科磊 (KLAC) 2024 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon. My name is Chelsea, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the KLA Corporation September Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. (Operator Instructions)

午安.我叫切爾西，今天我將擔任你們的會議操作員。此時，我歡迎大家參加 KLA Corporation 2023 年 9 月季度收益電話會議和網路廣播。 （操作員說明）

I will now turn the call over to Kevin Kessel, Vice President of Investor Relations and Market Analytics. Please go ahead.

我現在將把電話轉給投資者關係和市場分析副總裁 Kevin Kessel。請繼續。

Thank you for joining us for our earnings call to discuss the results of the September 2023 quarter and our December quarter outlook. I'm joined by our CEO, Rick Wallace, and our CFO, Bren Higgins, to discuss our results released today after the market close, which are available on our IR website, along with the supplemental materials.

感謝您參加我們的財報電話會議，討論 2023 年 9 月季度的業績和我們 12 月季度的展望。我們的執行長里克華萊士(Rick Wallace) 和財務長布倫希金斯(Bren Higgins) 與我一起討論了今天收市後發布的業績，這些業績以及補充資料可在我們的投資者關係網站上獲取。

Today's discussion is presented on a non-GAAP financial basis unless otherwise specified, our full year references all related to calendar years. A detailed reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP results is in the earnings materials posted on our website. Our IR website also contains future investor events as well as presentations, corporate governance information and links to our SEC filings, including our most recent annual report and quarterly reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q.

今天的討論是在非公認會計原則財務基礎上進行的，除非另有說明，我們的全年參考均與日曆年相關。我們網站上發布的獲利資料中提供了 GAAP 與非 GAAP 業績的詳細調整表。我們的投資者關係網站還包含未來的投資者活動以及演示文稿、公司治理資訊以及我們的 SEC 文件的鏈接，包括我們最新的年度報告和 10-K 和 10-Q 表格的季度報告。

Our comments today are subject to risks and uncertainties reflected in the risk factor disclosures in our SEC filings. Any forward-looking statements, including those we make on the call today, are also subject to those risks, and KLA cannot guarantee those forward-looking statements will come true. Our actual results may differ significantly from those projected in our forward-looking statements.

我們今天的評論受到美國證券交易委員會文件中風險因素揭露所反映的風險和不確定性的影響。任何前瞻性聲明，包括我們今天在電話會議上所做的聲明，也面臨這些風險，KLA 無法保證這些前瞻性聲明將會實現。我們的實際結果可能與我們前瞻性陳述中預測的結果有很大差異。

Rick will begin the call with some comments and quarterly highlights. Bren will conclude with our financial highlights, including our guidance and outlook. I will now turn the call over to our CEO, Rick Wallace. Rick.

里克將在電話會議開始時發表一些評論和季度要點。布倫將總結我們的財務亮點，包括我們的指導和展望。我現在將把電話轉給我們的執行長里克華萊士。瑞克.

Thanks, Kevin. Before we cover KLA's September quarter and outlook, I'd like to address the situation in Israel as it pertains to KLA. We have many KLA employees based in Israel. We're deeply saddened by the unspeakable acts of terrorism in the Middle East and the resulting war underway. Our heartfelt condolences are with all the victims and their families, friends and loved ones. At KLA, we're focused on employee safety and well-being and are making efforts to assist our teams through these terrible circumstances, including resources and support for our employees and broader humanitarian support through the KLA Foundation. We all hope for a peaceful solution soon.

謝謝，凱文。在我們介紹 KLA 的 9 月季度和展望之前，我想先談談與 KLA 相關的以色列局勢。我們在以色列有許多 KLA 員工。我們對中東發生的難以形容的恐怖主義行為以及由此引發的戰爭深感悲痛。我們向所有受害者及其家人、朋友和親人表示衷心的哀悼。在 KLA，我們專注於員工的安全和福祉，並正在努力幫助我們的團隊度過這些可怕的情況，包括為員工提供資源和支持，以及透過 KLA 基金會提供更廣泛的人道主義支持。我們都希望盡快和平解決。

Moving on to our September quarter results, which exceeded expectations. Specifically, revenue of $2.4 billion finished at the upper end of the guidance range. GAAP EPS was $5.41 and non-GAAP EPS was $5.74. Both also finishing at the upper end of the respective guidance ranges. These results were driven by the strength and relevance of KLA's process control portfolio. Additionally, focused execution enabled continued free cash flow generation and capital returns. We are proud of how the KLA teams continue to outperform in the marketplace and deliver on customer commitments.

接下來是我們九月季度的業績，超出了預期。具體而言，收入為 24 億美元，處於指導範圍的上限。 GAAP 每股收益為 5.41 美元，非 GAAP 每股收益為 5.74 美元。兩者均位於各自指導範圍的上限。這些結果是由 KLA 製程控制產品組合的實力和相關性所推動的。此外，集中執行可以持續產生自由現金流和資本回報。我們為 KLA 團隊如何繼續在市場上表現出色並兌現客戶承諾感到自豪。

The overall business environment remains relatively stable for KLA. We continue to see strength in markets served by legacy nodes, despite softness in Memory and learning edge, Logic & Foundry investments. As the industry continues to navigate the slowdown in the electronics market, we are closely monitoring any adjusting results that affect our customers' capacity.

KLA整體經營環境維持相對穩定。儘管記憶體和學習邊緣、邏輯和鑄造投資疲軟，但我們仍然看到傳統節點服務的市場表現強勁。隨著產業繼續應對電子市場放緩的局面，我們正在密切關注影響客戶產能的任何調整結果。

KLA continues to outperform the industry on a relative basis because customer investment in R&D for technology advancement and transition has proven to be more resilient to market pressures. If we look at some specific highlights in the quarter, revenue was driven by strength in legacy node investment globally and industry infrastructure investment. KLA's market leadership, product success and unpatterned wafer, optical and macro inspection also demonstrate the power of the KLA portfolio.

KLA 的相對錶現持續優於產業，因為客戶對技術進步和轉型的研發投資已被證明對市場壓力更具彈性。如果我們看一下本季的一些具體亮點，就會發現收入是由全球遺留節點投資和行業基礎設施投資的強勁推動的。 KLA 的市場領導地位、產品成功以及無圖案晶圓、光學和宏觀檢測也證明了 KLA 產品組合的強大功能。

Rapid growth of AI, both enables KLA's differentiation and helps drive industry growth. KLA is a pioneer in adopting AI to improve the performance of our systems and create differentiation. And KLA has a long track record of employing deep learning and physics-based algorithms in our core technologies. As the cost of compute has declined, we are now able to deploy this capability more broadly across our product portfolio, leveraging our AI expertise, KLA's inspection, metrology and data analytics systems help customers solve challenges associated with current process technologies and critical industry inflections, including gate all around, 3D memory, EUV Lithography, and advanced packaging.

人工智慧的快速發展，既實現了KLA的差異化，也推動了產業的發展。 KLA 是採用人工智慧來提高系統效能並創造差異化的先驅。 KLA 在我們的核心技術中採用深度學習和基於物理的演算法方面擁有悠久的歷史。隨著計算成本的下降，我們現在能夠在我們的產品組合中更廣泛地部署此功能，利用我們的AI 專業知識、KLA 的檢測、計量和數據分析系統幫助客戶解決與當前製程技術和關鍵產業變化相關的挑戰，包括周圍閘極、3D 記憶體、EUV 微影和先進封裝。

KLA Service business grew both sequentially and year-over-year, ending at $560 million in the September quarter and remains on track for high single-digit percent year-over-year growth in 2023. Finally, the September quarter was another excellent period from the cash flow and capital returns perspective, quarterly free cash flow was $816 million, which drove the last 12 months free cash flow up 3% year-over-year to $3.2 billion. Total capital returns over the past 12 months were $2.4 billion.

KLA 服務業務環比和同比均實現增長，在 9 月份季度達到 5.6 億美元，並預計在 2023 年實現高個位數同比增長。最後，9 月份季度是另一個出色的時期從現金流和資本回報的角度來看，季度自由現金流為8.16億美元，推動過去12個月的自由現金流年增3%，達到32億美元。過去 12 個月的總資本回報為 24 億美元。

In summary, KLA's September quarter results demonstrate our continued process control leadership and the success of our portfolio strategy. Our consistent execution despite challenges in the marketplace highlights the resiliency of the KLA operating model, driven by the dedication of our global teams.

總之，KLA 九月季度的表現證明了我們持續的過程控制領先地位以及我們的投資組合策略的成功。儘管市場面臨挑戰，但我們始終如一的執行力凸顯了 KLA 營運模式的彈性，這得益於我們全球團隊的奉獻精神。

I'll now hand it over to Bren to cover more details on our financial performance and our outlook. Bren?

現在我將把它交給布倫，以介紹有關我們財務業績和前景的更多細節。布倫？

Thank you, Rick. KLA delivered a strong September quarter, demonstrating consistent execution despite a challenging work marketplace. Revenue was $2.4 billion, non-GAAP diluted EPS was $5.74 and GAAP diluted EPS was $5.41, with all 3 coming in at the upper end of the guided ranges.

謝謝你，瑞克。 KLA 的 9 月季度業績表現強勁，儘管工作市場充滿挑戰，但仍表現出一貫的執行力。營收為 24 億美元，非 GAAP 攤薄後每股收益為 5.74 美元，GAAP 攤薄後每股收益為 5.41 美元，三者均處於指導範圍的上限。

Non-GAAP gross margin was 62.4%, 40 basis points above the guidance range due to benefits from a richer product mix and better service cost performance than model. Non-GAAP operating expenses were $534 million, in line with guidance. Total non-GAAP operating expenses comprised $311 million of R&D and $223 million in SG&A. Non-GAAP operating margin was 40.2%, non-GAAP other income and expense debt was $47 million, and the quarterly effective tax rate was 14%. At the guided tax rate of 13.5%, non-GAAP EPS would have been $0.03 higher or $5.77.

