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Founder & CEO Eric Yuan responded that early adopters are now seeking more advanced capabilities, leading them to the paid Custom AI Companion. This allows them to connect Zoom's AI to their own internal data indexes and use customized templates. He emphasized that this is a growing trend and teased further AI innovations for the upcoming Zoomtopia event.

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CEO Eric Yuan stated that Q1 was the largest quarter for Zoom Virtual Agent ARR contribution and upsells. CFO Michelle Chang added that customers are increasingly opting for the premium Elite SKU and that the cautious enterprise outlook stems from sales cycle elongation and increased deal scrutiny in some large U.S. accounts, not a broad-based change in demand.

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Founder and CEO Eric Yuan responded that customer feedback on AI Companion 2.0 has been "extremely positive," driven by its rapid innovation, ease of use, and no-additional-cost model. He highlighted that over 4 million accounts have enabled AI Companion and that monthly active users grew nearly 60% quarter-over-quarter. Yuan also noted strong interest in the upcoming Custom AI Companion for enterprises seeking more flexibility, which will be a monetized offering.

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CEO Eric Yuan explained that customers highly value AI Companion because it's effective and included at no extra cost. He identified meeting summaries as the top use case for Zoom Meetings and highlighted new AI features in Contact Center, such as expert assist and automated wrap-up notes. Yuan emphasized that AI Companion is being integrated across the entire platform and that more enhancements will be announced at Zoomtopia.

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CFO Michelle Chang outlined three go-to-market priorities: moving upmarket, accelerating channel partnerships, and returning the online business to growth. CEO Eric Yuan added that channel partners are critical, driving 6 of the top 10 Contact Center deals in Q4, and investment in the channel will continue.

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CFO Neil Dougherty detailed a multi-pronged tariff mitigation strategy involving supply chain optimization, utilizing existing global manufacturing capacity, and passing on costs where necessary. CEO Satish Dhanasekaran noted that aerospace and defense demand recovered in the second half as expected, driven by existing programs and robust prime contractor backlogs, positioning it as a steady value creator.

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CEO Satish Dhanasekaran stated the aerospace and defense business saw strong order growth, particularly in Europe, despite the U.S. continuing resolution, highlighting wins with NATO and the U.S. Army. CFO Neil Dougherty specified that tariff exposure from shipping both into and out of China represents less than 10% of the total tariff impact.

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CEO Satish Dhanasekaran reported strong aerospace and defense order growth, driven by Europe and U.S. prime contractors, despite the U.S. continuing resolution. He cited wins with NATO and the U.S. Army as evidence of a strong spending environment. CFO Neil Dougherty specified that tariff exposure from trade in both directions between the U.S. and China accounts for less than 10% of the total tariff impact.

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CEO Satish Dhanasekaran explained that the aerospace and defense business is stable long-term, driven by defense modernization, despite near-term order timing issues from continuing resolutions. Regarding AI, he highlighted strong demand across the ecosystem for high-end capabilities, including R&D for terabit speeds and next-gen technologies like PCIe Gen7 and DDR6, leading to robust opportunities and collaborations.

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Executive Mark Wallace identified automotive growth areas beyond the current EV pause, including manufacturing test, software-defined vehicles (ADAS), and charging infrastructure. Executive Satish Dhanasekaran highlighted that beyond physical layer tools for AI, a significant opportunity exists for emulation platforms. He stated Keysight is focused on enabling the broader R&D ecosystem from design to test.

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CFO Beth Gaspich explained that investments in international cloud infrastructure are already showing returns through revenue expansion. She reaffirmed the full-year guidance for a 50 basis point operating margin increase. Gaspich also expressed confidence in the 12% cloud revenue growth target, supported by 42% AI ARR growth, while noting that some softness in the LiveVox business is creating a headwind. CEO Scott Russell added that the core CXone mPOWER platform remains strong.

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CFO Beth Gaspich stated that investments in cloud infrastructure, particularly for international expansion, are yielding positive results. She reaffirmed the guidance for a 50 basis point increase in operating margin for 2025 and expressed high confidence in the 12% full-year cloud revenue growth, despite some softness from the LiveVox business creating uncertainty for Q4. CEO Scott Russell added that the strength of the core CXone mPOWER platform and AI underpins this confidence.

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CFO Beth Gaspich stated that investments in international cloud infrastructure are yielding positive results and reiterated the full-year target of a 50 basis point operating margin increase. She expressed confidence in the 12% cloud growth target, citing solid Q1/Q2 performance and good visibility for Q3, while noting that softness in the LiveVox business adds some uncertainty for Q4. CEO Scott Russell added that the strength of the core CXone mPOWER platform and AI provides a strong foundation despite short-term LiveVox headwinds.

