美光科技 (MU) 2018 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon. My name is Brian, I will be your conference facilitator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Micron Technology's Third Quarter 2018 Financial Release Conference Call. (Operator Instructions)

午安.我叫布萊恩，今天我將擔任你們的會議主持人。在此，我謹代表美光科技公司歡迎各位參加2018年第三季財務業績發布電話會議。（操作說明）

It is now my pleasure to turn the conference over to your host, Shanye Hudson. You may begin your conference.

現在我很高興將會議交給主持人 Shanye Hudson。您可以開始會議了。

Thank you, Brian, and welcome to Micron Technology's Third Fiscal Quarter 2018 Financial Conference Call. On the call with me today are: Sanjay Mehrotra, President and CEO; and Dave Zinsner, Chief Financial Officer. Today's call will be approximately 60 minutes in length. This call, including audio and slides, is also being webcast from our Investor Relations website at investors.micron.com. In addition, our website contains the earnings press release filed a short while ago.

謝謝布萊恩，歡迎參加美光科技2018財年第三季財務電話會議。今天和我一起通話的是：總裁兼執行長 Sanjay Mehrotra；以及財務長 Dave Zinsner。今天的電話會議大約需要60分鐘。本次電話會議（包括音訊和幻燈片）也將在我們的投資者關係網站 investors.micron.com 上進行網路直播。此外，我們的網站上也刊登了不久前發布的獲利新聞稿。

Today's discussion of financial results will be presented on a non-GAAP financial basis, unless otherwise specified. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures may be found on our website, along with the convertible debt and capped call dilution table.

除非另有說明，今天對財務業績的討論將以非公認會計準則（non-GAAP）為基礎。您可以在我們的網站上找到 GAAP 與非 GAAP 財務指標的調整表，以及可轉換債券和上限選擇權稀釋表。

Both the prepared remarks from this call and webcast replay will be available on our website later today. We encourage you to monitor our website at micron.com throughout the quarter for the most current information on the company, including information on the various financial conferences that we'll be attending. You can also follow us on Twitter, @MicronTech.

本次電話會議的準備好的發言稿和網路直播回放將於今天稍晚在我們的網站上發布。我們鼓勵您在本季度密切關注我們的網站 micron.com，以獲取有關公司的最新信息，包括我們將參加的各種金融會議的信息。您也可以在 Twitter 上關注我們，帳號是 @MicronTech。

As a reminder, the matters we will be discussing today include forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from statements being made today. We refer you to the documents we file with the SEC, specifically our most recent Form 10-K and Form 10-Q, for a discussion of risks that may affect our future results. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements, and we are under no duty to update any other forward-looking statements after today's date to conform these statements to actual results.

再次提醒大家，我們今天將要討論的事項包含前瞻性陳述。這些前瞻性陳述存在風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果與今天所作的陳述有重大差異。有關可能影響我們未來業績的風險的討論，請參閱我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件，特別是我們最新的 10-K 表格和 10-Q 表格。儘管我們認為前瞻性陳述中反映的預期是合理的，但我們無法保證未來的業績、活動水平、表現或成就，並且我們沒有義務在今天之後更新任何其他前瞻性陳述，以使這些陳述與實際結果相符。

I'll now turn the call over to you, Sanjay.

現在我把電話交給你，桑傑。

Thank you, Shanye. Good afternoon, everyone. Micron continues to perform exceptionally well, achieving record revenue and profitability and generating strong operating cash flow in the third quarter. Our focus on structural improvements and consistent execution is driving improved financial performance. First, we are accelerating advanced technology development and rapidly deploying it into production to meet our supply growth and product cost reduction targets. Second, we are broadening our portfolio of high-value solutions to drive increased profitability and strengthen our customer relationships. And third, we announced a capital return program to repurchase up to $10 billion of our shares outstanding starting in fiscal 2019. These initiatives underscore our commitment to enhancing long-term shareholder value.

謝謝你，山野。大家下午好。美光科技持續保持優異的業績，第三季實現了創紀錄的收入和獲利能力，並產生了強勁的經營現金流。我們專注於結構性改善和持續執行，從而推動財務績效的提升。首先，我們正在加快先進技術研發，並迅速將其投入生產，以滿足我們的供應成長和產品成本降低目標。其次，我們正在擴大高價值解決方案組合，以提高獲利能力並加強與客戶的關係。第三，我們宣布了一項資本回報計劃，從 2019 財年開始回購最多 100 億美元的流通股。這些措施彰顯了我們致力於提升股東長期價值的承諾。

Turning to our businesses, we delivered strong results across the breadth of our end markets. We were particularly pleased with our Mobile business, where we increased revenue by 12% sequentially, setting a new company record. Revenue from high-value mobile NAND nearly doubled quarter-over-quarter, enabled by the ramp of eMMC and eMCP products to multiple smartphone OEMs. 85% of managed NAND gigabytes that we shipped in fiscal Q3 were a lower cost to TLC NAND as compared to virtually no TLC NAND just 1 year ago.

就我們的業務而言，我們在各個終端市場都取得了強勁的業績。我們對行動業務尤其感到滿意，該業務收入環比增長了 12%，創下公司新紀錄。由於 eMMC 和 eMCP 產品向多家智慧型手機 OEM 廠商的推廣，高價值行動 NAND 的營收環比幾乎翻了一番。我們在第三財季出貨的託管 NAND GB 中有 85% 的成本低於 TLC NAND，而就在 1 年前，TLC NAND 幾乎為零。

Memory and storage content per phone continues to rise, creating ongoing demand for our mobile solutions. We are strategically shipping our mobile portfolio to put us in the best competitive position, including the production launch of our 1X nanometer low-power DDR4 memory and several new 64-layer TLC UFS and eMCP managed NAND solutions, all later this year.

每部手機的記憶體和儲存容量持續成長，從而對我們的行動解決方案產生了持續的需求。我們正在有策略地推出我們的行動產品組合，以使我們處於最佳競爭地位，包括今年稍後推出我們的 1X 奈米低功耗 DDR4 記憶體和幾款新的 64 層 TLC UFS 和 eMCP 管理的 NAND 解決方案。

Data center trends are also driving momentum for Micron's DRAM and NAND solutions, with combined revenue up 87% year-over-year. In the third quarter, ongoing demand for our memory and storage solutions in cloud computing was a key highlight. Our DRAM and NAND revenue from cloud customers increased sequentially by 33% and 24%, respectively. This performance was enabled by our improving execution, ability to expand share and strengthening relationships with key customers in this rapidly growing segment.

資料中心的發展趨勢也推動了美光DRAM和NAND解決方案的成長，其總營收年增87%。第三季度，雲端運算領域對我們記憶體和儲存解決方案的持續需求是一大亮點。來自雲端客戶的 DRAM 和 NAND 收入較上季分別成長了 33% 和 24%。這一業績的取得得益於我們執行力的提升、市場份額的擴大以及與這一快速增長領域中的關鍵客戶關係的加強。

We stand to benefit from the significant investments cloud service providers are making to build out their IT infrastructure. Cloud CapEx is expected to be $50 billion in 2018. And as we shared during our investor event, analysts project this CapEx to reach $108 billion by 2021.

雲端服務供應商為建立其 IT 基礎架構而進行的大量投資，將使我們受益匪淺。預計2018年雲端運算資本支出將達500億美元。正如我們在投資者活動中分享的那樣，分析師預測到 2021 年，這項資本支出將達到 1,080 億美元。

We achieved record revenue across all market segments of our embedded business, enabled by shifts to higher value products and continuing LD demand. Growth was particularly robust in consumer and industrial markets, driven by trends in home and industrial automation, drones and IoT. We completed qualification of a 64-layer 3D NAND surveillance-grade microSD card, which is designed for smart surveillance deployments that move AI capabilities to edge devices. We also had notable design win activity on low-power automotive DRAM and fee-growing opportunities in the near-term for our portfolio of infotainment, dashboard and ADAS solutions.

由於向更高價值產品的轉型和持續的光達需求，我們在嵌入式業務的所有市場領域都實現了創紀錄的收入。受家庭和工業自動化、無人機和物聯網等趨勢的推動，消費市場和工業市場的成長尤其強勁。我們完成了 64 層 3D NAND 監控級 microSD 卡的認證，該卡專為智慧監控部署而設計，可將 AI 功能轉移到邊緣設備。我們在低功耗汽車DRAM方面也取得了顯著的設計訂單，並且在近期內，我們的資訊娛樂、儀錶板和ADAS解決方案組合將迎來收入成長的機會。

We readied multiple new products for customer qualification this quarter, including the first 1X nanometer low-power automotive DRAM and a GDDR6 solution for ADAS and autonomous applications. These advanced new products extend an industry-leading portfolio of unique automotive and industrial solutions that, coupled with long-term customer relationships, have helped the Embedded Business Unit deliver consistent profitable growth for Micron.

本季我們準備了多款新產品供客戶認證，其中包括首款 1X 奈米低功耗汽車 DRAM 和用於 ADAS 和自動駕駛應用的 GDDR6 解決方案。這些先進的新產品擴展了業界領先的獨特汽車和工業解決方案組合，再加上長期的客戶關係，幫助嵌入式業務部門為美光實現了持續獲利成長。

Overall, we continue to strengthen our product portfolio as we shift our mix away from components and toward high-value solutions. We are outpacing competitors in the high-value graphics market and our graphics revenue more than doubled year-over-year. We also set another company record in overall SSD sales, increasing our revenue by 37% versus a year ago. We've began volume production shipments of our 64-layer 3D NAND enterprise SATA SSD and shipped the world's first QLC-based SSD, a high-capacity drive, ideal for read-centric applications like streaming media servers.

整體而言，我們將持續強化產品組合，逐步減少零件，轉向高價值解決方案。我們在高價值圖形市場超越了競爭對手，我們的圖形收入比去年同期成長了一倍以上。我們在固態硬碟 (SSD) 整體銷售額方面也創下了公司新紀錄，營收比去年同期成長了 37%。我們已開始大量生產出貨我們的 64 層 3D NAND 企業級 SATA SSD，並交付了世界上第一款基於 QLC 的 SSD，這是一款高容量硬碟，非常適合以讀取為中心的應用，例如串流媒體伺服器。

This QLC SSD is built on our industry-leading 64-layer 3D NAND, utilizing the first ever terabit NAND die in the industry. As we continue to introduce new SSD solutions on lower cost next-generation technologies, we believe that we can unlock new pools of demand that are currently being served by HDDs. Our technology and operational execution continues to pay dividends. As we recently shared, we achieved yield maturity and production output crossover on our 64-layer 3D NAND ahead of schedule. We still expect to have production shipments on our 96-layer 3D NAND in the second half of calendar year 2018.

