Item 1. BUSINESS

OVERVIEW

Flex is the diversified manufacturing partner of choice that helps market-leading brands design, build and deliver innovative products that improve the world. Through the collective strength of a global workforce across approximately 30 countries with responsible, sustainable operations, Flex delivers advanced manufacturing solutions and operates one of the most trusted global supply chains, supporting the entire product lifecycle with fulfillment, after-market, and circular economy solutions for diverse industries including cloud, communications, enterprise, automotive, industrial, consumer devices, lifestyle, healthcare, and energy.

Beginning in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2022, as a result of the sale of certain Series A preferred units in Nextracker LLC ("Nextracker LLC" or "Nextracker") to a third party and our continuing evaluation to separate our Nextracker business and consistent with how our chief operating decision maker ("CODM") allocates resources, assesses performance and makes strategic and operational decisions, Flex now reports Nextracker as a separate operating and reportable segment. Nextracker was previously included in the Industrial reporting unit within the Flex Reliability Solutions segment. Flex's three operating and reportable segments are:

• Flex Agility Solutions ("FAS"), which is comprised of the following end markets:

◦Communications, Enterprise and Cloud ("CEC"), including data infrastructure, edge infrastructure and communications infrastructure;

◦Lifestyle, including appliances, consumer packaging, floorcare, micro mobility and audio; and

◦Consumer Devices, including mobile and high velocity consumer devices.

• Flex Reliability Solutions ("FRS"), which is comprised of the following end markets:

◦Automotive, including next generation mobility, autonomous, connectivity, electrification, and smart technologies;

◦Health Solutions, including medical devices, medical equipment, and drug delivery; and

◦Industrial, including capital equipment, industrial devices, and renewables and grid edge.

• Nextracker, the leading provider of intelligent, integrated solar tracker and software solutions used in utility-scale and ground-mounted distributed generation solar projects around the world. Nextracker's products enable solar panels to follow the sun’s movement across the sky and optimize plant performance.

The FAS segment is optimized for speed to market based on a highly flexible supply and manufacturing system. The FRS segment is optimized for longer product lifecycles requiring complex ramps with specialized production models and critical

environments. Nextracker provides solar tracker technologies that optimize and increase energy production while reducing costs for significant plant return on investment.

In the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2022, Flex sold $500 million of convertible preferred equity in Nextracker to TPG Rise Flash, L.P., which is managed or advised by TPG Climate, the dedicated climate investing fund of TPG’s global impact investing platform ("TPG Rise"). Through this strategic partnership and investment from TPG Rise, Nextracker will continue to expand its market leading position in solar tracking and software solutions. TPG’s experience and extensive network in renewable energy provide Nextracker a strong partner to support long-term growth.

Our customers include many of the world's leading technology, healthcare, automotive, and industrial companies. We are focused on establishing long-term relationships with our customers and have been successful in expanding relationships to incorporate additional product lines and services.

In fiscal year 2022, our ten largest customers accounted for approximately 34% of net sales. No customer accounted for greater than 10% of the Company's net sales in fiscal year 2022.

Flex believes that growth in the contract manufacturing services industry will be driven by increased complexities in products, markets, and environmental, social, and governance ("ESG") requirements. The “Digitization of Everything” is the mega-trend that is driving products—and even whole industries—to be smarter, more data-driven, and more connected. To make these next generation products, companies must integrate increasingly advanced technologies and build them at scale. Additionally, with regards to our solar business, we believe that both the attractive cost of solar generation and increasing demand for renewable energy will drive continued growth in the utility-scale solar market.

In addition to the pandemic, rising global uncertainty over the past few years including trade and tariff issues, increasing geopolitical conflict, and severe labor shortages are creating further complexity. Companies are rethinking their entire production strategies, and we are seeing a global rebalancing in sourcing and producing to maximize resiliency. Sustainability is no longer an afterthought. Businesses are being held to a much higher standard for how and where their products are sourced and produced, and, increasingly, how they are disposed.

These complexities are making it harder for companies to manage their own supply chain and manufacturing operations. They are looking for trusted partners to help them navigate this complex environment. Only a few outsourcing players have the right capabilities and scale to meet these challenges effectively and profitably. Flex is one of these partners.