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CFO Beth Gaspich stated that investments in international cloud infrastructure are paying off and confirmed the full-year guidance for a 50 basis point operating margin expansion. She expressed confidence in the 12% cloud growth target, noting strong performance in Q1 and Q2, but mentioned that some softness in the LiveVox business is creating a slight headwind, preventing potential outperformance. CEO Scott Russell added that the core CXone mPOWER platform and AI are strong, providing confidence despite the short-term LiveVox challenges.

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CEO Jim Anderson clarified that the caution in industrial lasers stems from broad macroeconomic factors like high capital costs and tariff uncertainty, not customer concentration. For datacom, he acknowledged that growth rates can fluctuate quarterly and that expected technology transitions, such as from 400G to 800G, are proceeding as normal and are not a cause for concern.

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CEO James Anderson clarified that the cautious industrial outlook is due to macroeconomic uncertainty, not any signs of customer order pull-forwards. He also noted that the aerospace and defense business, while a smaller part of revenue, has been performing well, showing good sequential and year-over-year growth in the most recent quarter.

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CEO James Anderson maintained a cautious near-term outlook for the broader industrial markets that the Lasers and Materials segments serve. However, he pointed to positive signs and growth in specific subsegments, including display capital equipment driven by OLED adoption and improving orders in semi-cap equipment. He confirmed that the automotive sector remains a particular area of weakness for the Materials segment.

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CEO James Anderson explained that the telecom strength was a combination of end-market improvement in both DCI and traditional transport, alongside new product ramps, with positive signs across geographies. He clarified that the yield improvements contributing to gross margin were new progress resulting from the company's focused cost-reduction initiatives, not a simple recovery from past disruptions.

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CEO Chuck Robbins expressed optimism for security, citing over 20% order growth in new products and double-digit growth ex-US Federal. He also noted over 300 new logos for Splunk in the last two quarters. CFO Mark Patterson outlined his priorities as funding for success, durable profitable growth, financial discipline, and shareholder returns.

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CEO Chuck Robbins stated there has been no meaningful change in customer purchasing behavior and, along with CFO Scott Herren, saw no evidence of a broad-based pull-ahead of orders. Robbins and Herren cited stable channel inventory, consistent Meraki activation times, and normal order linearity as evidence. Robbins also noted that global public sector orders grew 8%, with U.S. federal orders showing double-digit growth.

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CEO Chuck Robbins stated there has been no meaningful change in customer purchasing behavior. CFO Scott Herren elaborated, providing several data points like stable channel and web-scaler inventory, consistent Meraki activation times, and normal order linearity, all indicating no significant pull-ahead activity. Robbins added that global public sector orders grew, with U.S. federal orders showing double-digit growth.

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CEO Chuck Robbins attributed the security strength to new products like XDR, Secure Access, and Multicloud Defense, which have been deployed by over 1,000 customers, alongside a full refresh of the firewall portfolio. For data center modernization, he stated that while momentum has primarily been in switching infrastructure, Hypershield is gaining significant mindshare for east-west traffic security, representing a massive opportunity.

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President and CEO Michael Hurlston stated that Lumentum is focusing on its three current hyperscale customers for cloud modules due to capacity constraints. He attributed the gross margin improvement to favorable product mix and a strong focus on cost reduction, adding that he expects further margin expansion in coming quarters.

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CFO Wajid Ali attributed the margin improvement to broad-based strength, including moving DCI production in-house, strong EML demand, and improved module yields. CEO Michael Hurlston reiterated the focus on reaching the 40% gross margin target. Regarding tariffs, Ali stated that while a tariff on Thailand would be a headwind, the company is already in discussions with customers about potential pricing impacts, and for now, Lumentum is not the importer of record for most U.S. shipments.

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EVP and CFO Wajid Ali attributed the gross margin headwind to initial yield issues during new transceiver product ramps and costs associated with underutilized capacity at the new Thailand facility. He expects margins to improve as these issues resolve and high-margin EML shipments increase. President and CEO Alan Lowe added that the new cloud customers have the potential to become as large as, or even larger than, their current largest customer once they are fully ramped.

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Chairman & CEO Greg Brown confirmed that the Alta cloud platform is the fastest-growing part of the video business and that the company is managing the deferred revenue transition while still achieving significant growth. EVP & COO Jack Molloy reported double-digit order growth for APEX NEXT in Q2, noting its exclusivity with the new SVX device and its role in driving application services revenue.