非 GAAP 毛利率為 62.4%，比指導範圍高出 40 個基點，這得益於更豐富的產品組合和比模型更好的服務性價比。非 GAAP 營運支出為 5.34 億美元，與指引一致。非 GAAP 營運費用總額包括 3.11 億美元的研發費用和 2.23 億美元的銷售、一般管理費用。非 GAAP 營業利潤率為 40.2%，非 GAAP 其他收入和支出債務為 4,700 萬美元，季度有效稅率為 14%。以 13.5% 的指導稅率計算，非 GAAP 每股盈餘將增加 0.03 美元，即 5.77 美元。

Quarterly non-GAAP net income was $786 million. GAAP net income was $741 million. Cash flow from operations was $884 million, and free cash flow was $816 million. As a result, free cash flow conversion was a strong 104% and free cash flow margin was 34%. The company had approximately 137 million diluted weighted average shares outstanding at the end of the quarter.

非 GAAP 季度淨利為 7.86 億美元。 GAAP 淨利潤為 7.41 億美元。營運現金流為 8.84 億美元，自由現金流為 8.16 億美元。結果，自由現金流轉換高達 104%，自由現金流利潤率為 34%。截至本季末，該公司擁有約 1.37 億股稀釋加權平均已發行股票。

The breakdown of revenue by reportable segments and end markets and major products and regions can be found within the shareholder letter and slides.

按可報告部門、最終市場以及主要產品和地區劃分的收入細目可以在股東信函和幻燈片中找到。

Turning to the balance sheet. KLA ended the quarter with $3.35 billion in total cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, debt principal outstanding of $5.95 billion and a flexible and attractive bond maturity profile supported by strong investment-grade ratings from all three agencies. KLA has an impressive history of consistent free cash flow generation, high free cash flow conversion and strong free cash flow margins across all phases of the business cycle and economic conditions. Over the last 12 months, KLA has returned $2.4 billion to shareholders, including $1.7 billion in share repurchases and $726 million in dividends paid.

轉向資產負債表。截至本季末，KLA 的現金、現金等價物和有價證券總額為33.5 億美元，未償債務本金為59.5 億美元，債券期限結構靈活且有吸引力，並得到所有三個機構強大的投資級評級的支援。 KLA 擁有令人印象深刻的歷史，在商業週期和經濟狀況的所有階段都保持穩定的自由現金流產生、高自由現金流轉換和強勁的自由現金流利潤率。在過去 12 個月中，KLA 已向股東返還 24 億美元，其中包括 17 億美元的股票回購和 7.26 億美元的股息支付。

I also wanted to highlight that on September 5, KLA announced an increase in the quarterly dividend level to $1.45 per share from $1.30, the 14th consecutive annual dividend increase. Since its inception in 2006, KLA has grown the quarterly dividend level at an approximately 15% compound annual growth rate. Additionally, on that date, KLA announced an incremental $2 billion share repurchase authorization. These capital return actions reflect confidence in our business model and growth strategy as we progress along the path to our 2026 financial targets.

我還想強調的是，9 月 5 日，KLA 宣布將季度股息水準從每股 1.30 美元提高到每股 1.45 美元，這是連續第 14 個年度股息成長。自 2006 年成立以來，KLA 的季度股息水準以約 15% 的複合年增長率成長。此外，當天，KLA 也宣布增加 20 億美元的股票回購授權。這些資本回報行動反映了我們在實現 2026 年財務目標的過程中對我們的業務模式和成長策略的信心。

Moving to our outlook. As we review the market and assess relative performance of our peers across the industry, we are adjusting our Wafer Fab Equipment outlook for 2023 up to approximately $80 billion, reflecting a decline of approximately 16% from the $95 billion level in calendar 2022. While the timing of a meaningful resumption in WFE investment growth remains unclear as most underlying end markets remain soft, we continue to see KLA's overall demand stabilizing around current business levels, and we expect this demand profile to continue into the first half of calendar 2021.

轉向我們的展望。當我們回顧市場並評估整個行業同行的相對錶現時，我們將 2023 年晶圓製造設備前景調整至約 800 億美元，較 2022 年 950 億美元的水平下降約 16%。由於大多數潛在終端市場仍然疲軟，WFE 投資成長有意義恢復的時機仍不清楚，我們繼續看到KLA 的整體需求穩定在當前業務水平附近，我們預計這種需求狀況將持續到2021 年上半年。

KLA's primary value proposition is focused on enabling innovation through technology advancements and transitions, which our customers continue to prioritize across all business environments. While capacity plans are often adjusted due to changing demand expectations, technology roadmap investments are more resilient. This adds additional confidence to our business expectations as customers align shipment slots with roadmap requirements. In this environment, we will continue to focus on meeting customer requirements, maintaining our high level of investment in R&D to advance our product roadmaps and KLA's market leadership, and delivering strong relative revenue growth and financial performance.

KLA 的主要價值主張著重於透過技術進步和轉型來實現創新，這是我們的客戶在所有業務環境中繼續優先考慮的事項。雖然產能計畫經常因需求預期的變化而調整，但技術路線圖投資更具彈性。隨著客戶根據路線圖要求調整出貨時間，這為我們的業務預期增添了更多信心。在此環境下，我們將繼續專注於滿足客戶需求，保持高水準的研發投資，以推進我們的產品路線圖和 KLA 的市場領導地位，並實現強勁的相對收入成長和財務表現。

As for guidance, our December quarter guidance is as follows: total revenue is expected to be $2.45 billion, plus or minus $125 million, Foundry/Logic is forecasted to be approximately 68%, and memory is expected to be around 32% of Semiconductor Process Control systems revenue to semiconductor customers. Within memory, DRAM is expected to be about 85% of the segment mix and NAND 15%.

至於指導，我們12月季度的指導如下：總收入預計為24.5億美元，正負1.25億美元，代工/邏輯預計約為68%，記憶體預計約為半導體製程的32%控制半導體客戶的系統收入。在記憶體領域，DRAM 預計將佔該細分市場的 85% 左右，NAND 則佔 15%。

We forecast non-GAAP gross margin to be 61.5% plus or minus one percentage point, as product mix expectations are modestly weaker versus the September quarter and service period cost benefit realized in the September quarter normalizes. Inclusive of this guidance, calendar 2023 gross margins are expected to end up in the mid 61% range.

我們預期非 GAAP 毛利率為 61.5% 加減 1 個百分點，因為產品組合預期較 9 月季度略有下降，且 9 月季度實現的服務期成本效益正常化。考慮到這項指引，預計 2023 年毛利率最終將達到 61% 的中間範圍。

Non-GAAP operating expenses are expected to be approximately $540 million. Other model assumptions for the December quarter include non-GAAP other income and expense, net, of approximately $45 million and an effective tax rate of approximately 13.5%.

非 GAAP 營運費用預計約為 5.4 億美元。 12 月季度的其他模型假設包括非 GAAP 其他淨收入和支出約為 4,500 萬美元，有效稅率約為 13.5%。

Finally, GAAP diluted EPS was expected to be $5.54, plus or minus $0.60 and non-GAAP diluted EPS of $5.86 plus or minus $0.60. EPS guidance is based on a fully diluted share count of approximately 136 million shares.

最後，GAAP 攤薄後每股收益預計為 5.54 美元，上下浮動 0.60 美元，非 GAAP 攤薄後每股收益預計為 5.86 美元，上下浮動 0.60 美元。每股盈餘指引是基於約 1.36 億股完全稀釋後的股數。

In conclusion, we remain focused on driving differentiation through innovation as we execute our successful portfolio strategy that supports our customers' technology roadmaps. Though the industry is correcting in calendar 2023 and sustainable demand recovery still remains unclear, we are sizing our business to ensure that we deliver a differentiated product portfolio that meets our customer technology roadmap requirements and that we have the capacity to execute our business in line with our long-term growth expectations.

總之，在執行支援客戶技術路線圖的成功產品組合策略時，我們仍然專注於透過創新推動差異化。儘管業界將在 2023 年進行調整，可持續的需求復甦仍不明朗，但我們正在調整我們的業務規模，以確保我們提供滿足客戶技術路線圖要求的差異化產品組合，並確保我們有能力按照我們的長期成長預期。

With the KLA operating model guiding our best-in-class execution, we continue to implement our strategic objectives, which are here to drive outperformance. Our focus on customer success, delivering innovative and differentiated solutions and operational excellence is what enables us to deliver industry-leading financial and free cash flow performance and return capital on a consistent basis.

在 KLA 營運模式指導我們一流的執行的同時，我們繼續實施我們的策略目標，以推動卓越績效。我們專注於客戶成功、提供創新和差異化的解決方案以及卓越的運營，這使我們能夠持續提供行業領先的財務和自由現金流績效以及資本回報。

We are confident that Process Control's importance to enabling technology advancements bodes well for KLA's long-term growth outlook despite challenging near-term demand trends. KLA is well positioned to deliver strong near-term relative financial performance driven by the better-than-market performance of our Semiconductor Process Control and Specialty Semiconductor businesses and continued growth in service. KLA is also uniquely exposed to wafer and reticle infrastructure investments that are contributing to our relative outperformance in calendar 2023. Our business continues to stabilize and the long-term secular trends driving semiconductor industry demand and investments in WFE remain intact and are compelling. That concludes our prepared remarks.

我們相信，儘管近期需求趨勢面臨挑戰，但製程控制對於實現技術進步的重要性預示著 KLA 的長期成長前景。在我們的半導體製程控制和特種半導體業務優於市場的業績以及服務的持續成長的推動下，KLA 處於有利地位，能夠提供強勁的近期相對財務業績。 KLA 在晶圓和光罩基礎設施投資方面也具有獨特的優勢，這些投資有助於我們在2023 年取得相對優異的業績。我們的業務持續穩定，推動半導體產業需求和WFE 投資的長期趨勢保持完好且引人注目。我們準備好的演講到此結束。

Kevin, let's begin the Q&A.

凱文，讓我們開始問答。

Thanks, Bren. Chelsea, if you could please provide the instructions to queue for Q&A, and we'll begin now.

