威騰電子 (WDC) 2026 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and welcome to the Western Digital first quarter fiscal 2026 earnings call. (Operator Instructions) Please note that this event is being recorded.

大家好，歡迎參加西部數據公司2026財年第一季財報電話會議。（操作說明）請注意，本次活動正在錄影。

I would now like to turn the conference over to Ambrish Srivastava, VP of Investor Relations. Thank you, and over to you.

現在我將把會議交給投資者關係副總裁安布里什·斯里瓦斯塔瓦先生。謝謝，接下來就交給你了。

Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Joining me today are Irving Tan, Western Digital's Chief Executive Officer; and Kris Sennesael, Western Digital's Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝大家，大家下午好。今天與我一同出席的有西部數據執行長 Irving Tan 和西部數據財務長 Kris Sennesael。

Before we begin, please note that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements based on management's current assumptions and expectations which are subject to various risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements include expectations for our product portfolio, our business plans and performance, ongoing market trends and our future financial results.

在開始之前，請注意，今天的討論將包含基於管理層當前假設和預期的前瞻性陳述，這些陳述受到各種風險和不確定性的影響。這些前瞻性聲明包括對我們的產品組合、業務計劃和業績、持續的市場趨勢以及未來財務表現的預期。

We assume no obligation to update these statements. Please refer to our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and our other filings with the SEC for more information on the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations.

我們不承擔更新這些聲明的義務。有關可能導致實際結果與預期結果存在重大差異的風險和不確定性的更多信息，請參閱我們最新的 10-K 表格年度報告以及我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的其他文件。

In our prepared remarks, our comments will be related to non-GAAP results on the continuing operations basis, unless stated otherwise. Reconciliations between the non-GAAP and comparable GAAP financial measures are included in the press release and other materials that are being posted in the Investor Relations section of our website at investor.wdc.com.

除非另有說明，我們準備的發言稿將與持續經營基礎上的非GAAP績效相關。非GAAP財務指標與可比較GAAP財務指標之間的調節表包含在新聞稿和其他資料中，這些資料將發佈在我們網站 investor.wdc.com 的投資者關係部分。

Lastly, I want to note that when we refer to we, us, our, or similar terms, we are referring only to Western Digital as a company and not speaking on behalf of the industry.

最後，我想指出，當我們提到「我們」、「我們的」或類似字眼時，我們僅指西部數據公司，而不是代表整個產業發言。

With that, I will now turn the call over to Irving for introductory remarks. Irving?

接下來，我會把電話交給歐文，請他作開場白。歐文？

Thanks, Ambrish. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Across industries, adoption of AI is expanding, fueling innovation, reshaping business models and ushering in a new wave of digital transformation marked by higher productivity and richer user experiences.

謝謝你，安布里什。各位下午好，感謝各位今天參加我們的節目。人工智慧在各行各業的應用正在不斷擴大，推動創新，重塑商業模式，並掀起新一輪數位轉型浪潮，其特點是更高的生產力和更豐富的用戶體驗。

As agentic AI begins to scale at several industries and multimodal LLM become the norm, we are seeing a steady acceleration of AI use cases and applications, driving robust ongoing demand for the data infrastructure that enables this growth.

隨著智慧人工智慧在多個產業開始規模化應用，多模態學習與管理成為常態，我們看到人工智慧用例和應用正在穩步加速發展，從而推動了對支援這種成長的資料基礎設施的持續強勁需求。

AI is not only a consumer of data, but a prolific creator of data as well, both synthetic and real world. It is reshaping how data is being generated, scaled, stored and monetized. Data is the fuel that powers AI and it is HDDs that provide the most reliable, scalable and cost-effective data storage solution, playing a vital role in storing the ever-increasing zettabytes of data created by the AI-driven economy.

人工智慧不僅是數據的消費者，也是數據的多產創造者，既包括合成數據，也包括現實世界的數據。它正在重塑數據的生成、擴展、儲存和貨幣化方式。數據是人工智慧的燃料，而硬碟提供了最可靠、可擴展和最具成本效益的數據儲存解決方案，在儲存人工智慧驅動的經濟所產生的不斷增長的澤字節數據方面發揮著至關重要的作用。

To cite an example of how AI is transforming various industries, one of the world's leading medical institutions is using an AI workflow that analyzes over 7 billion images derived from 14 million deidentified patient records. This process enables predictive analysis, improves the speed and accuracy of diagnostics to deliver enhanced patient outcomes. Such applications are generating massive volumes of new data that is being stored.

舉例來說，人工智慧正在改變各個行業，世界領先的醫療機構之一正在使用人工智慧工作流程來分析從 1,400 萬份去識別化患者記錄中提取的 70 億多張影像。該過程能夠進行預測分析，提高診斷的速度和準確性，進而改善患者的治療效果。此類應用會產生大量的新資料並被儲存。

At Western Digital, we are also leveraging AI internally to enhance productivity and accelerate innovation across our organization. For example, in engineering, AI is helping to modernize our firmware, enabling us to deliver new features quickly to our customers and in a more cost-effective manner. In our factories, we are seeing productivity gains of up to 10% in select AI use cases.

在西部數據，我們也正在內部利用人工智慧來提高生產力並加速整個組織的創新。例如，在工程領域，人工智慧正在幫助我們實現韌體現代化，使我們能夠以更具成本效益的方式快速向客戶交付新功能。在我們的工廠中，我們發現某些人工智慧應用案例的生產力提高了 10%。

AI tools are improving yield, detecting defect patterns through intelligent diagnostics and optimizing our test processes. In parallel, they are also being used to up-level our technician capabilities, enabling them to perform higher skilled tasks, accelerating issue diagnostics and troubleshooting.

人工智慧工具正在提高產量，透過智慧診斷檢測缺陷模式，並優化我們的測試流程。同時，它們也被用來提升我們技術人員的能力，使他們能夠執行更高技能的任務，加快問題診斷和故障排除速度。

Across corporate functions, AI is streamlining workflows, making the organization more efficient every day. The rapid adoption of AI and data-driven workloads at hyperscalers is driving robust demand for our products and solutions.

在企業各個職能部門，人工智慧正在簡化工作流程，使組織每天都更有效率。超大規模資料中心對人工智慧和資料驅動型工作負載的快速採用，正在推動對我們產品和解決方案的強勁需求。

To fulfill the demand of more exabytes of storage, our customers are increasingly transitioning to higher capacity drives. Shipments of our latest ePMR products offering up to 26 terabytes CMR and 32-terabyte UltraSMR capacities continue to grow at an impressive pace, surpassing 2.2 million units in the September quarter.

為了滿足對更多EB級儲存的需求，我們的客戶正越來越多地轉向更大容量的硬碟。我們最新推出的 ePMR 產品（容量高達 26 TB CMR 和 32 TB UltraSMR）的出貨量繼續以驚人的速度增長，在 9 月份的季度中超過了 220 萬台。

Our ability to reliably scale our ePMR technology and transition customers to higher capacity drives is one of several ways we support the growing demand for exabytes. We are also investing in head wafer and media technology and capacity to drive areal density higher. In addition, we're increasing our manufacturing throughput by leveraging automation, AI tools and enhancing our test capabilities.

我們能夠可靠地擴展 ePMR 技術並幫助客戶過渡到更高容量的硬碟，這是我們支援日益增長的 EB 級需求的幾種方式之一。我們也正在投資磁頭晶圓和介質技術及產能，以提高表面密度。此外，我們正在利用自動化、人工智慧工具和增強測試能力來提高生產效率。

We recently inaugurated our system integration and test lab, 25,600 square foot state-of-the-art facility in Rochester, Minnesota, to enable rapid adoption of our next-generation high-capacity drives. This lab provides dedicated test capabilities that mirror our hyperscale customers' production environments, enabling collaborative integrated product development with our customers, accelerating qualification cycles.

我們最近在明尼蘇達州羅徹斯特市啟用了佔地 25,600 平方英尺的先進系統整合和測試實驗室，以便快速採用我們的下一代高容量硬碟。該實驗室提供專門的測試能力，模擬我們超大規模客戶的生產環境，從而能夠與客戶進行協作式整合產品開發，並加快認證週期。

Thereby ultimately shortening time to market for our products and time to value for our customers. The AI-driven growth in data storage is accelerating demand for higher capacity drives, which comes with greater manufacturing complexity and longer production lead times.

