Western Digital Q2 2026 Western Digital Corp Earnings Call | AllMind AI Earnings | AllMind AI
Q2 2026 Western Digital Corp Earnings Call
Speaker #1: Good afternoon, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Western Digital's second quarter fiscal 2026 conference call. Presently, all participants are in listen-only mode.
Operator: Good afternoon, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Western Digital's Q2 fiscal 2026 conference call. Presently, all participants are in listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. At that time, if you would like to ask a question, you may press Star, then 1 on your touch-tone phone. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. Now I will turn the call over to Mr. Ambrish Srivastava, Vice President, Investor Relations. You may begin.
Operator: Good afternoon, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Western Digital's Q2 fiscal 2026 conference call. Presently, all participants are in listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. At that time, if you would like to ask a question, you may press Star, then 1 on your touch-tone phone. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. Now I will turn the call over to Mr. Ambrish Srivastava, Vice President, Investor Relations. You may begin.
Speaker #1: Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. At that time, if you would like to ask a question, you may press star then one on your phone.
Speaker #1: As a reminder, this call is being recorded. Now, I will turn the call over to Mr. Ambrish Srivastava, Vice President, Investor Relations. You may begin.
Speaker #2: 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.
Ambrish Srivastava: 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. 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. 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.
Ambrish Srivastava: 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. 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. 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.
Speaker #2: 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.
Speaker #2: These forward-looking statements include expectations for our product portfolio, our business plans and performance, ongoing market trends, and our future financial results. We assume no obligation to update these statements.
Speaker #2: 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.
Speaker #2: In our prepared remarks, our comments will be related to non-GAAP results on a 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.
Ambrish Srivastava: 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 Western Digital as a company and not speaking on behalf of the industry. With that, I will now turn the call over to Irving for introductory remarks. Irving?
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 Western Digital as a company and not speaking on behalf of the industry. With that, I will now turn the call over to Irving for introductory remarks. Irving?
Speaker #2: 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 Western Digital as a company and not speaking on behalf of the industry.
Speaker #2: With that, I will now turn the call over to Irving for introductory remarks. Irving?
Speaker #3: Thanks, Ambrish. And good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. The growth and impact of AI continues to accelerate across numerous industries.
Irving Tan: Thanks, Ambrish, and good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. The growth and impact of AI continues to accelerate across numerous industries. As generative AI models become the norm and agentic AI scales to drive business productivity, it is clear that AI is becoming a true strategic enabler of business transformation. AI inference has also begun to take hold, in many ways becoming the true AI workload, with deployment to chatbots, virtual assistants, and customer relationship management tools. Further innovations in physical AI are also accelerating quickly, generating increasingly larger multimodal models propelled by advancements in autonomous vehicles and robotics. In all cases, it is data that is needed to fuel the entire AI process, from training to inference, to enable stronger models and sharper inference results.
Irving Tan: Thanks, Ambrish, and good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. The growth and impact of AI continues to accelerate across numerous industries. As generative AI models become the norm and agentic AI scales to drive business productivity, it is clear that AI is becoming a true strategic enabler of business transformation. AI inference has also begun to take hold, in many ways becoming the true AI workload, with deployment to chatbots, virtual assistants, and customer relationship management tools. Further innovations in physical AI are also accelerating quickly, generating increasingly larger multimodal models propelled by advancements in autonomous vehicles and robotics. In all cases, it is data that is needed to fuel the entire AI process, from training to inference, to enable stronger models and sharper inference results.
Speaker #3: As generative AI models become the norm and agentic AI scales to drive business productivity, it is clear that AI is becoming a true strategic enabler of business transformation.
Speaker #3: AI inference has also begun to take hold, in many ways becoming the true AI workload, with deployment to chatbots and virtual assistants, and customer relationship management tools.
Speaker #3: Further innovations in physical AI are also accelerating quickly. Generating increasingly larger multimodal models is being propelled by advancements in autonomous vehicles and robotics. In all cases, it is data that is needed to fuel the entire AI process.
Speaker #3: From training to inference to enable stronger models and sharper inference results. And as more data is generated and the value of data increases, the demand to store it is expanding at a rapid rate.
Irving Tan: As more data is generated and the value of data increases, the demand to store it is expanding at a rapid rate. As AI capabilities expand, cloud continues to grow as well, and both are driving the search and demand for higher density storage solutions. In this new era where AI and cloud dominate, Western Digital has taken a customer-focused approach to managing the strong demand by working closely with our hyperscale customers, ensuring that we deliver reliable, high-capacity drives at scale to give them the best performance and total cost of ownership. We are doing this by continuing to focus on increasing our drives' areal density and accelerating our HAMR and ePMR roadmaps, as well as upshifting our customers to accelerate adoption of higher capacity drives and UltraSMR technology.
As more data is generated and the value of data increases, the demand to store it is expanding at a rapid rate. As AI capabilities expand, cloud continues to grow as well, and both are driving the search and demand for higher density storage solutions. In this new era where AI and cloud dominate, Western Digital has taken a customer-focused approach to managing the strong demand by working closely with our hyperscale customers, ensuring that we deliver reliable, high-capacity drives at scale to give them the best performance and total cost of ownership. We are doing this by continuing to focus on increasing our drives' areal density and accelerating our HAMR and ePMR roadmaps, as well as upshifting our customers to accelerate adoption of higher capacity drives and UltraSMR technology.
Speaker #3: As AI capabilities expand, cloud continues to grow as well, and both are driving the search and demand for higher-density storage solutions. In this new era where AI and cloud dominate, Western Digital has taken a customer-focused approach to managing the strong demand by working closely with our hyperscale customers.
Speaker #3: Ensuring that we deliver reliable, high-capacity drives at scale to give them the best performance and total cost of ownership. We are doing this by continuing to focus on increasing our drives' areal density and accelerating our HAMR and EPMR roadmaps.
Speaker #3: As well as upshifting our customers to accelerate adoption of higher-capacity drives and ultra-SMR technology. This last quarter, we shipped over 3.5 million units.
Irving Tan: This last quarter, we shipped over 3.5 million units of our latest generation ePMR products, offering up to 26 TB CMR and 32 TB UltraSMR capacities, representing strong confidence and adoption by our customers. We have also started qualification of our HAMR and next generation ePMR products, each with a different hyperscale customer. These drives will offer our customers the higher capacity and improved total cost of ownership that they are looking for. In addition, we continue to accelerate our HAMR innovation. To support this, we recently acquired intellectual property, assets, and talent that will help us in the development of our internal laser capabilities. Also this past quarter, in partnership with software ecosystem partners, we announced our UltraSMR-enabled JBOD platforms, expanding UltraSMR adoption to a broader customer set.
This last quarter, we shipped over 3.5 million units of our latest generation ePMR products, offering up to 26 TB CMR and 32 TB UltraSMR capacities, representing strong confidence and adoption by our customers. We have also started qualification of our HAMR and next generation ePMR products, each with a different hyperscale customer. These drives will offer our customers the higher capacity and improved total cost of ownership that they are looking for. In addition, we continue to accelerate our HAMR innovation. To support this, we recently acquired intellectual property, assets, and talent that will help us in the development of our internal laser capabilities. Also this past quarter, in partnership with software ecosystem partners, we announced our UltraSMR-enabled JBOD platforms, expanding UltraSMR adoption to a broader customer set.
Speaker #3: Of our latest generation EPMR products, offering up to 26-terabyte CMR and 32-terabyte ultra-SMR capacities, representing strong confidence and adoption by our customers.
Speaker #3: We have also started qualification of our HAMR and next-generation EPMR products, each with a different hyperscale customer. These drives will offer our customers the higher capacity and improved total cost of ownership that they are looking for.
Speaker #3: In addition, we continue to accelerate our HAMR innovation. To support this, we recently acquired intellectual property assets and talent that will help us in the development of our internal laser capabilities.
Speaker #3: Also, this past quarter, in partnership with Software Ecosystem Partners, we announced our ultra-SMR-enabled JBOT platforms, expanding ultra-SMR adoption to a broader customer set. These platforms deliver significantly higher storage density compared to conventional drives.
Irving Tan: These platforms deliver significantly higher storage density compared to conventional drives, giving customers hyperscale-like performance and making mass-scale data analysis more sustainable and efficient. We are truly seeing our approach resonate with our customers, and this is reflected in longer-term agreements and better visibility into their requirements.... We have firm purchase orders with our top seven customers through calendar year 2026. We also have in place robust commercial agreements with three of our top five customers, two through calendar year 2027, and one through calendar year 2028. These agreements indicate a strong trust that we have built with our customers and confidence in our ability to meet their exabyte needs.
These platforms deliver significantly higher storage density compared to conventional drives, giving customers hyperscale-like performance and making mass-scale data analysis more sustainable and efficient. We are truly seeing our approach resonate with our customers, and this is reflected in longer-term agreements and better visibility into their requirements.... We have firm purchase orders with our top seven customers through calendar year 2026. We also have in place robust commercial agreements with three of our top five customers, two through calendar year 2027, and one through calendar year 2028. These agreements indicate a strong trust that we have built with our customers and confidence in our ability to meet their exabyte needs.
Speaker #3: Giving customers hyperscale-like performance and making mass-scale data analysis more sustainable and efficient. We are truly seeing our approach resonate with our customers, and this is reflected in longer-term agreements.
Speaker #3: And better visibility into their requirements. We affirm purchase orders with our top seven customers through calendar year 2026. We also have in place robust commercial agreements with three of our top five customers.
Speaker #3: Two through calendar year 2027 and one through calendar year 2028. These agreements indicate a strong trust that we have built with our customers and confidence in our ability to meet their exabyte needs.
Speaker #3: We are hosting an Innovation Day on February 3rd in New York next week, where we will share updated roadmaps for our HAMR and EPMR products.
Irving Tan: We are hosting an Innovation Day on 3 February in New York next week, where we will share updated roadmaps for our HAMR and ePMR products, as well as further details on core innovations that we are developing to improve our drives' performance, energy efficiency, and throughput. We will also provide an update on our financial model. In keeping with our strategy to incubate new growth vectors based on our intellectual property and core capabilities, last month, we announced a strategic investment in Qolab, which combines our expertise in material science and precision manufacturing with Qolab's breakthrough approach to quantum hardware design. Working with Qolab, we aim to advance next-generation nanofabrication processes that improve qubit performance, reliability, and scalability. Looking ahead, we see our positive momentum continuing, and we'll remain focused on supporting our customers' exabyte storage requirements while completing qualifications and launching our next-generation HAMR and ePMR drives.
