希捷科技 (STX) 2023 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and welcome to the Seagate Technology Fiscal Second Quarter 2023 Conference Call.

大家好，歡迎參加希捷科技 2023 財年第二季電話會議。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員指示）

Please note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Shanye Hudson, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Treasury. Please go ahead.

請注意，本次活動正在錄製中。現在，我想將會議交給投資者關係和財務部高級副總裁 Shanye Hudson。請開始。

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to today's call. Joining me are Dave Mosley, Seagate's Chief Executive Officer; and Gianluca Romano, our Chief Financial Officer. We posted our earnings press release and detailed supplemental information for our second quarter fiscal 2023 on the Investors section of our website.

謝謝。大家下午好，歡迎參加今天的電話會議。希捷執行長戴夫·莫斯利和財務長詹盧卡·羅馬諾也出席了今天的電話會議。我們在網站的「投資者」板塊發布了2023財年第二季的獲利新聞稿和詳細的補充資訊。

During today's call, we'll refer to GAAP and non-GAAP measures. Non-GAAP figures are reconciled to GAAP figures in the earnings press release posted on our website and included in our Form 8-K that was filed with the SEC. We've not reconciled certain non-GAAP outlook measures because material items that may impact these measures are out of our control and/or cannot easily be predicted. Therefore, a reconciliation to the corresponding GAAP measures is not available without unreasonable efforts.

在今天的電話會議上，我們將討論 GAAP 和非 GAAP 指標。非 GAAP 數據已與我們網站上發布的收益新聞稿中的 GAAP 數據進行了調節，並包含在我們提交給美國證券交易委員會 (SEC) 的 8-K 表格中。我們尚未調整某些非 GAAP 展望指標，因為可能影響這些指標的重大事項超出了我們的控制範圍和/或難以預測。因此，如果不付出不合理的努力，我們將無法獲得與相應 GAAP 指標的調整結果。

Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that today's call contains forward-looking statements that reflect management's current views us and assumptions based on information available to us as of today and should not be relied upon as of any subsequent date. Actual results may differ materially from those contained in or implied by these forward-looking statements as they are subject to risks and uncertainties associated with our business.

在開始之前，我想提醒您，今天的電話會議包含前瞻性陳述，這些陳述反映了管理層目前對我們的看法以及基於截至今日我們掌握的信息的假設，不應在任何後續日期依賴這些陳述。實際結果可能與這些前瞻性陳述中包含或暗示的結果有重大差異，因為它們受與我們業務相關的風險和不確定性的影響。

Regarding the matter raised by the proposed charging letter from the U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, or BIS, Seagate maintains that it has complied with all relevant export control laws and regulations. We've been cooperating with BIS and engaging in discussions with BIS to seek a resolution. Please note that we won't be addressing questions regarding this matter on today's call, but we'll provide additional updates as appropriate moving forward.

關於美國商務部工業與安全局（BIS）擬定指控函中提到的問題，希捷堅稱已遵守所有相關的出口管制法規。我們一直在與BIS合作，並正在進行討論以尋求解決方案。請注意，我們不會在本次會議中解答有關此問題的問題，但我們會適時提供更多更新資訊。

To learn more about the risks, uncertainties and other factors that may affect our future business results, please refer to the press release issued today and our SEC filings, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly report on Form 10-Q as well as the supplemental information, all of which may be found on the Investors section of our website. As always, following our prepared remarks, we'll open the call up for questions.

如需了解更多可能影響我們未來業績的風險、不確定性及其他因素，請參閱今天發布的新聞稿以及我們向美國證券交易委員會 (SEC) 提交的文件，包括我們最新的 10-K 表年度報告和 10-Q 表季度報告以及補充信息，所有這些文件均可在我們網站的“投資者”板塊找到。像往常一樣，在準備好的發言稿之後，我們將開始提問環節。

Let me now turn the call over to you, Dave, for opening remarks.

現在，讓我把電話交給你，戴夫，請你致開幕詞。

Thanks, Shanye. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. Seagate delivered on what we set out to do in the December quarter, and I'm proud of our team's accomplishments amid this tough business environment. Revenue and non-GAAP EPS came in slightly above the midpoint of our guidance range and free cash flow generation increased by more than 50% quarter-over-quarter. We are managing well what is in our control and executed on the actions we outlined on our October call. We retired more than $200 million in debt, strengthening our balance sheet. We lowered operational costs by realizing a meaningful portion of the expected savings from our restructuring efforts. We reduced capital expenditures by more than 40% sequentially while still accelerating the launch and development schedules for new mass capacity products, and we adjusted our factory production output to support strong supply discipline as demand recovers.

謝謝，Shanye。大家下午好，感謝您今天加入我們。希捷在12月季度完成了我們設定的目標，我為我們團隊在當前艱難的商業環境中所取得的成就感到自豪。營收和非公認會計準則每股收益略高於我們預期區間的中點，自由現金流環比成長超過50%。我們正在妥善管理我們能掌控的各項事務，並執行我們在10月電話會議上概述的行動。我們償還了超過2億美元的債務，增強了我們的資產負債表。我們透過重組努力實現了預期成本節省的相當一部分，從而降低了營運成本。我們環比削減了40%以上的資本支出，同時仍在加快新大容量產品的發布和開發進度，並且隨著需求復甦，我們調整了工廠的產量以支持嚴格的供應紀律。

These actions, we believe, put Seagate on solid footing to weather the near-term industry dynamics while continuing to make the technology investments to meet our customers' evolving needs and thrive over the long term. Relative to market conditions, 3 primary external factors have been impacting our business over the past several months. The COVID-related economic slowdown in China, the work down of nearline HDD inventories among U.S. cloud and global enterprise customers under a more cautious demand environment and macro-related disruptions primarily impacting our consumer-facing markets.

我們相信，這些舉措將使希捷穩固地應對短期行業動態，同時繼續進行技術投資，以滿足客戶不斷變化的需求並實現長期繁榮。相對於市場狀況，過去幾個月來，有三個主要的外部因素影響著我們的業務：受新冠疫情影響的中國經濟放緩、在更為謹慎的需求環境下，美國雲端運算和全球企業客戶近線硬碟 (HDD) 庫存的減少，以及主要影響我們面向消費者市場的宏觀經濟波動。

These factors remained at play during the December quarter and weighed heavily on the mass capacity markets, resulting in a 10% sequential decline in mass capacity revenue. Having said that, we are already seeing some encouraging indicators. Within China, we believe first steps toward recovery are being implemented through government policies aimed at improving economic conditions including the faster-than-expected reversal of 0 COVID restrictions and a show of confidence following the policy shift several major banks raised their 2023 outlook for China's GDP.

這些因素在12月季度持續發揮作用，並嚴重拖累了大容量市場，導致大容量市場收入較上季下降10%。即便如此，我們已經看到了一些令人鼓舞的跡象。在中國，我們相信，復甦的第一步正在透過政府旨在改善經濟狀況的政策得以實施，包括比預期更快解除新冠疫情限制，以及政策轉變後展現出的信心——幾家主要銀行上調了對中國2023年GDP的預期。

We expect it will take time for consumers and businesses to work through disruptions related to the COVID policy pivot and for the economy to fully reopen. Based on our customer conversations, we anticipate regional sales into the VIA and nearline markets to remain subdued in the March quarter and gradually improve as the calendar year unfolds. We will continue to monitor demand signals and expect to gain a better picture following the Lunar New Year celebrations.

我們預計，消費者和企業需要時間來適應新冠疫情政策調整的衝擊，經濟也需要時間來全面重啟。根據與客戶的溝通，我們預計3月份季度VIA和近線市場的區域銷售將保持低迷，並會隨著時間推移逐漸改善。我們將繼續監控需求訊號，並期望在農曆新年之後獲得更清晰的前景。

Turning to the U.S. cloud and enterprise markets. Customers have focused on working down the HDD inventory levels that were built up during the pandemic as non-HDD component shortages created inventory imbalances. We believe some progress has been made in recent months supported by an improvement in non-HDD component availability. While inventory adjustments are customer-by-customer event, and ongoing macro uncertainties have led to more cautious near-term buying decisions, we expect nearline sales will improve slightly in the current quarter, particularly for our high-capacity drives.

轉向美國雲端運算和企業市場。由於非HDD組件短缺導致庫存失衡，客戶一直致力於降低疫情期間累積的HDD庫存水準。我們認為，近幾個月來，由於非HDD組件供應量的改善，庫存管理取得了一些進展。雖然庫存調整是每個客戶的具體情況，且持續的宏觀不確定性導致短期採購決策更加謹慎，但我們預計本季近線硬碟銷售額將略有改善，尤其是大容量硬碟。

Our view is supported by the ongoing adoption of our 20-plus terabyte family of nearline products, which represented close to 60% of nearline exabytes shipments in the December quarter and is expected to trend even higher in the current quarter. Relative to our products, we are seeing a wider variety of nearline capacity points and configurations being adopted across our customer base, depending on their specific data center architectures, workloads and application needs. Seagate is well equipped to address these individual unique requirements with our deep customer relationships and broad technology portfolio, spanning traditional perpendicular recording technology or PMR drives to performance-oriented dual actuator products to TCO enhancing SMR technology.

我們的觀點得到了我們20多TB近線產品系列持續採用的支持，這些產品在12月季度佔據了近線EB出貨量的近60%，預計本季還將進一步上升。相對於我們的產品，我們看到客戶群正在根據其特定的資料中心架構、工作負載和應用需求，採用更廣泛的近線容量點和配置。憑藉著深厚的客戶關係和廣泛的技術組合，希捷能夠充分滿足這些獨特的需求，這些技術組合涵蓋了傳統的垂直記錄技術（PMR）硬碟、注重性能的雙磁頭產品以及可降低TCO的SMR技術。

In addition to our device portfolio, Seagate's Systems business offers cost-efficient, scalable petabytes solutions for both enterprise and cloud customers. While system sales were down sequentially off of a very strong September quarter, we captured a record number of new customer wins with our Corvault products. Corvault offers features such as self-healing, autonomous drive regeneration, which increases productivity while reducing electronic waste. The momentum that we're seeing across the systems business supports revenue to move higher in fiscal 2023.