這款 QLC SSD 採用我們業界領先的 64 層 3D NAND 技術，使用了業界首款太比特 NAND 晶片。隨著我們不斷推出基於低成本下一代技術的全新 SSD 解決方案，我們相信我們可以釋放目前由 HDD 滿足的新需求。我們的技術和營運執行力持續帶來回報。正如我們最近分享的那樣，我們的 64 層 3D NAND 晶片提前實現了良率成熟和產量突破。我們仍預計在 2018 年下半年實現 96 層 3D NAND 的生產出貨。

We are also making good progress on the development of our fourth generation 3D NAND, which will utilize our novel replacement gate technology.

我們在第四代 3D NAND 的開發方面也取得了良好進展，該產品將採用我們新型的替換閘極技術。

In DRAM, we are on track to reach bit crossover on our 1X technology, and to begin production shipments on our 1Y technology, both in the second half of calendar year 2018. As we noted at our analyst event, we have a strong product and process roadmap for DRAM with 1Z and 1 alpha development programs already underway.

在 DRAM 領域，我們正按計畫推進 1X 技術實現位交叉，並計劃在 2018 年下半年開始 1Y 技術的生產出貨。正如我們在分析師活動中指出的那樣，我們擁有強大的 DRAM 產品和製程路線圖，1Z 和 1 alpha 開發計劃已經啟動。

Turning to 3D XPoint technology, as you know, we are partners with Intel in the development and manufacturing of 3D XPoint. As part of that ongoing relationship, we have been discussing the commercial terms of our future generation 3D XPoint collaboration. Our goal in these discussions is to ensure that Micron has a path to strong ROI for our investments in technology contributions. We will provide updates as appropriate as these discussions progress further.

說到 3D XPoint 技術，如您所知，我們與英特爾在 3D XPoint 的開發和製造方面是合作夥伴。作為雙方持續合作關係的一部分，我們一直在討論未來一代 3D XPoint 合作的商業條款。我們此次討論的目標是確保美光在技術貢獻方面的投資能獲得強勁的回報。隨著討論的進一步進展，我們將酌情提供最新資訊。

As we highlighted at our Investor Day, we are excited about the potential for 3D XPoint technology to create a new tier of memory and storage between DRAM and NAND flash. We remain focused on our 3D XPoint product development and are on track to introduce our first products in late calendar 2019, with meaningful revenue in 2020.

正如我們在投資者日上所強調的那樣，我們對 3D XPoint 技術在 DRAM 和 NAND 快閃記憶體之間創造新的記憶體和儲存層的潛力感到興奮。我們將繼續專注於 3D XPoint 產品開發，並預計在 2019 年底推出首批產品，並在 2020 年獲得可觀的收入。

In summary, we continue to see strong market demand for memory and fast storage products due to the value these solutions provide in an economy where data and fast access to that data is increasingly important. Growing capabilities in the data center have enabled greater functionality at the edge, increasing users and creating more data. And in turn, driving opportunities for expanded higher value data services.

總而言之，由於資料和快速存取資料在當今經濟中日益重要，這些解決方案能夠提供價值，因此我們繼續看到市場對記憶體和快速儲存產品有強勁的需求。資料中心能力的不斷提升，使得邊緣端的功能更加強大，使用者數量不斷增長，資料量也隨之增加。進而，推動更多高價值數據服務的發展機會。

We believe this virtuous cycle has driven the secular growth patterns we are currently seeing across nearly all of our markets, and believe that it will persist into the foreseeable future.

我們相信，這種良性循環推動了我們目前在幾乎所有市場看到的長期成長模式，並且相信這種模式將在可預見的未來持續下去。

I will now turn the call over to our CFO, Dave Zinsner, to provide details on our third quarter results and outlook for the remainder of fiscal 2018.

現在我將把電話交給我們的財務長戴夫·津斯納，讓他詳細介紹我們第三季的業績以及對 2018 財年剩餘時間的展望。

Thank you, Sanjay, and good afternoon, everyone. Micron's relentless focus on execution is evident in our third quarter results. We set new records for revenue, gross margin, operating income and earnings per share. In addition, we delivered on our goal of achieving a net cash positive position, with our cash balance nearly $350 million above GAAP debt position. We are on the strongest financial footing in the company's 40-year history, allowing us to make investments that will capitalize on the secular growth trends driven by the data economy.

謝謝你，桑傑，大家下午好。美光對執行力的不懈追求在我們第三季的業績中得到了充分體現。我們在營收、毛利率、營業收入和每股盈餘方面都創下了新紀錄。此外，我們實現了淨現金為正的目標，現金餘額比 GAAP 債務狀況高出近 3.5 億美元。公司目前擁有40年歷史上最強勁的財務實力，這使我們能夠進行投資，從而利用數據經濟驅動的長期成長趨勢。

Our focus on growing high-value solutions, including managed NAND and lower -- low-powered DRAM products for the mobile market, SSDs for the cloud market, as well as graphics DRAM, drove our fiscal third quarter results. We also saw the benefit of strong execution on technology transitions. Total revenue was $7.8 billion, up 6% from fiscal second quarter and 40% from the prior year.

我們專注於發展高價值解決方案，包括面向行動市場的託管 NAND 和低功耗 DRAM 產品、面向雲端市場的 SSD 以及圖形 DRAM，這推動了我們第三財季的業績成長。我們也看到了技術轉型過程中強而有力的執行所帶來的好處。總營收為 78 億美元，比第二財季成長 6%，比上年成長 40%。

Non-GAAP gross margins for the period expanded to a record 61%, up 250 basis points from the prior quarter, and up from 48% in the prior year. A robust business environment, more favorable mix and good execution on cost reductions drove significant gross margin expansion. It's important to note that we were able to achieve record gross margins while we continued to incur underloading charges in advance of volume ramp of our 3D XPoint solutions, which will follow product introductions that are targeted for late calendar 2019. We estimate that these charges impacted gross margins by approximately 100 basis points.

本期非GAAP毛利率成長至創紀錄的61%，較上一季成長250個基點，較上年同期成長48%。良好的商業環境、更有利的產品組合以及有效的成本削減措施推動了毛利率的顯著成長。值得注意的是，儘管我們在 3D XPoint 解決方案的量產前持續產生未裝載費用，但我們仍然實現了創紀錄的毛利率。該解決方案將在 2019 年底推出。我們估計這些費用使毛利率下降了約 100 個基點。

Our record revenue and gross margin performance drove strong profitability in the third quarter. Operating income grew to $4 billion on a non-GAAP basis, representing 52% of revenue. This compares with operating margins of 49% in fiscal second quarter and 37% in the year-ago period.

第三季度，我們創紀錄的營收和毛利率推動了強勁的獲利能力。以非GAAP準則計算，營業收入成長至40億美元，佔總收入的52%。相較之下，第二財季的營業利益率為 49%，去年同期為 37%。

Non-GAAP operating expenses came in at $733 million, up approximately 10% from fiscal second quarter, and in line with our planned investments in technology and product development.

非GAAP營運支出為7.33億美元，比第二財季成長約10%，符合我們對技術和產品開發的計畫投資。

Moving forward, we expect to increase our OpEx from the current run rate, particularly for R&D, as we continue to accelerate the development of new products and technologies.

展望未來，我們預計營運支出將比目前的水平有所提高，尤其是在研發方面，因為我們將繼續加速開發新產品和新技術。

Now turning to the performance by business unit. We achieved record revenue for the Compute and Networking Business Unit of $4 billion in the third quarter, up 67% year-over-year and 8% from the prior quarter. Every CNBU business contributed to this growth, except the client business, as we directed supply to customers and markets experiencing robust demand.

現在來看各業務部門的業績。第三季度，計算和網路業務部門的營收創歷史新高，達到 40 億美元，年增 67%，比上一季成長 8%。除了客戶業務之外，CNBU 的每個業務都為這一成長做出了貢獻，因為我們將供應集中到需求強勁的客戶和市場。

We saw broad-based demand for our memory solutions with sales of both cloud server and graphics memory products more than doubling year-over-year. Operating income for CNBU increased by 12% sequentially to $2.6 billion or 66% of revenue and more than doubled on a year-over-year basis.

我們看到市場對我們的記憶體解決方案有廣泛的需求，雲端伺服器和圖形記憶體產品的銷售量較去年同期成長超過一倍。CNBU 的營業收入較上季成長 12%，達到 26 億美元，佔營收的 66%，較去年同期成長超過一倍。

Revenue for the Mobile Business Unit increase to a record $1.8 billion, up 12% quarter-over-quarter and 55% year-over-year. We are experiencing ongoing momentum for our managed NAND products, with multiple customer qualifications underway for our eMCP solutions. We also continue to see healthy demand for our industry-leading, low-power DRAM products. The benefits of shifting more of our supply to these high-value mobile products are evident in our profits. Operating income increased to $860 million or 49% of revenue, up from $689 million last quarter and $304 million in the year-ago period.

行動業務部門的營收成長至創紀錄的 18 億美元，季增 12%，年增 55%。我們的託管 NAND 產品正處於持續成長勢頭，目前已有多位客戶正在對我們的 eMCP 解決方案進行認證。我們也看到，市場對我們業界領先的低功耗DRAM產品的需求依然強勁。將更多供應轉移到這些高價值移動產品所帶來的好處，在我們的利潤中顯而易見。營業收入增至 8.6 億美元，佔營收的 49%，高於上一季的 6.89 億美元和去年同期的 3.04 億美元。

The Embedded Business Unit continues to deliver solid results with record revenue of $897 million, up 8% versus fiscal second quarter and up 28% year-over-year. Growth was driven by demand for consumer and industrial applications, including set-top boxes, factory automation and industrial drones.