We are hosting an Innovation Day on 3 February in New York next week, where we will share updated roadmaps for our HAMR and ePMR products, as well as further details on core innovations that we are developing to improve our drives' performance, energy efficiency, and throughput. We will also provide an update on our financial model. In keeping with our strategy to incubate new growth vectors based on our intellectual property and core capabilities, last month, we announced a strategic investment in Qolab, which combines our expertise in material science and precision manufacturing with Qolab's breakthrough approach to quantum hardware design. Working with Qolab, we aim to advance next-generation nanofabrication processes that improve qubit performance, reliability, and scalability. Looking ahead, we see our positive momentum continuing, and we'll remain focused on supporting our customers' exabyte storage requirements while completing qualifications and launching our next-generation HAMR and ePMR drives.
Speaker #3: As well as further details on core innovations that we are developing to improve our drives' performance, energy efficiency, and throughput. We will also provide an update on our financial model.
Speaker #3: In keeping with our strategy to incubate new growth factors, based on our intellectual property and core capabilities, last month we announced a strategic investment in Colab, which combines our expertise in material science and precision manufacturing with Colab's breakthrough approach to quantum hardware design.
Speaker #3: Working with Colab, we aim to advance the next-generation nanofabrication processes that improve qubit performance, reliability, and scalability. Looking ahead, we see our positive momentum continuing and will remain focused on supporting our customers' exabyte storage requirements.
Speaker #3: While completing qualifications and launching our next-generation HAMR and EPMR drives, I will now hand it over to Chris to share our Q2 results and outlook for...
Irving Tan: I will now hand it over to Chris to share our Q2 results and outlook for Q3.
I will now hand it over to Chris to share our Q2 results and outlook for Q3.
Speaker #3: Q3. Thank you, Irving, and good
Kris Sennesael: Thank you, Irving, and good afternoon, everyone. Western Digital delivered another quarter of strong financial performance, reflecting disciplined execution across our organization and our ability to meet the customers' growing demand in the AI-driven data economy. During Q2 of fiscal 2026, revenue was $3 billion, up 25% year-over-year, driven by strong demand for our Nearline drives. Earnings per share was $2.13. Both revenue and EPS were above the high end of the guidance range. We delivered 215 exabytes to our customers, up 22% year-over-year. This includes over 3.5 million drives or 103 exabytes of our latest generation ePMR, with capacity points up to 32 terabytes.
Kris Sennesael: Thank you, Irving, and good afternoon, everyone. Western Digital delivered another quarter of strong financial performance, reflecting disciplined execution across our organization and our ability to meet the customers' growing demand in the AI-driven data economy. During Q2 of fiscal 2026, revenue was $3 billion, up 25% year-over-year, driven by strong demand for our Nearline drives. Earnings per share was $2.13. Both revenue and EPS were above the high end of the guidance range. We delivered 215 exabytes to our customers, up 22% year-over-year. This includes over 3.5 million drives or 103 exabytes of our latest generation ePMR, with capacity points up to 32 terabytes.
Speaker #2: Good afternoon, everyone. Western Digital delivered another quarter of strong financial performance, reflecting disciplined execution across our organization and our ability to meet customers' growing demand in the AI-driven data economy.
Speaker #2: During the second quarter of fiscal 2026, revenue was $3 billion, up 25% year over year, driven by strong demand for our nearline drives. Earnings per share was $2.13.
Speaker #2: Both revenue and EPS were above the high end of the guidance range. We delivered 215 exabytes to our customers, up 22% year over year.
Speaker #2: This includes over 3.5 million drives, or 103 exabytes, of our latest-generation EPMR, with capacity points up to 32 terabytes. Cloud represented 89% of total revenue at $2.7 billion.
Kris Sennesael: Cloud represented 89% of total revenue at $2.7 billion, up 28% year-over-year, driven by strong demand for our higher capacity nearline product portfolio. Client represented 6% of total revenue at $176 million, up 26% year-over-year. Consumer represented 5% of revenue at $168 million, down 3% year-over-year. Gross margin for the fiscal second quarter was 46.1%. Gross margin improved 770 basis points year-over-year and 220 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. Operating expenses were $372 million.
Cloud represented 89% of total revenue at $2.7 billion, up 28% year-over-year, driven by strong demand for our higher capacity nearline product portfolio. Client represented 6% of total revenue at $176 million, up 26% year-over-year. Consumer represented 5% of revenue at $168 million, down 3% year-over-year. Gross margin for the fiscal second quarter was 46.1%. Gross margin improved 770 basis points year-over-year and 220 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. Operating expenses were $372 million.
Speaker #2: Up 28% year over year, driven by strong demand for our higher capacity nearline product portfolio. Client represented 6% of total revenue at $176 million, up 26% year over year.
Speaker #2: Consumer represented 5% of revenue at $168 million, down 3% year over year. Gross margin for the fiscal second quarter was 46.1%. Gross margin improved 770 basis points year over year, and 220 basis points sequentially.
Speaker #2: The improved gross margin performance reflects continued makeshift towards higher capacity drives and tight cost control in our manufacturing sites and throughout the supply chain.
Speaker #2: Operating expenses were $372 million. As a percentage of revenue, operating expenses declined 120 basis points sequentially, primarily due to operating leverage in the model.
Kris Sennesael: As a percentage of revenue, operating expenses declined 120 basis points sequentially, primarily due to operating leverage in the model. Operating income was slightly above $1 billion, translating into an operating margin of 33.8%. Interest and other expenses were $45 million, and our effective tax rate in the fiscal second quarter was 15.1%. Taking into account the diluted share count of 378 million shares, EPS was $2.13, an increase of 78% year-over-year. Turning to the balance sheet. At the end of our fiscal second quarter, cash and cash equivalents were $2 billion, and total liquidity was $3.2 billion, including the undrawn revolver capacity.
As a percentage of revenue, operating expenses declined 120 basis points sequentially, primarily due to operating leverage in the model. Operating income was slightly above $1 billion, translating into an operating margin of 33.8%. Interest and other expenses were $45 million, and our effective tax rate in the fiscal second quarter was 15.1%. Taking into account the diluted share count of 378 million shares, EPS was $2.13, an increase of 78% year-over-year. Turning to the balance sheet. At the end of our fiscal second quarter, cash and cash equivalents were $2 billion, and total liquidity was $3.2 billion, including the undrawn revolver capacity.
Speaker #2: Operating income was slightly above $1 billion, translating into an operating margin of 33.8%. Interest and other expenses were $45 million, and our effective tax rate in the fiscal second quarter was 15.1%.
Speaker #2: Taking into account the diluted share count of 378 million shares, EPS was $2.13, an increase of 78% year over year. Turning to the balance sheet, at the end of our fiscal second quarter, cash and cash equivalents were $2 billion, and total liquidity was $3.2 billion.
Speaker #2: Including the earned raw 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 well below one turn.
Kris Sennesael: Debt outstanding was $4.7 billion, translating into a net debt position of $2.7 billion and a net leverage EBITDA ratio of well below 1/3. Operating cash flow for the fiscal Q2 was $745 million, and capital expenditures were $92 million, resulting in strong free cash flow generation of $653 million for the quarter, which reflected a free cash flow margin of 21.6%. During the quarter, we made $48 million of dividend payments and increased our share repurchases to $615 million, repurchasing 3.8 million shares of common stock. Since the launch of our capital return program in the Q4 of fiscal 2025, we have returned $1.4 billion to our shareholders by way of share repurchases and dividend payments.
Debt outstanding was $4.7 billion, translating into a net debt position of $2.7 billion and a net leverage EBITDA ratio of well below 1/3. Operating cash flow for the fiscal Q2 was $745 million, and capital expenditures were $92 million, resulting in strong free cash flow generation of $653 million for the quarter, which reflected a free cash flow margin of 21.6%. During the quarter, we made $48 million of dividend payments and increased our share repurchases to $615 million, repurchasing 3.8 million shares of common stock. Since the launch of our capital return program in the Q4 of fiscal 2025, we have returned $1.4 billion to our shareholders by way of share repurchases and dividend payments.
Speaker #2: Operating cash flow for the fiscal second quarter was $745 million, and capital expenditures were $92 million, resulting in strong free cash flow generation of $653 million for the quarter.
Speaker #2: Which reflected a free cash flow margin of 21.6%. During the quarter, we made $48 million of dividend payments and increased our share repurchases to $615 million, repurchasing 3.8 million shares of common stock.
Speaker #2: Since the launch of our capital return program in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025, we have returned $1.4 billion to our shareholders by way of share repurchases and dividend payments.
Speaker #2: 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 March 18, 2026, to shareholders of record as of March 5, 2026.
Kris Sennesael: 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 18 March 2026, to shareholders of record as of 5 March 2026. I will now turn to the outlook for Q3 of fiscal 2026. We anticipate revenue to be $3.2 billion, ±$100 million. At midpoint, this reflects a growth of approximately 40% year-over-year. Gross margin is expected to be between 47% and 48%.
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 18 March 2026, to shareholders of record as of 5 March 2026. I will now turn to the outlook for Q3 of fiscal 2026. We anticipate revenue to be $3.2 billion, ±$100 million. At midpoint, this reflects a growth of approximately 40% year-over-year. Gross margin is expected to be between 47% and 48%.
Speaker #2: I will now turn to the outlook for the third quarter of fiscal 2026. We anticipate revenue to be $3.2 billion, plus or minus $100 million.
Speaker #2: At midpoint, this reflects a growth of approximately 40% year over year. Gross margin is expected to be between 47% and 48%. We expect operating expenses in the range of $380 million to $390 million.
Irving Tan: ... We expect operating expenses in the range of $380 million to $390 million. Interest and other expenses are anticipated to be approximately $50 million. The tax rate is expected to be approximately 16%. As a result, we expect diluted earnings per share to be $2.30 ±15 cents, based on a non-GAAP diluted share count of approximately 385 million shares. To wrap up, Western Digital achieved another strong quarter, with performance ahead of expectations. Our guidance for the next quarter underscore continued favorable trends in our business, alongside our disciplined approach to free cash flow, capital returns, and long-term value creation for shareholders. With that, let's now begin the Q&A. Ambrish?
... We expect operating expenses in the range of $380 million to $390 million. Interest and other expenses are anticipated to be approximately $50 million. The tax rate is expected to be approximately 16%. As a result, we expect diluted earnings per share to be $2.30 ±15 cents, based on a non-GAAP diluted share count of approximately 385 million shares. To wrap up, Western Digital achieved another strong quarter, with performance ahead of expectations. Our guidance for the next quarter underscore continued favorable trends in our business, alongside our disciplined approach to free cash flow, capital returns, and long-term value creation for shareholders. With that, let's now begin the Q&A. Ambrish?
