威騰電子 (WDC) 2026 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Western Digital's third-quarter fiscal 2026 conference call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this call is being recorded.

下午好，感謝各位稍候。歡迎參加 Western Digital 2026 會計年度第三季財報電話會議。（接線員指示）提醒各位，本次通話將被錄音。

Now, I'll turn the call over to Mr. Ambri Srivastava, Vice President, Investor Relations. You may begin.

現在，我將把電話交給投資人關係副總裁 Ambri Srivastava 先生。您可以開始了。

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

謝謝，大家下午好。今天與我一同出席的有 WD 執行長 Irving Tan，以及 WD 財務長 Chris 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前瞻性陳述，係基於管理層目前的假設與預期，並可能受到各種風險與不確定性影響。這些前瞻性陳述包括我們對產品組合的預期、業務計畫與表現、持續的市場趨勢，以及未來財務結果。

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. In our prepared remarks, our comments will be related to non-GAAP results on a continuing operations basis, unless stated otherwise.

我們不承擔更新這些陳述的義務。請參閱我們最新的 Form 10-K 年度報告以及向美國證券交易委員會（SEC）提交的其他文件，以取得可能導致實際結果與預期存在重大差異之風險與不確定性的更多資訊。在我們的事先準備講稿中，除非另有說明，我們的評論將以持續營運基礎的非 GAAP 結果為主。

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

非 GAAP 與可比 GAAP 財務衡量指標之間的調節表，已包含於新聞稿及其他資料中，並將發布於我們網站 investor.wdc.com 的投資人關係專區。最後，我想說明，當我們提及「我們」或類似用語時，僅指 WD 這家公司本身，並非代表整個產業發言。

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

接下來，我將把電話交給 Irving 進行開場致詞。Irving？

Thanks, Ambrish, and good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. WD started calendar year 2026 with great execution, driving strong sequential and year-over-year revenue growth in our cloud, consumer and client businesses while expanding gross and operating margins. Gross margin exceeded 50%, driven by our continued innovation and focus on improving total cost of ownership for our customers through higher capacity drives and increased adoption of our UltraSMR products. With strong operating leverage, lower interest expense and efficient tax structure, these efforts resulted in nearly doubling of our EPS compared to last year. These results underscore our commitment to leading-edge innovation and strong execution.

謝謝 Ambrish，大家下午好，也感謝各位今天加入我們。WD 在 2026 年曆年開局執行表現出色，推動我們雲端、消費與客戶端業務的營收在季對季與年對年均強勁成長，同時擴大毛利率與營業利益率。毛利率超過 50%，主要受惠於我們持續的創新，以及透過更高容量硬碟與 UltraSMR 產品採用率提升，專注於為客戶改善總持有成本（TCO）。在強勁的營運槓桿、較低的利息費用與有效率的稅務結構下，這些努力使我們的每股盈餘（EPS）較去年幾乎翻倍。這些成果凸顯我們對尖端創新與強力執行的承諾。

It is an exciting time to be part of WD, a focused HDD company and a strategic partner to hyperscalers and cloud service providers in this AI-driven data economy. We are well positioned with business momentum building across our entire portfolio with greater visibility into long-term customer demand.

現在是加入 WD 的令人振奮時刻；我們是一家聚焦於 HDD 的公司，也是 AI 驅動資料經濟中超大規模業者（hyperscalers）與雲端服務供應商的策略夥伴。隨著整體產品組合的業務動能持續增強，我們對長期客戶需求的能見度也更高，並具備良好定位。

Looking at the bigger picture, it is clear that data and data storage are becoming more critical and valuable. As AI workloads extend from training to large-scale inferencing, data generation is at an inflection point. This year, inference is expected to account for roughly two thirds of all AI compute. This larger focus on inference increases the amount of data generated, which in turn increases the need for data storage. The scale of what is happening is also considerable.

從更宏觀的角度來看，資料與資料儲存正變得更關鍵且更具價值。隨著 AI 工作負載從訓練延伸至大規模推論，資料生成正處於拐點。今年，推論預期將約占所有 AI 運算的三分之二。對推論更高的聚焦將增加資料生成量，進而提升對資料儲存的需求。而且其規模也相當可觀。

One leading hyperscalers LLM processes over 16 billion tokens per minute via direct API used by their customers, while another AI company processes over 2.5 billion prompts every single day from 900 million active users. While the resources that are used to create tokens are recycled, the data that is being created must be stored. Every token, every prompt and every query answered and checkpoint saved creates data that requires persistent, scalable and cost-efficient storage. And the majority of this data is stored on hard disk drives.

某家領先的超大規模業者透過其客戶使用的直接 API，每分鐘處理超過 160 億個 token 的 LLM；另有一家 AI 公司每天從 9 億名活躍用戶處理超過 25 億次提示（prompt）。雖然用於產生 token 的資源可以回收再利用，但所產生的資料必須被儲存。每一個 token、每一次 prompt、每一個被回答的查詢，以及每一次儲存的 checkpoint，都會產生需要持久、可擴展且具成本效率的儲存之資料。而這些資料的大多數都儲存在硬碟（HDD）上。

As we look ahead, we see the rise of agentic AI, the next wave and arguably the biggest yet. What we are seeing with agentic AI frameworks represents a structural shift from AI that answers questions to AI that continuously executes workflows. That transition materially increases data generation and extends data retention cycles. Every hour of autonomous agent work and every action an agent takes creates data that must be stored. As a result, we expect agentic AI to drive a step function increase in capacity-oriented storage demand, particularly in cloud and enterprise environments.

展望未來，我們看到代理式 AI（agentic AI）的崛起，這是下一波、也可說是迄今最大的一波。我們在代理式 AI 框架中所看到的，代表著一個結構性轉變：從「回答問題的 AI」轉向「持續執行工作流程的 AI」。這樣的轉變將顯著增加資料生成，並延長資料留存週期。每一小時的自主代理工作，以及代理所採取的每一個動作，都會產生必須被儲存的資料。因此，我們預期代理式 AI 將推動以容量為導向的儲存需求出現階梯式上升，尤其是在雲端與企業環境中。

Beyond agentic AI, two more ways are building simultaneously. Synthetic data, the primary fuel for physical AI is by design orders of magnitude larger than real-world inputs that seed it. Across industries, physical AI data factory frameworks are being designed to transform limited training data into larger synthetic data sets at scale for robotics, autonomous vehicles and vision AI.

除了代理式 AI 之外，還有另外兩股力量也在同步形成。合成資料（synthetic data）是實體 AI（physical AI）的主要燃料，其設計上就比用來啟動它的真實世界輸入大上好幾個數量級。跨產業而言，實體 AI 的資料工廠（data factory）框架正被設計用來將有限的訓練資料，轉換為可規模化的大型合成資料集，以支援機器人、自動駕駛車與視覺 AI。

And physical AI itself, robots, industrial systems, autonomous fleets generates continuous streams of video, sensor and motion data that must be stored, versioned and fed back into training loops. These forces are not additive. They are a compounding loop. Inference creates data, agents consume and generate more data, physical AI creates data and train synthetic models that create more data. And ultimately, the loop accelerates.

而實體 AI 本身——機器人、工業系統、自主車隊——會產生連續的影像、感測器與動作資料流，這些資料必須被儲存、進行版本管理，並回饋至訓練迴圈中。這些力量並非單純相加，而是相互強化的循環。推論產生資料，代理消耗並生成更多資料，實體 AI 產生資料並訓練合成模型以創造更多資料，最終使這個循環加速。

We are truly seeing that the AI-driven data economy is creating an unprecedented demand for high-capacity, reliable and high-performance storage on HDDs. This reinforces our conviction that long-term data storage growth will be greater than 25% CAGR. WD's technology and product road map is purpose-built to meet this growing demand. As we shared at our Innovation Day in February, we continue to innovate to meet our customers' needs through a combination of capacity leadership and performance innovation.

