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CEO Chuck Robbins noted hundreds of millions in enterprise AI orders are already in the pipeline, with pilots ramping and agentic AI proof-of-concepts expected in the second half of the year. He stated the meaningful benefit from the NVIDIA partnership is still to come. Regarding FY26 revenue, he suggested extrapolating from the $1B recognized in FY25 and the existing backlog.

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CEO Chuck Robbins noted that AI orders are large and non-linear but suggested that if Cisco can increase production capacity, the order ramp should continue. CFO Scott Herren explained that the sequential margin decline is driven by the full quarterly impact of tariffs being factored into the Q4 gross margin guidance, without assuming any mitigation efforts yet.

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CEO Chuck Robbins characterized AI orders as nonlinear but noted that if Cisco can increase supply capacity, the order ramp should continue. CFO Scott Herren explained that the sequential margin decline is primarily driven by the full quarterly impact of tariffs being factored into the Q4 gross margin guidance, without yet assuming offsetting mitigation efforts.

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CFO Scott Herren explained the networking revenue decline was expected, as it compared against a prior-year quarter with massive backlog shipments. He noted that demand is trending in line with expectations, with AI and DC switching as bright spots. CEO Chuck Robbins stated he is "equally excited" about both Hypershield and Hyperfabric, as they address two critical customer objectives: east-west data center security and simplifying AI application deployment, respectively.

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EVP & CFO Jason Winkler attributed margin strength to a favorable mix from higher Software & Services sales. He updated the full-year tariff impact to $80 million, with most of it occurring in the second half. Chairman & CEO Greg Brown estimated the unmanned systems TAM at $3 billion, expecting it to double in four years. EVP & CTO Mahesh Saptharishi detailed the drone strategy across response, communications, and detection.

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John Molloy, EVP and COO, explained the video product performance was due to a higher software attachment rate, strong momentum to the cloud, and a difficult comparison against 24% growth in mobile video products in the prior-year quarter. On M&A, Gregory Brown, Chairman and CEO, clarified that while the macro environment could become incrementally more favorable, Motorola's strategy remains consistent, with an active and robust funnel focused on video, software, and services.

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EVP & CFO Mike Zilis characterized the SMB growth as modest but encouraging, with a product mix concentrated in servers, storage, and desktop/notebooks. CEO Paul Bay added that SMBs are now participating in the hardware refresh cycle. Regarding inventory, Mike Zilis stated the build was to support strong sales growth and specific large deals, with no material risk of write-offs, highlighting that inventory days (DIO) were flat year-over-year.

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CEO Paul Bay stated that the company does not provide full-year guidance but noted that potential acceleration depends on the pace of the PC refresh and the recovery in the networking market. He confirmed that India is one of the company's largest businesses within the Asia-Pacific region.

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Chris Leahy, Chair & CEO, explained the cautious outlook is driven by expected softness in the Education and Federal segments due to ongoing policy and funding changes. CFO Al Miralles addressed cash flow, stating that the conversion rate was impacted by timing and stronger-than-expected growth drawing on working capital, but he expects to hit the full-year target of 80-90% of non-GAAP net income.

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CEO Christine Leahy described Q2 commercial demand as having a 'healthy rhythm,' with customers being cautious but determined, and noted the client device refresh cycle is in its middle innings. CFO Albert Miralles confirmed the EPS guide includes a 50-75% free cash flow return to shareholders and noted that the front-loaded $200 million buyback in Q1 provides a benefit to the full-year average.

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CEO Christine Leahy explained that the public sector outlook remains fluid, particularly in Federal and Education, and the company has taken a prudent approach. CFO Al Miralles clarified that the variance between growth rates for customer spend, gross profit, and EPS is not significant, with a slight mix shift towards netted-down revenue influencing the relationship between top-line and gross profit growth.

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CEO Christine Leahy attributed the pressure to a "double whammy": CDW's ongoing transformation, which increases exposure to lumpy, large-scale projects and a growing-but-not-yet-scaled cloud/SaaS business, amplified by a persistently muted hardware market. She confirmed that vendor strategies are aligning with CDW's focus on delivering value-added services around cloud, which should be a positive benefit and drive better economics.

