希捷科技 (STX) 2024 Q3 法說會逐字稿

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

歡迎參加希捷科技 2024 年第三季財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）請注意，正在記錄此事件。

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

我現在想將會議交給投資者關係高級副總裁 Shanye Hudson。請繼續。

Thank you. Hello, 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 the detailed supplemental information for our March quarter results on the Investors section of our website.

謝謝。大家好，歡迎參加今天的電話會議。與我一起的還有 Seagate 執行長 Dave Mosley；以及我們的財務長 Gianluca Romano。我們已在網站的投資者部分發布了收益新聞稿和三月份季度業績的詳細補充資訊。

During today's call, we will 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, a reconciliation to the corresponding GAAP measures is not available without unreasonable effort.

在今天的電話會議中，我們將參考公認會計原則和非公認會計原則措施。非 GAAP 數據與我們網站上發布的收益新聞稿中的 GAAP 數據進行了核對，並包含在我們的 8-K 表格中。我們尚未對某些非公認會計準則展望指標進行調整，因為可能影響這些指標的重大項目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，就無法與相應的公認會計原則措施進行協調。

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.

在我們開始之前，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天我們掌握的資訊的當前觀點和假設，並且不應在任何後續日期被依賴。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，因為它們受到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.

要了解有關可能影響我們未來業務業績的風險、不確定性和其他因素的更多信息，請參閱今天發布的新聞稿和我們向SEC 提交的文件，包括我們最新的10-K 表年度報告和10 -表格季度報告問以及補充信息，所有這些都可以在我們網站的投資者部分找到。

Following our prepared remarks, we'll open the call up for questions. In order to provide all analysts with the opportunity to participate, we thank you in advance for asking one primary question and then reentering the queue.

在我們準備好的發言之後，我們將開始提問。為了給所有分析師參與的機會，我們提前感謝您提出一個主要問題，然後重新加入隊列。

I'll now hand the call over to you, Dave.

我現在把電話轉給你，戴夫。

Thank you, Shanye, and hello, everyone. Seagate is delivering solid financial results in an improving demand environment. In the March quarter, we grew revenue 6%, expanded non-GAAP gross profit 18%, and more than doubled non-GAAP earnings per share compared with the prior quarter. Our performance is a function of both improving end market demand and the decisive actions we implemented throughout the downturn to strengthen our financial profile heading into the recovery. Nearline cloud demand trends are increasingly positive across both U.S. and China customers, and we also saw a sequential improvement in the enterprise OEM markets in the March quarter.

謝謝山野，大家好。希捷在不斷改善的需求環境中取得了穩健的財務表現。在 3 月季度，我們的營收成長了 6%，非 GAAP 毛利擴大了 18%，非 GAAP 每股收益比上一季增加了一倍多。我們的業績取決於終端市場需求的改善以及我們在整個經濟低迷時期為加強我們的財務狀況以進入復甦而採取的果斷行動。美國和中國客戶的近線雲需求趨勢日益積極，我們也看到企業 OEM 市場在三月季度連續改善。

On the execution side, the quarter-on-quarter margin expansion reflects our pricing initiatives taking hold as well as favorable mix, resulting in revenue growth in the quarter outpacing the exabyte growth. Pricing strategy is just one key piece of our broader focus on profitability, which also includes maintaining a healthy supply-demand balance, introducing new technologies to enhance value for our customers, and maintaining tight expense controls with an emphasis on generating cash.

在執行方面，季度環比利潤率擴張反映了我們的定價舉措以及有利的組合，導致本季營收成長超過艾字節成長。定價策略只是我們更廣泛地關注獲利能力的關鍵部分，其中還包括保持健康的供需平衡、引入新技術以提高客戶價值，以及保持嚴格的費用控制，重點是產生現金。

Looking at the near-term end market dynamics, cloud continues to lead the demand recovery. For a second consecutive quarter, we realized strong double-digit revenue growth from sales to cloud customers, with improvement across both U.S. and global cloud names. We believe the long-running cloud customer inventory correction is mostly complete and their end demand is also improving. Based on our customer interactions, we currently expect healthy nearline demand growth to continue through the rest of calendar 2024.

從近期終端市場動態來看，雲端運算持續引領需求復甦。我們連續第二季實現了雲端客戶銷售收入強勁的兩位數成長，美國和全球雲端品牌的營收均有所改善。我們認為，長期雲端客戶庫存調整已基本完成，他們的終端需求也正在改善。根據我們與客戶的互動，我們目前預計近線需求將在 2024 年剩餘時間內持續健康成長。

Within the enterprise OEM markets, demand stabilized in the second half of calendar 2023, and we observed incremental improvement in the March quarter. Historically, enterprise nearline demand has correlated well with traditional server growth, which is projected to modestly increase in calendar 2024. As a result, we expect enterprise OEM revenue to improve as server growth resumes.

在企業 OEM 市場中，需求在 2023 年下半年趨於穩定，我們觀察到 3 月季度的增量改善。從歷史上看，企業近線需求與傳統伺服器的成長密切相關，預計到 2024 年將小幅成長。

In the VIA markets, revenue was seasonally lower in the March quarter, and we expect demand to trend higher through the calendar year. Smart cities remain the largest end market opportunity for VIA products. However, new applications continue to emerge that use AI analytics to form actionable insights from data at the edge, where an estimated 80% of data resides. One such use case centers on smart energy and utility management that aims to use imaging data to drive energy efficiency and conservation. Analysts place this among the fastest-growing sectors for VIA applications worldwide.

在威盛市場，三月季度的營收季節性下降，我們預計全年需求將呈上升趨勢。智慧城市仍然是威盛產品最大的終端市場機會。然而，新的應用程式不斷湧現，這些應用程式使用人工智慧分析從邊緣數據中形成可行的見解，估計有 80% 的數據位於邊緣。其中一個用例以智慧能源和公用事業管理為中心，旨在使用成像數據來提高能源效率和節省。分析師將其列為全球威盛應用成長最快的領域之一。

Within China, the pace and magnitude of demand improvement in VIA and other HDD markets will be shaped by economic recovery in the region. We continue to monitor the government's efforts to spur economic growth, including stimulus plans aimed at digital transformation and infrastructure spend. Recent economic indicators show signs of progress. However, it will take time for the benefits of these programs to take hold.

在中國，威盛和其他硬碟市場需求改善的速度和幅度將受到該地區經濟復甦的影響。我們將繼續關注政府刺激經濟成長的努力，包括旨在數位轉型和基礎設施支出的刺激計劃。近期經濟指標顯示出進步跡象。然而，這些計劃的好處需要一段時間才能顯現出來。

Overall, we believe these constructive market trends support steady revenue growth throughout the calendar year. Our ability to deliver that growth is enhanced by our build-to-order initiative that is now in place with the majority of large mass capacity customers. These plans afford Seagate better demand visibility and greater predictability for capacity planning, while our customers find value in the assurance of supply that meets their volume and timing needs. Importantly, the improving overall outlook for HDD demand is unfolding as we execute on our product and technology road map.

總體而言，我們相信這些建設性的市場趨勢支持全年收入的穩定成長。我們實現這種成長的能力透過我們的按訂單生產計劃得到增強，該計劃現已在大多數大容量客戶中實施。這些計劃為希捷提供了更好的需求可視性和更大的容量規劃可預測性，同時我們的客戶也發現了滿足其數量和時間需求的供應保證的價值。重要的是，隨著我們執行產品和技術路線圖，硬碟需求的整體前景正在改善。

Today, we are simultaneously driving qualification and ramp plans for 2 high-capacity product families, our last PMR product, delivering up to 28 terabytes per drive, as well as our first HAMR-based Mozaic product on 3-plus terabytes per disk. This is rare for our industry, and I want to acknowledge our product teams at Seagate who are doing a phenomenal job supporting customers as we work together to advance our industry-leading products and technologies through the various customer qualifications.

今天，我們正在同時推動2 個高容量產品系列的資格認證和升級計劃，我們的最後一款PMR 產品，每個驅動器可提供高達28 TB 的容量，以及我們第一個基於HAMR 的Mozaic 產品，每個磁碟可提供超過3 TB 的容量。這對我們的行業來說是罕見的，我要感謝希捷的產品團隊，他們在支持客戶方面做得非常出色，我們共同努力透過各種客戶資格來推進我們領先業界的產品和技術。

These 2 product families share about 95% commonality in components and leverage the same assembly processes and test processes. This enables efficiencies across areas such as procurement, manufacturing, capital investments and customer qualifications. The 24, 28-terabyte PMR drives are in qualification at most of our global cloud and enterprise customers. We have already completed qualification with one major enterprise customer, some global Tier 2 customers and with our Enterprise Systems business. We currently expect to begin shipping significant volumes in the first half of fiscal 2025.

