88,208 $
39,933   $ 

42,169 $
36,555 $

373,494   $ 

227,800 $

88,956 $
39,014   $ 

34,439 $
23,238 $

Total 

250,195

142,314
76,998

499,432

130,377
76,488

601,294

123,395
62,252

Long-lived  assets  as  of  December  31,  2017,  2016  and  2015,  included  $23.4  million,  $31.1  million  and  $18.3  million, 

respectively, of long-term investment in sales-type lease which was held by the Company’s United Kingdom subsidiary. 

Revenue derived from the U.S. Government totaled approximately $206.1 million, $296.9 million and $338.5 million in 
2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively. In 2017, one non-U.S. Government customer accounted for 11% of total revenue. In 2016, 
one non-U.S. Government customer accounted for 10% of total revenue. In 2015, no non-U.S. Government customers accounted 
for more than 10% of total revenue. Revenue attributed to foreign countries is derived from sales to customers located outside 
the United States. In general, concentrations of revenue by customer encompass all segments. In 2017, revenue in India accounted
for  11%  of  total  revenue.  In  2016,  revenue  in  the  United  Kingdom  accounted  for  17%  of  total  revenue.  In  2015,  no  foreign 
countries accounted for more than 10% of total revenue. 

NOTE 19    RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 

Details for the Company’s net research and development expenses for the indicated years ended December 31 follows (in 

thousands): 

Gross research and development expenses 
Less: Amounts included in cost of revenue 
Less: Reimbursed research and development (excludes amounts in revenue) 
Net research and development expenses 

$

$

141,289 $
(9,473) 
(33,039)
98,777   $ 

130,006 $
(12,621)
(5,255)
112,130 $

126,060
(16,515)
(12,982)
96,563

2017 

2016 

2015 

F-39 

CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 

NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

NOTE 20    INTEREST INCOME (EXPENSE) 

The detail of interest income (expense) for the indicated years ended December 31 follows (in thousands): 

Interest income 
Interest expense 
Net interest income 

2017 

2016 

2015 

$

$

3,386 $
(110) 
3,276 $

2,120 $
27
2,147 $

1,465
(57)
1,408

Interest income is earned by the Company on cash and cash equivalents, investment balances and the investment in sales-

type lease. 

NOTE 21    RESTRUCTURING 

In the third quarter of 2017, the Company implemented a restructuring plan intended to reduce the Company’s operating 
costs and better align its workforce with long-term business strategies. The restructuring plan involved reducing the Company’s
workforce by approximately 190 employees, with the vast majority of such terminations effective in July 2017. For the year 
ended December 31, 2017, the Company recorded  $8.6 million in expense in connection with the restructuring plan, primarily 
related to employee severance. The majority of the cash payments related to the restructuring charges were paid in 2017. The 
actions associated with the restructuring plan are expected to be completed by the end of the first half of 2018. Restructuring
charges  associated  with  the  restructuring  plan  were  included  in  restructuring  on  the  company’s  Consolidated  Statements  of 
Operations. 

NOTE 22    QUARTERLY DATA (UNAUDITED) 

The following table presents unaudited quarterly financial information for the two years ended December 31, 2017. In the 
opinion of management, this information contains all adjustments, consisting only of normal recurring adjustments, necessary 
for a fair presentation thereof. 

The operating results are not necessarily indicative of results for any future periods. Quarter-to-quarter comparisons should 
not be relied upon as indicators of future performance. The Company’s business is driven by a few significant contracts and, as a 
result, the Company’s operating results are subject to very large quarterly fluctuations. The Company’s earnings per share for the 
full year may not equal the sum of the four quarterly earnings per share amounts because of common share activity during the 
year. 

F-40 

CRAY INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES 

NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - (Continued) 

(In thousands, except per share data) 

2017 

2016 

$

For the Quarter Ended 
Revenue 
Cost of revenue 
Gross profit
Research and development, 
net 

Sales and marketing 
General and administrative 
Restructuring 
Net income (loss) 
Net income (loss) per 
common share, basic 

Net income (loss) per 
common share, diluted 

9/30

6/30 

3/31 
59,031 $ 87,135 $ 79,700 $ 166,643 $ 105,549 $ 100,235 $ 77,451 $ 346,574
226,083
35,222  
120,491
23,809

64,074   
36,161 

116,583
50,060

58,792
28,343

53,850
23,601

65,587
39,962

51,208
28,492

12/31

12/31

9/30 

6/30 

3/31

32,640  

17,325

26,626

22,186

25,840

27,399   

29,084

29,807

14,653

8,797  
—

(19,215)  

15,247
7,205
—
(6,840)

13,392
7,022
7,653
(10,232)

16,602
6,089
915
(97,542)

16,001
7,338
—
(5,013)

15,380 
9,019   
—

(13,126 )  

15,010
7,968
—
(23,021)

18,502
9,728
—
51,775

$

(0.48) $

(0.17) $

(0.25) $

(2.42) $

(0.13) $

(0.33) $

(0.58) $

1.30

$ 

(0.48)   $ 

(0.17) $

(0.25) $

(2.42) $

(0.13) $

(0.33)   $ 

(0.58) $

1.27

F-41 

 
 
 
REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM 

To the Shareholders and Board of Directors 

Cray Inc. 