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Chairperson & CEO Jayshree Ullal attributed the raise to strong, confirmed demand across all three key sectors: Enterprise Campus, AI, and Cloud. She noted that early-year activity has now translated into firm orders and deployments. While not committing to a specific long-term rate, she reiterated the company's belief in achieving a mid-teens CAGR for many years.

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CEO Jayshree Ullal confirmed that all four customers are progressing well, with three in production and two on track for 50,000-100,000 GPU deployments. She reiterated confidence in the $750 million back-end AI revenue goal for 2025 and affirmed that the 1:1 front-end to back-end ratio is still a good, though variable, guideline.

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CEO Jayshree Ullal stated that the AI networking TAM is large enough for Arista and white boxes to coexist. She explained that in back-end clusters, the AI spine is almost universally Arista-branded EOS due to its rich routing, scale, and feature requirements. While AI leads can be a hybrid of EOS and open OS, Arista's key differentiators in 400/800G—such as scale, visibility, congestion control, and smart system upgrades—are critical for maximizing the performance of expensive GPUs.

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CEO Jayshree Ullal clarified that unlike past scenarios, current AI-related deals involve much longer trial and deployment timelines, potentially spanning multiple years before manifesting as revenue. CFO Chantelle Breithaupt added that the deferred balance reflects the bespoke and lengthening timeframes of these complex use cases and customer mixes, and represents the current state of commitments.

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CEO Tim Cook explained that Apple mitigates tariffs by optimizing its supply chain and increasing investment in the U.S., citing the $500 billion commitment. SVP & CFO Kevan Parekh stated that while the Epic-related changes were only recently introduced, the U.S. App Store still achieved double-digit growth and an all-time record in the quarter.

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CEO Tim Cook cited the build-ahead of inventory, reflected in manufacturing purchase obligations, as an example of a helpful unique factor for the June quarter. CFO Kevan Parekh stated that while FX headwinds are expected to lessen, Apple is not providing category-level guidance for Services in the June quarter due to various uncertainties.

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CEO Tim Cook highlighted strong results in emerging markets, particularly India, as a key opportunity. CFO Kevan Parekh explained that the strong gross margin guidance of 46.5-47.5% balances FX headwinds and a loss of leverage with favorable costs and services mix.

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CFO Luca Maestri confirmed that the recurring portion of Services is growing faster than the transactional part, with paid subscriptions now exceeding one billion. CEO Tim Cook noted that Greater China was relatively flat, an improvement aided by FX, and highlighted a record installed base. Luca Maestri attributed Europe's 11% growth to broad strength across Western Europe and strong performance in emerging markets like Turkey, the Middle East, and India, which is included in the segment.

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CFO Jatin Dalal attributed the headcount growth primarily to the seasonal hiring of recent college graduates and expects modest increases in the second half. CEO Ravi Kumar S added that year-over-year headcount is nearly flat when excluding acquisitions, highlighting significant productivity gains. Both executives asserted that the large deal wins were priced competitively and fit within the company's plan to deliver 20-40 basis points of margin expansion for the year.

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CFO Kris Sennesael explained the extra week adds about $15 million to OpEx with minimal revenue impact. CEO Irving Tan stated that AI tailwinds are pushing exabyte growth closer to the high end of their model (23% CAGR), which, combined with better ASP trends, could lift long-term revenue CAGR from mid-to-high single digits toward the mid-teens.

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CEO Irving Tan explained that the company is working collaboratively with customers to mitigate the fluid tariff situation rather than relying on specific contract clauses. He reiterated the established HAMR roadmap: qualification starting in the second half of calendar '26 with a volume ramp in the first half of '27. He confirmed progress is on track with milestones, without indicating a need for increased R&D spending.

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CEO David Goeckeler stated that based on close customer relationships, they do not see signs of excessive inventory building or double ordering, believing the demand signals are high-integrity. CFO Wissam Jabre commented on CapEx, indicating that gross CapEx for the upcoming quarter is expected to be in line with the average of the last few quarters, with no major inflection.

