What changed in this filing

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Item 1A. Risk Factors

2026-02-05 compared with 2025-02-13 · 81 added, 59 removed, 258 unchanged (35% of the section changed)

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The forms of these attacks are constantly evolving and may involve methods, tools, and strategies that may not have been previously identified and may not have been observed until the moment of launch, or until sometime after, making these attacks virtually impossible to anticipate and difficult to defend against.

For example, recent advances in AI-based tools have made, and will continue to make, cyber-attacks more sophisticated, harder to defend, and easier and faster to launch.

These tools allow for rapid exploitation of vulnerabilities, which hinders our ability to defend against such exploitation.

In addition to external threats, our systems and services are subject to insider threat risks, including physical or electronic break-ins, sabotage, and risks from suppliers, such as consultants and advisors, SaaS providers, hardware, software, and network systems manufacturers, regional internet registries, and other vendors, or from current or former contractors or employees.

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We have developed policies, standards, and procedures to identify, protect, detect, respond, and recover from threats posed by cybersecurity risks, and failure to comply with these policies, standards, and procedures by our employees or suppliers could limit our ability to effectively manage threats from these cybersecurity risks.

In addition, we must ensure that our employees stay focused on protecting the Company against cybersecurity threats especially in our hybrid work environment, or our ability to effectively manage cybersecurity risks could be impacted.

Our failure to effectively manage these security risks, including insider threats, could result in material harm to our business, including loss of or delay in revenues, failure to meet service level agreements, material liability claims, failure to maintain market acceptance, injury to our reputation, and increased costs, and could call into question our ability to preserve the security and stability of the internet.

Furthermore, we must ensure that our employees stay focused on protecting the Company against cybersecurity threats especially in our hybrid work environment, or our ability to effectively manage cybersecurity risks could be impacted.

Our failure to effectively manage these security risks, including external and insider threats, could result in material harm to our business, including loss of or delay in revenues, failure to meet service level agreements, material liability claims, failure to maintain market acceptance, injury to our reputation, and increased costs, and could call into question our ability to preserve the security and stability of the internet.

Security vulnerabilities in our systems and our vendors’ systems, including vulnerabilities in third party software and hardware, pose a material risk to our operations.

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Our failure to identify, remediate and mitigate security vulnerabilities, including any potential failure to timely replace and upgrade hardware, software, or other technology assets, could result in material harm to our business, including loss of or delay in revenues, failure to meet service level agreements, material liability claims, failure to maintain market acceptance, injury to our reputation, increased costs, and call into question our ability to preserve the security and stability of the internet.

In addition, our networks have been, and likely will continue to be, subject to DDoS attacks.

Recent industry experience has demonstrated that DDoS attacks continue to grow in size and sophistication and have the ability to widely disrupt internet services.

Our networks have been, and likely will continue to be, subject to DDoS attacks.

Recent industry experience has demonstrated that DDoS attacks continue to grow in size and sophistication, due in part to advances in AI-based tools, and have the ability to widely disrupt internet services.

We have successfully mitigated DDoS attacks to date;

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We are employing new technologies and new and different services and capabilities to help mitigate DDoS attacks.

If these new technologies, services and capabilities are not effective, our infrastructure could be disrupted, our response times could increase, our ability to meet our service level

agreements could be negatively impacted, and our ability to provide reliable service to our customers and the broader internet community could be impeded.

In addition, we are subject to social engineering attacks including phishing, spear phishing, whaling, vishing, smishing, and domain spoofing, which are designed to entice people to divulge sensitive information or take actions that, if successful, could pose a material risk to our operations.

If these new technologies, services

and capabilities are not effective, our infrastructure could be disrupted, our response times could increase, our ability to meet our service level agreements could be negatively impacted, and our ability to provide reliable service to our customers and the broader internet community could be impeded.

We are subject to social engineering attacks including phishing, spear phishing, whaling, vishing, smishing, and domain spoofing, which are designed to entice people to divulge sensitive information or take actions that, if successful, could pose a material risk to our operations.