這兩個產品系列的組件具有約 95% 的通用性，並採用相同的組裝流程和測試流程。這可以提高採購、製造、資本投資和客戶資格等領域的效率。 24、28 TB PMR 硬碟已通過我們大多數全球雲端和企業客戶的認證。我們已經完成了與一家主要企業客戶、一些全球二級客戶以及我們的企業系統業務的資格認證。目前，我們預計將在 2025 財年上半年開始大量出貨。

Relative to HAMR technology, we continue to progress towards completing our first large CSP customer qualification, though we experienced a temporary slowdown in recent weeks. We determined a mechanical component, unrelated to the HAMR recording subsystem, in some of our drives was not performing as expected. We identified and rapidly implemented a solution with full support from our customer. Verification tests are underway and these tests should be completed in the June quarter. Every other aspect of the qualification process has gone as expected.

相對於 HAMR 技術，我們繼續朝著完成第一個大型 CSP 客戶資格認證的目標前進，儘管最近幾週我們經歷了暫時的放緩。我們確定某些磁碟機中與 HAMR 記錄子系統無關的機械組件未如預期運作。在客戶的全力支持下，我們確定並快速實施了解決方案。驗證測試正在進行中，這些測試應在六月季度完成。資格認證過程的所有其他方面均按預期進行。

With this shift in timing, we now expect to ship a few hundred thousand HAMR-based Mozaic drives in the June quarter and meet the remainder of our customers' exabyte demand through other already qualified products. As we gradually ramp HAMR products with our lead hyperscale customer in the second half of the calendar year, we remain focused on broadening the number of customers qualified on Mozaic products. Customer feedback reaffirms strong interest in HAMR technology, and that is further reflected in the successful completion of our first qualification with a top non-cloud customer a few weeks ago.

隨著時間的轉變，我們現在預計在六月季度出貨數十萬個基於 HAMR 的 Mozaic 驅動器，並透過其他已經合格的產品滿足客戶剩餘的 EB 需求。隨著我們在下半年與我們的主要超大規模客戶逐步推出 HAMR 產品，我們仍然致力於擴大 Mozaic 產品合格的客戶數量。客戶回饋再次證實了對 HAMR 技術的濃厚興趣，這進一步體現在我們幾週前成功完成與頂級非雲端客戶的首次資格認證。

We've laid out a Mozaic road map with a clear path to at least 50-terabyte drives that offers customers TCO and sustainability benefits, including lower power consumption and less required floor space on a per terabyte basis. We are scaling drive capacity through aerial density gains rather than adding heads and disks. As we execute on our product roadmaps to 50 terabytes and beyond, we expect to incur minimal changes to our bill of material costs and maintain low capital intensity of between 4% and 6% of revenue.

我們制定了 Mozaic 路線圖，明確指出了至少 50 TB 硬碟的路徑，為客戶提供 TCO 和永續發展優勢，包括降低功耗和減少每 TB 所需的佔地面積。我們透過增加空間密度來擴展驅動器容量，而不是增加磁頭和磁碟。當我們執行 50 TB 及以上的產品路線圖時，我們預期物料成本變化最小，並維持收入的 4% 至 6% 之間的低資本密集度。

As a result, we believe HAMR provides the path for achieving margin performance beyond our current target range as production scales and also positions Seagate well to continue capitalizing on megatrends like AI and machine learning, which drive long-term demand for cost-efficient mass storage.

因此，我們相信，隨著生產規模的擴大，HAMR 為實現超出我們當前目標範圍的利潤率提供了途徑，並且還使希捷能夠繼續利用人工智慧和機器學習等大趨勢，從而推動對經濟高效的大容量儲存的長期需求。

As we've discussed in the past, the initial phase of gen AI is focused on building out the compute-intensive infrastructure required to develop and train large language models. As development shifts to the deployment phase, enterprises will begin to leverage these trained AI models to transform data with value-enhancing applications and generate data-rich content. Customers expect HDD demand to increase as this phase takes hold.

正如我們過去所討論的，gen AI 的初始階段專注於建立開發和訓練大型語言模型所需的運算密集基礎設施。隨著開發轉向部署階段，企業將開始利用這些訓練有素的人工智慧模型透過增值應用程式轉換資料並產生資料豐富的內容。隨著這一階段的到來，客戶預計 HDD 需求將會增加。

Over the next several years, the volume of AI-generated content is expected to increase and also shift towards more imagery and videos, which can be up to 1,000x larger than text. These trends bode well for HDD demand over the long term as HDDs remain the most cost-effective means to house and subsequently use mass capacity data.

在接下來的幾年中，人工智慧生成的內容量預計將會增加，並且也會轉向更多的圖像和視頻，這些內容可能比文字大 1,000 倍。從長遠來看，這些趨勢對 HDD 需求來說是個好兆頭，因為 HDD 仍然是儲存和隨後使用大容量資料的最具成本效益的方式。

To summarize, the combination of more favorable demand trends, strong operating discipline and product and technology leadership provide the foundation for driving further financial performance gains. This combination reinforces our confidence in returning to our long-term target margin ranges and potentially exceed those ranges over time as HAMR-based products proliferate in the marketplace.

總而言之，更有利的需求趨勢、強大的營運紀律以及產品和技術領先地位的結合為推動財務業績的進一步成長奠定了基礎。這種結合增強了我們恢復長期目標利潤範圍的信心，並且隨著基於 HAMR 的產品在市場上的激增，隨著時間的推移，我們有可能超過這些範圍。

With that, Gianluca will now cover our financial performance and outlook.

接下來，Gianluca 將介紹我們的財務表現和前景。

Thank you, Dave. Seagate delivered solid financial performance in the March quarter, with sequential improvement across every key financial metric. Revenue was $1.66 billion, up 6% quarter-over-quarter. Non-GAAP operating income was up 44% sequentially to $183 million, leading to non-GAAP operating margin of 11% of revenue, expanding nearly 300 basis points quarter-over-quarter. And our non-GAAP EPS was $0.33, increasing $0.21 sequentially and above the midpoint of our guidance range, reflecting the improving demand trends and continued cost discipline.

謝謝你，戴夫。希捷在三月季度實現了穩健的財務業績，各項關鍵財務指標均取得連續改善。營收為 16.6 億美元，季增 6%。非 GAAP 營業收入較上季成長 44%，達到 1.83 億美元，導致非 GAAP 營業利潤率為營收的 11%，較上季成長近 300 個基點。我們的非 GAAP 每股收益為 0.33 美元，比上一季增加 0.21 美元，高於我們指引範圍的中點，反映了需求趨勢的改善和持續的成本控制。

Within our hard disk drive business, exabyte shipments grew 4% sequentially to 99 exabyte, while revenue increased 7% to $1.5 billion. Revenue performance was mainly driven by the expected improvement in the nearline cloud market as well as favorable pricing actions. Within the mass capacity market, revenue outpaced exabyte growth, increasing 11% sequentially to $1.2 billion, with nearline cloud demand more than offsetting the slight decline in the VIA market.

在我們的硬碟業務中，艾字節出貨量較上季成長 4%，達到 99 艾字節，而營收成長 7%，達到 15 億美元。收入表現主要受到近線雲市場預期改善以及有利的定價行動的推動。在大容量市場中，營收成長超過艾字節，季增 11%，達到 12 億美元，近線雲需求足以抵銷威盛市場的小幅下滑。

Mass capacity shipment total 89 exabyte compared with 83 exabyte in the December quarter. Mass capacity shipments as a percentage of total HDD exabyte was 89%, reflecting the continued long-term secular growth for mass capacity demand.

海量容量出貨量總計 89 艾字節，而 12 月季為 83 艾字節。海量容量出貨量佔 HDD EB 總量的百分比為 89%，反映出海量容量需求的持續長期成長。

For nearline products, shipment of 72 exabytes were up quarter-over-quarter from 65 exabytes. We believe that inventory among most CSP customers has decreased and anticipate continued nearline demand improvement in the June quarter and beyond.

對於近線產品，出貨量從 65 艾字節環比增長到 72 艾字節。我們認為，大多數 CSP 客戶的庫存已經減少，並預計 6 月季度及以後的近線需求將持續改善。

In the VIA market, we believe the March quarter will prove to be the low point of the calendar year with demand returning to more typical seasonal patterns moving forward. Legacy product revenue was $297 million, down from $324 million in the prior quarter, primarily driven by lower seasonal demand in the consumer market.