謝謝，布倫。切爾西，如果您可以的話，請提供排隊問答的說明，我們現在就開始。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question will come from Vivek Arya with Bank of America Securities.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題將來自美國銀行證券公司的 Vivek Arya。

I wanted to revisit your suggestion that first half could be stable at this -- the December quarter levels. So does it mean you're not expecting any change to your China shipment? Or if you could just kind of give us how you are thinking about the mix in different end markets and geos. And then kind of part b of that is, what assumptions are you making about the timing of memory recovery? Is that still kind of second half awaited and can it be incremental to this kind of conceptual first half outlook?

我想重新審視您的建議，即上半年可能會穩定在 12 月季度的水平。那麼這是否意味著您預計中國的出貨不會有任何變化？或者您能否告訴我們您如何考慮不同終端市場和地區的組合。然後，第二部分是，你對記憶體恢復的時間做了什麼假設？下半年是否仍然值得期待？它是否可以補充這種概念性的上半年前景？

Vivek, it's Bren. So we are -- I'm not going to guide the first half of the year in terms of what regions or customers might be driving. As we look at the overall sales funnel and look how we're sizing the factories, our stabilization comment is at the total company level, we see the business roughly operating at about the guided levels here over the next few quarters. So we'll see how it plays out. Obviously, it's a fluid and dynamic environment.

維維克，我是布倫。所以我們——我不會在上半年指導哪些地區或客戶可能會開車。當我們審視整體銷售管道並審視我們如何調整工廠規模時，我們的穩定評論是在整個公司層面上進行的，我們認為未來幾季該業務的運作大致在指導水平左右。所以我們會看看結果如何。顯然，這是一個流動且動態的環境。

I think we'll see the semi PC business be very consistent with that. We'll see the parts of EPC tend to be a little more capacity and shorter lead time type businesses. So we'll have to see how that plays through. But as we aggregate and just as we look out, trying to give you as much as we can into the first half, we see the business bouncing along at roughly these levels.

我認為我們會看到半個人電腦業務與此非常一致。我們將看到EPC部分往往是產能更大、交貨時間更短的類型企業。所以我們必須看看效果如何。但當我們匯總並展望上半年時，我們會盡力為您提供盡可能多的服務，我們看到業務大致在這些水平上反彈。

And anything on the potential recovery in memory, like if, let's say, memory were to be recovering in Q1, Q2, Q3, is that visibility you would necessarily have? Or if I ask it in a different way, what is kind of the difference between when you start to see it and when it actually starts to show up in your sales numbers?

關於記憶體潛在恢復的任何事情，例如，如果內存在第一季、第二季、第三季恢復，您是否一定會擁有這種可見性？或者如果我以不同的方式問它，當你開始看到它和它實際開始出現在你的銷售數字中時有什麼區別？

Vivek, Rick here. When we talk to customers and we have had several conversations with memory customers recently, they've all kind of echoed the same thing in terms of historical lows right now in the market and utilization continue to be less than what they're hoping for, although stabilized. So we don't have any indication of any near-term change in that. And they will certainly let us know because we do have long lead items. So there are some products we're still shipping based on the fact that they're for R&D work. But in terms of capacity increases, we have no indication of any near-term changes.

維韋克，瑞克在這裡。當我們與客戶交談時，我們最近與內存客戶進行了多次交談，他們都回應了同樣的事情，即目前市場處於歷史低點，利用率仍然低於他們的希望，雖然穩定了。因此，我們沒有任何跡象表明這方面有任何近期變化。他們肯定會讓我們知道，因為我們確實有長期供貨的產品。因此，有些產品我們仍在出貨，因為它們用於研發工作。但就產能增加而言，我們沒有任何跡象表明近期有任何變化。

Our next question will come from Harlan Sur with JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題將來自摩根大通的 Harlan Sur。

On your Services business, close to 25% of your sales, you'll be driving high single-digit percentage growth this year, and that's with your customer production activity at an all-time low. But in your shareholder letter, you guys say that you expect growth in Services to accelerate to your target range of 12% to 14% next year. I know you've got to waive off tools and systems coming off of warranty and on to contract. This would be a big driver. But what else are you guys assuming on the strong growth outlook for next year? And what are your assumptions for industry manufacturing utilization?

在您的服務業務中，您的銷售額接近 25%，您今年將實現高單位數百分比成長，而這是在您的客戶生產活動處於歷史最低水平的情況下。但在你們的股東信中，你們表示預計明年服務業的成長將加速至 12% 至 14% 的目標範圍。我知道您必須放棄保固期結束並簽訂合約的工具和系統。這將是一個很大的推動力。但你們對明年的強勁成長前景還有什麼看法呢？您對工業製造利用率有何假設？

Yes, Harlan. So there have been drivers or long-term drivers around service growth that are implicit in our modeling and are continuing, right, in terms of the level of utilization of the installed base customers using tools for longer periods of time and so on. But, you did hit on the biggest driver in terms of our expectations for growth into next year, is that we will have a number of tools that we shipped in 2021 and 2022, where we significantly outperformed the market. Those tools will be coming off of warranty and moving into contract and our attach rate is pretty high.

是的，哈倫。因此，圍繞著服務成長存在一些驅動因素或長期驅動因素，這些驅動因素隱含在我們的建模中，並且在較長時間使用工具的已安裝客戶群的利用率等方面持續存在。但是，您確實談到了我們對明年成長的預期的最大推動力，那就是我們將在 2021 年和 2022 年推出許多工具，我們的表現顯著優於市場。這些工具將不再保固並進入合約狀態，我們的附加率相當高。

So it does give us some visibility into that service stream. As you know, our contract percent of the total revenue of service is over 75%. And so that visibility allows us to not only be able to plan for, but also to optimize the cost structure that's underneath it in terms of how we deliver to our customers.

所以它確實讓我們對該服務流有了一些了解。大家知道，我們的合約佔服務總收入的比例超過75%。因此，這種可見性使我們不僅能夠進行規劃，而且還能夠在向客戶交付產品的方式方面優化背後的成本結構。

Yes. One other thing, Harlan, is that, as you know, our services isn't dependent on consumables. And so customers want to keep these tools up and going even when they have slower utilization in other parts of the fab, but then they definitely want to ramp them as they're bringing on new nodes and starting to ramp new technology. So it's kind of the best of all worlds in the sense we don't slow down that much when it goes down, but then they're going to want to ramp as activity continues, whether it's on new technology or beginning capacity ramps on new technology nodes.

是的。哈倫，另一件事是，正如您所知，我們的服務並不依賴消耗品。因此，即使在晶圓廠其他部分的利用率較慢的情況下，客戶也希望保持這些工具的正常運行，但他們肯定希望在引入新節點並開始採用新技術時提高這些工具的性能。因此，從某種意義上說，這是世界上最好的，當它下降時，我們不會放慢太多，但隨著活動的繼續，他們會希望增加，無論是新技術還是新技術的產能提昇技術節點。

I think the final thing I'll say about it is Rick talked about memory utilization. If you look in foundry utilizations today, we are seeing some improving utilization to the leading edge and the legacy utilizations have -- depending on where you're at and kind of the N-1 is a little bit softer, more mature nodes, it's a little firmer. So utilization rates are stabilizing and increasing in certain parts of our business. And so that's an indicator for us as we look forward into 2024 in terms of additional growth for our service business.

我想我要說的最後一件事是 Rick 談到的記憶體利用率。如果你看看今天的代工廠利用率，我們會看到前沿利用率有所提高，而傳統利用率則有所提高——這取決於你所處的位置，N-1 的類型有點軟，更成熟的節點，它是更堅定一點。因此，我們業務的某些部分的利用率正在穩定並增加。因此，當我們展望 2024 年服務業務的額外成長時，這對我們來說是一個指標。

Great. That's hugely insightful. Given the strong lineup and aggressive cadence of tech transitions, right, especially in foundry and logic and that's obviously driving more EUV layer adoption, right, which is driving demand for both your optical inspectors, reticle inspection, your entire portfolio of metrology products as well. If we look into next year with more tech inflections, gate all around, introduction of backside power distribution, next-gen advanced packaging architecture, is that wave of new tools, systems adoptions to support these transitions. Is that still in front of the KLA team? Or are you actually starting to see quite a bit of that now?

偉大的。這是非常有洞察力的。鑑於技術轉型的強大陣容和積極的節奏，對，特別是在代工和邏輯領域，這顯然推動了更多EUV 層的採用，對，這推動了對光學檢測儀、掩模版檢測以及整個計量產品組合的需求。如果我們展望明年更多的技術變化，周圍的門，背面配電的引入，下一代先進的封裝架構，就是支持這些轉變的新工具和系統採用的浪潮。那還在KLA團隊的前面嗎？或者你現在真的開始看到很多這樣的情況了嗎？

Well, so it's good insight, Harlan. I think there's 2 ways to think about it. One is we're definitely seeing R&D development around that, and we have for some time, but many customers have stalled their expansion and delayed. And as you know, there's been quite a lull in especially the leading-edge companies out there in terms of really much CapEx at all as it goes towards new technology expansion, but that's coming. And when that comes, we can map out layer accounts. We know we have a pretty good sense of deployment once it goes on the run card for these ramping up new nodes. And it's both on films. It covers both metrology but also it covers inspection. And so I'd say it's in front of us as we get into calendar '24 and [beyond].

嗯，這是很好的見解，哈倫。我認為有兩種思考方式。一是我們肯定會看到圍繞這一點的研發發展，而且我們已經有一段時間了，但許多客戶已經停止了擴張並推遲了。如您所知，在新技術擴張過程中，特別是領先的公司在資本支出方面出現了相當大的平靜，但這種情況即將到來。到那時，我們就可以繪製出圖層帳戶。我們知道，一旦它進入這些新節點的運行卡，我們就有了很好的部署意識。這兩個都出現在電影中。它既涵蓋計量，也涵蓋檢查。所以我想說，當我們進入日曆 '24 和[以後]時，它就在我們面前。

Our next question will come from Joseph Quatrochi with Wells Fargo.

