Marvell Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRVL) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Blayne Curtis: Hey, thanks for taking my question. I just wanted to go back to — I just want to understand what your message is on data centers. So the hard drive, it’s more of a correction — inventory correction at your customer. What are you seeing from just overall data center? Because I thought the message last quarter was the PAM business and switching were actually kind of okay. So, I guess, when you’re talking about cloud optimized pushing out and you said data center is softer, I’m trying to understand how those two relate, I guess. And then you mentioned architecture changes, if you can just elaborate a little more. I’m still kind of confused what you’re saying on data center and why that’s delaying the cloud ramp.

Matt Murphy: Sure. Maybe, I’ll break it into two pieces. So let’s go back to — because I think there’s two separate issues we’re talking about. So last quarter, when we signaled the weakness in data center, it was very pronounced in storage. And we also said we were starting to see signs of inventory correction on the rest of the portfolio, but it was more muted. And at that time, our expectation was that storage most likely was going to at least flat now, maybe go down a little bit more. And then there’ll be, again, a continued more mild correction. I think what’s happened is, the data center — the storage in data centers continue to need more time to correct. So that’s declined again in the Q1 guide. And then, I would say, the rest of the portfolio has also — is now seeing more of a correction needed than we thought last quarter.

Okay. So that’s in the short term right now, Blayne. So, yes, storage, down a little bit more and then the rest of the portfolio, including those other product lines you mentioned, in aggregate. I mean, within underneath, some of them are moving up and down, but the net effect is that there is an inventory correction going on in data center across the portfolio. Independent of that, we — is a separate issue. We were — we have been anticipating a ramp of our cloud optimized design wins, which have been gathered over the last few years. That’s still going to happen this year, but it’s been — some of it’s been pushed out by a couple of quarters. So we still see that kicking in at the end of the year and adding to growth. But that’s sort of separate than any inventory correction.

That’s just program execution by our customers, timing of their ramps, et cetera. And then on the third point, which is just, all we were pointing out on the architecture stuff was that, as we see the growth in AI-based systems and AI-based clusters and AI-centric data centers, we think longer term, I mean, that’s now outside the window we’re talking about here, whether it’s this year or next year, that, that’s going to be a significant growth trend and that’s going to require both cloud-optimized silicon as well as our high-speed optics. So I think three pieces to it, short term, medium term and long term.

Blayne Curtis: Thanks a lot.

Matt Murphy: Very dynamic overall, Blayne, I guess, that’s the punch line.

Blayne Curtis: Yes. Thanks.

Matt Murphy: Yes.

Operator: And our next question will come from Christopher Rolland with Susquehanna. Please, go ahead.

Christopher Rolland: Hey, guys. Thanks for the question. I guess, my first is the $400 million to $800 million regardless of the pushouts. Do you have any visibility into the composition, or can you elaborate on the composition of those wins around maybe percentage storage versus network versus compute and maybe even optics in there as well, anything else that you can offer? Just any visibility into the composition would be great.

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