The number of such attacks is increasing.

Recent advances in artificial intelligence have increased the sophistication of these types of attacks as attackers are able to create more personalized and targeted communications using information derived from people’s relationships, online behavior and preferences.

Recent advances in AI have automated and increased the velocity and sophistication of these types of attacks as attackers are better able to rapidly create more personalized and targeted communications at scale using information derived from people’s relationships, online behavior and preferences.

Social engineering attacks have occurred in concert with ransomware attacks.

The various measures we take to mitigate cyber-attacks, including our deployment of advanced tools and implementation of redundant architecture and multiple recovery solutions, as well as conducting continuous security awareness training to address social engineering attacks and periodic exercises to mitigate the threat of ransomware cannot provide absolute security.

We still may be subject to successful cyber attacks.

We still may be subject to successful cyber-attacks despite our efforts.

Our failure to prevent such attacks, including any successful social engineering attack, could result in our inability to meet our service level agreements and could otherwise materially harm our business, including from legal claims, governmental investigations and scrutiny, injury to our reputation, and increased costs.

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Both route hijacks and route leaks can result in partial or full rerouting of internet traffic for the impacted destinations.

These types of events, which are generally beyond our control, could enable an array of attack conditions or service disruptions, and could result in adverse publicity and adversely affect the public’s perception of the security of e-commerce and communications over the internet, as well as of the security or reliability of our services.

To address internet routing system vulnerabilities, many internet service providers have adopted and apply internet reachability policies based on a system known as the Resource Public Key Infrastructure (“RPKI”) operated by the regional internet registries (“RIRs”).

These types of events, which are generally beyond our control, could enable an array of attack conditions or service disruptions, and could result in adverse publicity and adversely affect the public’s perception of the security of commerce and communications over the internet, as well as of the security or reliability of our services.

To address internet routing system vulnerabilities, regional internet registries (“RIRs”) have adopted internet reachability policies based on a system known as the Resource Public Key Infrastructure (“RPKI”).

The RIRs allocate internet number resources, such as internet protocol addresses, to enterprises and network operators.

We and other registries as well as internet service providers have also adopted or have begun to adopt RPKI.

We have limited visibility into the maturity of and investment in the RIRs’ operational and security controls, which are outside of our control.

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We depend on the uninterrupted operation of our various systems, secure data centers, points of presence around the world and other computer and communication networks.

Our systems and operations are vulnerable to damage or interruption from power loss, transmission cable cuts and other telecommunications failures, damage or interruption caused by fire, earthquake, and other natural disasters, intentional acts of vandalism, terrorist attacks, unintentional mistakes, or errors.

Our systems and operations are vulnerable to damage or interruption from power loss, war, transmission cable cuts and other telecommunications failures, damage or interruption caused by fire, earthquake, and other natural disasters, intentional acts of vandalism, terrorist attacks, unintentional mistakes, or errors.

Our systems and operations also face risks inherent in, or arising from, the terms and conditions of our agreements with service providers to operate our networks and data centers.

We are also subject to the risk of state suppression of internet operations.

Any of these scenarios could create potential liability and exposure, including from a failure to meet our service level agreements, and could decrease customer satisfaction, harming our business, or resulting in adverse publicity and damage to our reputation or call into question our ability to preserve the security and stability of the internet.

Any of these scenarios could create potential liability and exposure, including from a failure to meet our service level agreements, and could decrease customer satisfaction, materially harming our business, or resulting in adverse publicity and damage to our reputation or call into question our ability to preserve the security and stability of the internet.

Our data centers, our data center systems, including the Shared Registration Systems located at our data centers, and our resolution systems are vulnerable to damage or interruption, which could impede our ability to provide our services, expose us to material liability, and materially harm our reputation.

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We are also regularly updating and enhancing our network architecture in our data centers and globally distributed resolution systems.