我們的下一個問題將來自富國銀行的 Joseph Quatrochi。

First is for Bren, I know it will come out in the queue, but can you help us with the RPO where that was exiting the quarter?

首先是 Bren，我知道它會出現在隊列中，但是您能幫助我們解決本季退出的 RPO 嗎？

It came down a little over $500 million quarter-to-quarter. So you'll get the specifics in the 10-Q, which we'll be filing here in the next few days, but somewhere just north of $500 million. So still pretty high levels, north of $10 billion overall, but did come down a little bit quarter-to-quarter.

季度環比下降略高於 5 億美元。因此，您將在 10-Q 中了解具體信息，我們將在接下來的幾天內在此提交該報告，但金額略高於 5 億美元。所以仍然相當高的水平，總體超過 100 億美元，但確實有所下降。

Okay. That's helpful. And then just in that kind of context, how do we think about the optical inspection lead times? I think you mentioned that the demand remains stronger than supply, your ability to supply, but how do we think about that looking into this first half of '24? Do we expect that you'll start to see maybe some of that alleviate in the first part of next year as we get into more demand into the second half?

好的。這很有幫助。那麼在這種情況下，我們如何考慮光學檢測的交付時間呢？我想你提到需求仍然強於供應，你的供應能力，但是我們如何看待24世紀上半年的情況？我們是否預計，隨著下半年需求的增加，明年上半年這種情況會有所緩解？

Because we've got some new supply coming on related to some extremely long lead time parts, I would expect that we'll ship more in '24 than we have in '23. And so we still have a fair amount of imbalance here between where our customer demand is and our ability to supply. But there is some catch-up that's happening there. But those lead times are still pretty long. The rest of the company somewhere around various across different products, more capacity-centric products. Lead times are very normal today and around some of the unique products that are critical in terms of industry requirements, those are still a little bit longer.

因為我們有一些與一些交貨時間極長的零件相關的新供應，我預計我們 24 年的發貨量將比 23 年多。因此，我們的客戶需求與我們的供應能力之間仍然存在相當大的不平衡。但那裡正在發生一些追趕。但這些交貨時間仍然相當長。公司的其他部分圍繞著各種不同的產品，更以容量為中心的產品。如今，交貨時間非常正常，而對於一些對行業要求至關重要的獨特產品，交貨時間仍然有點長。

Our next question will come from Chris Caso with Wolfe Research.

我們的下一個問題將來自沃爾夫研究公司的克里斯·卡索。

I wonder if you can speak a bit about the China business right now. A little more color on the strength that you're seeing and you obviously heard this from your peers as well. And I think the investor questions right now are about the sustainability of the China revenue at these areas. I wonder if you could address that.

我不知道你現在是否可以談談中國業務。你所看到的力量有更多的色彩，你顯然也從你的同行那裡聽到了這一點。我認為投資者現在的問題是這些領域中國收入的可持續性。我想知道你能否解決這個問題。

Yes, absolutely. So a couple of thoughts for KLA in particular relative to China. Because of the actions that were taken, most of the investment, nearly all of the investment that all of that we're exposed to is on legacy nodes. And there's both mostly that's to support the industries that are in China where they want self-sufficiency such as EV, and you have a lot of projects going on that require basically greenfield. So you have a fair amount of inspection measurement across the board.

是的，一點沒錯。對科索沃解放軍來說，有幾點特別是相對於中國的想法。由於所採取的行動，我們所接觸到的大部分投資、幾乎所有投資都集中在遺留節點上。這主要是為了支持中國想要自給自足的產業，例如電動車，而且有許多正在進行的計畫基本上需要綠地。因此，您可以進行大量的全面檢查測量。

But beyond that, there's infrastructure investment also going on in China relative to the legacy nodes, both (inaudible) and also wafer manufacturing. Those projects, I think, are going to continue for some period of time. So what we don't see is any -- I think the leading edge stuff has already been taken out and they stopped that and of course, for a lot of reasons. But the legacy continues and it's pretty broad-based. And we don't believe that's going to change in terms of the size or intent of those, and those are things that are projects that are in various stages as they continue to build. So we feel pretty good about the sustainability of the business as we see it right now in China. And Bren can give more specifics.

但除此之外，中國還在進行與傳統節點相關的基礎建設投資，包括（聽不清楚）和晶圓製造。我認為這些項目將持續一段時間。所以我們沒有看到任何 - 我認為前沿的東西已經被拿走了，他們停止了，當然，出於很多原因。但遺產仍在繼續，而且基礎相當廣泛。我們認為這些項目的規模或意圖不會改變，這些項目在繼續建設過程中處於不同階段。因此，正如我們目前在中國看到的那樣，我們對業務的可持續性感到非常滿意。布倫可以提供更多細節。

In the near term, in the September quarter, we saw the level as more elevated than what I'd call a run rate as we had other customers that were moving around in terms of deliveries. And so we were able to -- so we backfilled that with some of this demand in China. So it did push up a little bit. I would expect it would drop somewhat in Q4, but certainly remain at elevated levels. And it's certainly something that has strengthened over the course of the year, consistent with Rick's commentary.

在短期內，在九月的季度，我們看到這一水平比我所說的運行率更高，因為我們有其他客戶在交付方面發生變化。所以我們能夠——所以我們用中國的一些需求來彌補這一點。所以它確實推高了一點。我預計第四季度會有所下降，但肯定會保持在較高水平。與里克的評論一致，這一點在這一年中肯定得到了加強。

So as we look at next year, we've got meaningful backlog with these customers, I've got a -- in excess of $800 million in deposits for shipments for these customers. So I would expect that we'll see some sustainability of that demand as we move into next year. And I think it's really across the segments that Rick talked about. So as I think about growth into next year in that part of the business, I think from a baseline point of view, we see it's more or less flat.

因此，當我們展望明年時，我們已經與這些客戶積壓了大量訂單，我已經為這些客戶的發貨支付了超過 8 億美元的押金。因此，我預計，隨著明年的到來，我們將看到這種需求的可持續性。我認為這確實涉及里克談到的各個領域。因此，當我考慮到明年這部分業務的成長時，我認為從基準的角度來看，我們看到它或多或少持平。

You have greenfield projects as you have construction dynamics that are influencing some timing issues. But in general, I would expect it to continue more or less at that level over a broader period of time. A lot of these orders we booked over the last couple of years and frankly, in the expansion period of '21 and '22, are more strategic and larger customers consume the bulk of our slots. So as we've seen some slowdown over the course of 2023, that's created a lot of availability for these shipments and these customers are performing in line with the commitments that they make.

您擁有綠地項目，因為您的施工動態會影響一些時間問題。但總的來說，我預計它會在更廣泛的時間內或多或少地維持在這個水平。我們在過去幾年預訂的許多訂單，坦白說，在 21 和 22 年的擴張期間，更具策略性，大客戶消耗了我們的大部分訂單。因此，正如我們在 2023 年看到的一些放緩，這為這些發貨創造了許多可用性，而這些客戶正在履行他們所做的承諾。

Just as a follow-on to some of the other things you said with -- as you're starting to fill some of those orders for, say, some of those Chinese customers that were -- you weren't able to fulfill because of some of the shortages before, what effect has that had on the backlog? And is your backlog visibility going out in time about the same as it was last quarter, a quarter before? Or is that backlog visibility is starting to shrink as you catch up on some of those orders that you weren't able to fulfill before?

正如您所說的其他一些事情的後續 - 當您開始履行其中一些訂單時，比如說，一些中國客戶 - 您無法履行，因為之前出現過一些短缺，這對積壓有什麼影響？您的積壓工作可見度是否及時與上個季度（即上個季度之前）的情況大致相同？或者，當您趕上一些以前無法履行的訂單時，積壓的可見度是否開始縮小？

I would say with new business coming into backlog, that it's not changing all that much.

我想說的是，隨著新業務的積壓，情況並沒有太大變化。

Right. So about the same.

正確的。所以大約是一樣的。

I'd say, it's about the same. Visibility is pretty consistent. Like I said, construction issues would be probably the bigger factor of whether projects would push or not. In a lot of cases, these are our new customers that are getting established. And so aren't necessarily exposed to some of the economic sort of supply-demand drivers that would affect more established customers. Now there are those kinds of customers also, and we're seeing normal behavior from them in terms of how they're balancing their capacity given their customer [demand].

我想說，差不多吧。能見度非常一致。就像我說的，建設問題可能是專案能否推進的更大因素。在很多情況下，這些都是我們正在建立的新客戶。因此，不一定會受到某些經濟類型的供需驅動因素的影響，而這些因素會影響更多的老客戶。現在也有這類客戶，我們看到他們在如何根據客戶[需求]平衡容量方面表現出正常行為。

Our next question will come from Atif Malik with Citi.

我們的下一個問題將來自花旗銀行的 Atif Malik。

Bren, in the past, you have talked about the China domestic spending as 1/3 memory makers, 1/3 kind of mature foundries and 1/3 as a new entrant into the market? And my question is like you're talking about China to drop somewhat in Q4, which segment of the China market you're seeing the drop off in Q4?

Bren，過去您曾談到中國國內的支出佔 1/3 的內存製造商、1/3 的成熟代工廠和 1/3 的新進入市場？我的問題是，就像您所說的中國市場將在第四季度下降一樣，您認為中國市場的哪個部分在第四季會下降？

Yes. I'm not -- I don't have that detail here. There's another piece of that that's also related to the infrastructure investment that Rick talked about, the wafer infrastructure and reticle infrastructure. So there's also a component of investment that's happening there. I don't -- I'm not -- we guide at the company level customer-specific activity, I'm not going to get into that.

是的。我不是——我這裡沒有這個細節。還有一點也與 Rick 談到的基礎設施投資有關，即晶圓基礎設施和光罩基礎設施。因此，那裡也存在著投資的一部分。我不——我不是——我們在公司層面指導特定於客戶的活動，我不打算討論這個問題。

Got it. And then, Rick, I have a question on gate all around. Historically, you guys have benefited when the transistor move to FinFET architecture. And as we start to see initial orders on gate all around for some of the deposition companies, can you talk about what that gate all around opportunity means for both inspection and metrology for KLA?