在威盛市場，我們認為三月季度將成為歷年的低點，未來需求將恢復到更典型的季節性模式。傳統產品收入為 2.97 億美元，低於上一季的 3.24 億美元，主要是由於消費市場季節性需求下降所致。

Finally, revenue for our non-HDD business was $178 million, essentially flat quarter-over-quarter. We expect both the legacy and non-HDD market to remain a similar level in the June quarter.

最後，我們的非 HDD 業務收入為 1.78 億美元，環比基本持平。我們預計傳統和非 HDD 市場在第二季將保持相似水準。

Moving on to the rest of the income statement. Non-GAAP gross profit increased sequentially by $65 million in the March quarter to $432 million. Non-GAAP gross margin improved for a fourth consecutive quarter to 26.1% and expanded approximately 250 basis points compared to the previous quarter. Continued pricing adjustment and favorable mix shift towards mass capacity products offset margin headwinds from underutilization cost, which were about $43 million. Non-GAAP gross margin for the HDD business expanded much faster than overall company gross margin.

繼續看損益表的其餘部分。 3 月季度的非 GAAP 毛利較上季增加 6,500 萬美元，達到 4.32 億美元。非 GAAP 毛利率連續第四個季度提高至 26.1%，與上一季相比擴大約 250 個基點。持續的定價調整和向大容量產品的有利組合轉變抵消了因未充分利用成本（約 4,300 萬美元）所帶來的利潤阻力。硬碟業務的非公認會計原則毛利率的成長速度遠遠快於公司整體毛利率的成長速度。

Looking ahead, we expect underutilization costs to decrease in the June quarter and abate in the second half of the calendar year as our overall build volume improves to support incremental demand in the nearline market. We believe these factors, along with ongoing expense discipline and product execution, support the return to the 30% minimum margin benchmark in the current calendar year.

展望未來，隨著我們的整體建造量提高以支持近線市場的增量需求，我們預計利用率不足的成本將在六月季度下降，並在今年下半年減少。我們相信這些因素，加上持續的費用紀律和產品執行，將支援本日曆年恢復到 30% 的最低利潤基準。

Non-GAAP operating expenses totaled $249 million, up 4% quarter-over-quarter, but slightly better than our guidance, reflecting the timing of certain R&D spending and continued cost control efforts. Adjusted EBITDA continues to improve and was up 29% sequentially in the March quarter to $278 million. Non-GAAP net income was $71 million, nearly tripling quarter-over-quarter, resulting in non-GAAP EPS of $0.33 per share based on diluted share count of approximately 212 million shares and a tax expense of $27 million.

非 GAAP 營運費用總計 2.49 億美元，季增 4%，但略好於我們的指導，反映了某些研發支出的時機和持續的成本控制努力。調整後 EBITDA 持續改善，三月季度季增 29%，達 2.78 億美元。非 GAAP 淨利潤為 7,100 萬美元，比上一季增長近兩倍，根據約 2.12 億股的稀釋股數和 2,700 萬美元的稅費計算，非 GAAP 每股收益為 0.33 美元。

Moving on to cash flow and the balance sheet. In the March quarter, we increased free cash flow generation to $128 million. Capital expenditures were down sequentially to $60 million as the majority of brand capital expenditures were completed in the first half of fiscal '24. We expect fiscal '24 CapEx to be at or below the low end of our long-term target range of 4% to 6% of revenue. We returned $147 million to shareholders through the quarterly dividend, exiting the quarter with 210 million shares outstanding. We closed the March quarter with $2.3 billion in available liquidity, including our undrawn revolver credit facilities.

轉向現金流和資產負債表。在 3 月季度，我們將自由現金流量增加至 1.28 億美元。由於大部分品牌資本支出在 2024 財年上半年完成，資本支出較上月下降至 6,000 萬美元。我們預期 24 財年的資本支出將等於或低於我們長期目標範圍（佔營收的 4% 至 6%）的下限。我們透過季度股息向股東返還 1.47 億美元，本季末流通股數為 2.1 億股。我們在 3 月季度結束時擁有 23 億美元的可用流動資金，其中包括未提取的循環信貸額度。

Today, we announced that Broadcom has acquired our ASIC assets, including development, engineering and related IP, for $600 million in cash. The cash inlay will be reflected on our balance sheet in the June quarter and Seagate expect to use a portion of the net proceeds to support our supply chain as we begin to ramp new product build as well as pay down debt over time. Additionally, we expect to realize annualized OpEx savings of approximately $40 million starting in fiscal 2025. There is no expected impact to revenue.

今天，我們宣布博通以 6 億美元現金收購了我們的 ASIC 資產，包括開發、工程和相關 IP。現金投入將反映在我們六月季度的資產負債表上，希捷預計將使用部分淨收益來支持我們的供應鏈，因為我們開始增加新產品的生產並隨著時間的推移償還債務。此外，我們預計從 2025 財年開始，年化營運支出將節省約 4,000 萬美元。

Inventory increased to $1.2 billion as we stage material to support the continued mass capacity demand recovery, along with our concurrent ramp of our last PMR-based product and the initial Mozaic-based product ramp. Our debt balance was $5.7 billion at the end of March quarter, with more than 90% of our long-term debt obligation maturing beyond 3 years. Interest expense were $82 million. And we project interest expense to be between $83 million and $85 million in the June quarter.

由於我們準備材料以支援持續的大規模產能需求恢復，以及我們最後一個基於 PMR 的產品和最初的基於 Mozaic 的產品的同步增加，庫存增加到 12 億美元。截至 3 月季末，我們的債務餘額為 57 億美元，其中 90% 以上的長期債務到期期限超過 3 年。利息支出為 8,200 萬美元。我們預計第二季的利息支出將在 8,300 萬美元至 8,500 萬美元之間。

Turning to our outlook. We expect continued improvement in our mass capacity markets, led by ongoing demand for our nearline cloud products as well as modest improvement in both the nearline enterprise and VIA market. Legacy and non-HDD revenue are expected to remain relatively flat sequentially. With that as context, June quarter revenue is expected to be in a range of $1.85 billion, plus or minus $150 million, an increase of 12% sequentially and 16% year-on-year at the midpoint.

轉向我們的展望。我們預計，在對我們的近線雲產品的持續需求以及近線企業和威盛市場的適度改善的帶動下，我們的大容量市場將持續改善。傳統和非 HDD 收入預計將保持相對穩定。以此為背景，預計 6 月季度營收將在 18.5 億美元上下，上下浮動 1.5 億美元，季增 12%，年增 16%。

We are planning non-GAAP operating expenses of approximately $260 million. At the midpoint of our revenue guidance, we expect non-GAAP operating margin to improve into the low teens percentage range, including underutilization costs of approximately $20 million. We expect our non-GAAP EPS to be $0.70, plus or minus $0.20 based on a diluted share count of approximately 212 million shares and a non-GAAP tax expense of $25 million.

我們計劃非 GAAP 營運費用約為 2.6 億美元。在我們收入指引的中點，我們預期非 GAAP 營業利潤率將改善至十幾歲以下的百分比範圍，其中包括約 2,000 萬美元的未充分利用成本。根據約 2.12 億股的稀釋股數和 2,500 萬美元的非 GAAP 稅收費用，我們預計非 GAAP 每股收益為 0.70 美元，上下浮動 0.20 美元。

Our strong expense management and supply discipline are contributing to the year-over-year profitability expansion that you are seeing in our results and outlook. Our balance sheet and healthy free cash flow generation position us well to continue supporting our capital return commitments.

我們強大的費用管理和供應紀律有助於獲利能力逐年擴張，您可以在我們的業績和前景中看到這一點。我們的資產負債表和健康的自由現金流產生使我們能夠繼續支持我們的資本回報承諾。

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

我現在將把電話轉回戴夫以徵求最終意見。

Thanks, Gianluca. Seagate is demonstrating strong operational execution and supply discipline amid an improving demand environment, which sets us up well to grow revenue and further expand margins throughout calendar year 2024. Our product portfolio, anchored by industry-leading HAMR technology, offers compelling economics for our customers and for Seagate. As we proliferate these new products, we expect to drive further financial leverage over time. I'm confident that our product strategy offers customers the most compelling TCO proposition and positions Seagate well to capitalize on long-term demand for cost-effective mass capacity storage. We believe that the Mozaic platform delivers TCO advantages for data center operators and supports their increasing focus on conserving power and space.