從而最終縮短我們產品的上市時間和客戶獲得價值的時間。人工智慧驅動的資料儲存成長正在加速對更高容量硬碟的需求，但這同時也帶來了更高的製造複雜性和更長的生產週期。

As a result, our customers are providing greater visibility into their long-term needs, which in turn strengthens our partnership and helps us to support their future growth requirements. Our top seven customers have now provided purchase orders extending throughout the first half of calendar year 2026.

因此，我們的客戶能夠更清晰地展現他們的長期需求，這反過來又加強了我們的合作關係，並幫助我們支持他們未來的成長需求。我們前七大客戶已提交採購訂單，訂單期限涵蓋 2026 年上半年。

And five of them have provided purchase orders covering all of calendar year 2026. I'm also pleased to share that one of our largest hyperscale customers has signed an agreement covering all of calendar year 2027.

其中五家公司已提交涵蓋 2026 年全年的採購訂單。我也很高興地宣布，我們最大的超大規模客戶之一已簽署協議，涵蓋整個 2027 年。

These commitments underscore both essential role of our products in the AI data economy and our customers' strong confidence in our product road map, including the transition to HAMR technology. We are making rapid progress in our HAMR development and are on track to start HAMR qualification for one hyperscale customer in the first half of calendar year 2026. And to expand the qualification process to up to three hyperscale customers through calendar year 2026.

這些承諾既凸顯了我們的產品在人工智慧資料經濟中的關鍵作用，也體現了客戶對我們產品路線圖（包括向 HAMR 技術過渡）的堅定信心。我們在 HAMR 開發方面取得了快速進展，並預計在 2026 年上半年開始為超大規模客戶進行 HAMR 認證。並將資格認證流程擴大到 2026 年最多的三個超大規模客戶。

The key focus of our qualification efforts is to ensure the highest level of reliability, quality and scalable performance so that once qualification is complete, our customers have strong confidence in our HAMR products and can rapidly deploy them at scale. This positions us well for the ramp-up of volume production in the first half of calendar year 2027.

我們認證工作的重點是確保最高的可靠性、品質和可擴展效能，以便認證完成後，我們的客戶對我們的 HAMR 產品充滿信心，並能迅速大規模部署。這為我們在 2027 年上半年實現大量生產奠定了良好的基礎。

In parallel, we will begin qualification of our next-generation ePMR drives in the first quarter of calendar year 2026, building on our industry-leading ePMR technology, a trusted, scalable and proven solution that our customers are very familiar with and that has been used reliably in their data centers. Together, our ePMR and HAMR technologies will enable high-capacity drives that meet the growing demand for exabytes from cloud and AI workloads.

同時，我們將於 2026 年第一季開始對下一代 ePMR 硬碟進行認證，該硬碟基於我們行業領先的 ePMR 技術，這是一種值得信賴、可擴展且經過驗證的解決方案，我們的客戶非常熟悉，並且已在他們的資料中心中可靠地使用。我們的 ePMR 和 HAMR 技術相結合，將能夠製造出滿足雲端和 AI 工作負載對 EB 級資料日益增長的需求的大容量硬碟。

Our platforms business is also sharing in the upward momentum, driven by overall growth of on-prem and cloud storage, including AI and social media applications. We will continue to invest in this business as more opportunities unfold and continue to scale up.

受本地儲存和雲端儲存（包括人工智慧和社交媒體應用）整體成長的推動，我們的平台業務也受益於這一上升勢頭。我們將繼續投資這項業務，隨著更多機會的出現，我們將持續擴大規模。

Innovation lies at the heart of what we do. We continue to expand our proven ePMR road map even further while bringing new technologies, including HAMR to market. In parallel, our engineering teams are focused on improving data, throughput speed and bandwidth of our drives as well as power efficiency. Major progress is being made on all fronts. And we will keep all stakeholders, including customers and investors updated on any new developments.

創新是我們工作的核心。我們將繼續進一步擴展我們成熟的 ePMR 路線圖，同時將包括 HAMR 在內的新技術推向市場。同時，我們的工程團隊正致力於提高硬碟的資料傳輸速度、吞吐量和頻寬以及電源效率。各方面都取得了重大進展。我們將及時向包括客戶和投資者在內的所有利害關係人通報任何新的進展。

Let me now turn to our quarterly results and capital allocation updates. For the fiscal first quarter, Western Digital delivered revenue of $2.8 billion, non-GAAP gross margin of 43.9% and non-GAAP earnings per share of $1.78. Free cash flow for the quarter was $599 million. This quarter, yet again underscores our business' strong free cash flow generation.

現在讓我來介紹一下我們的季度業績和資本配置更新情況。西部數據公司第一財季營收達 28 億美元，非 GAAP 毛利率為 43.9%，非 GAAP 每股收益為 1.78 美元。該季度自由現金流為 5.99 億美元。本季再次凸顯了我們業務強勁的自由現金流產生能力。

We remain confident in the long-term strength of the business and our balance sheet. As a result, this quarter, we significantly increased our share repurchases, and I'm pleased to announce that we will increase our dividend per share by 25% to $0.125 per share. Kris will discuss our capital allocation in more detail later.

我們對公司的長期實力和資產負債表依然充滿信心。因此，本季我們大幅增加了股票回購，我很高興地宣布，我們將把每股股息提高 25%，至每股 0.125 美元。Kris稍後會更詳細地討論我們的資本配置。

Looking ahead, we're excited about the opportunities AI continues to unlock for our business even as we navigate macroeconomic uncertainties. For the fiscal second quarter of 2026, we expect continued revenue growth driven by data center demand and improved profitability led by the adoption of higher capacity drives.

展望未來，儘管宏觀經濟形勢不明朗，但我們仍然對人工智慧為我們的業務帶來的持續機會感到興奮。我們預計，在資料中心需求和高容量硬碟普及帶來的獲利能力提高的推動下，2026 財年第二季營收將持續成長。

Let me now turn the call over to Kris, who will discuss our fiscal first quarter results and the outlook for the second fiscal quarter in more detail.

現在我將把電話交給克里斯，他將更詳細地討論我們第一財季的表現以及第二財季的展望。

Thank you, Irving, and good afternoon, everyone. As a strategically focused hard disk drive company, Western Digital plays a critical role in enabling the data-driven AI economy. The company is executing well, fulfilling customers' rapidly growing exabyte demand while delivering strong financial performance.

謝謝你，歐文，大家下午好。作為一家策略性專注於硬碟的公司，西部數據在推動數據驅動的人工智慧經濟方面發揮著至關重要的作用。本公司營運良好，在滿足客戶快速成長的EB級數據需求的同時，也取得了強勁的財務表現。

During the first quarter of fiscal 2026, revenue was $2.8 billion, up 27% year-over-year, driven by strong demand for our nearline drives. Earnings per share was $1.78. Both revenue and EPS were above the high end of the guidance range. We delivered 204 exabytes to our customers, up 23% year-over-year. This includes 2.2 million drives of our latest generation ePMR with capacity points up to 26 terabytes CMR and 32 terabyte UltraSMR.

2026 財年第一季度，公司營收為 28 億美元，年增 27%，這主要得益於市場對我們近線驅動器的強勁需求。每股收益為 1.78 美元。營收和每股盈餘均高於預期範圍的上限。我們向客戶交付了 204 EB 的數據，年增 23%。其中包括 220 萬塊我們最新一代 ePMR 硬碟，容量最高可達 26 TB CMR 和 32 TB UltraSMR。

Cloud represented 89% of total revenue at $2.5 billion, up 31% year-over-year, driven by strong demand for our higher capacity nearline product portfolio. Client represented 5% of total revenue at $146 million, up 5% year-over-year. Consumer represented 6% of revenue at $162 million, down 1% year-over-year. Gross margin for the fiscal first quarter was 43.9%.

雲端運算業務佔總營收的 89%，達到 25 億美元，年成長 31%，這主要得益於市場對我們更高容量的近線產品組合的強勁需求。客戶貢獻了總收入的 5%，即 1.46 億美元，年增 5%。消費者業務佔總營收的 6%，為 1.62 億美元，年減 1%。第一財季毛利率為 43.9%。

Gross margin improved 660 basis points year-over-year and 260 basis points sequentially. The improved gross margin performance reflects continuous mix shift towards higher capacity drives and tight cost control in our manufacturing sites and throughout the supply chain.

毛利率年增 660 個基點，季增 260 個基點。毛利率的提高反映了我們生產基地和整個供應鏈中不斷向高產能驅動型產品組合轉變以及嚴格的成本控制。

Operating expenses were $381 million, slightly exceeding our guidance range driven by higher variable compensation on stronger-than-expected results. Operating income was $856 million, translating into an operating margin of 30.4%. Interest and other expenses were $44 million, and taking into account an effective tax rate of 17% and a diluted share count of 369 million shares, EPS was $1.78.

