What is the estimated annualized cost savings for MACOM in 2020 in terms of percentage of the way through the fourth quarter 
it's going to continue for the next five years, probably peaking in terms of power amplifier requirements maybe two or three years from now. And so I don't get the sense that MACOM is going to be late. I think when we enter the market, our product will be compelling from a performance point of view.
From an ability-to-scale-quickly point of view, remember also that these applications for 5G are also at higher frequencies, 3.5 gigahertz, in some cases, 4.8. So those higher frequencies begin to be challenging for the LDMOS community. And so the frequencies are higher, the volume is at actually the lower power levels, specifically the massive MIMO platforms. And so that is certainly front and center at what we're focused on at the moment.
So we may miss some of it, but we certainly recognize that it's a big opportunity. It's a multiyear opportunity. And when we're ready to enter the market with our partners, we believe we'll be successful.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Richard Shannon of Craig-Hallum. Your question, please.
Richard Shannon -- Craig-Hallum Capital Group LP -- Analyst
Guys, thank you for taking my questions. I look forward to working with you. So I guess you've made some restructuring changes here, and you've given us a sense maybe on a dollar level where we're going to see opex start here in this quarter and into the next couple. But maybe if you can give us a little bit longer-term view on where you think your operating model can go both from a gross margin and operating margin or opex point of view, that would be helpful.
Steve Daly -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Sure. So just as -- sort of as on a go-forward basis, we probably won't be putting out what I would consider the -- a target model. If I look at MACOM's financial situation at the moment, we're underperforming, and our goal is to incrementally improve that. We want to become an average performing semiconductor company financially, then we want to be an above-average performing company, which means controlling costs, driving gross margins up and increasing the earnings per share.
So that's the priority for the business. And to do that, we need to balance our investment in R&D. We need to really manage carefully our growth aspirations, so that we're investing in projects that we can start and finish and bring to market in a timely manner. So I would say -- I would just generally signal to you that, going forward, you're going to see a tight control on the opex lines.
We're going to continue to work on the projects that we believe in. And in projects that we feel we're not going to be successful or they're not going to create financial returns, we'll certainly pivot away from those and we'll start new projects. Jack and I are very focused on return on capital employed. If you look at the capital the company has spent over the past two to three years, for me, it's been quite high, $53 million last year, $32 million the year before that.
This year, we're on a pace to be somewhere between $45 million and $50 million. And so one of the first things Jack and I are doing is taking a very critical look at these investments. And as we go into our next fiscal year, fiscal year 2020, we're going to drive that number down. And I think we already have tremendous leverage in the business with the foundation with a lot of that spending behind us.
But on a go-forward basis, we're going to be very careful on the capital investments. And so, Jack, maybe you want to comment further on the model?
Jack Kober -- Chief Financial Officer
Yeah. That's fine, Steve. Thank you. So with regard to ongoing operating expenses, we did lay out in our prepared remarks the $50 million of annualized cost savings, and the earlier estimate was we're going to be about 80% of the way there through our fourth quarter.
And that, coupled with many of the things that Steve was referring to, will be driving some additional efficiencies and operating expense leverage as we work our way through 2020. But we're still working through some of the details, and
it's going to continue for the next five years, probably peaking in terms of power amplifier requirements maybe two or three years from now. And so I don't get the sense that MACOM is going to be late. I think when we enter the market, our product will be compelling from a performance point of view.
From an ability-to-scale-quickly point of view, remember also that these applications for 5G are also at higher frequencies, 3.5 gigahertz, in some cases, 4.8. So those higher frequencies begin to be challenging for the LDMOS community. And so the frequencies are higher, the volume is at actually the lower power levels, specifically the massive MIMO platforms. And so that is certainly front and center at what we're focused on at the moment.
So we may miss some of it, but we certainly recognize that it's a big opportunity. It's a multiyear opportunity. And when we're ready to enter the market with our partners, we believe we'll be successful.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Richard Shannon of Craig-Hallum. Your question, please.
Richard Shannon -- Craig-Hallum Capital Group LP -- Analyst
Guys, thank you for taking my questions. I look forward to working with you. So I guess you've made some restructuring changes here, and you've given us a sense maybe on a dollar level where we're going to see opex start here in this quarter and into the next couple. But maybe if you can give us a little bit longer-term view on where you think your operating model can go both from a gross margin and operating margin or opex point of view, that would be helpful.
Steve Daly -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Sure. So just as -- sort of as on a go-forward basis, we probably won't be putting out what I would consider the -- a target model. If I look at MACOM's financial situation at the moment, we're underperforming, and our goal is to incrementally improve that. We want to become an average performing semiconductor company financially, then we want to be an above-average performing company, which means controlling costs, driving gross margins up and increasing the earnings per share.
 So that's the priority for the business. And to do that, we need to balance our investment in R&D. We need to really manage carefully our growth aspirations, so that we're investing in projects that we can start and finish and bring to market in a timely manner. So I would say -- I would just generally signal to you that, going forward, you're going to see a tight control on the opex lines.
We're going to continue to work on the projects that we believe in. And in projects that we feel we're not going to be successful or they're not going to create financial returns, we'll certainly pivot away from those and we'll start new projects. Jack and I are very focused on return on capital employed. If you look at the capital the company has spent over the past two to three years, for me, it's been quite high, $53 million last year, $32 million the year before that.
This year, we're on a pace to be somewhere between $45 million and $50 million. And so one of the first things Jack and I are doing is taking a very critical look at these investments. And as we go into our next fiscal year, fiscal year 2020, we're going to drive that number down. And I think we already have tremendous leverage in the business with the foundation with a lot of that spending behind us.
But on a go-forward basis, we're going to be very careful on the capital investments. And so, Jack, maybe you want to comment further on the model?
Jack Kober -- Chief Financial Officer
Yeah. That's fine, Steve. Thank you. So with regard to ongoing operating expenses, we did lay out in our prepared remarks the $50 million of annualized cost savings, and the earlier estimate was we're going to be about 80% of the way there through our fourth quarter.
And that, coupled with many of the things that Steve was referring to, will be driving some additional efficiencies and operating expense leverage as we work our way through 2020. But we're still working through some of the details, and