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CEO Giordano Albertazzi explained that the backlog's duration is historically consistent, though some customers desire earlier deliveries. He noted the pipeline shows a slight, positive elongation. Regarding diversity, he described the customer base as well-balanced within the 'core hyperscale' category, which includes traditional hyperscalers, colocation, sovereign, and new cloud entities.

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CEO Giordano Albertazzi explained that the backlog's duration is consistent with historical trends, though some customers desire earlier deliveries. He noted the pipeline shows a slight, positive elongation in visibility and is well-balanced, with strong growth from the 'core hyperscale' segment which includes traditional hyperscalers, colocation, sovereign, and new cloud clients.

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CEO Giordano Albertazzi emphasized the durability of demand, citing sequentially growing pipelines for the next 12 months and beyond. He explained that while order lumpiness can affect quarterly results, the long-term trajectory remains strong and aligns with the company's 5-year model, with stable pipeline velocity indicating no significant demand pull-in.

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CEO Giordano Albertazzi explained that Vertiv is agnostic to both scenarios. He stated that any acceleration in AI adoption, including inference, is a net positive for the industry and Vertiv is well-equipped for both hyperscale and distributed edge deployments. Regarding silicon, he noted that 'loads are loads' and Vertiv's power and thermal solutions are designed to handle high-density compute regardless of the chip provider.

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CEO Giordano Albertazzi confirmed that Vertiv will continue to use the trailing 12-month orders metric as the primary indicator going forward. He stated it was premature to detail the exact mechanics of 2025 backlog and revenue, but noted the favorable market, strong pipelines, and global acceleration support their optimistic outlook, with more details to come at the November investor event.

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CEO Dave Mosley explained that the significant Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) benefit of HAMR drives for customers means Seagate does not need to incentivize the transition with lower prices. CFO Gianluca Romano added that the company's strategy of slightly increasing like-for-like pricing remains in place.

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CFO Gianluca Romano confirmed the current expectation is for continued growth in revenue and profitability. CEO Dave Mosley addressed the white paper, characterizing the QLC use case as niche and not disruptive to the broader HDD/NAND blend in data centers. He highlighted the significant cost and capital efficiency advantages of HDDs and noted that the trend toward disaggregated storage presents a further opportunity for hard drives.

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CEO Dave Mosley clarified that the gross margin expansion is driven entirely by a favorable product mix. As Seagate shifts to higher-capacity drives, it provides a compelling value proposition for customers and predictable economics for Seagate, which boosts the margin profile despite the temporary revenue dip.

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CEO Dave Mosley stated that while the business has been cyclical, the recent pandemic-induced bubble and crash were anomalous. He noted that improved triangulation processes and the build-to-order model help prevent overbuilding. Mosley believes there is still significant upside to gross margin, driven by aerial density gains and cost reductions on new high-capacity platforms, all contingent on proper supply-demand management.

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Chairman, President & CEO Arvind Krishna stated he has shifted from 'cautious optimism' to 'optimism' on the macro environment, citing strong digitization trends globally. Regarding Red Hat, he noted that growth is driven by demand for Linux in AI workloads and OpenShift's leadership as a unified platform for both containers and virtualization, which has accelerated its adoption as clients seek alternatives.

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CFO Jim Kavanaugh explained the explicit Q2 guide was for transparency amid a dynamic macro environment and significant FX volatility. Regarding federal exposure, he stated it's less than 5% of total IBM revenue, with Consulting making up 60% of that. He quantified recent contract impacts as minimal. CEO Arvind Krishna added that the vast majority of their federal work is mission-critical, such as processing benefits and payroll, rather than discretionary.

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CFO Jim Kavanaugh explained that the year's performance would be back-half weighted. He noted that while the Software segment has a strong and steady outlook, Consulting growth is expected to accelerate through the year, and the new mainframe cycle will begin contributing to Infrastructure growth from the second quarter onward. He estimated first-half revenue growth could be about one point lower than the second half, with free cash flow linearity remaining similar to historical patterns.

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CEO Arvind Krishna detailed the drivers for 2025 growth. For Software, he pointed to Red Hat's 14% growth momentum, strong Gen AI and automation pipelines, mainframe software strength, and the HashiCorp acquisition. For Consulting, he acknowledged macro pressures but cited a strong bill-to-book ratio and a growing Gen AI pipeline that is expected to convert to revenue, leading to positive growth.