營運支出為 3.81 億美元，略高於我們的預期範圍，原因是業績優於預期，導致可變薪酬增加。營業收入為 8.56 億美元，營業利益率為 30.4%。利息和其他費用為 4,400 萬美元，考慮到 17% 的有效稅率和 3.69 億股的稀釋股份數，每股收益為 1.78 美元。

Turning to the balance sheet. At the end of our fiscal first quarter, cash and cash equivalents were $2 billion, and total liquidity was $3.3 billion, including the undrawn revolver capacity. Debt outstanding was $4.7 billion, translating into a net debt position of $2.7 billion and a net leverage EBITDA ratio of just below one turn.

接下來看一下資產負債表。截至我們第一財季末，現金及現金等價物為 20 億美元，總流動性為 33 億美元，其中包括未提取的循環信貸額度。未償負債為 47 億美元，淨負債為 27 億美元，淨槓桿 EBITDA 比率略低於 1 倍。

Operating cash flow for the fiscal first quarter was $672 million, and capital expenditures were $73 million, resulting in strong free cash flow generation of $599 million for the quarter despite the fact that we made our final repatriation tax payment during the quarter of $331 million.

第一財季的營運現金流為 6.72 億美元，資本支出為 7,300 萬美元，儘管我們在本季度支付了 3.31 億美元的最後一筆匯回稅款，但本季度仍產生了 5.99 億美元的強勁自由現金流。

During the quarter, we increased our share repurchases to approximately 6.4 million shares of common stock for a total of $553 million and made $39 million of dividend payments. Since the launch of our capital return program in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025, we have returned a total of $785 million to our shareholders by way of share repurchases and dividend payments.

本季度，我們將股票回購額增加至約 640 萬股普通股，總計 5.53 億美元，並支付了 3,900 萬美元的股息。自 2025 財年第四季啟動資本回報計畫以來，我們已透過股票回購和股利支付的方式，向股東返還了總計 7.85 億美元。

Also, today we announced that our Board has approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.125 per share of the company's common stock, payable on December 18, 2025, to shareholders of record as of December 4, 2025. This marks a 25% increase over the dividend announced in April and speaks to the long-term confidence we have in our business.

此外，我們今天宣布，董事會已批准向公司普通股股東派發每股 0.125 美元的季度現金股息，將於 2025 年 12 月 18 日支付給截至 2025 年 12 月 4 日登記在冊的股東。這比 4 月宣布的股息增加了 25%，反映了我們對公司業務的長期信心。

I will now turn to the outlook for the second quarter of fiscal 2026. This outlook includes our current estimate of all anticipated or known tariff-related impacts on our business in this period. We anticipate revenue to be $2.9 billion, plus or minus $100 million.

接下來，我將展望2026財年第二季的前景。該展望包括我們目前對本時期內所有預期或已知的關稅相關因素對我們業務的影響的估計。我們預計營收為 29 億美元，上下浮動 1 億美元。

At midpoint, this reflects a growth of approximately 20% year-over-year. Gross margin is expected to be between 44% and 45%. We expect operating expenses to decrease on a sequential basis to a range of $365 million to $375 million. Interest and other expenses are anticipated to be approximately $50 million.

年中數據顯示，年增約 20%。預計毛利率將在 44% 至 45% 之間。我們預計營運費用將環比下降至 3.65 億美元至 3.75 億美元之間。預計利息和其他費用約為 5000 萬美元。

The tax rate is expected to be approximately 17%. As a result, we expect diluted earnings per share to be $1.88 plus or minus $0.15 based on a non-GAAP diluted share count of approximately 375 million shares.

預計稅率約為17%。因此，我們預計，根據約 3.75 億股的非 GAAP 稀釋股份數量計算，稀釋後每股收益為 1.88 美元，上下浮動 0.15 美元。

In closing, this was another strong quarter for Western Digital with results exceeding expectations. The guidance for next quarter reflects continued tailwinds in our business as we remain focused on strong free cash flow generation and demonstrating our commitment to creating long-term value for our shareholders.

總而言之，西部數據本季業績表現強勁，超乎預期。下一季的業績指引反映了我們業務持續向好，我們將繼續專注於產生強勁的自由現金流，並展現我們為股東創造長期價值的承諾。

With that, I will now turn the call back to Irving.

接下來，我會把電話轉回給歐文。

Thanks, Kris. Our leading technology road map, combined with our scalable, reliable and strong product portfolio is highly recognized by our customers. This is demonstrated by the longer duration agreements we've signed with our major customers.

謝謝你，克里斯。我們領先的技術路線圖，加上我們可擴展、可靠且強大的產品組合，受到了客戶的高度認可。我們與主要客戶簽訂的長期協議就證明了這一點。

Western Digital's consistent execution, combined with powerful AI-driven tailwinds, position us to deliver strong results and robust cash flow over the long term. As data creation continues to accelerate, our innovation and operational and fiscal discipline enables us to capture these opportunities efficiently and drive sustained shareholder value.

西部數據公司持續穩定的執行力，加上強大的人工智慧驅動優勢，使我們能夠在長期內取得強勁的業績和穩健的現金流。隨著數據創造速度的不斷加快，我們的創新能力、營運紀律和財務紀律使我們能夠有效率地抓住這些機遇，並為股東創造持續的價值。

With that, let's now begin the Q&A. Ambrish?

那麼，現在讓我們開始問答環節。安布里什？

Thanks, Irving. Operator, you can now open the line to questions, please. To ensure that we hear from as many analysts as possible, please ask one question at a time. After we respond, we will give you an opportunity to ask one follow-up question. Operator?

謝謝你，歐文。接線員，現在可以開始接受提問了。為了確保我們能聽到盡可能多的分析師的意見，請一次只提一個問題。我們回覆後，會給您提問的機會。操作員？

(Operator Instructions)

（操作說明）

CJ Muse, Cantor Fitzgerald.

CJ Muse，坎托·菲茨杰拉德。

Thank you for taking the question storage demand is off the charts. And part of the great narrative for the HDD industry is an oligopoly acting very rational with supply.

感謝您提出這個問題，儲存需求已經爆表了。硬碟產業的一個重要特點是，寡占企業在供應方面表現得非常理性。

On the other hand, we're seeing SSD adoption rise for certain AI workloads given the tight overall storage supply. So my question, how do you plan to meet rising customer demand while keeping supply or demand in balance?

另一方面，鑑於整體儲存供應緊張，我們看到 SSD 在某些 AI 工作負載中的應用正在增加。所以我的問題是，您打算如何滿足不斷成長的客戶需求，同時維持供需平衡？

Hey, CJ thank you for the question. I hope all is well. Our focus is really to -- on a couple of things. One, ensuring that we continue to quickly and reliably deliver increasing higher capacity drives. A good example is the current PMR product that we have that's -- where we shipped over 2.2 million units last quarter that equates to roughly about 70 exabytes of data in total. And that product is expected to ship well north of 3 million units this quarter. So it's a real demonstration of our ability to deliver exabytes to customers at scale.

嘿，CJ，謝謝你的提問。希望一切都好。我們的重點其實在於兩件事。第一，確保我們能夠繼續快速、可靠地交付容量越來越大的硬碟。一個很好的例子就是我們目前的 PMR 產品——上個季度我們出貨了超過 220 萬台，相當於總共大約 70 艾字節的數據。預計該產品本季出貨量將遠超過 300 萬台。所以這真正展現了我們大規模向客戶交付艾字節資料的能力。

The second thing is that, as we've highlighted in the past, our unique innovation around UltraSMR. This quarter, our UltraSMR and CMR mix is roughly 50-50. As you recall, UltraSMR gives us a 20% capacity uplift over CMR and a 10% capacity uplift over standard SMR.

第二點是，正如我們過去所強調的，我們圍繞 UltraSMR 進行了獨特的創新。本季度，我們的 UltraSMR 和 CMR 的比例約為 50-50。如你所記得，UltraSMR 比 CMR 產能提高了 20%，比標準 SMR 產能提高了 10%。

Those capabilities, plus the fact that we'll be launching our next-generation ePMR drive very soon. It starts qualification in Q1 of calendar '26, and we anticipate it will go into ramp in the second half of calendar year '26, will give customers an ability to take advantage of higher capacity drives.