If our data center facilities or the updated network architectures, hardware or software upgrades, or security controls do not operate as expected, including the ability to quickly switch over between sites, we could experience service interruptions or outages.

If our data center facilities or the updated network architectures, hardware or software upgrades, or security controls do not operate as expected, including the ability to quickly manage services across sites, we could experience service interruptions or outages.

A failure in the operation of our Shared Registration System could result in the inability of one or more registrars to register or manage domain names for a period of time.

If such a registrar has not implemented robust services in a manner that preserves transactions until processed by the registry, then the failure in the operation of our Shared Registration System could result in permanent loss of transactions at the registrar during that period.

A failure in the operation of our Shared Registration System could also impact our ability to provide up-to-date information in our globally distributed resolution systems, which could result in breaches of our service level agreements pertaining to our resolution services and impact the resolution of domain names on the internet.

A failure in the operation of our Shared Registration System could also impact our ability to provide up-to-date information in our globally distributed resolution systems, which could result in our failure to meet our service level agreements pertaining to our resolution services and impact the resolution of domain names on the internet.

We do not carry insurance or designated financial reserves for such interruptions.

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In addition, under Amendment 35 to the Cooperative Agreement, we have agreed to continue to operate the .

com gTLD in a content-neutral manner and to work within ICANN processes to promote the development of content-neutral policies for the operation of the DNS, and under our binding letter of intent with ICANN, we have agreed to work with the ICANN community to develop certain best practices and other commitments for the security, stability and resiliency of the DNS and the internet.

com gTLD in a content-neutral manner and to work within ICANN processes to promote the development of content-neutral policies for the operation of the DNS.

Such policies and processes could expose us to compliance costs and substantial liability and result in costly and time-consuming investigations or litigation.

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However, we can provide no assurances whether we will seek the removal of these restrictions, or whether the DOC would approve the removal of these restrictions.

Our .com Registry Agreement, and the Cooperative Agreement, including their pricing provisions, have been challenged, and could face challenges in the future, through publicity campaigns, governmental scrutiny, media interest, legal challenges, or challenges under ICANN’s accountability mechanisms.

challenges under ICANN’s accountability mechanisms.

Such challenges have arisen, and could in the future, arise from trade organizations, the media, registrars, registrants, and others, particularly when these agreements are being renewed.

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Application of new and existing laws and regulations in the U.S.

or internationally to the internet or the domain name industry have imposed and may in the future impose new costs and new restrictions on our business.

or internationally to the internet, the domain name industry, or us have imposed and may in the future impose new costs and new restrictions on our business.

In the U.S., new or modified Executive Orders or legislation involving the internet, cybersecurity, or in other areas could result in new obligations that could negatively impact our business.

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net gTLDs could conflict with certain laws and regulations that may require such personal information be maintained solely within the jurisdiction of the data subject.

In addition, any such new obligations could increase the cost and risks associated with complying with regulations that require verification of registrant personal information, including for purposes of complying with the economic and trade sanctions programs administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”).

Such laws, regulations, directives or ICANN policies, could give rise to significant claims, inquiries, investigations or other actions against us, which could result in significant costs, damages, fines or penalties and could delay the development of new products, change our current business practices, result in negative publicity, require significant management time and attention, all or any of which could materially harm our business.

Furthermore, any such new obligations could increase the cost and risks associated with complying with regulations that require verification of registrant personal information, including for purposes of complying with the economic and trade sanctions programs administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”), for example.

Such laws, regulations, directives or ICANN policies, could give rise to significant claims, inquiries, investigations or other actions against us, which could result in significant costs, damages, fines or penalties and could delay the development of new products, change our current business practices, result in negative publicity, or require significant management time and attention, all or any of which could materially harm our business.

Our international operations expose us and our business to additional economic, legal, regulatory and political risks that could have a material adverse impact on our revenues and business.

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Failure to do so could materially harm our business.

