希捷科技 (STX) 2024 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Welcome to the Seagate Technology Fiscal First Quarter 2024 Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note this event is being recorded.

歡迎參加希捷科技 2024 財年第一季電話會議。 （操作員指示）請注意，此活動正在錄製中。

I would now like to turn the conference over to Shanye Hudson, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

現在，我想將會議交給投資者關係高級副總裁 Shanye Hudson。請您發言。

Thank you. Good morning, 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've posted our earnings press release and detailed supplemental information for our September quarter results on the Investors section of our website.

謝謝。大家早安，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。我們已經在網站的「投資者」板塊發布了盈利新聞稿以及9月份季度業績的詳細補充資訊。

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. 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 be reasonably predicted. Therefore, 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以及 8-K 表格中的 GAAP 數據進行了調整。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/或無法合理預測。因此，如果不付出不合理的努力，我們將無法將其與相應的 GAAP 指標進行調整。

Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that today's call contains forward-looking statements that reflect management's current views 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基於截至今日所掌握資訊的當前觀點和假設，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。

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。

I'll now hand the call over to Dave for opening remarks.

我現在將電話交給戴夫致開場白。

Thank you, Shanye, and welcome, everyone. Before I discuss our financial results, I want to acknowledge the situation taking place in the Middle East. Our thoughts are with all of the people in the region, including our Seagate team members, their families and loved ones.

謝謝Shanye，歡迎大家！在討論我們的財務表現之前，我想先了解中東地區的局勢。我們與該地區的所有人同在，包括希捷團隊成員以及他們的家人和摯愛。

Moving on to our September quarter results. Revenue came in at $1.45 billion with non-GAAP loss per share of $0.22. Consistent with our recent public commentary, we experienced softer-than-anticipated demand in the legacy markets, while the ongoing cloud inventory correction and weak economic trends in China continued to restrain near-term demand for hard drives. Looking ahead, we expect the pace of economic recovery in China to be uneven. However, we are encouraged by the positive progress of U.S. cloud inventory consumption.

接下來是9月季度業績。營收為14.5億美元，非公認會計準則每股虧損0.22美元。與我們近期的公開評論一致，傳統市場的需求弱於預期，而持續的雲端庫存調整和中國疲軟的經濟趨勢持續抑制短期硬碟需求。展望未來，我們預期中國經濟復甦步伐將不平衡。然而，美國雲端庫存消耗的正面進展令我們感到鼓舞。

Importantly, we continue to demonstrate financial discipline and strong execution on the priorities we outlined at the onset of this down cycle, namely to drive cash generation, strengthen our balance sheet and position the company for enhanced profitability as the markets recover.

重要的是，我們繼續展現財務紀律並強力執行我們在此下行週期開始時列出的優先事項，即推動現金產生、加強我們的資產負債表並在市場復甦時提高公司的盈利能力。

We also continued to hit all key HAMR product development milestones, demonstrating our ability to drive significant areal density gains with this technology. These gains translate into lower storage costs on a per bit basis, enabling Seagate to offer a compelling TCO proposition for our customers while enhancing our future profitability.

我們也持續實現HAMR產品開發的所有關鍵里程碑，展現了我們利用這項技術顯著提升面密度的能力。這些提升轉化為更低的單位儲存成本，使希捷能夠為客戶提供極具吸引力的TCO方案，同時提升我們未來的獲利能力。

Qualification and revenue ramp plans for our 30-plus terabyte products remain fully on track with high volume ramps starting early in calendar 2024. The launch and ramp of our HAMR products is a competitive differentiator and increasingly important in light of the green shoots that we are starting to see with respect to cloud demand trends.

我們的 30 多 TB 產品的資格認證和收入提升計劃仍在全面進行中，並將於 2024 年初開始實現大批量增長。 HAMR 產品的推出和成長是我們的一個競爭優勢，而且鑑於我們開始看到的雲端需求趨勢的復甦，這一點變得越來越重要。

Within the mass capacity markets, we saw a modest uptick in demand for our high-capacity nearline products among U.S. cloud customers. We project incremental revenue growth from U.S. cloud customers again in the December quarter and are encouraged by constructive customer dialogue regarding our transition to a build-to-order model, making us more confident on demand fundamentals entering calendar 2024.

在大容量市場中，我們看到美國雲端客戶對我們高容量近線產品的需求略有上升。我們預計12月季度來自美國雲端客戶的營收將再次實現增量成長，並且客戶就我們向按訂單生產模式轉型所進行的建設性對話令我們感到鼓舞，這使我們對2024年的需求基本面更加有信心。

Additionally, industry analysis of cloud customer behavior suggests that their cost optimization efforts are nearing a conclusion while enterprises continue migrating new workloads to the cloud. These include both core IT workloads as well as AI-specific workloads.

此外，業界對雲端客戶行為的分析表明，他們的成本優化工作即將結束，同時企業仍在繼續將新的工作負載遷移到雲端。這些工作負載既包括核心IT工作負載，也包括特定於AI的工作負載。

In addition to cost optimization efforts, spending priorities for CSPs have temporarily shifted towards AI-related infrastructure, which have further slowed the pace of demand recovery for mass capacity storage. While AI-related spending remains a near-term priority, several cloud customers have indicated that investments in traditional servers and other IT hardware will resume in the coming quarters. All of these trends bode well for HDD demand recovery in both the cloud and enterprise OEM markets.

除了成本優化工作外，雲端服務供應商的支出重點暫時轉向了與人工智慧相關的基礎設施，這進一步減緩了高容量儲存需求的復甦步伐。雖然人工智慧相關的支出仍是近期的優先事項，但一些雲端客戶表示，未來幾季將恢復對傳統伺服器和其他IT硬體的投資。所有這些趨勢都預示著雲端運算和企業OEM市場硬碟需求的復甦。

These same markets in China are lagging these early positive signals due to the regional economic conditions that I mentioned earlier. However, video and image applications were a notable exception, reflecting demand both within China and globally. Public and private investments in smart city and smart security projects have been key demand drivers for the VIA market. While we believe these underlying demand trends remain intact over the long term, the severe slowdown in China's property sector and broader global macro uncertainties are likely to temper demand over the next couple of quarters.

由於我之前提到的區域經濟狀況，中國市場目前正落後於這些早期的正面訊號。然而，視訊和影像應用是一個明顯的例外，反映了中國國內和全球的需求。公共和私人對智慧城市和智慧安防項目的投資一直是 VIA 市場的主要需求驅動力。雖然我們相信這些潛在的需求趨勢長期來看將保持不變，但中國房地產行業的嚴重放緩以及更廣泛的全球宏觀不確定性可能會在未來幾季抑制需求。

Near-term conditions aside, we are optimistic about the VIA market given the increasing use of AI and deep data analytics that enhance the effectiveness of VIA systems. These systems are evolving from basic monitoring tools to more fulsome solutions incorporating advances like high-definition AI cameras that offer more valuable insights and lead to longer data retention rates. These data-intensive solutions are well-suited for hard disk storage in terms of cost, capacity and performance.

撇開短期情勢不談，鑑於人工智慧和深度資料分析的應用日益廣泛，提升了威盛系統的效率，我們對威盛市場持樂觀態度。這些系統正在從基本的監控工具發展成為更全面的解決方案，並融入了高清人工智慧攝影機等先進技術，這些技術能夠提供更有價值的洞察，並延長資料保留時間。這些資料密集型解決方案在成本、容量和效能方面非常適合硬碟儲存。

Looking back across our 45-year history, cost-effective, high-capacity storage has been vital to the enterprise's ability to harness the benefits of every generational technology megatrend that we have experienced. From personal computing to the internet, mobile to big data to the ongoing migration to the cloud, we anticipate the same will be true with the rise of AI and generative AI applications, which contributes to our long-term view for a return to healthy exabyte growth.

回顧我們45年的發展歷程，經濟高效的大容量儲存對於企業掌握每一代科技大趨勢的優勢都至關重要。從個人運算到互聯網，從行動裝置到大數據，再到持續的雲端遷移，我們預計，隨著人工智慧和生成式人工智慧應用的興起，儲存也將迎來同樣的發展機遇，這有助於我們長期維持EB級數據恢復健康的成長勢頭。

Seagate's mass capacity storage portfolio sets us up strongly with this growth backdrop. Last week, we announced our latest high-capacity nearline product boasting 2.4 terabytes per disk and leveraging our proven 10-disk platform to deliver capacity starting at 24 terabytes.

希捷的大容量儲存產品組合在這樣的成長背景下為我們奠定了堅實的基礎。上週，我們發布了最新的高容量近線產品，單盤容量高達 2.4 TB，並利用我們成熟的 10 盤平台，提供 24 TB 以上的容量。

We continue to offer customers the flexibility to deploy these drives as a conventional CMR drive or as a shingled SMR configuration based on their specific capacity and architectural needs. We are engaging with a number of cloud and enterprise customers on qualification and expect volume shipments to begin in the first half of calendar '24.