這些能力，再加上我們即將推出下一代 ePMR 驅動器的事實。該產品將於 2026 年第一季開始進行資格認證，我們預計它將在 2026 年下半年投入量產，這將使客戶能夠利用更高容量的驅動器。

Second, we've been working very closely with customers to mix them up in terms of capacity points as well. So if you go back a year, the average capacity for our top seven hyperscale customers has increased 21% year-on-year. So that's a very strong testimony to how capacity points in our drives have scaled up.

其次，我們也與客戶密切合作，在容量點方面進行調整。因此，如果回顧一年前，我們前七大超大規模客戶的平均容量年增了 21%。這有力地證明了我們硬碟的容量點是如何擴展的。

We also continue to invest into areal density technology improvements and capacity as well as we stated from the very onset of us spinning out as the stand-alone hard drive company. Those investments will continue to be able to deliver greater areal density improvements without the need for any additional unit capacity.

正如我們當初分拆成為獨立硬碟公司時所宣布的那樣，我們也將繼續投資於面密度技術改進和產能提升。這些投資將繼續帶來更大的面積密度提升，而無需增加任何單位容量。

We're also looking at increasing our manufacturing throughput by leveraging more automation, AI tools that we highlighted in the script and also enhancing our test capabilities. This increase in productivity of our existing footprint will enable us to deliver more exabytes to our customers as well.

我們也在考慮透過利用我們在腳本中重點提到的更多自動化和人工智慧工具來提高我們的生產效率，並增強我們的測試能力。現有業務規模的生產力提升，也將使我們能夠向客戶提供更多艾字節的數據。

And last but not least, as we highlighted in the script as well, the investments that we've made into our test labs to accelerate qualification is a key part of our ability to bring higher capacity drives faster to customers and therefore, fulfill the need for exabytes as well. And maybe just let me end my comments by being very clear about one statement, we are not adding any unit capacity to our portfolio right now.

最後但同樣重要的是，正如我們在腳本中所強調的那樣，我們對測試實驗室的投資，以加快認證速度，是我們能夠更快地向客戶提供更高容量硬碟的關鍵部分，從而也能滿足客戶對EB級數據的需求。最後，我想明確地說明一點，我們目前不會在我們的產品組合中增加任何單位產能。

CJ do you have a follow-up?

CJ，你還有後續問題嗎？

Yes, Ambrish. I guess on gross margins, great, 660 bps uplift year-on-year. But obviously, we're always looking forward. So how should we think about incremental gross margins from here? Is there a framework that we should use?

是的，安布里什。毛利率方面，我覺得很棒，比去年同期成長了 660 個基點。但很顯然，我們始終都在向前看。那麼，我們該如何看待接下來的增量毛利率呢？我們該採用哪一種框架？

Yes, CJ, so I'm really pleased with the gross margin in Q1, delivering 43.9% gross margin, which, as you pointed out, was up 660 basis points year-over-year and 260 basis points on a sequential basis. Even when you look at the incremental gross margin in the quarter on a sequential basis was approximately 75%.

是的，CJ，我對第一季的毛利率非常滿意，達到了 43.9%，正如你所指出的，這比去年同期增長了 660 個基點，比上一季度增長了 260 個基點。即使以季度環比來看，毛利率增量也約為 75%。

As you've seen in the prepared remarks, we've also guided for Q2 fiscal '26 with further gross margin improvement in the range of 44% to 45%. So that gives you to 44.5% at the midpoint, which gives you on or about 65% of incremental gross margin on a sequential basis.

正如您在準備好的演講稿中所看到的，我們也預計 2026 財年第二季的毛利率將進一步提高到 44% 至 45%。這樣一來，中間值就達到了 44.5%，這意味著環比毛利率增長了約 65%。

Looking forward, obviously, as a company, we're going to continue to focus on further gross margin improvements. And I'm comfortable to have incremental gross margins on a sequential basis of approximately 50%, and that will drive some further gross margin improvement.

展望未來，很顯然，作為一家公司，我們將繼續專注於進一步提高毛利率。我樂見毛利率環比增長約 50%，這將推動毛利率進一步提高。

Thank you, CJ.

謝謝你，CJ。

Aaron Rakers, Wells Fargo.

Aaron Rakers，富國銀行。

Yeah, thanks, for taking the question and congrats on the quarter. I think in the prepared remarks, you alluded to even further extending out UltraSMR. It's good to hear kind of a reaffirmation of the HAMR road map.

是的，謝謝你回答這個問題，也恭喜你本季取得好成績。我認為在事先準備好的演講稿中，您暗示了要進一步拓展 UltraSMR 技術。很高興聽到HAMR路線圖得到了某種程度的重申。

But I'm curious if you could unpack that a little bit more if there's further room above and beyond the 36 terabytes that you see for UltraSMR, is there a 12-platter stack? I know one of your smaller competitors recently made some announcements around that. I'm just curious of how far before we can get to HAMR if there's further potential upward expansion on average capacities?

但我很好奇，您能否再詳細解釋一下，如果 UltraSMR 除了您看到的 36 TB 容量之外還有更大的空間，是否存在 12 碟片堆疊？我知道你們的一家規模較小的競爭對手最近發布了一些相關公告。我只是好奇，如果平均產能還有進一步提升的空間，那麼我們距離達到HAMR還有多遠？

Yeah, Aaron. So as we've highlighted in the prepared remarks, we've pulled in the qualification process of our next-generation ePMR product to the first quarter of calendar year 2026. Initially, in our road map, it was in the first half of calendar year 2026.

是的，亞倫。正如我們在準備好的演講稿中所強調的那樣，我們將下一代 ePMR 產品的資格認證流程提前至 2026 年第一季。最初，在我們的路線圖中，這是在 2026 年上半年實現的。

In the current road map, the capacity points are scheduled to be at 28 terabytes CMR and 36 terabytes UltraSMR, but I'll say we have very innovative and creative engineers. So they will obviously continue to push the capacity points, and we'll see where we get to by time we actually get to production ramp and qualification completeness.

在目前的路線圖中，容量點計畫為 28 TB CMR 和 36 TB UltraSMR，但我必須說，我們擁有非常有創新精神和創造力的工程師。所以他們顯然會繼續提高產能，到真正實現量產爬坡和資質認證完成時，我們再看看能達到什麼水準。

On HAMR, as you mentioned, we also pulled forward the qualification process by half year. As we've highlighted in our road map in the past, the plan was to start HAMR qualification in the second half of calendar year 2026. We've now pulled that in into the first half of calendar year 2026 with one customer and we look to expand that to up to three customers by the end of the calendar year.

關於HAMR，如您所提到的，我們也把資格認證過程提前了半年。正如我們過去在路線圖中所強調的那樣，該計劃於 2026 年下半年開始 HAMR 資格認證。我們已將該專案推進到 2026 年上半年，目前已有一位客戶，我們希望到年底能將客戶數量擴大到三位。

And that's really a testimony to the comments I've made last quarter, where I said I was very pleased with the progress that we've been making in terms of areal density improvements, in terms of our capability to build a highly scalable product.

這確實印證了我上個季度發表的評論，當時我說，我對我們在提高面積密度和構建高度可擴展產品的能力方面取得的進展感到非常滿意。

Our focus now is ensuring that we are able to deliver products with the right reliability and right yields that are similar in sort of capacity and capability to our ePMR portfolio, which is what our customers expect of us.

我們現在的重點是確保能夠交付具有正確可靠性和正確產量的產品，這些產品在容量和性能方面與我們的 ePMR 產品組合類似，這是我們的客戶對我們的期望。

Do you have a follow-up?

您還有後續問題嗎？

Yeah, I do. I guess thinking about kind of sticking with C.J.'s comments, we're always kind of looking forward. Historically, there's been some attributes of seasonality to think about into the March quarter, but it sounds to me like you're pretty much stocked out from a capacity perspective through calendar '26. So curious if you have any thoughts on how we should maybe think about seasonality or whether or not that even applies for the March quarter at this point?

是的，我有。我想，就像 C.J. 所說，我們總是向前看。從歷史上看，3 月的季度存在一些季節性因素需要考慮，但就我看來，從產能角度來看，你們的庫存已經基本上排滿了，直到 2026 年。所以，我很好奇您對於我們應該如何看待季節性因素有什麼看法，或者說，在目前這個階段，季節性因素是否還適用於三月份的季度？

Yeah, I mean, C.J. -- we guide one quarter at a time, but I would say the business has structurally changed. Close to 90% -- 89% of our business is data center right now. So there isn't really any seasonality associated to it. It's really driven by the deployment schedule of our large hyperscale customers.