STRATEGY

Flex helps its customers responsibly design and build products that create value and improve people’s lives. We do this by providing our customers with product development lifecycle services, from innovation, design, and engineering, to manufacturing, supply chain solutions, logistics, and circularity offerings. Flex’s strategy is to continue investing in areas where we can differentiate and add value, whether through engineering and design services, product technologies or developing differentiated processes and business methods. We are strengthening our abilities in software, robotics, artificial intelligence, factory automation, and other disruptive technologies. We select ethical partners and integrate the supply chain so that our customers can operate efficiently and responsibly. We are committed to investing in our employees and communities, which includes addressing critical environmental issues.

People. To maintain competitiveness and world-class capabilities, we focus on hiring and retaining the world's best talent. We have focused on attracting the best engineering, functional and operational leaders and have accelerated efforts to develop the future leaders of the Company.

Customer Focus. We believe that building strong partnerships with our customers and delivering on our commitments strengthens trust and customer retention. For Flex, customers come first, and we have a relentless focus on delivering distinctive products and services in a cost-effective manner with fast time to market. We are highly collaborative and leverage our global system and processes to operate with speed and responsiveness to provide customers a reliant and resilient supply chain and manufacturing technology solutions and services.

Markets. We focus on companies that are leaders in their industry and value our superior capabilities in design, manufacturing, and supply chain services. Flex focuses on high-growth industries and markets where we have distinctive competence and a compelling value proposition. Examples include investments in specific technologies and industries such as healthcare, automotive, industrial, and energy. Our market-focused approach to managing our business increases customers' competitiveness by leveraging our deep vertical and cross-industry expertise, as well as global scale, regional presence, and agility to respond to changes in market dynamics.

Operations. We continue to invest in maintaining a leadership position in our world-class manufacturing and services capabilities including automation, simulation tools, digitizing our factories, and implementing leading edge Industry 4.0

methodologies. We leverage our broad set of capabilities globally to provide a competitive advantage by minimizing logistics costs, manufacturing costs, and cycle times while increasing flexibility and responsiveness.

SERVICE OFFERINGS

Flex provides design, manufacturing and supply chain services through a network of over 100 locations in approximately 30 countries across four continents. We have established global scale through an extensive network of innovation labs, manufacturing operations, and services sites in the world's major consumer and enterprise products markets (Asia, the Americas, and Europe) in order to serve the supply chain needs of both multinational and regional companies. Our services provide customers with a competitive advantage by delivering leading-edge manufacturing technology, supply chain expertise, improved product quality, increased flexibility, faster time to market, and overall value. Our customers leverage our services to meet their requirements throughout their products' entire lifecycles.

We believe we have the broadest worldwide product development lifecycle capabilities in the industry, from concept design to manufacturing to aftermarket and end of life services. We believe our key competitive advantages are our people, processes, and capabilities for making products, systems, and solutions for customers:

• Time to market advantage: Our sophisticated supply chain management tools and expertise allow us to provide customers with access to real-time information that increases visibility and reduces risk throughout the entire product lifecycle. Our experience with new product introductions and manufacturing ramps provides customers with a time to market advantage.

• Broad range of services: Our full range of services include innovation and design, engineering, manufacturing, supply chain management, forward and reverse logistics, and circular economy solutions. Our deep cross-industry knowledge and multi-domain expertise accelerate the production of increasingly complex products for increasingly interconnected industries.

• Global scale: Flex’s physical infrastructure includes over 100 facilities in approximately 30 countries, staffed by approximately 170,000 employees, providing customers with truly global scale and strategic geographic distribution capabilities.

We offer global economies of scale in advanced materials and technology sourcing, manufacturing and after-market services, as well as market-focused expertise and capabilities in design and engineering. As a result of extensive experience in specific markets, we have developed a deep understanding of complex market dynamics, giving us the ability to anticipate trends that impact customers' businesses. Our expertise can help improve customers' market positioning by effectively adjusting product plans and roadmaps to efficiently and cost-effectively deliver high quality products that meet their geographic and time to market requirements.