我們將繼續為客戶提供靈活性，根據客戶的特定容量和架構需求，將這些硬碟部署為傳統的 CMR 硬碟或疊瓦式 SMR 配置。我們正在與眾多雲端客戶和企業客戶就認證事宜進行接洽，預計將於 2024 年上半年開始大量出貨。

We also expect to begin aggressively ramping 3 terabyte per disk products based on HAMR technology in early calendar 2024. These drives deliver capacity starting at 30 terabytes and offer customers the same flexibility to adopt either CMR or SMR configurations to further boost areal density into the mid-30 terabyte range.

我們也預計將在 2024 年初開始積極推廣基於 HAMR 技術的每盤 3TB 產品。這些驅動器提供的容量最低為 30TB，並為客戶提供相同的靈活性，可以採用 CMR 或 SMR 配置，從而將面密度進一步提升到 30TB 左右。

Initial customer qualifications are progressing very well and we continue to hit our reliability and yield metrics. We are getting extremely positive customer feedback and we are broadening the number of customer qualifications as planned.

初始客戶認證進展順利，我們持續達到可靠性和良率指標。我們收到了非常積極的客戶回饋，我們正在按計劃擴大客戶認證範圍。

We've been very thoughtful in building our product road map to stage HAMR technology, leveraging existing product design and process commonality where possible. For example, virtually all of the capital invested for the 20-plus terabyte PMR drives is compatible with HAMR products. The 30-plus terabyte HAMR drives utilize many of the same components and electronics as our 20-plus terabyte products. They represent the fourth generation product using our 10-disk platform and the seventh generation that leverages glass substrates.

我們在製定產品路線圖以推進HAMR技術發展方面經過了深思熟慮，盡可能地利用現有產品設計和工藝的通用性。例如，幾乎所有投資於20多TB PMR硬碟的資金都與HAMR產品相容。 30多TB HAMR硬碟採用了許多與我們20多TB產品相同的組件和電子元件。它們代表了採用我們10碟片平台的第四代產品，以及利用玻璃基板的第七代產品。

These actions improve capital efficiency, reduce manufacturing complexity, ensure reliability and hasten time to market. While many aspects of our product design are evolutionary in nature, HAMR revolutionizes areal density advancements. Through years of persistent research and development investment, innumerable design iterations and optimization cycles across all elements of the drive from mechanical and electrical designs to wafer processing and firmware, we have now reached the appropriate balance between areal density gains, cost optimization and reliability to launch HAMR in volume.

這些措施提高了資本效率，降低了製造複雜性，確保了可靠性並加快了上市時間。雖然我們的產品設計在許多方面都具有革命性，但 HAMR 徹底改變了面密度的提升。經過多年持續的研發投入，以及對硬碟所有環節（從機械和電氣設計到晶圓加工和韌體）的無數次設計迭代和優化，我們現在已經達到了面密度提升、成本優化和可靠性之間的平衡，可以批量推出 HAMR 了。

Our execution and cycles of learning have enabled us to continue strengthening our portfolio and we expect to launch products yielding 4 terabytes per disk in less than 2 years' time, significantly differentiating Seagate and addressing the full spectrum of mass capacity demand.

我們的執行力和學習週期使我們能夠繼續加強我們的產品組合，我們預計在不到兩年的時間內推出每張磁碟容量為 4 TB 的產品，從而顯著區分希捷並滿足全方位的大容量需求。

Architecturally speaking, in today's data-driven business economy, mass capacity storage is a crucial tier. The HDD areal density advancements that we are delivering affirm and sustain the existing TCO advantages relative to NAND for mass capacity storage.

從架構上講，在當今數據驅動的商業經濟中，大容量儲存至關重要。我們正在推進的HDD面密度提升，鞏固並維持了HDD在大容量儲存領域相對於NAND的現有TCO優勢。

Simply put, we offer customers mass data storage at less than 1/5 the cost of comparable NAND solutions on a per bit basis. We don't foresee that value gap closing over the next decade relative to data center architectures.

簡而言之，我們為客戶提供海量資料存儲，其每位元成本不到同類NAND解決方案的五分之一。我們預計，相對於資料中心架構，未來十年內這一價值差距不會縮小。

In addition to optimizing costs, customers are intensely focused on conserving data center power and floor space. Customers can realize benefits across each of these objectives by upgrading their existing installed base of HDDs to higher capacity drives.

除了優化成本外，客戶還高度重視節省資料中心的電力和占地面積。客戶可以透過將現有的 HDD 升級到更高容量的硬碟，實現上述每個目標的效益。

The 30-plus terabyte HAMR drives currently in qualification are more than 2 times the capacity compared to the average installed base across large data centers. This HAMR-based upgrade would more than double their existing storage capacity in the same footprint or offer a 50% reduction in operating costs for the same storage capacity using about half the power and floor space.

目前已通過認證的 30 多 TB HAMR 硬碟，其容量是大型資料中心平均安裝容量的兩倍以上。此次基於 HAMR 的升級，將在相同空間佔用下，使現有儲存容量增加一倍以上，或以相同儲存容量的一半左右的功耗和占地空間，將營運成本降低 50%。

These are compelling savings for customers and offer valuable optionality to best monetize their storage assets or reallocate floor space and power budgets for other uses or even defer new data center build-outs to maximize their capital dollars.

對於客戶來說，這些都是極具吸引力的節省，並提供了寶貴的選擇，以便最好地實現其存儲資產的貨幣化或重新分配佔地面積和電力預算用於其他用途，甚至推遲新的數據中心建設，以最大化其資本支出。

As we deliver these benefits to our customers, we are also focused on capturing the value of our product portfolio. As noted on our last call, we are continuing efforts to adjust price commensurate with that value, which ensures both a healthy industry supply chain and offers customers the opportunity for improved TCO over the long term. We have already seen some benefit from this strategy, which we anticipate will take a few quarters to implement more broadly across the end markets we serve.

在提供客戶這些優勢的同時，我們也注重挖掘產品組合的價值。正如我們上次電話會議中提到的，我們將繼續努力根據產品組合的價值調整價格，這不僅確保了健康的行業供應鏈，也為客戶提供了長期降低整體擁有成本 (TCO) 的機會。我們已經看到了這項策略帶來的一些效益，預計需要幾個季度才能在我們服務的終端市場更廣泛地實施。

I'll now hand the call over to Gianluca for further details on the September quarter results and share our outlook.

現在我將把電話交給 Gianluca，以了解有關 9 月份季度業績的更多詳細資訊並分享我們的展望。

Thank you, Dave. Seagate's September quarter financial results were consistent with our revised expectations. We generated revenue of $1.45 billion and a non-GAAP loss of $0.22 per share.

謝謝，戴夫。希捷9月季度的財務表現符合我們修正後的預期。我們的營收為14.5億美元，非公認會計準則每股虧損0.22美元。

Despite the sequential decline in revenue, we expanded total company non-GAAP gross margin by about 30 basis points and HDD non-GAAP gross margin by more than 130 basis points, reflecting our focus on enhancing profitability.

儘管收入連續下降，但我們的公司非 GAAP 毛利率提高了約 30 個基點，HDD 非 GAAP 毛利率提高了 130 多個基點，這反映出我們對提高盈利能力的關注。

Within our hard disk drive business, revenue declined 6% sequentially to $1.3 billion, reflecting a modest improvement in mask capacity sales, offset by steeper decline in the legacy markets than we had originally expected. The mix shift towards higher capacity drives resulted in total HDD shipments of 90 exabytes, essentially flat with the prior quarter.

我們的硬碟業務營收季減6%，至13億美元，這反映出光罩產能銷售略有改善，但傳統市場下滑幅度超出我們最初預期，抵銷了這一影響。產品組合轉向更高容量硬碟，導致硬碟總出貨量達到90EB，與上一季基本持平。

Average capacity per drive increased 17% sequentially to roughly 7.5 terabytes per drive. Mass capacity revenue increased 3% sequentially to just over $1 billion, driven mainly by the anticipated improvement in the VIA market. Mass capacity shipments totaled 79 exabytes compared with 75 exabytes in the June quarter.

每塊硬碟的平均容量較上季成長17%，達到約7.5TB。大容量硬碟營收季增3%，略高於10億美元，主要得益於VIA市場預期的復甦。大容量硬碟出貨量總計79EB，而第二季為75EB。

The mass capacity shipments as a percentage of total HDD exabytes were roughly 88%, up from 82% in the June quarter. For nearline products, shipment of 56 hexabytes were slightly up quarter-over-quarter. Average capacity per nearline drive increased 12% sequentially as demand trends among U.S. cloud customers began to modestly improve.