Speaker #2: Interest and other expenses are anticipated to be approximately $50 million. The tax rate is expected to be approximately 16%. As a result, we expect diluted earnings per share to be $2.30, plus or minus 15 cents, based on a non-GAAP diluted share count of approximately 385 million shares.
Speaker #2: To wrap up, Western Digital achieved another strong quarter, with performance ahead of expectations. Our guidance for the next quarter underscored continued favorable trends in our business, alongside our disciplined approach to free cash flow, capital returns, and long-term value creation for shareholders.
Speaker #2: With that, let's now begin the Q&A. Ambrish, thank you. Chris, thank you. 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.
Ambrish Srivastava: Thank you, Kris. 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?
Ambrish Srivastava: Thank you, Kris. 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?
Speaker #2: Operator: After we respond, we will give you an opportunity to ask one follow-up question.
Speaker #3: Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer portion of today's call. If you have a question, please press star one on your phone.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer portion of today's call. If you have a question, please press star one on your phone. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star two. One moment please, for the first question. Our first question today comes from Aaron Rakers with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer portion of today's call. If you have a question, please press star one on your phone. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star two. One moment please, for the first question. Our first question today comes from Aaron Rakers with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.
Speaker #3: If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star two. One moment, please, for the first question. Our first question today comes from Aaron Rakers with Wells Fargo.
Speaker #3: Please go
Speaker #3: ahead. Yeah,
Aaron Rakers: Yeah, thanks for taking the question, and I will stick to one, Ambrish. In the gross margin line, the guidance that you're giving for 47% to 48%, I guess the back of the envelope math would suggest that you're maintaining what looks to be like a 70%, maybe 75% incremental margin flow through. So I guess my question is, you know, how do you think about the durability of that incremental margin? Or maybe taken another way, how do you think about the cost curve down on a per terabyte basis as we look out over the next, call it several quarters? Thank you.
Aaron Rakers: Yeah, thanks for taking the question, and I will stick to one, Ambrish. In the gross margin line, the guidance that you're giving for 47% to 48%, I guess the back of the envelope math would suggest that you're maintaining what looks to be like a 70%, maybe 75% incremental margin flow through. So I guess my question is, you know, how do you think about the durability of that incremental margin? Or maybe taken another way, how do you think about the cost curve down on a per terabyte basis as we look out over the next, call it several quarters? Thank you.
Speaker #4: Thanks for taking the question. And I will stick to one, Ambrish. In a gross margin line, the guidance that you're giving for 47% to 48%, I guess the back of the envelope math would suggest that you're maintaining what looks to be like a 70%, maybe 75% incremental margin flow-through.
Speaker #4: So I guess my question is, how do you think about the durability of that incremental margin? Or, maybe taking it another way, how do you think about the cost curve coming down on a per-terabyte basis as we look out over the next several quarters?
Speaker #4: Thank you.
Speaker #5: Yes, Aaron, thanks for your question. And so, first of all, I'm really happy with what's going on with the gross margin. We delivered a 46.1% gross margin, up 220 basis points quarter over quarter, and up 770 basis points year over year.
Kris Sennesael: Yes, Aaron, thanks for your question. First of all, I'm really happy with what's going on with the gross margin. When we delivered 46.1% gross margin, up 220 basis points quarter-over-quarter, up 770 basis points year-over-year, and we are guiding to 47-48%, so 47.5% at the midpoint, which is up 740 basis points on a year-over-year basis. Aaron, I think your math is working. The incremental gross margin is on or about 75%, depending on how you look at it on a year-over-year basis or quarter-over-quarter basis. As I've stated before, I'm very comfortable with an incremental gross margin higher than 50%, and definitely 75% is higher than 50%.
Kris Sennesael: Yes, Aaron, thanks for your question. First of all, I'm really happy with what's going on with the gross margin. When we delivered 46.1% gross margin, up 220 basis points quarter-over-quarter, up 770 basis points year-over-year, and we are guiding to 47-48%, so 47.5% at the midpoint, which is up 740 basis points on a year-over-year basis. Aaron, I think your math is working. The incremental gross margin is on or about 75%, depending on how you look at it on a year-over-year basis or quarter-over-quarter basis. As I've stated before, I'm very comfortable with an incremental gross margin higher than 50%, and definitely 75% is higher than 50%.
Speaker #5: And we are guiding to 47, 48%. So 47.5% at the midpoint, which is up 740 basis points on a year-over-year basis. And Aaron, I think your math is working.
Speaker #5: The incremental gross margin is on or about 75%, depending on how you look at it on a year-over-year basis or quarter-over-quarter basis.
Speaker #5: So I've stated before, I'm very comfortable with an incremental gross margin higher than 50%. And definitely, 75% is higher than 50%. I mean, in gross margins, there's two sides to the equation.
Kris Sennesael: I mean, in gross margins, there's two sides to the equation. On one hand, you have pricing environment, and the other hand, you have the cost environment. In pricing, I've talked about that before, we see a stable pricing environment, with prices on a price per terabyte, a kind of flattish to slightly up. Actually, last quarter, it was up 2-3% on a ASP per terabyte basis. So that clearly demonstrate the value that we continue to deliver to our customers. And on the cost front, the teams continue to execute really well. We continue to upshift our customers to higher capacity drives, which gives us a cost benefit. And then there is great execution as well on driving down the cost in our manufacturing assets, as well as throughout the supply chain.
I mean, in gross margins, there's two sides to the equation. On one hand, you have pricing environment, and the other hand, you have the cost environment. In pricing, I've talked about that before, we see a stable pricing environment, with prices on a price per terabyte, a kind of flattish to slightly up. Actually, last quarter, it was up 2-3% on a ASP per terabyte basis. So that clearly demonstrate the value that we continue to deliver to our customers. And on the cost front, the teams continue to execute really well. We continue to upshift our customers to higher capacity drives, which gives us a cost benefit. And then there is great execution as well on driving down the cost in our manufacturing assets, as well as throughout the supply chain.
Speaker #5: On one hand, you have the pricing environment, and on the other hand, you have the cost environment. In pricing, I've talked about that before. We see a stable pricing environment with prices on a price-per-terabyte kind of flattish to slightly up—actually, last quarter it was up 2% to 3% on an ASP-per-terabyte basis.
Speaker #5: So, there, we clearly demonstrate the value that we continue to deliver to our customers. And on the cost front, the teams continue to execute really well.
Speaker #5: We continue to upshift our customers to higher capacity drives, which gives us a cost benefit. And then there is great execution as well on driving down the cost in our manufacturing assets, as well as throughout the supply chain.
Speaker #5: And when you look at it, last quarter the cost per terabyte was coming down on or about 10% on a year-over-year basis. And so, when you put this all together, we continue to drive further gross margin expansion.
Kris Sennesael: When you look at it last quarter, the cost per terabyte was coming down on or about 10% on a year-over-year basis. So when you put this all together, we continue to drive further gross margin expansion, and we believe in the next couple of quarters and beyond, we will continue to be able to do that.
When you look at it last quarter, the cost per terabyte was coming down on or about 10% on a year-over-year basis. So when you put this all together, we continue to drive further gross margin expansion, and we believe in the next couple of quarters and beyond, we will continue to be able to do that.
Speaker #5: And we believe in the next couple of quarters and beyond, we will continue to be able to do that.
Speaker #5: And we believe in the next couple of quarters and beyond, we will continue to be able to do that.
Aaron Rakers: Thank you. Thank you.
Aaron Rakers: Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker #5: Thank you. Thank you, Aaron. We'll go to the next question.
Ambrish Srivastava: Thank you, Aaron. We'll go to the next question, please.
Ambrish Srivastava: Thank you, Aaron. We'll go to the next question, please.
Speaker #5: The next question is from Eric. Eric, your line is open.
Operator: The next question is from Eric Woodring with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Operator: The next question is from Eric Woodring with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Speaker #3: Woodring with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Speaker #3: ahead. Great, guys.
Eric Woodring: Great, guys. Thank you for taking my questions. Irving, you know, just given the tightness of the HDD market and kind of the significant inflation that NAND is going through right now, can you maybe just talk about maybe your patience in being able to sign purchase orders further into calendar 2027 to extract better economics, just relative to maybe how you were approaching signing POs last year? Is that making any difference in the economics you're able to extract? And then, thank you.
Erik Woodring: Great, guys. Thank you for taking my questions. Irving, you know, just given the tightness of the HDD market and kind of the significant inflation that NAND is going through right now, can you maybe just talk about maybe your patience in being able to sign purchase orders further into calendar 2027 to extract better economics, just relative to maybe how you were approaching signing POs last year? Is that making any difference in the economics you're able to extract? And then, thank you.
Speaker #7: Thank you for taking my questions. Irving, just given the tightness of the HDD market and the significant inflation that NAND is going through right now, can you maybe just talk about your patience in being able to sign purchase orders further into calendar '27 to extract better economics?
Speaker #7: Just relative to maybe how you were approaching signing POs last year, is that making any difference in the economics you're able to extract? And then, thank—
Speaker #7: you. Yeah, thanks, Eric.
Irving Tan: Yeah, thanks, Eric. As we highlighted, you know, we're pretty much sold out for calendar year 2026. We have firm POs with our top 7 customers, and we've also established LTAs with 2 of them for calendar year 2027 and 1 with them for calendar year 2028. Obviously, these LTAs have a combination of volume of exabytes and price. And in relation to pricing, I think first, it's important to recognize that our customers actually have seen value, that there's actually a structural shift in the value that we deliver to them, especially in the impact that we have to their total cost of ownership, as the business moves more and more towards inference, where monetization is happening. So, in this case, the pricing that we've provided there reflects the value that we're delivering to them.
Irving Tan: Yeah, thanks, Eric. As we highlighted, you know, we're pretty much sold out for calendar year 2026. We have firm POs with our top 7 customers, and we've also established LTAs with 2 of them for calendar year 2027 and 1 with them for calendar year 2028. Obviously, these LTAs have a combination of volume of exabytes and price. And in relation to pricing, I think first, it's important to recognize that our customers actually have seen value, that there's actually a structural shift in the value that we deliver to them, especially in the impact that we have to their total cost of ownership, as the business moves more and more towards inference, where monetization is happening. So, in this case, the pricing that we've provided there reflects the value that we're delivering to them.
Speaker #5: As we highlighted, we're pretty much sold out for calendar year '26. We have firm POs with our top seven customers, and we've also established LTAs with two of them for calendar year '27 and one of them for calendar year '28.
Speaker #5: Obviously, these LTAs have a combination of volume of exabytes and price. And in relation to pricing, I think first it's important to recognize that our customers actually have seen value—that there's actually a structural shift in the value that we deliver to them, especially in the impact that we have to their total cost of ownership, as the business moves more and more towards inference, where monetization is happening.