嵌入式業務部門持續取得穩健的業績，營收創下 8.97 億美元的紀錄，比第二財季成長 8%，年增 28%。成長的驅動力來自對消費和工業應用的需求，包括機上盒、工廠自動化和工業無人機。

ADAS and in-vehicle experience applications supported record automotive sales for the quarter. Fiscal third quarter operating income was $386 million, which translates to a healthy 43% of revenue, roughly flat with the prior quarter and up by 600 basis points from the prior year.

ADAS 和車載體驗應用推動了本季汽車銷售創下歷史新高。財年第三季營業收入為 3.86 億美元，佔營收的 43%，與上一季基本持平，較上年同期成長 600 個基點。

And finally, turning to the Storage Business Unit, third quarter revenue was $1.1 billion, which is comprised of SSD, NAND components and 3D XPoint sales. We continue to build momentum with our SSD portfolio and set a new record for SSD revenue, which now represents over 50% of total SBU revenue.

最後，讓我們來看看儲存業務部門，第三季營收為 11 億美元，其中包括 SSD、NAND 元件和 3D XPoint 的銷售額。我們的 SSD 產品組合持續保持成長勢頭，並創下了 SSD 收入的新紀錄，目前 SSD 收入佔 SBU 總收入的 50% 以上。

Consistent with our strategy and as we shared at our Investor event, we're shifting more of our NAND supply away from components and to high-value products such as managed NAND, which are targeted for our mobile and embedded markets, as well as SSDs. This shift in NAND supply and lower 3D XPoint sales to our partner resulted in a 9% sequential decline in our Storage Business Unit revenue.

與我們的策略一致，正如我們在投資者活動上分享的那樣，我們正在將更多的 NAND 供應從組件轉向高價值產品，例如託管 NAND，這些產品的目標市場是我們的行動和嵌入式市場以及 SSD。NAND 供應的這種變化以及對合作夥伴的 3D XPoint 銷售額的下降導致我們的儲存業務部門收入環比下降 9%。

The underutilization cost associated with 3D XPoint production, that I previously mentioned, had a negative impact on SBU operating margins of approximately 700 basis points in the third quarter. Our resulting SBU operating income was $156 million or 14% of third quarter revenue compared with 20% in fiscal second quarter.

我之前提到的與 3D XPoint 生產相關的未充分利用成本，在第三季對 SBU 的營業利潤率產生了約 700 個基點的負面影響。我們最終的策略事業單位 (SBU) 營業收入為 1.56 億美元，佔第三季營收的 14%，而第二財季為 20%。

Today, a majority of our SSD sales are based on 32-layer 3D NAND. As Sanjay pointed out earlier, we're starting to ramp SSD solutions built on our 64-layer 3D NAND, initially targeting consumer and cloud customers. Our SBU cost structure will benefit from this transition to lower-cost 64-layer SSDs.

目前，我們的大部分固態硬碟銷售額都來自 32 層 3D NAND。正如 Sanjay 之前指出的那樣，我們正在開始加強生產基於我們 64 層 3D NAND 的 SSD 解決方案，最初的目標是消費者和雲端客戶。向成本較低的 64 層 SSD 過渡，將有利於我們的 SBU 成本結構。

Moving to performance by product line. DRAM represented 71% of total company revenue in the fiscal third quarter. DRAM revenue was up 6% from the prior quarter and 56% year-over-year, reflecting strong execution on our strategy and a robust market environment. ASPs increased in the mid- to upper single-digit percentage range, supported by broad-based demand and a richer mix of high-value sales, including server and graphics DRAM products.

按產品線劃分績效指標。在第三財季，DRAM 占公司總營收的 71%。DRAM 營收較上一季成長 6%，年增 56%，反映出我們策略的強勁執行和強勁的市場環境。平均售價 (ASP) 成長了個位數百分比中高段，這得益於廣泛的需求和更豐富的高價值銷售組合，包括伺服器和圖形 DRAM 產品。

Shipment quantities were relatively flat quarter-over-quarter and our resulting non-GAAP gross margin was 69%, up from 66% in fiscal second quarter and 54% from the year-ago quarter. We achieved $1.9 billion in trade NAND revenue, representing 25% of total company revenue for the fiscal third quarter.

出貨量較上季基本持平，因此我們的非GAAP毛利率為69%，高於第二財季的66%，高於去年同期的54%。我們在NAND快閃記憶體貿易方面實現了19億美元的收入，占公司第三財季總收入的25%。

Trade NAND revenue was up 8% quarter-over-quarter and 14% year-over-year, reflecting healthy demand for our products. While on a like-for-like basis, NAND pricing declined modestly sequentially, our overall NAND ASP increased in the mid- to upper single-digit percentage range, driven by a richer mix of high-value solutions in our NAND portfolio. We ramped eMCP solutions to our mobile customers, which tend to carry higher ASPs relative to other NAND products.

貿易 NAND 營收季增 8%，年增 14%，反映出市場對我們產品的強勁需求。雖然以同等條件計算，NAND 價格環比略有下降，但由於我們 NAND 產品組合中高價值解決方案的組合更加豐富，我們的整體 NAND 平均售價在個位數百分比範圍內增長了中高百分比。我們向行動客戶推廣了 eMCP 解決方案，這些解決方案相對於其他 NAND 產品而言，平均售價往往更高。

Trade NAND shipment quantities remained relatively flat compared to the prior quarter and trade NAND gross margins were 47% on a non-GAAP basis, up 50 basis points from the prior quarter and up 600 basis points from the year-ago quarter. Our solid execution and healthy industry environment led to a record non-GAAP earnings per share of $3.15, up 12% from the prior quarter and 94% from the prior year.

與上一季相比，貿易 NAND 出貨量保持相對平穩，貿易 NAND 毛利率（按非 GAAP 計算）為 47%，比上一季增長 50 個基點，比去年同期增長 600 個基點。我們穩健的執行和健康的行業環境使我們的非GAAP每股收益達到創紀錄的3.15美元，比上一季增長12%，比上年增長94%。

We generated $4.3 billion in cash from operations, representing 55% of revenue. Capital spending, net of third-party contributions, was $2.1 billion in the third quarter. We expect the full fiscal year 2018 CapEx to be approximately $8 billion, which includes previously discussed investments associated with our cleanroom expansions in Singapore and Hiroshima.

我們從經營活動中獲得了 43 億美元的現金，佔收入的 55%。扣除第三方出資後，第三季資本支出淨額為 21 億美元。我們預計 2018 財年全年資本支出約為 80 億美元，其中包括先前討論過的與我們在新加坡和廣島的無塵室擴建相關的投資。

Our resulting free cash flow was $2.2 billion, flat with the prior quarter and nearly double that of the year-ago period. We ended the quarter in a net cash positive position with approximately $7.7 billion in cash, marketable investments and restricted cash and $7.3 billion in GAAP debt, including approximately $300 million of incremental debt incurred in third quarter by our jointly owned 3D XPoint fab.

我們最終獲得的自由現金流為 22 億美元，與上一季持平，幾乎是去年同期的兩倍。本季末，我們淨現金為正，擁有約 77 億美元的現金、可流通投資和受限現金，以及 73 億美元的 GAAP 債務，其中包括我們合資的 3D XPoint 工廠在第三季度新增的約 3 億美元債務。

We're very pleased to have achieved a net cash positive position one quarter earlier than we had originally committed. We reduced our gross debt position by approximately $2 billion in the fiscal third quarter and we expect to reduce our debt by another $2 billion in the fiscal fourth quarter.

我們非常高興能夠比原計劃提前一個季度實現淨現金流為正。我們在第三財季減少了約 20 億美元的總債務，預計在第四財季還將減少 20 億美元的債務。

We also used $1.1 billion in cash in the third quarter to settle the debt and equity components of our convertible notes. In addition, we received another $550 million of convertible note redemptions in the third quarter, which we will cash settle early in the fourth quarter. Combined, these convert notices equate to roughly a 20 million share count reduction. This is a great start to our strategy of reducing our fully diluted share count, which we expect will continue in fiscal 2019 when we begin utilizing at least 50% of our annual free cash flow to repurchase shares under our $10 billion share repurchase authorization.

第三季度，我們也動用了 11 億美元現金來償還可轉換債券的債務和股權部分。此外，我們在第三季還收到了 5.5 億美元的可轉換債券贖回款項，我們將在第四季初以現金結算。綜合來看，這些轉換通知相當於減少了約 2,000 萬股。這是我們減少完全稀釋後股份數量的策略的良好開端，我們預計這項策略將在 2019 財年繼續實施，屆時我們將開始利用至少 50% 的年度自由現金流，根據我們 100 億美元的股票回購授權回購股票。

Turning now to non-GAAP guidance for the fourth fiscal quarter, the market for our products continues to be robust and we are executing well on our strategy. We therefore expect sequential revenue growth again in the fourth quarter.

現在來看第四財季的非GAAP業績指引，我們產品的市場依然強勁，我們的策略執行情況良好。因此，我們預計第四季度營收將再次實現環比成長。

We expect revenue to be in the range of $8 billion to $8.4 billion; gross margins to be in the range of 59% to 62%; operating expenses are expected to be $750 million, plus or minus $25 million; and based on a share count of approximately 1.23 billion shares, these results should drive EPS of $3.30, plus or minus $0.07.

我們預計收入將在 80 億美元至 84 億美元之間；毛利率將在 59% 至 62% 之間；營運費用預計為 7.5 億美元，上下浮動 2500 萬美元；基於約 12.3 億股的股份數量，這些業績應該會推動每股收益達到 3.30 美元，上下浮動 0.07 美元。

I'll now turn the call over to Sanjay for some concluding remarks.

現在我將把電話交給桑傑，請他做總結發言。

Thank you, Dave. We recently introduced our vision for the new Micron. We have been undergoing a fundamental transformation, driven by changes in our markets, our industry and within our company. Starting with our markets, data-hungry applications are driving secular growth for memory and storage solutions. Importantly, our customers recognize the essential added value that memory and fast storage provides for the solutions they deliver to their end customers.

謝謝你，戴夫。我們最近發布了我們對新美光科技的願景。我們正在經歷一場根本性的變革，這場變革是由市場、產業和公司內部的變化所驅動的。從我們的市場來看，對資料需求量大的應用正在推動記憶體和儲存解決方案的長期成長。重要的是，我們的客戶認識到記憶體和快速儲存為他們向最終客戶提供的解決方案帶來了至關重要的附加價值。

Second, the industry we operate within is structurally different than in the past. Technology transitions require more CapEx and provide less bit gain and the pace of those transitions have slowed, given increased process complexities. The result is a more consistent and stable supply/demand outlook. These structural changes have also resulted in improved ROI over the last several years.