大容量硬碟出貨量佔總硬碟容量（EB）的比例約88%，高於6月季度的82%。近線產品出貨量為56EB，較上季略有成長。由於美國雲端客戶的需求趨勢開始略有改善，每個近線硬碟的平均容量較上季增加了12%。

We believe that the industry continues to ship below end consumption and is making progress in reducing existing inventory at our cloud customers. As we mentioned last quarter, we anticipate that it will take at least through the end of the calendar year for inventory levels among CSP customers to rebalance and for demand to improve more broadly.

我們認為，產業出貨量持續低於終端消費量，且雲端客戶在減少現有庫存方面正在取得進展。正如我們上季度所提到的，我們預計至少需要到今年年底，雲端服務供應商 (CSP) 客戶的庫存水準才能重新平衡，需求也才能更廣泛地改善。

Specific to the VIA market, revenue was up sequentially as expected in the September quarter. However, as David noted earlier, the uncertain economic environment in China seems unlikely to change in the near term. As a result, we anticipate the VIA market will reflect an uneven pattern of recovery going forward. Legacy product revenue was $278 million, down 31% sequentially with lower demand in each of the 3 markets served, mission-critical, clients and consumer.

具體到威盛市場，9月季度營收季增，符合預期。然而，正如David先前指出的，中國經濟環境的不確定性在短期內似乎難以改變。因此，我們預期未來威盛市場將呈現不均衡的復甦模式。傳統產品收入為2.78億美元，較上季下降31%，其服務的三個市場（關鍵任務市場、客戶端市場和消費者市場）的需求均下降。

Finally, revenue for our non-HDD business decreased slightly more than anticipated to $159 million compared with $218 million last quarter. Reserved IT spending patterns in light of economic uncertainties remain a headwind to our enterprise system business and we expect similar revenue levels in the December quarter.

最後，非硬碟業務營收略低於預期，降至1.59億美元，而上季為2.18億美元。鑑於經濟不確定性，IT支出的保守模式仍對我們的企業系統業務構成不利影響，我們預計12月季度營收將維持類似水準。

Moving to our operational performance. Consistent with lower revenue levels in the September quarter, non-GAAP gross profit decreased by $25 million to $288 million. Non-GAAP gross margin of 19.8% expanded slightly compared to the prior quarter.

談到我們的營運表現。與9月份季度較低的收入水準一致，非公認會計準則毛利下降2,500萬美元至2.88億美元。非公認會計準則毛利率為19.8%，較上一季略為上升。

Pricing adjustment enacted during the quarter and cost savings from earlier restructuring activities more than mitigated the 9% decrease in revenue and increase in underutilization cost, which were approximately $59 million. We expect to see further margin benefit in future quarters as we continue to execute price adjustment across the entire portfolio and achieve full realization of projected cost savings.

本季實施的價格調整以及早期重組活動帶來的成本節約，足以抵銷9%的營收下降和約5,900萬美元的未充分利用成本的增加。隨著我們繼續在整個產品組合中實施價格調整併完全實現預期的成本節約，我們預計未來幾季的利潤率將進一步提升。

I note that beginning with the September quarter, our results reflected change in the estimated useful life of certain capital equipment used in manufacturing. Our ability to increase the efficiency of our existing fixed asset base has enabled us to extend the useful lives from a range of 3 to 7 years to a range of 3 to 10 years. This change reduced depreciation expense in the September quarter by approximately $9 million within cost of goods sold and is expected to increase by about $20 million in the December quarter.

我注意到，從9月季度開始，我們的業績反映了某些用於製造的資本設備的預期使用壽命的變化。我們提高了現有固定資產的效率，這使得使用壽命從3至7年延長至3至10年。這項變更使9月份季度的銷售成本中的折舊費用減少了約900萬美元，預計12月份季度將增加約2,000萬美元。

Reduced non-GAAP operating expenses to $248 million, down from $258 million in the June quarter. While we continue to actively manage all areas of spending, we do expect non-GAAP OpEx in the December quarter to be up slightly as certain minor spending reduction measures begin to conclude.

非公認會計準則營運支出從6月當季的2.58億美元降至2.48億美元。儘管我們將繼續積極管理所有支出領域，但隨著部分小幅支出削減措施的逐步結束，我們預計12月當季的非公認會計準則營運支出將略有上升。

Moving to cash flow and the balance sheet. We have continued to take actions to improve our debt profile and manage working capital to support positive free cash flow generation. September quarter, we reduced inventory by 8% sequentially to just under $1.1 billion.

談到現金流和資產負債表。我們持續採取措施改善債務狀況，並管理營運資本，以支持產生正向自由現金流。 9月當季，我們的庫存季減8%，至略低於11億美元。

Capital expenditures were $70 million compared with $50 million in the prior quarter. For the fiscal year, we are still planning a significant reduction in CapEx spend compared with fiscal '23 and expect spending will be more heavily weighted to the first half of the fiscal year.

資本支出為7000萬美元，而上一季為5000萬美元。本財年，我們仍計劃大幅削減資本支出，與23財年相比有所下降，並預計支出將更集中在本財年的上半年。

Free cash flow generation was $57 million after giving effect to approximately $90 million of restructuring-related payments that we had highlighted on our last earning calls. We used $145 million for the quarterly dividend and exited the quarter with 208 million shares outstanding. We closed the September quarter with $2.3 billion in available liquidity, including our undrawn revolving credit facility.

扣除我們在上次財報電話會議上強調的約9000萬美元重組相關支出後，自由現金流產生量為5700萬美元。我們使用1.45億美元派發季度股息，本季末流通股數為2.08億股。截至9月當季，我們擁有23億美元的可用流動資金，其中包括尚未動用的循環信貸額度。

During the quarter, we raised $1.5 billion in new capital through the issuance of convertible notes during a low interest rate of 3.5%. A portion of the proceeds were used to fund a CapEx call transaction that increased the effective convert price to nearly $108 per share, reducing potential future share dilution.

本季度，我們透過發行可轉換債券籌集了15億美元的新資本，利率低至3.5%。部分收益用於支付資本支出贖回權交易，該交易將有效轉換價格提高至每股近108美元，從而降低了未來潛在的股權稀釋風險。

The majority of the remaining proceeds were used to retire the outstanding balance on our term loans, which totaled approximately $1.3 billion. As a result of this debt restructuring actions, we expect to realize cash interest savings of about $15 million on an annual basis.

大部分剩餘收益用於償還我們未償還的定期貸款餘額，總額約13億美元。透過此次債務重組，我們預計每年可節省約1500萬美元的現金利息。

Additionally, we renegotiated the terms of our sales agreement and with support from our lender group, we significantly relaxed the debt covenants through fiscal 2025. Accounting for all actions that I just described, our debt balance was $5.7 billion at the end of the September quarter, up $215 million quarter-over-quarter. Non-GAAP interest expense was sequentially flat at $84 million and we expect similar expense levels in the December quarter.

此外，我們重新協商了銷售協議條款，並在貸款方團隊的支持下，大幅放寬了截至2025財年的債務契約。考慮到我剛才描述的所有措施，截至9月季末，我們的債務餘額為57億美元，季增2.15億美元。非公認會計準則利息支出較上月持平，為8,400萬美元，我們預計12月季度的支出水準將與此類似。

Turning to our outlook. We expect mass capacity sales to move slightly higher in the December quarter, supported by incremental demand for our nearline products from both cloud and enterprise customers, offsetting softer sequential VIA demand.

談到我們的展望。我們預計，12月季度的大容量銷售將略有上升，這得益於雲端和企業客戶對我們近線產品的需求增加，抵消了環比 VIA 需求的疲軟。

Within the legacy business, we are projecting higher seasonal demand, mainly from the consumer market, while non-HDD revenue is expected to be essentially flat. With that as context, we expect December quarter revenue to be in a range of $1.55 billion, plus or minus $150 million.

在傳統業務方面，我們預計季節性需求將增加，主要來自消費市場，而非硬碟業務的收入預計將基本持平。基於此，我們預計12月季度的營收將在15.5億美元左右，上下浮動1.5億美元。

At the midpoint of our revenue guidance, we expect non-GAAP operating margin to be in the mid-single-digit percentage range with underutilization costs expected to be relatively flat with the September quarter. We expect to narrow our non-GAAP loss per share to $0.10 plus or minus $0.20, based on a share count of approximately 210 million shares and a non-GAAP tax expense in the $15 million range.

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個位數百分比區間，未充分利用成本預計將與9月份季度持平。基於約2.1億股的股票數量和1500萬美元左右的非公認會計準則稅費，我們預計非公認會計準則每股虧損將收窄至0.10美元上下浮動0.20美元。

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. We are operating in a longer than typical cycle and I'm very proud of our team's shared determination and resilience. We've continued to drive our financial, operational and innovation priorities, which is evident by the actions we've discussed today.

謝謝，詹盧卡。我們的營運週期比以往更長，我為我們團隊共同的決心和韌性感到非常自豪。我們持續推進財務、營運和創新的優先事項，這從我們今天討論的行動中就可以看出。

We are focusing our tactical business decisions on free cash flow generation. We are strengthening our balance sheet through debt restructuring actions and we are executing on our mass capacity product road map to address future data growth.