我們確實看到，AI 驅動的資料經濟正在為 HDD 帶來前所未有的高容量、高可靠性與高效能儲存需求。這也強化了我們的信念：長期資料儲存成長將高於 25% 的年複合成長率（CAGR）。WD 的技術與產品藍圖是為了滿足這項成長需求而量身打造。正如我們在 2 月的 Innovation Day 所分享的，我們持續透過容量領先與效能創新相結合，來滿足客戶需求並推動創新。

Our high-capacity drive road map now extends from our 44-terabyte HAMR and 40-terabyte ePMR drives that are currently in qualification to a road map that goes beyond 100-terabytes. On HAMR, we are accelerating our development, and we are now in qualification with four customers. We are qualifying our 40-terabyte ePMR drives with three customers and are on track to start volume production in the second half of calendar year 2026.

我們的高容量硬碟藍圖目前涵蓋從正在進行認證（qualification）的 44TB HAMR 與 40TB ePMR 硬碟，延伸至超過 100TB 的路線圖。在 HAMR 方面，我們正加速開發，目前已與四家客戶進行認證。我們的 40TB ePMR 硬碟正與三家客戶進行認證，並按計畫於 2026 年曆年下半年開始量產。

With UltraSMR technology, which works across both ePMR and HAMR drives, we are expanding our customer base significantly. Three of our largest customers now have adopted the technology. Two are already meeting nearly all of the exabyte demand with UltraSMR, while the third is rapidly ramping in that direction. We plan to have all of our major customers qualified on UltraSMR by the end of calendar year 2027.

在 UltraSMR 技術方面——其可同時適用於 ePMR 與 HAMR 硬碟——我們正大幅擴展客戶基礎。我們三大客戶中的三家如今都已採用該技術。其中兩家已以 UltraSMR 滿足其幾乎所有的 EB（exabyte）需求，第三家也正快速朝該方向提升。我們計畫在 2027 年曆年年底前，讓所有主要客戶完成 UltraSMR 的認證。

We are delivering on major aerial density improvements, along with a focus on performance innovation with our high-bandwidth drives. Customer response to our innovation has been very positive. Our high-bandwidth drives are currently sampling with 2 hyperscale customers with an additional customer scheduled to start this quarter. Our dual pivot technology is being built specifically for new AI workloads with an open API approach aimed at simplifying deployment at scale.

我們在面積密度（areal density）方面帶來重大提升，同時也聚焦於高頻寬硬碟的效能創新。客戶對我們的創新回應非常正面。我們的高頻寬硬碟目前正向兩家超大規模客戶提供樣品，另有一家客戶預計於本季開始。我們的雙樞軸（dual pivot）技術是專為新的 AI 工作負載打造，並採用開放式 API 的方法，旨在簡化大規模部署。

Based on our industry-leading technology and product road map, we are well positioned to support growing customer capacity, demand and address their AI workload needs. Our long-term visibility continues to improve with the duration of our agreements now extending into calendar year '28 and calendar year '29. We continue to see strong demand from across our client consumer and OEM enterprise customers as well.

憑藉我們業界領先的技術與產品藍圖，我們具備良好定位以支援客戶不斷成長的容量需求，並滿足其 AI 工作負載需求。我們的長期能見度持續改善，協議期限目前已延伸至 2028 與 2029 年曆年。我們也持續看到來自客戶端、消費端以及 OEM 企業客戶的強勁需求。

In summary, the tailwinds shaping our industry today are both exciting and dynamic. And at WD, we remain focused on meeting our customers' needs while enhancing the value proposition and delivering long-term shareholder value to our investors.

總結而言，當前塑造我們產業的順風因素既令人振奮也充滿動態變化。在 WD，我們仍將專注於滿足客戶需求、強化價值主張，並為投資人創造長期股東價值。

With that, let me now hand it over to Kris to share our Q3 results and outlook for Q4.

接下來，我把時間交給 Kris，請他分享我們第三季的業績以及第四季展望。

Thank you, Irving, and good afternoon, everyone. The WD team delivered strong results, making solid progress against our strategic priorities with continued focus on innovation and disciplined execution while advancing key initiatives and remaining tightly aligned with our customers' growing exabyte demand. As we move forward, we are encouraged by our momentum and remain confident in our ability to deliver sustainable revenue growth, expand gross and operating margins and create long-term value for our shareholders.

謝謝你，Irving，大家下午好。WD 團隊交出強勁成果，在持續聚焦創新與紀律執行的同時，針對我們的策略優先事項取得扎實進展，推進關鍵計畫，並與客戶日益成長的 EB（exabyte）需求保持緊密一致。展望未來，我們對目前的動能感到鼓舞，並對我們有能力實現可持續的營收成長、擴大毛利率與營業利益率，以及為股東創造長期價值保持信心。

During the third quarter of fiscal 2026, revenue was $3.3 billion, up 45% year-over-year, driven by strong demand across all our end markets and an improved pricing environment. Earnings per share was $2.72, almost double compared to a year ago. Revenue, gross margin and earnings per share were all above the high end of the guidance range. We delivered 222 exabytes to our customers, up 34% year-over-year. This includes over 4.1 million drives or 118 exabytes of our latest generation ePMR with capacity points up to 32-terabytes, demonstrating our ability to quickly ramp new technologies and products in support of strong customer demand growth.

在 2026 會計年度第三季，營收為 33 億美元，年增 45%，主要受惠於所有終端市場的強勁需求以及更佳的定價環境。每股盈餘為 2.72 美元，較一年前幾乎翻倍。營收、毛利率與每股盈餘皆高於指引區間上緣。我們向客戶交付 222 EB（exabytes），年增 34%。其中包括超過 410 萬顆硬碟或 118 EB 的最新一代 ePMR 產品，容量點最高達 32TB，展現我們能夠快速放量新技術與新產品，以支援客戶需求的強勁成長。

Cloud represented 89% of total revenue at $3 billion, up 48% year-over-year, driven by strong demand for our higher capacity nearline product portfolio and a stronger pricing environment. Consumer represented 6% of revenue at $186 million, up 24% year-over-year. Client represented 5% of total revenue at $179 million, up 31% year-over-year. Both client and consumer segments saw strong year-over-year exabyte growth and improved pricing.

雲端業務占總營收的 89%，達 30 億美元，年增 48%，主要受惠於市場對我們更高容量近線（nearline）產品組合的強勁需求，以及更有利的定價環境。消費者業務占營收的 6%，為 1.86 億美元，年增 24%。客戶端（Client）業務占總營收的 5%，為 1.79 億美元，年增 31%。客戶端與消費者兩個部門的 exabyte 出貨量皆呈現強勁年增，且定價有所改善。

Gross margin for the fiscal third quarter expanded to 50.5%. Gross margin improved 1,040 basis points year-over-year and 440 basis points sequentially. The drivers of strong gross margin performance include continued mix shift towards higher capacity drives, along with ongoing execution of our pricing strategy and tight cost control.

2026 會計年度第三季毛利率擴大至 50.5%。毛利率較去年同期提升 1,040 個基點，較前一季提升 440 個基點。毛利率表現強勁的驅動因素包括產品組合持續轉向更高容量硬碟，以及我們持續落實定價策略與嚴格的成本控管。

Operating expenses were $397 million or 11.9% to revenue, a 40 basis point sequential improvement, demonstrating further operating leverage in the model. The sequential increase of operating expenses was driven by the acceleration of R&D project expenses as we continue to expand our HAMR qualifications with more customers.

營業費用為 3.97 億美元，占營收 11.9%，較前一季改善 40 個基點，顯示模型中的營運槓桿進一步提升。營業費用的季增主要來自研發專案費用加速投入，因我們持續與更多客戶擴大 HAMR 的認證（qualification）。

Strong top line growth, expanding gross margin and leverage in the model drove operating income to $1.3 billion, up 116% year-over-year, translating into a strong operating margin of 38.6%, up 1,260 basis points year-over-year. Interest and other expenses were $24 million, and our effective tax rate in the fiscal third quarter was 16%, taking into account the diluted share count of 385 million shares, earnings per share was $2.72, an increase of 97% year-over-year.