Speaker #5: So in this case, the pricing that we've provided there reflects the value that we have created, that we're delivering to them. And so, as Chris mentioned, we continue to see, going forward, a stable pricing environment that gives us an opportunity to continue to extract more value as we deliver both better TCO value to our customers and better support their supply-demand needs as well.
Irving Tan: And so, as Chris mentioned, we continue to see, going forward, a stable pricing environment that gives us an opportunity to continue to extract more value as we deliver both better TCO value to our customers and to better support their supply-demand needs as well, through higher capacity drives.
And so, as Chris mentioned, we continue to see, going forward, a stable pricing environment that gives us an opportunity to continue to extract more value as we deliver both better TCO value to our customers and to better support their supply-demand needs as well, through higher capacity drives.
Speaker #5: through higher capacity drives. Do you
Kris Sennesael: ... Do you have a follow-up, Eric?
Kris Sennesael: ... Do you have a follow-up, Eric?
Speaker #4: have a follow-up, Eric?
Speaker #7: Sure. Just very quickly, Chris, we'd just love to know how you're approaching the SanDisk share ownership. Do you still plan to monetize before—I think it's the February 21st deadline?
Eric Woodring: Sure. Just very quickly, Chris, would, would just love to know how you're approaching the SanDisk share ownership. Do you still plan to monetize before, I think it's the February 21 deadline? And more importantly, how do you expect to leverage those proceeds? Thanks so much, guys. Best of luck.
Erik Woodring: Sure. Just very quickly, Chris, would, would just love to know how you're approaching the SanDisk share ownership. Do you still plan to monetize before, I think it's the February 21 deadline? And more importantly, how do you expect to leverage those proceeds? Thanks so much, guys. Best of luck.
Speaker #7: And more importantly, how do you expect to leverage those proceeds? Thanks so much, guys. Best of luck.
Speaker #5: Yes, Eric. As you probably know, we still have 7.5 million SanDisk shares, and it's our intention to monetize those shares before the one-year anniversary of the separation.
Kris Sennesael: Yes, Eric, as you probably know, we still have 7.5 million SanDisk shares, and it's our intention to monetize those shares before the one-year anniversary of the separation. Likely in a similar transaction that we have done before, meaning it's a debt for equity swap, and so the proceeds will be used to further reduce the debt.
Kris Sennesael: Yes, Eric, as you probably know, we still have 7.5 million SanDisk shares, and it's our intention to monetize those shares before the one-year anniversary of the separation. Likely in a similar transaction that we have done before, meaning it's a debt for equity swap, and so the proceeds will be used to further reduce the debt.
Speaker #5: Likely in a similar transaction that we have done before, meaning it's a debt-for-equity swap. And so, the proceeds will be used to further reduce the debt.
Speaker #5: Likely in a similar transaction that we have done before, meaning it's a debt-for-equity swap. And so, the proceeds will be used to further reduce the debt.
Speaker #4: Thank you, Eric. Next question, please, Dr.
Eric Woodring: Thank you, Eric. Next question, please, operator?
Erik Woodring: Thank you, Eric. Next question, please, operator?
Speaker #7: Best of
Speaker #7: Luck. The next question is from CJ News.
Operator: The next question is from C.J. Muse with Cantor Fitzgerald. Please go ahead.
Operator: The next question is from C.J. Muse with Cantor Fitzgerald. Please go ahead.
Speaker #3: with Cantor Fitzgerald. Please go
Speaker #3: ahead. Yeah, hi.
C.J. Muse: Yeah, hi. Yeah, thanks for taking the question. I guess, could you speak to how customer engagement and contracts are evolving in this very tight environment? Thanks so much.
C.J. Muse: Yeah, hi. Yeah, thanks for taking the question. I guess, could you speak to how customer engagement and contracts are evolving in this very tight environment? Thanks so much.
Speaker #5: Yeah, thanks for taking the question. I guess, could you speak to how customer engagement and contracts are evolving in this very tight environment? Thanks so much.
Speaker #5: Yeah, thanks for taking the question. I guess, could you speak to how customer engagement and contracts are evolving in this very tight environment? Thanks so much.
Speaker #7: Yeah, CJ, this is Irving. Thanks for the question. One of the things that we've been very focused on over the last year is really developing a much more customer-centric approach, as we've shared.
Irving Tan: Yeah, CJ, this is Irving. Thanks for the question. You know, one of the things that we've been very focused on over the last year is really develop a much more customer-centric approach. As we've shared in the past, we've really pivoted our organization to be centered around our big hyperscale customers with dedicated teams for each of them. That's really deepened the relationship that we have with them in terms of both technology, roadmap development, in terms of getting better visibility of their demand requirements, and you see the result of that in the longer-term LTAs we've been able to structure with them. We're also looking forward to sharing with all of you the innovations that we are gonna be delivering to support the AI needs, workloads, needs going forward at our Innovation Day next week.
Irving Tan: Yeah, CJ, this is Irving. Thanks for the question. You know, one of the things that we've been very focused on over the last year is really develop a much more customer-centric approach. As we've shared in the past, we've really pivoted our organization to be centered around our big hyperscale customers with dedicated teams for each of them. That's really deepened the relationship that we have with them in terms of both technology, roadmap development, in terms of getting better visibility of their demand requirements, and you see the result of that in the longer-term LTAs we've been able to structure with them. We're also looking forward to sharing with all of you the innovations that we are gonna be delivering to support the AI needs, workloads, needs going forward at our Innovation Day next week.
Speaker #7: In the past, we've really pivoted our organization to be centered around our big hyperscale customers, with dedicated teams for each of them. That's really deepened the relationship that we have with them in terms of both technology and roadmap development, in terms of getting better visibility of their demand requirements, and you see the result of that in the longer-term LTAs we've been able to structure.
Speaker #7: With them, we're also looking forward to sharing with all of you the innovations that we are going to be delivering to support the AI needs, workloads, needs going forward at our Innovation Day.
Speaker #7: Next week, but definitely the relationship has improved. As I highlighted, they definitely see the value, and that's resulting in the structural change that we're seeing in terms of pricing.
Irving Tan: But definitely, the relationship has improved, as I highlighted. They definitely see the value and the structural change that's resulting in the structural change that we're seeing in terms of pricing with them. That's also resulting in the longer-term contracts that we have. Ultimately, what we want to do is to be able to ensure that the fair value exchange deliver predictable pricing to them, because one of the things that they are concerned about is the high volatility of some tiers of the storage space, right? And to ensure that there's sustainable value creation, both for them and for us along the way.
But definitely, the relationship has improved, as I highlighted. They definitely see the value and the structural change that's resulting in the structural change that we're seeing in terms of pricing with them. That's also resulting in the longer-term contracts that we have. Ultimately, what we want to do is to be able to ensure that the fair value exchange deliver predictable pricing to them, because one of the things that they are concerned about is the high volatility of some tiers of the storage space, right? And to ensure that there's sustainable value creation, both for them and for us along the way.
Speaker #7: With them, that's also resulting in the longer-term contracts that we have. Ultimately, what we want to do is to be able to ensure that it's a fair value exchange, deliver predictable pricing to them, because one of the things that they are concerned about is the high volatility of some tiers of the storage space, right?
Speaker #7: And to ensure that there's sustainable value creation both for them and for us along the way.
Speaker #4: Do you have a follow-up,
Kris Sennesael: You have a follow-up, C.J.?
Kris Sennesael: You have a follow-up, C.J.?
Speaker #4: CJ? I'll just go to the next one.
C.J. Muse: Oh, let's go to the next one.
C.J. Muse: Oh, let's go to the next one.
Kris Sennesael: Oh, so sorry, C.J., go ahead.
Kris Sennesael: Oh, so sorry, C.J., go ahead.
Speaker #4: Oh, sorry, CJ. Go ahead. Yeah, sorry about that.
C.J. Muse: Yeah, sorry about that, Irving. I guess, just to follow on, the SanDisk share comment, can you talk about your plans thereafter? Are you gonna focus more so on share repurchase or, or other?
C.J. Muse: Yeah, sorry about that, Irving. I guess, just to follow on, the SanDisk share comment, can you talk about your plans thereafter? Are you gonna focus more so on share repurchase or, or other?
Speaker #5: Thanks, Ambrish. I guess just to follow up on the SanDisk share comment, can you talk about your plans thereafter? Are you going to focus more on share repurchase or something else?
Speaker #5: Well, we are already focusing on share repurchases since we've announced the $2 billion share repurchase authorization in May of 2025. We have already repurchased, or we have used, $1.3 billion of that program, repurchasing on or about 13 million shares.
Kris Sennesael: Well, we already focusing on share repurchases since we've announced a $2 billion share repurchase authorization in May 2025. We already have repurchased $1.3 billion, or we have used $1.3 billion of that program, repurchasing on or about 13 million shares, and there is no hesitation. We will continue to use that program. Thank you, C.J.
Kris Sennesael: Well, we already focusing on share repurchases since we've announced a $2 billion share repurchase authorization in May 2025. We already have repurchased $1.3 billion, or we have used $1.3 billion of that program, repurchasing on or about 13 million shares, and there is no hesitation. We will continue to use that program. Thank you, C.J.
Speaker #5: And there is no hesitation. We will continue to use that program.
Speaker #4: Thank you, CJ.
Speaker #3: The next question is from Wamsi Mohan with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Operator: The next question is from Wamsi Mohan with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Operator: The next question is from Wamsi Mohan with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Speaker #3: ahead. Hi.
[Analyst] (Bank of America): Hi, this is Ashling Greninger on for Wamsi. Congrats on the results, guys. Just one question from me. Mine's on the mix of UltraSMR. You know, just given your order book LTAs, you know, how is this mix trend on UltraSMR trending, and how does this mix shift play a role kind of as a driver of gross margins moving forward? Thanks.
Ashling Greninger: Hi, this is Ashling Greninger on for Wamsi. Congrats on the results, guys. Just one question from me. Mine's on the mix of UltraSMR. You know, just given your order book LTAs, you know, how is this mix trend on UltraSMR trending, and how does this mix shift play a role kind of as a driver of gross margins moving forward? Thanks.
Speaker #8: This is Aisling Greninger on for Wambzi. Congrats on the results, guys. Just one question for me. Mine's on the mix of Ultra SMR. Just given your order book LTAs, how is this mix trend on Ultra SMR trending, and how does this mixture play a role, kind of as a driver of gross margins moving forward?
Speaker #8: Thanks.
Speaker #5: Yeah, that's a really great question.