知道了。然後，瑞克，我有一個關於大門的問題。從歷史上看，當晶體管轉向 FinFET 架構時，你們已經受益。當我們開始看到一些沉積公司的初始訂單時，您能談談這個機會對於 KLA 的檢查和計量意味著什麼嗎？

Yes, great question. It means a couple of things. One, obviously, gate all around has been in development for a while. So we had start in terms of some of the architectures that we need to modify to support it. Specifically, we're leveraging Gen 4 technology instead of Gen 5 because of the nature of the contrast, ability of Gen 4 to see the defects that are relevant to gate all around architecture. We've made those investments and seen those results, and that's been one where we've leveraged existing technology but also leverage the work we talked about with AI, to provide capability. So we're well prepared for that when it comes to the inspection challenges associated.

是的，很好的問題。這意味著幾件事。顯然，周圍的門已經開發了一段時間了。因此，我們首先需要修改一些架構來支援它。具體來說，我們利用 Gen 4 技術而不是 Gen 5，因為對比的性質以及 Gen 4 能夠發現與周圍架構的閘極相關的缺陷的能力。我們已經進行了這些投資並看到了這些結果，我們既利用了現有技術，也利用了我們談論的人工智慧工作來提供能力。因此，當涉及相關的檢查挑戰時，我們已做好充分準備。

Metrology, big opportunities there because you're looking both for increased level of precision when it comes to the actual measurement, larger sample size because of the concerns about consistency across the wafers and across wafer and wafers, and also some of the specifics around the High-K Metal Gate control that people are looking for.

計量學，那裡有很大的機會，因為您在實際測量時尋求更高的精度水平，因為擔心晶圓之間以及晶圓與晶圓之間的一致性，以及圍繞晶圓的一些細節，所以需要更大的樣本量。人們正在尋找的高K金屬門控制。

So more capability. Again, we had a head start because as you know, that technology has been in development. So we've worked with development partners on that, feel well positioned to be able to support that as it expands. So it's going to help both process control intensity when it comes to both inspection and with metrology, and we're well positioned to support our customers to do that.

所以更多的能力。我們再次領先，因為如您所知，該技術一直在開發中。因此，我們與開發合作夥伴就此進行了合作，我們感覺自己有能力在其擴展過程中提供支援。因此，在檢查和計量方面，它將有助於提高過程控制強度，並且我們有能力支持客戶做到這一點。

Our next question will come from Sidney Ho with Deutsche Bank.

我們的下一個問題將來自德意志銀行的 Sidney Ho。

I want to ask about the DRAM strength that you guys are seeing. It seems like that was the main source of revenue upside in the quarter, and it looks to be -- based on your comments, down slightly in the next quarter in [calendar] Q4, how much of that strength is coming from shipping to the DRAM customers in China that you alluded to in the past? And how much of that is tied to advanced DRAM technology, high bandwidth memory and whatnot. And when you look at Q4, which part of that segment is going to come down?

我想問一下你們所看到的 DRAM 實力。這似乎是本季營收成長的主要來源，而且根據您的評論，[日曆]第四季的下一個季度略有下降，其中有多少力量來自運送到您過去提到的中國 DRAM 客戶是什麼？其中有多少與先進的 DRAM 技術、高頻寬記憶體等相關。當您查看第四季度時，該細分市場的哪一部分將會下降？

Yes. So when I look at the details, certainly, the shipments into China, which were expected were a driver from the baseline. As I look at the December quarter, in DRAM, I think you'll see a little bit of a mix across customers, but I don't think the number really -- the absolute number doesn't really come down all that much. So most of the investment is in that area or it's in the area that you alluded to, right, in terms of supporting some of the AI demand that's out there. But -- and then you get just general R&D investment that's happening. So it's a pretty low level overall and the bulk of it coming from some catch-up related to the China customer that we referred to.

是的。因此，當我查看細節時，毫無疑問，預計對中國的出貨量是基線的推動因素。當我觀察 12 月季度的 DRAM 時，我認為您會看到客戶之間有一些混合，但我認為這個數字並不是真的——絕對數字並沒有真正下降那麼多。因此，大部分投資都在該領域，或者是在您提到的領域，對吧，就支援現有的一些人工智慧需求而言。但是——然後你就得到了正在進行的一般研發投資。因此，總體水平相當低，其中大部分來自與我們提到的中國客戶相關的一些追趕。

One other area, we are seeing some when it comes to the interposer in terms of packaging-related [HDM]. So that is also a driver -- smaller at this point, but the growth projections are good. Remember, as DRAM is going to leverage EUV as the investment resumes, that's going to be a great opportunity for us to continue to penetrate when it comes to the R&D, but that's not what's driving it right now.

在另一個領域，我們在封裝相關的 [HDM] 方面看到了一些中介層。因此，這也是一個驅動因素——目前規模較小，但成長預測良好。請記住，隨著投資的恢復，DRAM 將利用 EUV，這將是我們在研發方面繼續滲透的絕佳機會，但這不是目前的推動因素。

Okay. Great. And maybe a follow-up for me. If you look at the SPC systems revenue, it looks like it's going to be down 5% to 7% in calendar '23. I think a quarter ago, that number was like down 10% to 12%. Can you talk about what has changed? Is it just that the WFE market has improved somewhat? Or are there other KLA specific reasons that you will point out. But more importantly, how do you think that outperformance will do next year considering some of the areas that you are strong in this year may see some moderation?

好的。偉大的。也許是我的後續行動。如果你看一下 SPC 系統的收入，看起來 23 年會下降 5% 到 7%。我認為一個季度前，這個數字下降了 10% 到 12%。能談談發生了什麼變化嗎？難道只是WFE市場有所改善嗎？或者您是否會指出其他 KLA 具體原因。但更重要的是，考慮到您今年擅長的一些領域可能會放緩，您認為明年的表現會如何？

I'm sorry, for EPC or that was SPTS?

抱歉，是 EPC 還是 SPTS？

Yes, that's for SPC.

是的，那是針對 SPC 的。

Okay. Got it. Look, we had some strength -- we continue to have strength, kind of the same things we talked about strength in optical. I think the process control intensity hasn't slowed across our customers, and we continue to see wafer being strong, we talked about macro being strong. So it's really across the portfolio of leading-edge. The thing that's falling off the most when it comes to capacity has been the product areas that are most linked to wafer starts and those would be things like overlay and films. But when it comes to the technology inspection, continued strength there.

好的。知道了。看，我們有一些實力——我們繼續有實力，就像我們談論光學方面的實力一樣。我認為我們客戶的製程控制強度並沒有放緩，我們繼續看到晶圓強勁，我們談到宏觀強勁。所以它確實是跨領域的前沿產品組合。就產能而言，下降幅度最大的是與晶圓起始相關的產品領域，例如覆蓋層和薄膜等。但說到技術檢驗，實力依然存在。

Yes. And I think the infrastructure parts of the business as well. We've seen that hold up fairly well, both in China, as we talked about in terms of doing mature, we're building capability to not only provide wafers, but also to do mature reticle sets for all the design activity that is happening. So you've got that. But then on the wafer side, you also have investments that are happening globally as those customers prepare for not only as capacity comes out fairly slowly in that industry, preparing for the resumption in demand that we're expecting here in the near future, but also different strategies around inventory stocking, more wafer-to-wafer bonding other demand for wafers.

是的。我認為業務的基礎設施部分也是如此。我們已經看到這種情況在中國都表現得相當好，正如我們在成熟方面所討論的那樣，我們正在建立能力，不僅提供晶圓，而且還為正在發生的所有設計活動提供成熟的掩模版套件。所以你已經得到了。但在晶圓方面，全球範圍內也正在進行投資，因為這些客戶不僅為該行業的產能增長相當緩慢做好準備，為我們預計在不久的將來需求的恢復做好準備，而且還為我們預期的需求恢復做好了準備。還有圍繞庫存備貨的不同策略、更多的晶圓間鍵合以及其他晶圓需求。

So that's also been a driver that we've seen hold together fairly well as we move through this year. Process control intensity is helping in, I've been pretty open with it over the course of the last year that despite some catch-up that might happen with some peers related to challenges in '22 with supply, we felt pretty good about our positioning and our exposure to some of the fastest-growing markets overall. The mix of business that's more logic/foundry-centric and this infrastructure exposure that I referred to.

因此，這也是我們今年看到的一個相當好的驅動因素。過程控制強度正在發揮作用，在過去的一年裡，我一直對此持開放態度，儘管一些同行可能會因 22 年供應方面的挑戰而出現一些追趕，但我們對自己的定位感覺很好以及我們對一些整體成長最快的市場的投資。更加以邏輯/代工廠為中心的業務組合以及我提到的基礎設施暴露。

Our next question will come from Krish Sankar with TD Cowen.

我們的下一個問題將由 Krish Sankar 和 TD Cowen 提出。

Rick or Bren, I'm curious, you mentioned like the demand profile stays in the first half of next year. But some of your peers have called calender '24 like a transition year. And how do I overlay the fact that memory could rebound in the back half of next year, how to think about these industry WFE or KLA revenue profile next year?

Rick 或 Bren，我很好奇，您提到需求狀況將保持在明年上半年。但有些同行將日曆「24」稱為過渡年。我如何疊加記憶體可能在明年下半年反彈的事實，如何考慮明年這些產業 WFE 或 KLA 的收入狀況？

So I'll take part of it and Bren can answer. We don't know what '24 is going to look like. We just don't know. And we know what our customers are saying right now. But they don't really know yet either. So we're talking about a sustained level of business kind of being similar to what it is right now until we have a reason to believe it's going to go up. Customers talk about things improving. We have meetings and they talk about asking us to get ready. But until we actually see it happening, we don't really know. So it's very hard to talk about the levels.