強勁的營收成長、毛利率擴張以及模型中的槓桿效益，帶動營業利益達 13 億美元，年增 116%，對應營業利益率 38.6%，較去年同期提升 1,260 個基點。利息及其他費用為 2,400 萬美元；考量稀釋後股數為 3.85 億股，第三季有效稅率為 16%，每股盈餘為 2.72 美元，年增 97%。

During the third fiscal quarter, we significantly strengthened our balance sheet by monetizing 5.8 million shares of SanDisk, which led to a $3.1 billion reduction in our debt. As a result, only $1.6 billion of convertible debt remains outstanding. And with $2 billion in cash and cash equivalents, we ended the quarter in a net positive cash position of $450 million. At quarter end, we still owned 1.7 million shares of SanDisk. Additionally, during the quarter, we received an upgrade from Standard & Poor's and Fitch to investment-grade level.

在第三個會計季度期間，我們透過變現 580 萬股 SanDisk 股票，顯著強化資產負債表，並使負債減少 31 億美元。因此，目前僅剩 16 億美元的可轉換公司債仍在外流通。加上 20 億美元的現金及約當現金，我們在季末的淨現金部位為正 4.5 億美元。季末時，我們仍持有 170 萬股 SanDisk 股票。此外，本季我們也獲得標準普爾（Standard & Poor's）與惠譽（Fitch）將評等上調至投資等級。

Operating cash flow for the third fiscal quarter was $1.1 billion. And in combination with a disciplined approach to capital expenditures with CapEx of $145 million, this resulted in strong free cash flow generation of $978 million for the quarter and a free cash flow margin of 29%.

第三個會計季度的營運現金流為 11 億美元。配合對資本支出採取審慎策略、資本支出（CapEx）為 1.45 億美元，使本季自由現金流達 9.78 億美元，自由現金流利潤率為 29%。

During the quarter, we made $43 million of dividend payments and increased our share repurchases to $752 million, repurchasing 2.9 million shares of common stock. Since the launch of our capital return program in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025, we have returned $2.2 billion to our shareholders by way of share repurchases and dividend payments.

本季我們支付股利 4,300 萬美元，並將庫藏股回購提高至 7.52 億美元，回購普通股 290 萬股。自 2025 會計年度第四季啟動資本回饋計畫以來，我們已透過股票回購與股利支付向股東回饋 22 億美元。

Also, given the Board and management confidence in the business, the Board has approved a 20% increase of the cash dividend from $0.125 per share of the company's common stock to $0.15 per share, payable on June 17, 2026, to shareholders of record as of June 5, 2026.

此外，基於董事會與管理團隊對公司業務的信心，董事會已核准將現金股利提高 20%，由公司普通股每股 0.125 美元提高至每股 0.15 美元；將於 2026 年 6 月 17 日支付給截至 2026 年 6 月 5 日登記在冊的股東。

I will now turn to the outlook for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026. As we continue to operate in a strong demand and pricing environment with longer-term visibility across our cloud, consumer and client businesses, we anticipate revenue to be $3.65 billion, plus/minus $100 million. At midpoint, this reflects a growth of 40% year-over-year.

接下來我將說明 2026 會計年度第四季展望。由於我們在強勁需求與定價環境下持續營運，且在雲端、消費者與客戶端業務方面具備較長期的能見度，我們預期營收為 36.5 億美元，上下浮動 1 億美元。以中位數計算，這代表年增 40%。

Gross margin is expected to be in the range of 51% to 52%. We expect operating expenses in the range of $385 million to $395 million. Interest and other expenses are anticipated to be $10 million. The tax rate is expected to be 16%. As a result, we expect diluted earnings per share to be $3.25 plus/minus $0.15 based on a non-GAAP diluted share count of 385 million shares.

毛利率預期介於 51% 至 52%。營業費用預期介於 3.85 億至 3.95 億美元。利息及其他費用預估為 1,000 萬美元。稅率預期為 16%。因此，基於非 GAAP 稀釋後股數 3.85 億股，我們預期稀釋後每股盈餘為 3.25 美元，上下浮動 0.15 美元。

In summary, this quarter's results and outlook highlight our commitment to disciplined execution, focus on innovation and deep customer engagements. Our strengthened balance sheet and robust free cash flow empower us to invest with confidence in the business. With strong momentum and a clear capital allocation framework, we are well positioned to drive durable earnings and free cash flow growth and create long-term shareholder value.

總結而言，本季的成果與展望凸顯我們對紀律執行、聚焦創新以及深化客戶合作的承諾。強化後的資產負債表與穩健的自由現金流，使我們能夠更有信心地投資於業務。在強勁動能與清晰的資本配置框架下，我們已做好準備推動可持續的獲利與自由現金流成長，並創造長期股東價值。

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

接下來我們開始問答環節。Ambrish？

Thank you, Chris. Operator, you can now open the line to questions, please. And 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，Chris。接線員，請現在開放提問。為了確保我們能聽到盡可能多位分析師的問題，請一次只提一個問題。我們回答後，會再給您一次追問的機會。接線員？

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer portion of today's call. (Operator Instructions)

謝謝。各位女士、先生，現在開始今天電話會議的問答部分。（接線員指示）

Eric Woodring, Morgan Stanley.

摩根士丹利（Morgan Stanley）的 Eric Woodring。

Great, guys. Thank you so much for taking my question. And Irving congrats on the really nice results. I would love if you could maybe go into a bit more detail on the specific tailwinds that HDDs and Western Digital are seeing from agentic AI? Meaning exactly what parts of the workflow in agentic are ripe for HDDs? And again, just tying that back to your comment on greater than 25% long-term exabyte growth, where does that go as a result of agentic AI?

太好了，各位。非常感謝讓我提問。Irving，也恭喜你們交出非常亮眼的成績。我想請你們更詳細說明一下，代理式 AI（agentic AI）為 HDD 與 Western Digital 帶來的具體順風因素是什麼？也就是說，在代理式工作流程中，究竟哪些環節特別適合使用 HDD？另外，回到你們提到長期 exabyte 成長率將超過 25% 的看法，在代理式 AI 的影響下，這個數字會如何變化？

Thanks, Erik, for the question. We really see three core drivers of HDD growth going forward. One that we've seen for quite a while right now, which is the ongoing storage requirements that's associated to training. So that's not going to end. Training will continue. relearning, reinforcement, retraining is going to happen. And what we are seeing from our customers as they retrain and reinforce learning with these models, the quality of the model results that they get are improving. So they continue to store all the data they're generating to enable improved quality of the model. So that's one continued driver that we see.

謝謝你的問題，Erik。我們確實看到未來 HDD 成長有三個核心驅動因素。第一個是我們已經觀察一段時間的，也就是與訓練（training）相關的持續儲存需求。這不會結束。訓練會持續進行；重新學習（relearning）、強化學習（reinforcement）、再訓練（retraining）都會發生。而我們從客戶端看到的是，當他們用這些模型進行再訓練與強化學習時，模型輸出的品質正在提升。因此，他們會持續儲存所產生的所有資料，以支援模型品質的進一步提升。這是我們看到的第一個持續性驅動因素。

The second driver that we're seeing is obviously the rise of agentic AI and inferencing. With every inference that happens, new data is getting generated. And what's happening is that all that new data that's getting generated is getting stored as well to both feed back into training models and be stored to support future inference references as well. So that's the second key driver of what we're seeing both in terms of agentic AI and inferencing.

第二個驅動因素，顯然是代理式 AI 與推論（inferencing）的興起。每一次推論發生，都會產生新的資料。而目前的情況是，這些新產生的資料也會被儲存起來，一方面回饋到訓練模型中，另一方面也會被保存以支援未來的推論參考。因此，這是我們在代理式 AI 與推論方面看到的第二個關鍵驅動因素。

The third driver that we see for data storage for HDDs is obviously physical AI. As we've highlighted before, physical AI with the limited data sets that it has, whether it's autonomous vehicles or robotics is using AI to generate a lot of synthetic data to further train and enable physical AI as well. And obviously, that needs to -- any data that gets generated out of that gets stored and feeds that whole training and synthetic data development loop as well. So those are the 3 big drivers of growth that we see going forward, Erik. That's why we have the confidence to see exabyte growth growing beyond 25% CAGR going forward.