我們的戰術性業務決策重點在於自由現金流的產生。我們正在透過債務重組行動增強資產負債表，並正在執行大容量產品路線圖，以應對未來的數據成長。

Signs of recovery have started to emerge as we look past the end of calendar 2023. And as industry conditions improve, Seagate is ready to capitalize. We are a stronger, more efficient company with a technology road map that extends our areal density leadership positioning Seagate to deliver enhanced value to our customers and shareholders. Thanks to all of our stakeholders for your ongoing support of Seagate.

展望2023年末，復甦的跡像已開始顯現。隨著產業情勢的改善，希捷已準備好抓住機會。我們是一家更強大、更有效率的公司，擁有更完善的技術路線圖，進一步鞏固了我們在儲存密度領域的領先地位，從而為客戶和股東創造更高的價值。感謝所有利害關係人對希捷的持續支持。

Operator, let's open up the call for questions.

接線員，讓我們開始提問吧。

(Operator Instructions) The first question comes from Erik Woodring of Morgan Stanley.

（操作員指示）第一個問題來自摩根士丹利的埃里克·伍德林。

So Dave, I kind of want to take a step back. And if we go back to your prior Analyst Day, the expectation was that mass capacity exabytes shipped could grow at a 35% annual rate. Now the world is clearly different today both from a macro outlook and the emergence of AI as kind of a board level investment priority.

所以戴夫，我想退一步來說。回顧你之前的分析師日，當時的預期是，大容量EB的出貨量將以每年35%的速度成長。而現在，無論是從宏觀前景來看，還是從人工智慧成為董事會層面的投資重點來看，世界都發生了顯著變化。

So curious, as we look forward, how are you thinking about kind of the long-term 3- to 5-year rate at which mass capacity exabytes could grow? And maybe help us think about the linearity of that. Could that strengthen over time? Is that relatively linear? Just any thoughts that you have kind of longer term on what mass capacity exabyte growth could be?

所以我很好奇，展望未來，您如何看待EB級大規模容量在未來3到5年內的長期成長速度？能否幫助我們思考一下其中的線性關係？這種成長速度會隨著時間的推移而增強嗎？是相對線性的嗎？您對EB級大規模容量的長期成長速度有什麼看法？

Thanks for the question, Erik. Yes, we were coming off the back of a number that was almost 80% in 1 year. So to your point, back in the last Analyst Day, the mid-30s was feeling pretty good for us, given all the data growth that we know is happening. And then we've gone through these current events, I'll say that we're all seeing.

謝謝你的提問，Erik。是的，我們之前一年的業績成長了近80%。所以，正如你所說，在上次分析師日，考慮到我們所知的數據成長，35%左右的成長速度對我們來說已經相當不錯了。現在我們經歷了這些時事，我想說，我們都看到了。

Look, to your point about linearity, I don't think it's a very linear function. I think it can be very choppy. Up 1 year, down the next, it can be. As we look out 3 to 5 years now, I would temper that somewhat and say, in the mid-20s is probably a good modeling range. But we will see probably more growth from time to time.

瞧，關於你提到的線性，我認為它不是一個非常線性的函數。我認為它可能非常不穩定。一年上漲，一年下跌，這是有可能的。現在我們展望3到5年，我會稍微調整一下，說25%左右可能是一個不錯的模型範圍。但我們可能會不時看到更多的成長。

I do think that given the move that happened in the middle of the pandemic data into data centers for enterprise applications that were being run in data centers, I think that data is still going to grow in those data centers. So we're not at peak data center growth.

我確實認為，考慮到疫情期間企業應用程式的資料被轉移到資料中心，這些應用程式原本在資料中心運行，我認為這些資料中心的資料仍會成長。所以我們還沒有達到資料中心成長的峰值。

And then you lather on top of all these new applications that will be really sped up with features like AI, generative AI on top of them, I think that there's a big healthy demand growth coming. 25% would be healthy for any kind of CAGR that's going to go out for 3 to 5 years or a decade or something like that. So we think there's healthy demand growth. But I do think it won't be linear. There will be periods of big growth and then there will be periods of digestion as well. We'll continue to see this as the economy flutters.

然後，所有這些新應用都將透過人工智慧、生成式人工智慧等功能加速發展，我認為未來將出現巨大的健康需求成長。對於未來3到5年或10年左右的任何複合年增長率而言，25%的成長率都是健康的。因此，我們認為需求成長是健康的。但我確實認為這不會是線性的。會有大幅成長的時期，也會有消化的時期。隨著經濟的波動，我們將繼續看到這種情況。

The next question comes from Wamsi Mohan of Bank of America.

下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Wamsi Mohan。

Dave, can you talk about HAMR qualifications? How many customers are you expecting qualifications in the near term? And maybe share color on what you expect in aggregate given what you know about the ramp in terms of unit shipments, maybe 1, 2 years out? And if you could maybe just comment on how this higher areal density shift might change the dollars per terabyte relative to current product? That would be super helpful.

Dave，您能談談HAMR認證嗎？您預計近期會有多少客戶獲得認證？考慮到您對未來一兩年內單位出貨量成長的了解，能否透露一下您的整體預期？您能否談談這種更高面密度的轉變將如何影響每TB的價格？這相對於目前的產品而言。這非常有幫助。

Yes. Interesting. I can take a crack at that. So relative to qualification, we are prioritizing customers, not necessarily the easiest customers first. Sometimes they can be more difficult, challenging customers, but we're staying very tight with customers, and we're trying to make sure that every of the initial drives that we build has a home. Make sure that we -- as we bring on more qualifications like we talked about in our prepared remarks that we will make sure that we have the supply that's adequate for those because I do think there will be a strong demand.

是的，很有意思。我可以嘗試一下。所以，關於資格認證，我們優先考慮客戶，不一定是那些最容易獲得的客戶。有時他們可能更難對付，更具挑戰性，但我們與客戶保持著密切的聯繫，並努力確保我們最初構建的每個驅動力都能找到歸屬。正如我們在準備好的演講中所提到的，隨著我們引入更多資格認證，我們將確保有足夠的供應，因為我確實認為會有強勁的需求。

What we're showing customers right now, exactly to your point on the value proposition is a projection for what their TCO benefits will be. Part of that is acquisition cost of the drive itself, part of it is the power and floor space improvements that they'll get as we model TCO with some of them. So I do think that there's going to be a big push for the higher capacities, just like there always has been in our industry. And I think this is going to be one of the biggest jumps in areal density that we've done in the last 5 years.

我們現在向客戶展示的，正如您在價值主張中提到的，是對他們的TCO收益的預測。一部分是驅動器本身的購置成本，一部分是他們將獲得的功率和占地面積的改進，因為我們用其中一些驅動器的TCO進行了建模。因此，我確實認為，更高容量將會得到大力推動，就像我們這個行業一直以來所做的那樣。我認為這將是我們過去五年來在面積密度上實現的最大飛躍之一。

So the healthy growth is right ahead of us. We are filling the lines with -- the wafer lines with HAMR parts and we expect to see volume shipments in the millions of drives next year, or next calendar year. It'll all time out based on when the qualifications are, but the parts are coming.

所以，健康的成長就在眼前。我們正在為晶圓生產線供應HAMR零件，預計明年或下一個自然年，硬碟的出貨量將達到數百萬台。具體時間取決於認證時間，但零件正在陸續到貨。

The next question comes from [Sidney] Ho of Deutsche Bank.

下一個問題來自德意志銀行的[Sidney] Ho。

It's great to see some green shoots in the U.S. cloud market. Dave, last quarter, you talked about expecting cloud inventory to normalize in a couple of quarters. Can you give us an update about the timing there? But more importantly, are you getting indications that the rate of recovery is going to -- what kind of rate of recovery is going to look like beyond the December quarter, especially given your efforts to increase visibility through earlier collaboration or longer-term collaboration with your customers?

很高興看到美國雲端市場出現一些復甦跡象。戴夫，上個季度，您提到預計雲端庫存將在幾個季度內恢復正常。能否介紹一下具體時間？更重要的是，您是否有跡象表明，12月季度之後的復甦速度會如何？尤其是考慮到您透過與客戶進行早期合作或長期合作來提高可見度的努力？

Very good. Thanks. Yes, I think as we are giving predictability on what products that we have in our pipeline, the customers are likewise giving more predictability on what they will need out there in time. So I would say, if you look at 2 years ago, the demand was quite strong and then we entered into this period about 6 quarters ago now where some customers were saying we really don't need very much and we're going to make allocations of what we've already got in our data centers last for another year or something like that.