Opinion on the Consolidated Financial Statements 

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Cray Inc. and Subsidiaries (“the Company”) as of December 
31, 2017 and 2016, the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive income (loss), shareholders' equity, and 
cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended December 31, 2017, and the related notes and financial statement
schedule listed in the index at item 15(a)(2) (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”).  In our opinion, 
the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the consolidated financial position of the Company
as of December 31, 2017 and 2016, and the consolidated results of their operations and their cash flows for each of the years in
the three-year period ended December 31, 2017, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States.

We  have  also 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, 2017, based on criteria established in 
Internal  Control  -  Integrated  Framework  (2013)  issued  by  the  Committee  of  Sponsoring  Organizations  of  the  Treadway 
Commission, and our report dated February 15, 2018, expressed an unqualified opinion on the effectiveness of the Company’s 
internal control over financial reporting. 

Basis for Opinion 

These consolidated financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management.  Our responsibility is to express an
opinion on the Company’s consolidated 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  consolidated  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 
consolidated 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 consolidated 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  consolidated  financial  statements.   We  believe  that  our  audits  provide  a 
reasonable basis for our opinion. 

/S/ PETERSON SULLIVAN LLP 

We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2005. 

Seattle, Washington 
February 15, 2018 

F-42 

Schedule II — Valuation and Qualifying Accounts(1) 

December 31, 2017  
(In thousands) 

Description 

Year ended December 31, 2015: 
Allowance for doubtful accounts 

Year ended December 31, 2016: 
Allowance for doubtful accounts 

Year ended December 31, 2017: 
Allowance for doubtful accounts 

Balance at 
Beginning
of Period 

Charge to 
Expense

Deductions (2)

Balance at 
End of 
Period 

$

$

$

97 $

—   $ 

(78) $

19 $

21 $

2   $ 

7   $ 

— $

— $

19

21

28

(1) The Company does not have any warranty liabilities. 

(2) Deductions represent uncollectible accounts written off, net of recoveries. 

F-43 

INVESTOR INFORMATION  

BOARD OF DIRECTORS 

Stephen C. Kiely, Chairman 
Retired Chief Executive Officer 

Prithviraj Banerjee 
Senior Client Partner 
Korn/Ferry International 

Catriona M. Fallon 
Senior Vice President, Networks Segment 
Itron Inc. 

Sally G. Narodick 
Retired Chief Executive Officer 

Daniel C. Regis 
General Partner 
Regis Investments, LP 

Max L. Schireson 
Executive in Residence 
Battery Ventures  

Brian V. Turner 
Retired Chief Financial Officer 

Peter J. Ungaro 
President and Chief Executive Officer 
Cray Inc. 

KEY COMPANY EXECUTIVES 

Peter J. Ungaro 
President and Chief Executive Officer 

Brian C. Henry 
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer 

Charles D. Fairchild 
Vice President, Corporate Controller and  
Chief Accounting Officer 

Frederick A. Kohout 
Senior Vice President Products and Chief Marketing 
Officer 

Charles A. Morreale 
Senior Vice President, Field Operations 

Efstathios Papaefstathiou 
Senior Vice President, Research and Development 

Michael C. Piraino 
Senior Vice President Administration, 
General Counsel and Corporate Secretary 

Steven L. Scott 
Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer 

SHAREHOLDER SERVICES

CRAY ANNUAL MEETING

Computershare Inc., our transfer agent and registrar, can be 
contacted as indicated below to help you with a variety of 
shareholder-related services, including: 

•  Change of address 
•  Lost stock certificates 
•  Transfer of stock to another person 
•  Additional administrative services 
•  Account consolidation 

Computershare Inc. Shareholder Relations 
P.O. Box 505000  
Louisville, KY  40233 
or 
462 South 4th Street, Suite 1600 
Louisville, KY 40202 
www.computershare.com/investor 