第三個我們看到的 HDD 資料儲存驅動因素，顯然是實體 AI（physical AI）。如同我們先前強調的，實體 AI 由於可用資料集有限，無論是自動駕駛車或機器人，都會使用 AI 生成大量合成資料（synthetic data），以進一步訓練並強化實體 AI。而這些產生出來的任何資料都需要被儲存，並回饋到整個訓練與合成資料開發的循環中。Erik，以上就是我們看到未來成長的三大驅動因素。也因此，我們有信心看到未來 exabyte 成長率將以超過 25% 的 CAGR 持續成長。

Thank you, Eric.

謝謝你，Eric。

And did you have a follow-up?

你有要追問嗎？

Yes. Just a quick follow-up, Kris, for you. Over the last four quarters, you guys have really shown a lot of gross margin expansion. I think it's 260 basis points on average over the last four quarters, and you just did 4.5 points of gross margin expansion. For the June quarter, guidance implies about 100 basis points of gross margin expansion.

有的。Kris，我這邊快速追問一下。過去四個季度，你們的毛利率擴張非常明顯。我想平均每季大約擴張 260 個基點，而你們這一季毛利率擴張了 4.5 個百分點。對於 6 月季度，你們的指引看起來大約隱含毛利率再擴張 100 個基點。

So just curious if there is conservatism baked into that forecast or if there are any emerging headwinds we need to consider just given you should be accelerating cost downs and you're seeing really nice pricing growth. So I just want to get some context around the June quarter gross margin, please.

所以我想了解，這個預測是否包含較保守的假設？或者是否有任何新出現的逆風需要我們留意？畢竟你們應該正在加速成本下降，同時也看到相當不錯的定價成長。我想請你們提供一些關於 6 月季度毛利率的背景說明，謝謝。

Yes, Erik. First of all, I'm really pleased that we delivered strong gross margin in the third quarter and breaking into the 50% gross margin range with 50.5%. For Q4, we are guiding to 51% to 52%. So some further good improvement in the gross margins. If you look at the incremental gross margins on a year-over-year or quarter-over-quarter basis for three quarters in a row now and including a fourth quarter, the quarter that we guided to, you see very strong incremental gross margins in the plus 70%, plus 75% range on a year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter basis. And so we believe that we will be able to continue to further improve gross margins.

好的，Erik。首先，我對我們在第三季交出強勁毛利率表現感到非常滿意，毛利率達到 50.5%，正式進入 50% 的區間。對於第四季，我們的指引為 51% 到 52%，因此毛利率還會有進一步的良好改善。如果你觀察我們連續三個季度、以及包含我們所指引的第四季在內，在年對年或季對季基礎上的增量毛利率（incremental gross margins），你會看到非常強勁的表現，年對年與季對季都在 70% 以上、約 75% 的區間。因此，我們相信我們將能夠持續進一步提升毛利率。

Obviously, we're only guiding one quarter at a time, but we definitely -- based on the strong pricing environment that we operate in, which is based on more and more value that we provide to our customers, right, as well as a better mix as we move to higher capacity drives with ePMR and later on, of course, moving to HAMR drives as well as more and more moving and driving adoption of UltraSMR will give us further gross margin uplift. And then, of course, we continue to execute well from an operations point of view. And so when you put it all together, very pleased with the gross margin and the gross margin trends going forward.

顯然，我們一次只提供一個季度的指引，但我們確實——基於我們所處的強勁定價環境，而這又是建立在我們為客戶提供越來越多價值之上，對吧；同時，隨著我們轉向採用 ePMR 的更高容量硬碟、以及之後當然轉向 HAMR 硬碟，並且持續推動 UltraSMR 的採用，將進一步帶動我們的毛利率提升。然後，當然，從營運角度來看，我們也持續執行得很好。因此，把這些因素綜合起來，我們對毛利率以及未來毛利率的走勢感到非常滿意。

Operator, next question, please.

接線員，請下一個問題。

Amit Daryanani, Evercore.

Amit Daryanani，Evercore。

Thanks for taking my question, and congrats on a nice set of numbers here. I guess my first question is just on the pricing side. And I think on a per terabyte basis, pricing was up like 8%, 9%, high single digits in March. It's a big step-up from the flattish trend that we have seen in the last few quarters. So could you just help us understand what is sort of enabling this step up? And is it reflective of some of the LTA contracts that you have engaged in? Just trying to get a sense on really Irving if this is the new normal on pricing as we go forward?

謝謝讓我提問，也恭喜你們交出一組很漂亮的數字。我想我的第一個問題是關於定價。我認為以每 TB 計，3 月的定價上升大約 8%、9%，也就是高個位數的增幅。這相較於過去幾個季度我們看到的持平趨勢，是一個很大的跳升。所以你們能否幫我們理解，是什麼因素促成了這次跳升？這是否反映了你們所簽訂的一些 LTA 長期協議？我想更了解一下，Irving，這是否會成為未來定價的新常態？

Yeah. So Amit, thanks for that. Yes, pricing was up 9% year-on-year. It reflects a couple of things. Obviously, the ongoing value that we're creating for our customers, better TCO value, as we said, our whole pricing philosophy is to be able to enable better TCO value for our customers and to be able to share in that value creation through pricing.

好的。Amit，謝謝你的問題。是的，定價年增 9%。這反映了幾個因素。顯然，我們持續為客戶創造價值，提供更好的 TCO（總持有成本）價值；正如我們所說，我們整體的定價理念，是能夠為客戶帶來更好的 TCO 價值，並且透過定價在這個價值創造中分享成果。

As we highlighted at Innovation Day, as Kris highlighted also, we said that as we move forward towards the latter part of calendar year '26, we would see pricing increase more towards the high single-digit range. And so that's what you're seeing from us. And that's really reflective of the timing of new LTAs coming on board as well as we move forward to new periods of LTAs.

正如我們在 Innovation Day 所強調的、Kris 也提到的，我們說過，隨著我們邁向 2026 年曆年下半年，我們將看到定價更朝向高個位數的增幅。因此，你現在看到的就是我們所呈現的結果。而這也確實反映了新 LTA 上線的時點，以及我們進入新的 LTA 期間所帶來的影響。

Obviously, we are about to deliver our next generation of ePMR in the second half of this calendar year. That will be a step-up in capacity point that will deliver more TCO value. So therefore, we are able to share in a better pricing as a result of that as well.

顯然，我們即將在今年曆年下半年交付下一代 ePMR。那將在容量上帶來一個躍升，並提供更高的 TCO 價值。因此，我們也能因此在定價上取得更好的表現，並分享這部分的價值。

Do you have a follow-up on it?

你有追問嗎？

I do. Thank you, Ambrish. And maybe just on the other side of it, cost per exabyte, I think, was down, again, 10%, give or take, in the quarter. Can you just talk about what is the right framework for us to think about cost per exabyte declines? And should we expect a bigger step down as you transition towards the higher density next-gen ePMR end of this year?

有的。謝謝你，Ambrish。那再從另一面來看，每 EB（Exabyte）的成本，我認為本季又下降了大約 10% 左右。你能否談談，我們應該用什麼正確的框架來看待每 EB 成本的下降？以及當你們在今年底轉向更高密度的下一代 ePMR 時，我們是否應該預期會有更大幅度的下降？

Yes. I think if you look at the cost down, we delivered 10% year-on-year, and that's probably the right way to look at it. Going forward, we continue to be focused on delivering higher aerial density. So that's a big cost driver. As I mentioned, we will be introducing and ramping up our next-gen ePMR in the second half of the year. We also have an increasing uptake of customers on UltraSMR, which is a good cost driver for us as well. Obviously, we get 20% uplift on capacity without the associated cost by the end of fiscal year '27, close to about 60% of all the exabytes that we ship will be on UltraSMR.