非常好。謝謝。是的，我認為，當我們對現有產品線提供可預測性時，客戶對他們未來的需求也會更可預測。所以，我想說，如果你回顧兩年前，需求非常強勁，而我們進入了大約六個季度前的這個時期，一些客戶表示我們實際上不需要太多，我們會將資料中心現有的資源分配到足夠用一年左右的時間。

The entire industry has been suffering through that. It's very hard to run factories like that. And so that's why we've gone out and said, okay, let's get predictable.

整個產業都在遭受這種影響。那樣的工廠運作起來非常困難。所以我們才說，好吧，讓我們變得可預測一些。

What we're showing -- the numbers we're showing for customers right now in these long-term forecast for build-to-order are nothing compared to the volumes of where we were at 2 years ago. They're much smaller. But I think the customers are showing us predictability and then asking us for upside on top of that. So it gets into a really interesting discussion about what's the true demand.

我們目前在長期按單生產預測中向客戶展示的數據，與兩年前的產量相比根本不值一提，要小得多。但我認為客戶向我們展示了可預測性，並在此基礎上要求我們提高產量。因此，這引發了一場關於真正需求的非常有趣的討論。

And exactly to your point, I think it will help us get through the back of this period. But then I think ultimately, we're not satisfying true demand when the -- because the growth of data is still large. 25% CAGR is still very, very large. And so we're trying to make sure that we start the parts that ultimately we'll get paid for and showing people exactly what we have in process for them. And they're trying desperately to show us a more predictable schedule that we can all manage better for better economics on both sides of ourselves and our customers.

正如您所說，我認為這將幫助我們度過這段時期。但我認為，最終我們並沒有滿足真正的需求，因為數據的成長仍然很大。 25% 的複合年增長率仍然非常高。因此，我們正努力確保啟動最終能帶來收益的部分，並向客戶準確地展示我們正在進行的工作。他們也迫切地希望我們能看到一個更可預測的進度表，以便我們更好地管理，從而為我們自己和客戶雙方帶來更好的經濟效益。

The next question comes from Karl Ackerman of BNP Paribas.

下一個問題來自法國巴黎銀行的卡爾‧阿克曼。

On HAMR, could you discuss the reliability metrics and perhaps power efficiency metrics relative to your existing SMR drives? I asked because at OCP last week, it's clear that hyperscalers continue to prioritize those metrics as they introduce newer technology. And I guess as you address that question, could you also discuss maybe the number of customer engagements you have with HAMR perhaps beyond the existing customer?

關於HAMR，您能否談談相對於現有SMR硬碟的可靠性指標以及能源效率指標？我之所以問這個問題，是因為在上週的OCP大會上，很明顯超大規模企業在引進新技術時會優先考慮這些指標。我想，在您回答這個問題的同時，能否談談除了現有客戶之外，HAMR的客戶互動數量？

Yes. As we said before, Karl, we're bringing on multiple customers right now. So we've already shipped qualification units out to multiple customers. I won't talk about them in particular. The HAMR reliability metrics will be identical to the reliability metrics of traditional drives. So there's really no change there. And there's no change in the power either. I mean people have pointed to the laser subsystem and things like that. Yes, there's very small changes according to that, but we're also working power down in normal course on these products.

是的。 Karl，正如我們之前所說，我們現在正在吸引多個客戶。我們已經將認證單元發送給了多個客戶。我不會具體談論他們。 HAMR 的可靠性指標將與傳統硬碟的可靠性指標相同。所以這方面其實沒有變化。功率方面也沒有變化。我的意思是，人們提到了雷射子系統之類的東西。是的，根據這些方面，確實有一些非常小的變化，但我們也正常地降低這些產品的功率。

I think one thing important to realize about the family is that the mechanical and electrical design points of the 2.4 terabyte per platter drive that we just announced are very similar to the 3 terabyte per drive nodes or even beyond that, we should get into the mid-3 terabytes per disk drives with those same parts. So same electronics, same mechanics. So there's really no change in power. There's no change in reliability expectations either.

我認為關於這個系列，有一點需要注意：我們剛剛發布的2.4TB/碟片硬碟的機械和電氣設計點與3TB/碟片硬碟非常相似，甚至更高，我們應該能夠使用相同的部件實現3TB/碟片硬碟的容量。也就是說，電子元件和機械結構相同。因此，功率方面實際上沒有變化。可靠性預期也沒有改變。

If I may sneak another one. Just on your systems business that has moderated roughly 40% the last 2 quarters. Just curious, I suppose why and kind of the outlook for that. And within that, how much of that is maybe softness in flash prices versus perhaps the CORVAULT hard drive offering?

我可以再偷偷問一句。就你們的系統業務而言，過去兩個季度下降了大約40%。我只是好奇，想知道原因是什麼，以及未來的發展前景如何。其中，有多少可能是因為快閃記憶體價格相對於CORVAULT硬碟的疲軟？

Yes. I don't really think flash has much to do with it. It's more, what I'll call, on-prem traditional enterprise applications. And thankfully, that space has not been as bad as we thought it was at the back of the year. It's not nearly as cyclical as what the cloud has been in this recent cycle, but it was down year-over-year. And I think it will recover over time as well because I think on-prem enterprise should benefit from all the growth of data.

是的。我並不認為閃存與此關係很大。更多的是，我稱之為本地部署的傳統企業應用。值得慶幸的是，這個領域並沒有我們去年年底想像的那麼糟。它不像最近這個週期的雲端運算那樣具有週期性，但同比有所下降。而且我認為隨著時間的推移，它也會復甦，因為我認為本地部署的企業應該會從資料的成長中受益。

In many cases, you can't move the data off-site or into the cloud. It's either too massive or you've got regulatory requirements or sovereignty requirements and you want to keep multiple copies anyway. So I do think on-prem enterprise should have a good recovery at some point and we're happy with the systems business and our penetration into multiple accounts on that front to recover when the on-prem enterprise business does recover.

很多情況下，你無法將資料遷移到異地或雲端。要嘛資料量太大，要嘛出於監管要求或主權要求，無論如何你都想保留多個副本。所以我認為本地企業業務在某個時候應該會恢復良好，我們對系統業務以及我們在這方面對多個帳戶的滲透率感到滿意，當本地企業業務恢復時，我們也能恢復。

The next question comes from Aaron Rakers of Wells Fargo.

下一個問題來自富國銀行的 Aaron Rakers。

I wanted to maybe just unpack the gross margin a little bit, appreciating that you guys don't give a defined kind of guide on a forward basis. Could you help us to understand kind of the impact of underutilization you expect going into the December quarter relative to the $59 million reported this last quarter? And how do we think about as maybe that starts to lift out of the model, kind of the glide path to back to that 30% level as HAMR starts ramping, et cetera? I'm just curious how we think about or how you guys are thinking about the gross margin trajectory kind of the variables within that looking out over the next couple of quarters?

我想稍微解釋一下毛利率，我很欣賞你們沒有給予明確的前瞻性指引。您能否幫助我們了解一下，相對於上一季報告的5,900萬美元，您預計12月季度的毛利率不足會帶來什麼影響？隨著HAMR開始成長等等，我們如何看待這個數字開始從模型中回升，回到30%的水平？我只是好奇，我們是如何看待，或者說，你們是如何看待未來幾季的毛利率軌跡及其中的變數的？

Thank you for the question. Yes, our guidance for December quarter is, of course, implying an improvement in gross margin. It is not coming from underutilization. We think underutilization will be fairly flat with the September quarter. But it's coming from, of course, the pricing actions that we are taking and we have already started in the prior quarter and a better cost structure. Now part of the improvement is for sure coming from the full impact of the restructuring plan that we started in the prior quarter. So now we start seeing the full impact in our cost structure. So those are the major drivers for the improvement in gross margin.

謝謝你的提問。是的，我們對12月季的預期當然意味著毛利率的提高。這並非源自於產能利用率不足。我們認為產能利用率不足的情況將與9月季度基本持平。但這當然源自於我們正在採取的、在上一季就已開始實施的定價措施，以及更優的成本結構。現在，部分改善肯定源自於我們上一季啟動的重組計畫的全面影響。因此，現在我們開始看到成本結構的全部影響。這些是毛利率提高的主要驅動力。

Then we will continue to improve our structure and we think our revenue will continue also to increase sequentially. Now to go back to the, let's say, the 30% gross margin, we think we need to have a revenue that is lower than the prior peak. We think at least 20% lower. So we can achieve that level of profitability with a much lower revenue.

然後我們將繼續改善結構，我們認為我們的收入也將繼續環比成長。現在回到30%的毛利率，我們認為我們需要的收入低於之前的峰值。我們認為至少要低20%。這樣我們才能以更低的收入來實現這樣的獲利水準。

The next question comes from Timothy Arcuri of UBS.

下一個問題來自瑞銀的提摩西‧阿庫裡。

I also wanted to ask on gross margin. Gianluca, as HAMR ramps, I think there's some controversy in terms of whether it's initially negative for gross margin or like what the crossover point will be for when it becomes positive to gross margin? I think it depends on your yields obviously. But can you just talk about sort of how that plays into the answer to your question, the trajectory of margins off the bottom here?