除了我們的設備產品組合外，希捷的系統業務還為企業和雲端客戶提供經濟高效、可擴展的PB級解決方案。儘管系統銷售額較9月的強勁表現有所下滑，但我們憑藉Corvault產品贏得了創紀錄的新客戶。 Corvault提供自我修復、自主硬碟再生等功能，可在提高生產力的同時減少電子垃圾。我們在整個系統業務中看到的良好勢頭將支持2023財年的收入成長。

Our strong product pipeline is underpinned by the technology advancements we're bringing to market. We are leveraging our technology leadership to scale drive capacities through aerial density gains rather than additional heads and disks. As a result, we can deliver our trademark TCO advantages to customers with attractive margin opportunities for Seagate. Our 20-terabyte product features 2 terabyte per disk capacities and we have started to ramp the volume of 22 terabyte products deployed on 2.2 terabyte per disk capacities. The 20-plus terabyte platform is based on traditional PMR technology. And some customers are choosing to enable SMR technology as an additional feature that slightly increases the drives capacity for certain applications. In the December quarter, about 35% of our nearline exabytes shipments were deployed as SMR drives.

我們強大的產品線以我們不斷推向市場的技術進步為支撐。我們正利用自身的技術領先優勢，透過提升空間密度而非增加磁頭和磁碟來擴展硬碟容量。因此，我們既能為客戶提供標誌性的整體擁有成本 (TCO) 優勢，​​又能為希捷帶來豐厚的利潤機會。我們的 20TB 產品單盤容量為 2TB，且我們已開始增加 22TB 產品（單盤容量為 2.2TB）的部署量。 20TB 以上的平台是基於傳統的 PMR 技術。有些客戶選擇啟用 SMR 技術作為附加功能，略微提升特定應用的硬碟容量。在 12 月季度，我們約 35% 的近線 EB 出貨量部署了 SMR 硬碟。

We are executing plans to deliver another 10% gain in per disk capacity for this PMR platform to offer drives in the mid- to upper 20 terabyte range. However, I'm most excited by the advances we've made on our HAMR technology. It was nearly 4 years ago to the day that I first shared our lab results demonstrating 3 terabyte per disk capacity. And today, we have demonstrated capacities of 5 terabytes per disc in our recording physics labs. In the current market environment, we've been taking advantage of our reduced factory utilization to accelerate cycles of learning around HAMR productization. We are meeting or exceeding all product development milestones and reliability metrics, and we will be shipping prequalification units to key cloud customers in the coming weeks.

我們正在實施計劃，將PMR平台的單碟容量再提升10%，以提供20TB左右的中高階容量。然而，最讓我興奮的是HAMR技術的進展。近四年前，我第一次分享了實驗室結果，展示了單碟3TB的容量。今天，我們在記錄物理實驗室中演示了單碟5TB的容量。在目前的市場環境下，我們一直在利用工廠利用率降低的優勢，加速HAMR產品化的學習週期。我們正在達到或超過所有產品開發里程碑和可靠性指標，並將在未來幾週內向主要雲端客戶出貨預認證產品。

As a result of this progress, we now expect to launch our 30-plus terabyte platform in the June quarter, slightly ahead of schedule. The speed of the initial HAMR volume ramp will depend on a number of factors, including product yields and customer qualification time lines. However, we plan to use our systems business to quicken the pace of learning and time to yield. Our tremendous progress reinforces my confidence in HAMR products and our ability to execute. These innovations were only possible through the hard work and dedication of our global team, and I would like to thank them for their many efforts.

由於這項進展，我們預計將於第二季推出容量超過 30TB 的平台，略微提前於規劃。 HAMR 的初始產量提升速度將取決於多種因素，包括產品良率和客戶認證時間。不過，我們計劃利用系統業務加快學習速度和良率提升時間。我們所取得的巨大進步增強了我對 HAMR 產品和執行能力的信心。這些創新離不開我們全球團隊的辛勤工作和奉獻，我要感謝他們的辛勤付出。

Our multi-decade focus on HAMR R&D and our innovation across all facets of dry production have resulted in a development advantage that we believe is measured in years, and we're excited by our collaborations with customers on HAMR capabilities. The technology innovations driving aerial density higher will deliver strong and consistent cost reductions at the highest drive capacities and enable future cost-efficient refreshes of our midrange capacity drives. We believe these products serve as the foundation to expand our margin profile back into and possibly beyond the long-term target range.

我們數十年來專注於HAMR研發，並在乾式生產的各個方面不斷創新，這為我們帶來了值得多年衡量的開發優勢，我們也對與客戶在HAMR功能方面的合作感到興奮。推動更高空間密度的技術創新將以最高容量的硬碟實現強勁且持續的成本降低，並使我們能夠在未來以經濟高效的方式更新中端容量硬碟。我們相信，這些產品將為我們的利潤率回升至甚至超越長期目標範圍奠定基礎。

Wrapping up, Seagate is executing with speed and agility through the near-term macro challenges. We've made meaningful improvements to our cost structure and balance sheet while steadily advancing our product and technology road maps. With signs starting to emerge that market conditions could improve as we progress through the calendar year, Seagate is well positioned with an industry-leading mass capacity portfolio that we believe supports the return to our long-term financial model over time.

總而言之，希捷正以快速敏捷的方式應對近期的宏觀挑戰。我們在成本結構和資產負債表方面取得了顯著改善，同時穩步推進產品和技術路線圖。有跡象表明，隨著時間推移，市場狀況可能會改善。希捷憑藉業界領先的大容量產品組合佔據有利地位，我們相信這將支持我們逐步恢復長期財務模式。

Thanks, and I'll now turn the call over to Gianluca.

謝謝，現在我將把電話轉給 Gianluca。

Thank you, Dave. Seagate is navigating through the near-term macroeconomic cross current and executed to plan in the December quarter. We delivered top and bottom line results that came in slightly above the midpoint of our guidance ranges. Revenue of $1.89 billion and non-GAAP earnings of $0.16 per share. Our actions to reduce costs, strengthen the balance sheet and improve long-term profitability are really desired outcomes, including a continuation of positive free cash flow generation without sacrificing investment necessary to extend our technology leadership.

謝謝，戴夫。希捷正應對近期宏觀經濟的逆流，並在12月季度按計畫順利完成。我們的營收和淨利略高於預期區間的中點。營收18.9億美元，非公認會計準則每股收益0.16美元。我們為降低成本、增強資產負債表和提高長期獲利能力所採取的措施是我們真正期望的結果，包括在不犧牲鞏固技術領先地位所需投資的情況下，繼續創造正自由現金流。

Total hard disk drive shipments were 113 exabytes in the December quarter, down 5% quarter-over-quarter, with HDD revenue declining 6% sequentially to $1.7 billion. Multiple factors led to an expected decline in the mass capacity business, including the inventory correction among cloud and enterprise customers, COVID-related disruption in China and Seagate's own action to reduce production. Mass capacity sales were offset by a slight seasonal improvement in the legacy market. Shipment into mass capacity markets totaled 97 exabytes, down 7% quarter-over-quarter. Of this total, roughly 82% were derived from nearline products shifting to cloud and enterprise OEM customers. Nearline shipments of 80 exabytes were down 6% sequentially and roughly 30% of our recent high. We believe the actions we have taken to quickly adjust our production output have aided customers to start making progress in working down their inventory levels.

12 月季度硬碟總出貨量為 113 EB，季減 5%，HDD 營收季減 6% 至 17 億美元。多種因素導致大容量業務出現預期下滑，包括雲端和企業客戶的庫存調整、中國與 COVID 相關的中斷以及 Seagate 本身的減產行動。大容量銷售被傳統市場略微的季節性改善所抵消。大容量市場的出貨量總計 97 EB，季減 7%。其中約 82% 來自轉向雲端和企業 OEM 客戶的近線產品。 80 EB 的近線出貨量較上月下降 6%，約占我們近期高點的 30%。我們相信，我們為快速調整產量而採取的措施已幫助客戶開始在降低庫存水準方面取得進展。

The degree of progress vary from customer to customers and notwithstanding the current macroeconomic uncertainties, we would expect it will take a few more months to reach more normalized inventory level across the customer base. On a revenue basis, mass capacity sales were down 10% sequentially to $1.2 billion, reflecting the near line trend that I just described as well as lower demand in the VIA market. As we expected, the prolonged economic slowdown in China continued to impact sales of our VIA products, and we did not see the typical seasonal pickup in sales during the December quarter.

各個客戶的進展程度各不相同，儘管當前宏觀經濟存在不確定性，但我們預計整個客戶群的庫存水準仍需幾個月才能達到更正常的水準。就營收而言，大容量銷售額環比下降10%，至12億美元，這反映了我剛剛描述的近線趨勢，以及威盛市場需求的下降。正如我們預期的那樣，中國經濟的長期放緩繼續影響著威盛產品的銷售，12月季度的銷售額並未出現典型的季節性回升。

As Dave mentioned earlier, the Chinese government has taken action to boost the country economy, including the rapid reversal of COVID policy restriction. It will take time for these changes to take effect. And while still early, emerging customer dialogue support these encouraging leading indicators. As a result, we anticipate conditions to gradually improve over the next couple of quarters. Within the legacy market, revenue was $421 million, up 8% sequentially, primarily driven by a seasonal uptick in consumer demand, although a more subdued level compared to prior year.

正如Dave先前提到的，中國政府已採取措施提振國內經濟，包括迅速取消新冠疫情限制政策。這些變更的生效尚需時日。儘管目前仍處於初期階段，但新興的客戶對話已為這些令人鼓舞的領先指標提供支援。因此，我們預計未來幾季情況將逐步改善。在傳統市場，營收為4.21億美元，環比成長8%，主要得益於消費者需求的季節性成長，儘管與去年相比有所放緩。

Finally, revenue for our non-HDD business was $224 million, down 15% sequentially, reflecting the expected decline in our enterprise system business following a very strong September quarter. Overall, we are making great strides in growing the system business, increasing sales of our branded channel products and building customer momentum with our cohort self-filling technology. While we are continuing to navigate lingering supply constraint for a couple of system components, we expect non-HDD revenue to improve through the remainder of the fiscal year.

最後，我們的非硬碟業務收入為2.24億美元，環比下降15%，這反映了企業系統業務在經歷了9月份非常強勁的季度後出現的預期下滑。整體而言，我們在系統業務成長、品牌通路產品銷售提升以及客戶群自填充技術方面取得了長足進步。雖然我們仍在努力應對部分系統組件持續存在的供應緊張問題，但我們預計非硬碟業務收入將在本財年剩餘時間內有所改善。

Moving to our operational performance. Non-GAAP gross profit in the December quarter was $403 million. Embedded in that figure are the underutilization cost associated with lower production output to support inventory reduction, both as a customer and on our own balance sheet. And utilization cost of $79 million were somewhat higher than we had projected at the onset of the December quarter and translated into a 420 basis point of margin headwind. Accounting for risk costs, non-GAAP gross margin was 21.4%, down from 24.5% in the prior quarter.