是的。我認為如果你看成本下降，我們年對年做到了 10%，這大概就是看待它的正確方式。往前看，我們會持續聚焦於提升面密度（aerial density），這是主要的成本驅動因素。如我提到的，我們將在今年下半年導入並放量下一代 ePMR。我們也看到客戶對 UltraSMR 的採用持續增加，這對我們而言也是一個良好的成本驅動因素。顯然，到 2027 財年末，我們在不增加相應成本的情況下可帶來 20% 的容量提升；屆時我們出貨的所有 EB 中，接近約 60% 都將採用 UltraSMR。

Our teams continue to work on platforming the products to drive further cost downs and also ongoing value engineering to see how we can further reduce elements -- high-cost elements of our bill of materials. And obviously, the ongoing just supply chain efficiency that we have, both from our procurement and manufacturing operations. We -- if you put that all together, we feel confident that we can continue to sort of deliver that trend that we've just mentioned.

我們的團隊也持續在做產品平台化，以推動進一步的降本，同時也持續進行價值工程，看看我們如何能進一步降低物料清單（BOM）中——高成本項目的成本。當然，還有我們在供應鏈效率上的持續改善，涵蓋採購與製造營運兩端。我們——把這些因素綜合起來，我們有信心能持續交付我們剛才提到的那個趨勢。

Thank you, Amit. We can go to the next question, please.

謝謝你，Amit。我們可以請下一個問題。

Aaron Rakers, Wells Fargo.

Aaron Rakers，Wells Fargo。

Yeah, thanks for taking the question and congrats on the results. I want to go back to the 25% growth rate and think about as you see agentic AI drive incremental structural demand, maybe you can help us appreciate how you're thinking about the capacity to fulfill that demand? Is it a continued ability to just mix higher? Or is there a point in time where some capacity investment might have to play itself out?

是的，謝謝讓我提問，也恭喜你們的成果。我想回到 25% 的成長率，並思考當 agentic AI 帶來額外的結構性需求時，也許你們可以幫我們理解，你們如何看待滿足該需求的產能？這是否只是持續提高高容量產品的組合占比？還是到了某個時間點，可能需要投入一些產能投資才能因應？

Yeah, thanks for the question, Aaron. So maybe just to hit on -- at this juncture, we still do not see any need to increase unit capacity. So we have no plans for that. Our focus is really to continue to improve aerial density. So as we introduce our next-gen ePMR, which is a 40-terabyte drive, that will be a 25% step-up already from our current drives, which are at the 32-terabyte capacity range.

好的，謝謝你的問題，Aaron。就——在目前這個時間點，我們仍然看不到需要增加單位產能的必要性。因此我們沒有這方面的計畫。我們的重點是持續提升面密度。因此，當我們導入下一代 ePMR（40TB 硬碟）時，相較於我們目前 32TB 容量區間的產品，這已經是 25% 的躍升。

And then there's this opportunity to further mix up our customers, as we've highlighted in the past as well. So we've seen an acceleration of mixing up. And as we introduce the high capacity drives in the next two quarters, we will see an acceleration of that going forward as well.

另外，我們也有機會進一步提升客戶端的產品組合，如同我們過去也強調過的。我們已經看到組合升級的加速。隨著我們在接下來兩個季度推出高容量硬碟，未來這個加速也會更加明顯。

Follow-up, Aaron?

Aaron，有追問嗎？

Yeah, I do. Thanks, Amrish. Maybe on the capital structure, now with the debt for equity transfer behind you, you've still got 1.7 million shares of SanDisk. And I know that you increased your dividend, I think it was 20% with this release. Kris, I'm kind of curious, any updated thoughts how you're thinking about capital return, building cash on the balance sheet versus maybe just returning what appears to be very strong free cash flow generation going forward? Thank you.

有的。謝謝你，Amrish。也許談談資本結構：現在債轉股已經完成，你們仍持有 170 萬股的 SanDisk。我也知道你們在這次發布中把股利提高了，我想是 20%。Kris，我有點好奇，你們對資本回饋的思考是否有更新？在資產負債表上累積現金，與把看起來未來將非常強勁的自由現金流回饋給股東之間，你們如何取捨？謝謝。

Yes, Aaron, I agree with you. We do have a very strong free cash flow and free cash flow margin. The free cash flow margin last quarter was 29%. And so we're approaching our 30%-plus or above 30% free cash flow margin.

是的，Aaron，我同意你的看法。我們確實有非常強勁的自由現金流與自由現金流利潤率。上季自由現金流利潤率是 29%。因此我們正接近 30% 以上、或超過 30% 的自由現金流利潤率。

In terms of capital allocation and capital return to our shareholders, we are not changing our policy or our framework here. We are returning all the excess free cash flow back to the shareholders through a combination of our dividend program and share buyback program.

就資本配置與對股東的資本回饋而言，我們不會改變我們的政策或框架。我們會透過股利計畫與庫藏股回購計畫的組合，把所有超額自由現金流回饋給股東。

As you have seen what we've done last quarter, we will continue to do so going forward. We are making an increase to the dividend with a 20% increase to $0.15 per quarter, and we will continue to execute on our share buyback program.

如同你看到我們上季所做的，我們未來也會持續這麼做。我們將股利提高 20%，提升至每季每股 0.15 美元，並且會持續執行我們的庫藏股回購計畫。

Thank you, Aaron.

謝謝你，Aaron。

Tom O'Malley, Barclays.

Tom O'Malley，Barclays。

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my question. Congrats on the good results. So I'm looking at say this results which are out tonight, too, and I'm seeing over 100% sequential pricing increases. I know you guys got asked on pricing already in the sense. But just from a 30,000-foot view, maybe you could talk about with the gap of exploding between NAND and some of the hard disk drive players, how much appetite do customers have to keep on taking pricing increases? And what's your strategy there about how much you could push given the gap is moving higher?

嗨，各位。謝謝讓我提問，也恭喜你們的好成績。我在看今晚也公布的這些結果時，看到定價季增超過 100%。我知道你們已經被問過定價相關問題。但從更宏觀的角度來看，隨著 NAND 與部分硬碟廠商之間的差距快速擴大，客戶對於持續接受漲價的意願有多大？你們的策略是什麼——在差距持續拉大的情況下，你們覺得能推進到什麼程度？

And then secondarily, you're hearing about some of the industry potentially doing long-term agreements where you have [upfront]. Could you maybe talk about your appetite to do that and what that would mean for the industry if we saw some of that?

另外，第二點，你們也聽到業界可能在做一些長期協議，會有[預付款]。你們能否談談你們對此的意願，以及如果我們看到這類作法，對產業會意味著什麼？

Thanks, Tom, for the question. So in terms of pricing, our pricing philosophy is really to provide predictable pricing to our customers. The one thing that they appreciate and want to avoid is volatility in terms of pricing. So our whole focus is really to provide predictable pricing. As we said, as we deliver higher -- more value through better TCO to higher capacity drives, as we deliver more innovation in terms of performance, whether it's throughput or bandwidth enhancements as we laid out in Innovation Day, that gives us the opportunity to create more value for our customers to be able to share in that through better pricing.

謝謝你的問題，Tom。就定價而言，我們的定價理念主要是為客戶提供可預期的定價。他們欣賞、也希望避免的一件事，就是定價的波動性。因此我們的重點就是提供可預期的定價。正如我們所說，當我們透過更高容量硬碟帶來更高——更多的價值、提供更好的 TCO；當我們在效能方面帶來更多創新，無論是吞吐量或頻寬的提升，正如我們在 Innovation Day 所闡述的，這讓我們有機會為客戶創造更多價值，並透過更好的定價來分享這些價值。

Our whole philosophy is to ensure that we do that in a very predictable way. Why do we want to do that? Because predictable pricing enables our customers to make long-term architectural decisions. And that's really our focus, and that gives us the confidence of why we are putting forward the road map that we have, why we're making the investments that we are making.

我們整體的理念，是要確保我們能以非常可預測的方式做到這一點。我們為什麼要這麼做？因為可預測的定價能讓客戶做出長期的架構決策。而這正是我們真正的重點，也讓我們有信心去提出我們目前的產品路線圖、以及為什麼我們要進行我們正在進行的投資。

So we're not looking for it to be optimistic from a pricing standpoint, but really provide that predictability of pricing, enable our customers to make those long-term architectural decisions that supports the structural change in the hard drive industry that we've been talking about going forward.

