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EVP & CFO Luis Visoso stated that allocations are occurring across various products, particularly during the BIX-V to BIX-VIII transition. CEO David Goeckeler acknowledged some episodic quarterly share shifts among players but emphasized the broader market has absorbed these shipments, maintaining a favorable supply-demand balance.

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President and CEO John Lee reported that the industrial laser market remains 'relatively muted' with no significant change from prior quarters, though he noted design wins in areas like HBM dicing. He also stated that MKS has not seen tariff-related price increases from suppliers, as they work collaboratively to mitigate such impacts.

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CFO John Kiernan confirmed that tariffs on imported materials impacted gross margin by about 100 basis points in Q2 and a similar impact is expected in Q3. He added they are working to mitigate price increases from domestic suppliers. CEO William Miller specified that the quantum computing opportunity is primarily for their Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) equipment.

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CFO John Kiernan stated that while not providing specific guidance due to macro uncertainty, second-half 2025 business activity could be at a similar level to the first half, as strength in advanced semi is expected to offset China headwinds. CEO William Miller confirmed that tool utilization rates at data storage customers have been steadily picking up, driving service and spare parts revenue, although new system orders have not yet returned.

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CEO William Miller explained that Veeco has no significant position in NAND but is qualified at one HBM customer and will begin an evaluation with a second in mid-2025. Regarding ion beam deposition, he stated that evaluations with two DRAM makers are ongoing and that a successful application win could represent $30 million to $40 million in follow-on orders.

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CEO William Miller stated that Veeco's outlook for its EUV systems remains stable at 3-5 systems for both 2024 and 2025, consistent with ASML's plans, and sees potential upside from new applications. Regarding China, Miller clarified the expected 2025 revenue decline is driven by the semiconductor market as customers digest recent capacity additions, rather than the EV market.

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CFO Mark McKechnie explained the increase was a strategic decision, partly related to capital use controls. Lisa Feng, CFO of the operating subsidiary ACM Shanghai, added that the company is leveraging the favorable interest rate spread between deposits and borrowings in China to maximize returns.

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Executive David Wang confirmed expectations for advanced packaging growth in 2025, highlighting contributions from 2.5D, 3D, and new panel-level packaging tools. CFO Mark McKechnie noted that the company does not provide a sales breakdown by end-market but suggested looking at the 10% customers as a proxy. David Wang also confirmed that the top four customers accounted for over 52% of revenue in 2024.

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CFO Mark McKechnie stated that while recent gross margins have been strong due to product mix and foreign exchange, the company's long-term target remains 40-45%. He noted that backlog margins are healthy but did not provide 2025 guidance. On international sales, McKechnie and CEO David Wang confirmed it is a corporate focus, with significant customer interest in differentiated products like SAPS and Tahoe. They expect some contribution from non-China markets in 2025, supported by new facilities like the one in Oregon.

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President and CEO Steve Kelley stated they see no evidence of double ordering in data centers, only expedites due to strong underlying demand. He noted customers are cautious about building inventory. Regarding memory, he explained that AE is less exposed to NAND and is more excited about opportunities in leading-edge logic and DRAM, where its new products are gaining traction.

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CFO Paul Oldham explained that new products are expected to carry higher margins, and while data center margins are improving, they are not yet at the corporate average. He affirmed that despite tariff impacts, the company's gross margin goals are unchanged. The key drivers—factory consolidation, new product mix, and volume—remain on track, making the goal of approaching 40% gross margin by year-end still achievable.

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CEO Mark Gitin confirmed that welding demand saw broad-based global growth. While China's EV sector was a primary driver, he noted quarter-over-quarter increases in other regions and with products like LightWELD. CFO Timothy Mammen affirmed that the product mix and margin profile of the company's backlog are in line with the assumptions used for the third-quarter financial outlook.

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CEO Mark Gitin clarified that the specific share gains he highlighted were in China, driven by the company's differentiated subsystem combining its AMB laser, LDD monitoring, and scanning technology. He acknowledged that there has been uncertainty in the North American EV market for some time, describing it as a 'political hotbed' and difficult to predict.