謝謝，吉安盧卡。在不斷改善的需求環境中，希捷展示了強大的營運執行力和供應紀律，這使我們能夠在2024 年全年增加收入並進一步擴大利潤。我們的客戶提供了令人信服的經濟效益對希捷來說。隨著這些新產品的擴散，我們預計隨著時間的推移，財務槓桿將進一步提高。我相信，我們的產品策略為客戶提供了最引人注目的 TCO 主張，並使 Seagate 能夠很好地利用對經濟高效的大容量儲存的長期需求。我們相信 Mozaic 平台可為資料中心營運商帶來 TCO 優勢，並支持他們日益關注節省電力和空間。

This week, Seagate published our 18th Annual ESG Report outlining the progress we've made towards our own sustainability goals, including our product circularity program. We are collaborating with customers and recovering drives from our own operations to extend these products' life cycles and conserve the planet's limited resources. Since launching this program in 2020, we have recovered and shipped nearly 4 million drives back into the market.

本週，Seagate 發布了第 18 份年度 ESG 報告，概述了我們在實現永續發展目標（包括我們的產品循環計畫）方面所取得的進展。我們正在與客戶合作，從我們自己的營運中恢復驅動器，以延長這些產品的生命週期並保護地球有限的資源。自 2020 年啟動該計劃以來，我們已經回收了近 400 萬塊硬碟並將其運回市場。

Finally, I want to thank our global team members for their hard work and dedication and recognize our suppliers, customers and shareholders for your ongoing support of Seagate.

最後，我要感謝我們的全球團隊成員的辛勤工作和奉獻精神，並感謝我們的供應商、客戶和股東對希捷的持續支持。

Gary, we're ready to open up the call for questions.

加里，我們準備好開始提問了。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question today is from Erik Woodring with Morgan Stanley.

（操作員說明）今天我們的第一個問題來自摩根士丹利的埃里克·伍德林（Erik Woodring）。

I'll make it a -- I'll combine this into a 2-part question. So Dave, I appreciate your comments on HAMR in the prepared remarks. Really just want to get clarification on 2 points, if I may. First is, have you replaced the mechanical component that was giving you an issue and then proceeded to do testing such that you won't have any further delays on HAMR? And now you're just going through kind of the final testing phase with your lead CSP customer?

我會將其合併為一個由兩部分組成的問題。 Dave，我感謝您在準備好的演講中對 HAMR 的評論。如果可以的話，我真的只是想澄清兩點。首先，您是否更換了出現問題的機械組件，然後繼續進行測試，以免 HAMR 出現任何進一步的延誤？現在您剛剛與您的主要 CSP 客戶一起經歷最後的測試階段？

And then second, I believe you've talked in the past about a goal of onboarding the remaining large CSPs by the end of calendar year '24. Does this hiccup impact that timing at all? Or have you started the qual process with these customers? Just any clarification on those 2 points would be super helpful. And that's it for me.

其次，我相信您過去曾談到在 24 日曆年年底之前讓剩餘的大型 CSP 加入的目標。這個小問題會影響那個時間嗎？或者您已開始與這些客戶進行品質流程？只要對這兩點進行任何澄清都會非常有幫助。對我來說就是這樣。

Thanks, Erik. Yes. I appreciate the question. So relative to the mechanical component in question, we do have other sources, and we had those other sources running in parallel. So we were able to segregate the material and then get the test beds back up with the right material, I'll say it that way, and repopulate all those test beds and we recovered the schedule quite quickly because of that. So we're not happy that we had this issue, but obviously, I think we can move on from here. And that's why we're expressing the confidence that we did in the script about completing the qualification this quarter and shipping the units.

謝謝，埃里克。是的。我很欣賞這個問題。因此，相對於所討論的機械組件，我們確實有其他來源，並且我們讓這些其他來源並行運行。因此，我們能夠分離材料，然後用正確的材料恢復測試台，我會這樣說，並重新填充所有這些測試台，因此我們很快就恢復了時間表。因此，我們對遇到這個問題並不滿意，但顯然，我認為我們可以從這裡繼續前進。這就是為什麼我們表達了我們在腳本中對本季度完成資格認證並運送設備的信心。

Relative to big picture of the program, these kinds of things happen when you start to integrate high volume from all your suppliers. Sometimes, you see interactions that you didn't even foresee. In long term, this isn't going to slow us down at all, and it shouldn't impact the other qualifications either. We are -- to the second point of your question, we are always reevaluating exactly where we are involved, but we want to also ramp HAMR as fast as we possibly can and get not only to 3 terabytes per platter but 4 terabytes per platter as well. So still very optimistic on that front.

相對於該計劃的整體情況，當您開始整合所有供應商的大量產品時，就會發生此類情況。有時，您會看到您甚至沒有預見到的互動。從長遠來看，這根本不會減慢我們的速度，也不應該影響其他資格。對於你問題的第二點，我們總是在準確地重新評估我們所涉及的領域，但我們也希望盡可能快地提高 HAMR，不僅達到每盤 3 TB，而且達到每盤 4 TB。所以在這方面仍然非常樂觀。

The next question is from Amit Daryanani with Evercore ISI.

下一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 Amit Daryanani。

I guess, Dave, I just want to focus on the cloud recovery part. In the past, I think you've talked about this being potentially a bit more gradual in nature. But certainly looking at your March numbers and the June guide, it would suggest perhaps the recovery is a bit more steeper. So I'm hoping when you talk to -- to get a sense of -- when you talk to these cloud customers, how do you think about the pace and the durability of demand recovery on the cloud side? And related to that, I think you shipped close to 100 exabytes of capacity this quarter. What is the total available capacity that you have right now? And what triggers the decision to potentially add more capacity down the road?

我想，戴夫，我只想專注於雲端恢復部分。過去，我認為您已經談到這在本質上可能會更加漸進。但當然，看看三月的數據和六月的指南，這表明復甦可能會更陡。因此，我希望當您與這些雲端客戶交談時，了解一下，您如何看待雲端方面需求恢復的速度和持久性？與此相關的是，我認為本季你們出貨了接近 100 艾字節的容量。您現在擁有的總可用容量是多少？是什麼觸發了未來可能增加更多產能的決定？

Yes. Thanks, Amit. It's been a remarkable journey, I think, over the last 1.5 years, 2 years because the demand was so low relative to the supply that we had, that the industry had. And we all took, I think, some supply off-line. And we started this build-to-order in earnest at least 9 months ago, telling people that, hey, in order for us to actually trigger the builds, we're going to -- we need some predictability out of the business. And we're quite happy with how that's proceeded.

是的。謝謝，阿米特。我認為，在過去的 1.5 年、2 年裡，這是一段非凡的旅程，因為相對於我們產業的供應而言，需求是如此之低。我想，我們都把一些供應線下線了。我們至少在 9 個月前認真開始按訂單生產，告訴人們，嘿，為了讓我們真正觸發構建，我們需要業務具有一定的可預測性。我們對進展感到非常滿意。

What's different in the next -- in the last 90 days is that the demand really is coming back. And so when we see the exabyte growth last quarter being outstripped by the revenue growth and then we see even more exabyte growth now, then we're fairly optimistic about it. We are still not full though, to your point. We still have other utilization charges, if you will, costs. And we also have factory capacity that's not fully utilized yet. So we're going to stick to the plan, I think.

接下來的不同之處在於，在過去 90 天內，需求確實正在回升。因此，當我們看到上個季度的艾字節成長被收入成長超過，然後我們現在看到更多艾字節成長時，我們對此相當樂觀。但就您而言，我們還沒有滿員。如果你願意的話，我們還有其他使用費。我們還有工廠產能尚未充分利用。所以我想我們會堅持這個計劃。

The main point for us is we don't want to overbuild or build product based on speculation. We really want predictability, long-term financial health and so on. We're happy with the improvements that have been made, but we're not quite there yet. And so we'll continue to drive this.

對我們來說，重點是我們不想過度建造或基於猜測來建立產品。我們確實想要可預測性、長期的財務健康等等。我們對所取得的改進感到滿意，但我們還沒有完全做到這一點。因此，我們將繼續推動這項進程。

Yes. Let me add on the underutilization charges. We said in the prepared remarks, we do not expect underutilization charges in the fiscal year '25. So fairly soon, we will not have an additional cost.

是的。讓我補充一下未充分利用的費用。我們在準備好的發言中表示，我們預計 25 財年不會產生未充分利用費用。所以很快我們就不會產生額外的費用。

The next question is from Aaron Rakers with Wells Fargo.