因此，從定價的角度來看，我們不是要追求樂觀，而是要真正提供定價的可預測性，讓客戶能做出那些長期的架構決策，以支撐我們一直在談、未來硬碟產業的結構性變化。

To your question around LTAs, we continue to make progress in LTAs. We now have LTAs that extend into calendar year '29 as well. Obviously, as we've shared in the past, those LTAs are exabyte based with a degree of pricing associated with it. Obviously, the LTA volume that we are putting together for our customers does not meet the full requirement that they want and anything that we can deliver above and beyond what we call the base volume requirement that we've agreed to our customers, that's subject to a different pricing regime that gives us an opportunity to drive some incremental upside from pricing as well.

針對你關於 LTA 的問題，我們在 LTA 方面持續取得進展。我們現在也有延伸到 2029 曆年的 LTA。當然，如同我們過去分享的，這些 LTA 是以 EB（exabyte）為基礎，並搭配一定程度的定價。顯然，我們為客戶整合的 LTA 量並無法滿足他們想要的全部需求；而任何我們能交付、超出我們所稱的、與客戶已同意的基礎量需求（base volume requirement）之上的部分，將適用不同的定價機制，這也讓我們有機會在定價上帶來一些額外的上行空間。

All right. No follow-up for Mr. O'Malley. We'll go to the next caller please, operator? Thank you.

好的。O'Malley 先生沒有追問。我們請接下一位來電者，好嗎，接線員？謝謝。

Asiya Merchant, Citi.

Asiya Merchant，花旗。

Hi, good afternoon. This is Mike Cadiz for Asiya Merchant at Citi. Congratulations on the quarter. So my first question is, would you be able to provide any color or additional color on yields and reliability? And as a result, are there any implications to the cost per bit decline that we can think of?

嗨，午安。我是花旗 Asiya Merchant 的 Mike Cadiz。恭喜本季表現。我的第一個問題是，你們是否能提供一些關於良率與可靠性（reliability）的說明或更多細節？因此，對我們可以如何看待每 bit 成本下降（cost per bit decline）是否有任何影響？

Sure. I mean if you look at ePMR products that we're shipping today and what we are anticipating as we go into volume ramp in the second half of the year of our next-generation ePMR, they continue to be in the 90% range, right? Quality also, which has been one of our key considerations, remains very high. This is the hallmark of who we are as a company, high yields, known quality products.

當然。我的意思是，如果你看我們今天正在出貨的 ePMR 產品，以及我們預期在今年下半年進入下一代 ePMR 的量產爬坡（volume ramp），良率仍然維持在 90% 的區間，對吧？品質也是我們的關鍵考量之一，仍然非常高。這就是我們這家公司的一大特徵：高良率、品質可預期的產品。

And that's something we'll continue to focus on, both in our ePMR products, which is -- and in our HAMR products, which is the focus of our HAMR qualification right now to ensure we have the right reliability, we have the right quality, we have the right manufacturing yields as well. So that remains constant. And immediately in terms of current yields and quality, we don't see any changes.

而這也是我們會持續聚焦的重點，不論是在我們的 ePMR 產品上——以及在我們的 HAMR 產品上；目前 HAMR 認證（qualification）的重點，就是要確保我們具備正確的可靠性、正確的品質、以及正確的製造良率。因此這些都維持不變。就目前的良率與品質而言，我們沒有看到任何變化。

Do you have a follow-up, Michael?

Michael，你有追問嗎？

So given the price differential currently between hard disk 7 and flash, would you be able to attribute the strength in HDD demand because of that? And are you seeing any architectures changing, which I think you said at this point is not?

所以，考量目前硬碟與快閃記憶體之間的價格差距，你們是否能將 HDD 需求的強勁歸因於此？另外，你們是否看到任何架構正在改變——我想你剛才說目前並沒有？

Yeah. Look, I think flash is a great technology. It has a specific role in the storage stack. We both play in slightly different spaces, right? If you look at large-scale object storage, which requires long-term retention, that's where HDD really comes to the fore. That's 80% of all data is stored within hyperscale data center. If you look at workloads that require high IOPS, high throughput, that's where flash really comes to the fore.

是的。你看，我認為快閃是一項很棒的技術，它在儲存堆疊（storage stack）中有其特定角色。我們兩者所處的領域略有不同，對吧？如果你看大規模物件儲存（large-scale object storage），它需要長期保存（long-term retention），那就是 HDD 真正發揮優勢的地方。所有資料中有 80% 都儲存在超大規模資料中心（hyperscale data center）裡。若你看需要高 IOPS、高吞吐量（high throughput）的工作負載，那就是快閃真正發揮優勢的地方。

And even in inferencing, right, we saw a symbiotic relationship. The new data that's created from inferencing typically will get stored on HDDs. The vectoring data that's required for inferencing, that's actually stored on flash. So it's a very symbiotic relationship.

甚至在推論（inferencing）上，我們也看到一種共生關係。由推論所產生的新資料，通常會儲存在 HDD 上。推論所需的向量資料（vectoring data），則是儲存在快閃上。所以這是一種非常共生的關係。

Obviously, some of the new innovations that we are delivering our high-bandwidth drives, as an example, and our dual pivot technology that will improve throughput and bandwidth will continue to improve the performance of our HDDs and continue to deliver more value to our customers going forward. But we don't see any -- at this point, any major structural changes to architecture.

當然，我們正在交付的一些新創新——例如我們的高頻寬硬碟（high-bandwidth drives），以及我們的雙樞軸（dual pivot）技術，將提升吞吐量與頻寬——會持續改善 HDD 的效能，並在未來持續為客戶帶來更多價值。但就目前而言，我們沒有看到任何重大的架構結構性變化。

But that's why, again, we want to make sure there's predictability in the pricing we provide so customers can make decisions not one year out, but they're making architectural decisions two, three years, five years out as well.

但也正因如此，我們再次強調要確保我們提供的定價具有可預測性，讓客戶做決策時不是只看一年後，而是會做兩年、三年、甚至五年後的架構決策。

Thank you, Michael.

謝謝你，Michael。

Samik Chatterjee, JPMorgan.

Samik Chatterjee，摩根大通。

Hi, thanks for taking my question. Maybe for the first one, if I can just ask you about the quarter, you obviously had a strong set of numbers you're including both on revenue and gross margins coming in above the high end of your guide. But when I look at it, the outperformance on gross margin was a lot more relative to the outperformance on the high end of the revenue. Is there something more specifically going on with gross margins, maybe in terms of like cost reduction? What really outperformed relative to your own expectations is probably where -- what I'm trying to get to in terms of the magnitude of the outperformance is on those two metrics? Thank you.

嗨，謝謝讓我提問。第一個問題想請教本季表現：你們的營收與毛利率都很強，且都高於你們指引區間的上緣。但我看到毛利率的超預期幅度，相對於營收高於上緣的幅度要大得多。毛利率方面是否有更具體的因素在發生，例如成本降低？相對於你們自身預期，究竟是什麼表現得更好——我想釐清的是這兩個指標超預期幅度的來源。謝謝。

Yes. And again, on gross margins, there's three major drivers. The first one is pricing and the pricing environment. And that obviously continues to be very strong and was a little bit better during the quarter than we expected when we provided the guidance. As we've indicated, not all the pricing going into the quarter is locked. And so we do have some opportunities, by the way, not only in our cloud business, but also in our client and consumer business where we see further continued opportunities in terms of pricing.

是的。再談毛利率，主要有三個驅動因素。第一是定價與定價環境。這顯然仍然非常強勁，而且在本季的表現比我們提供指引時預期的還要好一些。如同我們所指出的，進入本季時並非所有價格都已鎖定。因此我們確實有一些機會；順帶一提，不僅在雲端業務，在客戶端與消費性業務上，我們也看到在定價方面持續存在進一步的機會。

Secondly, mix. And there, again, we're making good progress driving to higher capacity drives and more adoption of UltraSMR, and that's playing out really well. And then the teams continue to execute really well on driving down costs across the board throughout the supply chain. And so great execution during the quarter. And I expect going forward, similar levels of execution.