我還想問毛利率。 Gianluca，隨著HAMR產能的提升，我認為存在一些爭議，例如它最初是否會對毛利率產生負面影響，或者當它對毛利率產生正影響時，交叉點在哪裡？我認為這顯然取決於你們的良率。但您能否談談良率如何影響您問題的答案，即利潤率從底部開始的走勢？

Yes. As Dave said before, no, HAMR will strongly increase our capacity per drive and that will, for sure, improve our gross margin. It will be accretive to our gross margin since the beginning. But of course, when we go to 3, 4, 5 terabytes per drive, you will see even a bigger improvement. Now we think we will start our HAMR revenue fairly strongly in the first 6 months of the calendar '24. We think we have about 1 million unit as opportunity to be sold. That will help, of course, as every time you go into a new technology and new product, we could have a little bit lower yield and that could limit in the first quarter or 2 the improvement to the gross margin, but we see gross margin improving sequentially.

是的。正如Dave之前所說，HAMR將大幅提升我們每個驅動器的容量，這肯定會提高我們的毛利率。從一開始，它就會提升我們的毛利率。當然，當我們的單碟容量達到3、4、5TB時，你會看到更大的提升。現在，我們認為HAMR的收入將在2024年的前6個月相當強勁。我們認為我們大約有100萬台的銷售機會。這當然會有所幫助，因為每次採用新技術和新產品時，我們的良率可能會略有下降，這可能會限制第一季或第二季毛利率的提升，但我們認為毛利率會較上季成長。

And Tim, just I would add, remember that it's not just about the highest capacity point, although that does drive a lot of heads and media in our factories. It's also about mid-range, if you will, capacity points like 20 terabytes or 24 terabytes again. The areal density enables us to go address those capacity points with improved cost structure.

提姆，我想補充一點，記住，這不僅僅是關於最高容量點，儘管這確實驅動著我們工廠的大量磁頭和介質。它也與中等容量點有關，例如20TB或24TB。面密度使我們能夠在優化成本結構的同時滿足這些容量點的需求。

So I also jumped on just a smidge late. So maybe you talked about this, but can you talk about how the change to build-to-order is impacting bookings? So I know that revenue is being guided pretty flat, but it seems like bookings are improving and I wonder how much of that is due to the shift to build-to-order and how much of that is due to just the customers having worked through inventory? And what do the bookings tell you about the trajectory of where revenue is going to go into the first half of next year?

所以我回答得有點晚。也許您談到了這個問題，但您能談談按訂單生產的變化對預訂量的影響嗎？我知道收入預期基本持平，但預訂量似乎有所改善。我想知道這在多大程度上是由於按訂單生產的變化，又在多大程度上是由於客戶消耗了庫存？預訂量能預示明年上半年收入的走勢嗎？

Yes. It's actually an interesting question. So we do have some customers that are embracing the predictability. And there are reasons for that. Maybe some of it is because they have burned through their inventory completely and so they know that they're going to be buying. I think there are customers who are not leaning into multiple years just yet for various reasons. They make procurement decisions all the time and so do we, right? Everybody has to make these tough decisions.

是的。這確實是個有趣的問題。我們確實有一些客戶接受這種可預測性。這是有原因的。也許部分原因是他們已經完全消耗了庫存，所以他們知道他們會繼續購買。我認為有些客戶由於各種原因，目前還不傾向於多年採購。他們一直在做採購決策，我們也一樣，對吧？每個人都必須做出這些艱難的決定。

But generally speaking, I think it's giving us better visibility, at least at the lower rate that the industry now runs because remember, the industry just doesn't have the money to speculatively start a bunch of products right now. We have to make sure that what we do start, the suppliers are going to get paid for and so on.

但總的來說，我認為這能讓我們獲得更好的可見性，至少在目前產業較低的營運速度下是如此。記住，該行業現在根本沒有足夠的資金來投機地啟動一批產品。我們必須確保我們啟動的產品，供應商能夠獲得報酬等等。

I think the model is generally working out pretty well. And as we show higher and higher value like the 3-plus terabyte per disk capacity points and then the 4-plus terabyte per disk capacity point, I think people will want to make sure that they can take advantage of that TCO proposition we put out in front of them. So I anticipate it will pick up steam.

我認為這個模型總體上效果很好。隨著我們展現出越來越高的價值，例如單磁碟容量超過3TB，然後是4TB以上，我認為人們會希望確保他們能夠充分利用我們提出的TCO方案。所以我預計它會越來越受歡迎。

We are still doing things that are 2 quarters or 4 quarters or something like that. And so there's negotiations in everything and I can be frustrated by that. But as those negotiations continue on, I think we will continue to make sure that we write the industry and ourselves, our suppliers so that we can at least get back to a point where we're returning value to everyone so we can keep investing in the industry. I think that's an important point. That's one of the reasons we've done this.

我們仍在進行以2個季度或4個季度為單位的計劃。所以所有事情都涉及談判，我可能會因此感到沮喪。但隨著談判的繼續，我認為我們將繼續確保我們能夠維護行業、我們自己以及我們的供應商的利益，這樣我們至少能夠回到一個能夠為所有人帶來價值的階段，這樣我們才能繼續在這個行業中投資。我認為這很重要。這也是我們這樣做的原因之一。

The next question comes from Krish Sankar of TD Cowen.

下一個問題來自 TD Cowen 的 Krish Sankar。

I had a 2-part question. First is, you folks shipped about 56 exabytes to nearline customers in the quarter. Given the view that nearline is going to improve in calendar '24, do you think you can hit the 100 exabyte run rate sometime in calendar '24?

我有兩個問題。首先，你們本季向近線客戶出貨了約 56 EB 的資料。考慮到近線業務在 2024 年將會有所改善，您認為你們能在 2024 年某個時候達到 100 EB 的出貨量嗎？

And then a follow-up is, Dave and Gianluca, it seems like you've been confident about HAMR and gross margin this quarter versus all the prior quarters. Kind of curious what is the reason for that? Was there any improvement in the quarter that you hit some milestones? Or was it more increased customer demand or better visibility into the purchasing of HAMR next year? Any color on that would be helpful?

接下來的問題是，Dave 和 Gianluca，與之前所有季度相比，你們似乎對本季的 HAMR 和毛利率都充滿信心。我很好奇，這是什麼原因造成的？本季你們取得了一些里程碑式的進步嗎？還是因為客戶需求增加，或是明年 HAMR 採購的前景更明朗？能否提供一些細節？

Yes. I would say all of the above. As time marches on, our teams make progress against the yield targets, the reliability targets and the qualifications progress and we can see -- maybe we have more and more certainty we get towards the end of the qualification. So all of those things are factoring into our confidence. And I think we'll continue to update everyone going forward exactly how this is going.

是的，我想說以上全部。隨著時間的推移，我們的團隊在良率目標、可靠性目標和資格認證方面都取得了進展，我們可以看到——也許我們對即將完成資格認證的目標越來越有把握。所以，這一切都影響著我們的信心。我想我們會繼續向大家通報進度。

Remember that we're also starting into qualification with this 2.4-terabyte per platter, which again, I made the point before, it's almost the same box. And so we have a PMR outlet for the same parts and we're driving the vendors to that commonality. Most of the vendors, the lion's share of the vendors have common parts through these 2 platforms. So we can drive that much more volume in and predictably get people paid and things like that.

請記住，我們也開始對這款單碟2.4TB的硬碟進行認證，我之前也提到過，這幾乎是同一款產品。因此，我們為相同的零件提供了PMR出口，並正在推動供應商實現這種通用性。大多數供應商，也就是絕大多數供應商，透過這兩個平台擁有通用零件。這樣一來，我們就能大幅提升銷量，並可預測地獲得收益等等。

And then on the exabytes for nearline, can you hit 100 exabytes next year? Or is it too aggressive?

那麼，關於近線儲存的EB容量，明年能達到100EB嗎？還是說這個目標太激進了？

Yes. I think for the current fiscal year and probably the calendar '24 is not very probable that we can double the exabytes, but we think we will grow sequentially in all those quarters.

是的。我認為就本財年以及2024財年而言，我們不太可能實現EB翻番，但我們認為在所有這些季度中我們都會實現連續成長。

The next question comes from [Blaine Curtis] of Barclays.

下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的布萊恩‧柯蒂斯。

Sorry about the name mix up there. This is Tom O'Malley on for Barclays. I just wanted to understand the timing of the recovery a bit better here. You previously have talked about Q4 and then you talked about at the end of December. And this is a nearline in particular. And it's kind of pushed to Q1. You're seeing this U.S. cloud uptick you said, again, so kind of in September and in your expectations for December. But when do you expect the market step-up in the market? Is that still expected for March? Or have things kind of elongated just given the inventory situation? Any update on that recovery would be helpful?