Moreover, local laws and customs in many countries differ

significantly from those in the U.S.

Moreover, local laws and customs in many countries differ significantly from those in the U.S.

In many foreign countries, particularly in those with developing economies, it is common for others to engage in business practices that are prohibited by our internal policies and procedures or U.S.

law or regulations applicable to us.

There can be no assurance that our employees, contractors and agents will not take actions in violation of such policies, procedures, laws and/or regulations.

law or regulations

applicable to us.

Despite our internal controls, there can be no assurance that our employees, contractors and agents will not take actions in violation of such policies, procedures, laws and/or regulations.

Violations of laws, regulations or internal policies and procedures by our employees, contractors or agents could result in financial reporting problems, investigations, fines, penalties, or prohibition on the importation or exportation of our products and services and could have a material adverse effect on our business.

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• competition with companies in international locations or other domestic companies entering international locations in which we operate, as well as local governments actively promoting ccTLDs that we do not operate;

• political and economic tensions between governments and changes in international trade policies and/or the economic and trade sanctions programs administered by OFAC of the U.S.

• political and economic tensions between governments and changes in international trade policies and/or the economic and trade sanctions programs administered by the United States including OFAC of the U.S.

Department of the Treasury;

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• potentially conflicting or adverse tax consequences;

• reliance on third parties in international locations in which we only recently started doing business;

• potential concerns of international governments or customers and prospects regarding doing business with U.S.

technology companies due to alleged U.S.

government data collection policies.

technology companies due to U.S.

government policies.

Political tensions between the United States and China, including tensions resulting from tariffs or proposed tariffs, in particular may pose additional risks to our business in China.

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Our Registry Agreements with ICANN require us to implement Consensus Policies and changes mandated by ICANN through temporary specifications or policies (“Temporary Policies”).

ICANN could adopt Consensus Policies or Temporary

Policies that (1) are unfavorable to us as the registry operator of .com , .net and other gTLDs we operate, (2) are inconsistent with our current or future plans, (3) impose substantial costs on our business, (4) subject the Company to additional legal risks, or (5) affect our competitive position.

ICANN could adopt Consensus Policies or Temporary Policies that (1) are unfavorable to us as the registry operator of .com , .net and other gTLDs we operate, (2) are inconsistent with our current or future plans, (3) impose substantial costs on our business, (4) subject the Company to additional legal risks,

or (5) affect our competitive position.

These Consensus Policies or Temporary Policies could have a material adverse effect on our business.

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The internet is governed under a multi-stakeholder model comprising civil society, the private sector, including for-profit and not-for-profit organizations such as ICANN, governments, including the U.S.

government, academia, non-governmental organizations and international organizations.

If ICANN fails to uphold, or if the multi-stakeholder model is significantly redefined, it could harm our business.

government, academia, non-governmental organizations, the technical community, and international organizations.

Substantially weakening or replacing the multi-stakeholder form of internet governance could materially harm our business.

For example, certain governments, governmental organizations, and private actors continue to express dissatisfaction with the multi-stakeholder form of internet governance and have proposed alternatives including oversight by the United Nations or by international treaties.

Furthermore, national legislation has been proposed on topics such as information security and access to personal information that effectively supplants the multi-stakeholder process for policy development in the DNS.

Substantially weakening or replacing the multi-stakeholder form of internet governance could materially harm our business.

In addition, in 2016 the U.S.

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For example, we are engaged in activities to help mitigate security threats and other forms of DNS abuse in the gTLDs and ccTLD we operate and we are involved in community efforts that have increased and expanded such activities to include contractual obligations.

For example, we receive reports of suspected threats and abuse and we notify registrars or others of domain names associated with suspected malicious or illegal activity.

In addition, we receive reports of suspected threats and abuse and we notify registrars or others of domain names associated with suspected malicious or illegal activity.

We may also disable one or more domain names in the gTLDs or ccTLD we operate including in response to reports of suspected threats and abuse, governmental directives and court orders in those jurisdictions in which we operate.