Our services include all processes necessary to design, build, ship, and service a wide range of products for customers. These services include:

Design and Engineering Services. The Company offers a comprehensive range of value-added design, engineering and systems integration services, tailored to specific industries and markets, the needs of customers, and cover a broad range of technical competencies:

• System architecture;

• User interface and industrial design;

• Cross-industry technologies;

• Hardware design;

• Software design; and

• Design for excellence.

Flex is exposed to different and, in some cases greater, potential liabilities from the various design services we provide than those we typically face in our core assembly and manufacturing services. See "Risk Factors—The success of certain of our activities depends on our ability to protect our intellectual property rights; claims of infringement or misuse of intellectual property and/or breach of license agreement provisions against our customers or us could harm our business."

Systems Assembly and Manufacturing. Our systems assembly and manufacturing operations generate the majority of our revenues and include printed circuit board assembly and assembly of systems and subsystems that incorporate printed circuit boards and complex electromechanical components. We assemble electronic products with custom electronic enclosures on

either a build-to-order or configure-to-order basis. As customers seek to provide greater functionality in physically smaller products, they increasingly require more sophisticated manufacturing technologies and processes. Our investment in advanced manufacturing equipment and our expertise in innovative miniaturization, packaging and interconnective technologies, enable us to offer a variety of leading-edge manufacturing solutions. We support a wide range of product demand profiles, from low-volume, high-complexity programs, to high-volume production. Our systems assembly and manufacturing capabilities include enclosures, testing services, and materials procurement and inventory management.

Power Solutions. We offer a full-service power supply business that provides a range of solutions from custom to highly scalable system solutions. We have expertise in high efficiency and high-density switching power supplies ranging from 1 to 3,000 watts. Our product portfolio includes chargers for smartphones and tablets, adapters for notebooks and gaming systems, and power supplies for the server, storage, and networking markets. In fiscal year 2022, Flex acquired Anord Mardix to expand our power solutions for the rapidly growing data center market. Anord Mardix offers an extensive product portfolio of critical power solutions including switchgear, busway, power distribution and modular power systems, along with monitoring solutions and services. This portfolio combined with our embedded power, server and storage products, racks and enclosures and full systems assembly capability will accelerate our growth in the data center market.

Solar Tracker and Software Solutions. Our Nextracker business is the leading provider of intelligent, integrated solar tracker and software solutions used in utility-scale and ground-mounted distributed generation solar projects around the world. Our products enable solar panels in utility-scale power plants to follow the sun’s movement across the sky and optimize plant performance. By optimizing and increasing energy production and reducing costs, our tracker products and software solutions offer significant return on investment (“ROI”). Single axis solar trackers generate up to 25% more energy than projects that use fixed-tilt systems that do not track the sun. We have developed an intelligent independent row tracking system with proprietary technology that we believe produces more energy, lowers operating costs, and is easier to deploy compared to other tracker products. Our tightly-integrated software solutions use advanced algorithms and artificial intelligence technologies to optimize the performance and capabilities of our tracker products.

Logistics. The Flex Global Services business provides after-market and forward supply chain logistics services. Our suite of services is tailored to customers operating in the computing, consumer digital, infrastructure, industrial, mobile, automotive and medical industries.

Circular Economy Solutions. We offer a suite of integrated reverse logistics, repair and refurbishment solutions that use globally consistent processes, which help increase our customers' brand loyalty by improving turnaround times and raising end-customer satisfaction levels while significantly reducing the carbon footprint for our customers. Our reverse logistics and repair solutions include returns management, exchange programs, complex repair, asset recovery, recycling and e-waste management. We provide repair expertise to multiple product lines such as consumer and midrange products, printers, smart phones, consumer medical devices, notebook personal computers, set-top boxes, game consoles and highly complex infrastructure products.

COMPETITION

Flex’s contract manufacturing services market is extremely competitive. We compete against numerous domestic and foreign manufacturing service providers, as well as current and prospective customers, who evaluate our capabilities in light of their own capabilities and cost structures.