所以我會參與其中，布倫可以回答。我們不知道「24」會是什麼樣子。我們只是不知道。我們知道客戶現在在說什麼。但他們也不知道。因此，我們談論的是與現在類似的持續業務水平，直到我們有理由相信它會上升。客戶談論事情正在改善。我們開會，他們討論要我們做好準備。但在我們真正看到它發生之前，我們真的不知道。所以很難談水平。

What we do know is you have historically low levels of investment company right now in memory, and we see the same thing as you do in terms of pricing. And then we're well positioned for ramping when it does ramp. We also know we have some very good indications on some of our long-term products that are products that have long lead times. But as Bren said, like an optical inspection or capacity constrained, not demand constrained on those. So that's kind of how we're looking at it. We don't really have any unique visibility into '24 than those general trends and the fact that utilization seems to have stabilized and is increasing on some of our market segments, but not much visibility beyond that.

我們所知道的是，目前您記憶中的投資公司水準處於歷史低位，而且我們在定價方面看到的情況與您相同。然後，當它確實斜坡時，我們就處於良好的位置。我們也知道，我們的一些長期產品有一些非常好的跡象，這些產品的交貨時間較長。但正如布倫所說，就像光學檢查或產能受到限制，而不是需求受到限制。這就是我們的看法。除了這些整體趨勢之外，我們對 24 確實沒有任何獨特的了解，事實上，我們的一些細分市場的利用率似乎已經穩定並且正在增加，但除此之外沒有太多的可見性。

Yes. Look, I made the comment about utilization rates, and I think that's encouraging in terms of the stabilizing environment that we're articulating here. that's certainly a factor. Well, of course, we watch our customers' business models, their profitability, their cash flows, that will, okay, you're seeing the industry digest the capacity that was added and then get sort of healthy again and see pricing and all those things improve. But then one of the catalysts that are going to drive growth into next year.

是的。看，我對利用率發表了評論，我認為這對於我們在這裡闡述的穩定環境是令人鼓舞的。這當然是一個因素。好吧，當然，我們會觀察客戶的商業模式、他們的盈利能力、他們的現金流，這會，好吧，你會看到行業消化了增加的產能，然後再次變得健康，並看到定價和所有這些事情有所改善。但這是推動明年成長的催化劑之一。

In our near term, as we said in the prepared comments, we see roughly this level of business as we move through the first half of the year. One of the things that we really focus on is we've got to make sure that we're flexible enough to be able to respond. And so we've made a lot of investments over the last few years in our supply chain and our own capacity to make sure that we have the flexibility to respond because I would expect that we could get surprised. We usually do.

正如我們在準備好的評論中所說，在我們的近期內，我們在今年上半年大致看到了這樣的業務水平。我們真正關注的事情之一是我們必須確保我們足夠靈活，能夠做出回應。因此，過去幾年我們在供應鏈和自身能力方面進行了大量投資，以確保我們能夠靈活應對，因為我預計我們可能會感到驚訝。我們通常會這樣做。

And so we want to make sure that we're in a position that we're not -- we're not constrained in our ability to supply and meet that when it happens. So that's our focus. And I think the color we provided in terms of how to think about the company and how we're sizing the company in the near term is reflected in (inaudible)

因此，我們希望確保我們處於不存在的境地——當這種情況發生時，我們的供應和滿足能力不會受到限制。這就是我們的重點。我認為我們在如何看待公司以及我們如何在短期內調整公司規模方面提供的色彩反映在（聽不清楚）

Got it. Got it. And then a quick follow-up. As you said, the recent export control work has no material impact to your outlook?

知道了。知道了。然後快速跟進。正如您所說，近期的出口管制工作對您的前景沒有實質影響嗎？

And so we're looking at that and working our way through it. It's quite complex. But preliminary estimates based on the -- I'll call it, the baseline that was established in October of last year. Right now, we don't see any real material change to our business expectations related to those new regulations. But we're working our way through it, it's complex.

所以我們正在研究這個問題並努力解決它。這相當複雜。但初步估計是基於——我稱之為去年十月建立的基線。目前，我們沒有看到與這些新法規相關的業務預期發生任何真正的重大變化。但我們正在努力解決這個問題，這很複雜。

Next, we'll have Timothy Arcuri with UBS.

接下來，我們將邀請瑞銀集團的 Timothy Arcuri。

Bren, everyone's asking about 2024 WFE, but I guess I'm still a little confused as to what the right baseline is for this year, because pretty much everyone has now guided for Q4. So if I take you, plus Applied, plus Lam, yes, it's down 13%. So that would mean that your $80 billion number might be in the ballpark off of that mid-90s last year. But if I include ASML, it's like flat. I mean even if you exclude the fast shipments, it's fairly down. So how is WFE down this year? I guess I'm just trying to get some understanding of like how you get to that $80 billion number. Is it excluding ASML somehow?

布倫（Bren），每個人都在詢問 2024 年 WFE，但我想我仍然對今年的正確基線感到有點困惑，因為幾乎每個人現在都已經為第四季度提供了指導。因此，如果我帶你，加上 Applied，加上 Lam，是的，它下降了 13%。因此，這意味著 800 億美元的數字可能在去年 90 年代中期的範圍內。但如果我包括 ASML，那就很平淡了。我的意思是，即使你排除快速發貨，它的價格也相當低。那麼今年WFE的表現如何呢？我想我只是想了解如何得出 800 億美元這個數字。它是否以某種方式排除了ASML？

Yes, Tim, we're not experts on this. What we do is we take a look at what -- we look at the universe of peer companies and how they report. If you look at what our customers say, we have some modeling that we do. And we come up with an estimate for that. So this year is a little hard because of fast shipments, and I don't even really understand all the nuances in that and that's for you guys to figure out. But also some of the issues that affected some of the other providers in late '22 in terms of their ability or inability to deliver in '22 and how that shows up in '23.

是的，提姆，我們不是這方面的專家。我們所做的就是觀察同行公司的整體情況以及他們的報告方式。如果你看看我們的客戶怎麼說，我們會做一些建模。我們對此做出了估計。所以今年有點困難，因為發貨速度很快，我什至不太明白其中的所有細微差別，這需要你們去弄清楚。但也有一些問題在 22 年末影響了其他一些供應商，包括他們在 22 年交付或無法交付的能力以及在 23 年如何表現。

But when we look at how we're performing overall, we think that it's in and around that low. Certainly, the fact that we're down given our belief about our market position. And if you look at Semi PC based on the guidance we provided being somewhere around down, we'll call it, 9%, 10%, somewhere in that ballpark. It doesn't feel flat to me.

但當我們審視我們的整體表現時，我們認為它處於較低水平。當然，鑑於我們對市場地位的信心，我們的業績下滑了。如果你根據我們提供的指導來觀察 Semi PC，我們會稱之為 9%、10%，大約在這個範圍內。我覺得不太平。

Okay. All right, Bren. And then I guess my second question is on inventory. It's now up to almost 300 days. It's up like $500 million over the past 6 months, but we're not really sure when WFE picks up inside of next year. I get that you still have this huge $10.8 billion worth of PO that you're kind of working off. But why is this stuff parked so far out in the future? Is it -- and if so, why hold the inventory now? What's the bottleneck? Is there something on your side still that's a bottleneck? Or is it more that the orders have been placed and maybe waiting for the fab, to be ready to take the equipment and that's why you're building up the inventory. I guess I'm just not sure why you would build the inventory if this stuff is still parked so far in the future.

好的。好吧，布倫。然後我想我的第二個問題是關於庫存的。現在已經快300天了。在過去 6 個月裡，它增加了大約 5 億美元，但我們並不確定 WFE 何時會在明年內回升。我知道你們還有價值 108 億美元的巨額採購訂單正在處理中。但為什麼這些東西在未來會被擱置得那麼遠呢？是嗎？如果是，為什麼現在要持有庫存？瓶頸是什麼？你這邊是否還有什麼瓶頸？或者更多的是訂單已經下達，可能正在等待晶圓廠準備好接收設備，這就是您建立庫存的原因。我想我只是不確定如果這些東西在未來仍然停放的話你為什麼要建立庫存。

Yes, Tim, it's a great question. It's a little bit of the trade-off that we make, and I spent a lot of time talking about how we were able to outperform the industry for a couple of years in a row in terms of some of the supply chain challenges that others were facing that we weren't. Part of it has to do with how we manage our suppliers. We do have a lot of long lead time parts and so if you just go back to, we'll call it, 15-months ago, we thought 2023 was going to be a growth year on top of what we thought was going to be $100 billion year in 2022. So, we had made commitments. We were putting commitments out longer to get our suppliers to invest. We've invested in them in terms of partnering on their capacity expansions.

是的，提姆，這是一個很好的問題。這是我們做出的一點權衡，我花了很多時間談論我們如何能夠連續幾年在其他公司所面臨的一些供應鏈挑戰方面跑贏行業。面對我們不是。部分原因與我們管理供應商的方式有關。我們確實有很多交貨時間較長的零件，所以如果你回到 15 個月前，我們認為 2023 年將是增長的一年2022 年達到 1000 億美元。因此，我們做出了承諾。為了讓我們的供應商投資，我們做出了更長的承諾。我們對他們進行了投資，並與他們合作擴大產能。

We manage our -- so I place those commitments to suppliers, we've been able to manage what we can, but in a lot of cases, we honor our commitments. And we feel that in the long run, we're in a good position in terms of the longevity of our platforms and where we expect demand to come from that will consume those parts. So some of it is what you're optimizing for in terms of our differentiation in terms of how we work with our supply chain, and we're accepting that we're going to be pretty good customers. We're going to move up to our commitments and take the parts that we've committed to. So we feel pretty good in the long run about our positioning in terms of our ability to grow when we see a reacceleration from the industry.