談到我們的營運表現。 12月季度的非公認會計準則毛利為4.03億美元。該數字中包含了為支持庫存減少而降低產量所導致的未充分利用成本，這不僅體現在客戶層面，也體現在我們自身的資產負債表上。 7,900萬美元的利用成本略高於我們在12月季度初的預測，導致利潤率下降了420個基點。計入風險成本後，非公認會計準則毛利率為21.4%，低於上一季的24.5%。

Based on our current outlook, we are planning to begin ramping production output in the March quarter, sometime after the Lunar New Year. Cost and efficiencies associated with restarting and ramping of production are expected to largely offset the benefit of lower underutilization costs for the March quarter. However, as demand recovered in the coming quarters, we expect both gross profit and gross margin to move higher. We significantly reduced non-GAAP operating expenses to $294 million, down $20 million quarter-over-quarter due to savings associated with our restructuring plans and proactive expense management.

根據我們目前的展望，我們計劃在農曆新年後的某個時間，也就是3月季度開始提高產量。預計重啟和提高產量帶來的成本和效率將在很大程度上抵消3月季度降低產能不足成本的好處。然而，隨著未來幾季需求的復甦，我們預計毛利和毛利率都將上升。我們大幅削減了非公認會計準則下的營運支出至2.94億美元，環比下降2000萬美元，這得益於重組計劃和主動費用管理帶來的成本節省。

We expect quarterly non-GAAP OpEx to remain around the $300 million level through the balance of the fiscal year 2023. Based on the diluted share count of approximately 207 million shares, non-GAAP EPS for the December quarter was $0.16. Moving on to the balance sheet and cash flow. We executed planning action to strengthen our balance sheet over the near term. We ended the December quarter with a liquidity level of approximately $2.5 billion, including our revolving credit facilities, flat with the prior quarter.

我們預計，截至2023財年末，季度非GAAP營運支出將維持在3億美元左右。基於約2.07億股的稀釋股份數量，12月季度的非GAAP每股收益為0.16美元。接下來是資產負債表和現金流。我們執行了計劃措施，以在短期內增強資產負債表。截至12月季度，我們的流動性水準約為25億美元，包括循環信貸額度，與上一季持平。

We believe these levels are sufficient to support our strategic plans and meet customer demand. We drove a significant reduction in inventory to approximately $1.2 billion, down $400 million from the prior quarter, reflecting our effort to work down strategic inventory and finished goods. We expect inventory to remain around this level over the next couple of quarters, but we'll continue to focus on aligning our supply chain and finished good level to the prevailing demand environment.

我們相信，這些水準足以支持我們的策略計劃並滿足客戶需求。我們大幅削減了庫存，至約12億美元，較上一季減少4億美元，這反映了我們努力降低戰略庫存和成品庫存。我們預計未來幾季庫存將保持在這一水平左右，但我們將繼續專注於調整我們的供應鏈和成品庫存，使其與當前的需求環境相適應。

We reduced capital expenditures to $79 million, down 41% quarter-over-quarter. CapEx is expected to trend lower through the second half of the fiscal year with total fiscal year expenditure below the long-term target range of 4% to 6% of revenue. Free cash flow generation was $172 million, up 54% sequentially with lower capital expenditure and a $51 million improvement in working capital. We expect free cash flow to remain positive throughout calendar year 2023 and more than sufficient to support our dividend program. We use $145 million for the quarterly dividend. And as previously communicated, we paused our share repurchase program, exiting the quarter with 206 million shares outstanding. We are not currently planning to repurchase any share for the balance of the fiscal year, consistent with our near-term focus on optimizing cash flow through the current macro environment.

我們將資本支出削減至7,900萬美元，季減41%。本財年下半年預計資本支出將呈現下降趨勢，本財年總支出將低於佔收入4%至6%的長期目標範圍。自由現金流為1.72億美元，季增54%，資本支出下降，營運資本增加了5,100萬美元。我們預計2023年全年自由現金流將維持正值，足以支持我們的股利計畫。我們將1.45億美元用於季度股利。此外，如同先前所述，我們暫停了股票回購計劃，本季末流通股數為2.06億股。目前，我們計劃在本財年剩餘時間內不回購任何股票，這與我們近期在當前宏觀環境下優化現金流的重點一致。

Returning capital to shareholders remains an important aspect of our financial model, and we will assess resuming our program in fiscal 2024, depending on business conditions. We lowered overall debt by approximately $220 million, largely through a debt exchange, requiring minimal cash outlay. Additional, we successfully renegotiated our debt covenants to temporarily increase the leverage ratio to 5x. Our debt balance exiting the quarter was $6 billion, and adjusted EBITDA for the last 12 months totaled $1.6 billion, resulting in a gross debt leverage ratio of 3.8x.

向股東返還資本仍是我們財務模式的重要組成部分，我們將根據業務狀況，在2024財年評估是否恢復該計劃。我們透過債務交換降低了約2.2億美元的總債務，這主要透過最小化現金支出的方式來實現。此外，我們成功重新協商了債務契約，將槓桿率暫時提高至5倍。本季末我們的債務餘額為60億美元，過去12個月的調整後EBITDA總計為16億美元，總債務槓桿率為3.8倍。

Interest expense in the December quarter was $77 million and is expected to be approximately $82 million for the March quarter, reflecting higher interest rate associated with the new debt. We continue to evaluate options related to debt structure and reducing interest expense.

12月季度利息支出為7,700萬美元，預計3月季度利息支出約為8,200萬美元，這反映了新債務相關的更高利率。我們將繼續評估與債務結構和降低利息支出相關的方案。

Turning to our outlook for the March quarter. The broader macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties continue to impact the business environment and shape of recovery. However, as indicated earlier, we are encouraged by the actions being taken to improve economic condition in Asia and the early indication that cloud and enterprise customer inventory levels are trending lower. As a result, we expect March quarter revenue to be in the range of $2 billion, plus or minus $150 million, up about 6% quarter-over-quarter as a midpoint. We project incremental improvement in the mass capacity business from cloud and enterprise customers and higher system sales to offset seasonally decline in the legacy market.

展望三月季度，宏觀經濟和地緣政治的不確定性持續影響商業環境和復甦態勢。然而，如前文所述，亞洲正在採取的改善經濟狀況的措施，以及雲端運算和企業客戶庫存水準呈下降趨勢的早期跡象，令我們感到鼓舞。因此，我們預計三月季度營收將在20億美元左右（上下浮動1.5億美元），季增約6%。我們預計，來自雲端運算和企業客戶的大容量業務將逐步改善，系統銷售額也將有所成長，以抵消傳統市場的季節性下滑。

At the midpoint of our revenue guidance, we expect non-GAAP operating margin to be in the mid- to upper single-digit range, which includes both unutilization costs and inefficiencies associated with the resuming production output. And we expect non-GAAP EPS to be in the range of $0.25 plus or minus $0.20.

在我們收入預期的中點，我們預計非公認會計準則 (Non-GAAP) 營業利潤率將處於中等至較高的個位數區間，其中包括未利用成本以及與恢復生產相關的低效率成本。我們預計非公認會計準則每股盈餘 (Non-GAAP EPS) 將在 0.25 美元上下浮動 0.20 美元之間。

I will now turn the call back to Dave for final comments.

現在我將把電話轉回給戴夫，請他發表最後的評論。

Thanks, Gianluca. Seagate continues to demonstrate resilience in the most dynamic of times. We are executing on what is within our control, generating positive free cash flow and advancing our product road map. As I indicated earlier, we expect mass capacity market conditions to gradually improve as we progress through the calendar year, which supports stronger revenue and profitability in the back half of 2023. Longer term, we remain excited by the secular trends driving demand for mass capacity storage, and Seagate's unique capabilities to capture these future growth opportunities. We are leveraging our aerial density leadership to increase capacity per disk, which we believe enables the most cost-efficient product solutions for mass capacity storage.

謝謝，Gianluca。希捷在最動盪的時期繼續展現出韌性。我們正在執行力所能及的計劃，創造正的自由現金流，並推進我們的產品路線圖。正如我之前所說，我們預計大容量市場狀況將隨著時間推移逐步改善，這將支持我們在2023年下半年實現更強勁的收入和獲利能力。從長遠來看，我們仍然對推動大容量儲存需求的長期趨勢以及希捷抓住未來成長機會的獨特能力感到興奮。我們正在利用我們在空間密度方面的領先優勢來提高單盤容量，我們相信這將為大容量儲存提供最具成本效益的產品解決方案。

We will begin shipping products based on 3-plus terabyte per disk capacities in the coming months, which is up to 35% more than comparable drive capacities available today. Amid a challenging macro and industry backdrop, I'm incredibly proud of the partnerships and hard work from our suppliers, customers and our employees. Earlier this week, we published our fourth annual diversity, equity and inclusion report, which highlights how Seagate aims to build and support its global team. The principles outlined in this report are foundational to Seagate's technology innovations and long-term success. I encourage you to read the report in full on our website. I will conclude by thanking our shareholders for your ongoing support. Our objective remains taking the decisive steps to best position Seagate for long-term value creation. Gianluca and I will now take your questions.

我們將在未來幾個月內開始發售基於3TB以上單碟容量的產品，這比目前同類硬碟的容量高出35%。在充滿挑戰的宏觀和行業背景下，我為我們的供應商、客戶和員工的合作和辛勤工作感到無比自豪。本週早些時候，我們發布了第四份年度多元化、公平和包容性報告，其中重點介紹了希捷如何打造和支持其全球團隊。本報告中概述的原則是希捷技術創新和長期成功的基礎。我鼓勵您在我們的網站上閱讀完整的報告。最後，我要感謝股東們的持續支持。我們的目標仍然是採取果斷措施，使希捷在長期價值創造方面處於最佳地位。現在，我和詹盧卡將回答大家的提問。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員指示）

And our first question today will come from Thomas O'Malley with Barclays.

今天我們的第一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的托馬斯·奧馬利。

My first question is just on the nearline market. You're talking about a slight recovery from a unit perspective in the March quarter, you may refer to exabytes. I guess you could clarify that first? And then can you just talk about what you're seeing there that gives you the confidence that, that's inflecting. In the December quarter, clearly, you saw other mass capacity accelerate pretty robustly based on the numbers you gave. But what are you seeing on the near-line side? And what gives you the confidence that the March and June quarters are going to be sequentially higher?

我的第一個問題是關於近線市場的。您說的是3月季度從單位數來看略有復甦，您可能指的是EB（EB，即EB級）。我想您可以先解釋一下這一點。然後，您能否談談您觀察到的情況，讓您有信心這種復甦正在發生。根據您提供的數據，在12月份季度，您顯然看到其他大容量儲存的成長相當強勁。但是您在近線存儲方面看到了什麼？是什麼讓您有信心3月和6月季的銷售額會較上季成長？

Yes. Thanks, Tom. So it's a fairly tricky math, I think, is coming off of the back of last summer, where things were going down, we actually turned off our factories and particularly biased ourselves against the older generation programs, and we're really more biased towards the higher capacity points of the 20 terabytes and so on, right? So there is -- I won't talk about units, but we'll talk about exabytes. We think that there's going to be some exabyte growth and that will flow through into revenue.