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CFO Tim Mammen cited improved inventory control, efforts to reduce manufacturing under-absorption, and a favorable product mix as key margin drivers. CEO Mark Gitin added that investments in high-margin, differentiated areas like medical and micromachining will also boost margins over time. Tim Mammen attributed the system sales decline to the timing of large automation orders, noting the pipeline remains strong.

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CFO Timothy Mammen and CEO Mark Gitin stated that while China's business environment has stabilized, it is too early to gauge the full impact of stimulus, though it could support EV adoption. Regarding defense, Mark Gitin confirmed that IPG continues to supply high-performance single-mode lasers into the global defense market for such applications, describing it as an ongoing, though not large, part of their business.

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EVP & CFO James Coogan explained that both markets are in a digestion phase after significant capacity additions in 2024. Chinese customers are focusing on productivity, and memory customers are making only opportunistic buys rather than large capacity expansions. He reiterated that memory revenue will remain muted through 2025, though it should be up year-over-year.

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CEO Russell Low explained that image sensor demand is regional, with one customer adding significant capacity while others remain quiet due to muted mobile and auto end markets. For NAND, he clarified that Axcelis's business is driven by new wafer starts, not just CapEx. The current industry focus is on increasing bit density by adding vertical layers, which does not increase the number of wafers requiring new implanters.

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EVP and CFO James Coogan explained the slight Q1 OpEx uptick is due to seasonal factors like payroll taxes, impacting all line items. For the full year, he expects R&D as a percentage of sales to be slightly higher than historically as the company invests through the downturn. President and CEO Russell Low emphasized this investment in R&D is a strategic opportunity to work with customers and develop new products to be ready for the next upturn.

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VP of IR Ambrish Srivastava noted the company no longer discloses ASP per unit, focusing instead on exabytes. CFO Kris Sennesael added that the metric can be calculated and is trending up. Sennesael then provided the DSO figure, stating it was 52 days, a sequential improvement of 6 days.

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CEO Irving Tan confirmed that Western Digital retains a 19.9% stake in SanDisk. He reiterated the company's plan, as outlined at its Investor Day, to sell these shares over an approximate 12-month period as a key part of its deleveraging strategy.

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CEO David Goeckeler declined to comment on competitors' actions. He instead reiterated Western Digital's own strategy, consistent with its 'New Era of NAND' philosophy, which involves being disciplined with CapEx and actively managing its own supply to respond to market signals and support a balanced market.

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CFO Gianluca Romano stated that the GAAP tax rate will be very similar to the non-GAAP rate, as the global minimum tax affects both GAAP and non-GAAP calculations.

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CEO Dave Mosley stated that cloud customer demand has been predictable, with visibility extending into 2026, as storage is a critical part of their infrastructure. On sourcing, he noted that Seagate decoupled its supply chains long ago and has geographic options for components, resulting in minimal impact from any single region and allowing them to manage sourcing risks effectively.

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CEO Dave Mosley commented that while he has limited visibility, he believes the slow PC application space is about to change, driven by new creative and analytical tools, especially for video. He is excited about the potential but noted it's still very early to predict a timeline. Regarding utilization, Mosley stated that both head and media fabs are running at very high levels, over 90%, and the company intends to keep them that way to avoid negative cost implications.

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Executive Gabriel Waisman expressed hope for a NAND-related revenue increase towards the end of the year, noting that current efforts are focused on technology evaluations to secure a strong position for the eventual ramp. Executive Guy Kizner confirmed that the margin profile of the backlog is more or less the same as what has been recently reported.

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President and CEO Gabriel Waisman listed several areas of market share gains, including stand-alone OCD, front-end chemical metrology, and integrated metrology for advanced packaging. He also clarified that within the memory segment, DRAM was stronger than NAND, and HBM constituted the majority of the DRAM-related business with a higher growth rate.

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CEO Michael Plisinski admitted the NAND strength was 'a bit of a surprise' and is now a more meaningful part of the 2025 outlook, driven by high-stack 3D NAND ramps. Regarding R&D, both Plisinski and CFO Mark Slicer indicated that while another significant jump is not expected, an incremental increase is likely to meet customer demands for a higher pace of innovation.

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CEO Michael Plisinski stated that Korea is expected to benefit from the anticipated growth in the DRAM market. For China, he expects revenue to remain in the same 10% to 15% range as the business is already relatively de-risked in that region.

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