In recent years, we have seen an increased level of diversification by many companies in the technology, automotive and healthcare industries along with the convergence of many industries being transformed by technology advances. Increasingly complex products require highly customized solutions, in turn resulting in significant changes to the overall manufacturing and supply chain landscape.

We believe the principal competitive factors in the contract manufacturing services market are quality and range of services; design and technological capabilities; cost; location of sites; and responsiveness and flexibility. We believe we are extremely competitive with regard to all of these factors.

We also compete in the solar industry with our specialized tracker solutions and we believe the principle factors that drive competition in this market include established track record of product performance; system energy yield; software capabilities; product features; total cost of ownership and return on investment; reliability; customer support; product warranty terms; services; supply chain and logistics capabilities; and vendor financial strength and stability. We believe we are extremely competitive with regard to all of these factors.

COMPETITIVE STRENGTHS

We continuously enhance our business through the development and expansion of our product and service offerings. We strive to maintain the efficiency and flexibility of the organization, with repeatable execution that adapts to macro-economic changes to provide clear value to customers, while increasing their competitiveness. We have a focused strategy on delivering value to customers through manufacturing technology, a trusted supply chain, innovation and design services, and domain expertise.

Significant Scope and Global Scale. We believe our global scale and regional capability are a significant competitive advantage, as customers increasingly require a broad range of manufacturing and supply chain services and solutions globally. Increasingly, customers are exploring transitioning to regional-based supply chains to take advantage of time to market and specific customization required to win in those markets. Our global expertise, footprint and diverse supply chain network provides customers with the ability to quickly adjust to changing regional, trade and manufacturing dynamics.

Trusted Resilient Supply Chain. We offer one of the most trusted and resilient global supply chain services through a combination of digital supply chain capabilities, deep expertise, real time visibility and analytics, and collaborative supplier relationships to help customers navigate complex, global supply chains.

Long-Standing, Diverse Customer Relationships. We believe our long-term relationships with key customers are the result of our track record of meeting commitments and delivering value that increases customers' competitiveness. We serve a wide range of customers across six business units within the FAS and FRS segments in addition to our Nextracker business. No customer accounts for more than 10% of our annual revenue and the ten largest accounted for 34% of the Company’s net sales in fiscal year 2022. We believe we are well-positioned to grow faster than the industry average.

Extensive Design and Engineering Capabilities. We have an industry-leading global design service offering, with extensive product design engineering resources that provides design services, product development, and solutions to satisfy a wide array of customer requirements across all of the key industries and markets in which we do business.

Balanced geographic footprint. We have deployed manufacturing operations in regions around the world to provide customers with a wide array of solutions where our customers and/or their customers are located. We have a very balanced global manufacturing footprint with 34% of net sales in North America, 24% in China, 22% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa ("EMEA"), and 20% in other areas for fiscal year ended March 31, 2022 (with net sales attributable to the country in which the product is manufactured, or service is provided).

Cross-industry synergies. One of our competitive strengths is our ability to leverage technology from one industry and apply it to a different application within another industry. Examples include high-end computing, human machine interface, and internet of things ("IoT"). This cross-industry synergy gives our customers access to technology they would not otherwise have.

Customer and Product Innovation Hubs. We have established state-of-the art innovation hubs in the Americas, Asia and Europe, with differentiated offerings and specialized services for specific industries and markets. These innovation hubs offer customers geographically focused centers of design services, taking their products from concept to volume production and go-to-market in a rapid, cost effective and low risk manner.

Industrial Parks; Cost-Efficient Manufacturing Services. We have developed self-contained industrial parks that co-locate manufacturing and logistics operations with our suppliers in various cost-efficient locations. These sites enhance supply chain management efficiency, while providing multi-technology solution value for customers.

Innovative and Reliable Tracker Solutions. Our solar trackers provide high levels of performance and operability and improve over time through software enhancements when coupled with our software solutions. The benefits of our solutions include increased energy yield performance, superior constructability, reliability, ease of maintenance, and advanced software and sensor capabilities.