是的，謝謝，湯姆。所以，我認為這是一道相當棘手的數學題，因為去年夏天的情況很糟糕，我們實際上關閉了工廠，並且對老一代項目產生了偏見，我們實際上更傾向於20TB等更高容量的方案，對吧？所以，我不會談單位，但我們會談EB。我們認為EB會有一定的成長，這將轉化為收入。

It's still a fairly low time right now, historically, of course, but we are seeing traction, and we are having discussions with customers about what exactly they need. I think the way I think about the CSPs is there's very different business models across the CSPs. And even within each CSP, there's different application spaces and workloads and therefore, inventory, I'd say it that way. So it's fairly tricky. But what we really want to do is make sure that we're not building too much of the old products and really biasing towards the new products.

當然，從歷史上看，現在仍然是一個相當低迷的時期，但我們看到了一些發展勢頭，我們正在與客戶討論他們到底需要什麼。我認為，我對雲端服務供應商的看法是，不同的雲端服務供應商有著截然不同的商業模式。即使在每個雲端服務供應商內部，也有不同的應用空間和工作負載，因此，庫存也各不相同。所以這相當棘手。但我們真正想做的是確保我們不會過度開發舊產品，反而會偏向新產品。

I think to the extent that we have good visibility into the stuff that the CSPs are actually building through then that's what gets us the confidence towards a recovery in the second half of the calendar year.

我認為，只要我們對 CSP 實際建構的內容有良好的了解，我們就會充滿信心地看到下半年經濟將會復甦。

And then my second one is for Gianluca. You described, I think, $79 million of underutilization cost in the December quarter. When you look at the midpoint, kind of where guidance is, I'm getting gross margins slightly up, but you would expect with a better revenue, maybe a little more leverage. Can you just talk -- you talked about some costs associated with ramping up the factory post Lunar New Year. Would those costs kind of offset the comedown in underutilization costs? Just walk me through the puts and takes there, so I understand the gross margin implication?

然後我的第二個問題是問詹盧卡。您提到了，我記得12月季度的未充分利用成本有7,900萬美元。從中間值來看，也就是預期值，我的毛利率略有上升，但收入更高，槓桿率更高，這也是意料之中的事。您能否簡單談談—您提到了春節後工廠擴建相關的一些成本。這些成本會抵銷未充分利用成本的下降嗎？請給我講其中的利弊，以便我理解這對毛利率的影響？

Thank you, Tom. Yes, the March quarter is a bit complicated from a cost standpoint because we are starting the quarter with a fairly low level of production, so we will generate underutilization cost for the month of January and maybe also a little bit of February. After that, we will start ramping production. That is a good news. But for who is familiar with manufacturing, and they know that ramping production has some inefficiencies. Now you need to restart the line, you need to recalibrate the equipment, you have some additional scrap, lower yield. So the first few weeks of a reramp have some costs associated. So when we put the 2 costs together, right now, we are assuming to come out fairly similar in terms of additional onetime cost of what we had in December. The improving in the gross margin, of course, is coming from the higher revenue and a little bit better level of production.

謝謝，湯姆。是的，從成本角度來看，三月季度有些複雜，因為我們本季開始的生產水準相當低，所以一月份會產生未充分利用的成本，二月可能也會有一點。之後，我們將開始提高產量。這是個好消息。但對於熟悉製造業的人來說，他們知道提高產量會帶來一些效率低落的問題。現在你需要重啟生產線，需要重新校準設備，會產生一些額外的廢料，導致產量下降。所以，提高產量的最初幾週會產生一些相關的成本。所以，當我們把這兩項成本加在一起時，我們目前假設的額外一次性成本與十二月的相當。當然，毛利率的提高來自於更高的收入和略微更好的生產水準。

And our next question will come from Krish Sankar with Cowen.

我們的下一個問題來自 Cowen 的 Krish Sankar。

This is Eddy for Krish. Congrats on the strong results. (technical difficulty) is more short-term. First, your (technical difficulty) HDD standby shipment is now (technical difficulty) year-over-year in Q2 well below the structural growth rate of 30%. At what point do you expect year-over-year growth to be above this?

我是 Eddy，代表 Krish 致詞。恭喜您取得的出色業績。 （技術難度）只是短期效應。首先，你們第二季的（技術難度）HDD 待機出貨量年比（技術難度）遠低於 30% 的結構性成長率。您預計年比成長率何時會超過這個水準？

Sorry, Eddy, you're breaking up just a little bit. Could you repeat your question, give another try?

抱歉，艾迪，你有點分心了。你能再問一次嗎？再說一次。

Your (technical difficulty) were down nearly 30% year-over-year in Q4. At what point do you expect that growth rate to turn positive year-over-year?

你們的（技術難度）在第四季年減了近30%。您預計什麼時候這個成長率會年比轉正？

I think I understood, and we'll go for here. The underutilization charges are the ones that are hurting us the most, I'll say, relative to turning off our factories and things like that. From my perspective, we're going to -- we took down the factories intentionally to make sure that we did not build too much of the old stuff. So say 16 terabytes or 18 terabytes that where people are still consuming and then we're focused more on 20s and 22s and 24s and 30s and so on and so forth, like we talked about in the script. And that fills back up the factory. So I think that's the answer. You get more exabytes out and it's a better financial return as well. I think that answers your question.

我想我明白了，我們會繼續討論這個問題。我想說，相對於關閉工廠之類的措施，未充分利用的費用對我們造成的損失最大。從我的角度來看，我們有意關閉工廠，以確保不會生產過多的舊數據。比如說，16TB 或 18TB 的數據，人們仍在使用，然後我們會更專注於 20TB、22TB、24TB、30TB 等等，就像我們在方案中提到的那樣。這樣工廠就會重新充滿數據。所以我認為這就是答案。你可以獲得更多 EB 的數據，同時也能獲得更好的財務回報。我想這回答了你的問題。

(technical difficulty) when we should expect our manufacturing yields to become close to corporate average, is second half of calendar '23 reasonable?

（技術難度）我們什麼時候應該預期我們的製造業收益率接近企業平均水平，23年下半年是否合理？

Yes. I won't speculate on that right now other than I'll say that we're now in a position on HAMR that, that's exactly the problem we're working. No longer is it a question of whether or not the technology is viable, the products are out of the oven. And from our perspective, this is what we do really well as well, which has ramped high-volume production. We've got everybody in the team focused on it, and we'll get there as fast as we possibly can.

是的。我現在不想對此進行猜測，但我要說的是，我們現在在HAMR技術上處於這樣的位置，這正是我們正在努力解決的問題。現在的問題不再是技術是否可行的問題，產品已經面世。從我們的角度來看，這也是我們非常擅長的，這已經提高了產量。我們團隊中的每個人都專注於此，我們會盡快實現目標。

And our next question will come from Erik Woodring with Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的艾瑞克‧伍德林。

Dave, just for you, great to see continued confidence in the June HAMR launch. I'd love to know just kind of what the feedback is that you're getting from prospective customers. Clearly, we're in a more cautious macro environment. We've heard the term like optimizing cloud spend more often. And so is this a technology and a capacity size that they're really pushing for now despite the slowdown that we're seeing in the market? Or are there other factors driving the timing of the launch? I would just love if you could unpackage that question.

Dave，我只想問你一個問題，很高興看到大家對6月HAMR的發表充滿信心。我很想知道你從潛在客戶那裡得到了什麼回饋。顯然，我們正處於一個更謹慎的宏觀環境。我們更常聽到「優化雲端支出」之類的說法。那麼，儘管我們看到市場成長放緩，HAMR技術和容量規模是否是他們現在真正在推動的？或者還有其他因素影響了HAMR的發佈時間？我希望你能詳細解釋一下這個問題。

Yes. Thanks, Erik. I would say that the onus is really on us. It's a control of ours to make sure that we can drive the transition exactly to Eddy's question about get the yields up and get the production capability to where we want it. I like to think that somebody making a decision to build out a data center would much rather have a drive with 3x terabytes instead of 2x terabytes. And because that's such a great TCO proposition for them over the long haul. We have deep customer relationships, obviously, on this front. This is not a surprise to them. The results that we're showing in our labs are not a surprise either. So they're very well connected with us on it.

是的，謝謝，Erik。我想說，責任真的在我們身上。我們有責任確保能夠推動轉型，準確回應Eddy提出的問題，即提高良率，並將產能提升到我們想要的水平。我認為，決定要建置資料中心的人，更傾向於選擇3倍TB容量的硬碟，而不是2倍TB容量的。因為從長遠來看，這對他們來說是一個非常划算的TCO方案。顯然，我們在這方面與客戶有著深厚的關係。這對他們來說並不意外。我們在實驗室中展示的結果也同樣令人驚訝。所以，他們與我們在這方面保持著良好的溝通。

Where their spending profile might be muted, say, in the first half of this year because of all the issues that CSPs are going through, and they've shared some of those with us and they're the tough problems themselves, I do think that the secular demand for mass capacity in those data centers is still going to be huge. And we want to make sure that we're staging the absolute best value proposition for us and them for when we get there. So it's really ours to go drive.

由於通訊服務提供者（CSP）面臨的許多問題，他們的支出狀況在今年上半年可能會有所放緩，他們也與我們分享了其中一些問題，而這些問題本身就是棘手的問題。但我確實認為，這些資料中心對大規模容量的長期需求仍然龐大。我們希望確保，當我們真正實現這一目標時，我們能夠為我們雙方提供絕對最佳的價值主張。所以，現在真正該是我們繼續前進的時候了。

Super. That's really helpful. And then Dave or Gianluca, I'm not sure. Can you just remind us exactly how we should think about the potential margin impact of launching HAMR and ramping that platform just as we think about, again, in the next 12 months? And that's it for me.

太棒了！這真的很有幫助。然後是 Dave 還是 Gianluca，我不確定。您能否提醒我們，我們應該如何看待推出 HAMR 以及在未來 12 個月內逐步推廣該平台對利潤的潛在影響？我的回答就到這裡。

Yes. Thanks, Erik. I'll pass it over to Gianluca in a second, but it really does come down to yields and scrap. I mean, we're going to be targeting most of this at the highest capacity points, although there are opportunities in lower capacity points if we can take disks and heads out of already existing platforms in the 20s or teens, then we'll go do it. And we have to go work that through qualifications with our customers. That's how we get margin oxygen, if you will, back into the system. And that yields, scrap, our ability to go through the cycles inside of our factory that those are the relevant parameters.