下一個問題來自富國銀行的 Aaron Rakers。

Yes. I know, Gianluca, you just kind of highlighted the underutilization costs. But I guess, as we think about the model and you think about the recovery that you're seeing, I'm curious, if we adjust for underutilization, it looks to me like you're guiding maybe a 70 basis point, again ex underutilization, gross margin expansion this quarter at the midpoint of the guidance. How would you characterize the company's ability to price up in this environment? Especially looking at the results, it looks like your mass capacity dollar per terabyte was up about 5% sequentially. Where are you at in that journey? And how much more do you think pricing could turn favorably for the company? And really, what I'm getting at is the continued driver from pricing to gross margin.

是的。我知道，Gianluca，您只是強調了未充分利用的成本。但我想，當我們考慮模型並考慮您所看到的復甦時，我很好奇，如果我們針對利用率不足進行調整，在我看來，您可能會指導 70 個基點，再次前利用率不足，本季毛利率擴張處於指導價值的中點。您如何評價該公司在這種環境下定價的能力？特別是從結果來看，每 TB 的海量容量成本較上季成長了約 5%。在那段旅程中你在哪裡？您認為定價還能對公司有利多少？事實上，我所了解的是從定價到毛利率的持續驅動因素。

Yes, Aaron. Well, I would say, in the last several quarters, we had some success in improving our pricing, and we are continuing to do that. So part of this increase in gross margin that you are estimating for the June quarter is, of course, coming from pricing. As you know, we are -- in the March quarter, we were very high mix for the mass capacity. Then when we go through the rest of the calendar year, you have other parts of the business that will grow. So the mix will not be maybe as good as we had in March, but pricing is going up. And our cost, of course, is always trending in the right direction. Of course, we have a ramp of new products. But overall, we are very happy with the pricing action and where the mix is today. So we see further improvement through the calendar year.

是的，亞倫。嗯，我想說，在過去的幾個季度中，我們在提高定價方面取得了一些成功，我們將繼續這樣做。因此，您估計的六月季度毛利率增長的一部分當然來自定價。如您所知，在三月的季度，我們的大規模產能組合非常高。然後，當我們經歷今年剩餘的時間時，您的業務的其他部分將會成長。因此，產品組合可能不會像三月那樣好，但價格正在上漲。當然，我們的成本始終朝著正確的方向發展。當然，我們有大量新產品。但總的來說，我們對定價行動和今天的組合非常滿意。因此，我們看到全年都有進一步的改善。

The next question is from Wamsi Mohan with Bank of America.

下一個問題來自美國銀行的瓦姆西·莫漢 (Wamsi Mohan)。

Dave, if I could just go back to the qualification. Any color you can share on the differences between these 2 qualification at your CSP and non-CSP customer? And is there a meaningful difference in the product itself between the CSP and non-CSP customer? And if I could, for Gianluca, with this Broadcom deal that you also announced, how should we think about both the OpEx trajectory? And will this impact your gross margins? So should we expect your gross margins to go down because of this slightly and then OpEx also to go down? Or the dynamics -- what dynamics should we expect?

戴夫，如果我能回到資格賽就好了。您可以分享一下您的 CSP 和非 CSP 客戶的這 2 個資格之間的差異嗎？ CSP 和非 CSP 客戶之間的產品本身是否有有意義的差異？如果我可以的話，對於 Gianluca，透過您也宣布的博通交易，我們應該如何考慮營運支出軌跡？這會影響您的毛利率嗎？那麼，我們是否應該預期您的毛利率會因此而略有下降，然後營運支出也會下降？或是動態——我們應該期待什麼樣的動態？

Thanks, Wamsi. To your first question, there's no significant difference in the hardware. The qualification for cloud versus non-cloud, it's not usually that much different. There can be some software features, depending on which cloud service provider you're talking about, that complicates the qualification. And especially different customers, whether it's cloud or non-cloud, might be going through other types of architectural transitions at the time. So we have to make sure we get that right. But by and large, it's the same drive. I think that was your question.

謝謝，瓦姆西。對於你的第一個問題，硬體上沒有顯著差異。雲端與非雲端的資格通常沒有太大區別。根據您所討論的雲端服務供應商的不同，某些軟體功能可能會使資格認證變得複雜。尤其是不同的客戶，無論是雲端或非雲，當時可能正在經歷其他類型的架構轉變。所以我們必須確保我們做對了。但總的來說，這是相同的驅動器。我想這就是你的問題。

Right. Yes. So on the financial impact for the transaction with Broadcom, the major difference will be in OpEx where we expect a decline of about $40 million for fiscal '25. We have a very good collaboration with our partners. So we don't expect basically any other change from operations. So it's mainly a reduction in OpEx due to the transfer of asset and people to our partner.

正確的。是的。因此，就與博通交易的財務影響而言，主要差異將在於營運支出，我們預計 25 財年將減少約 4,000 萬美元。我們與合作夥伴有著非常良好的合作。因此，我們預計營運方面基本上不會發生任何其他變化。因此，這主要是由於將資產和人員轉移給我們的合作夥伴而導致營運支出的減少。

The next question is from Krish Sankar with TD Cowen.

下一個問題來自 Krish Sankar 和 TD Cowen。

I had a question for Dave or Gianluca, a 2-part HAMR question. Dave, you mentioned you might ship a few hundred K units of HAMR this quarter. Kind of curious how to think about the HAMR unit shipment in the second half of this year or exiting 2024, how many units do you think you can ship? And just as a follow-up to that is, you mentioned about the gross margin exceeding the range longer term. I'm kind of curious as HAMR drives become more mainstream, say a couple of years from now, do you think your gross margin can be over 40%?

我有一個問題要問 Dave 或 Gianluca，這是一個由 2 部分組成的 HAMR 問題。 Dave，您提到您本季可能會出貨數百 K 單位的 HAMR。我有點好奇如何看待今年下半年或 2024 年結束時的 HAMR 單位出貨量，您認為可以出貨多少單位？正如您所提到的，毛利率超出了長期範圍。我有點好奇，隨著HAMR硬碟變得更主流，比如說幾年後，你認為你的毛利率可以超過40%嗎？

Yes. Thanks. We will continue to ship aggressively and go through the HAMR transition largely because we think it provides better value to our customers, higher and higher capacity points. And then ultimately, over time, it allows us to get components out of the chain, which saves cost against these platforms as well. I mean we're in an interesting position right now because say, 6 months ago, I think supply was ahead of demand and now supply is lagging demand. Some of that's just lead times on the product. So balancing all these things is very important, I think, in today's market, but we're still going to drive very aggressively through the transition. And we do believe that this is the way to get more margin into our business as well.

是的。謝謝。我們將繼續積極發貨並經歷 HAMR 過渡，主要是因為我們認為它為我們的客戶提供了更好的價值，以及越來越高的容量點。最終，隨著時間的推移，它允許我們將組件從鏈條中取出，這也節省了這些平台的成本。我的意思是，我們現在處於一個有趣的位置，因為比如說，六個月前，我認為供應領先於需求，而現在供應落後於需求。其中一些只是產品的交貨時間。因此，我認為，在當今的市場中，平衡所有這些事情非常重要，但我們仍將非常積極地推動轉型。我們確實相信，這也是為我們的業務獲得更多利潤的方法。

So I won't go into specific numbers as we qualify customers because right now, customers are seeking any kind of product that we can actually make, which -- and we may actually turn -- or turn over to some products that are already qualified versus prior plans we were driving. But I view that as a good thing because now, we actually have demand that's helping our factories, that's getting us focused. And so it's a -- I'm very optimistic about that. But just so we all are very clear, we're going to continue to drive the transitions very aggressively.

因此，當我們對客戶進行資格認定時，我不會透露具體數字，因為現在，客戶正在尋求我們實際上可以生產的任何類型的產品，而我們實際上可能會轉向或轉向一些已經合格的產品與我們之前製定的計劃相比。但我認為這是一件好事，因為現在我們實際上有幫助我們工廠的需求，這讓我們集中精力。所以我對此非常樂觀。但我們都非常清楚，我們將繼續非常積極地推動轉型。

On the gross margin trajectory, we said before, we expect to be at 30% or higher during this calendar year. And as you know, that is only a part of the ramp of HAMR. So for sure, when we move higher volume of HAMR, we expect to be in the high part of the range or even higher. We will see at a point -- in that point of time. But, yes, even without HAMR, we can be into the 30% to 33% range that we discussed is our target in the past.