抱歉，名字搞混了。我是巴克萊銀行的湯姆‧奧馬利。我只是想更了解一下復甦的時間。您之前談到了第四季度，然後又提到了12月底。這是一條近線，而且它被推遲到了第一季。您之前提到美國雲量有上升，所以大概是在9月份，也符合您對12月份的預期。但是，您預期市場何時會回升？ 3月份仍然如此嗎？還是考慮到庫存情況，復甦的時間會延長？任何關於復甦的最新消息都會有幫助嗎？

Yes, Tom, thanks. I think we're still on the same plan that we talked about last quarter. It's a gradual uptick. So we're watching the inventory being depleted. We're seeing new orders come in. I think the one variable would be maybe some of the global cloud customers, not the U.S. cloud customers, but maybe some of the global cloud customers, given some of the economic issues that we have in various parts of the world. But generally speaking, we're still on the same plan and we'll see a gradual uptick rather than a hockey stick.

是的，湯姆，謝謝。我認為我們仍然在執行上個季度討論的計劃。這是一個漸進式的成長。所以我們看到庫存正在消耗殆盡。我們看到新訂單正在湧入。我認為一個變數可能是一些全球雲端客戶，不是美國雲端客戶，但考慮到我們在世界各地面臨的一些經濟問題，也許是一些全球雲端客戶。但總的來說，我們仍然在執行相同的計劃，我們會看到一個漸進的成長，而不是像曲棍球棒一樣突然爆發。

And then just on the gross margin side as well, just taking the midpoint of guidance and you're talking about operating expenses actually up slightly in the December quarter. It implies 200-plus basis points of sequential improvement in gross margin. I understand that you pointed to some pricing increases, but that will be pretty quick in terms to get the full benefit there.

然後就毛利率而言，僅以指引的中點來看，您提到的12月季度的營運費用實際上略有上升。這意味著毛利率將環比提高200多個基點。我知道您提到了一些價格上漲，但要充分發揮其效益，這需要相當快的時間。

Is there any other levers that are contributing to December? Obviously you have some mix benefit with VIA gone or going down and nearline up. But just any other levers that you could point to other than the pricing that are impacting December?

還有其他因素影響12月份的業績嗎？顯然，VIA的下降或下降以及近乎上漲帶來了一些混合效益。除了定價之外，您還能指出其他哪些因素影響了12月的業績？

Yes. I will not say that pricing is the only thing driving the gross margin up. Actually, the cost side is very important. We have the full impact of all the restructuring plan that we executed in the prior quarter that are now going into our COGS, of course, also in our OpEx. OpEx could be a little bit higher, but not much higher. So we are talking about a few million dollars higher. So I would say both pricing and cost should go in the right direction to improve our gross margin sequentially.

是的。我不會說定價是推動毛利率上升的唯一因素。實際上，成本方面非常重要。我們上一季實施的所有重組計劃都產生了影響，這些影響現在都計入了我們的銷售成本（COGS），當然也計入了我們的營運支出（OpEx）。營運支出可能會略高一些，但不會高太多。我們說的是幾百萬美元的增幅。所以我認為定價和成本都應該朝著正確的方向發展，從而持續提高我們的毛利率。

And sorry, just to be clear, we're also going through product transitions, right? So as we may raise price on one of the older products and then there's a -- the customer can offset some of those increases by a better TCO proposition in the next drive and we can go work with the cost on that. So the mix plays a role and the customers can see the TCO benefit, they're incentivized for that.

抱歉，需要說明的是，我們也正在經歷產品轉型，對吧？我們可能會提高某個老款產品的價格，然後客戶可以在下一次產品升級中透過更優的TCO方案來抵銷部分漲價，這樣我們就可以控製成本。所以，產品組合很重要，顧客可以看到TCO帶來的好處，他們會因此受到激勵。

The next question comes from Steven Fox of Fox Advisors.

下一個問題來自 Fox Advisors 的 Steven Fox。

Dave, understanding everything that you said about sort of a cyclical recovery, there's still a lot of macro headwinds out there. And obviously your decline in sales over the last 12, 18 months has outdone what the macro is doing. So I'm just curious, how can we get comfortable with the idea that as you see more macro pressures that business -- your business keeps recovering?

戴夫，我理解您所說的周期性復甦，但宏觀經濟仍然面臨許多阻力。顯然，過去12到18個月裡，你們的銷售額下滑幅度超過了宏觀經濟的影響。所以我很好奇，我們如何接受這樣一種觀點：隨著宏觀經濟壓力的增加，你們的業務仍在持續復甦？

Is there anything you would point to in particular that may not limit cloud spending as much more than you think of? Or just like other cycles where you outgrew in tough environments?

您能具體指出哪些因素可能不會像您想像的那麼嚴重限制雲端運算支出嗎？還是就像您在其他艱難環境中成長的周期一樣？

Right. Thanks. You're right. It is a tough environment. I will say that data continues to grow and people want to improve their economics all the time. So the data centers that exist in the world have an enormous number of hard drives. So we're going to see some refresh of those for various reasons, power, some of them are just aging off.

是的，謝謝。你說得對。這是一個艱難的環境。我想說的是，數據持續成長，人們也一直希望改善經濟狀況。因此，全球現有的資料中心擁有大量的硬碟。由於各種原因，例如功耗，我們將會看到這些硬碟的更新換代，其中一些硬碟正在老化。

The upgrades could be actually fairly large. If you think about buying a 32-terabyte drive and replacing 4, 8-terabyte drives, it may still be in your system. I mean those are market economical benefits that will ripple through the data centers.

升級實際上可能相當大。如果你考慮購買 32TB 的硬碟，然後替換掉 4 個 8TB 的硬碟，那麼它可能仍然在你的系統中。我的意思是，這些都是市場經濟效益，會波及整個資料中心。

And so I do think that in some cases, since data is growing so big, it bucks the trend of what's going on in the macro. I mean, obviously, that everyone is paying attention to the macro. But I do think that there will still have to be some investments to make and there will also be opportunities to go save costs with some of the new products that we have coming. And we've also been through the cycle on the early side already of already the inventories being depleted around the world. So there's not that massive inventory bubble out there anymore.

所以我確實認為，在某些情況下，由於數據成長如此之大，它與宏觀經濟的趨勢背道而馳。我的意思是，顯然每個人都在關注宏觀經濟。但我確實認為，我們仍然需要進行一些投資，而且隨著一些新產品的推出，我們也有機會節省成本。而且，我們早期已經經歷了全球庫存枯竭的週期。所以，現在不再存在大規模的庫存泡沫了。

That's interesting color. And then Gianluca, can you just -- I mean, I assume you don't want to give like specific underutilization charges likely for the first half of next year. But can you sort of directionally give us a sense for how long you think we should keep modeling even if there are smaller charges in calendar Q1 and Q2 to keep that in our gross margin calculations?

這顏色很有意思。然後，Gianluca，您能否…我的意思是，我假設您不想透露明年上半年具體的未充分利用費用。但是，您能否大致告訴我們，即使第一季和第二季的費用較小，您認為我們應該持續建模多長時間，才能將其保留在我們的毛利率計算中？

Yes. We expect to have underutilization cost also in calendar Q1 and calendar Q2. Probably a little bit -- could be a bit lower than what we have in December, of course. But of course, the volume that we are producing is still a little bit below what we had installed at the top of the cycle before.

是的。我們預計第一季和第二季也會出現產能利用不足的成本。當然，可能會比12月略低。但當然，我們的產量仍然略低於先前週期高峰期的產量。

The next question comes from Ananda Baruah of Loop Capital.

下一個問題來自 Loop Capital 的 Ananda Baruah。

I guess, Dave, just given that you're starting to see things start to firm up and talking about sort of, I think, Gianluca, Q-over-Q increases in nearline as you go through '24, what's the opportunity, Dave, for things to get tight as you go through '24, just given the capacity that you've taken offline?

我想，戴夫，鑑於您開始看到事情開始好轉，並且談到某種情況，我認為，詹盧卡，隨著 24 年的到來，近線的 Q-over-Q 會增加，戴夫，考慮到您下線的容量，隨著 24 年的到來，事情變得緊張的可能性有多大？

Well, I think the tightness is actually kind of interesting because like we said before, the data is growing in the data centers. We all know that. The amount of data being generated is growing quite quickly. And I think relative to the hard drive industry quickly reacting to anything right now because of some of the damage that's been done in the supply chain and just some of the -- frankly, the lead times that exist on current parts, especially at the highest capacity points, there's not as much flex as there used to be.

嗯，我認為這種緊張其實挺有趣的，因為就像我們之前說的，資料中心的資料正在成長。我們都知道這一點。產生的數據量成長得相當快。我認為，相對於硬碟產業，由於供應鏈受到的一些損害，以及坦白說，現有零件的交付週期，尤其是在產能最高的時候，不像以前那麼靈活了，現在對任何事都反應迅速。

And so I think we may see -- we may enter into an environment where people say, okay, I see the economics of upgrading part of my fleet here now. Let's go ahead and do it. It will save me power, it will save me space. It will allow me to answer the call for the data that's growing. And then once they get their orders in, we'll say, well, the lead time is x and that might be the challenge.