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Factors such as inflation, interest rates, currency fluctuations, trade barriers, tariffs, war, civil unrest, and other political and economic developments and their impact on global economic conditions have in the past and may in the future negatively impact our business.

In particular, demand for our services has substantially declined in China and may continue to decline further due to lower economic growth and as a result of Chinese regulatory mandates that make it more difficult to register a domain name or establish an online presence using a domain name.

These factors may have varying impacts on different geographic regions.

For example, demand for our services substantially declined in China during 2023 and 2024 as a result of various factors including Chinese regulatory mandates that made it more difficult to register a domain name or establish an online presence using a domain name.

Additionally, the rapid increase in demand for compute and network hardware, including servers, chips, memory and other technology, caused by new demand from AI companies, is increasing our costs for some of these goods and could increase our capital and operating costs.

The overall economic impact, severity and duration of these conditions, as well as the timing, strength, and sustainability of any future economic growth or recovery, are not known at this time, and are not within the Company’s control.

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In order to remain competitive, we must continually demonstrate the security, stability, and resiliency of our services and must adopt and support new technologies to adapt our services to changing cybersecurity threats, regulations, application environments, market conditions, and our customers’ and internet users’ preferences and practices.

Also to remain competitive, we have undertaken important initiatives such as our efforts to acquire the .web gTLD, and we may in the future undertake other important initiatives.

Also to remain competitive, we have undertaken important initiatives such as our efforts to acquire the .web gTLD, and we may in the future undertake other initiatives.

Any of these initiatives require significant resources, can subject us to regulatory scrutiny and/or negative publicity, and divert management attention from our existing business.

Such undertakings, including our efforts to acquire the .web gTLD, may be unsuccessful and costly.

In addition, competing technologies developed by others or the emergence of new industry standards may adversely affect our competitive position or render our services or technologies noncompetitive or obsolete.

Finally, consolidation within our industry has occurred and is likely to continue to occur.

Our ability to participate and benefit from such consolidations may be limited and consolidation within our industry among our competitors could harm our competitive position and adversely impact our business.

We have been designated as the registry operator for certain new gTLDs, including certain IDN gTLDs.

In addition, competing technologies developed by others or the emergence of new technologies such as AI or new industry standards may adversely affect our competitive position or render our services or technologies noncompetitive or obsolete.

Finally, consolidation and ownership changes within our industry have occurred and are likely to continue to occur.

Our ability to participate and benefit from such consolidations and ownership changes may be limited and consolidation and ownership changes within our industry among our competitors or customers have in the past and could in the future harm our competitive position and adversely impact our business.

We are the registry operator for certain new gTLDs, including certain IDN gTLDs.

Our new gTLDs may not be as or more successful than the new gTLDs obtained by our competitors.

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The evolution of technologies or internet practices and behaviors, the adoption of substitute technologies, or wholesale price increases of domain names in the gTLDs we operate may materially and negatively impact the demand for the domain names for which we are the registry operator.

Technologies relating to online presence, including social media, mobile devices, apps, and search engines, have evolved and continue to evolve, changing the internet practices and behaviors of consumers and businesses.

Technologies relating to online presence, including social media, AI, mobile devices, apps, and search engines, have evolved and continue to evolve, changing the internet practices and behaviors of consumers and businesses.

These ongoing changes can negatively impact the demand for our domain names.

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To the extent that alternative namespaces introduce user confusion about the relationship between identical or similar-looking identifiers in these namespaces and domain names in the DNS, demand for domain names and user confidence in the value of domain names as unique identifiers could also be negatively impacted.

In addition, applications using artificial intelligence could be transformational in ways that cannot be predicted at this time.

In addition, applications using AI could be transformational in ways that cannot be anticipated fully at this time.

To the extent such applications impact the demand for domain names, it could have a material impact on our business.