Irving Tan: Yeah, that's a really great question, Ashling. Thank you for that. Well, last quarter, we crossed the, on the Nearline portfolio, 50% mix on UltraSMR, and we actually see that increasing. As we've highlighted, one of the things that we're doing to better support the growth and demand from our customers is really to upshift them to higher capacity drives. A big part of that is the upshift to UltraSMR-based drives, and we see more and more customers adopting UltraSMR. We have our top three customers fully on board with UltraSMR drives already today, and we have another two to three more that are moving in, into a process of adopting UltraSMR. So we are likely to see the UltraSMR mix of our total Nearline, exabyte base continue to increase.
Irving Tan: Yeah, that's a really great question, Ashling. Thank you for that. Well, last quarter, we crossed the, on the Nearline portfolio, 50% mix on UltraSMR, and we actually see that increasing. As we've highlighted, one of the things that we're doing to better support the growth and demand from our customers is really to upshift them to higher capacity drives. A big part of that is the upshift to UltraSMR-based drives, and we see more and more customers adopting UltraSMR. We have our top three customers fully on board with UltraSMR drives already today, and we have another two to three more that are moving in, into a process of adopting UltraSMR. So we are likely to see the UltraSMR mix of our total Nearline, exabyte base continue to increase.
Speaker #5: Ashley, thank you for that. Well, last quarter we crossed, on the nearline portfolio, a 50% mix on Ultra SMR, and we actually see that increasing as we've highlighted.
Speaker #5: One of the things that we're doing to better support the growth in demand from our customers is really to upshift them to higher capacity drives. A big part of that is the upshift to UltraSMR-based drives.
Speaker #5: And we see more and more customers adopting Ultra SMR. We have our top three customers fully on board with Ultra SMR drives already today, and we have another two to three more that are moving into a process of adopting Ultra SMR.
Speaker #5: So, we are likely to see the Ultra SMR mix of our total nearline exabyte base continue to increase. Going forward, that's actually very important for us because, one, we are better able to serve our customer demand needs, as you recall.
Irving Tan: Going forward, that's actually very important for us because, one, we are better able to serve our customer demand needs. As you recall, UltraSMR gives a 20% capacity uplift over CMR and a 10% capacity uplift over the standard, industry-standard SMR. But equally important from a gross margin standpoint, UltraSMR is a software-based solution, so it's very accretive for us from a margin standpoint as well. So a higher mix of UltraSMR is definitely gonna be beneficial, both to our customers and to our ongoing profitability as well.
Going forward, that's actually very important for us because, one, we are better able to serve our customer demand needs. As you recall, UltraSMR gives a 20% capacity uplift over CMR and a 10% capacity uplift over the standard, industry-standard SMR. But equally important from a gross margin standpoint, UltraSMR is a software-based solution, so it's very accretive for us from a margin standpoint as well. So a higher mix of UltraSMR is definitely gonna be beneficial, both to our customers and to our ongoing profitability as well.
Speaker #5: Ultra SMR gives a 20% capacity uplift over CMR and a 10% capacity uplift over the industry standard SMR. But, equally important from a gross margin standpoint, Ultra SMR is a software-based solution.
Speaker #5: So it's very accretive for us from a margin standpoint as well. So a higher shift, a higher mix of Ultra SMR is definitely going to be beneficial both to our customers and to our ongoing profitability as well.
Speaker #5: And Ashley, one thing in Irving's prepared remarks—we mentioned the JBOD that we have launched, which also expands our Ultra SMR customer reach beyond what we have been targeting so far.
Kris Sennesael: Ashling, one thing in Irving's prepared remarks, we mentioned the JBOD that we have launched, which also expands our UltraSMR customer reach, beyond where we have been targeting so far. So thanks for your question. We can go to the next question, please.
Kris Sennesael: Ashling, one thing in Irving's prepared remarks, we mentioned the JBOD that we have launched, which also expands our UltraSMR customer reach, beyond where we have been targeting so far. So thanks for your question. We can go to the next question, please.
Speaker #5: Thank you for your question. We can go to the next question.
Speaker #5: So, thanks for your question. We can go to the next question, please. The next question is from
Operator: The next question is from Assia Merchant with Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Operator: The next question is from Assia Merchant with Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Speaker #3: Asya Merchant with Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Speaker #3: ahead. Hi, good
Mike Kadis: Hi, good afternoon. It's Mike Kadis at Citi for Assia today. So I have a question and perhaps a follow-up. So the first is, could you provide any color or additional color on yields and reliability? I know that is... Those are a couple of points that Irving has brought up over the past couple of quarters in relation to, to the multiple rollouts. Is there any implication to cost per bit declines that we can, we can think of?
Mike Kadis: Hi, good afternoon. It's Mike Kadis at Citi for Assia today. So I have a question and perhaps a follow-up. So the first is, could you provide any color or additional color on yields and reliability? I know that is... Those are a couple of points that Irving has brought up over the past couple of quarters in relation to, to the multiple rollouts. Is there any implication to cost per bit declines that we can, we can think of?
Speaker #4: Afternoon. It's Mike Kadiz at Citi for Asya today. So I have a question and perhaps a follow-up. The first is, could you provide any color or additional color on yields and reliability?
Speaker #4: I know that there were a couple of points that Irving has brought up over the past couple of quarters. In relation to the multiple rollouts, is there any implication to cost-per-bit declines that we can think of?
Speaker #5: Yeah, thanks for the question, Mike. So, our yields on our EPMR products continue to be very, very—they continue to be yielding very well.
Irving Tan: Yeah, thanks for the question, Mike. So our yields on our ePMR products continue to be yielding very well in the, you know, low 90s% yield range. And obviously, from a reliability and quality standpoint, we've received very good feedback from our customers. The fact that we've been able to last quarter deliver over 3.5 million units of our flagship ePMR drives is a testimony to the confidence that they have in terms of the reliability and the quality. In terms of the cost related to the cost down, obviously, as we get yields up, cost continues to decline as the UltraSMR mix goes up within those new products as well. That's also gonna be a driver of cost down as well.
Irving Tan: Yeah, thanks for the question, Mike. So our yields on our ePMR products continue to be yielding very well in the, you know, low 90s% yield range. And obviously, from a reliability and quality standpoint, we've received very good feedback from our customers. The fact that we've been able to last quarter deliver over 3.5 million units of our flagship ePMR drives is a testimony to the confidence that they have in terms of the reliability and the quality. In terms of the cost related to the cost down, obviously, as we get yields up, cost continues to decline as the UltraSMR mix goes up within those new products as well. That's also gonna be a driver of cost down as well.
Speaker #5: In the low 90s percentage yield range, and obviously from a reliability and quality standpoint, we've received very good feedback from our customers. The fact that we've been able to, last quarter, deliver over 3.5 million units of our flagship EPMR drives is a testimony to the confidence that they have in terms of the reliability and the quality.
Speaker #5: In terms of the cost related to the cost down, obviously as we get yields up, cost continues to decline. As the Ultra SMR mix goes up, within those new products as well, that's also going to be a driver of cost down as—
Speaker #5: Well, did you have a follow-up? Okay.
Mike Kadis: Okay, great.
Mike Kadis: Okay, great.
Irving Tan: Did you have a follow-up, Mike?
Kris Sennesael: Did you have a follow-up, Mike?
Speaker #5: Mike? Yeah, thank
Mike Kadis: I did, yes. Thank you for that. So can you talk more about any progress or the progress from your Rochester test and integration site? How you're leveraging perhaps those efforts to accelerate maybe the existing customer transitions? Thanks.
Mike Kadis: I did, yes. Thank you for that. So can you talk more about any progress or the progress from your Rochester test and integration site? How you're leveraging perhaps those efforts to accelerate maybe the existing customer transitions? Thanks.
Speaker #4: Thank you for that. So, can you talk more about any progress, or the progress from your Rochester test and integration site? How you're leveraging perhaps those efforts to accelerate maybe any of the existing customer transitions?
Speaker #4: Thanks.
Speaker #5: Yeah, one update that we shared in the prepared script is, actually, last quarter we indicated that we would start HAMR qualification. We pulled it forward to the first half of calendar year '26.
Irving Tan: Yeah, you know, one update that we shared in the prepared script is actually, we last quarter, we indicated that we would start HAMR qualification. We pulled it forward to the first half of calendar 2026. We actually have started qualification of those drives already, this month, for HAMR. And on top of that, we've also started qualification for our next generation, ePMR drives as well. And obviously, our Rochester SiLab plays a critical role in ensuring that we have a very smooth, quick qualification, and equally important, as they move into production environments, that they deliver the same reliability and quality that our customers have been used to, our previous generations of products. Again, on this one, we look forward to sharing a lot more on 3 February.
Irving Tan: Yeah, you know, one update that we shared in the prepared script is actually, we last quarter, we indicated that we would start HAMR qualification. We pulled it forward to the first half of calendar 2026. We actually have started qualification of those drives already, this month, for HAMR. And on top of that, we've also started qualification for our next generation, ePMR drives as well. And obviously, our Rochester SiLab plays a critical role in ensuring that we have a very smooth, quick qualification, and equally important, as they move into production environments, that they deliver the same reliability and quality that our customers have been used to, our previous generations of products. Again, on this one, we look forward to sharing a lot more on 3 February.
Speaker #5: We actually have started qualification of those drives already this month for HAMR, and on top of that, we've also started qualification for our next-generation EPMR drives.
Speaker #5: As well, and obviously, our Rochester SID lab plays a critical role in ensuring that we have a very smooth, quick qualification, and equally important, as they move into production environments, that they deliver the same reliability and quality that our customers have been used to with our previous generations of products.
Speaker #5: Again, on this one, we look forward to sharing a lot more on the 3rd of February in our Innovation Day. We'll be highlighting the updated roadmaps for both our EPMR and HAMR portfolio.
Irving Tan: In our Innovation Day, we'll be highlighting the updated roadmaps for both our ePMR and HAMR portfolio. And so we look forward to sharing more of that exciting news next week.
In our Innovation Day, we'll be highlighting the updated roadmaps for both our ePMR and HAMR portfolio. And so we look forward to sharing more of that exciting news next week.
Speaker #5: And so we look forward to sharing more of that exciting news next.
Speaker #5: week. Thank you, Mike.
Mike Kadis: Thank you, Mike.
Kris Sennesael: Thank you, Mike.
Speaker #3: The next question is from Amit Daryanani with Evercore. Please go ahead.
Operator: The next question is from Amit Daryanani with Evercore. Please go ahead.
Operator: The next question is from Amit Daryanani with Evercore. Please go ahead.
Speaker #8: Hi, this is Hannah on for Amit. I was just wondering, are there any notable investments related to Hammer that are currently flowing through COGS or operating expenses?