是的，謝謝，Erik。我稍後會把問題交給Gianluca，但這確實取決於良率和廢料。我的意思是，我們的目標主要是針對最高容量的市場，儘管在低容量市場也有機會，如果我們能以20到10%的價格從現有平台中取出磁碟和磁頭，我們就會去做。我們必須透過與客戶進行資格認證來解決這個問題。這就是我們將剩餘的氧氣（如果你願意的話）重新投入系統的方法。而良率、廢料以及我們工廠內部循環的能力，這些都是相關的參數。

Yes, HAMR is new products. So we need to go through a little bit of the learning curve, something different from what we have done in the last several years. But as Dave said, Seagate is very good in the operation, in manufacturing. And therefore, we are very confident now we can have very good results, results at a certain point will be similar to the PMR, but exactly when it's a bit difficult to say right now. So we are going step by step. But we are actually growing faster than what we were expecting. And as Dave said, we are ready for launching the product in the June quarter, but is a little bit before what we were discussing just 3 months ago.

是的，HAMR是新產品。所以我們需要經歷一些學習過程，這與我們過去幾年的做法有所不同。但正如Dave所說，希捷在營運和製造方面非常出色。因此，我們現在非常有信心能夠取得非常好的成果，在某個時間點上，其成果將與PMR類似，但具體時間現在還很難說。所以我們正在一步步推進。但實際上，我們的成長速度比我們預期的還要快。正如Dave所說，我們準備在6月季度推出該產品，但這比我們3個月前討論的時間略早了一些。

Yes, I think the data coming out of just to pile on a little bit, the data coming out of the labs is really good, really encouraging. And to stave off some other comments or something that -- I would say that there's -- while there's added features in a HAMR drive versus [garden variety] PMR drive, even PMR drives are fairly complicated themselves. There's no tectonic shift that causes major cost resets or things like that. There's things we have to go work, and that's what we do really well. We've worked these kinds of things over time to make sure we can stage other technology transitions, and we're all over this. We've been planning this for a long time.

是的，我認為實驗室得出的數據確實非常好，非常令人鼓舞。為了避免其他評論或其他什麼——我想說的是——雖然HAMR硬碟比普通的PMR硬碟增加了一些功能，但即使是PMR硬碟本身也相當複雜。它不會發生導致成本大幅調整或類似情況的結構性變化。有些事情我們必須繼續努力，而這正是我們擅長的。我們一直在努力，確保能夠推進其他技術轉型，我們已經為此做好了充分的準備。我們已經為此籌劃很久了。

And our next question will come from Karl Ackerman with BNP Paribas.

我們的下一個問題來自法國巴黎銀行的卡爾·阿克曼。

Yes. Two questions, if I may. As it relates to the March quarter guide, it's great to see an improvement in revenue in March because seasonality is usually down a few points. But of course, nothing is seasonal at this point in time. But I guess, as it relates to that, you spoke about improvement within nearline. And so 2-part questions to that. I guess, are cloud customers increasing their LTA baseline orders today going into March? And then second, are you beginning to see cloud customers procure orders for HAMR, would say, new or existing LTAs because I'm also curious how you look for signposts regarding the uplift of HAMR demand in anticipation of your launch?

是的。請容許我問兩個問題。關於三月季度指南，很高興看到三月收入有所增長，因為季節性因素通常會下降幾個點。當然，目前沒有什麼是季節性的。但我想，與此相關的是，您談到了近線業務的改善。因此，我有兩個問題。我想，雲端客戶是否會在進入三月時增加他們的LTA基準訂單？其次，您是否開始看到雲端客戶採購HAMR的訂單，例如新的或現有的LTA？因為我也很好奇，在你們的產品發表之前，你們是如何尋找HAMR需求成長的跡象的？

It's a really interesting question, Karl. Let me try it this way. Usually, when supply is behind demand considerably, then you're having LTA discussions. But I think in the case of this, obviously, our suppliers have got challenges, we've got challenges. Even our customers have challenges. So I think it's really an entire supply chain that needs to co-plan together. And we've -- demand is low right now. There's plenty of supply. But I think we're all very mindful of cash and mindful of the financial outcomes that we want.

卡爾，這個問題很有趣。我這樣想。通常情況下，當供應遠遠落後於需求時，就會進行長期協議談判。但我認為在這種情況下，顯然我們的供應商面臨挑戰，我們也面臨挑戰。甚至我們的客戶也面臨挑戰。所以我認為整個供應鏈都需要共同規劃。而且我們——目前需求低迷，供應充足。但我認為我們都非常在意現金流，也非常在意我們想要的財務結果。

Indeed, we are having LTA discussions still. The levels of the LTAs may not be reminiscent of what they were when you had demand far above supply. But I think the predictability is what we need to keep our factories running, to keep our people employed, getting paid and actually keeping the reinvestment so that we're out there with the right products and the right costs in those right times. Specifically to your HAMR question, I would say the answer is no at this point, but I think we could get there soon where we say HAMR is -- this is the volume ramp of HAMR at this customer, and then that becomes part of the LTA, but we're not there yet.

確實，我們仍在討論長期協議。目前的長期協議水準可能與需求遠高於供應時的水準有所不同。但我認為，我們需要的是可預測性，這樣才能保持工廠運轉，保障員工就業和薪酬，並持續進行再投資，從而確保我們在合適的時機以合適的成本提供合適的產品。具體到您關於HAMR的問題，目前的答案是否定的，但我認為我們很快就會達到我們所說的HAMR——也就是該客戶HAMR的產量提升，然後成為長期協議的一部分，但我們還沒有達到這個水平。

We will have to go through the call. And then after the call, we start discussing about volumes with customers and eventually doing LTAs.

我們必須先進行電話溝通。電話結束後，我們開始與客戶討論產量，最後簽訂長期協議。

Understood. If I may ask 1 more. I was under the impression your SMR drives were closer to 25% of your mix, you're suggesting it's close to 35% of your mix today, which is quite impressive. So I'm hoping you could discuss what sequential improvement you've seen in SMR drives this quarter and whether you are seeing better economics within this area of mass capacity?

明白了。請容許我再問一個問題。我之前印像中，你們的SMR硬碟佔比接近25%，而現在，你們的佔比已經接近35%，這相當令人印象深刻。所以，我希望您能談談本季SMR硬碟的環比成長情況，以及在大容量領域，您是否看到了更好的經濟效益？

Yes, thanks. I think there's a lot of confusion in the space on this, so let me try this. We've been shipping SMR since I think 2014, into the cloud. We also have shipped hundreds of millions of SMR drives on the client side. So SMR is a great technology add. If you can adopt it for very specific cloud applications, it can be quite complex. And so some places, people choose not to do it. Redeployment of drives, for example, from application becomes limited or there's a lot of inertia around it if you try to do that. So we have great SMR solutions. We've been working on this for years and years and years. If customers ask and if their applications desire, then we'll go there for them.

是的，謝謝。我覺得這方面有很多困惑，所以我來試試。我們從2014年就開始在雲端推出SMR硬碟了。我們也已經在客戶端交付了數億個SMR硬碟。所以SMR是一項很棒的技術。如果只針對特定的雲端應用採用它，它可能會非常複雜。所以有些地方人們選擇不這麼做。例如，從應用程式重新部署硬碟會受到限制，或者如果嘗試這樣做，會有很多阻力。所以我們有很棒的SMR解決方案。我們在這方面已經努力了很多年。如果客戶提出要求，而他們的應用需要，我們就會盡力滿足他們的要求。

And so I really look at this as a customer by customer, sometimes application by application, specific ask for, say, a business unit or something like that, and we just react to it. And that's I don't think there's any big shift towards more SMR out of the Seagate portfolio. I think there are customers who, over time, were adopting more SMR, so that may be part of the reason for the trend that you talked about. But it's not something that's, I'll say, deliberately being pushed on our front. We look at it more as just to solve the problem for the customer.

所以，我實際上是根據每個客戶、每個應用程式、每個特定需求（例如某個業務部門或類似機構）來看待這個問題，我們只是根據需求做出反應。因此，我認為希捷的產品組合中並沒有出現向更多 SMR 轉變的重大轉變。我認為有些客戶隨著時間的推移逐漸採用更多 SMR，所以這可能是您提到的趨勢的部分原因。但我想說，這不是我們刻意強加在我們的。我們更多地將其視為為客戶解決問題。

Yes, I would say on a quarterly basis, the percentage change based on the mix of our customers. So depending in which quarter, one customer can be a bit higher than another one. We can have a bit more SMR or less. But for us, as Dave said, we have both, it is actually a fairly easy way for us to convert the PMR into an SMR. So just a matter of where the demand is in the specific quarter.

是的，我想說的是，按季度來看，百分比會根據我們客戶的組合而改變。所以，根據具體季度，一個客戶的百分比可能會比另一個客戶高一點。我們的SMR可能會多一點，也可能會少一點。但對我們來說，正如戴夫所說，我們兩種都有，實際上，將PMR轉換為SMR是一種相當簡單的方法。所以，這只是取決於特定季度的需求情況。

And our next question will come from Aaron Rakers with Wells Fargo.

我們的下一個問題來自富國銀行的 Aaron Rakers。

Yes, 2 if I can as well. I guess the first question, you mentioned, obviously, in the numbers that you're shipping about 30% below what was the peak level seen a year or so ago. As we think about the efforts that you've made on rationalizing your production capacity, is there any way to gauge how we could think about what kind of fully utilization looks like on an exabytes ship basis as we move forward? Just trying to think about the trajectory based on that number relative to gross margin? What's kind of the capacity footprint that you guys have normalized to now?

是的，如果可以的話，也是2。我想第一個問題，你們顯然提到了，從數據上看，你們的出貨量比一年前的峰值水平低了約30%。當我們思考你們在合理化產能所做的努力時，有什麼方法可以衡量我們未來如何以EB出貨量為基礎，並達到充分利用？請問您根據這個數字，想像一下相對於毛利率的未來發展軌跡？你們現在的產能規模是多少？

Yes. Aaron, I think there's a couple of different answers to that question. Obviously, from an equipment perspective, all the equipment is still there. As a matter of fact, as we go through transitions to say, 2.2 terabyte per disk or 2.4 terabyte per disk to a 3 terabyte per disk, we get a lot more efficient out of our parts that we have accessible to us and out of that same equipment. Some penalties with process content, but generally speaking, our capacity footprint goes up.