HUMAN CAPITAL MANAGEMENT

Culture underlies our stakeholder experience. Our values are intended to reflect and guide our behaviors and shape our culture. We endeavor for our value-driven culture to align us as we pursue our purpose, uphold our mission, live our values, advance toward our vision, and activate our strategy.

In support of cultivating an inclusive, high-performing culture, we adopted four specific behaviors that support our values and continued progress on our Flex Forward strategy. These behaviors, called our Ways of Working, bring our values to life through actions and are intended to provide a framework for how we make decisions. The purpose of these behaviors is to enable us to put our culture into practice and provide an accountability system through training and development as well as performance management systems to ensure our desired behaviors become a part of our everyday working norms.

How we live our values define our culture:

• We support each other as we strive to find a better way.

• We move fast with discipline and purpose.

• We do the right thing always.

We bring our values to life through four behaviors:

1.Respect and Value Others.

2.Collaborate and Share Openly.

3.Learn and Adapt.

4.Honor Commitments.

We believe that the performance of our Company is impacted by our human capital management, and as a result we consistently work to attract, select, develop, engage and retain strong, diverse talent. Our policies, philosophy and strategies support the inclusion of all people in our working environment. Further, we’re committed to respecting the human rights of our employees and improving their quality of life.

In 2020, the Company introduced new vision, mission, purpose, and value statements in support of cultivating an inclusive, high-performing culture where employees are empowered and given opportunities to reach their full potential. We are committed to providing a positive and safe workplace for Flex employees, respecting their dignity, creating an inclusive environment, and ensuring access to opportunity. We recognize that we have an opportunity to promote and support a culture of inclusion and diversity, wellness, and health and safety among our employees.

Employees. As of March 31, 2022, our global workforce totaled approximately 172,648 employees including our contractor workforce. In certain international locations, our employees are represented by labor unions and by work councils.

Region:			Number of Employees
Asia			76,002
Americas			62,450
Europe			34,196
Total			172,648

Well-being, Health, and Safety. Flex is committed to providing a safe and injury-free workplace. We provide programs and tools to improve physical, mental, financial, and social well-being, with increased focus during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our programs give access to a variety of innovative, flexible, and convenient health and wellness programs for our global employees, including on-site health centers in some of our major factories, which were increasingly critical this year for our essential workers who have worked on site since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We promote a “zero-injury” culture through health and safety management systems, some of which are certified ISO 45001:2018, that implement a data-driven and risk-based approach in monitoring and reporting performance regularly. Some of the specific goals for which we measure our performance include increasing employee development, social and environmental management system audits, human rights policy training completion, Responsible Business Alliance ("RBA") compliance for rest day requirements and decreasing safety incident rates.

In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we continued our contingency and resiliency plans that are encompassed in our business continuity programs. We continued enhanced health and safety measures across all facilities, as our foremost focus remains the health and safety of our employees. We modified practices at our manufacturing locations and offices to require personal protective equipment, sanitization measures, temperature checks, and social distancing. These measures enabled us to continue to conduct operations throughout the pandemic and have been recognized by several governments as a role model for employee safety.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Diversity, equity and inclusion are key priorities and strengths at Flex and are embedded in the fabric of our culture. Our commitment to diversity is exemplified by the composition of our Board of which three of twelve directors are female and five of twelve directors are ethnically diverse.

In 2021, we continued our progress on improving diversity, equity and inclusion through employee programs. Our employee resources groups ("ERGs") work to create a community that fosters freedom of self, build cultural awareness, and develop a new generation of diverse leaders at Flex by establishing a sustainable structure with executive support that challenges bias and promotes unity. With over 10,000 members, the Company maintains ERG chapters worldwide across eight identities: Asian and Pacific Islander, Black, LatinX, LGBTQ+, People with Disabilities, Women, Women in Tech, and Veterans. These groups help to create a sense of belonging and support retention and attraction. Each ERG has an executive sponsor and is supported by senior leaders across the Company. The Company also held cultural awareness activities throughout the year to highlight specific groups including People with Disabilities, Black History Month, Asian Pacific Heritage Month, PRIDE Month, LatinX Heritage Month, and Women’s History Month.