其次，我們所處的產業在結構上與過去有所不同。技術轉型需要更多的資本支出，但帶來的收益卻更少，而且由於製程複雜性的增加，轉型的速度也放慢了。其結果是供需前景更穩定一致。這些結構性變化也使得過去幾年的投資報酬率有所提升。

Finally, a laser-sharp focus on executing our strategic business objectives has allowed Micron to better capitalize on our excellent technology portfolio, product breadth, manufacturing scale, customer reach and deep team expertise. We are creating a culture of increased urgency, crisp execution and accountability that will enable us to consistently deliver against these strategic objectives and create positive results for all stakeholders.

最後，我們精準專注於執行策略業務目標，使美光能夠更好地利用我們卓越的技術組合、產品廣度、製造規模、客戶覆蓋範圍和深厚的團隊專業知識。我們正在創造一種更緊迫、執行力更強、責任感更高的文化，這將使我們能夠持續實現這些策略目標，並為所有利害關係人創造積極的成果。

We will now open for questions.

現在開始接受提問。

(Operator Instructions) And our first question will come from the line of Romit Shah with Nomura.

（操作說明）我們的第一個問題將來自野村證券的羅米特·沙阿。

And thanks for leaving the guidance at the end of the presentation. It really kept us on our seats here. I had a question about NAND pricing. The like-for-like pricing you mentioned in NAND was down modestly. And based on guidance, it seems like, yes, the NAND business as well as DRAM will be healthy again in August. There's been, I would say, several reports about your largest competitor seeing significant ASP weakness in their NAND business, and I'm just having a hard time trying to reconcile why Micron isn't seeing this weakness as well?

感謝您在演講結束時留下的指導意見。這段劇情真的讓我們全程都看得津津有味。我有一個關於NAND快閃記憶體定價的問題。您提到的NAND快閃記憶體同類產品價格略有下降。根據相關指引來看，NAND 快閃記憶體業務以及 DRAM 業務似乎將在 8 月恢復健康發展。我想說，已經有好幾份報告指出，你們最大的競爭對手的 NAND 業務平均售價出現了明顯的下滑，我很難理解為什麼美光沒有出現同樣的下滑趨勢？

Yes. I think I won't comment on the fourth quarter guidance and what's built into it but I think right now, what you're seeing is a pretty healthy mix of the higher value solutions. We're getting increasingly a higher mix of that component into our NAND business. And that's really helping kind of keep the pricing healthy.

是的。我不打算評論第四季度業績指引及其具體內容，但我認為目前來看，高價值解決方案的組合相當健康。我們在 NAND 業務中使用該元件的比例越來越高。這確實有助於保持價格健康。

You did say, though, that even absent mix, that it seems like NAND pricing was down far less than it was in the prior quarter, correct?

不過，您也說過，即使不考慮混合因素，NAND 快閃記憶體的價格似乎也比上一季下降的幅度小得多，對嗎？

Yes.

是的。

Okay. So again, kind of the same question, how do we reconcile the performance of the NAND business in pricing? Like-for-like, it seems like the ASP declines are fairly modest with what seems to be bigger and broader weakness from some of your competitors.

好的。所以，問題其實是一樣的，我們要如何將 NAND 業務的表現與定價連結起來？從同類產品來看，ASP 的下降幅度似乎相當溫和，而一些競爭對手的疲軟程度似乎更大、範圍更廣。

Well, I think in one case in the second quarter when you look at the pricing, there was a bit of an aberration I guess I'd call it, given that we had, in the first quarter, a higher ASP lift as it related to kind of onetime MLC sales. So I actually think, when you strip that out, if we had done it like-for-like, I don't think we made a comment on that in the second quarter, you would have found that those ASP declines were relatively modest as well.

嗯，我認為在第二季度的一個定價案例中，存在一些異常情況，我猜我會這麼稱呼它，因為在第一季度，由於一次性 MLC 銷售，我們的平均售價有所提高。所以我覺得，如果把這些因素剔除出去，如果我們進行同等比較（我認為我們在第二季度沒有對此發表評論），你會發現平均售價的下降幅度也相對較小。

Okay. And if I could just follow-up on...

好的。如果我能跟進一下…

I just want to point out that as Dave said in his remarks, that the mix as far as NAND business has improved substantially, given successful execution on our strategy of shifting our products toward high-value solutions and multi-chip packages, which have both NAND and DRAM and carry higher ASPs. On a sequential basis, we doubled our sales of those solutions in the market. And of course, we did well on SSD as well, which hit a record. So all that mix really drove our strong performance on the ASP front for the NAND business.

我只想指出，正如戴夫在演講中所說，由於我們成功地執行了將產品轉向高價值解決方案和多晶片封裝的策略，NAND 業務的組合已經大幅改善，這些解決方案和封裝同時包含 NAND 和 DRAM，並且具有更高的平均售價。從上一季來看，我們在市場上的這些解決方案的銷量翻了一番。當然，我們在固態硬碟方面也表現出色，創下了紀錄。因此，所有這些因素共同推動了我們在 NAND 業務 ASP 方面的強勁表現。

Okay. Great. And then, just as a follow-up, I noticed for both DRAM and NAND, there really wasn't much bit growth for each of those businesses. Are you still comfortable with your bit growth targets for both DRAM and NAND for calendar '18?

好的。偉大的。然後，作為後續補充，我注意到 DRAM 和 NAND 這兩個業務領域實際上都沒有太大的位元成長。您是否仍對 2018 年 DRAM 和 NAND 的位元成長目標感到滿意？

Yes. We are comfortable with our targets. As we said, we are proceeding well with our 64-layer transition into production, actually achieved bit output crossover one quarter earlier than planned. And on the DRAM side, continued to do well with our 1X nanometer technology transition, which we said will have bit output crossover by the end of the calendar year. And similarly, good progress in terms of our 1Y nanometer DRAM. So yes, with respect to our overall bit growth targets for the year, as we have said, that we believe that the industry will be in the range of 40% to 45% for NAND and will be somewhat higher. That remains the case. And with respect to DRAM, we had said, in calendar year 2018, industry supply bit growth will be approximately 20% and will be in range, and that stays the same as well. I'll just point out that in F Q3, our supply -- the shipment growth being flat for DRAM and NAND, as you were questioning, that really is just related to the normal ebb and flow of the business in terms of qualifications of our products in those new technology nodes as well as ramp-up in production of those technologies.

是的。我們對目標感到滿意。正如我們所說，我們的 64 層晶片向生產過渡進展順利，實際上比計劃提前一個季度實現了比特輸出交叉。在 DRAM 方面，我們的 1X 奈米技術過渡繼續取得良好進展，我們曾表示，到今年年底將實現位輸出交叉。同樣，我們在 1Y 奈米 DRAM 方面也取得了良好進展。所以，是的，關於我們今年的整體比特成長目標，正如我們所說，我們相信 NAND 產業的成長率將在 40% 到 45% 之間，並且會更高一些。情況依然如此。至於DRAM，我們曾說過，2018年產業供應量成長約20%，符合預期，這項預測也維持不變。我只想指出，在第三季度，我們的供應——DRAM 和 NAND 的出貨量增長持平，正如您所質疑的那樣，這實際上只是與我們產品在這些新技術節點上的認證以及這些技術的生產爬坡相關的正常業務波動。

And our next question will come from the line of C.J. Muse with Evercore.

接下來的問題將來自 Evercore 樂團的 C.J. Muse。

I guess, first question on gross margins and if we take the midpoint, down just a smidge Q-on-Q, and so curious, should we be thinking about changes to mix on both DRAM and NAND as driving that? Or perhaps, a slowdown in cost down given some of the challenges ahead with 64, 96, 1Y, et cetera? Would love to hear your thoughts on that.

我想，第一個問題是關於毛利率的，如果我們取中間值，環比略有下降，那麼我們是否應該考慮DRAM和NAND組合的變化是造成這種情況的原因？或者，考慮到未來在 64、96、1Y 等方面面臨的一些挑戰，成本下降的速度可能會放緩？很想聽聽你的看法。

Yes. Well, we probably won't get into too much detail about our guidance other than to say we did give a range. The high end of the range is 62%, so that would actually be an improvement from this quarter, so that's certainly a scenario and that would encompass a more robust mix of higher-margin products for sure. And this is somewhat mix-dependent, the business, and so we factor in that, that might happen and that creates a bit of a range for us. But I wouldn't look too much into the fact that the midpoint is slightly below.

是的。嗯，我們可能不會過多贅述我們的指導意見，只會說我們給了一個範圍。該區間的上限為 62%，因此實際上比本季有所改善，這當然是一種可能的情況，而且肯定會包含更穩健的高利潤產品組合。這在某種程度上取決於產品組合，也就是業務狀況，所以我們會考慮到這一點，這種情況可能會發生，這會給我們帶來一些波動。但我認為不必過分糾結於中點略低於平均值這一事實。

Okay. I was just trying to get more color on the mix. I guess larger picture question for DRAM. In the last few months, we've heard about real-time pushouts of select capacity, which I think is a first when the industry is enjoying such margins as you are today. So I guess can you speak to, I guess, this new rational profitability-focused market? And we'd love to hear kind of your thoughts for the market today, and then to year-end and beyond.

好的。我只是想讓混合物顏色更豐富一些。我想問的是DRAM的更宏觀的問題。在過去的幾個月裡，我們聽說了部分產能的即時外推，我認為這在如今行業利潤如此豐厚的情況下還是第一次發生。所以，我想您能談談這個以獲利為導向的新型理性市場嗎？我們很想聽聽您對當前市場、年底以及未來一段時間的市場看法。

So we discussed that at length at our Investor Day and as we had highlighted, the markets today are structurally different compared to what we have in the past. First, they are ever more diversified. Markets are not just about PC and DRAM. I mean, data center is driving large growth for DRAM. The AI trends, which we are very, very early innings of, requires more and more DRAM in order to really perform high-performance computation that AI applications rely on. So driving AI applications are driving growth in the data center as well as through more intelligent devices on the edge. And smartphones, certainly, with features such as AR and VR and AI getting implemented into these phones along with all the high-resolution cameras, they require more and more DRAM as well. So the demand drivers are diverse. They are secular in nature. Memory has become essential in terms of delivering the value proposition of the end market applications. So this is what is really driving the overall robust demand drivers for our industry, for DRAM, and whether it's in data centers or in mobile or in graphics or automotive applications, all of these need more memory, and memory is now really enabling higher value as well to the end market applications. So yes, this all bodes well for the long-term healthy industry fundamentals. And all of this reflects in our guidance as well, which speaks for itself. It's a very robust, strong guidance that we have provided for the third quarter.