是的。 Aaron，我認為這個問題有幾個不同的答案。顯然，從設備的角度來看，所有設備都還在。事實上，當我們經歷從每盤2.2TB或每盤2.4TB到每盤3TB的轉變時，我們能夠更有效率地利用現有資源，並且充分利用同一台設備。處理內容可能會有一些損失，但總的來說，我們的容量佔用空間會增加。

In the current -- to directly answer your question in the current state, we did have to scale back in our factories, and that will take just a little bit of time, not a lot of time to scale back up because that's about people. It's been a tremendously painful time for our people, for the people in the supply chain for the people and the customers for that matter. So I would say that our theoretical capacity is still as high as it is, but we can't react on a dime to go get there. We need to plan for it. And once pass, we did 165 exabytes, we could get back there fairly (technical difficulty) all the technology transitions we can also go beyond.

就目前情況而言——直接回答你的問題，我們確實不得不縮減工廠規模，但這只需要一點時間，縮減規模並不需要很長時間，因為這關乎人。對我們的員工、供應鏈上的員工、員工以及顧客來說，這都是一段極其痛苦的時期。所以，我想說，我們的理論產能仍然很高，但我們不能倉促地達到目標。我們需要為此做好規劃。一旦達到目標，我們實現了165EB，我們就可以相當順利地回到目標（雖然存在技術難度），並且所有技術轉型我們都能超越。

Yes, yes. That's helpful. And then as a quick follow-up. I think last quarter with the headcount reduction effort, you had talked about I think it was getting to realizing the annualized expense savings of about $110 million starting in this current quarter. How do we think about the effect of that on a net basis in this current fiscal quarter?

是的，是的。這很有幫助。然後我快速跟進。我記得上個季度的裁員行動，您提到過，我認為從本季開始，年度化費用節省將達到約1.1億美元。我們認為這對本財季的淨收入有何影響？

Yes. We realized a big part of that saving already starting in the December quarter, as we were discussing beginning of November, the majority of our restructuring actually happened at the beginning of November. So we had basically 2 full months out of the 3 where we could take the benefit of the cost reduction. And now in OpEx, but always few other items that impact the cost of the quarter. In the script, I said we expect this quarter and even next quarter to still be around the $300 million.

是的。我們從12月季度就實現了很大一部分成本節省，正如我們之前討論的11月初那樣，我們的大部分重組實際上都是在11月初進行的。因此，在三個月中，我們基本上有兩個整月的時間可以享受成本削減帶來的好處。現在，營運支出（OpEx）有所下降，但其他一些項目總是會影響季度成本。在計劃中，我說我們預計本季甚至下個季度的成本仍將在3億美元左右。

And our next question will come from Thomas Arcuri with UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀的 Thomas Arcuri。

This is Jason on for Tim from UBS. I have a couple of questions. So the first question is on December quarter. Sorry if I missed, but I see that there's about $100 million purchase order cancellation fees in December quarter. Could you guys help us understand what that line item really is? And also, would there be any possibility of this repeating in a similar magnitude next couple of quarters if demand remains weak? And I have a follow-up.

我是瑞銀的傑森，接替提姆的節目。我有幾個問題。第一個問題是關於12月季度的。抱歉，我記錯了，但我注意到12月季度有大約1億美元的採購訂單取消費用。你們能幫我們了解一下這項的具體意義嗎？另外，如果需求持續疲軟，未來幾季是否有可能再次出現類似的規模？我還有一個後續問題。

Yes. That is related to our reduction in production. Of course, we had some commitment with some of our suppliers. But of course, we want to comply with. So on those cases, we had to stay for take-or-pay products that we didn't need, and we decided not to take based on our focus on reducing our own inventory on top of reducing customer inventory. I think we have taken all those liabilities into the December quarter. So I don't expect at this point those liability to come back in the March quarter.

是的。這與我們減產有關。當然，我們與一些供應商達成了一些承諾。但我們當然希望遵守承諾。因此，在這種情況下，我們不得不繼續生產那些我們不需要的「照付不議」產品，而我們決定不生產這些產品，因為我們不僅要減少客戶庫存，還要減少自身庫存。我認為我們已經將所有這些負債都計入了12月季度。因此，我目前預計這些負債不會在3月季度再次出現。

Got it. Yes. My second question is on your debt paydown schedule and cash level. So on the back of your recent debt exchange, how are you guys thinking about the pace and magnitude of debt paydown in the next few quarters? And in light of that, how can we think about the new cash level you guys are comfortable operating under going forward?

明白了。是的。我的第二個問題是關於你們的債務償還計劃和現金水準。那麼，在最近的債務互換之後，你們如何考慮未來幾季債務償還的速度和幅度？考慮到這一點，我們如何看待你們未來能夠承受的新現金水準？

Yes, we are generating still a fairly strong free cash flow. In the December quarter, we generated $170 million, I think this quarter will be higher than that. We have a note that will mature at the beginning of June that we want to repay and we will not refinance, that is about $540 million. So we will use our cash. We have actions going on to optimize our cash between now and June. But I would say, right now, our focus is actually on reducing the debt and reducing the full amount of those notes.

是的，我們仍然保持著相當強勁的自由現金流。 12月季度，我們創造了1.7億美元，我認為本季會更高。我們有一張票據將於6月初到期，我們希望償還，但不會再融資，這筆款項約為5.4億美元。所以我們會利用現金。從現在到6月，我們正在採取措施優化我們的現金。但我想說，目前我們的重點實際上是減少債務，並減少這些票據的全部金額。

And our next question will come from Sidney Ho with Deutsche Bank.

我們的下一個問題來自德意志銀行的 Sidney Ho。

Congrats on pulling in the launch schedule of HAMR drives. A couple of questions here. How are you thinking about the adoption of HAMR drives in the back half of the year into '24? Is it more broad-based? Or is it focused on a few customers -- and I know it's early, but do you expect -- when do you expect unit or exabyte crossover for HAMR drives? And lastly, on this subject, just to be clear, are you planning to dual track with PMR products in the 30-terabyte range? And then I have a follow-up question.

恭喜您公佈了HAMR硬碟的發佈時間表。這裡有幾個問題。您如何看待HAMR硬碟在2024年下半年的普及？普及範圍會更廣嗎？還是只專注於少數客戶？我知道現在還為時過早，但您預計HAMR硬碟何時會實現單位容量（Unit）或EB容量（EB）的跨越？最後，關於這個問題，需要澄清的是，您是否計劃在30TB範圍內雙軌並行PMR產品？然後我還有一個後續問題。

I appreciate all the positive momentum that's going on. It really -- there's a lot of people inside of our company and outside of our company that deserve accolades here making this technology work, believed in it for the last 20 years and so on. And I think it's great that the world is going to be able to double the capacity points and things like that over time. I've got a lot of confidence based on where we sit right now. We're not talking about exactly what the schedule is going to be, but we're going to be as aggressive as we possibly can.

我欣賞目前所有正面的勢頭。真的——我們公司內外有很多人值得稱讚，他們推動了這項技術的發展，在過去的20年裡一直相信它。我認為，隨著時間的推移，全球的容量將翻一番，諸如此類，這真是太棒了。基於我們目前的狀況，我對此充滿信心。我們目前還沒有確定具體的時間表，但我們會盡可能積極地推進。

Specifically to your question, I think the first drives will probably go out into a couple of different channels (inaudible) we control like we've talked about maybe using our systems business in the prepared remarks. And then some big customers are -- want to be early adopters so that they understand the technology and what to take. It's -- I would say at the highest capacity point, the integration always the trickiest because these are things that the world has never seen before.

具體來說，關於您的問題，我認為第一批硬碟可能會進入我們控制的幾個不同管道（聽不清楚），就像我們在準備好的發言中談到的那樣，可能會使用我們的系統業務。然後，一些大客戶希望成為早期採用者，以便他們了解這項技術以及應該採取哪些措施。我想說，在容量最高的時候，整合總是最棘手的，因為這些都是世界上從未見過的東西。

To the extent we can turn around and make cheaper capacity points that are midrange like 20s or 16s or whatever they happen to be because we have fewer heads and disks in them. That's a great answer for us as well, and we'll get working on that. So I don't think the once we get out the heads and disks, I think we'll be able to find homes for them, and we're going to be very, very aggressive on the ramp over the next few years.

在某種程度上，我們可以扭轉局面，生產更便宜的中端容量產品，例如20英寸或16英寸，或其他類似的產品，因為我們的磁頭和磁碟數量更少。這對我們來說也是一個很好的解決方案，我們會繼續努力。所以我認為，即使我們把磁頭和磁碟淘汰了，我們也能找到合適的產品，而且我們將在未來幾年非常積極地推進產能提升。

Okay. Maybe a follow-up question. You and your competitors have both been quite rational in terms of production cuts in this down cycle. Curious if you're seeing any less rational behavior in terms of pricing given the high level of inventory in the channel and the customers in the December quarter, but more importantly, going forward, do you think the pricing environment will still be okay?

好的。或許可以問個後續問題。在這個下行週期，您和您的競爭對手在減產方面都相當理性。考慮到12月季度通路和客戶的高庫存水平，您是否看到定價方面出現不太理性的行為？更重要的是，展望未來，您認為定價環境還會好嗎？

Yes, I do think the way to control the long-term outcome, the best is to cut your production and make sure you're not pushing out too much of the wrong stuff. I'm encouraged to see the way that the industry is actually behaving on that front. I don't -- to your point, I don't look at things like market share in any individual deals as long-term trends at this point in time. I think it's more just what discipline does the industry have. And I do think that over the long haul, especially for Seagate, I can speak, having the ability to go add a better value proposition, lower our costs and so on and so forth. I think we use that to think about how do we get back into our margin range or beyond.

是的，我確實認為控制長期結果的最佳方法是削減產量，並確保不要推出過多不合適的產品。我很高興看到行業在這方面的實際表現。正如您所說，目前我不會將任何單筆交易的市場份額等因素視為長期趨勢。我認為這更多的是行業自身的紀律性。我確實認為，從長遠來看，尤其是對希捷而言，我認為，我們有能力提升價值主張，降低成本等等。我認為我們會以此為基礎，思考如何回到甚至超越我們的利潤率區間。

And our next question will come from Vijay Rakesh with Mizuho.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞穗的 Vijay Rakesh。

Great quarter and a good control on the inventory side. Just a quick question on how you see broad inventories in the channel. Like if you look at China and U.S. enterprise hyperscale, any thoughts on where inventories are, broadly?

本季表現不錯，庫存控制也很好。我只想問一個簡單的問題，您如何看待通路中的庫存狀況？例如，如果您觀察中國和美國的企業級超大規模資料中心，您對庫存整體狀況有什麼看法？

Yes. I think we said that we -- from our vantage point, the inventories of hyperscalers generally went down in the directions, the right directions, and we were encouraged by it. I mean, obviously, we'd like to see it faster because we'd like to ramp our factories back up quicker. I think it would help us. And then, of course, our owned inventory, what we were able to do by not putting anything out, especially the legacy capacity points, I'll say, in the nearline space, we're not putting anything else out into the market that's encouraging as well. I think from a distribution weeks on hand, it's high, but not super high historically.

