Steve Tusa: So, I just wanted to delve into the comments around the first half of next year a little more. We’ve been hearing that there have been some – and you guys sound pretty confident on this in the fourth quarter, some – not only early indications of orders for next year from hyperscalers, but like some real big orders in the last couple of weeks. And that the only real concern is like when they’re going to actually want delivery, i.e., like when suppliers are going to produce. I’m just curious as to if you’re kind of seeing that profile, if you’re seeing those orders yet in that you’re kind of caution on next year is just more about not knowing really when those things will ship, given that we’re in kind of a very growthy and perhaps fluid situation, where these guys are still figuring out the best way to go about this.
I’m just curious as to how tangible that demand is early in October. And I think – I don’t know, it would make sense to me that you guys are talking a lot about capacity here and proving that you have the capacity, which would be juxtaposed against what I think people are viewing as a “soft start to next year.” I’m just trying to kind of put that all together and understand how concrete this visibility on orders is that you guys have early in the quarter here in the fourth quarter?
Giordano Albertazzi: No, just when – we’re sharing the slide — going through the slides, we have – we expect a fourth quarter that is probably going to be up more or less the same that we think something around what we experienced in Q3. So, we’re quite optimistic about that. I would say that we should not read too much in the first half, second half. That’s the normal nature of the industry. And again, it would have been the same of ’23 first half, were it not for the supply constraints that marred the entire 2022 for us and for everyone else. So that, if anything, there was an artificial drift of backlog from, let’s say, the second half of ’22 to the first half of ’23, that balanced the two halves in ’23 in a way that is not so kind of normal in our type of business.
So, I would not read too much into it. We are happy about our pipeline. We’re happy about the order pace. And yes, a lot of those orders will be coming from hyperscale and colo and that type of market. And really, those orders are placed today for tomorrow. Those are aligned with the big site deployments, with fairly forward-looking project plans. So, I look at it as something quite normal, starting to happen again.
Steve Tusa: Right. That makes sense. And then just one last one on – any updates on how this liquid cooling strategy is progressing? And I assume we’re going to hear more about it in the 29th. But any updates there on how you guys are going about that solution?
Giordano Albertazzi: Well, we are very happy by the way things are progressing in terms of portfolio, in terms of partnerships, et cetera. And yes, as I said in several occasions, we see that as – we see this piece as additive because it’s adding a link to the cooling chain, so to speak, to the thermal chain. We’ll certainly have more details at Investor Day here, but pretty – feel pretty good about what we’re doing also with our partners and the biggest chip manufacturers.
Steve Tusa: Great. Thanks a lot.
Operator: Our next question comes from Jeff Sprague from Vertical Research. Jeff, your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Jeff Sprague: Hi, thank you. Good day, everybody. And just a couple from me. I wonder if we could talk about service a little bit. Obviously isn’t growing anywhere near the rate of equipment, which I think is tied to the mix of where the equipment is going. But all this talk about system integration complexity and the like, what is the prospect for kind of service growth to accelerate here or service revenue per unit or per megawatt deployed, however you might frame it? Maybe you could give us some perspective there?
Giordano Albertazzi: Yes. Service is accelerating for us towards a double-digit growth territory, which, of course, we like. It is in the nature of service, especially the life cycle part of service. I always like to think in terms of project services, the services that you sell with new equipment, say, and instead the life cycle, the duration of the life of the kit. The latter is very important from a profit standpoint, from a customer experience standpoint. But also very important, because it compounds over time. But it’s built on the installed base that we are growing. So we are happy about the direction. We want to accelerate further, and we’ll accelerate further. But definitely, a component of service that is being able and uniquely, given our global footprint and experience, uniquely able to accompany our customers in the complexity from an installation commissioning start-up standpoint or retrofit standpoint.
The company [ph] or customer on the journey of high density, be it cooling high density, very complex. And power high density is something that, A) we are well equipped for, uniquely experienced and geographically positioned, but also getting ready for it. So I am – I’ve never been more excited, about our service opportunity going forward.
Jeff Sprague: Then maybe you could address capital deployment a little bit more, and maybe we’ll hear more about that next month. But maybe your appetite for M&A, your view on whether the organization is up to digesting something else or share repurchases in the cards? Maybe just what the priorities might be?
Giordano Albertazzi: I would say that there’s certainly a very relevant question. And our Investor Day is relative – is relatively soon about a month. And I think the best thing is to just ask you to be patient for us – with us for another month. And we will certainly go into those details together on the 29th of November. Bear with us for now.
Jeff Sprague: Great. Thank you. See you then.
Giordano Albertazzi: Thank you.
Operator: Our next question comes from Lance Vitanza from TD Cowen. Lance, your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Lance Vitanza: Thanks guys. My question is around how Vertiv is positioned specifically with respect to liquid cooling and direct-to-chip technologies. Are there notable gaps in your product portfolio? And if so, how do you expect to address them?
Giordano Albertazzi: Hi, Lance, we feel very good about our liquid cooling portfolio. And it’s a broad portfolio, and it’s a portfolio that stretches direct-to-chip, immersion cooling, so we feel good with what we have today in the portfolio. And again absolutely….
Lance Vitanza: Go ahead.
Giordano Albertazzi: Yes, go ahead.
Lance Vitanza: No, no, please continue.
Giordano Albertazzi: No, I was saying that would be a big….
Lance Vitanza: My follow-up was just going. Yes, so just specifically, do you worry about potentially being disintermediated, so to speak, by either hyperscalers or chip manufacturers directly embedding their own or someone else’s technology into the chip or into the rack and thus bypassing Vertiv? Is that something that you worry about?