第二是產品組合（mix）。在這方面，我們在推動更高容量硬碟、以及提高 UltraSMR 採用率上持續取得良好進展，且效果非常好。第三，團隊也持續在整個供應鏈上執行得非常到位，全面推動成本下降。因此本季執行表現很出色。我預期未來也會維持類似水準的執行力。

Do you have a follow-up, Samik?

Samik，你有追問嗎？

Yes, please. So maybe just sort of then looking at the cost per exabyte and sort of a follow-up to Amit's question earlier, you're doing this sort of 10% decline in cost per exabyte right now. As you start shipping the 40-terabyte ePMR and then eventually the HAMR drive, why shouldn't we expect that cost per exabyte to maybe declines to accelerate? I'm just trying to think about the trajectory and as you ship those sort of lower cost overall profiles, why shouldn't that trend sort of accelerate from where it is today?

有的。那麼再看每 EB 成本（cost per exabyte），也延伸 Amit 先前的問題：你們目前每 EB 成本大約下降 10%。當你們開始出貨 40TB 的 ePMR，之後再到 HAMR 硬碟時，為什麼我們不應該預期每 EB 成本下降會加速？我想理解的是趨勢軌跡：當你們出貨那些整體成本結構更低的產品時，為什麼這個趨勢不會從目前的水準開始加速？

Yes. So we -- first of all, we're only guiding one quarter at a time. But I have confidence that the teams will, again, continue to execute on those three levers that we have that I discussed just a moment ago. We are ramping the next-generation ePMR in the second half of calendar year '26. So that's not that far out.

是的。首先，我們一次只提供一季的指引。但我有信心團隊會持續在我剛才提到的三個槓桿上繼續執行。我們將在 2026 曆年下半年量產爬坡下一代 ePMR，所以其實也不算太遠。

As Irving already talked about that, we're feeling good about that ramp, the manufacturability and the yields there. The HAMR ramp, we're making really good progress on the qualifications. Now with four customers getting really good feedback from the customers, and we expect to ramp that in 2027.

如同 Irving 已經談到的，我們對那個爬坡、可製造性（manufacturability）以及良率的狀況感到樂觀。HAMR 的爬坡方面，我們在認證上也取得非常好的進展。目前有四家客戶，且從客戶端得到非常好的回饋，我們預期在 2027 年進行量產爬坡。

Still a little bit of work to be done in terms of yield and reliability and quality, but good progress being made by the operations teams. There is going to be an adoption curve, right? We're not switching overnight to those new products that are being launched. And so the improvements will be phased in over the ramp period.

在良率、可靠性與品質方面仍有一些工作要完成，但營運團隊正在取得良好進展。採用會有一個曲線（adoption curve），對吧？我們不會在一夜之間就切換到這些新上市的產品。因此，改善將會在爬坡期間逐步導入。

Wamsi Mohan, Bank of America.

Wamsi Mohan，美國銀行。

Hi, this is Aisling Grueninger on for Wamsi. Congrats on the results. And just one question for me. You mentioned the UltraSMR JBOD platform as a way to broaden adoption beyond your current target base. Can you just talk about whether that primarily expands your reach into Tier 2 CSP customers or enterprise customers? And just how material could this opportunity become over the next 1 to 2 years?

嗨，我是代 Wamsi 提問的 Aisling Grueninger。恭喜這次的成果。我只有一個問題：你們提到 UltraSMR JBOD 平台可作為將採用範圍擴大到目前目標客群以外的一種方式。你們能談談這主要是把觸及範圍擴展到 Tier 2 的 CSP 客戶，還是企業客戶嗎？以及在未來 1 到 2 年，這個機會可能會有多大規模？

Yeah, we definitely see it as an opportunity to expand our reach into Tier 2 CSPs, even some of the hyperscalers in the Asia region as well. And that's one of the enablers where we are forecasting by the time we get to end of calendar year 2027. The vast majority of our key customers will all be on UltraSMR, either fully adopted or materially underway in terms of qualification. And that gives us also the confidence, as I mentioned, as we get to the end of fiscal '27, close to 60% of the exabytes that we ship will be on UltraSMR.

是的，我們確實把它視為一個機會，能將觸及範圍擴展到 Tier 2 的 CSP，甚至也包括亞洲地區的一些超大規模業者（hyperscalers）。這也是我們預測的一個促成因素：到 2027 曆年年底時，我們絕大多數的關鍵客戶都將採用 UltraSMR——不是已全面採用，就是在認證方面已實質推進。這也讓我們有信心，如我所提到的，到了 2027 會計年度年底，我們出貨的 EB 中接近 60% 將會是 UltraSMR。

Thank you, Aisling.

謝謝你，Aisling。

CJ Muse, Cantor Fitzgerald.

CJ Muse，Cantor Fitzgerald。

Yes, good afternoon. Thank you for taking the question. Curious on the agreements, particularly as they extend out into '27, '28 and beyond, how should we think about pricing and what is embedded inside there? Is there a fixed kind of variable kind of different percentages or what?

是的，下午好。謝謝讓我提問。我想了解一下這些協議，特別是延伸到 2027、2028 以及更久之後的部分，我們應該如何看待定價，以及其中包含了哪些內容？是固定的、可變的，或是不同百分比之類的安排嗎？

Yes. So C.J., thanks for the question. So the construct of the LTAs broadly are -- obviously, there's an exabyte volume tied to it. There's a pricing tied to it depending on the duration. There may be periods of pricing adjustment as we introduce new capacity points, as we introduce new capabilities, that gives us the opportunity to adjust pricing going forward.

是的。所以，C.J.，謝謝你的問題。整體而言，LTA 的架構是——很明顯地，它會綁定一定的 exabyte 量；也會依據合約期間長短而有相對應的定價。當我們導入新的產能節點、導入新的能力時，可能會有定價調整的期間，這也讓我們有機會在未來調整定價。

Do you have a follow-up, C.J.?

C.J.，你有追問嗎？

Curious on the remaining SanDisk position now that it's beyond 12 months, is that something that is now taxable? Any sort of implications of beyond that window? And how are you thinking about time frame in terms of monetization?

我想問一下，剩餘的 SanDisk 持股現在已經超過 12 個月了，這部分是否會變成應稅？超過那個期限窗口有任何影響嗎？另外你們對變現的時間表是怎麼思考的？

Yes. So we still have 1.7 million SanDisk shares after we did the debt for equity monetization in Q3 of fiscal '26. It's our intention to monetize the remaining 1.7 million shares in an equity for equity transaction. We've indicated it's our intention to do that before the end of calendar year '26, and this will be in a tax-free manner.

是的。所以在 2026 會計年度第三季我們做了以債轉股的變現之後，目前仍持有 170 萬股 SanDisk 股票。我們的意圖是以股換股的交易方式，將剩餘的 170 萬股進行變現。我們已表示，計畫在 2026 年曆年底之前完成，而且會以免稅的方式進行。

Thank you, CJ.

謝謝你，CJ。

Karl Ackerman, BNP Paribas.

Karl Ackerman，BNP Paribas。

Yes, thank you. I have one for Irving and one for Kris, if I may, but I'll ask Irving first. Irving, when would Western Digital consider adding internal head and media capacity to support these multiyear commitments from customers? For example, have you had discussions regarding prepayments for future capacity adds?

是的，謝謝。我有一題想問 Irving，另一題想問 Kris（如果可以的話），我先問 Irving。Irving，Western Digital 何時會考慮增加內部磁頭與碟片（media）產能，以支援客戶這些多年期的承諾？例如，你們是否討論過針對未來新增產能的預付款？

Yes. We definitely are looking at head and media investments. As we said in the past, we're not adding -- we are not making any investments in terms of adding unit capacity. But when we talk about aerial density improvement or increasing the capacity per drive, that does involve technology investments to support new media recipes, new media substrate, new head designs as well as the potential to increase this over time as we've highlighted in our Innovation Day where we are able to get to 14 disks over time.