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President & CEO R. Adam Norwitt stated that while 133% growth in IT Datacom is not sustainable every quarter, the AI revolution is in its 'early innings,' ensuring durable long-term opportunities. He confirmed that AI was a significant driver, accounting for roughly two-thirds of both the year-over-year and sequential growth in the IT Datacom business.

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CEO Adam Norwitt attributed the outperformance to exceptional execution by the team, especially in meeting the 134% YoY growth in IT Datacom. He confirmed a "slight pull-in" for mobile devices but saw no evidence of it in other key markets, noting that IT Datacom customers are actively seeking more products than Amphenol can currently ship.

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CEO R. Norwitt affirmed his confidence in the durability of Amphenol's AI position, stating that the demand for higher performance in these systems is a 'one-way ratchet.' While avoiding comments on specific customers, he confirmed that Amphenol plays a crucial role in enabling generational shifts by providing solutions for increased performance, power efficiency, and system complexity, strengthening its position across the entire AI ecosystem.

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CEO R. Norwitt emphasized Amphenol's comprehensive relationships across the entire AI ecosystem, from web service providers to OEMs and chip companies. He highlighted that Amphenol's value is in providing critical high-speed, low-latency interconnects and power efficiency solutions, which are fundamental to all AI architectures, rather than being tied to any single program.

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CEO Terrence Curtin attributed the growth to strategic investments in data connectivity and power trends, highlighting 20% organic growth in the Energy business. CFO Heath Mitts explained the margin expansion resulted from footprint consolidation, reduced fixed costs, and strong volume leverage, stating that 20% margins are expected at these volumes and are in line with internal targets.

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CFO Heath Mitts expressed confidence in TE's ability to continue expanding margins, driven primarily by self-help initiatives like manufacturing footprint optimization and localization, rather than market tailwinds. He noted the Industrial segment has the most significant opportunity for margin improvement, while the Transportation business is focused on maintaining its strong profitability above 20% in a softer market.

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CEO Terrence Curtin responded that AI revenue doubled in the quarter, driven by broad demand across multiple hyperscalers, not just a single program. He noted that TE's market share remains stable at 30-35% and that upside is tied to execution on program ramps. Regarding margins, Curtin stated they are similar to TE's cloud products and are expected to scale with volume, contributing positively to the overall Industrial Solutions segment margin.

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CEO Terrence Curtin highlighted that the AI opportunity is driven by customer demand for higher speed and power efficiency. He confirmed that FY24 AI sales were $300 million, exceeding expectations, and are projected to double to $600 million in FY25. Curtin noted the customer base is broad, including hyperscalers and semiconductor companies, and that the previously stated $1 billion revenue target is likely to be achieved sooner than initially forecast due to accelerating momentum and strong design wins.

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President and CEO Gary Smith confirmed that due to the scale of demand, Ciena will enter fiscal 2026 with an increased backlog, as not all current orders can be fulfilled this year. Regarding GPU clusters, Smith described it as a "hundreds of millions of dollars" opportunity with just the first customer. Executive Advisor Scott McFeely added that the application involves creating express overlay networks between GPU clusters over distances of 100-150 km, a sweet spot for Ciena's coherent optical technology.

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CFO Jim Moylan attributed the strong Q1 gross margin to several unexpected one-time events, including software and supply chain efficiencies, which are not expected to recur. He explained that historical seasonality is less relevant now due to the high mix of project-based cloud provider business. CEO Gary Smith added that the backlog continues to increase, setting up for a strong second half of the year.

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CEO Gary Smith explained that the growth is driven by a stabilizing service provider market, particularly in North America, with the significant upside coming from cloud and AI traffic layering on top. CFO Jim Moylan added that the Q4 inventory charge was due to unique factors like a new forecast and improved supply chain visibility, and is not expected to recur at that level. He stated that future gross margin improvement is primarily dependent on product mix, with a heavy, lower-margin line system mix early in FY25 expected to shift to higher-margin capacity additions later.