[Analyst] (Evercore): Hi, this is Hannah on for Amit. I was just wondering, are there any notable investments related to HAMR that are currently flowing through COGS or operating expenses? And should we expect those costs to roll off or normalize as HAMR begins to ramp?
[Analyst] (Evercore): Hi, this is Hannah on for Amit. I was just wondering, are there any notable investments related to HAMR that are currently flowing through COGS or operating expenses? And should we expect those costs to roll off or normalize as HAMR begins to ramp?
Speaker #8: And should we expect those costs to roll off or normalize as HAMR begins to ramp?
Speaker #5: Yeah, we have been working on Hammer for the last 10 years, and the engineering teams are making good progress. So there is no change there.
Kris Sennesael: Yeah, we have been working on HAMR for the last 10 years, and the engineering teams are making good progress, so there is no change there. We will continue to work on those programs, and we will, in general, continue to innovate and make performance improvements to our programs, continue to drive higher capacity drives, and those investments will continue. As it relates to the gross margin, we haven't started the HAMR ramp yet, but we are confident once we start ramping HAMR, that that will be neutral to accretive to our gross margins.
Kris Sennesael: Yeah, we have been working on HAMR for the last 10 years, and the engineering teams are making good progress, so there is no change there. We will continue to work on those programs, and we will, in general, continue to innovate and make performance improvements to our programs, continue to drive higher capacity drives, and those investments will continue. As it relates to the gross margin, we haven't started the HAMR ramp yet, but we are confident once we start ramping HAMR, that that will be neutral to accretive to our gross margins.
Speaker #5: We will continue to work on those programs, and we will, in general, continue to innovate and make performance improvements to our programs, continue to drive higher-capacity drives, and those investments will continue.
Speaker #5: As it relates to the gross margin, we haven't started the HAMR ramp yet, but we are confident once we start ramping HAMR that that will be neutral to accretive to our gross margins.
Speaker #5: Yeah, maybe just to add on to what Chris said, even with the HAMR ramp that we anticipate will happen at the start of calendar year '27, our CapEx as a percentage of revenue on a run-rate basis will still be within the 4% to 6% range.
Irving Tan: Yeah, and maybe just to add on to what Chris said, even with the HAMR ramp that we anticipate will happen at the start of calendar 2027, our CapEx as a percentage of revenue on a run rate basis, will still be within the 4% to 6% range.
Irving Tan: Yeah, and maybe just to add on to what Chris said, even with the HAMR ramp that we anticipate will happen at the start of calendar 2027, our CapEx as a percentage of revenue on a run rate basis, will still be within the 4% to 6% range.
Speaker #5: Did you
Mike Kadis: Did you have a follow-up?
Ambrish Srivastava: Did you have a follow-up?
Speaker #5: have a follow-up? No, thank
[Analyst] (Evercore): No. Thank you.
[Analyst] (Evercore): No. Thank you.
Speaker #8: you.
Speaker #5: Okay, thank
Mike Kadis: Okay, thank you.
Ambrish Srivastava: Okay, thank you.
Speaker #3: The next question is from Carl Ackerman with BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Operator: The next question is from Karl Ackerman with BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Operator: The next question is from Karl Ackerman with BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Speaker #3: ahead. Yes, thank you,
Karl Ackerman: Yes, thank you, gentlemen. Rose mid-teens in 2025, and it's projected to advance double digits again in 2026, as agentic AI is supposed to drive a significant recovery in front-end conventional servers. But in your case, because hard drive units are highly correlated to demand for conventional servers, and you're also seeing a capacity uplift from these new drives, do you believe agentic AI demand can enable you to exceed your long-term exabyte growth CAGR of low twenties? Thank you.
Karl Ackerman: Yes, thank you, gentlemen. Rose mid-teens in 2025, and it's projected to advance double digits again in 2026, as agentic AI is supposed to drive a significant recovery in front-end conventional servers. But in your case, because hard drive units are highly correlated to demand for conventional servers, and you're also seeing a capacity uplift from these new drives, do you believe agentic AI demand can enable you to exceed your long-term exabyte growth CAGR of low twenties? Thank you.
Speaker #4: Gentlemen, Rose. Mid-teens in 2025, and it's projected to advance double digits again in 2026, as Agentic AI is supposed to drive a significant recovery in front-end conventional servers.
Speaker #4: But in your case, because hard drive units are highly correlated to demand for conventional servers, and you're also seeing a content uplift from these new drives, do you believe Agentic AI demand can enable you to exceed your long-term XY growth CAGR of low 20s?
Speaker #4: Thank you.
Speaker #5: Yeah, thanks for the question, Carl. Well, I think we've definitely seen XY growth over the last few quarters, in the low 20s, as you've highlighted.
Irving Tan: Yeah, thanks for the question, Karl. Well, I think we've definitely seen exabyte growth over the last few quarters in the low 20s, as you've highlighted. Actually, we see as the AI value changes from model training to inference, more data is gonna get created as a result. In order to enable the inference delivery, more data needs to get stored as a result of that data getting generated as well.
Irving Tan: Yeah, thanks for the question, Karl. Well, I think we've definitely seen exabyte growth over the last few quarters in the low 20s, as you've highlighted. Actually, we see as the AI value changes from model training to inference, more data is gonna get created as a result. In order to enable the inference delivery, more data needs to get stored as a result of that data getting generated as well.
Speaker #5: Actually, we see as the AI value changes from model training to inference, more data is going to get created as a result. And in order to enable the inference delivery, more data needs to get stored as a result of that data getting generated as well.
Speaker #5: And if you look at the economics of being able to deliver inference at the right cost structure to drive mass scale adoption, again, a lot of that data that's getting generated and requires storage will be delivered—will be stored—on hard drives.
Irving Tan: If you look at the economics of being able to deliver inference at the right cost structure to drive mass scale adoption, again, a lot of that data that's getting generated and requires storage will be stored on hard drives, as they are, as we've highlighted in the past, where, you know, hyperscalers really are masters of managing the economics and moving data across the different tiers of SSDs, HDDs, and Tape, as well. So from our perspective and the conversations that we've been having with our customers, inference is definitely gonna drive a significant amount of data storage requirement, and that's really positive for HDDs going forward.
If you look at the economics of being able to deliver inference at the right cost structure to drive mass scale adoption, again, a lot of that data that's getting generated and requires storage will be stored on hard drives, as they are, as we've highlighted in the past, where, you know, hyperscalers really are masters of managing the economics and moving data across the different tiers of SSDs, HDDs, and Tape, as well. So from our perspective and the conversations that we've been having with our customers, inference is definitely gonna drive a significant amount of data storage requirement, and that's really positive for HDDs going forward.
Speaker #5: As they are, as we've highlighted in the past, where hyperscalers really are masters of managing the economics and moving data across the different tiers of SSDs, HDDs, and tape as well.
Speaker #5: So, from our perspective and the conversations that we've been having with our customers, inference is definitely going to drive a significant amount of data storage requirement.
Speaker #5: And that's really positive for HDDs going forward.
Speaker #5: forward. Do you have a
Mike Kadis: Do you have a follow-up, Karl?
Ambrish Srivastava: Do you have a follow-up, Karl?
Speaker #4: follow-up,
Speaker #4: Carl?
Karl Ackerman: If I may, Ambrish, just going back to HAMR. It sounds like you've pulled in the progression of HAMR, at least your first primary customer. Can you talk about the interest beyond your initial customer, given the robust hyperscaler demand for exabyte capacity? Thank you.
Speaker #1: May, Amrit, just if I—going back to Hammer—it sounds like you've pulled in the progression of Hammer, at least your first primary customer.
Karl Ackerman: If I may, Ambrish, just going back to HAMR. It sounds like you've pulled in the progression of HAMR, at least your first primary customer. Can you talk about the interest beyond your initial customer, given the robust hyperscaler demand for exabyte capacity? Thank you.
Speaker #1: Can you talk about the interest beyond your initial customer, given the robust hyperscaler demand for exabyte capacity? Thank you.
Speaker #5: Yeah, thanks for the question, Carl. As we've mentioned, we are starting qualification in the first half of this year. We've already started that with one hyperscale customer already this month, and we will be initiating qualification with another hyperscale customer relatively soon.
Irving Tan: Yeah, thanks for the question, Karl. As we've mentioned, you know, we are starting qualification in the first half of this year. We've already started that with one hyperscale customer already this month, and we will be initiating another one. We're initiating qualification with another hyperscale customer relatively soon.
Irving Tan: Yeah, thanks for the question, Karl. As we've mentioned, you know, we are starting qualification in the first half of this year. We've already started that with one hyperscale customer already this month, and we will be initiating another one. We're initiating qualification with another hyperscale customer relatively soon.
Speaker #5: soon. Thank you,
Ambrish Srivastava: Thank you, Karl.
Ambrish Srivastava: Thank you, Karl.
Speaker #4: Carl. The next question is from
Operator: The next question is from Thomas O'Malley with Barclays. Please go ahead.
Operator: The next question is from Thomas O'Malley with Barclays. Please go ahead.
Speaker #3: Thomas O'Malley with Barclays. Please go ahead.
Speaker #6: Hi, guys. Thanks for taking the question. Just a follow-up on some of the comments from the preamble about acquiring some IP, I think, on the laser side.
Thomas O'Malley: Hi, guys. Thanks for taking the question. Just to follow up on some of the comments from the preamble about acquiring some IP, I think on the laser side, could you maybe give us a little more detail on that? Maybe the size of the purchase, and then what, in particular, you needed to add on the laser side that you felt like you needed to go out and do a deal?
Thomas O'Malley: Hi, guys. Thanks for taking the question. Just to follow up on some of the comments from the preamble about acquiring some IP, I think on the laser side, could you maybe give us a little more detail on that? Maybe the size of the purchase, and then what, in particular, you needed to add on the laser side that you felt like you needed to go out and do a deal?
Speaker #6: Could you maybe give us a little more detail on that? Maybe the size of the purchase, and then what in particular you needed to add on the laser side that you felt like you needed to go out and do a deal.
Speaker #5: Yeah, thanks for the question. Well, unfortunately, the terms and conditions of the deal are confidential. So we can't really share too much about that.
Irving Tan: Yeah, thanks for the question. Well, unfortunately, the terms and conditions of the deal are confidential, so we can't really share too much about that. But we are excited about acquiring this technology. We'll share, again, more of that next week at our Innovation Day. But what I will say is it's definitely gonna give us the benefit of taking much less real estate in the drive, right? And that will actually help with manufacturability in terms of reliability. And we also see that with this innovative technology, energy requirements to support the lasers will also be reduced compared to the conventional laser diode. So we're quite excited about both the IP and the capabilities that we've acquired.