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Accordingly, the demand for our services in these locations is uncertain.

Factors that may affect acceptance or adoption of our services in these locations include:

• regional internet infrastructure development, expansion, penetration and adoption, and the development, maturity and depth of our sales channels;

• acceptance and adoption of substitute products and services that enable online presence without a domain name, including social media, e-commerce platforms, website builders and mobile applications;

• increased acceptance and adoption of other substitute products and services, including ccTLDs or other gTLDs;

• public perception of the security of our products and services;

• the use of mobile applications as the primary engagement mechanism for navigating the internet;

• government regulations affecting the internet, internet access and availability, domain name registrations or the provision of registry services, data security, privacy, or data localization, e-commerce or telecommunications.

If our services are not widely accepted or adopted in these locations, our business may not grow.

Our business depends on registrars and their resellers maintaining their focus on marketing our products and services.

A variety of economic and non-economic factors may affect acceptance or adoption of our services in these locations, including regional internet infrastructure development and government regulations.

Our business depends on registrars and their resellers maintaining focus on marketing our products and services.

All of the domain name registrations and renewals for the registries we operate occur through registrars.

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These changes could include reduced marketing efforts for the gTLDs we operate or other operational changes that could adversely impact the demand and/or the renewal rates for the domain names for which we are the registry operator.

With the introduction of new gTLDs, many of our registrars and resellers have chosen to, and may continue to choose to, focus their short- or long-term marketing efforts on these new offerings and/or reduce the prominence or visibility of our products and services on their e-commerce platforms.

Our registrars and resellers sell domain name registrations of other competing registries, including new gTLDs, and some also sell and support their own services for websites such as email, website hosting, and other services.

Our registrars and resellers may be more motivated to sell to registrants to whom they can also market their own services.

To the extent that registrars and resellers focus more on selling and supporting their services and less on the registration and renewal of domain names in the gTLDs we operate, our revenues could be adversely impacted.

Our ability to successfully market our services to, and build and maintain strong relationships with, new and existing registrars or resellers is a factor upon which successful operation of our business is dependent.

If we are unable to keep a significant portion of their marketing efforts focused on selling registrations of domain names in the gTLDs we operate, as opposed to other competing gTLDs, including the new gTLDs, or their own services, our business could be harmed.

With the planned introduction of a new round of gTLDs, registrars and resellers, as they have done in the past, may in the future focus their short- or long-term marketing efforts on new offerings and/or reduce the prominence or visibility of our products and services on their e-commerce platforms.

To the extent that registrars and resellers focus less marketing on the registration and renewal of domain names in the gTLDs we operate, our revenues could be adversely impacted.

Likewise, our registrars and resellers may be more motivated to market to registrants to whom they can also market their own services, which could disadvantage our gTLDs and could adversely impact our revenues.

We depend on highly skilled employees to maintain and provide innovative solutions for our business, and our business could be materially harmed if we are not able to attract and retain such qualified talent.

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Failure to attract and retain such employees and to effectively implement succession plans for these employees could harm our business.

Capital Structure Risk Factors

We may not pay any dividends on our common stock in the future.

During the second quarter of 2025, we began to declare quarterly dividends.

Future dividends will be subject to declaration by the Board and, thus, may be subject to numerous factors in existence at the time of any such declaration including, but not limited to, prevailing market conditions, our results of operations, financial condition and liquidity, contractual prohibitions and other restrictions with respect to the payment of dividends.

There is no assurance that the Board will declare and thus that we will pay, any dividends on our common stock in the future.

The Board may, in its discretion, decrease the level of cash dividends.

A reduction or elimination of cash dividends could negatively affect the market price of our common stock.

Intellectual Property Risk Factors

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Our success depends in part on our internally developed technologies and related intellectual property.

Despite our precautions, it may be possible for an external party to copy or otherwise obtain and use our intellectual property without authorization.

Despite our precautions, it may be possible for an external party to copy or otherwise obtain and use our intellectual property without

authorization.