因此，我們在投資者日上對此進行了深入討論，正如我們所強調的，如今的市場結構與過去截然不同。首先，它們的種類越來越豐富。市場不僅僅關乎個人電腦和記憶體。我的意思是，資料中心正在推動DRAM的大幅成長。人工智慧的發展趨勢（我們目前還處於非常非常早期的階段）需要越來越多的 DRAM 才能真正執行人工智慧應用所依賴的高效能運算。因此，人工智慧應用正在推動資料中心的成長，同時也透過邊緣端更智慧的設備推動成長。當然，智慧型手機也需要越來越多的DRAM，因為AR、VR和AI等功能以及高解析度相機都被應用到這些手機中。因此，需求驅動因素多種多樣。它們本質上是世俗的。記憶體對於實現終端市場應用的價值主張至關重要。因此，這才是真正推動我們產業（即 DRAM）整體強勁需求的根本原因。無論是在資料中心、行動裝置、圖形處理或汽車應用領域，所有這些都需要更多的內存，而內存現在也確實為終端市場應用帶來了更高的價值。所以，這一切預示著該行業長期基本面將保持健康發展。所有這些都體現在我們的指導方針中，這一點不言而喻。我們為第三季提供了非常穩健、強勁的業績指引。

And our next question will come from the line of John Pitzer with Credit Suisse.

接下來，我們將向瑞士信貸的約翰‧皮策提出一個問題。

Dave, I guess, my first question just revolves around the profitability levels in the SBU. Just kind of curious, when you think about the underutilization charges for XPoint, have those now peaked on sort of a quarterly basis? Or how should we think about that? And then, you mentioned in your prepared comments that the move from 32 to 64 should help profitability there. And I guess just as we think longer-term, notwithstanding what you're selling to Intel at sort of cost, how do we think about the long-term operating margin trajectory of this business compared to your other business units?

Dave，我想，我的第一個問題就圍繞著SBU的獲利水準。我只是有點好奇，當你考慮 XPoint 的未充分利用費用時，這些費用現在是否已經按季度達到高峰了？我們該如何看待這個問題？然後，您在準備好的評論中提到，從 32 到 64 的轉變應該有助於提高那裡的盈利能力。我想，正如我們從長遠角度考慮問題一樣，撇開你以成本價賣給英特爾這件事不談，我們該如何看待這項業務的長期營業利潤率軌跡，並將其與你的其他業務部門進行比較呢？

Right. Yes. So just going back to the prepared remarks, the underutilization charge associated with 3D XPoint was about 700 basis points if it hit to the SBU operating margins. We sold very little of 3D XPoint to our partner, and so it certainly was at a relatively high level. Hard to say if this is indeed the peak, but it's certainly close to the peak, if not the peak. I think longer-term from an underutilization perspective, we could continue to sell wafers to our partner, and that certainly would mitigate the underutilization charges. So I wouldn't dismiss the likelihood of that happening. And then on top of that, as Sanjay mentioned earlier in the call, we are expecting 3D XPoint products in -- towards the end of calendar year 2019, and they'll ramp into 2020. And that certainly will help improve the underutilization aspect of this thing and have that go away. Having said that, we're looking to try to improve the cost structure of the Storage Business Unit. And certainly, as we transition more and more of the wafers from 32-layer to 64-layer, that will have a meaningful improvement to the cost structure of SBU.

正確的。是的。回到準備好的發言稿，如果 3D XPoint 的使用率不足影響到 SBU 的營業利潤率，則相關的使用率不足費用約為 700 個基點。我們向合作夥伴銷售的 3D XPoint 產品很少，因此銷售量肯定相對較高。很難說這是否真的是峰值，但即使不是峰值，也肯定非常接近峰值了。我認為從長遠來看，從產能利用不足的角度來看，我們可以繼續向合作夥伴出售晶圓，這肯定會減輕產能利用不足的成本。所以我不會排除這種可能性。此外，正如 Sanjay 在電話會議中早些時候提到的，我們預計 3D XPoint 產品將於 2019 年底上市，並將在 2020 年逐步推出。這肯定有助於改善該設施利用率不足的問題，並消除這個問題。話雖如此，我們仍希望努力改善倉儲業務部門的成本結構。當然，隨著我們越來越多的晶圓從 32 層過渡到 64 層，這將對 SBU 的成本結構產生顯著的改善。

And I'll just point out that it's only a very short period of time, just a few quarters. So we have really driven tremendous momentum in our SSD sales in SBU. And yes, they are mostly 32-layer driven, but 64-layer is starting to ramp. And as we focus on bringing our next generation of products into the market with our -- such as NVMe solutions as well as more 64-layer-based solutions for cloud applications, that will help improve the cost structure and certainly will bode well for the health of our SBU business going forward. So we are very excited about the opportunities, about our very cost-effective NAND die and technology, and very focused on continuing to accelerate our product introductions and get the benefit of advanced technology nodes as well as reduce the overall cost of SSD builds. Because you know that in SSDs, there is more than just memory that goes into building SSDs. So we are extremely focused on all of those, and that bodes well for the cost structure of our SSD solutions as well as growth of the SSD business.

我還要指出，這只是很短的一段時間，只有幾季。因此，我們在SBU的SSD銷售方面確實取得了巨大的發展勢頭。是的，它們大多是 32 層結構，但 64 層結構也開始逐漸普及。隨著我們專注於將下一代產品推向市場，例如 NVMe 解決方案以及更多基於 64 層的雲端應用解決方案，這將有助於改善成本結構，並且肯定會有利於我們 SBU 業務未來的健康發展。因此，我們對這些機會感到非常興奮，對我們極具成本效益的 NAND 晶片和技術感到非常興奮，並專注於繼續加快產品推出速度，利用先進技術節點的優勢，並降低 SSD 的整體製造成本。因為你知道，固態硬碟的組成部件不僅僅是記憶體。因此，我們非常關注所有這些方面，這對我們的 SSD 解決方案的成本結構以及 SSD 業務的成長都是一個好兆頭。

That's helpful. And Sanjay, as my follow-up, I know that you guys have sort of rightfully tried to get away from giving us quarterly bit growth and cost down projections for DRAM and NAND. But a little bit more generically, as you think about for DRAM to transition to 1X and NAND to transition to 64 layers, which quarter do you think you're going to get the maximum benefit? Is there more of a benefit in the August quarter? Or is it more of the November quarter? How should we think about that for both DRAM and NAND?

那很有幫助。Sanjay，作為我的後續問題，我知道你們一直試圖避免向我們提供 DRAM 和 NAND 的季度比特增長和成本下降預測，這是理所當然的。但更普遍地說，當您考慮 DRAM 過渡到 1X 和 NAND 過渡到 64 層時，您認為哪個季度會獲得最大收益？八月份的季度收益是否更大？或者更確切地說，是十一月那一季的情況？我們該如何看待DRAM和NAND快閃記憶體的這個問題？

In terms of cost, we are continuing to ramp our -- in DRAM, our 1X technology into production. And as we said in the later half of this year, we will achieve the bit crossover. And then, that 1X technology node will continue to ramp into production even during the course of next year, just like our 20-nanometer in ramp over several quarters as well. So that will, on an ongoing basis, continue to provide us cost benefit. And same story on the NAND side, right? We are focused on continuing to go beyond bit crossover with 64-layer now to continue to increase the mix of 64-layer technology into production. And then, as we ready our 96-layer technology which in my prepared remarks I said we will be having in the second half of this year. As we ramp that up, it will then continue to provide additional cost benefits on an ongoing basis. So you really can't say which quarter is the cost reduction peaking. In general, this is gradual over the course of future quarters. And please do not forget, I mean, when I'm talking about NAND here, I'm talking about the NAND technology level cost reduction capabilities. Of course, NAND cost is also a function of mix, right? I mean, MCP solutions tend to carry the cost of the DRAM and NAND as well, so they tend to be higher cost when you measure it as a cost per gigabyte of NAND. And similarly, SSD solutions, because they have other [long] costs, also tend to be higher cost. So don't confuse the reported cost changes quarter-over-quarter with the underlying technology capability of cost reductions. The mix plays a role in the reported margin numbers that we talk about.

就成本而言，我們正在繼續擴大我們的規模——在DRAM領域，我們的1X技術正在投入生產。正如我們在今年下半年所說，我們將實現比特交叉。然後，1X 技術節點將在明年繼續逐步投入生產，就像我們的 20 奈米技術節點將在幾個季度內逐步投入生產一樣。因此，這將持續為我們帶來成本效益。NAND快閃記憶體的情況也是一樣，對吧？我們現在專注於繼續超越位交叉，採用 64 層技術，以繼續增加 64 層技術在生產中的應用。然後，正如我在事先準備好的演講稿中所說，我們將在今年下半年推出我們的 96 層技術。隨著我們逐步擴大規模，它將持續帶來額外的成本效益。所以你真的無法確定成本削減在哪個季度達到高峰。總體而言，這種情況會在接下來的幾季中逐漸發生。請記住，當我在這裡談論 NAND 時，指的是 NAND 技術層面的成本降低能力。當然，NAND快閃記憶體的成本也取決於晶片組合，對吧？我的意思是，MCP 解決方案往往也包含了 DRAM 和 NAND 的成本，所以如果以每 GB NAND 的成本來衡量，它們的成本往往更高。同樣，由於 SSD 解決方案還有其他（長期）成本，因此成本也往往更高。因此，不要將季度環比報告的成本變化與降低成本的潛在技術能力混淆。這種組合對我們討論的利潤率數據起著一定作用。

And our next question will come from the line of Joe Moore with Morgan Stanley.