是的。我想我們說過——從我們的角度來看，超大規模資料中心的庫存總體上是朝著正確的方向下降的，這讓我們感到鼓舞。我的意思是，顯然我們希望看到它更快恢復，因為我們希望工廠能夠更快地恢復生產。我認為這對我們有幫助。當然，我們的自有庫存，我們能夠做到的就是不投放任何產品，尤其是在傳統產能方面，我想說，在近線領域，我們也沒有向市場投放任何其他產品，這也令人鼓舞。我認為從目前的分銷週來看，庫存水準很高，但從歷史上看，並不是特別高。

And you all know that depending on how you're measuring it 4 weeks or 13 weeks, it could be -- it's really based on a baseline. And I think that, that baseline now has become this macroeconomic reality. I do think that as we started to see some kind of macroeconomic recovery in certain geos, Europe, Asia and so on. The absolute value of the inventory is not super high. And so it's not a whole lot of weeks on hand. And I think there, again, we could react to that. So I'm not super worried about the inventory there.

大家都知道，這取決於你如何衡量，4週還是13週，這其實取決於一個基準。我認為，這個基線現在已經成為宏觀經濟現實。我確實認為，隨著我們開始看到某些地區（例如歐洲、亞洲等）出現某種形式的宏觀經濟復甦，庫存的絕對值並不是很高。所以庫存週數並不多。我認為，我們可以對此做出反應。所以我並不特別擔心那裡的庫存。

Great. And you mentioned HAMR ramping here. Good to see that. As you exit the year, any thoughts on what that mix would be of your mass capacity on nearline of revenues or units?

太好了。您提到了HAMR產能提升，很高興看到這一點。今年即將結束，您對於近線儲存的大規模產能、收入或出貨量構成有何想法？

Yes. We haven't really talked about it. I think this year, it will probably still be relatively low. And then the faster we can get the yields in scrap and all the costs that we can control down on the heads and media then the faster we will be accelerating. I think that will happen in calendar year '24 and calendar year '25 will just continue to accelerate. The highest capacity points will be addressed, but also these midrange capacity points. And how successful we are with all that stuff we'll determine how broadly we can penetrate all those different individual markets.

是的，我們還沒真正討論過這個問題。我認為今年的產能可能仍然相對較低。我們越快提高廢料的產量，並控制磁頭和介質的成本，我們就能越快加速生產。我認為這將在2024年實現，而2025年將繼續加速。最高產能點會被滿足，但中端產能點也會被滿足。我們在這些方面取得的成功將決定我們能在多大程度上滲透到所有不同的市場。

And our next question will come from Ananda Baruah with Loop Capital.

我們的下一個問題來自 Loop Capital 的 Ananda Baruah。

Two quick ones, if I could. Just going back to Aaron's question, Dave and Gianluca on the utilization. So Dave, you said you're 30% below peak, your gross margins are actually down 30% from that same peak. Is that a coincidence because pricing has been stable? Or is it really sort of that simple? And then I guess the ramp back up, your kind of higher cap drives sort of takes up, takes in more capacity. And so is it really as simple as on sort of the ramp back up sort of the same indexing on capacity ship is like a little bit more of a slope up shift, just given the mix? And I have a quick follow-up after that.

如果可以的話，我想快速問兩個問題。回到Aaron的問題，Dave和Gianluca關於利用率的問題。 Dave，你說你們的毛利率比高峰低了30%，實際上比高峰下降了30%。這是巧合嗎？因為價格一直很穩定？還是真的就這麼簡單？然後我想，產能回升，也就是更高的容量驅動力會佔用更多容量。所以，這真的像產能回升那麼簡單嗎？考慮到組合情況，產能指數就像一個向上傾斜的轉變？之後我還有一個簡短的後續問題。

Well, I would say, for sure, the majority of the gross margin decline is coming from the underutilization charges. So the lower level of production that we have. Last quarter, we're discussing it a bit about some price pressure in the low-capacity drive. But we have seen a little bit in the quarter of December. But in general, especially considering that we see a fairly strong down cycle, we are -- in terms of pricing stability, we see this as a positive. And we expect as soon as we are back into the same level of production and same level of revenue we had a year ago, we think our gross margin will be at the same level or even better.

嗯，我可以肯定地說，毛利率下降的主要原因是產能不足造成的費用。也就是說，我們的產量較低。上個季度，我們討論過一些低產能帶來的價格壓力。但12月季度的情況有所改善。但總的來說，尤其是考慮到我們正處於相當強勁的下行週期，就價格穩定性而言，我們認為這是一個好消息。我們預計，一旦產量和收入恢復到去年同期的水平，我們的毛利率將保持相同水平，甚至更高。

Yes, Gianluca, is it -- can we kind of model the gross margin more or less calibrated with what you see capacity increases to be going forward?

是的，詹盧卡，我們能否根據您所預見的未來產能成長情況，對毛利率進行或多或少的調整？

I would say capacity mix, of course.

當然，我會說是容量組合。

Okay. Cool. And then just a real quick follow-up. $300 million OpEx through the June quarter, how do you want us to think about modeling out past that, the puts and takes?

好的。很酷。然後是一個非常快速的跟進。截至第二季的營運支出為3億美元，您希望我們如何考慮建立超出此範圍的模型，包括投入和產出？

But we are trying to discuss about the next fiscal year, but I would say part of the lower OpEx is coming from variable compensation that is very low in the current fiscal year. So you will have to think about adding some cost for variable compensation in the fiscal '24.

我們正在討論下一財年，但我想說，營運支出下降的部分原因是本財年的浮動薪資非常低。所以你必須考慮在24財年增加一些浮動薪資成本。

Yes. I think Ananda, we reacted, obviously, very early on some of this when we saw it. And I think we're going to be asking the same kinds of questions throughout the course of this year, what's the new trajectory, the new normal, if you can, when some of the normal demand cycle comes back, where is the world from an economics perspective and we'll address factory footprint and things like that when those times come.

是的。 Ananda，我想，我們很早就意識到了這一點，並做出了反應。我認為我們今年全年都會問同樣的問題：新的軌跡、新的常態是什麼？如果可以的話？當一些正常的需求週期恢復時，從經濟角度來看，世界會是什麼樣子？到時候，我們再討論工廠足跡之類的問題。

And our next question will come from Wamsi Mohan with Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Wamsi Mohan。

I apologize jumping across calls if this has already been answered. But I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about the trajectory that you see in exabyte growth. It's kind of been a little bit all over the place given so many moving pieces with both demand slowdown as well as inventory and if you could maybe calibrate for calendar '23, that would be great?

如果這個問題已經有人回答了，我很抱歉插播。但我想請您談談EB級數據的成長軌跡。由於需求放緩和庫存等諸多因素的影響，EB級數據的成長軌跡有點混亂。如果您能根據2023年的情況進行調整，那就太好了。

Yes. I think it depends, Wamsi, on -- if you -- where you have reached at too. I think we've taken a big step down, of course, and then we could talk way back on the 30% growth. I don't -- I think it's a little too early to tell that. But we do think that by the fact that we're putting out 24 terabytes and 30 terabytes and so on and so forth, that's going to help the exabyte growth substantially. I think a couple of years ago, we were at 80-some percent from nearline drive. So that was reflective of not only high -- great value proposition from one capacity point to another, say, maybe 25% bump in capacity point, but also the fact that a lot of people are investing at the time. I do think that the demand side for data is still there. There's AI, machine learning, a lot of new applications coming.

是的。 Wamsi，我認為這取決於——如果你——你目前達到的水平。當然，我認為我們已經大幅降低了，然後我們就可以重新討論30%的成長了。我不這麼認為——我認為現在下結論還為時過早。但我們確實認為，鑑於我們推出24TB、30TB等等，這將大幅推動EB級的成長。我記得幾年前，我們的近線硬碟佔比達到了80%左右。所以，這不僅反映了從一個容量點到另一個容量點（比如說，容量點可能提升了25%）的巨大價值主張，也反映了當時有很多人在投資。我確實認為數據的需求仍然存在。人工智慧、機器學習以及許多新的應用正在湧現。

I think we're going through something that's fairly temporary where people are just getting their legs underneath them and then they'll figure out what their investment profiles are and our job is to go put a better value proposition from an exabyte perspective out there in front of them to kind of incentivize that. So we do think the back half of this year gets better from an exabyte perspective. I don't -- maybe a little early to tell exactly what the number is.

我認為我們正在經歷一段相當短暫的時期，人們才剛起步，然後他們就會弄清楚自己的投資狀況。我們的工作是從EB級的角度，提供他們更好的價值主張，以激勵他們。所以我們確實認為，從EB級的角度來看，今年下半年的情況會有所改善。我不知道——也許現在就說出確切的數字還為時過早。

And maybe you already covered this, but if you wouldn't mind, if you have covered it, then we don't need to go in. But I was wondering if you could address if there's anything abnormal that you're seeing within pricing in the competitive environment, is there especially within the channel, anything that you're seeing that might be abnormal? And when do you think if there is something when that would normalize?

或許您已經討論過這個問題了，如果您不介意的話，我們已經討論過了，那我們就不多說了。但我想請問您能否談談，在競爭激烈的市場環境下，定價方面是否有任何異常？尤其是在通路方面，您認為什麼時候才能恢復正常？

At a macro level, no, I think everybody is seeing about the same demand environment. People are reacting fairly similarly, making sure they're preserving their cash, not building things that they're uncertain of going out into the market. And so I think the industry has actually done a pretty good job of scaling way back over the last 3, 4, 5 months on our production capacity. It's very, very painful for ourselves and our suppliers, of course. But -- and our customers, I think I said this earlier, our customers understand that. But at a macro level, I don't see that. I don't see people building too much of the wrong stuff and trying to get into the market. Maybe little pockets, but again, big picture, I don't think that's super relevant.

從宏觀層面來看，我認為每個人都看到了相同的需求環境。大家的反應相當類似，確保保住現金，而不是生產那些不確定是否會推出市場的產品。所以我認為，在過去的3、4、5個月裡，產業在大幅削減產能方面實際上做得相當不錯。當然，這對我們自己和供應商來說都非常非常痛苦。但是——以及我們的客戶，我想我之前就說過了，他們理解這一點。但從宏觀層面來看，我並沒有看到這種情況。我沒有看到有人為了進入市場而大量生產不合格的產品。也許有些公司會小規模生產，但從宏觀角度來看，我認為這與實際情況並不相關。

And our next question will come from Kurt Swartz with Evercore ISI.