In partnership with McKinsey, we offered leadership development opportunities through their Management Accelerator and Executive Leadership Program to 45 Asian, 16 Black and 36 LatinX employees. We also enhanced SheLeads, our global leadership development program for women employees, offered leadership coaching to 20 of our top gender and ethnically diverse leaders, and continued to implement inclusive leadership training for people managers to, among other things, provide tools to help managers lead more inclusively and improve diversity in recruiting. Furthermore, we leveraged external community partnerships with organizations such as Catalyst, the Business Roundtable, the National Society of Black Engineers (“NSBE”) and The Valuable 500, to amplify our impact in recruiting and retaining diverse talent.

As of March 31, 2022, women represent 43% of our global employees, and underrepresented minorities (those who identify as Black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx, Native American, Pacific Islander and/or two or more races) represent 47% of our U.S. employees. Approximately 19% of our executive team and approximately 22% of our leadership team (director level and above) are female. Approximately 23% of our executive team and approximately 32% of our U.S. leadership team (director level and above) are comprised of underrepresented minorities.

We established corporate goals to increase the number of employees and leaders from underrepresented groups and will continue to evolve these goals over time to improve representation. In developing these goals, we focused on hiring, retaining and promoting diversity across the organization. Additionally, we remain committed to parity in pay and opportunity.

Talent Attraction, Development, and Retention. Talent attraction, development, and retention are critical to our success and core to our mission as a company. To support the advancement of our employees, we provide training and development programs and opportunities encouraging advancement from within as well as continue to fill our team with strong and experienced external talent. We leverage both formal and informal programs, including in-person (as health and safety allows), virtual, social and self-directed learning, mentoring, coaching, and external development to identify, foster, and retain top talent. Employees have access to courses through our learning and development platform, Flex Learn. In 2021, 36,894 of our employees completed 1 million hours of training programs. Flex has undertaken initiatives to keep employees who are working from home engaged during COVID-19, including virtual learning programs and check-in sessions.

We are also focused on completing talent and performance reviews. Our in-depth talent reviews serve to identify high potential talent to advance in roles with greater responsibility, assess learning and development needs, and establish and refresh succession plans for critical leadership roles across the enterprise. Our performance review process promotes transparent communication of team member performance, which we believe is a key factor in our success. The performance and the talent reviews enable ongoing assessments, reviews, and mentoring to identify career development and learning opportunities for our employees.

As a part of our efforts to improve employee experiences at Flex, we conduct the annual enterprise-wide employee engagement Flex Voice survey. Our leadership uses the results of the survey to continue developing our strengths and measure opportunities for improvement. This year 85% of employees completed the Flex Voice survey and the results reflected increased enthusiasm and engagement.

Compensation and Benefits. Our total rewards are designed to attract, motivate and retain employees. Our compensation philosophy is driven by the desire to attract and retain top talent, while ensuring that compensation aligns with our corporate financial objectives and the long-term interests of our shareholders. Our pay structures offer competitive salaries, bonuses, and equity awards in the countries where we operate.

In each of the countries where we have operations, our comprehensive benefit plans offer a locally competitive mix of some or all of the following: medical, dental and vision insurance, short and long-term disability, flexible spending accounts, various types of voluntary coverage, and other benefit programs. We routinely benchmark our salaries and benefits against market peers to ensure our total rewards package remains competitive.

Board Oversight of Human Capital Management. The Compensation and People Committee of our Board of Directors is responsible for assisting the Board in oversight of our human capital management, including among other aspects, receiving periodic updates (not less than twice annually) regarding, and overseeing any significant change to, our human capital

management strategy including corporate culture, inclusion, pay and opportunity equity, diversity, social initiatives and results, and talent training, development and retention programs.

Additional Human Capital Management Information. Additional information regarding human capital management will be included in our proxy statement filed in connection with our 2022 Annual General Meeting and our upcoming sustainability report. The information in the sustainability report is not a part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and is not incorporated by reference.