接下來，我們將向摩根士丹利的喬·摩爾提出一個問題。

I'm wondering if you could talk about the capital spending. You've talked about the low 30s as a percentage of sales. Obviously, sales are coming in a lot better than at least I expected this year, and you'll be in the sort of high 20s. So, the low 30s comment mean that you think you're sort of spending less than you want this year? And just any indications you can give us on what that means for next year.

我想請您談談資本支出方面的情況。您提到銷售額佔比在 30% 左右。顯然，今年的銷售額比我預期的好得多，大概能達到20%以上。所以，你說的30美元出頭，意思是說你覺得今年的開銷比你預想的少一點？您能否透露一些關於這對明年意味著什麼的資訊？

Well, I mean, the low 30s is more of a longer-term model. Clearly, some years, we'll be under the low 30s. Some years we might be a little bit above the low 30s. This is a very robust year from a revenue perspective and we had a plan of where we wanted to make investments, both in DRAM and NAND plus cleanroom space. We talked about Hiroshima and Singapore. And then also some investments, capital investments, in our R&D organization. And so, I think the fact that we had a bit more revenue and we had an opportunity to make some more investments, we did take advantage of that this year. But clearly, it's below our model. I'd tell you next year, which I'm assuming, Joe, is the real source of your question is to try to figure out what next year might look like, I don't know the exact number yet. I mean, we're still working up the operating plan for next year. I think Sanjay and his discussions with all of you at the Analyst Day made a great point about the capital intensity of these businesses going up, which is why we thought the low 30s as a percent of revenue made sense. And so, I think if you wanted to make a guess, you'd certainly suggest that CapEx will be up next year. The magnitude of that and exactly how that would all break down, I think, is yet to be determined by us. And we'll go through the process this quarter in a very granular fashion, make sure we're getting a good ROI on everything -- every dollar we put into CapEx. And then, I think, at the end of the fourth quarter when we're providing guidance, we'll give you a very specific number, in terms of CapEx.

嗯，我的意思是，30歲出頭的這個年齡層更像是長期模型。顯然，有些年份，我們的氣溫會低於華氏30度。有些年份我們可能會略高於30度出頭。從收入角度來看，今年是非常強勁的一年，我們制定了投資計劃，包括 DRAM 和 NAND 快閃記憶體以及無塵室空間。我們談到了廣島和新加坡。此外，我們也對研發機構進行了一些投資，即資本投資。所以，我認為，我們今年收入略有增加，有機會進行更多投資，而我們也確實充分利用了這一點。但顯然，它低於我們的模型。我明年會告訴你，我猜喬，你真正想問的是明年會是什麼樣子，但我目前還不知道確切的數字。我的意思是，我們仍在製定明年的營運計劃。我認為 Sanjay 在分析師日上與大家的討論很好地指出了這些企業的資本密集度不斷上升的問題，這也是為什麼我們認為 30% 左右的收入佔比是合理的。所以，我認為如果要做出預測的話，你肯定會認為明年的資本支出將會增加。我認為，這件事的規模以及它最終會如何發展，還有待我們判斷。本季我們將非常細緻地完成整個流程，確保我們投入資本支出的每一美元都能獲得良好的投資報酬率。然後，我認為，在第四季末我們提供業績指引時，我們會給出一個非常具體的資本支出數字。

Okay. That's helpful. And then, I wonder if you can -- there's been a bunch written about antitrust concerns here. It's not obvious to me that there would be any. I'm just wondering if you can provide any context around those articles or those things.

好的。那很有幫助。然後，我想知道你是否可以——這裡已經有很多關於反壟斷問題的文章了。我並不認為會有這樣的情況。我只是想問您能否提供一些關於這些文章或內容的背景資訊。

We can't really comment much on it other than the authorities in China had visited our offices and had, on May 31 I believe it was, and had requested certain information. And of course, we are cooperating with that. And I would just like to point out that we absolutely do remain focused on discipline and operating with highest integrity methods.

除了中國當局曾於 5 月 31 日（我記得是那天）到訪過我們的辦公室並要求提供某些資訊之外，我們對此不便多做評論。當然，我們正在配合這項工作。我還要指出，我們始終堅持紀律嚴明，並以最高的誠信標準開展業務。

And our next question will come from the line of Blayne Curtis with Barclays.

接下來，我們將向巴克萊銀行的布萊恩‧柯蒂斯提出一個問題。

I was just curious, in DRAM you saw a nice uplift in ASPs. I think you've seen the pricing in market, or at least the swap pricing, come down. I was just curious, a little more color on that mix that helped you there. And I think you mentioned servers and graphics, I was just curious, your outlook for those segments as you look into the second half of the calendar year.

我只是好奇，DRAM 的平均售價似乎有了顯著提升。我認為你已經看到市場價格，或至少是掉期價格，已經下降了。我只是好奇，想問你，你提到的混合物裡面是不是還有點其他顏色？我想您提到了伺服器和圖形，我只是好奇，您如何看待今年下半年這些領域的發展前景。

I think servers and graphics, we continue to see growth, strong growth in those areas. And again, these are long-term trends, as we described earlier, where cloud and all the billions of devices on the edge, all of them becoming more intelligent and trends of AI are absolutely driving more and more demand. We have shared at the Investor Day, for example, AI-driven -- the AI training-driven compute workloads have like 2x the amount of DRAM and 6x the amount of SSDs. So these trends are really secular in nature. We are at the very, very beginning. And same way in Mobile, in terms of our low-power DRAM, where we have a very strong position. DRAM content requirements are going -- continuing to increase, and certainly, graphics in console and gaming, as well as some crypto-driven demand continues to be, overall long-term, strong trend as well.

我認為伺服器和圖形領域將繼續保持成長，而且是強勁成長。再次強調，這些都是長期趨勢，正如我們之前所描述的那樣，雲端運算和數十億邊緣設備都在變得越來越智能，人工智慧的發展趨勢正在推動越來越多的需求。例如，我們在投資者日上分享過，人工智慧驅動的運算工作負載（即人工智慧訓練驅動的運算工作負載）需要 2 倍的 DRAM 和 6 倍的 SSD。所以這些趨勢本質上是世俗的。我們才剛起步。在行動領域，我們的低功耗DRAM也佔據著非常強大的地位。DRAM 內容需求持續成長，主機和遊戲的圖形需求，以及一些加密貨幣驅動的需求，總體而言，長期來看也是一個強勁的趨勢。

And then, maybe just a question for Dave. I just wanted maybe a clarification. Just on the NAND site. ASPs were up with mix. It looks like costs were up, and I just wanted to make sure, is that just a function of selling more higher value parts and modules and such? Just curious.

然後，或許我想問戴夫一個問題。我只是想確認一下。就在NAND網站上。ASPs 因混合銷售而上升。看起來成本上漲了，我想確認一下，這是否只是因為銷售了更多高價值的零件和模組等？只是好奇而已。

Yes. You're right. Sanjay even mentioned that the mix of multichip products into mobile was very healthy this quarter, and they do have a NAND and a DRAM component. The ASPs are a bit high. They're margin accretive, I would point out, but the cost is actually higher. So the cost in ASPs did both go up. But it did expand the margins on the NAND side by about 50 basis points.

是的。你說得對。Sanjay 也提到，本季行動領域多晶片產品的組合非常健康，他們確實有 NAND 和 DRAM 組件。平均售價有點高。我想指出的是，它們可以提高利潤率，但成本實際上更高。所以，平均售價的成本確實都漲了。但這確實將 NAND 快閃記憶體的利潤率提高了約 50 個基點。

And our next question will come from the line of Srini Pajjuri with Macquarie.

接下來，我們將提出來自 Srini Pajjuri 與 Macquarie 的關係。

I guess, Sanjay, just a quick question on the server demand that you talked about. You said data center DRAM and NAND grew 87%. I can see why the NAND business is outgrowing the market, but I'm just curious, you seem to be outgrowing DRAM overall server demand, server market as well. So I'm just curious as to what's driving those share gains? If you can comment on that, then I have a follow-up.

Sanjay，關於你剛才提到的伺服器需求，我還有一個問題想問一下。你說過資料中心DRAM和NAND成長了87%。我能理解為什麼 NAND 業務成長速度超過了市場，但我很好奇，你們的業務成長速度似乎也超過了 DRAM 的整體伺服器需求和伺服器市場需求。所以我很好奇是什麼因素推動了這些市場佔有率的成長？如果您能對此發表評論，我還有一個後續問題。

I think our strong execution with our products is enabling us to really broaden and deepen our reach with our cloud customers. And over the course of last few quarters, in cloud, where we used to be underrepresented with respect to our total shares, when you look at our total share of the DRAM industry and you look at cloud, we used to be underrepresented. By the strengthening execution, our share has increased and is in line with rest of the overall DRAM industry share. So it is really share execution on our product roadmap. Our ability to work closely with those customers to understand their requirements in terms of the technology, in terms of the products, and certainly, understanding them in terms of supply as well, and being able to fulfill their requirements successfully. This is an important area of focus for us and I'm very pleased with the performance of the company, both on the DRAM side as well as on the NAND side in this high-growth market.

我認為我們強大的產品執行力使我們能夠真正擴大和深化與雲端客戶的聯繫。在過去的幾個季度裡，我們在雲端運算領域（相對於我們的總份額而言）一直處於較低水準。當你查看我們在 DRAM 行業的總份額，再看看雲端運算領域時，你會發現我們曾經處於較低水平。透過加強執行，我們的市佔率有所成長，與整個DRAM產業的市佔率保持一致。所以，這其實是我們產品路線圖執行情況的重要階段。我們能夠與這些客戶密切合作，了解他們在技術、產品以及供應方面的需求，並且能夠成功地滿足他們的需求。這是我們的重點領域，我對公司在這個高成長市場中，無論是在 DRAM 方面還是在 NAND 方面的表現都非常滿意。

Great. And then, maybe for Dave. Dave, on the CapEx, the low 30% CapEx guidance that you talked about. You talked about expanding cleanroom, both in NAND as well as in DRAM, I believe it was 10% in DRAM and 35% in NAND. I guess, if you assume that the NAND and DRAM bit growth will sustain at the current levels, when do you think you'll need more cleanroom space? And whenever that is, what are the implications for the CapEx?