Shareholder online inquiries  
https://www-us.computershare.com/investor/Contact  

Telephone: 877-522-7762 
TDD for Hearing Impaired: 800-490-1493 
International Shareholders: 201-680-6578 
TDD International Shareholders: 781-575-2394 
AVAILABLE INFORMATION 

Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, our other SEC reports and 
filings, our Code of Business Conduct, Corporate Governance 
Guidelines, the charters of our Board committees and other 
governance documents and information are available on our 
website, www.cray.com, under “Company” 

You may also obtain a copy of our Form 10-K filed with the 
SEC and other Company information without charge, by 
writing or calling: 

Cray Inc. 
Investor Relations 
901 Fifth Avenue 
Suite 1000 
Seattle, WA  98164 
Telephone:  866-729-2729 

Shareholders who own Cray Inc. stock through a brokerage 
account and receive multiple copies of this annual report can 
contact their broker to request consolidation of their accounts

JUNE 12, 2018 – 3:00 P.M. PT 
901 Fifth Avenue 
Fifth Avenue Conference Room 
Seattle, WA 98164 

CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS 
Cray Inc. 
901 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1000 
Seattle, WA 98164 
206-701-2000 
206-701-2500 fax 

OTHER PRINCIPAL OFFICES 
2131 Lindau Lane, Suite 1000 
Bloomington, MN 55425 

1050 Lowater Road 
Chippewa Falls, WI 54729 

INTERNET 
E-Mail:  ir@cray.com  
Website: www.cray.com 

LEGAL COUNSEL 
Fenwick & West LLP 
Seattle, WA 

INDEPENDENT REGISTERED 
PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM 
Peterson Sullivan LLP 
Seattle, WA 

STOCK MARKET INFORMATION 
Cray Inc. common stock is traded on the 
Nasdaq Global Market under the 
Symbol CRAY 

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY 
Cray is an equal opportunity employer 

Safe Harbor Statement 
This Annual Report contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, 
including, but not limited to, statements related to Cray’s financial guidance and expected operating results, Cray’s competitive position in the high-end supercomputing market 
and  the  timing  of  a  rebound  in  that  market,  Cray’s  ability  to  grow  in  the  future,  and  its  product  development,  sales  and  delivery  plans.  These  statements  involve  current 
expectations,  forecasts  of  future  events  and  other  statements  that  are  not  historical  facts.  Inaccurate  assumptions  and  estimates  as  well  as  known  and  unknown  risks  and 
uncertainties can affect the accuracy of forward-looking statements and cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by these forward-looking statements. Factors 
that could affect actual future events or results include, but are not limited to, the risk that Cray does not achieve the operational or financial results that it expects, the risk that 
Cray will not be able to secure orders for Cray products and systems to be accepted in the future when or at the levels expected, the risk that the segments of the high-end of the 
supercomputing market that Cray targets do not recover from the current downturn as early or as completely as expected or at all, the risk that the systems ordered by customers 
are not delivered when expected, do not perform as expected once delivered or have technical issues that must be corrected before acceptance, the risk that the acceptance process 
for delivered systems is not completed, or customer acceptances are not received, when expected or at all, the risk that Cray is not able to successfully sell products and services in 
the  big  data  analytics,  high  performance  storage,  artificial  intelligence  and  commercial  markets  as  expected  or  at  all,  the  risk  that  Cray  is  not  able  to  expand  and  penetrate  its 
addressable market as expected or at all, the risk that government funding for research and development projects is less than expected, the risk that new third-party processors and 
other components for our systems are not available with the anticipated performance, timing or pricing, the risk that Cray is not able to realize the expected benefits of the Seagate 
transaction and partnership, the risk that Cray is not able to reach new customers through cloud services offerings as expected or at all, the risk that the expense and/or effort to 
address Cray systems at customer sites that have issues with third party components or with Cray components, including issues related to the “Spectre” and “Meltdown” processor 
security vulnerabilities, is material, the risk that Cray is not able to successfully complete its planned product development efforts in a timely fashion or at all, the risk that Cray is 
not able to achieve anticipated gross margin or expense levels and such other risks as identified in Cray’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017, and 
from time to time in other reports filed by Cray with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. You should not rely unduly on these forward-looking statements, which apply 
only as of the date of this Annual Report. Cray undertakes no duty to publicly announce or report revisions to these statements as new information becomes available that may 
change Cray’s expectations. 

CRAY, the stylized CRAY mark, and URIKA are registered trademarks of Cray Inc. in the United States and other countries. The CS and XC families of supercomputers, Chapel, 
ClusterStor, CS-Storm, DataWarp and other Cray technologies are all trademarks of Cray Inc. Other trade names, trademarks, and service marks of other companies used in this 
Annual Report are the property of their respective owners.