我們的下一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 Kurt Swartz。

Maybe just first, within the context of recent export restrictions and macro headwinds in China. I'm curious if you have -- if you can share any color on your TAM assumptions for the VIA market, both in the near term and longer term, which I believe you previously said the longer-term market outlook remains intact, but just curious on those dynamics?

首先，考慮到近期中國出口限制和宏觀經濟逆風的影響，我很好奇您是否可以分享您對 VIA 市場（包括短期和長期）TAM 的假設？我記得您之前說過，長期市場前景保持不變，但我對這些動態感到好奇。

Yes, I'll start and I'll let Gianluca speak as well. I think the VIA market is changing quite a bit globally. There's a lot of applications. A few years ago, we would have talked about surveillance, now there's a lot of applications about consumer behavior and inventory management. A lot of people are worried about inventory. And so -- the people are using all these new, say, smart edge applications in a very creative way. So globally, it's an exciting market.

是的，我先開始，Gianluca 也先發言。我認為全球的 VIA 市場正在發生很大變化。有很多應用。幾年前，我們會討論監控，現在有許多關於消費者行為和庫存管理的應用。很多人擔心庫存問題。所以，人們正在以非常有創意的方式使用所有這些新的智慧邊緣應用程式。所以，在全球範圍內，這是一個令人興奮的市場。

I think the drivers in China, in particular, over time that's been very muted for the last year, and we were kind of waiting for a recovery. And I think the recovery just hasn't come. I think it will recover, but it's going to be slow. And I think there's new opportunities around the world in various geos as well happening.

我認為，尤其是在中國，過去一年的驅動力一直非常低迷，我們一直在等待復甦。但我認為復甦尚未到來。我認為它會復甦，但會很緩慢。而且我認為世界各地不同地區也正在出現新的機會。

In the very short term, we see possibly decline in the March quarter, mainly because of seasonality. March is always the quarter where we have the lower revenue from VIA and from some of the legacy markets also. So not a lot of increase in the short term. But in our view, the rest of the calendar year, we should see sequential improvement. And VIA is an important segment for us. And in a segment that is also generally generating a very good gross margin.

短期來看，我們預期三月季度的營收可能會下降，主要是因為季節性因素。三月一直是威盛以及一些傳統市場營收較低的季度。因此，短期內不會有太大成長。但我們認為，今年剩餘時間應該會看到環比改善。威盛是我們的一個重要部門，而且該部門的毛利率通常也很高。

Great. That's very helpful. And then maybe just a follow-up. Within the context of the operating margin target that you outlined last year, 18% to 22%, assuming this is still the right framework, can you just walk us through some of the levers and the time line for reaching that range and maybe thoughts on medium- to longer-term OpEx growth or intensity within that context?

太好了，這很有幫助。然後我再問個後續問題。假設您去年提出的18%到22%的營業利潤率目標仍然是正確的框架，您能否向我們介紹一下實現這一目標的一些手段和時間表，以及在此背景下對中長期運營支出增長或強度的看法？

Yes. I think to find the long-term demand, we're still kind of assessing that. So I won't be -- I won't predict it just yet. But I will say that this is management team's goal to get back in those models as fast as we possibly can. Obviously, demand is the fundamental driver to that. We've made operational improvements by cost reductions. And we've, unfortunately, had to cut some things that we're working on. So there is a reason to suggest that we have a little bit more oxygen than we had going into this thing. But I think fundamentally, it will still be the demand driver. And one of the reasons we're trying to transition products as aggressively as we can is because we think we intercept that demand with a better value proposition that comes back to us faster, but we also go off and work our own internal operational metrics and then we get the best cost at the time, and that helps as well.

是的。我認為，為了找到長期需求，我們仍在評估中。所以我現在還不能預測。但我要說的是，管理團隊的目標是盡快恢復這些模式。顯然，需求是實現這一目標的根本驅動力。我們透過降低成本實現了營運改善。但不幸的是，我們不得不削減一些正在進行的項目。所以，我們有理由認為，現在的「氧氣」比剛開始的時候要多一些。但我認為，從根本上來說，需求仍然是驅動力。我們盡可能積極地進行產品轉型的原因之一是，我們認為我們能夠用更好的價值主張來滿足這種需求，從而更快地獲得回報。但我們也會制定自己的內部營運指標，從而獲得當時的最佳成本，這也有幫助。

And our next question will come from Ashley Ellis with Credit Suisse.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞士信貸的阿什利·埃利斯。

Gianluca, could you discuss how you're thinking about working capital for the second half of the year? Our inventory days came down pretty substantially. Obviously, if you took production down. But they're still above the year ago levels. And then as you launch HAMR, is there anything we should consider within that number? And then I have a follow-up.

Gianluca，您能談談您對下半年營運資金的考量嗎？我們的庫存天數大幅下降了。顯然，這是因為你們減少了產量。但庫存天數仍高於去年同期的水準。那麼，隨著你們推出 HAMR 系統，我們在這個數字範圍內應該考慮哪些方面？然後我還有一個後續問題。

Yes. In the December quarter, our working capital was positive by about $50 million. We decreased our inventory by a lot, but we also paid a lot to our suppliers. So I think that is part of the positive working capital that will actually impact the March quarter. And after that, probably is fairly stable for at least a couple of quarters.

是的。 12月季度，我們的營運資本為正值，約5,000萬美元。我們大幅減少了庫存，但也向供應商支付了巨額款項。所以我認為這部分營運資本為正值，實際上會影響到3月季度。之後，至少在未來幾個季度內，營運資本可能會保持相對穩定。

Okay. And then, Dave, you kind of touched on this in a prior question, but AI has become a much more common topic in the last few weeks. And I'm wondering how Seagate thinks about that opportunity, not just from data creation, but your product lineup? And is this coming up in customer conversations? Is it something that they're asking for your help on?

好的。然後，戴夫，你在之前的問題中提到了這一點，但人工智慧在過去幾週已經成為一個越來越常見的話題。我想知道希捷是如何看待這個機會的，不僅是從數據創建的角度，還包括你們的產品線？這在客戶對話中有所提及嗎？他們是否正在尋求你的幫助？

Yes. Thanks, Ashley. So it's underneath all of the demand for data growth that we see, I think this is one of the big trends that we're watching because it affects not only what's going on in the cloud, but it also affects what's happening at the edge. And so that -- I do think that over the long haul, we're very bullish on this. If you think about it, early days of AI they were training models and things like that, that needed access to big data sets. But I think as time goes on, big data sets have to be very real time to make decisions that are relevant in the moment. And sometimes they need to be kept at the edge because you have a lot of video data, for example, at the edge to make good decisions on consumer behavior or inventory, like I talked about before, all these new applications that are coming. So our customers are quite excited about it.

是的，謝謝，Ashley。所以，在我們觀察到的所有數據成長需求背後，我認為這是我們正在關注的一大趨勢，因為它不僅影響雲端的運行，也影響邊緣運算的運行。所以，我認為從長遠來看，我們對此非常看好。想想看，在人工智慧的早期，人們訓練模型之類的東西，需要存取大數據集。但我認為隨著時間的推移，大數據集必須非常即時，才能做出與當前相關的決策。有時，這些數據需要保存在邊緣運算中，例如，在邊緣運算中，需要根據消費者行為或庫存做出正確的決策，就像我之前提到的，所有這些新應用都在湧現。所以我們的客戶對此非常興奮。

The good news, and I've been saying this for the last couple of years is that I see a lot of innovation that's happening on that front because of the unsure footing that a lot of people have in the macro condition, people aren't really leaning into it, but I really look forward to the days that they are and these applications come online because I think it's going to contribute a lot to the data growth.

好消息是，過去幾年我一直在說，我看到這方面出現了很多創新，因為很多人對宏觀條件缺乏信心，人們並沒有真正傾向於此，但我真的很期待這些應用程序上線的那一天，因為我認為這將對數據增長做出很大貢獻。

And our next question will come from Tristan Gerra with Baird.

我們的下一個問題來自貝爾德的特里斯坦·傑拉。

Just following up on some of the questions on pricing. I understand that controlling production is a way to get back over time to your utilization rates and gross margin target. But is the price decline in NAND that we've seen recently impacting some of the pricing that you're looking at for HDDs? Or is there basically a possibility of share shift toward demand given the pricing that NAND is undertaking currently? And how do you react to that?

Q：我只是想跟進一些關於定價的問題。我知道控制產量是逐步恢復利用率和毛利率目標的一種方法。但是，我們最近看到的NAND價格下跌是否影響了您所關注的HDD定價？或者，考慮到NAND目前的定價策略，市佔率是否有可能向需求傾斜？您對此有何反應？

Tristan, I think that back in the day that the legacy markets went through some transitions because of this. There may be some happening in the consumer markets, that's relatively small. The impact is relatively small. I think we still have a pretty good value proposition in the consumer markets as well, in the mass capacity markets not really. I mean I think the people running big mass capacity rigs either they understand both technologies and they use both technologies. They're not really making a trade-off of one versus the other. I think NAND, we can all see that the business is tough over there. I think everybody is in tough shape and I feel for some of those guys because the world needs their technology, I think we need their technology as well to make sure that they do their part in the layers they're relevant in, but I don't think it affects mass capacity long term.

Tristan，我認為過去傳統市場因此經歷了一些轉型。消費市場可能也發生了一些變化，但相對較小，影響也相對較小。我認為我們在消費市場仍然擁有相當不錯的價值主張，但在大容量市場則不然。我的意思是，我認為運營大容量設備的人要么了解這兩種技術，要么同時使用這兩種技術。他們並沒有真正在兩種技術之間進行權衡。至於NAND，我們都能看到那裡的生意很辛苦。我認為每個人都處境艱難，我為其中一些人感到難過，因為世界需要他們的技術，我們也需要他們的技術，以確保他們在相關的層面上發揮自己的作用，但我認為這不會對大容量市場產生長期影響。

And this will conclude our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束。我想將會議交還給管理階層，請大家發表結束語。

Thanks, Cole. As you heard today, Seagate is acting with speed and agility to manage through a tough near-term market environment. At the same time, we're executing our strong mass capacity product road map that makes us well positioned to enhance customers' value and Seagate's financial performance. I'd just like to close by thanking all of our stakeholders for their ongoing support, and thanks for joining us today.

謝謝，科爾。正如大家今天所聽到的，希捷正以快速且靈活的行動來應對艱難的短期市場環境。同時，我們正在執行強大的大容量產品路線圖，這使我們能夠更好地提升客戶價值和希捷的財務表現。最後，我想感謝所有利害關係人一直以來的支持，也感謝大家今天加入我們。

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。您可以斷開連線了。