SUSTAINABILITY

At Flex, our sustainability journey began in 2002 with the creation of the Flex Foundation. For nearly 20 years, sustainability has been integrated into the fabric of our company, a key area of differentiation for Flex. In 2021, we refreshed our sustainability strategy with a new framework and joined the Science Based Targets initiative, a global movement comprised of leading companies working to reach the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels. Our sustainability framework is centered on the world, our people and our approach to business practices. Through our 2030 goals, we are committed to reducing our environmental impact in partnership with customers and suppliers, advancing a safe, inclusive and respectful work environment for our employees, investing in our communities, and driving ESG-focused practices with transparency.

Our strategy and global efforts, through our sustainability programs and multi-year objectives, are aligned with the principles set forth in the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals ("SDGs"). For the last three years, we were named an Advanced member of the United Nations Global Compact ("UNGC"), the world's largest corporate sustainability initiative, showcasing our commitment to integrate sustainability throughout our company and across our entire supply chain. Our 2030 sustainability strategy includes our most ambitious goals to date and spans several environmental, social, and governance pillars. Several goals of note include cutting operational emissions in half, collaborating with customers and suppliers to reduce value chain emissions, increasing gender representation at the director-level and above, providing access to mental health and well-being services to all employees, and maintaining top quartile performance for governance and transparency. The Flex Social and Environmental framework is based upon the principles, policies, and standards prescribed by the RBA, a worldwide association of electronics companies committed to promoting an industry code of conduct to improve working and environmental, health and safety conditions, as well as other relevant international standards (e.g., ISO 14001, United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights).

During calendar year 2021, we received several awards and accolades for our sustainability program and efforts including the RBA’s Compass Award and Supply & Demand Chain Executive’s Green Supply Chain Award. In addition, we received Ericsson’s 2021 supplier award for our leadership in climate action.

Through the Flex Foundation, we work with nonprofits, community leaders and governments to promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment, and decent work for all. We help protect the environment, support resource conservation and provide disaster relief. We accomplish this through grants, corporate and employee donations, and volunteerism. In calendar year 2021, the Flex Foundation partnered with several organizations, including the American Red Cross, World Wildlife Foundation, and Silicon Valley Education Foundation, among others, and provided nearly $1.5 million in grant support to 48 local projects in 15 countries, four regional projects to support well-known organizations, including Give2Asia and Global Giving, and several NGOs that support minorities and the environment, globally.

Flex is committed to transparency in sustainability reporting. The Company has adhered to the Global Reporting Initiative since 2013 and has published an annual sustainability report each year since 2016. In 2021, we improved our rating from Morgan Stanley Capital International ("MSCI"), earning an AA, and maintained strong marks from CDP (formally known as Carbon Disclosure Project) for water security and climate change, receiving an A and A- respectively. The Company also aligned its last sustainability report to the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board framework.

More detailed information can be found in the Flex annual sustainability report located at https://flex.com/company/our-sustainability. The information in the sustainability report and on our sustainability webpage is not a part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and is not incorporated by reference.

ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Our operations, including past and present business operations as well as past and present ownership of real property, are subject to extensive and changing federal, state, local and international environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, concerning, among other things, the health and safety of our employees, the generation, use, storage, transportation, discharge and disposal of certain materials (including chemicals and hazardous materials) used in or derived from our operations, emissions or discharge of substances including pollutants into the air and water, and the investigation and remediation of contaminated sites. We have implemented processes and procedures aimed to ensure that our operations comply with all applicable environmental regulations.

We also comply with an increasing number of regulations concerning product safety and stewardship, packaging and labeling as well as product environmental compliance regulations focused on the restriction of certain hazardous substances, including:

• Restrictions on Hazardous Substances (“RoHS”) 2011/65/EU

• Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (“WEEE”) 2012/19/EU directives

• The regulation EC 1907/2006 EU Directive REACH (“Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals”)

• China RoHS entitled, Management Methods for Controlling Pollution for Electronic Information Products (“EIPs”)

Moreover, climate change and other ESG-related laws, regulations, treaties, and similar initiatives and programs are being adopted and implemented throughout the world, many of which we will be required to comply with. As described above, we are committed to maintaining compliance with ESG-related laws applicable to our operations, products, and services.