Furthermore, the laws of other countries may not protect our proprietary rights in those countries to the same extent U.S.

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These externally developed technology licenses may not continue to be available to us on commercially reasonable terms or at all.

The loss of, or our inability to obtain or maintain, any of these technology licenses could hinder or increase the cost of our services, launching new products and services, entering into new markets and/or otherwise harm our business.

The loss of, or our inability to obtain or maintain, any of these technology licenses could hinder or increase the cost of our services, of launching new products and services, or of entering into new markets and/or otherwise harm our business.

Some of the software and protocols used in our business are in the public domain or may otherwise become publicly available, which means that such software and protocols are or may become equally available to our competitors.

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Dilution of the strength of our brand could harm our business.

We are at risk that we will be unable to fully register, build equity in, or enforce the Verisign logo in all markets where Verisign products and services are sold.

We are at risk that we will be unable to fully register, build equity in, or enforce our rights in the Verisign brand in all markets where Verisign products and services are sold.

General Risk Factors

The use of AI technology by third-parties, including our vendors, and our use of AI technology, tools, and services could expose us to cybersecurity, operational, intellectual property and regulatory risks that could adversely affect our business, reputation or financial results.

The use of AI technology by third parties may increase our exposure to cybersecurity and data protection risks.

For example, recent advances in AI technology and tools have made, and will continue to make, cyber-attacks more sophisticated, harder to defend, and easier and faster to launch.

These tools permit rapid exploitation of vulnerabilities, which hinders our ability to defend against such exploitation.

In addition, the use and integration of AI technology into the products and services that we procure could create or exacerbate vulnerabilities, potentially resulting in unauthorized access to our systems including our sensitive or proprietary information.

For more details on these risks, see our risk factor “Attempted security breaches, including from the exploitation of vulnerabilities, cyber-attacks and Distributed Denial of Service (“DDoS”) attacks against our systems and services increase our costs, expose us to potentially material liability, and could materially harm our business and reputation.”

We may also experience challenges in the effective or timely adoption of AI technology.

Our decision to adopt AI technologies in a low-risk manner could result in slower adoption of AI technology that could hinder or prevent us from realizing efficiencies or benefits, which could result in less efficient operations.

Further, although we have established AI policies and procedures, our use of AI technology, if not effectively governed, could result in unintended consequences, including errors, biased, and otherwise unreliable outputs.

The use of certain AI technology tools, including those provided by third parties, may also create intellectual property risks, such as uncertainty regarding ownership of AI-generated output, IP infringement, or the disclosure of confidential or proprietary information.

Finally, AI is subject to increasing regulatory scrutiny and evolving laws, rules and regulations, which may increase our compliance costs and affect our development, adoption, use, implementation and maintenance of AI technologies or tools, and subject us to increased legal liability, regulatory scrutiny, and reputational harm.

Short sellers have in the past, and may in the future, engage in efforts to lower the market price of our common stock through the dissemination of false or misleading information.

Short selling is the practice of selling securities that the seller does not own but rather has borrowed or intends to borrow from a third party with the intention of subsequently buying lower-priced identical securities to return to the lender.

Accordingly, it is in the interest of a short seller to want the price of our common stock to decline.

Short sellers may seek to profit from declines in the market price of our common stock and, in some cases, may publish, or arrange for the publication of, false or misleading information regarding our business.

We have been, and may in the future be, the target of short sellers.

dissemination of such information, regardless of its veracity, can lead to significant stock price volatility, reputational harm, and the diversion of management’s attention from our core business.

Such activities may result in a decline in the market price of our stock or could lead to costly litigation or regulatory inquiries.

Compared sentence by sentence after normalising whitespace, quotation marks, case and digits, so re-formatting and restated figures do not read as changed language. Wording changes appear as one removal and one addition. The current filing and the prior one are authoritative.

What changed 10-K

Item 1A. Risk Factors