關於毛利率軌跡，我們之前說過，我們預計今年的毛利率將達到 30% 或更高。如您所知，這只是 HAMR 斜坡的一部分。因此，可以肯定的是，當我們增加 HAMR 的交易量時，我們預計會處於該範圍的較高部分，甚至更高。我們會在某個時刻看到──在那一刻。但是，是的，即使沒有 HAMR，我們也可以達到我們過去討論的目標 30% 到 33% 的範圍。

The next question is from Steven Fox with Fox Advisors.

下一個問題來自福克斯顧問公司的史蒂文·福克斯。

Dave, I was wondering if there's any more color you can provide on your experience with talking to customers about build-to-order plans for, say, the next 12, 24 months. I mean, it sounds to me like you have accelerating demand on the cloud side, legacy and VIA sort of recovering on a seasonal type of basis. And then you have channel partners that are going to need inventory in order to help even things out. So how are you balancing all that? What is going to be different do you think that we should consider if we're looking out over the next few quarters with how you're going to be doing business? Thanks.

戴夫，我想知道您在與客戶討論未來 12 個月、24 個月的按單生產計劃方面的經驗是否可以提供更多資訊。我的意思是，在我看來，您對雲端、傳統和威盛的需求正在加速成長，並且威盛在季節性基礎上有所恢復。然後，通路合作夥伴需要庫存來幫助解決問題。那麼你要如何平衡這一切呢？如果我們在接下來的幾季關注你們的業務開展方式，您認為我們應該考慮哪些不同？謝謝。

Yes. Steven, I think it's a really good question because I think it goes back to what we've just been through. Living through this downturn, one of the key lessons was just the sheer amount of supply chain inertia that we had can create problems when the demand stops so quickly. And so we need to be a lot more diligent. I mean we can't have volume shipments, exabyte volume shipments that -- where the revenue's far underrunning the exabytes. And I think part of what we can control is control the builds and make sure we don't overbuild and make sure we're not trying to push stuff into the market, especially when the market's soft.

是的。史蒂文，我認為這是一個非常好的問題，因為我認為這可以追溯到我們剛剛經歷過的事情。經歷這次經濟低迷，我們得到的一個重要教訓是，當需求如此迅速停止時，我們所擁有的巨大供應鏈慣性可能會產生問題。所以我們需要更加勤奮。我的意思是，我們無法實現大批量發貨，即艾字節批量發貨——收入遠低於艾字節。我認為我們可以控制的部分內容是控制構建，確保我們不會過度構建，並確保我們不會試圖將產品推向市場，尤其是在市場疲軟的情況下。

Now that it's a little bit stronger, exactly to your point, which is a nice trend in the last 90 days that we're really encouraged about, then we can go back and say, okay, which ones will we actually build more for? And we're having those conversations with the customers. But again, we want to come back to predictability is the overarching objective here. And we'll also reward customers who give us that predictability with the best financial outcome for themselves as well. So having those negotiations is giving us pretty good visibility into what's coming over the next 3 or 4 quarters, and I'm happy with that.

現在它有點強了，正如你的觀點，這是過去90 天的一個很好的趨勢，我們對此感到非常鼓舞，然後我們可以回過頭來說，好吧，我們實際上會為哪些構建更多？我們正在與客戶進行這些對話。但我們想再次強調可預測性是這裡的首要目標。我們還將獎勵那些為我們提供可預測性的客戶，並為自己帶來最好的財務成果。因此，進行這些談判使我們能夠很好地了解未來 3 或 4 個季度的情況，我對此感到滿意。

The next question is from Timothy Arcuri with UBS Securities.

下一個問題來自瑞銀證券 (UBS Securities) 的 Timothy Arcuri。

I wanted to ask about this million HAMR unit that you had guided for the first half of the year. Mostly, it was going to be [30 key] drives. So you're going to make up, it sounds like 700,000, 800,000 drives with other stuff beyond HAMR. But I had kind of 2 questions. One, you probably have to rework some of the HAMR [WIP]. So that would be a negative, but it did seem like HAMR was going to be dilutive initially. So is that all kind of a net positive [today] for June quarter gross margin? And then because you gave us this -- sorry, go ahead.

我想問一下您上半年指導的這個百萬HAMR部隊的狀況。大多數情況下，它將是 [30 個按鍵] 驅動器。所以你要用 HAMR 以外的其他東西來彌補，聽起來像是 700,000、800,000 個驅動器。但我有兩個問題。第一，您可能需要重新設計一些 HAMR [WIP]。所以這將是一個負面影響，但 HAMR 最初似乎確實會被稀釋。那麼，這對六月季度的毛利率來說是淨正值嗎？然後因為你給了我們這個——抱歉，繼續吧。

No, you go ahead and finish your question, Tim.

不，你繼續完成你的問題，提姆。

Yes. So I just was going to ask, since you gave us that million unit number, I'm curious if you can give us some indication of what you think units will be in the back half of the year for HAMR. Thanks.

是的。所以我只是想問，既然你給了我們百萬單位的數字，我很好奇你是否能給我們一些你認為的 HAMR 單位在今年下半年的指示。謝謝。

Yes. There's 2 aspects of this. One is the completion of the timing of the qualification, and then the other is the total amount of material. And remember, we said we have other sources for the particular component, so we don't have to segregate the entire [WIP]. There's parts of the WIP that are still moving, right? But I think the timing of the qualification is really the issue there. We're not going to get into how many we're forecasting for the back half of the year because a lot of that will depend on specifics of demand from customers and when the rest of the qualifications time out.

是的。這有兩個面向。一是資質完成時間，二是材料總量。請記住，我們說過我們有特定元件的其他來源，因此我們不必隔離整個 [WIP]。 WIP 的某些部分仍在移動，對吧？但我認為資格賽的時間安排確實是問題所在。我們不會透露今年下半年的預測數量，因為這很大程度上取決於客戶需求的具體情況以及其餘資格何時到期。

But from my perspective, once we get that material segregated yet, is there some rework or scrap to do? Yes, but I think we can take that. And keep in mind that all of these products are common with one another, so we have homes for other products -- other materials if we want to. It's -- it can be pivoted from the 24, 28 family up to the Mozaic family as well. So I think we have a lot of flexibility there.

但從我的角度來看，一旦我們將這些材料隔離開來，是否需要進行一些返工或報廢？是的，但我認為我們可以接受。請記住，所有這些產品都是彼此通用的，因此我們有其他產品的存放處 - 如果我們願意的話，也可以存放其他材料。它也可以從 24、28 系列轉向 Mozaic 系列。所以我認為我們在那裡有很大的靈活性。

And just a clarification, Tim, on the HAMR gross margin. We never said that HAMR was dilutive to gross margin. We said that HAMR gross margin will, for sure, improve in the second part of the ramp. Now the first part of the ramp has, of course, a little bit more cost, but we never said it was dilutive to our overall gross margin.

提姆，我想澄清一下 HAMR 的毛利率。我們從未說過 HAMR 會稀釋毛利率。我們說過，HAMR 的毛利率肯定會在第二階段有所改善。現在，第一部分的成本當然會增加一些，但我們從未說過這會稀釋我們的整體毛利率。

The next question is from Karl Ackerman with BNP Paribas.

下一個問題來自法國巴黎銀行的卡爾‧阿克曼。

I wanted to get a better understanding of the demand impact of both the ramp of 28-terabyte SMR and the simultaneous ramp of 32-terabyte HAMR, which might be 34, 35-terabyte SMR. I'm curious whether you see that as perhaps somewhat cannibalistic to your early deployments of HAMR. If you could just discuss that, that would be great.

我想更了解 28 TB SMR 的成長和同時成長的 32 TB HAMR（可能是 34、35 TB SMR）對需求的影響。我很好奇您是否認為這對您早期部署的 HAMR 來說可能有點自相殘殺。如果您能討論一下，那就太好了。

Yes. Thanks, Karl. Different customers have different requirements and different feature sets, how they use the drive, and so I don't think there's a one-to-one swap. I mean the good news for us is we have a lot of commonality, and so we can react fairly quickly as to whether more people want one family or the other. But we're working with a lot of people on, as I said in the prepared remarks, on 2 different qualifications at the same time. And as far as I'm concerned, the qualifications are going well. We're staying very communicative with the customers. And against a demand environment that's improving, I think that's why they should value our predictability even more as we show them what we have and what we're willing to build.