We do not believe that costs of compliance with these environmental laws and regulations will have a material adverse effect on our capital expenditures, operating results, or competitive position. In addition, we are responsible for cleanup of contamination at some of our current and former manufacturing facilities and at some third-party sites. We engage environmental consulting firms to assist us in the evaluation of environmental liabilities associated with our ongoing operations, historical disposal activities, and closed sites in order to establish appropriate accruals in our financial statements. We determine the amount of our accruals for environmental matters by analyzing and estimating the probability of occurrence and the reasonable possibility of incurring costs in light of information currently available.

Compliance with environmental laws and regulations, including those concerning climate change and other ESG-related matters, requires continuing management efforts by the Company. The imposition of more stringent standards or requirements under these laws or regulations, the results of future testing and analysis undertaken by us at our operating facilities, or a determination that we are potentially responsible for the release of hazardous substances at other sites could result in expenditures in excess of amounts currently estimated to be required for such matters. Additionally, we could be required to alter our operations in order to comply with any new standards or requirements under environmental laws or regulations. There can be no assurance that additional environmental matters will not arise in the future or that costs will not be incurred with respect to sites as to which no issue is currently known.

Our business requires close collaboration with our customers and suppliers to mitigate risks of non-compliance with these laws and regulations. We have developed rigorous compliance programs designed to meet the needs and specifications of our customers as well as applicable regulations. These programs vary from collecting compliance or material data from our Flex controlled or managed suppliers to full laboratory testing. We include compliance requirements in our standard supplier contracts. Non-compliance could result in significant costs and/or penalties.

RoHS and other similar legislation ban or restrict the use of lead, mercury and certain other specified substances in electronics products and WEEE requires European Union ("EU") importers and/or producers to assume responsibility for the collection, recycling and management of waste electronic products and components. In the case of WEEE, although the compliance responsibility rests primarily with the EU importers and/or producers rather than with electronic manufacturing services ("EMS") companies, original equipment manufacturers ("OEM") may turn to EMS companies for assistance in meeting their WEEE obligations. Flex continues to monitor developments related to product environmental compliance and is working with our customers and other technical organizations to anticipate and minimize impacts to our operations.

Refer to the discussion in "Risk Factors" for further details of the legal and regulatory initiatives related to environmental matters including climate change that could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

We own or license various United States and foreign patents relating to a variety of technologies. For certain of our proprietary processes, inventions, and works of authorship, we rely on trade secret or copyright protection. We also maintain trademark rights (including registrations) for our corporate name and several other trademarks and service marks that we use in our business in the United States and other countries throughout the world. We have implemented appropriate policies and procedures (including both technological means and training programs for our employees) to identify and protect our intellectual property, as well as that of our customers and suppliers. As of March 31, 2022, and 2021, the carrying value of our intellectual property was not material.

Although we believe that our intellectual property assets and licenses are sufficient for the operation of our business as we currently conduct it, from time to time third parties assert patent infringement claims against us or our customers. In addition, we provide design and engineering services to our customers and also design and make our own products. As a consequence of these activities, our customers are sometimes requiring us to take responsibility for intellectual property to a greater extent than in our manufacturing and assembly businesses. If and when third parties make assertions regarding the ownership or right to use intellectual property, we could be required to either enter into licensing arrangements or to resolve the issue through litigation. Such license rights might not be available to us on commercially acceptable terms, if at all, and any such litigation might not be resolved in our favor. Additionally, litigation could be lengthy and costly and could materially harm our financial condition regardless of the outcome. We also could be required to incur substantial costs to redesign a product or re-perform design services. See "Risk Factors - The success of certain of our activities depends on our ability to protect our intellectual property rights; claims of infringement or misuse of intellectual property and/or breach of license agreement provisions against our customers or us could harm our business."

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Our Internet address is https://www.flex.com. We make available through our Internet website the Company's 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) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).

We were incorporated in the Republic of Singapore in May 1990. Our principal corporate office is located at 2 Changi South Lane, Singapore 486123. Our U.S. corporate headquarters is located at 6201 America Center Drive, San Jose, CA 95002.