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CFO Jim Moylan quantified the near-term gross margin impact from the higher mix of initial line system deployments as being at least 100 basis points. CEO Gary Smith described the APAC region as strong, with new logo wins in South Asia. He noted that while India is cyclical as it recovers from 5G investment, Ciena is bullish on the market for the next one to three years, seeing strong activity and MOFN growth.

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CEO Antonio Neri confirmed confidence in reaching the 10% server operating margin in Q4, citing actions taken on pricing analytics, discount scrutiny, and inventory management. Regarding the Juniper deal, he stated that while it's the fastest path to shareholder value, the company has explored other options, including capital returns and portfolio actions, but will not discuss them until the transaction's outcome is known.

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CFO Marie Myers attributed the back-half margin expansion to three factors: the full effect of corrective actions in the Server business, the implementation of tariff mitigations, and savings from the new cost efficiency program. CEO Antonio Neri added that the recovering, high-margin Intelligent Edge business would also be a significant contributor to profitability in the second half of the year.

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CFO Marie Myers attributed the 390 basis point gross margin decline primarily to a lower revenue contribution from the high-margin Intelligent Edge segment, which hit its lowest point of the year, combined with a higher mix of AI systems. She noted that gross profit dollars still grew. Looking ahead, she expects margins to improve from a better business mix and the future impact of the Juniper acquisition. On OpEx, she expressed confidence in ongoing productivity gains, including the use of internal GenAI tools.

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CFO Marie Myers clarified that the Q3 free cash flow was affected by working capital timing and normal seasonality. She expects a reversal in Q4, driven by a stronger conversion of AI revenue and improvements in the cash conversion cycle. Myers confirmed the company is still on track for the full-year target of $1.9 billion, stating the guidance was simply tightened as they approached year-end.

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Jeff Clarke, Vice Chairman and COO, confirmed the strong start to the year but emphasized the lumpy and non-linear nature of AI server deployments due to dependencies like data center construction and power availability. He noted the five-quarter pipeline has grown sequentially and now includes sovereign AI deals. While it's early in the year, Clarke stated he feels confident about achieving revenue on the 'plus side of $15 billion' and will provide updates as the year progresses.

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President of ISG Tyler Johnson explained that FY'25 cash flow was impacted by lower-than-expected CSG growth and inventory investments for the AI business. For FY'26, he expects cash flow to be strong and greater than 1x net income, driven by CCC improvement, CSG recovery, and P&L growth. COO and Vice Chairman Jeffrey Clarke addressed durability, stating the changes are structural and proprietary, stemming from a company-wide modernization effort to simplify, standardize, and automate workflows using AI, which is not a one-time event.

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Executive Yvonne McGill explained that the ISG operating income rate improved 230 basis points sequentially, driven by enhanced gross margins in richly configured traditional servers and reduced operating expenses. She noted that AI server and storage margins were stable to slightly up, and she anticipates ISG operating income rates will continue to improve into Q4.

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CFO Yvonne McGill and COO Jeffrey Clarke explained that the 300-basis-point margin expansion was driven by broad portfolio improvement. Key factors included revenue scale, better price discipline and a richer mix of Dell IP in storage, and improved profitability in AI servers. Clarke added that Dell is extracting more value from AI solutions through engineering and rack-level services, not just the server node.

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CEO Charles Giancarlo explained that the engagement is proceeding as planned within Meta's 1.5-to-2-year data center design cycle. He reaffirmed that Pure is on track to deliver the anticipated one to two exabytes in the second half of the year. Giancarlo also noted steady progress with other hyperscalers, with some currently in the proof-of-concept stage, but stated it is too early to announce a formal design win.

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CEO Charles Giancarlo and CFO Kevan Krysler detailed the ongoing co-development. Krysler summarized the investments into four key areas: integrating Purity software with hyperscaler hardware, accelerating the DirectFlash module density roadmap, qualifying additional NAND suppliers, and expanding supply chain capabilities.

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CEO Charles Giancarlo attributed the win to Pure's ability to deliver unmatched reliability, significant power savings, accelerated time-to-value, and a superior price-performance equation that matches hard disk TCO with 5x the performance. CFO Kevan Krysler added that the hyperscale market represents 60-70% of all disk drives sold, indicating a significant long-term opportunity, with meaningful revenue and margin expansion expected in FY27. He noted the deal excludes hardware sales.