我們管理我們的——所以我向供應商做出了這些承諾，我們已經能夠管理我們所能管理的，但在許多情況下，我們兌現我們的承諾。我們認為，從長遠來看，我們在平台的壽命方面處於有利地位，並且我們預計需求將來自消耗這些零件。因此，其中一些是您在我們與供應鏈合作的差異化方面所優化的，並且我們接受我們將成為非常好的客戶。我們將兌現我們的承諾並承擔我們已承諾的部分。因此，從長遠來看，當我們看到行業重新加速時，我們對我們的成長能力定位感到非常滿意。

And the other issue is that our service business continues to grow, right? It grows every year, and that growth drives a fair amount of demand in service. It's a high complexity, high mix, low-volume business. And because of the customization of the parts, we tend to have to do end-of-life buys and have to buy a lot of parts to support that business. When you look at our margin profile overall for the company, feel like the trade-offs we're making are appropriate. And we think it's played a big role in our relative success.

另一個問題是我們的服務業務持續成長，對嗎？它每年都在成長，這種成長帶動了相當多的服務需求。這是一項高複雜性、高混合性、小批量的業務。由於零件是客製化的，我們往往必須進行報廢購買，並且必須購買大量零件來支援該業務。當您查看公司的整體利潤狀況時，會覺得我們所做的權衡是適當的。我們認為這對我們的相對成功發揮了重要作用。

Our next question will come from Charles Shi with Needham.

我們的下一個問題將由查爾斯·史和李約瑟提出。

This morning, I think one of your smaller peers in Europe, they talked about seeing some weakening of the mature in foundry/logic side of the WFE. I wonder if KLA is seeing something similar. I mean either through your process control business or the EPC business? If not, why is that? And I have a second question.

今天早上，我想歐洲的一個較小的同行，他們談到看到 WFE 的代工/邏輯方面的成熟度有所減弱。我想知道 KLA 是否也看到了類似的情況。我的意思是透過您的流程控制業務還是 EPC 業務？如果不是，那是為什麼呢？我還有第二個問題。

Not really. Look, we're watching for certain parts of, I'll call non-China legacy exposure to automotive, industrial, some of those markets to see if that has an effect on customer demand. But right now, our expectations around legacy in the near term has been fairly consistent.

並不真地。聽著，我們正在關注汽車、工業等一些市場的某些部分，我稱之為非中國傳統市場，看看這是否會對客戶需求產生影響。但目前，我們對近期遺產的預期相當一致。

Got it. So Bren, maybe a question on OpEx. Both of your peers in the bay area, they are raising their OpEx for basically the next calendar year. How should we think about KLA's OpEx going into next year, say, you talked about you're expecting revenue to be run rating at the current level, should we be thinking OpEx is kind of flat until you see the uptick in the revenue. I mean before you really raise the OpEx.

知道了。布倫（Bren），也許是關於營運支出的問題。灣區的兩位同行基本上都在提高下一個日曆年的營運支出。我們應該如何看待 KLA 明年的營運支出，比如說，您談到您預計收入將保持在當前水平，我們是否應該認為營運支出持平，直到您看到收入的上升。我的意思是在你真正提高營運支出之前。

Run rating at the current level does give you a little bit of growth into next year. And as I said, we would expect to see growth in Service. I actually think EPC probably has some modest improvement off of pretty depressed levels. Our incremental operating margin model drives how we're running the business in terms of expectations for leverage on incremental revenue. So I would expect to see a modest uptick in OpEx. We're also balancing sort of near term in terms of how we're sizing for the current environment, but also our long-term investment, requirements.

目前水準的運行評級確實會為你帶來明年的一些成長。正如我所說，我們預計服務將會成長。事實上，我認為 EPC 可能在相當低迷的水平上有所改善。我們的增量營業利潤率模型根據對增量收入槓桿的預期來推動我們的業務運作方式。因此，我預計營運支出將會小幅上升。我們也在短期內平衡當前環境的規模，以及我們的長期投資和要求。

And given our market position and our desire to go to market with the portfolio that we think is a competitive advantage for KLA does drive some requirements for investment. And we'll do that independent of topline when appropriate. But as we're looking out going forward, I would say that we'll probably see OpEx tick up a little bit as we move through '24, but not a big change, more in line with general kind of cost to living type adjustments overall.

考慮到我們的市場地位以及我們希望將我們認為對 KLA 具有競爭優勢的投資組合推向市場，確實推動了一些投資要求。在適當的時候，我們將獨立於頂線進行這項工作。但當我們展望未來時，我想說，隨著我們進入 24 年，我們可能會看到營運支出略有上升，但變化不大，更符合生活類型調整的一般成本全面的。

Our next question will come from Joe Moore with Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題將來自摩根士丹利的喬摩爾。

You talked about maybe a little bit of weakness at the cutting edge of foundry logic. Wondering if you could talk about that. And then I guess, just contextually, if we're in an environment where there's very aggressive investment in gate all around and backside power, but there are sort of limited wafer requirements in year 1 for those technologies. I would think that helps KLA in terms of percentage of WFE, but can you just walk us through how much of your -- how much money will they spend on the development of those processes versus the expansion of wafer, that capability there?

您談到了代工邏輯前沿可能存在的一些弱點。想知道你是否可以談談這個。然後我想，就上下文而言，如果我們所處的環境對閘極和背面功率進行了非常積極的投資，但這些技術在第一年的晶圓需求有限。我認為這對 KLA 在 WFE 的百分比方面有所幫助，但是您能否向我們介紹一下他們將在這些工藝的開發上與晶圓的擴展上花費多少資金，以及那裡的能力？

Well, so we still -- we do get investment at the front end, but for more for development, but the ramp phase is really where you see -- that's where you see more of it. So you get it at the front when they're doing development and then this starts to ramp to get more. And we get less incrementally across the portfolio as you are in high volume. So yes, it would help us in terms of intensity around those new nodes, but often, those companies are also expanding the trailing nodes at a similar time, one or two generations. So on balance, doesn't look that different overall as most of these companies ramp up at if that makes sense.

好吧，所以我們仍然 - 我們確實在前端獲得了投資，但更多的是用於開發，但斜坡階段確實是你看到的 - 這就是你看到更多的地方。因此，當他們進行開發時，您會在前面得到它，然後開始逐漸獲得更多。由於您的交易量很大，因此我們在整個投資組合中的增量較少。所以，是的，這將有助於我們圍繞這些新節點的強度，但通常，這些公司也會在相似的時間（一兩代）擴展尾隨節點。因此，總的來說，總體而言，看起來並沒有什麼不同，因為如果有意義的話，大多數這些公司都會加強。

So you get it at the front end, but the rest of the -- so you look at process control intensity, it doesn't really change that much in foundry/logic year-to-year because they're investing across multiple parts. The biggest change has come from the mix of foundry/logic to memory. And memory is increasing some. So yes, there are more layers, there's more investment going on, but it's still balanced by they're going to ramp. We hope not just the R&D, but they're going to be ramping in terms of across the board. That's how we get to the model that we found for 2026, is based on process control intensity, inching up over time as processes just get more challenging.

所以你在前端得到它，但其餘的——所以你看看過程控制強度，它在鑄造/邏輯方面每年並沒有真正改變那麼多，因為他們在多個部分進行投資。最大的變化來自代工廠/邏輯與記憶體的混合。而且記憶體也在增加一些。所以，是的，有更多的層，有更多的投資正在進行，但仍然透過它們的成長來平衡。我們不僅希望研發，而且希望它們能夠全面提升。這就是我們找到的 2026 年模型的方式，該模型基於過程控制強度，隨著時間的推移，過程變得更具挑戰性，該強度會逐漸增加。

Yes. The roadmap schedules have held pretty well together. What we've seen is customers adjusting some of the capacity plans. So as you look at 2024, you're more likely to see, for example, more N3, you're going to see N2 activity and we'll start to see some of that soon. And -- but most -- the bulk of it will be more at N3. What you likely don't see is you probably won't see a lot of investment from our major customers and some of the more legacy parts of their businesses, where they pull back.

是的。路線圖行程安排得很好。我們看到客戶正在調整一些產能計劃。因此，當您展望 2024 年時，您更有可能看到更多的 N3，您將看到 N2 活動，我們很快就會開始看到其中的一些活動。而且——但大多數——其中大部分將集中在 N3。你可能看不到的是，你可能不會看到我們的主要客戶以及他們業務中一些更遺留的部分進行大量投資，他們會撤回這些投資。

But to Rick's point, we're seeing some of it. We'll see that investment as they ramp. We're seeing more investment today in production given the number of designs that are moving through the leading-edge nodes and the different process flows is creating opportunities for or -- and more challenges for our customers in terms of process control and defectivity challenges across different designs as they test design rules in different ways. So I think we have our normal historic exposure to R&D and to ramp. But over the last few years, we're seeing, particularly with the introduction of EUV and the progressing of scaling we're seeing more adoption in what we call the HVM or the high-volume manufacturing phases.

但就里克的觀點而言，我們已經看到了其中的一些。隨著投資的增加，我們將會看到這些投資。鑑於透過前沿節點的設計數量和不同的製程，我們今天看到了更多的生產投資，這為我們的客戶創造了機會，也為我們的客戶帶來了更多的挑戰，包括製程控制和缺陷挑戰。不同的設計，因為他們以不同的方式測試設計規則。因此，我認為我們在研發和產能方面擁有正常的歷史風險。但在過去幾年中，我們看到，特別是隨著 EUV 的引入和擴展的進展，我們看到在我們所說的 HVM 或大批量製造階段得到了更多的採用。

Our next question will come from Blayne Curtis with Barclays.

我們的下一個問題將來自巴克萊銀行的布萊恩柯蒂斯。

I just wanted to follow back up on the comments you just made on foundry logic. So it was flat. It seems like China is probably up within that mix, and then you said leading-edge is weak. I'm just kind of curious how that changes for December. It seems like the outlook is fairly flat. So is that weakness in leading-edge kind of stabilize, and then kind of any perspective as to where leading-edge goes next year?