偉大的。然後，或許是為了戴夫。Dave，關於資本支出，你之前提到的30%的低資本支出指引。您談到要擴大無塵室的規模，包括 NAND 和 DRAM，我相信 DRAM 的規模擴大了 10%，NAND 的規模擴大了 35%。我想，如果假設 NAND 和 DRAM 的位元成長將保持目前的水平，你認為什麼時候需要更多的無塵室空間？無論何時發生這種情況，對資本支出有何影響？

Difficult to predict when we would need additional cleanroom space. Obviously, these node transitions are requiring more footprint, more floor space as we move increasingly to more and more higher technologies. And so I'm not sure I could predict exactly when we'll need that. What we're trying to do is carefully build supply consistent with, as what Sanjay indicated, is our long-term expectations around industry growth rates.

很難預測我們何時會需要額外的無塵室空間。顯然，隨著我們越來越多地採用更高技術，這些節點過渡需要更大的佔地面積和更多的空間。因此，我無法準確預測我們何時會需要它。正如桑傑所指出的，我們正在努力建立與我們對產業成長率的長期預期一致的供應體系。

And our next question will come from the line of Amit Daryanani with RBC Capital Markets.

接下來，我們將向 RBC Capital Markets 的 Amit Daryanani 提問。

I guess, 2 for me as well. First of all, the 100 basis point headwind that you've mentioned from 3D XPoint that's impacting you in May quarter, how do I think about that number in August quarter? What do you have baked into your guide with regard to that number? And when do you see that getting to a neutral level essentially?

我想，對我來說也是2。首先，您提到 3D XPoint 對 5 月份季度業績造成了 100 個基點的不利影響，那麼我該如何看待 8 月份季度的這個數字呢？關於這個數字，你的指南中有什麼具體說明？你認為這種情況何時才能基本恢復到中立水準？

As I mentioned earlier, it's roughly in the same range for next quarter, assuming that we do not sell any 3D XPoint to our partner. I wouldn't rule that out, as I said before, and that could happen in any quarter or multiple quarters, quite honestly, where we do sell product to our partner, and that would certainly reduce or mitigate that underloading charge. Absent that, I think the expectation is, as I mentioned, that 3D XPoint products would start to be introduced in late calendar 2019 and the expectation is they would start to ramp shortly thereafter. And we'll start to see the benefits of that in terms of bringing our under-utilization charges down over time.

正如我之前提到的，假設我們不向合作夥伴出售任何 3D XPoint，那麼下個季度的規模也大致相同。正如我之前所說，我不會排除這種可能性，坦白說，這種情況可能在任何季度或多個季度發生，只要我們向合作夥伴銷售產品，這肯定會減少或緩解裝貨不足的費用。如果沒有上述情況，我認為正如我所提到的，3D XPoint 產品預計將於 2019 年底開始推出，並預計不久後將開始大規模生產。隨著時間的推移，我們將開始看到這樣做的好處，那就是降低我們的未充分利用費用。

Got it. And then, if I could just follow-up, cloud server demand, especially the hyperscale side, has been fairly robust for you guys. I think it's across DRAM and NAND both. And I understand all the medium to long-term dynamics that you guys have outlaid. But in the near-term, I guess is there a concern that perhaps some of the strength you have seen, these customers pre-buying or buying ahead and you may see a period of digestion over the next couple of quarters as a use for the capacity they have taken up. So I guess, from where you sit, do you have visibility and comfort that whatever you have shipped into these hyperscale OEMs is getting used and absorbed and not just pre-buying from their end?

知道了。最後，如果我可以補充一點，你們的雲端伺服器需求，尤其是超大規模伺服器的需求，一直相當強勁。我認為DRAM和NAND都存在這個問題。我理解你們所製定的所有中長期發展計畫。但就短期而言，我猜想大家可能會擔心，您所看到的這種強勁勢頭，可能是因為這些客戶提前購買或提前採購，而未來幾個季度可能會出現一段消化期，以消耗掉他們佔用的產能。所以我想，從你的角度來看，你是否能夠清楚地看到並確信，你交付給這些超大規模 OEM 廠商的產品正在被使用和吸收，而不僅僅是他們預先購買的產品？

So as I pointed out earlier, we work closely with these customers and really are building strong relationships across the board. We do not see trend of building or hoarding product. We don't see that. I mean, we -- the demand in cloud applications has continued to increase. You have heard cloud operators, the major cloud operators, increased their CapEx in Q1, calendar Q1 '18, over Q4 '17 by more than 20%. And on a year-over-year basis in calendar Q1, CapEx spend by major cloud holders increased by -- cloud operators increased by over 100%. So at this end, of course, a meaningful part of that total CapEx from cloud operators is certainly going toward compute and storage and memory. And we are playing a good role in terms of supporting the needs of those customers. So no, we do not see these trends. We work closely in assessing, overall, their demand requirements and expectations. And keep in mind that this is a global trend in terms of cloud data center growth, and there are several large operators around the world, and we are well engaged with most of them. So if ever there is any pause from any one of them, it doesn't overall matter because the total trend is one of continuous growth. Again, given the value that memory and fast storage brings to the end-market applications that these cloud providers are enabling for consumers as well as for businesses.

正如我之前指出的，我們與這些客戶密切合作，並在各方面都建立了牢固的關係。我們沒有發現囤積產品的趨勢。我們沒看到這種情況。我的意思是，我們對雲端應用的需求一直持續成長。您可能已經聽說，主要的雲端營運商在 2018 年第一季（日曆年第一季）的資本支出比 2017 年第四季增加了 20% 以上。與去年同期相比，第一季主要雲端持有者的資本支出成長了——雲端營運商的資本支出增加了超過 100%。因此，最終，雲端運營商的總資本支出中，相當一部分肯定會用於計算、儲存和記憶體。我們在滿足這些客戶的需求方面發揮著重要作用。所以，不，我們沒有看到這些趨勢。我們密切合作，全面評估他們的需求和期望。請記住，這是雲端資料中心成長的全球趨勢，世界各地有幾家大型營運商，我們與其中大多數都保持著良好的合作關係。因此，即使其中任何一個環節出現停滯，整體上也無關緊要，因為整體趨勢是持續成長的。再次強調，記憶體和快速儲存為這些雲端供應商為消費者和企業提供的終端市場應用帶來了價值。

And our next question will come from the line of Harlan Sur with JPMorgan.

接下來，我們將向摩根大通的哈蘭‧蘇爾提出一個問題。

Given the normalization in NAND pricing, is the team starting to see price elasticity effect starting to kick in? In other words, as you guys work with your customers on their second half product launches, are you seeing SSD attach rates and notebook PCs increasing? And are you seeing more content per application in areas like smartphones and IoT devices?

鑑於 NAND 價格趨於正常化，團隊是否開始看到價格彈性效應開始顯現？換句話說，當你們與客戶合作下半年的產品發佈時，你們是否看到 SSD 的安裝率和筆記型電腦的銷售量都在成長？您是否發現智慧型手機和物聯網設備等領域的每個應用程式的內容量都在增加？

Yes. Certainly, we do see that average capacities of NAND continue to go up in smartphones. We discussed that at the Investor Day as well. And certainly for DRAM, it keeps going up as well. In the high-end smartphones, 6 gigabyte DRAM is being used. And that average capacity, over time, even phones getting introduced in the future with 8 to 10 gigabyte, even 12 gigabyte. And similarly, on the smartphone side, certainly, average capacity of NAND content is continuing to increase nicely. I think at Investor Day, we had pointed out that there is a smartphone introduced in China that has, in fact, 1 terabyte of flash content. So average capacities are continuing to increase. And yes, certainly, with the benefit that 64-layer technology has brought to the industry in terms of enabling lower manufacturing cost, it certainly is enabling content growth not only in the mobile market, but also in SSDs. And last year in SSDs, somewhat average capacity growth had somewhat stalled, given the supply constraints that existed last year. And now, with the benefit of 64-layers, certainly, average capacities are expected to continue to increase over the course of next several years. And yes, replacing HDDs as well both in client computing applications as well as in enterprise applications with increasing attach rates and average capacity increases as well.

是的。當然，我們確實看到智慧型手機中 NAND 的平均容量持續成長。我們在投資者日上也討論過這個問題。當然，DRAM的價格也在持續上漲。高階智慧型手機採用的是 6GB DRAM。隨著時間的推移，即使是未來推出的手機，其平均容量也會達到 8 到 10 GB，甚至 12 GB。同樣，在智慧型手機方面，NAND 快閃記憶體的平均容量也確實持續穩定成長。我認為在投資者日上，我們曾指出，中國推出了一款智慧型手機，其快閃記憶體容量實際上達到了 1TB。因此，平均產能持續成長。沒錯，64 層技術為產業帶來了降低製造成本的好處，這無疑促進了內容的成長，不僅在行動市場，而且在固態硬碟領域也是如此。去年，固態硬碟的容量成長雖然處於平均水平，但由於去年的供應限制，成長勢頭有所停滯。現在，有了 64 層結構的優勢，可以肯定的是，未來幾年平均產能將繼續成長。是的，隨著附加率和平均容量的增加，無論是在客戶端運算應用還是企業應用中，硬碟 (HDD) 的替換也在進行中。

And there's been some reports of your competitors struggling on advanced DRAM node transitions. Sanjay, can you just confirm that the Micron team is -- you guys are hitting your cost per bit targets at the 1X nanometer node. What do the initial yields and manufacturabilities look for [of the team?] And then, as you ramp initial production volumes of 1Y in the second half of this calendar year, can you just talk about also your ability to hit your cost targets and manufacturability targets?

還有一些報導稱，你們的競爭對手在先進的DRAM節點過渡方面遇到了困難。Sanjay，你能確認美光團隊——你們在 1X 奈米節點上是否達到了每個位元成本目標嗎？團隊的初始良率和可製造性目標是什麼？然後，隨著你們在今年下半年逐步提高 1Y 的初始產量，你們能否也談談實現成本目標和可製造性目標的能力？

So we are executing very well on our 1X as well as 1Y technology for DRAM. I think we had already indicated that how on 1X DRAM technology, we had ramped to mature yields much faster than the previous generation technology node. And we have talked about that on 1X, we are on track to achieve a bit output crossover in our supply in second half of this year. So we are absolutely on track there and very pleased with the progress on 1Y technology node and DRAM as well, which we will begin production of in the second half of this year, of course, following customer qualifications.