是的，我的意思是，C.J.——我們每次只關註一個季度，但我認為業務結構已經改變了。目前我們近 90% 到 89% 的業務都與資料中心有關。所以它實際上沒有任何季節性。這主要取決於我們大型超大規模客戶的部署計畫。

If there's any seasonality, it really applies to the 10% to 15% of our business that we have in the channel and our client and consumer portfolio. But I think your comment is a fair one. There really isn't, by and large, any material seasonality to our business going forward thank you.

如果說有任何季節性因素，那也主要適用於我們通路業務以及客戶和消費者組合中佔 10% 到 15% 的業務。但我認為你的評論很中肯。總的來說，我們未來的業務基本上不會有任何明顯的季節性波動，謝謝。

Erik Woodring, Morgan Stanley.

艾瑞克‧伍德林，摩根士丹利。

Hey guys, thank you very much for taking my questions and congrats on the results.Irving, your February Analyst Day feels like it was in a completely different time in the market, even though it was only eight months ago. At the time, you talked about kind of 16% to 23% exabyte growth and something like 7% annual price per terabyte deflation.

大家好，非常感謝你們回答我的問題，也恭喜你們取得好成績。歐文，雖然僅僅過了八個月，但你二月的分析師日感覺就像是市場完全不同的時期。當時，你們談到了大約 16% 到 23% 的艾字節成長，以及大約 7% 的每太字節年價格通貨緊縮。

It's probably safe to say that the market has inflected since then. And just -- so I'd love to just get your updated thoughts on how we should be, maybe thinking about the growth of these two metrics over the next few years. Just any update you could share? Thank you very much.

可以肯定地說，市場自那時以來已經發生了變化。所以，我很想聽聽您對我們未來幾年應該如何發展這兩個指標的最新想法。請問有什麼最新消息可以分享嗎？非常感謝。

Yeah, thanks for the question, Erik. I think we gave a base case of 15 exabyte -- 15% CAGR exabyte growth with an AI uplift case of 23%. We're definitely seeing exabyte growth trend more towards that 23% growth rate, especially as we get into these longer-term agreements.

是的，謝謝你的提問，艾瑞克。我認為我們給出的基本情況是 15 艾字節——年複合成長率為 15%，人工智慧帶來的成長幅度為 23%。我們確實看到 EB 級數據的成長趨勢更接近 23% 的成長率，尤其是在我們簽訂這些長期協議之後。

In fact, firm POs, we have pretty much throughout all of calendar year '26, and we have agreements now for '27 and discussions with customers for durations even longer than that. We are clearly seeing demand trending more towards that 23% range. And then on the cost side, I think, the sort of mid- to high single-digit cost down is probably still a safe assumption.

事實上，我們在整個 2026 年幾乎都有確定的採購訂單，而且我們現在已經簽訂了 2027 年的協議，並與客戶就更長的期限進行了討論。我們明顯看到需求正朝著 23% 的範圍發展。至於成本方面，我認為，成本下降個位數中高段位可能仍然是一個比較穩健的假設。

Do you have a follow-up, Erik?

艾瑞克，你還有後續問題嗎？

Super. I do. Irving, I'd just also love to get your perspective on how short do you think demand is relative -- or excuse me, supply is relative to demand today? And just based on kind of your new product introduction timeline, when do you think that supply can maybe more materially expand such that your EV growth really reflects more so demand than supply?

極好的。我願意。歐文，我還想聽聽你對目前需求相對於需求而言有多短的看法——或者抱歉，供應相對於需求而言有多短？根據你們的新產品推出時間表，您認為何時供應才能真正大幅擴張，從而使電動車的成長更反映需求而非供應？

Yeah, thanks for the question, Erik. Look, I think calendar year 2026, the supply-demand balance is going to be -- continue to be very supply constrained with the ramp-up of the new capabilities. Both on the ePMR portoflio and HAMR, we expect to see more exabytes probably coming on stream in the second half of calendar year '27.

是的，謝謝你的提問，艾瑞克。我認為，到 2026 年，隨著新能力的提升，供需平衡將繼續處於非常緊張的供應狀態。無論是 ePMR 投資組合還是 HAMR，我們預計在 2027 年下半年可能會有更多艾字節的數據投入使用。

Thanks so much. Good luck thank you.

非常感謝。祝你好運，謝謝。

Amit Daryanani, Evercore.

Amit Daryanani，Evercore。

Thanks a lot. I guess maybe to start with, Irving, it sounds like you're pulling in, at least the start of the HAMR qualification a bit earlier than expected. Can you just talk about how long does it normally take for a product to go from qualification to deployment and do you see HAMR being roughly in line to that? Or could it be done quicker?

多謝。我想首先，歐文，聽起來你至少比預期更早開始了HAMR資格認證。您能否談談產品從認證到部署通常需要多長時間，以及您認為 HAMR 的部署時間是否大致符合這個規律？或是有沒有更快的方法？

Yeah, thanks for the question, Amit. Yes, we are pulling in our HAMR qualification by half year, as I mentioned, from the second half of 2016 into the first half of '26. If we use our ePMR portfolio as a proxy, we typically are able to go from start of qualification to completion and ramp in roughly two to three quarters.

是的，謝謝你的提問，阿米特。是的，正如我之前提到的，我們將把 HAMR 資格認證提前半年，從 2016 年下半年推遲到 2026 年上半年。如果我們以我們的 ePMR 投資組合作為參考，我們通常能夠在大約兩到三個季度內完成資格認證和產能提升。

That's the sort of target that we're working to. And that's why we talked about the ramp in the first half of calendar year '27 for our HAMR products. But again, I reiterate our focus is really on ensuring that we not only qualify a product and can ramp it, but we're delivering a reliable product to our customers as well.

這就是我們努力的目標。所以，我們才談到了 2027 年上半年 HAMR 產品的產能爬坡計畫。但我再次重申，我們的重點在於確保我們不僅能夠驗證產品並擴大生產規模，還能提供客戶可靠的產品。

The last thing we want to do is qualify product, ramp it up, and then we have production level challenges with our customers. So that's what our focus is on. But in the meantime, we serve our next generation of ePMR that we are starting qualification in calendar Q1 of '26. That we anticipate to qualify in 2 quarters and ramp very quickly thereafter as per the current generation of ePMR that we've delivered as well.

我們最不希望看到的情況是，產品經過品質檢驗、量產後，卻在生產層面遇到顧客方面的問題。所以這就是我們關注的重點。但同時，我們正在為下一代 ePMR 提供服務，我們將在 2026 年第一季開始對其進行資格認證。我們預計在兩個季度內獲得資格，並隨後迅速擴大規模，就像我們目前交付的 ePMR 一樣。

Do you have a follow-up, Amit.

阿米特，你還有後續問題嗎？

I do you folks talked about leveraging AI internally. Can you just talk about what sort of productivity savings you think Western Digital can realize as you deploy AI internally? And does that sort of imply that as revenues keep growing, even as you keep OpEx flat in the $370 million, $375 million range. I'd love to just understand what does AI implementation internally mean? What does that mean from a productivity or savings basis for the company?

你們之前討論過在內部利用人工智慧。您能否談談您認為西部數據在內部部署人工智慧後可以實現怎樣的生產力提升？這是否意味著，即使營運支出維持在 3.7 億美元至 3.75 億美元之間，收入也會持續成長？我想了解人工智慧在內部的具體實現方式是什麼？從公司生產力或成本節約的角度來看，這意味著什麼？

Yeah, thanks for the question. We have a series of AI initiatives that spread across the enterprise, as we've highlighted in the prepared remarks as well. We are clearly seeing a benefit in our manufacturing operations with -- for AI use cases where we're seeing 10% productivity gain. It's really resulting in faster -- better yields and faster throughput of our products.

謝謝你的提問。正如我們在準備好的演講稿中所強調的那樣，我們在整個企業範圍內開展了一系列人工智慧計畫。我們顯然在製造營運中看到了人工智慧帶來的好處——在人工智慧應用案例中，我們看到生產力提高了 10%。這確實帶來了更快的生產速度——更高的產量和更快的產品週轉率。

We've also started to use AI in helping us rewrite some of our firmware. We are seeing gains in the space of about 20% productivity gains there. So -- but it's still early days. I think there's quite a -- still fair amount of experimentation and exploration, but we see tremendous opportunity in the sort of early use cases that we've been able to apply AI into the enterprise has yielded very positive results.

我們也開始利用人工智慧來幫助我們重寫一些韌體。我們看到該領域的生產力提高了約 20%。所以——但現在下結論還為時過早。我認為目前還有相當多的實驗和探索，但我們看到了巨大的機會，在早期的用例中，我們將人工智慧應用於企業，並取得了非常積極的成果。

Wamsi Mohan, Bank of America.