是的。我們確實在評估磁頭與碟片（media）的投資。如同我們過去所說，我們不會——我們不會在增加「單位產能（unit capacity）」方面做任何投資。但當我們談到面密度提升、或提高每顆硬碟的容量時，這確實需要技術投資，以支援新的碟片配方、新的碟片基材、新的磁頭設計；同時也可能隨時間推進而提升，正如我們在 Innovation Day 所強調的，我們能夠隨時間推進做到 14 片碟片。

Now our number one focus is to increase the terabytes per disk to make sure that it's very competitive within the industry. And then beyond that, we were able to be able to add more platters to the drive as well. So that's the most cost-effective way to deliver incremental capacity to our customers. So we're definitely looking and if it makes economic sense, we'll look to add head and media capacity in terms of investments, but not unit capacity investments.

目前我們的首要重點是提升每片碟片的 TB 數，確保在產業內具備高度競爭力。除此之外，我們也能在硬碟中加入更多碟片。因此，這是向客戶提供增量容量最具成本效益的方式。所以我們一定會持續評估；若在經濟上合理，我們會考慮在投資面增加磁頭與碟片（media）產能，但不會投資增加單位產能。

Carl, you had a follow-up for Chris?

Carl，你有要追問 Chris 的問題嗎？

Yes, I may. Kris, when you note that you have agreements extending into 2028 and 2029 with your major customers, could you delineate that with respect to build-to-order and LTAs? For example, do you have build-to-order contracts addressing much of your nearline capacity this year? Or does it extend into 2027 as well? Thank you.

是的，如果可以的話。Kris，你提到與主要客戶的協議延伸到 2028 與 2029 年，你能否就「按單生產（build-to-order）」與 LTA 來做區分說明？例如，今年你們是否有按單生產合約涵蓋了大部分近線（nearline）產能？還是也延伸到 2027 年？謝謝。

Yeah. And so the manufacturing lead times is only about a year. And so most of the purchase orders are being placed a year in advance. And then if you look beyond the first year, we are going into those LTEA frameworks that has been explained by Irving before. So there is still a little bit more variability beyond the first year.

好的。製造前置期大約只有一年，所以大多數採購訂單都是提前一年下單。再往第一年之後看，我們就會進入 Irving 先前說明過的那些 LTA 架構。因此，超過第一年之後仍會有一些較高的變動性。

Thank you. We'll go to the next question, please.

謝謝。請進行下一個問題。

Krish Sankar, TD Cowen.

Krish Sankar，TD Cowen。

Hey, guys. This is Eddy for Krish. Irving, when you look across your 4 largest hyperscale customers, are you seeing demand patterns that are broadly similar? Or is there a meaningful divergence in how aggressively different customers are scaling based on their AI road maps? I'm just wondering if there's anything specific outside overall CapEx growing that is driving demand for HDDs?

嗨，各位。我是代 Krish 提問的 Eddy。Irving，當你觀察你們最大的四家超大規模（hyperscale）客戶時，你看到的需求型態大致相似嗎？還是不同客戶基於其 AI 路線圖，在擴張速度上有明顯差異？我想了解，除了整體資本支出（CapEx）成長之外，是否還有任何特定因素在推動 HDD 需求？

No, I would say, in general, the profile is quite similar. Obviously, as I've highlighted, the demand for storage is increasing because storage is persistent, right? If you look at it, if you talk about inferencing, the resources that are used in inferencing, whether it's compute or whether it's memory, they can get recycled. But the data that's getting generated for inferencing is not being recycled.

不，我會說整體而言，輪廓是相當類似的。當然，如我先前強調的，儲存需求正在增加，因為儲存是具「持久性（persistent）」的，對吧？如果你看推論（inferencing），推論所使用的資源，不論是運算或記憶體，都可以被回收再利用；但為推論所產生的資料並不會被回收。

All that data that is getting generated is getting stored and that storage data that's being stored is persistent. And that is consistent with what we see with all our top four customers, whether their business model is in search or whether their business models in advertising or in the enterprise software space, it's pretty consistent. It's really this ongoing data storage requirements to support training, improvements in training to support the demands of inference and to support synthetic data being driven by physical AI.

所有產生出來的資料都會被儲存，而被儲存的資料是持久存在的。這與我們在前四大客戶看到的情況一致，不論他們的商業模式是搜尋、廣告，或是企業軟體領域，都相當一致。核心就是持續性的資料儲存需求，用以支援訓練、訓練的改進，以支援推論需求，並支援由實體 AI（physical AI）所驅動的合成資料（synthetic data）。

Thank you, Eddie. Operator, we'll go to our last caller, please.

謝謝你，Eddie。接線員，請讓我們進入最後一位來電者。

Jim Schneider, Goldman Sachs.

Jim Schneider，Goldman Sachs。

Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. I was wondering if you can maybe talk about at some point in time in the future, let's say, at the end of calendar '27, when you -- what level of coverage you would expect to be shipping in terms of HAMR on in terms of exabyte shipments?

下午好。謝謝讓我提問。我想請教，未來某個時間點，例如在 2027 年曆年底，你們預期在 HAMR 的出貨覆蓋程度會是多少？以 exabyte 出貨量來看，大概會是什麼水準？

Yeah. We don't have a number that we are putting out there right now, Jim. Obviously, our focus has been to, as we stated repeatedly, is to ensure we derisk the transition for our customers to HAMR. We have taken a slightly different path where we have a dual track process. We continue to deliver aerial density improvement in high-capacity ePMR drives even as we introduce HAMR.

是的，Jim。我們目前沒有對外提供一個具體數字。很明顯地，我們的重點一直是——如我們反覆提到的——確保為客戶降低轉換到 HAMR 的風險。我們採取了稍微不同的路徑，採用雙軌並行的方式：在導入 HAMR 的同時，我們也持續在高容量 ePMR 硬碟上提供面密度提升。

And that gives the customers both the confidence in the transition, but at the same time to be able to enjoy better TCO through the higher aerial density. And when we get to the right reliability, we get to the right yield, we'll make that transition accordingly to HAMR to become -- to make it the mainstream of exabytes that we ship.

這讓客戶對轉換更有信心，同時也能透過更高的面密度享有更好的總持有成本（TCO）。當我們達到合適的可靠度、達到合適的良率時，我們就會相應地完成向 HAMR 的轉換，讓它成為我們出貨 exabyte 的主流。

Yeah. And just to add there, we indicated we have now four customers in qualification with HAMR. We are somewhat ahead of schedule compared to our initial plan. The feedback that we are getting from all our customers is very positive. And so our HAMR development is going really well.

是的。另外補充一下，我們已表示目前有四位客戶正在進行 HAMR 的認證（qualification）。相較於我們最初的計畫，我們的進度有些超前。我們從所有客戶那裡得到的回饋都非常正面，因此我們的 HAMR 開發進展得非常順利。

Thank you, Jim.

謝謝你，Jim。

Thank you. And that concludes our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Tan for any closing remarks.

謝謝。問答環節到此結束。我想把會議交回給 Tan 先生，請他做結語。

Thank you. As we shared today, we're really excited about the opportunity ahead of us and the road map that we put forward in WD really positions us well to address our customer needs and the demands that they have going forward.

謝謝。正如我們今天分享的，我們對眼前的機會以及我們提出的路線圖感到非常振奮。WD 的路線圖讓我們處於非常有利的位置，能夠滿足客戶需求，以及他們未來的各項需求。

I want to take this moment to really thank all our WD drivers, our business partners for their commitment, to our customers and all that they do for WD. So thank you again for joining us here today, and hope all of you have a great rest of the day.

我也想藉此機會，衷心感謝所有 WD 的夥伴、我們的商業合作夥伴，對我們客戶以及對 WD 的承諾與付出。再次感謝各位今天的參與，祝大家今天剩下的時間一切順利。

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.

謝謝。今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝各位加入。您現在可以掛斷電話線。