Irving Tan: Yeah, thanks for the question. Well, unfortunately, the terms and conditions of the deal are confidential, so we can't really share too much about that. But we are excited about acquiring this technology. We'll share, again, more of that next week at our Innovation Day. But what I will say is it's definitely gonna give us the benefit of taking much less real estate in the drive, right? And that will actually help with manufacturability in terms of reliability. And we also see that with this innovative technology, energy requirements to support the lasers will also be reduced compared to the conventional laser diode. So we're quite excited about both the IP and the capabilities that we've acquired.
Speaker #5: But we are excited about acquiring this technology. We'll share again more of that next week at our Innovation Day. But what I will say is, it's definitely going to give us the benefit of taking much less real estate in the drive, right?
Speaker #5: And that will actually help with manufacturability. In terms of reliability, we also see that with this innovative technology, energy requirements to support the lasers will be reduced compared to the conventional laser diode.
Speaker #5: So we're quite excited about the both the IP and the capabilities that we've acquired.
Speaker #4: Do you have a follow-up,
Ambrish Srivastava: Do you have a follow-up, Tom?
Ambrish Srivastava: Do you have a follow-up, Tom?
Speaker #4: Tom? I do.
Thomas O'Malley: I do. With NVIDIA's addition of the KV cache offload and the NAND attach that's thought to go with that, I was curious if you guys have been engaging with any large hyperscalers or any large procurers of storage for any kind of solution that would maybe attach on to custom silicon deployments, AKA, something that brings the hard drive a little bit closer to some of the accelerators, if there's a roadmap for those or if you're engaging in that way with any customers? Thank you.
Thomas O'Malley: I do. With NVIDIA's addition of the KV cache offload and the NAND attach that's thought to go with that, I was curious if you guys have been engaging with any large hyperscalers or any large procurers of storage for any kind of solution that would maybe attach on to custom silicon deployments, AKA, something that brings the hard drive a little bit closer to some of the accelerators, if there's a roadmap for those or if you're engaging in that way with any customers? Thank you.
Speaker #6: Within video's addition of the KVCash offload and the NAND attached that's thought to go with that, I was curious if you guys have been engaging with any large hyperscalers or any large procurers of storage for any kind of solution that would maybe attach on to custom silicon deployments, a.k.a.
Speaker #6: Something that brings the hard drive a little bit closer to some of the accelerators—if there’s a roadmap for those, or if you’re engaging in that way with any customers.
Speaker #6: Thank you.
Speaker #5: Yeah, no, thanks for the question. Again, I think the initiative that NVIDIA has been driving is really to help accelerate inference capability and, as I've highlighted, as a result of that, the velocity and the volume of data is going to get generated much more rapidly.
Irving Tan: Yeah. No, thanks for the question. Again, I think the initiative that NVIDIA has been driving is really to help accelerate inference capability. And as I've highlighted, as a result of that, you know, the velocity and the volume of data is gonna get generated much more rapidly. And the benefit from us, obviously, will be able to require-- It will require a lot more storage, which obviously HDDs are well suited with the superior economics. We are working on, and we've highlighted, in the prepared remarks, on interesting innovations to improve both our bandwidth and throughput of our drives. Again, something we are looking forward to be sharing with all of you next week as well.
Irving Tan: Yeah. No, thanks for the question. Again, I think the initiative that NVIDIA has been driving is really to help accelerate inference capability. And as I've highlighted, as a result of that, you know, the velocity and the volume of data is gonna get generated much more rapidly. And the benefit from us, obviously, will be able to require-- It will require a lot more storage, which obviously HDDs are well suited with the superior economics. We are working on, and we've highlighted, in the prepared remarks, on interesting innovations to improve both our bandwidth and throughput of our drives. Again, something we are looking forward to be sharing with all of you next week as well.
Speaker #5: And the benefit from us, obviously, will be able to require it will require a lot more storage. Which, obviously, HDDs are well suited with the superior economics.
Speaker #5: We are working on and we've highlighted in the prepared remarks on interesting innovations to improve both our bandwidth and throughput of our drives. Again, something we're looking forward to be sharing with all of you next week
Speaker #5: as well. Thank you,
Ambrish Srivastava: Thank you, Tom.
Ambrish Srivastava: Thank you, Tom.
Speaker #4: Tom. The next
Operator: The next question is from Vijay Rakesh with Mizuho. Please go ahead.
Operator: The next question is from Vijay Rakesh with Mizuho. Please go ahead.
Speaker #3: question is from Vijay Rakesh with Mizuho. Please go ahead.
Speaker #1: Yeah, hi, thanks, Irving and Chris. Pretty phenomenal numbers here. Just a quick question on the Hammer side. Are you expecting to pull in the Hammer roadmap timeline given how tight supply is, etc.?
Vijay Rakesh: Yeah, hi, thanks, Irving and Chris. Pretty phenomenal numbers here. Just a quick question on the HAMR side, are you expecting to pull in the HAMR roadmap timeline, given, you know, how tight supply is, et cetera?
Vijay Rakesh: Yeah, hi, thanks, Irving and Chris. Pretty phenomenal numbers here. Just a quick question on the HAMR side, are you expecting to pull in the HAMR roadmap timeline, given, you know, how tight supply is, et cetera?
Speaker #5: Yeah, we've pulled in the qualification already by half a year. And we've started the qualification process with one customer, as I just mentioned earlier, in response to Carl's question.
Irving Tan: Yeah, we've pulled in the qualification already by half a year, and we've started the qualification process with one customer. As I just mentioned earlier on to Karl's question, we will be starting a qualification with a second customer imminently, on qualification. Obviously, getting HAMR and higher capacity drives to our customers are a key part of the approach that we're taking to meet the strong demand for exabytes from our customers on HDD. But it's also very important to remember, we also have started the qualification of our next generation, ePMR drives. And those products have shown the ability not to only deliver very high capacity per drive, but also to be able to support high degree of scalability and manufacturability, where we are able to deliver large volumes of drives to our customers.
Irving Tan: Yeah, we've pulled in the qualification already by half a year, and we've started the qualification process with one customer. As I just mentioned earlier on to Karl's question, we will be starting a qualification with a second customer imminently, on qualification. Obviously, getting HAMR and higher capacity drives to our customers are a key part of the approach that we're taking to meet the strong demand for exabytes from our customers on HDD. But it's also very important to remember, we also have started the qualification of our next generation, ePMR drives. And those products have shown the ability not to only deliver very high capacity per drive, but also to be able to support high degree of scalability and manufacturability, where we are able to deliver large volumes of drives to our customers.
Speaker #5: We will be starting a qualification with a second customer imminently on qualification. Obviously, getting HAMR and higher capacity drives to our customers are a key part of the approach that we're taking to meet the strong demand for exabytes from our customers on HDD.
Speaker #5: But it's also very important to remember we also have started the qualification of our next-generation EPMR drives. And those products have shown the ability not to only deliver very high capacity per drive, but also to be able to support a high degree of scalability and manufacturability, where we are able to deliver large volumes of drives.
Speaker #5: To our customers. So last quarter, we delivered over 3.5 million drives. And this quarter, we're looking to deliver close to 4 million
Irving Tan: So last quarter, we delivered over 3.5 million drives, and this quarter, we're looking to deliver close to 4 million drives.
So last quarter, we delivered over 3.5 million drives, and this quarter, we're looking to deliver close to 4 million drives.
Speaker #1: Got it. And then on the gross margin trajectory, I guess with the incremental 50% drop-through, when you look at HAMR and RAMs, any thoughts on how we should look at those margins?
Vijay Rakesh: Got it. And then, on the gross margin trajectory, I guess, with the incremental 50% drop through, when you look at, HAMR ramps, any thoughts on how, we should look at, those margins? I guess you might cover it on the Innovation Day, but any, preliminary thoughts there? Thanks.
Vijay Rakesh: Got it. And then, on the gross margin trajectory, I guess, with the incremental 50% drop through, when you look at, HAMR ramps, any thoughts on how, we should look at, those margins? I guess you might cover it on the Innovation Day, but any, preliminary thoughts there? Thanks.
Speaker #1: I guess you might call it on the innovation day, but any preliminary thoughts
Speaker #1: there? Thanks. Yeah, I mean, as
Irving Tan: Yeah. I mean, as we've consistently highlighted, we see the transition. Once HAMR gets to the same scale as our ePMR portfolio, the gross margins for HAMR will be neutral to accretive from what we have with ePMR.
Irving Tan: Yeah. I mean, as we've consistently highlighted, we see the transition. Once HAMR gets to the same scale as our ePMR portfolio, the gross margins for HAMR will be neutral to accretive from what we have with ePMR.
Speaker #5: we've consistently highlighted, we see the transition once hammer gets to the same scale as our EPMR portfolio, the gross margins for hammer will be neutral to accretive from what we have with EPMR.
Speaker #4: Thank you, Vijay.
Vijay Rakesh: Thank you, Vijay.
Ambrish Srivastava: Thank you, Vijay.
Speaker #3: The next question is from Stephen Fox with Fox Advisors. Please go ahead.
Operator: The next question is from Stephen Fox with Fox Advisors. Please go ahead.
Operator: The next question is from Stephen Fox with Fox Advisors. Please go ahead.
Speaker #3: ahead. Hi, good
Steven Fox: Hi, good afternoon. I was wondering if you can maybe talk about the revenue per exabyte in the quarter compared to last quarter and a year ago, in the sense that, how much of the change quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year is related to change in mix? And then I had a follow-up, if I could.
Steven Fox: Hi, good afternoon. I was wondering if you can maybe talk about the revenue per exabyte in the quarter compared to last quarter and a year ago, in the sense that, how much of the change quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year is related to change in mix? And then I had a follow-up, if I could.
Speaker #7: afternoon. I was wondering if you can maybe talk about the revenue per exabyte in the quarter compared to last quarter and a year ago in the sense that how much of the change quarter over quarter and year over year is related to change in mix?
Speaker #7: And then I had a follow-up if I—
Speaker #7: could. Yeah, maybe
Irving Tan: Yeah, maybe I can start off here, and Chris might want to add in. Look, the big driver of our sort of revenue per exabyte, both year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter, is related to our cloud segment. So our big hyperscale customers, we see very strong demand from that segment. So obviously, that's driving a lot of the bits and the revenues associated with that. And in that segment, as Chris has highlighted, the pricing, you know, is stable. So in fact, it was up single-digit last quarter, and year-over-year as well. So that's a positive trend that we continue to see, and you know, that's gonna be a growth driver for the business, for the year and probably for the next two years as well.