Wamsi Mohan，美國銀行。

Hi, this is Joseph Leeman on for Wamsi. How should we be thinking about the mix of a $2.2 million ePMR drive you shipped in the quarter? I'm not sure if I heard correctly, I think you said it was about 70 exabytes.

大家好，我是 Joseph Leeman，為您帶來 Wamsi 的報導。我們應該如何看待您本季交付的價值 220 萬美元的 ePMR 驅動器的組合？我不確定我是否聽清楚了，我想你說的是大約 70 艾字節。

So that's about 31 terabytes per drive. Does the mix change from quarter-to-quarter? Or is that just going to trend higher, especially once the next qualification comes through?

所以每個硬碟大約可以裝31TB的資料。每季的組合都會改變嗎？或者說，這種情況只會持續上漲，尤其是在下一輪資格賽結束後？

Yeah, so your numbers are right. So it was 2.2 million units sold and delivered, roughly 70 exabytes. This quarter, we are planning to ship over 3 million units. We don't anticipate the mix to really change that much. So it's pretty much, pretty consistent based on the customer profile that we have.

是的，所以你的數據是正確的。所以總共售出並交付了 220 萬台，大約 70 艾字節。本季度，我們計劃出貨超過300萬台。我們預期成分股不會發生太大變化。所以，根據我們掌握的客戶資料，結果基本上一致。

Did you have a follow-up?

您有後續跟進嗎？

No follow-up.

沒有後續行動。

Karl Ackerman, BNP Paribas.

卡爾‧阿克曼，法國巴黎銀行。

Yes, thank you. I was hoping you could discuss the breadth and stickiness of the announced price increase you disseminated in September. In particular, since much of your volume is on long-term agreements, are ASP improvements only to volume that is not on LTAs? So could you talk about that, that would be helpful.

是的，謝謝。我希望您能談談您在 9 月公佈的價格上漲的範圍和持續性。特別是，由於你們的大部分交易量都是長期協議，那麼平均售價的增加是否只針對非長期協議的交易量？您能談談這方面嗎？那將很有幫助。

Yeah, the letter that we sent out, Karl was predominantly to our channel customers. So it really affects predominantly our client and consumer portfolio and probably the lower end of our nearline capacity drives.

是的，卡爾，我們寄出的那封信主要是寄給我們的通路客戶。因此，它主要影響我們的客戶和消費者組合，也可能影響我們近線產能驅動的低端部分。

And that was -- that's really roughly only about 10% to 15% of our business. For all our hyperscale customers that are on some POs, LTAs, those are discrete commercial arrangements that we have with them that were not affected by that letter.

而這實際上只占我們業務的大約 10% 到 15%。對於我們所有簽訂了採購訂單 (PO) 和長期協議 (LTA) 的超大規模客戶而言，這些都是我們與他們之間的獨立商業安排，不受該信函的影響。

A follow-up for you, Karl.

卡爾，我有個後續問題想問你。

Excuse me, yes, if I may. I was -- it seems you have several months remaining to divest the remaining stake of SanDisk without incurring a tax penalty. Having said that, that investment in SanDisk is proving quite prescient.

打擾一下，是的，如果可以的話。我當時想說——看來你還有幾個月的時間來出售剩餘的 SanDisk 股份，而不會受到稅務處罰。也就是說，對 SanDisk 的這筆投資現在看來相當有遠見。

So could you perhaps update your thoughts on whether you intend to divest remaining stake and if you do -- and if you do, what your cash usage plans would be, whether to pay down debt, invest in head and media, buybacks, et cetera.

那麼，您能否更新一下您關於是否打算出售剩餘股份的想法？如果打算出售，您的現金使用計劃是什麼？是用於償還債務、投資頭部和媒體、股票回購等等？

Yeah, so during Q1 of fiscal '26, we did not monetize the remaining stake in SanDisk. And so we still have 7.5 million shares. It is our intention to monetize that stake prior to the expiration of the one-year anniversary of the separation, which is February 21.

是的，所以在 2026 財年第一季度，我們沒有將剩餘的 SanDisk 股份變現。所以我們現在還持有750萬股。我們打算在分拆一週年紀念日（即 2 月 21 日）之前將該股份變現。

Last time when we did the monetization, we did a debt for equity exchange and we haven't made up our mind how we are going to do it, but it could potentially be a similar transaction like we did the first time.

上次我們進行資產變現時，我們採用了債轉股的方式，我們還沒有決定這次要怎麼做，但這次可能會採用和第一次類似的交易方式。

Tom O'Malley, Barclays.

湯姆·奧馬利，巴克萊銀行。

Hey guys, thanks for taking my question and really nice results. I wanted to go into the long-term agreements. Irving, during the pandemic, we've been conditioned with kind of the DRAM and NAND suppliers to think about long-term agreements to something that is really good while things are moving up and to the right and kind of get torn up when things correct.

嘿，各位，謝謝你們回答我的問題，結果非常棒。我想簽訂長期協議。歐文，在疫情期間，我們已經被DRAM和NAND供應商的某些做法所影響，那就是在情況好轉時考慮簽訂長期協議，而當情況逆轉時，這些協議就會被撕毀。

Could you talk about the hooks that are in these agreements? Are these take-or-pay? How are they structured so that you feel confident around your ability to get value for the length of agreements that you're signing?

您能談談這些協議中的陷阱條款嗎？這些是自取還是自付？它們是如何建構的，才能讓你對在所簽署的協議期限內獲得價值充滿信心？

Sure. As I highlighted for five of our hyperscale customers, we actually have firm POs. So these are not LTAs. These are firm POs that have been placed on us. And for one of our largest hyperscale customers, we have an agreement for all of calendar year '27 with quite significant amount of commercial teeth in them.

當然。正如我之前向我們的五位超大規模客戶強調的那樣，我們實際上已經獲得了確切的採購訂單。所以這些不是長期協議。這些都是已經下達給我們的正式採購訂單。我們與最大的超大規模客戶之一簽訂了 2027 年全年的協議，其中包含相當多的商業條款。

So it's quite a different environment where I would say we are moving to a world where we have firm purchase orders. And even with longer-term agreements, there are appropriate commercial terms in there to protect ourselves in the case of any adjustments in their forecast.

所以這是一個截然不同的環境，我認為我們正在邁向一個擁有明確採購訂單的世界。即使是長期協議，其中也包含適當的商業條款，以保護我們自身免受預測調整的影響。

Do you have a follow-up, Tom?

湯姆，你還有後續問題嗎？

Yeah, I've been asking this question throughout earnings here. We heard from Lam about their impact to AI spend. I asked Seagate just on what they think on $100 billion of AI spend you would see from a benefit to their business. They kind of talked about a high single-digit percentage of CapEx traditionally has gone there. Do you guys have any different view or would you be more nuanced in the way you looked at that?

是的，我在財報季一直在問這個問題。我們從 Lam 那裡了解到了他們對人工智慧支出的影響。我問希捷公司，他們認為1000億美元的人工智慧支出會為他們的業務帶來哪些好處。他們大致談到，傳統上，資本支出中有相當高的個位數百分比都用於了那裡。你們有不同的看法嗎？或者你們會以更細緻入微的方式看待這個問題？

Yeah, I would say it's a bit more nuanced. We do track it. There's not a direct correlation to it. Obviously, the big spend in AI goes to GPUs and HBMs and power. But we've seen the percentage of CapEx on HDDs go from probably low single digits to trending more towards the 4% to 5% range.

是的，我覺得這其中的複雜程度要高一些。我們會追蹤記錄。兩者之間沒有直接關聯。顯然，人工智慧領域的大部分支出都花在了GPU、HBM和電力上。但我們看到，硬碟的資本支出百分比已經從個位數增加到 4% 到 5% 的水平。

Harlan Sur, JPMorgan.

哈蘭‧蘇爾，摩根大通。

Yeah, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question and congratulations on the strong execution. This year, it looks like nearline exabyte growth is trending more towards that sort of 35% range for the full year. You drove 36% year-over-year growth in June, 30% growth during the September quarter.

午安.感謝您回答我的問題，並祝賀您出色地完成了任務。今年，近線EB級數據的成長趨勢似乎更傾向於全年35%左右。你們在六月實現了 36% 的年成長，九月季度實現了 30% 的成長。

You've got an order book that extends out over the next, call it, 12 months, which is reflective, like you said, of your customers' exabyte demand profiles. Does the forward exabyte demand profile really suggest the normalization back to a 23% demand CAGR as you talked about, Irving, or is that more of a supply constraint-driven profile and demand is really trending above that range.