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CEO Charles Giancarlo explained that the change is due to large Evergreen//One opportunities taking longer to close, rather than customers switching from a subscription model to a CapEx purchase. CFO Kevan Krysler added that if those delayed deals were to convert to traditional product sales, the company would then consider raising its annual revenue guidance.

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CFO Ed McGowan explained that the Delivery upside was driven by strong traffic growth across multiple verticals, not pricing. For Security, he stated performance was in line with expectations, noting that a sequential decline in onetime license revenue impacted the comparison. He reaffirmed the full-year 10% constant currency growth guidance, citing strong momentum in API Security and Guardicore.

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CEO F. Leighton attributed the headwind primarily to the customer's DIY build-out, noting the new 5-year agreement mitigates some political risk. CFO Ed McGowan stated that margin expansion to 30% will be driven by a favorable product mix shift towards security and compute, and operating leverage from top-line growth, with go-to-market changes already partially funded.

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CFO Michael Carlet stated that Resideo sees ongoing opportunities for structural gross margin improvement from operational efficiencies, new products, and accretive activities at ADI, regardless of market conditions. While declining to provide a specific future target, he expressed optimism for continued margin accretion. CEO Jay Geldmacher supported this, pointing to the company's track record of eight consecutive quarters of year-over-year gross margin expansion in the P&S segment as evidence of execution.

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President and CEO François Locoh-Donou explained that the guidance incorporates appropriate conservatism due to macroeconomic volatility, although the company is not currently seeing any negative changes in customer demand. Regarding AI, he identified data delivery for AI models as the largest current revenue driver, with security for AI applications and AI factory load balancing representing significant future opportunities that are in earlier stages.

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CEO François Locoh-Donou explained that the conservative guidance for the second half reflects prudence regarding macro volatility, despite not currently seeing any changes in customer buying behavior. Regarding AI, he identified data delivery for AI models as the largest current opportunity. He noted that securing AI applications and AI factory load balancing are emerging opportunities that are still in their early stages but show strong potential.

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President and CEO François Locoh-Donou described the NGINX solution as a way to increase GPU utilization, targeting service providers and large enterprises building AI factories at scale. He positioned it as a significant but longer-term opportunity for fiscal '26 and beyond. SVP of Finance and incoming CFO Cooper Werner confirmed that software growth is expected to be stronger in the second half of FY25, aligning with the timing of a larger renewal base.

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CFO Michael Berry projected that Q4 2025 would represent the low point for product gross margins. He anticipates margins will begin to increase in fiscal 2026, driven by the tailwind from recent price changes, a better cost structure from new products, and an expected decline in NAND component costs. He also highlighted the 1,000 basis point year-over-year improvement in public cloud gross margins.

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CEO George Kurian expressed confidence in the durability of all-flash array growth, attributing it to a strong competitive position, rapid innovation, and focused execution. CFO Mike Berry confirmed that the first-half inventory increase was primarily due to strategic SSD pre-buys to cover fiscal 2025 demand and that no further pre-buys are planned at this time.

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CEO George Kurian attributed the strong, durable all-flash growth to a mix of acquiring new-to-NetApp customers and refreshing the large installed base of hard drives with QLC flash, stating it's still early in the cycle. CFO Michael Berry reiterated the full-year product gross margin guidance of upper 50s to 60%, expecting a slight decline from Q1's 60% as pre-purchased inventory is used.

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Chief Financial Officer Brian Roberts explained that with revenue expected to be organically flat, margin improvement will be driven by operational productivity and new opportunities. Regarding free cash flow, he credited the operations team for a significant inventory reduction of approximately $100 million year-over-year and a renewed focus on balance sheet fundamentals. For 2025, he expects free cash flow conversion to be in the high 70s, approaching 80%.

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CFO Kyle Lorentzen attributed the CCS margin improvement to a combination of favorable product mix, cost reductions, and operating leverage. He noted that CommScope NEXT is a continuous improvement program with further, though smaller, savings expected. For the capacity expansion, he estimated a capital expenditure of $10-$20 million, emphasizing the investments are highly accretive with paybacks in months or quarters.

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