是的。謝謝，卡爾。不同的客戶有不同的要求和不同的功能集，他們如何使用驅動器，所以我認為不存在一對一的交換。我的意思是，對我們來說，好消息是我們有很多共同點，因此我們可以相當快地做出反應，以確定更多的人想要一個家庭還是另一個家庭。但正如我在準備好的發言中所說，我們正在與許多人同時就兩種不同的資格進行合作。就我而言，資格賽進展順利。我們與客戶保持密切溝通。在需求環境不斷改善的情況下，我認為這就是為什麼當我們向他們展示我們擁有的產品以及我們願意打造的產品時，他們應該更加重視我們的可預測性。

The next question is from Ananda Baruah with Loop Capital.

下一個問題來自 Loop Capital 的 Ananda Baruah。

I guess just one on gross margin. In the past, when you had dynamics similar to the demand ramp, price increases. And then Dave, supply-demand tightness, there's typically been a quarter or so where you can get pretty pronounced step-ups in gross margin. And just wondering if there is anything that will preclude this cycle at some point from having the same type of dynamics. And then just to sort of sneak one in there real quick. Gianluca, any updated metrics? You've given metrics in the past about revenue to gross margin kind of scale ratios. Do those still hold, the ones that you've been giving? Or does the pricing dynamics here change at all?

我想只有一個是毛利率。過去，當出現類似需求成長的動態時，價格就會上漲。然後，戴夫，供需緊張，通常有一個季度左右的時間，毛利率可以得到相當明顯的提升。只是想知道是否有什麼東西會在某個時刻阻止這個週期具有相同類型的動態。然後只是為了快速地潛入其中。 Gianluca，有更新的指標嗎？您過去已經給出了有關收入與毛利率的規模比率的指標。那些你一直給予的那些還保留著嗎？或者這裡的定價動態是否改變了？

Thanks, Ananda. I'll let Gianluca answer his part. But I guess, what I'd say at a very high level is that we're going to continue to push aggressively through product transitions because we think that's the best way to continue to add value to our customers and margin for ourselves. Some of the margin uplift that we're seeing right now is obviously because of the factories being -- they're filling up. They're not completely full yet, but they're filling up, and that's a good sign.

謝謝，阿難。我會讓吉安盧卡回答他的問題。但我想，我想說的是，我們將繼續積極推動產品轉型，因為我們認為這是繼續為客戶增加價值和為自己增加利潤的最佳方式。我們現在看到的一些利潤率上升顯然是因為工廠正在裝滿。它們還沒有完全滿，但已經滿了，這是一個好兆頭。

Yes. On the trajectory, especially on the gross margin, but the business in general, every cycle is a bit different. We are saying today, we see a good recovery from the cloud part of the business. Of course, it's not all the business increasing at the same way, so we still need to wait for other segments to start having the same kind of recovery before we can see a strong upside. But know we are very positive now. We said earlier, we see that gross margin improving quarter-over-quarter and to be in the target range during this calendar year. I would say every quarter, we have a little bit better pricing, a little bit better cost. So the opportunity for us to achieve that target range at even lower level of revenue is for sure a reality.

是的。在軌跡上，特別是在毛利率上，但總體而言，每個週期都有點不同。我們今天要說的是，我們看到雲端部分業務的良好復甦。當然，並不是所有業務都以同樣的方式成長，因此我們仍然需要等待其他細分市場開始出現相同的復甦，才能看到強勁的上漲空間。但要知道我們現在非常積極。我們之前說過，我們看到毛利率環比改善，並在本日曆年處於目標範圍內。我想說每季我們的定價和成本都會好一點。因此，我們以更低的收入水平實現這一目標範圍的機會肯定是現實的。

The next question is from Mehdi Hosseini with SIG.

下一個問題來自 SIG 的 Mehdi Hosseini。

Yes. A couple of follow-ups for me. I was under the impression that for most of your components, you have gone in-source. So what is it with HAMR that has made you rely on external vendors and how you're switching these vendors? And one follow-up for Dave. What is your most updated exabyte -- overall exabyte growth looking forward as the cycle gains momentum?

是的。我有幾個後續行動。我的印像是，你們的大部分元件都已經採用了內源方式。那麼，HAMR 是什麼讓您依賴外部供應商以及您如何更換這些供應商？還有戴夫的後續行動。隨著週期的勢頭增強，您最新更新的艾字節——預期的整體艾字節增長是多少？

Yes. Thanks, Mehdi. For our critical components, we are largely in-sourced. But again, this is a mechanical piece part that is not something that we make ourselves. It's something that we source from the outside, and it's very common in all product families. So just that -- for that clarification. And Gianluca, you want to take the second part?

是的。謝謝，邁赫迪。對於我們的關鍵組件，我們大部分是內購的。但同樣，這是一個機械零件，不是我們自己製造的。這是我們從外部採購的東西，在所有產品系列中都很常見。所以只是為了澄清這一點。 Gianluca，你想拍第二部嗎？

I was just thinking about the components. There are many components that we source externally, actually. Now the [heavy] media, of course, we produce internally. Those are the most critical components. But there are many other components that we get from external suppliers. And on that particular component, we have multiple sources, so we can switch from one to the other.

我只是在考慮組件。實際上，我們有很多元件是從外部採購的。當然，現在的[重]媒體是我們內部製作的。這些是最關鍵的組件。但我們還有許多其他組件是從外部供應商獲得的。在該特定元件上，我們有多個來源，因此我們可以從一個來源切換到另一個來源。

Yes. And then on exabyte growth, Mehdi, I think it's a good question because we had come out of negative, and we know that, that's not real. The negative was the first time in the history of the industry that we'd ever seen something like that. So I do expect things to start expanding. And we get into this discussion about whether we like 35% or 25%, we back down to 25%. Maybe near term, we're going to see something a little bit more expansive. It's still early in this demand cycle, but we're fairly encouraged by what we're seeing.

是的。然後，關於艾字節增長，Mehdi，我認為這是一個很好的問題，因為我們已經擺脫了負面影響，而且我們知道，這不是真實的。這是該行業歷史上我們第一次看到這樣的負面情況。所以我確實預計事情會開始擴大。我們開始討論我們喜歡 35% 還是 25%，最後我們回到了 25%。也許在不久的將來，我們會看到一些更廣泛的東西。目前仍處於需求週期的早期階段，但我們對所看到的情況感到相當鼓舞。

And I think also, our ability to go answer that with these new products, which provide more exabytes, may actually drive even more exabyte expansion. The key point right now is we want to make sure that we reestablish the financial predictability of our industry because the industry has been so damaged of late. I think as we grow back, we have to make sure we're not giving this stuff away, that we're doing it in a way that's very measured. And the only way we can do that right now and it's the only way that makes any financial sense too is to make sure we control supply very tightly.

我還認為，我們有能力透過這些提供更多艾字節的新產品來回答這個問題，實際上可能會推動更多艾字節的擴展。現在的關鍵是我們希望確保重建行業的財務可預測性，因為該行業最近受到了嚴重損害。我認為，隨著我們的成長，我們必須確保我們不會放棄這些東西，我們會以非常謹慎的方式來做這件事。我們現在能做到這一點的唯一方法，也是唯一具有財務意義的方法，就是確保我們非常嚴格地控制供應。

The next question is from C.J. Muse with Cantor Fitzgerald.

下一個問題是 C.J. Muse 和 Cantor Fitzgerald 提出的。

I know you talked about the qualification just being a 3-month delay in qualifications elsewhere on track. But if things do push out a bit, how do you, I guess, expect to maybe impact your planned utilization elsewhere? Your thoughts around pricing and mix? And what kind of impact could that have? I would think positively on gross margin in the back half. Would love your thoughts there.

我知道你談到資格賽只是在其他地方的資格賽延遲了 3 個月。但如果事情確實有點推遲，我猜你預計會如何影響你在其他地方的計劃利用率？您對定價和組合的想法？這會產生什麼樣的影響？我對下半年的毛利率持正面態度。會喜歡你的想法。

Yes. Thanks, C.J. And the interesting thing is as demand comes back, we have much more flexibility than we did, say, 6 months or a year ago. We -- in this build-to-order process, we've basically told people what we're going to build, and then they've said, okay, I understand the economics. As more demand comes, we can now have a new discussion with them and say, which product is qualified, which one do you want to hurry up and qualify. And so I think we have a lot of options there. I mean, we've been focused on operating profit and free cash flow. And we're finally back in double-digits on operating profit. Our ROIC is finally turning back up. So all of this is just reinforcing the strategy to keep running the business for long-term predictability, this build-to-order thing is working, and I think we're going to stay on it.