所以我認為我們可能會看到——我們可能會進入這樣一個環境：人們會說，好吧，我明白了現在升級部分機隊的經濟效益。那就去做吧。這能幫我節省電力，節省空間，也能讓我應付日益增長的數據需求。然後，一旦他們接到訂單，我們就會說，嗯，交貨時間是x，這可能是個挑戰。

So that's how I think when things may get tight and it will manifest itself. I don't know exactly when, but I certainly think that we could get into a situation like that just simply because the hard drive industry does not have the immediate capacity gains that it used to.

所以我認為，當情況變得緊張時，它就會顯現出來。我不知道具體時間，但我確實認為，我們可能會陷入這樣的境地，只是因為硬碟行業不再像以前那樣擁有快速的產能成長。

And then what is the -- so what are the downstream impact to that? I mean, in the past, it's been pricing goes up, long-term agreement, that type of deal. Is that still some of the stuff that could occur if you find (inaudible)?

那麼，這會對下游產生什麼影響呢？我的意思是，過去，價格上漲，長期協議之類的交易。如果您發現（聽不清楚），這些情況是否仍可能發生？

That's right. But that's exactly why we're addressing the customer base with these build-to-order models because we -- I think we're -- in some sense, we're helping the customers get a predictable financial outcome if they can give us at least some predictable visibility.

沒錯。但這正是我們採用這些以訂單生產模式來滿足客戶需求的原因，因為從某種意義上說，如果客戶能給我們至少一些可預測的可見性，我們就是在幫助他們獲得可預測的財務結果。

The next question comes from Mark Miller of The Benchmark Company.

下一個問題來自 The Benchmark Company 的 Mark Miller。

You mentioned AI opportunities in VIA cameras and other areas. I'm just wondering when do you think these opportunities will really start to ramp? And any idea on the magnitude of these opportunities in terms of sales for next year?

您提到了威盛相機和其他領域的人工智慧機會。我想知道，您認為這些機會什麼時候會真正開始成長？您能估算一下這些機會對明年的銷售額有多大的影響嗎？

Yes, Mark, I think it's really hard to quantify just yet, but there's a lot of stuff going on in, I'll say, big data around AI. You've got people appointing chief data officers now to be able to track where is the data, what's its value, might we want to retain that just in case that we end up with some tools that are allowing us to monetize it or understand more about our process, so on and so forth, with customer base, factories.

是的，馬克，我認為現在很難量化，但我想說，圍繞人工智慧的大數據領域有很多事情正在發生。現在有人任命首席數據官，以便追蹤數據在哪裡，它的價值是什麼，我們是否應該保留這些數據，以便最終獲得一些工具，使我們能夠將其貨幣化，或者更深入地了解我們的流程等等，包括客戶群、工廠等等。

So my personal opinion is we're in the early innings of a move from throwing data away to keeping some of it longer term for the benefits of the corporations. And I do think that a lot of that will be edge. I don't think all of it will end up in the cloud. I think a lot of it will actually be on the edge. And so this is something that we're tracking very carefully. I don't think it's really manifests itself just yet.

所以我個人認為，我們正處於從丟棄資料到長期保留部分資料以造福企業的轉變的早期階段。我確實認為其中許多數據將透過邊緣運算實現。我不認為所有數據最終都會進入雲端。我認為很多數據實際上都會在邊緣運算上。所以，我們正在密切關注這一點。我認為它目前還沒有真正顯現出來。

I think people are using some of the new application capabilities that are being branded AI applications to get to know them and understand them. And certainly like, things like generative AI, which I believe is kind of a new user interface, if you will, that allow the applications to be used much more efficiently and maybe queries to be made of these applications much more efficiently. But I think we're still in the early innings. And I think once it does last, we're going to know that data and the longevity of that data and the integrity of that data is all critical. And so I think that's good for us.

我認為人們正在利用一些被稱為人工智慧應用的新應用功能來了解和理解它們。當然，例如生成式人工智慧，我認為它是一種新的用戶介面，可以更有效率地使用應用程序，或許還能更有效率地查詢這些應用程式。但我認為我們仍處於早期階段。一旦它真正開始，我們就能了解數據，了解數據的壽命以及數據的完整性都至關重要。所以我認為這對我們來說是件好事。

You mentioned lower CapEx for fiscal '24. Can you give us a range or any idea what it would be?

您提到24財年的資本支出會降低。您能給我們一個大概的範圍嗎？或者您能提供一些想法嗎？

I think we'll probably stay inside of our existing range, 4% to 6% of revenue. But we are -- since the revenue is so far down, we are very mindful of the spending. However, we can see the tools that we need to bring HAMR up according to a certain pace. And as soon as -- if the pace quickens, we will get there as quickly as we possibly can. So we understand what the recipe is and we understand what's needed to make the recipe really well and we'll spend accordingly.

我認為我們可能會保持在現有範圍內，即收入的4%到6%。但是，由於收入大幅下降，我們非常謹慎地控制支出。不過，我們可以看到需要哪些工具來以一定的速度提升HAMR。一旦速度加快，我們就會盡快實現目標。因此，我們了解配方是什麼，也了解要真正做好配方需要什麼，我們會相應地進行支出。

The last question will come from Vijay Rakesh of Mizuho.

最後一個問題來自瑞穗的 Vijay Rakesh。

Just quickly on the HAMR side. I was just wondering when you look at exiting calendar '24, what your mix of HAMR would be either by exabyte or units?

簡單談談 HAMR 方面。我想知道，當您展望 2024 年曆時，您的 HAMR 組合會是按 EB 還是按單位來算？

Calendar '24, you said?

您說的是 24 年曆嗎？

Yes.

是的。

Yes, I don't think we guide so far in time precisely on the mix.

是的，我認為我們目前還沒有及時準確地指導混合。

Yes. We're not going to guide that. But I will say that we'll be very aggressive when we talked about 4 terabytes per disk and cost optimization of these platforms and things like that. I mean this is something that a hard drive industry has been doing for years and years and years, decades, right? So we know how to do these transitions. We're very confident in the technology and we'll look to be very aggressive there.

是的。我們不會對此進行指導。但我要說的是，當我們談到每塊磁碟4TB的容量以及這些平台的成本優化之類的事情時，我們會非常積極。我的意思是，這是硬碟行業多年來、幾十年來一直在做的事情，對吧？所以我們知道如何進行這些轉變。我們對這項技術非常有信心，並且會非常積極地推進。

The wafer lead times are also quite long. So we're already starting on this journey because we're already in wafer. And so we're populating the wafer fabs with the parts that will support it.

晶圓的交付週期也相當長。所以我們已經開始了這趟旅程，因為我們已經進入了晶圓領域。我們正在向晶圓廠提供支援晶圓的零件。

And then on the nearline side, obviously, the shipments, exabyte shipments have come down quite a bit. As you look at the green shoots with some data center coming back, do you feel pretty comfortable given what the inventory levels are at the OEMs and what you see in terms of a return on the spend? How would you characterize that if you look at those 2?

然後在近線方面，顯然，EB 出貨量下降了不少。隨著一些資料中心的復甦，您是否對 OEM 的庫存水準以及您所看到的支出回報率感到放心？如果從這兩個角度來看，您如何看待這種情況？

Yes. I do think that the inventory has been depleted now to levels that if you think about the complexity of all the data centers of the world and how much material needs to be parked out of them, in front of them for replacements and then what the data growth is in the data center, I think the inventory levels have come down to a point where we feel comfortable now that people are going to get back to more predictable buying patterns.

是的。我確實認為庫存現在已經消耗到一定程度了。如果你考慮到全球所有資料中心的複雜性，以及有多少材料需要存放在資料中心外等待替換，再加上資料中心的資料成長情況，我認為庫存水準已經降到了一個我們感到放心的水平，因為人們正在回歸更可預測的購買模式。

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would 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，請大家發表最後發言。

Thanks, Andrea. As you heard today, Seagate remains focused on our key priorities, including executing our leading technology road map, which we believe positions us well to enhance profitability over the near term and to capture long-term opportunities for mass capacity storage.

謝謝，安德里亞。正如你今天所聽到的，希捷仍然專注於我們的關鍵優先事項，包括執行我們領先的技術路線圖，我們相信這將使我們在短期內提高盈利能力，並抓住大容量存儲的長期機會。

I'll close by once again thanking all of our shareholders for their ongoing support of Seagate. Thanks for joining us today and we look forward to speaking with you during the quarter.

最後，我要再次感謝全體股東對希捷的持續支持。感謝您今天的參與，我們期待在本季與您再次溝通。

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

會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講，現在您可以斷開連接了。