Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

And I’ll just point out that 6x to 8x that we have mentioned is the multiple of DRAM requrement in AI server versus standard server. And of course, as we highlighted in the script, there are many compute configurations, such as the supercluster example that we gave you, where the DRAM content that is required is few hundred times higher than a standard server. So really, I think the journey here ahead of us will be very exciting. And when we look at machine-to-machine communication, when we look at opportunities for the virtuous cycle for the ever-increasing data that training applications, that inferencing at scale and various edge applications, including automotive, are driving the requirements for memory and storage will continue to grow well, and Micron is going to be well positioned with our products.

And we consider 2024 to be a big banner year for AI, for memory and storage. And Micron will be well positioned to capture this with our strong portfolio of products from D5 to LP5 to HBM to high-density modules, even including graphics.

Krish Sankar: Got it. Very helpful, Sanjay. And then a follow-up for Mark. You said no inventory write-down in the current quarter expected. And if remember right, Mark, you also mentioned in the past that inventory write-down is tight to your view on pricing three quarters out. So is it fair to assume that you’re expecting a pricing drop pretty much this quarter? And if the CAC decision does get really worse that 15% to 25% of your sales gets impacted, is there any more risk of inventory write-down, or is that agnostic to the inventory write down? Thank you.

Mark Murphy: Yes. Thanks, Krish. Maybe I’ll spend a few minutes just covering because it’s a very complicated topic with a lot of moving parts, maybe spend a bit of time on the topic. So our reported gross margin, our outlook, it’s a function of many factors, including pricing. The inventory write-downs, which do include or incorporate our forward view of pricing. The effects of utilization, which you heard today, we’ve increased — or reduced our wafer starts further. And then just volumes and associated leverage on period costs as discussed in previous quarters, and of course, mix. These factors are continuously changing due to market environment and our actions. And as I’ve stated before at these lower levels of profitability, our margin forecast and results are more sensitive to slight changes in assumptions such as price.

Now given price trends and our current view on pricing and costs, we took a material write-down in the second quarter as we reported $1.4 billion, took another $400 million this quarter. And with these write-downs, we’ve pulled forward inventory costs, thus lowered the carrying value of on-hand inventories. Yes, as this lower cost inventory clears in the future quarters, we’ll realize more income in those quarters than we would have otherwise without the charge. So as an example, we took this $400 million of additional write-downs in third quarter for inventories produced. And considering our latest views on volume mix, we also realized a benefit of near $300 million from selling through the lower cost inventories impacted by the second quarter write-down.