是的。謝謝，C.J. 有趣的是，隨著需求的回升，我們比 6 個月或一年前擁有更大的靈活性。在這個按訂單生產的過程中，我們基本上告訴人們我們要生產什麼，然後他們說，好吧，我了解經濟學。隨著更多的需求到來，我們現在可以和他們進行新的討論，說哪個產品是合格的，你要抓緊哪個合格。所以我認為我們有很多選擇。我的意思是，我們一直在關注營業利潤和自由現金流。我們的營業利潤終於回到了兩位數。我們的投資報酬率終於恢復了。因此，所有這一切都只是加強了繼續經營業務以實現長期可預測性的策略，這種按訂單生產的方式正在發揮作用，我認為我們將繼續下去。

Next question is from Toshiya Hari with Goldman Sachs.

下一個問題來自高盛的 Toshiya Hari。

Dave, in your prepared remarks, you talked a little bit about AI. I realize you don't have perfect visibility into what's driving customer demand. But I'm curious, based on your conversations with your customers, to what extent is AI having impact on your business? I know it's nascent, but if you can comment on that, that would be great. And then related to that, I was hoping you could opine on your ability and the broader HDD industry's ability to compete with flash and AI. I think based on recent conversations, some of the concerns that investors seem to have is that hard disk drive, you're very cost competitive. But when you take into consideration things like read-write capability, space and power consumption, it might be a little bit more competitive vis-a-vis what you're shipping today. So curious if you can opine on that.

戴夫，在你準備好的發言中，你談到了一些關於人工智慧的問題。我意識到您對推動客戶需求的因素沒有完全的了解。但我很好奇，根據您與客戶的對話，人工智慧對您的業務有多大影響？我知道它還處於萌芽狀態，但如果你能對此發表評論，那就太好了。與此相關的是，我希望您能夠對您的能力以及更廣泛的硬碟產業與快閃記憶體和人工智慧競爭的能力發表意見。我認為根據最近的談話，投資者似乎擔心的一些問題是硬碟，你的成本非常有競爭力。但是，當您考慮讀寫能力、空間和功耗等因素時，它可能比您今天發貨的產品更具競爭力。很好奇你是否能對此發表意見。

Thanks, Toshiya. So yes, AI is a big question, and I know it's confusing for a lot of people because there's so much marketing around it. I do think that cloud service providers, even the enterprise OEM customers that we have, they have many different types of applications. And some of those application spaces continue to grow. Some of those applications are being dramatically transformed right now by the new compute capabilities that people have and so on.

謝謝，俊也。所以，是的，人工智慧是一個大問題，我知道它讓很多人感到困惑，因為圍繞它的行銷太多了。我確實認為雲端服務供應商，甚至我們擁有的企業 OEM 客戶，他們都有許多不同類型的應用程式。其中一些應用空間仍在持續成長。其中一些應用程式現在正在因人們擁有的新運算能力等而發生巨大轉變。

And what I would say in general is that there are applications that are definitely, I'll call it, cold storage, colder storage or big data applications that are coming. Video applications, for example, that we are very encouraged by. And we are seeing purchase orders now from cloud service providers and so on that actually say AI on them, which wasn't true 6 months ago. But given all the creativity in this application space, I'm really excited about it. I think there's a lot of opportunity there for us.

一般來說，我想說的是，有些應用程式肯定會出現，我稱之為冷儲存、更冷的儲存或大數據應用程式。例如，我們非常鼓勵的視訊應用程式。我們現在看到來自雲端服務提供者等的採購訂單實際上都提到了人工智慧，但這在 6 個月前並非如此。但考慮到這個應用程式領域的所有創造力，我對此感到非常興奮。我認為我們有很多機會。

Relative to our ability to kind of pivot for where we need to go, I think we're going to keep driving mass capacity, for sure. We are working a little bit on performance in our tiers. And then flash, I'm going to say, I usually don't opine on this very much, but I don't have very much bad to say about flash. I think it's a great technology. I think it's going to be critical for flash to execute in their layers to enable their applications. Some of those applications may have nothing to do with mass capacity. But this idea of mass capacity being in conflict with flash, I don't think is right. I don't think that's the way architects think about it in data centers. I don't think that's -- that economically, it makes sense. And even when you get into things like power and space, I think hard drives are going to stay very, very competitive on the workloads that they offer.

相對於我們轉向我們需要去的地方的能力，我認為我們肯定會繼續推動大規模產能。我們正在努力提高我們各層級的性能。然後是閃存，我要說的是，我通常對此沒有太多看法，但我對閃存沒有太多不好的說法。我認為這是一項偉大的技術。我認為閃存在其層中執行以啟用其應用程式至關重要。其中一些應用可能與質量容量無關。但這種大容量與快閃記憶體相衝突的想法，我認為是不對的。我不認為這就是架構師在資料中心中思考的方式。我認為這在經濟上沒有意義。即使涉及電源和空間等問題，我認為硬碟在其提供的工作負載方面也將保持非常非常有競爭力。

So from my perspective, the new application space exploding is a good, good thing and it should benefit a lot of hardware providers over time. We've all been through a pretty rough patch of late, and we've got to make sure that we watch our supply into it because we can't tolerate another dramatic downturn like we just saw. So we've got to be very careful.

因此，從我的角度來看，新的應用程式空間爆炸式增長是一件好事，隨著時間的推移，它應該會讓許多硬體供應商受益。最近我們都經歷了一段相當艱難的時期，我們必須確保我們的供應量，因為我們不能容忍另一場像我們剛剛看到的那樣的急劇下滑。所以我們必須非常小心。

The next question is from Thomas O'Malley with Barclays.

下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的托馬斯·奧馬利。

I just want to understand the ramp with your largest customer in HAMR. You talked about this subcomponent and you are replacing that subcomponent. Is that -- you're saying multiple vendors are getting qualified at the same time. So if you look at what a step back traditionally takes in terms of having a customer qualify a product, is that several weeks? Is that several months? I guess, what gives you the confidence that, with this step back, that you'll be able to not only qualify but then ship these drives within the quarter?

我只想了解你們在 HAMR 的最大客戶的情況。您談到了這個子組件，並且您正在替換該子組件。您是說多個供應商同時獲得資格。因此，如果您看看傳統上讓客戶對產品進行資格認證需要多長時間，則需要幾週時間嗎？那是幾個月嗎？我想，是什麼讓您有信心，透過這一退後，您不僅能夠獲得資格，而且能夠在本季度內交付這些驅動器？

Yes. So Tom, we already said that there's multiple sources for this. And so we segregate the parts that were affected, and then we push the other ones on their merry way. We've already repopulated those test beds that are running well, so that's why we have confidence.

是的。湯姆，我們已經說過，這有多個來源。因此，我們將受影響的部分隔離開來，然後推動其他部分繼續正常發展。我們已經重新填充了那些運作良好的測試床，所以這就是我們有信心的原因。

Okay. So in the future, you will just not use that supplier anymore? Or you would just rely more heavily on the others?

好的。那麼將來您將不再使用該供應商嗎？或者你會更依賴其他人？

No, no, no. I wouldn't say it like that. I mean we'll go work with everybody. Everybody's got a tough challenge, they have issues, and they'll go work with them. Yes.

不不不。我不會那樣說。我的意思是我們會和大家一起去工作。每個人都面臨著嚴峻的挑戰，他們都有問題，但他們會與他們一起工作。是的。

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。我想將會議轉交管理層發表閉幕詞。

Thanks, Gary. As you heard today, Seagate is well positioned to drive improved financial performance in a recovering demand environment through ongoing operating discipline, keen focus on supply-demand balance, which is a big deal, and ramping our latest CMR, SMR and HAMR-based products. I'm confident in our product strategy, I think it's serving us well, and in our HAMR technology, which positions Seagate well to capitalize on long-term demand for cost-effective mass capacity storage.

謝謝，加里。正如您今天所聽到的，希捷處於有利位置，可以透過持續的營運紀律、對供需平衡（這一點很重要）的高度關注以及我們最新的基於CMR、SMR 和HAMR 的產品的發展，在需求復甦的環境中推動財務績效的改善。我對我們的產品策略充滿信心，我認為它對我們很有幫助，對我們的 HAMR 技術也充滿信心，這使希捷能夠很好地利用對具有成本效益的大容量儲存的長期需求。

I'd just close by thanking our stakeholders for their ongoing support. Thanks for joining us today, and we look forward to speaking with you during the quarter.

最後，我要感謝我們的利害關係人一直以來的支持。感謝您今天加入我們，我們期待在本季與您交談。

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。您現在可以斷開連線。