Irving Tan: Yeah, maybe I can start off here, and Chris might want to add in. Look, the big driver of our sort of revenue per exabyte, both year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter, is related to our cloud segment. So our big hyperscale customers, we see very strong demand from that segment. So obviously, that's driving a lot of the bits and the revenues associated with that. And in that segment, as Chris has highlighted, the pricing, you know, is stable. So in fact, it was up single-digit last quarter, and year-over-year as well. So that's a positive trend that we continue to see, and you know, that's gonna be a growth driver for the business, for the year and probably for the next two years as well.
Speaker #5: I can start off here, and Chris might want to add in. Look, a big driver of our sort of revenue per exabyte both year and year and quarter and quarter is related to our cloud segment.
Speaker #5: So our big hyperscale customers—we see very strong demand from that segment. So, obviously, that's driving a lot of the bids and the revenues associated with that.
Speaker #5: And in that segment, as Chris has highlighted, the pricing is stable. So, in fact, it was up single digits last quarter, and year on year as well.
Speaker #5: So that's a positive trend that we continue to see, and that's going to be a growth driver for the business for the year, and probably for the next two years as well.
Speaker #7: Thanks. And if I could just quickly follow up, can you—just, is there any commentary on how successful you were in terms of maybe getting out more exabytes during the quarter than originally planned for, whether through quicker customer qualifications or your own efficiencies?
Steven Fox: Thanks. If I could just quickly follow up. Can you just... Is there any commentary on what, how successful you were in terms of maybe getting out more exabytes during the quarter than originally planned for? Or, you know, whether through quicker customer qualifications or your own efficiencies. Any update there would help. Thank you.
Steven Fox: Thanks. If I could just quickly follow up. Can you just... Is there any commentary on what, how successful you were in terms of maybe getting out more exabytes during the quarter than originally planned for? Or, you know, whether through quicker customer qualifications or your own efficiencies. Any update there would help. Thank you.
Speaker #7: Any update there would help. Thank you.
Speaker #5: Yeah. Well, last quarter, we delivered 215 exabytes, right? That was up 22% year and year. And again, a lot of it's being driven by our cloud portfolio as we've highlighted.
Irving Tan: Yeah. Well, last quarter, we delivered 215 exabytes, right? That was up 22%, year-over-year. And again, a lot of it's being driven by our cloud portfolio. As we've highlighted, we shipped over 3.5 million units of our current, you know, ePMR products that go up to 32 terabytes. So it's a clear recognition of the stability, quality, and scalability of that product. So we will continue to do that, and we look forward to ramping the next generation of ePMR and HAMR in the coming quarters to better support the customer demand.
Irving Tan: Yeah. Well, last quarter, we delivered 215 exabytes, right? That was up 22%, year-over-year. And again, a lot of it's being driven by our cloud portfolio. As we've highlighted, we shipped over 3.5 million units of our current, you know, ePMR products that go up to 32 terabytes. So it's a clear recognition of the stability, quality, and scalability of that product. So we will continue to do that, and we look forward to ramping the next generation of ePMR and HAMR in the coming quarters to better support the customer demand.
Speaker #5: We ship over 3.5 million units of our current EPMR products that go up to 32 terabytes. So it's a clear recognition of the stability, quality, and scalability of that product.
Speaker #5: So we will continue to do that. And we look forward to ramping the next generation of EPMR and hammer in the coming quarters to better support the
Speaker #5: customer demands. Thank you,
Kris Sennesael: ... Thank you, Stephen.
Ambrish Srivastava: ... Thank you, Stephen.
Speaker #4: Stephen. The next
Operator: The next question is from Ananda Baruah with Loop Capital. Please go ahead.
Operator: The next question is from Ananda Baruah with Loop Capital. Please go ahead.
Speaker #3: question is from Ananda Barua with Loop Capital. Please go ahead.
Speaker #7: Yeah, good afternoon, guys. Thanks for taking the question. On cost down, you mentioned—I think, Kris—the December quarter was 10% year-over-year down.
Ananda Baruah: Yeah, good afternoon, guys. Thanks for taking the question. On cost down, you mentioned that, I think, Kris, December quarter was 10% year-over-year down, and with UltraSMR becoming a larger portion of the ship, and then with HAMR coming on, you know, sort of margin neutral to positive, should... do you think that cost down. I think it's classically been about 10% year-over-year. Do you think that can increase in coming years, cost out increasing for per exabyte ship? Thanks.
Ananda Baruah: Yeah, good afternoon, guys. Thanks for taking the question. On cost down, you mentioned that, I think, Kris, December quarter was 10% year-over-year down, and with UltraSMR becoming a larger portion of the ship, and then with HAMR coming on, you know, sort of margin neutral to positive, should... do you think that cost down. I think it's classically been about 10% year-over-year. Do you think that can increase in coming years, cost out increasing for per exabyte ship? Thanks.
Speaker #7: And with Ultra SMR becoming a larger portion of the ship, and then with HAMR coming on—sort of margin-neutral deposits—do you think that cost down, and I think it's classically been about 10% year over year?
Speaker #7: Do you think that can increase in coming years cost out increasing per exabyte ship? Thanks.
Speaker #5: Yeah, so currently, it's all not about 10% cost per terabyte or exabyte reductions. Obviously, we will continue to innovate, continue to push to higher-capacity drives, continue to upshift our customers to adoption of those higher-capacity drives, including Ultra SMR.
Kris Sennesael: Yeah. So currently it's on or about 10% cost per terabyte or exabyte reductions. Obviously, we will continue to innovate, continue to push to higher capacity drives, continue to upshift our customers to adoption of those higher capacity drives, including Ultra SMR. And all of those actions will lead to further cost reductions on a cost per terabyte. I think it's fair to say that there's on or about 10% is a good number. And as we potentially accelerate our roadmaps, we could potentially drive that higher.
Kris Sennesael: Yeah. So currently it's on or about 10% cost per terabyte or exabyte reductions. Obviously, we will continue to innovate, continue to push to higher capacity drives, continue to upshift our customers to adoption of those higher capacity drives, including Ultra SMR. And all of those actions will lead to further cost reductions on a cost per terabyte. I think it's fair to say that there's on or about 10% is a good number. And as we potentially accelerate our roadmaps, we could potentially drive that higher.
Speaker #5: And all of those actions will lead to further cost reductions on a cost per terabyte I think it's fair to say that there's all or about 10% is a good number.
Speaker #5: And as we potentially accelerate our roadmaps, we could potentially drive that higher.
Speaker #7: That's super
Ananda Baruah: That's super helpful.
Ananda Baruah: That's super helpful.
Speaker #1: Yeah, I have a follow-up on it.
Kris Sennesael: Do you have a follow-up, Ananda?
Ambrish Srivastava: Do you have a follow-up, Ananda?
Speaker #7: Yeah, quick on this. Thanks. This may be one for next week, actually, but just interested in understanding how far up the aerial density stack you think you can get CMR and UltraSMR before you really get hammered.
Ananda Baruah: Yeah, quick, quick, Andres, thanks. This may be one for next week, actually, but just interested in understanding how far up the areal density stack do you think you can get CMR and UltraSMR, you know, before you really get HAMR going? Thanks.
Ananda Baruah: Yeah, quick, quick, Andres, thanks. This may be one for next week, actually, but just interested in understanding how far up the areal density stack do you think you can get CMR and UltraSMR, you know, before you really get HAMR going? Thanks.
Speaker #7: going? Thanks. Yeah,
Irving Tan: Yeah, I think that's something we are looking very much forward to sharing with you next week, so we look forward to seeing you there.
Irving Tan: Yeah, I think that's something we are looking very much forward to sharing with you next week, so we look forward to seeing you there.
Speaker #5: I think that's something we are looking very much forward to sharing with you next week. So we look forward to seeing you
Speaker #5: there. Go to the next question,
Kris Sennesael: Go to the next question, please. Thank you, Ananda.
Ambrish Srivastava: Go to the next question, please. Thank you, Ananda.
Speaker #1: Thank you, Anand.
Speaker #3: The please.
Speaker #3: Last question is from Chris Sankar with TD Cowen. Please go ahead.
Operator: The last question is from Krish Sankar with TD Cowen. Please go ahead.
Operator: The last question is from Krish Sankar with TD Cowen. Please go ahead.
Speaker #3: ahead. Hey, guys.
[Analyst] (TD Cowen): Hey, guys, this is Eddie for Krish. You mentioned you had 3 LTAs for 2027 and 2028 that are volume, not price-based. I do wonder, what is the reason these contracts are not locked in price, especially given the very tight supply? Is it the customer who prefer not to lock in price, or is it you guys who prefer to have the flexibility? Any high level color would be helpful. Thank you.
[Analyst] (TD Cowen): Hey, guys, this is Eddie for Krish. You mentioned you had 3 LTAs for 2027 and 2028 that are volume, not price-based. I do wonder, what is the reason these contracts are not locked in price, especially given the very tight supply? Is it the customer who prefer not to lock in price, or is it you guys who prefer to have the flexibility? Any high level color would be helpful. Thank you.
Speaker #2: This is Eddie for Chris. You mentioned you had three LTAs for 2027 and 2028 that are volume and not price-based. I do wonder what is the reason these contracts are not plugged in price, especially given the very tight supply.
Speaker #2: Is it the customer who prefers not to lock in price, or is it you guys who prefer to have the flexibility? Any high-level color would be helpful.
Speaker #2: Thank you.
Speaker #5: Yeah, thanks
Irving Tan: Yeah, thanks for the question. Just to clarify, we have two customers that have LTAs through calendar 2027, one customer that has an LTA through calendar 2028. These LTAs have both price and volume conditions in them.
Irving Tan: Yeah, thanks for the question. Just to clarify, we have two customers that have LTAs through calendar 2027, one customer that has an LTA through calendar 2028. These LTAs have both price and volume conditions in them.
Speaker #5: Just to clarify, we have two customers that have LTAs through calendar year '27. One customer has an LTA through calendar year '28.
Speaker #5: These LTAs have both price and volume, conditions in them.
Speaker #2: Okay, noted. Thank you. That's great color. Thank
[Analyst] (TD Cowen): Okay, noted. Thank you.
[Analyst] (TD Cowen): Okay, noted. Thank you.
Irving Tan: You're welcome.
Irving Tan: You're welcome.
[Analyst] (TD Cowen): That's, that's great color. Thank you.
[Analyst] (TD Cowen): That's, that's great color. Thank you.
Speaker #5: Thank you. Thank you, Eddie.
Kris Sennesael: Thank you. Thank you, Eddie.
Ambrish Srivastava: Thank you. Thank you, Eddie.
Operator: This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect.
Operator: This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect.