你們的訂單簿已經排到了接下來的 12 個月，正如你們所說，這反映了你們客戶的 EB 級需求情況。Irving，如你所說，遠期EB需求曲線真的顯示需求複合年增長率將恢復到23%嗎？還是說這比較是供應限制驅動的曲線，而實際需求趨勢高於該範圍？

My point is that given all this AI infrastructure investment in compute, networking, memory and storage, a 23% bit demand CAGR may not be too conservative, but wanted to get your views.

我的觀點是，考慮到人工智慧基礎設施在運算、網路、記憶體和儲存方面的所有投資，23% 的比特需求複合年增長率可能不太保守，但我想聽聽你們的看法。

Yeah, it's a good question. I would say it's still an evolving environment where the CAGRs continue to increase. As I mentioned, if you go back just less than 12 months ago, we thought mid-teens was the right number. We're now seeing trending to the 23% range.

是的，這是個好問題。我認為這是一個不斷發展的環境，複合年增長率持續上升。正如我之前提到的，如果回顧不到 12 個月前，我們認為青少年時期是一個合適的數字。我們現在看到的成長趨勢是向 23% 左右。

With potential as we fast forward to the '27, '28 time frame to increase even more, but that's something we're working through customers to ensure that we continue to drive areal density improvements to be able to support the CAGR growth that they're expecting going forward.

隨著我們快轉到 2027 年、2028 年，成長潛力還有可能更大，但我們正在與客戶合作，以確保我們繼續推動面積密度的提高，從而能夠支持他們未來預期的複合年增長率。

So it's something we're working very closely with them. I think the big difference is that in the environment that we're facing, we're getting much deeper insight into our customers' forward-looking exabyte requirements, a much closer partnership in terms of how they want to more rapidly adopt a higher capacity drives to be able to support their data storage requirements going forward.

所以我們正在與他們密切合作。我認為最大的區別在於，在我們所面臨的環境中，我們對客戶未來 EB 級儲存需求有了更深入的了解，在如何更快地採用更高容量的硬碟來支援其未來的資料儲存需求方面，我們與他們建立了更緊密的合作關係。

You have a follow-up, Harlan?

哈蘭，你還有後續問題嗎？

Yes, just a quick follow-up. So on the UltraSMR mix shift, good to see the team at a 50-50 mix. I don't think you guys answered this question, but given the order book, POs, LTAs, what is the mix trend on UltraSMR into 2026? And is this mix shift towards UltraSMR a rather important part of the driver of the stronger incremental gross margin flow through?

是的，還有一個後續問題。所以在 UltraSMR 混合班次中，很高興看到團隊的人員比例為 50-50。我認為你們還沒有回答這個問題，但是考慮到訂單簿、採購訂單、長期協議，UltraSMR 到 2026 年的組合趨勢是什麼？這種朝向 UltraSMR 方向的產品組合轉變，是否是推動毛利率成長的重要因素？

Yeah. we said we will see the mix of UltraSMR continue to increase over time, both as existing customers who have qualified UltraSMR, increased their UltraSMR footprint and we have another two customers that are going through UltraSMR qualification, as we speak right now. So we anticipate the take-up of UltraSMR to be an increasing part of our portfolio and continue to grow going forward.

是的。我們說過，隨著時間的推移，UltraSMR 的應用比例將會繼續增加，一方面是因為已經獲得 UltraSMR 認證的現有客戶擴大了 UltraSMR 的應用規模，另一方面，目前還有兩家客戶正在進行 UltraSMR 認證。因此，我們預期 UltraSMR 的應用將在我們的產品組合中佔據越來越大的比例，並在未來繼續成長。

Yes. and Harlan, just in general, the transition to higher capacity drives typically translate into a better gross margin profile.

是的。哈蘭，總的來說，向更高容量硬碟的過渡通常會帶來更好的毛利率。

And if I may add, Harlan, if I may add, this is Ambrish. Remember, UltraSMR is also translatable to our HAMR. So that's something to keep in mind as well.

哈蘭，如果沒記錯的話，這裡是安布里什。請記住，UltraSMR 也可轉化為我們的 HAMR。所以這也是需要記住的一點。

Thank you. Yeah, thank you.

謝謝。是啊，謝謝。

Asiya Merchant, Citigroup.

阿西婭·默錢特，花旗集團。

Great results here. If I can, just trying to unpack pretty strong beat relative to the guide. Given that you guys are in these long-term agreements and there is capacity constraints, just if you could help me unpack what drove the upside? Was it some pricing that came through? Was there some extra drive that you were able to push through. I don't know if it was a mix shift. If you could just help me unpack that, that would be great.

結果非常棒。如果可以的話，我只是想嘗試解讀相對於指南而言相當強勁的節奏。鑑於你們都簽訂了長期協議，而且產能有限，能否幫我分析一下是什麼因素推動了股價上漲？是不是有什麼價格方面的資訊公佈了？你是否還有一些額外的動力去克服？我不知道這是否是一次混合換班。如果你能幫我把那東西拆開看看，那就太好了。

Yeah, so as it relates to the upside in revenue was mostly driven by great execution by our manufacturing operations organization, pushing really hard on the supply side and improving yields, improving throughput and that created some upside on the supply side for us from a revenue point of view.

是的，收入成長主要得益於我們製造營運部門的出色執行，他們在供應方面投入了大量精力，提高了產量和效率，從收入的角度來看，這為我們帶來了供應方面的成長。

Also on the gross margin side, we had some upside there, mostly driven by a strong price environment where we have seen some modest low single-digits ASP per terabyte increases on a sequential and a year-over-year basis.

在毛利率方面，我們也獲得了一些成長空間，這主要得益於強勁的價格環境，我們看到每TB的平均售價環比和同比均出現了小幅個位數增長。

In addition to that, as I just indicated, the shift to higher capacity drives is definitely benefiting the gross margin profile. And our customers, they want more exabytes, and they know they can get more exabytes as they move faster to higher capacity drives.

除此之外，正如我剛才提到的，向更高容量硬碟的轉變無疑有利於毛利率的提升。我們的客戶想要更多的EB級儲存空間，他們也知道隨著他們更快升級到更高容量的硬碟，他們可以獲得更多的EB級儲存空間。

And so that was definitely beneficial. And in addition to that, again, the operations team is executing strong on driving down cost internally as well throughout the supply chain and a combination of all of that provided some upside in the Q1 financial results.

所以這絕對是有益的。此外，營運團隊在整個供應鏈內部也大力降低成本，所有這些因素結合起來，為第一季的財務表現帶來了一些成長。

Do you have a follow-up, Asiya?

阿西婭，你還有後續問題嗎？

Sure. And how should I think about then, given you guys have been running very well on your productivity initiatives, how should we think about that cost decline, especially given you have some calls that are ramping up faster than expected. How should we think about the cost declines here in the outer quarters.

當然。那麼，鑑於你們在提高生產力方面做得非常出色，我們該如何看待成本下降的問題呢？尤其是考慮到你們的一些業務成長速度比預期要快。我們該如何看待外圍地區成本的下降？

Yeah, again, the team continues to execute really well. Again, a combination of moving to higher capacity drives, which results in a lower cost per terabyte, but then also really working on productivity, yield improvements, test time reductions and driving operational efficiencies throughout the whole supply chain.

是的，球隊再次表現出色。同樣，這需要結合使用更高容量的硬碟，從而降低每TB的成本，同時還要真正致力於提高生產力、提高良率、縮短測試時間，並推動整個供應鏈的營運效率。

And so a combination of all of that is delivering the mid- to high single digits cost per terabyte reductions that we've indicated at the Analyst Day and that you have seen being executed in the last couple of quarters.

因此，所有這些因素結合起來，實現了我們在分析師日上指出的每TB成本降低個位數中高段位，並且在過去幾個季度中你們也看到了這一目標的實現。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Steven Fox, Fox Advisors.

史蒂文‧福克斯，福克斯顧問公司。

Hi, good afternoon. If I adjust your free cash flow for the tax payment, it's $930 million against the non-GAAP net income of $655 million. I'm assuming there's something unusually positive in that number. And I'm trying just to right size how we should think about free cash flows relative to net income going forward because that's just a tremendous performance in one quarter.