我只是想跟進您剛剛對鑄造邏輯發表的評論。所以它是平的。看起來中國可能在這種組合中處於領先地位，然後你說領先優勢很弱。我只是有點好奇 ​​12 月情況會發生什麼變化。看起來前景相當平淡。那麼，領先優勢的疲軟是否已經穩定下來，那麼明年領先優勢的走向有什麼前景呢？

So I feel like where we are today, I think your stabilization comment is the right one. I think we've derisked it and given that we tend to be more of a long lead-time provider. I think we've made a lot of the adjustments that we needed to make already in terms of how we're planning for this year. And as we move into next year, right, I think if you just sort of aggregate leading-edge activity, we'll see as customers start to provide a little bit more insight. But again, back to the stabilization comment, I don't see it declining from here.

所以我覺得我們今天所處的位置，我認為你的穩定評論是正確的。我認為我們已經消除了這種風險，並考慮到我們往往是一家交貨時間較長的供應商。我認為我們已經就今年的計劃做出了很多需要做出的調整。當我們進入明年時，對吧，我認為如果你只是匯總前沿活動，我們會看到客戶開始提供更多的見解。但再次回到穩定評論，我認為它不會從這裡開始下降。

I just want to ask on Service, in your letter, you talked about getting back to that 12% to 14%. I just want to know, is that assuming any utilization increases? Or is that just purely the tools coming off of their agreement?

我只是想問一下服務方面的問題，在你的信中，你談到要回到 12% 到 14%。我只是想知道，這是假設利用率增加嗎？或者這純粹是他們協議中的工具？

Yes, it's the latter. I think we're expecting utilization to slowly improve, but the bulk of it will come from new tools coming into contract. I think to expect to start to see overall industry improvement into '24, the first thing you'll see is utilization start to improve. So we would expect that and then once you see that, and then eventually, utilization gets to a place where customers need new capacity and then those decisions happen.

是的，是後者。我認為我們預計利用率會慢慢提高，但其中大部分將來自合約中的新工具。我認為，預計到 24 年，整個產業將開始改善，您首先會看到利用率開始改善。因此，我們預計會出現這種情況，一旦看到這一點，最終，利用率會達到客戶需要新容量的程度，然後就會做出這些決定。

Our next question will come from Mehdi Hosseini with SFG.

我們的下一個問題將來自 SFG 的 Mehdi Hosseini。

Yes. Just a quick follow-up. As you think about the R&D price, especially you highlighted gate all around at some point, we have to change the narrative to High-NA. And I want to just get an update, how do you see kind of opportunities as it relates to High-NA specifically on the patterning? And I have a follow-up.

是的。只是快速跟進。當您考慮研發價格時，尤其是您在某個時候強調了周圍的門，我們必須將敘述改為高NA。我想了解最新情況，您如何看待高 NA 特別是圖案相關的機會？我有一個後續行動。

Well, I mean, what High-NA enables is the continuation of scaling, right? So that's been good news for KLA. You notice process control intensity in general, but more specifically for KLA has gone up as EUV has started to be adopted because now you're scaling -- we're not on what was traditionally Moore's Law, but we're seeing scaling. So High-NA means there's going to be more scaling happening, and that's going to be good and specifically good for KLA because it drives the highest performance requirements, which plays to our portfolio strength.

嗯，我的意思是，高 NA 能夠實現擴展的持續，對吧？這對 KLA 來說是個好消息。您會注意到總體上流程控制強度，但更具體地說，隨著EUV 開始採用，KLA 的流程控制強度有所提高，因為現在您正在擴展- 我們沒有遵守傳統的摩爾定律，但我們看到了擴展。因此，高 NA 意味著將會發生更多的擴展，這對 KLA 來說尤其有利，因為它推動了最高的效能要求，這發揮了我們的產品組合優勢。

So part of what our modeling is when we book -- we don't see a lot of High-NA happening in the timeline that we laid out for 2026 for our Investor Day, it's after that. But we'll see early stages of it before 2026, and that will drive -- continue to provide more opportunity for us to participate in higher process control intensity.

因此，我們在預訂時建模的一部分是——在我們為 2026 年投資者日制定的時間表中，我們沒有看到很多高數值孔徑的情況發生，而是在那之後。但我們將在 2026 年之前看到它的早期階段，這將繼續為我們提供更多機會參與更高的過程控制強度。

Are you implying that Gen 5 could be -- the use of Gen 5 could be extended to High-NA for patterning.

您是否暗示 Gen 5 可能是——Gen 5 的使用可以擴展到高 NA 進行圖案化。

For sure, absolutely. We're still using Gen 4. We're using Gen 4 now because of the extensions that we made in the platform, not just in terms of wavelength but adding more processing capability, the leveraging of AI, the use of both Gen 4 and Gen 5, actually Gen 4 will out-ship Gen 5 this year, and we'll continue to see that adoption.

肯定，絕對。我們仍在使用 Gen 4。我們現在使用 Gen 4 是因為我們在平台中進行了擴展，不僅在波長方面，而且增加了更多處理能力、人工智慧的利用、Gen 4 和 Gen 4 的使用。第5代，實際上第4 代今年的出貨量將超過第5 代，我們將繼續看到這種採用。

So it really is talking about the critical layers and we have more extensions in mind in the -- on the works that we're doing right now for Gen 5 that will extend it well into the even in the High-NA, then hyper-NA, which is going to come after that. So we feel very good about our optical product portfolio.

所以它確實是在談論關鍵層，我們在我們現在正在為第 5 代所做的工作中考慮了更多的擴展，這將把它很好地擴展到甚至在高 NA 中，然後是超- NA ，這將在那之後出現。所以我們對我們的光學產品組合感覺非常好。

Okay. And then the second follow has to be on China, it seems like for KLA and the peer group, the China mix is getting closer to 50%. Could there be a scenario where opportunities for KLA would actually step up given the fact that many of these customers are new, and they have yield issue. And I understand China is mostly for [trading-edge], but with new entrants, new players, with the higher entrances and improving yield by these new players, have a higher mix of China for KLA relative to the peer group?

好的。然後第二個關注點必須是中國，對於 KLA 和同行來說，中國的比例似乎越來越接近 50%。鑑於許多客戶都是新客戶並且有產量問題，KLA 的機會實際上會增加嗎？據我所知，中國主要是為了[貿易優勢]，但隨著新進入者、新參與者的進入和這些新參與者的產量提高，相對於同行群體，KLA 的中國組合更高？

Well, you have a lot of customers that are subscale, that are trying to develop process capability and demonstrate capability to customers, also invest for viability over time in terms of longer-term node progression. So in early stages, upscale stages like that, you're going to see a heavier investment in process control. Now as they continue to put roadmaps, it might stay there because they never really had a huge meaningful amount of capacity at each node.

嗯，你有很多規模較小的客戶，他們正在嘗試開發流程能力並向客戶展示能力，同時也投資於長期節點進展的可行性。因此，在早期階段，像這樣的高檔階段，您將看到製程控制的投資更大。現在，當他們繼續制定路線圖時，它可能會停留在那裡，因為他們從未在每個節點上真正擁有大量有意義的容量。

But you do see higher levels of adoption early on as you're trying to -- because if you think about it, you might buy a few process tools here and there, but you need the whole suite of process control. And so that's why we tend to see a little bit more activity there. But I think given the desire to progress along roadmaps into progress nodes, you're going to see, I think, a continued level of investment overall. But certainly, as you start to mature and if you're running a limited number of designs, process control intensity will higher in production than it used to be, is still lower than it is in what we'll call the ramp phase of a project.

但是，當您嘗試這樣做時，您確實會在早期看到更高水平的採用 - 因為如果您考慮一下，您可能會到處購買一些流程工具，但您需要整套流程控制。這就是為什麼我們傾向於在那裡看到更多的活動。但我認為，考慮到沿著路線圖進入進展節點的願望，我認為您將看到整體投資水準的持續成長。 But certainly, as you start to mature and if you're running a limited number of designs, process control intensity will higher in production than it used to be, is still lower than it is in what we'll call the ramp phase of a專案.

Our last question will come from Brian Chin with Stifel.

我們的最後一個問題將由 Stifel 的 Brian Chin 提出。

I'll just ask one question then get us out of here. But -- and you can correct me if I'm wrong here, but I've gotten a sense maybe that given how strong the infrastructure bear wafer and reticle inspection business into China was this year that it could subside a little in the calendar '24 relative to its strength again this past year. Is that sort of implicit in your outlook in the first half next year? And also, do you think that is proportional in any way to sort of the rate of China fab bill out activity that you can maybe observe for next year?

我只問一個問題，然後就帶我們離開這裡。但是 – 如果我錯了，你可以糾正我，但我有一種感覺，考慮到今年進入中國的基礎設施 晶圓和光罩檢查業務的強勁程度，它可能會在日曆上略有減弱。24 相對於去年的實力再次上升。您對明年上半年的展望是否也隱含了這一點？而且，您認為這與您明年可能觀察到的中國晶圓廠帳單活動的比率是否成正比？

Well, I don't think it's -- I think the overall wafer infrastructure investment will -- that's been faster than WFE growth this year will flatten out as we move into next year. So there's -- that starts to slow down. On China specifically, though, I don't see it changing much. I don't think it's going to grow much next year, but I don't see it falling off. And that's across for silicon wafer but also around reticle capability.

嗯，我不認為——我認為整體晶圓基礎設施投資將——比今年 WFE 的成長速度更快，隨著我們進入明年，晶圓基礎設施的成長將會趨於平緩。所以，速度開始放緩。不過，具體到中國，我認為情況沒有太大變化。我認為明年它不會增長太多，但我也不認為它會下降。這不僅適用於矽晶圓，也適用於掩模版能力。

Thank you Brian and thank you Chelsea. I just wanted to thank everyone again for their time and turn the call back over to you for any final instructions.

謝謝布萊恩，謝謝切爾西。我只是想再次感謝大家抽出寶貴的時間，並將電話轉回給您以獲取最終指示。

This does conclude the KLA Corporation's September Quarter 2023 Earnings Call and Webcast. Please disconnect your line at this time, and have a wonderful day.

KLA Corporation 的 2023 年 9 月季度收益電話會議和網路廣播到此結束。此時請斷開您的線路，祝您有美好的一天。