因此，我們在DRAM的1X和1Y技術方面都取得了非常好的進展。我認為我們已經表明，在 1X DRAM 技術方面，我們的良率提升速度比上一代技術節點快得多。我們在 1X 上也討論過，我們預計在今年下半年實現供應量的小幅成長。因此，我們在這方面絕對進展順利，對 1Y 技術節點和 DRAM 的進展也非常滿意，當然，在獲得客戶認可之後，我們將在今年下半年開始生產。

Our next question will come from the line of Karl Ackerman with Cowen.

我們的下一個問題將來自卡爾·阿克曼和考恩的系列文章。

I had a follow-up to the last question. So it is widely reported that one of your competitors is struggling with yields on not just 1X, but also 1Y. So do you still expect to have 10% of wafers out on 1Y this calendar year? And I guess, would you expect to have a more measured pace of capacity expansion plans? Or perhaps, is your guidance for fiscal '18 capacity expansion plans, in part, acknowledging some of this pause from the 1Y yield ramps -- or yield learning on 1Y. And I have a follow-up, please.

我還有一個針對上一個問題的後續問題。據廣泛報道，你們的一位競爭對手不僅在 1X 年金收益率方面面臨困境，而且在 1Y 年金收益率方面也面臨困境。那麼，你們仍然預計今年能有 10% 的晶圓以 1Y 標準交付嗎？我想，您是否希望產能擴張計畫的步伐更加穩健？或者，您在 2018 財年產能擴張計畫中的指導意見，是否部分地承認了 1 年收益率提升的暫停——或者說是 1 年收益率學習的暫停。我還有一個後續問題。

So I don't think we have stated before in terms of our 1Y technology mix. What we have said is that in the second half of this year, we will begin production of this technology following customer qualifications. Of course, that will then ramp up gradually over a period of time. And of course, we'll be then focused on ramping up the production yields of the technology as well. I think you are confusing the 10% with what we have said regarding the Hiroshima space expansion. What we have said is we are expanding the cleanroom space in Hiroshima by 10% in order to implement the 1Y transition of the installed capacity there. That does not mean that we will have 10% of our DRAM production in 1Y technology. That is not the case. So I hope I clarified that with you. But as I said earlier, we are pleased with the progress that we are making with our 1Y technology development, and really pleased with the execution focus of our entire team on accelerating our technology development and focused on deploying these technologies into production in order to enable us to catch up on the cost competitiveness in the industry.

所以我覺得我們之前還沒有就我們的 1Y 技術組合發表過意見。我們之前說過，今年下半年，在獲得客戶認可後，我們將開始生產這項技術。當然，這種情況會隨著時間的推移而逐漸加劇。當然，接下來我們也會致力於提高這項技術的產量。我認為你把這 10% 和我們之前所說的關於廣島太空擴張的事情混淆了。我們說過，為了實現廣島無塵室產能的1年過渡，我們將把廣島無塵室面積擴大10%。但這並不意味著我們將有 10% 的 DRAM 產量採用 1Y 技術。事實並非如此。希望我已經解釋清楚了。但正如我之前所說，我們對1Y技術開發的進展感到滿意，並且非常滿意我們整個團隊在加速技術開發和專注於將這些技術部署到生產中方面的執行力，以便使我們能夠趕上行業成本競爭力。

Fair enough. I tried my luck on 1Y. Perhaps more of a longer-term discussion. So there are several new memory fabs announced in China, and Yangtze Memory, I think, seems to be the furthest along. While it appears these indigenous fabs may struggle near-term to access IP beyond lagging edge NAND technologies, thus limiting any real impact on supply, I was curious to hear your thoughts on how you think about the opportunity to sell supply agreements to indigenous Chinese companies in exchange for perhaps large, upfront prepayments that could be used for both investment and capital return.

很公平。我嘗試在 1Y 上碰碰運氣。或許應該展開更長期的討論。目前中國已宣布新建幾家記憶體製造廠，我認為長江儲存似乎是其中發展最成熟的一家。雖然這些本土晶圓廠短期內似乎難以獲得超越落後NAND技術的知識產權，從而限制了對供應的任何實際影響，但我很好奇您對於向中國本土公司出售供應協議以換取可能用於投資和資本回報的大額預付款的想法。

Again, as we have said, we are focused on executing to our strategy in terms of accelerating technology development and cost competitiveness and executing well on our products. We see strong demand trends for our products in our end markets, in the well-diversified markets that we have talked about. So I think this is what we are focused on and this is the best way for us to focus on our high ROI, return on our investments. And that's our focus here.

正如我們之前所說，我們專注於執行我們的策略，即加速技術開發和成本競爭力，並做好我們的產品。我們看到，在我們談到的那些多元化的終端市場中，我們的產品需求呈現強勁的成長趨勢。所以我認為這就是我們關注的重點，也是我們實現高投資報酬率的最佳途徑。這就是我們關注的重點。

Our next question will come from the line of Steven Fox with Cross Research.

我們的下一個問題將來自 Cross Research 的 Steven Fox。

Just one question for me. You guys, earlier in the call, mentioned multiple qualifications were underway on the eMCP products. I was curious if you could put a little color around that and whether you're referring to the rest of this year into next year, and maybe touch of customers' geographic regions, et cetera, that you might be seeing most demand from.

我只有一個問題。你們在先前的通話中提到，eMCP 產品正在進行多項資格認證。我很好奇您能否對此做一些補充說明，您指的是今年剩餘時間到明年的情況，還是可以談談您可能看到需求最大的客戶地理區域等等。

With respect to eMCP, we are engaged with a broad set of customers in terms of getting our products qualified. The shipments that we have made with respect to eMCP are with 32-layer, and as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we are also focused on qualifying 64-layer-based eMCP product. And just I would like to point out that along with eMCP products, we are, of course, also focused on qualifying our 64-layer-based UFS and MMC products with our customers as well and seeing good traction there. This is all part of our strategy of shifting our portfolio toward high-value solution. Having both DRAM and NAND in those eMCP solutions is -- gives us a unique capability to provide a strong value proposition to our customers. And of course, these solutions are also, as we pointed out in our embedded markets, automotive markets, so there is a broad set of customers that we are engaged with for our eMCP and discrete managed NAND solutions.

關於 eMCP，我們正在與眾多客戶合作，以獲得我們產品的認證。我們目前交付的 eMCP 產品是 32 層結構的，正如我在準備好的發言稿中提到的，我們也正在努力使 64 層 eMCP 產品達到合格標準。我還要指出，除了 eMCP 產品之外，我們當然也專注於向客戶驗證我們基於 64 層的 UFS 和 MMC 產品，並且在這方面取得了良好的進展。這一切都是我們策略的一部分，旨在將我們的產品組合轉向高價值解決方案。eMCP解決方案同時具備DRAM和NAND特性，這使我們能夠為客戶提供強大的價值主張，這是我們獨有的能力。當然，正如我們在嵌入式市場和汽車市場中所指出的那樣，這些解決方案也適用於我們的 eMCP 和獨立管理 NAND 解決方案，因此我們與廣泛的客戶群合作。

And our last question will come from the line of Vijay Rakesh with Mizuho.

最後一個問題來自瑞穗銀行的 Vijay Rakesh。

Just one question. As you look at the 96-layer and 1X, can you talk about what kind of cost reduction you see once it gets to steady levels?

就一個問題。在您看來，96層和1X技術一旦達到穩定水平，成本會降低多少？

We do not provide cost reduction for these technologies, right? I mean, for competitive reasons, we don't disclose that. But I can tell you that in NAND, if you look at our track record and Micron's capabilities of CMOS under the array, we have produced the smallest die in the industry with our 3D NAND. And on the DRAM front, we are continuing to focus on bringing in next-generation technology nodes to narrow the cost gap that we have currently in the industry and we are making very good progress. As you can see, in our results of F Q3 as well as in our guide of F Q4, we are making very good progress on all those fronts.

我們並不提供這些技術的成本降低方案，對嗎？我的意思是，出於競爭原因，我們不會透露這些資訊。但我可以告訴你，在 NAND 領域，如果你看看我們的業績記錄和美光在陣列下 CMOS 的能力，我們憑藉 3D NAND 生產出了業內最小的晶片。在 DRAM 方面，我們將繼續專注於引進下一代技術節點，以縮小目前產業內的成本差距，並且我們取得了非常好的進展。正如您所看到的，從我們第三季財報以及第四季財報來看，我們在所有這些方面都取得了非常好的進展。

Yes, one last question here. On the -- when you look at the second half, obviously, first half has been very strong. With respect to second half, where are you seeing inventory levels in both DRAM and NAND?

是的，最後一個問題。至於下半場，很明顯，上半場表現非常出色。關於下半年，您預計DRAM和NAND的庫存水準如何？

So inventory, as you probably noticed, was up a little bit this quarter. I'd point out that finished goods inventory was actually down by about $50 million. It was all up in whip and that was driven by this crossover on 64-layer and the ramp-up of the 1X technology that drove the inventory up. Early to make a prediction on next quarter, but maybe what I'd tell you more holistically is, as Manish talked about in the Analyst Day, we really are looking at inventory and intend to make good progress on just refining our ability to manage with lower days. So that's kind of our goal. But that will happen over time.

正如您可能已經註意到的，本季庫存略有增加。我想指出的是，成品庫存實際上減少了​​約 5000 萬美元。這一切都與鞭打有關，這是由於 64 層交叉技術和 1X 技術的推廣應用推動了庫存增加。現在預測下一季還為時過早，但或許我可以更全面地告訴大家，正如 Manish 在分析師日上談到的那樣，我們正在認真研究庫存，並打算在提高庫存管理能力、減少庫存週轉天數方面取得良好進展。所以，這算是我們的目標吧。但隨著時間的推移，這終將發生。

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our question-and-answer session today. Thank you for your participation on today's conference. This will conclude our program and we may all disconnect. Everybody, have a wonderful day.

謝謝。女士們、先生們，今天的問答環節到此結束。感謝您參加今天的會議。我們的節目到此結束，大家可以斷開連結了。祝大家今天過得愉快。