您好，下午好。如果我調整你的自由現金流以計入稅款，則為 9.3 億美元，而非 GAAP 淨收入為 6.55 億美元。我猜這個數字肯定有什麼特別正面的意義。我正在努力調整我們對未來自由現金流與淨收入之間關係的理解，因為這只是一個季度的驚人業績。

Yeah, so very pleased with the very strong free cash flow of $599 million. This is the second quarter in a row where the free cash flow margin is well above 20%. So great execution there. As it relates to Q1 of fiscal '26, we had a major reduction in our working capital. So in part driven by a reduction in our DSOs as the billings linearity during the quarter is very strong.

是的，我對5.99億美元的強勁自由現金流非常滿意。這是連續第二季自由現金流利潤率遠高於 20%。執行得非常出色。就 2026 財年第一季而言，我們的營運資金大幅減少。部分原因是由於本季帳單線性成長非常強勁，導致我們的應收帳款週轉天數 (DSO) 減少。

Days of inventory was slightly up, but also the days payable went up. And so great execution there by the team. Unfortunately, as you know, once you've obtained some major reductions in working capital, it's hard to repeat that each and every quarter. It's our goal to maintain it at this level, but you will not see the incremental benefit that we saw in Q1 of fiscal '26. Anyhow, I think going forward, I feel comfortable with a free cash flow margin in the plus 20% range.

存貨週轉天數略有增加，但應付帳款週轉天數也有所增加。所以團隊執行得非常出色。不幸的是，正如您所知，一旦您大幅減少了營運資金，就很難每個季度都重複這種情況。我們的目標是將其維持在這個水平，但您將不會看到我們在 2026 財年第一季看到的增量收益。總之，我認為展望未來，自由現金流利潤率在 20% 以上就足夠了。

Do you have a follow-up, Steve?

史蒂夫，你還有後續問題嗎？

Yeah, just real quick on the prior question. So it's maybe a chicken and egg question, but you said the customers are recognizing the need to mix up to get the exabytes they need. So is it the fact that they're pushing harder on you that you're then pushing harder on your development team to get these higher mix products out? Is that sort of the dynamic that's going on?

好的，關於之前的問題，我簡單回答。所以這可能是先有雞還是先有蛋的問題，但您說客戶已經意識到需要混合使用不同的儲存方案才能獲得他們所需的EB級資料。所以，是不是因為他們對你施加了更大的壓力，你才更努力地督促你的開發團隊推出這些高混合度的產品？實際情況就是這樣嗎？

I think it's a win-win scenario, Steve, that sort of both organizations are working very closely. Customers obviously want higher capacity drives to fulfill the exabyte demand. It's also beneficial for them from a TCO standpoint.

史蒂夫，我認為這對雙方都有利，因為這兩個組織正在密切合作。顯然，客戶需要更大容量的硬碟來滿足 EB 等級的需求。從整體擁有成本的角度來看，這對他們也是有利的。

Don't forget when you have high capacity drives, rack densities are much higher, and therefore, TCO is much better as well. And from our standpoint, it's a great way for us to better support the demand that our customers have on us and for us to be able to support the strong growth trajectory that we are seeing both in cloud and in AI going forward.

別忘了，使用大容量硬碟時，機架密度會更高，因此，總擁有成本也會更低。從我們的角度來看，這是我們更好地滿足客戶需求，並支持我們在雲端運算和人工智慧領域未來強勁成長動能的絕佳方式。

Thank you, Steve. Operator, can we have the last question, please?

謝謝你，史蒂夫。接線員，請問最後一個問題可以嗎？

Krish Sankar, TD Cowen.

Krish Sankar，TD Cowen。

Strong quarter. This is Eddy for Krish. I do have a long-term question regarding the shortages. It seems like you and your main peer are very disciplined about adding capacity, which, of course, makes sense from a financial standpoint.

本季表現強勁。這是艾迪給克里什的。關於物資短缺問題，我確實有一個長期存在的問題。看來你和你的主要同事在增加產能方面非常自律，這當然從財務角度來看是有道理的。

But I do wonder how you balance that discipline on one hand with the risk of pushing customers more towards SSDs because they have no other choice. Which in turn results in more NAND capacity in the industry, which lowers NAND prices longer term. So it's a tricky situation, and it would be great to know how your company is planning on navigating this?

但我很想知道，一方面要保持這種紀律性，另一方面又要承擔讓客戶因為別無選擇而更多地轉向固態硬碟的風險，該如何平衡呢？這反過來又會導致行業內NAND快閃產能增加，從而從長遠來看降低NAND快閃記憶體的價格。所以情況比較棘手，很想知道貴公司打算如何應對這種情況？

Yeah, thanks for the question. It's something we look closely at as well. I think the good news is that AI, as we highlighted, is a prolific generator of data, and therefore, more data is getting stored as the value of data increases. So all boats are rising.

謝謝你的提問。這也是我們密切關注的事情。我認為好消息是，正如我們所強調的，人工智慧是資料的重要生成器，因此，隨著資料價值的增加，越來越多的資料被儲存起來。所以所有的船都在上升。

The demand for NAND bits, hard drive bits and even tape bits are increasing as a result. And there are specific use case that makes sense for them to use SSDs. But fundamentally, if you look at data center architectures and the tiering between SSDs, HDDs and tape that is unlikely to change over time, right? And we anticipate that HDDs will continue to remain roughly about 80% of the bits that start within the data center.

因此，對NAND快閃記憶體位、硬碟位甚至磁帶位的需求都在增加。在某些特定應用場景下，使用固態硬碟是合理的。但從根本上講，如果你觀察資料中心架構以及 SSD、HDD 和磁帶之間的分層結構，你會發現這種情況不太可能隨著時間的推移而改變，對吧？我們預計，硬碟仍將佔資料中心內資料總量的 80% 左右。

And it's also important to recognize there are some -- there are inherent TCO benefits of HDDs as there are reliability challenges in terms of the number of rights that QLC can handle as well. So given all that dynamics, we don't anticipate seeing any major change there. There may be quarter-to-quarter variations because of supply-demand dynamics. But sort of the 80% of exabytes being stored on HDD, we anticipate will be the case going forward as well.

同時，我們也應該認識到，HDD 有一些固有的總體擁有成本優勢，因為 QLC 在處理資料量方面存在可靠性方面的挑戰。鑑於所有這些因素，我們預計那裡不會發生任何重大變化。由於供需動態變化，季度之間可能會出現波動。但我們預計，未來 80% 的 EB 資料仍將儲存在 HDD 上。

Do you have a follow-up, Eddy?

艾迪，你還有後續問題嗎？

Yeah, sure. Thank you, Irving. Your main peer did purchase Intevac earlier this year, which sells equipment that are needed for HAMR. And you guys sounded pretty positive about the qualification. I do wonder if you have fully navigated the risk from the Intevac purchase or it's something that's still in progress today.

當然可以。謝謝你，歐文。你的主要競爭對手今年稍早收購了 Intevac，該公司銷售 HAMR 所需的設備。聽起來你們對這次資格賽相當樂觀。我想知道您是否已經完全規避了收購 Intevac 帶來的風險，還是這個問題至今仍在處理中。

Yeah, we have fully mitigated the risks related to Intevac. As we highlighted when the acquisition first happened by our peer, all our HAMR development is actually being done on a separate system called ANELVA that's provided to us by Canon.

是的，我們已經完全消除了與 Intevac 相關的風險。正如我們之前在同行收購事件發生時所強調的那樣，我們所有的 HAMR 開發實際上都是在佳能提供給我們的名為 ANELVA 的獨立系統上進行的。

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to the management for any closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束。我謹將會議交還給管理階層，請他們作總結發言。

Thank you all again for joining us today and for your interest in Western Digital. At Western Digital, we continue to make good progress executing on our strategy. We look forward to sharing more with you on some of the exciting new innovations that we've been working on and the steps that we are taking to create long-term shareholder value.

再次感謝各位今天蒞臨，也感謝各位對西部數據的關注。在西部數據，我們持續穩定地推動策略實施。我們期待與您分享我們正在研發的一些令人興奮的新創新成果，以及我們為創造長期股東價值所採取的措施。

Let me close by giving a shout out to all our employees, our Western Digital drivers and our ecosystem partners who show up every day, making a difference for our customers, shareholders and each other. Thank you all very much, and have a wonderful day ahead.

最後，我要向我們所有的員工、西部數據公司的司機以及我們的生態系統合作夥伴致以崇高的敬意，感謝他們每天的辛勤付出，為我們的客戶、股東以及彼此創造價值。非常感謝大家，祝大家今天過得愉快。

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

謝謝。電話會議已結束。感謝各位參加今天的報告會。您現在可以斷開連線了。