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CEO Gregory Brown confirmed there is no revenue from Ukraine expected in 2025, compared to about $80 million in the prior year. EVP & COO John Molloy detailed strong engagement with the DOJ, DHS, and DoD, highlighting a multiyear pipeline and a new FedRAMP high classification that opens up further opportunities. Gregory Brown added that the government vertical for video is expected to grow faster than the overall video segment's 10-12% forecast.

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Gregory Brown, Chairman and CEO, described the MXP660 launch as being in its very early stages, making it too soon to predict its traction. Regarding the U.K. Airwave matter, he confirmed a hearing is scheduled for the following week regarding the company's challenge to the CMA's ruling, with a decision expected by the end of the year or in early 2025.

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President and CEO Oleg Khaykin detailed the NSE segment's revenue mix as approximately 50% service provider, 30% data center ecosystem, and 20% aerospace & defense, highlighting significant growth in the latter two. CFO Ilan Daskal added that Inertia Labs is tracking above its previously announced $50 million annual run rate, and the Q1 guide also includes growth from the base A&D business.

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President and CEO Oleg Khaykin confirmed that while they had seen positive signs starting in the September quarter, the December quarter was when customers began 'putting money where their mouth was,' leading to the stronger-than-expected results. For the SE business, he noted strong interest in AIOps but a lag in revenue conversion, good performance in private networks, and continued weakness in enterprise spend, expecting calendar '25 to be a recovery year for the segment.

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President and CEO Oleg Khaykin projected near-term softness for OSP's anticounterfeiting products due to inventory digestion and currency redesigns, but expects a rebound to traditional run rates in the second half of the next calendar year. For the SE segment, he described a split picture: continued softness on the enterprise side but very strong momentum and a growing order funnel on the telecom and private network side, driven by AIOps, with revenue expected in the second half of fiscal '25.

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CEO Samuel Wilson explained that 8x8 is reallocating OpEx to drive growth and is willing to accept a temporary dip in operating margins to achieve this, with a long-term goal of growing revenue faster than expenses. CFO Kevin Kraus added that this involves reallocation in both COGS and OpEx. For CPaaS geography, Wilson identified Asia as the largest contributor in dollar terms, with strong traction in the UK and rapid percentage growth in the U.S. driven by RCS.

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CEO Samuel Wilson confirmed that 8x8 has launched CPaaS in the U.S. and secured its first customers, though it's still a small business experiencing some growing pains. On pricing, he noted that while AI and CPaaS are naturally consumption-based, he believes per-agent pricing for core contact center services will persist, as customer feedback on pure consumption models has been negative. The key is having flexible systems to meet customers where they are.

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CEO Samuel Wilson revealed that the best source of new business in the quarter was direct sales, particularly in North America, though the global reseller channel also saw improvement. On the Fuze migration, Wilson stated the progress was as expected but expressed a desire to accelerate the upgrade cycle. He confirmed the company remains on track to shut down the Fuze platform by the end of the next calendar year.

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Chairperson & CEO Jayshree Ullal explained that the significant AI deployments are now creating pressure on front-end cloud networks, leading to a more balanced deployment of both. She noted that this is causing a convergence of front-end and back-end topologies, with the company's $550 million guidance increase reflecting momentum across cloud, AI, and enterprise sectors.

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CEO Jayshree Ullal clarified that the $750 million back-end figure is more directly measurable, while the $1.5 billion total AI number is a 'nice goal' that is harder to parse from general cloud traffic. She stated that tariff outcomes are not expected to materially impact the achievement of either target, as the underlying demand is strong.

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CEO Jayshree Ullal viewed these developments positively, stating they signal a new class of efficient AI accelerators for use cases beyond training, such as inference and reasoning. She believes this will lead to a more distributed AI landscape, expanding Arista's opportunity to provide scalable networks for a diverse range of 'XPUs' and customers, rather than being limited to a few large back-end training clusters.

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CEO Jayshree Ullal explained that the five main trials are highlighted because they have the potential to scale beyond 100,000 GPUs and significantly impact results. She confirmed these 'AI titans' include both hyperscalers and Tier 2 providers. Ullal also mentioned the existence of 10-15 smaller AI trials within the classic enterprise segment, indicating a broader funnel of opportunities beyond the largest deployments.

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CFO Nathan Winters noted that on transactional business, volumes have held up well despite price increases. However, in mobile computing, pricing realization has been lower than anticipated due to an electronics tariff exemption, which has kept the market competitive. CEO Bill Burns confirmed that Elo has a diverse customer base with no 10% end-customer concentration, similar to Zebra, with its largest customer being a distributor.

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CEO William Burns stated that while the opportunity to refresh devices sold in 2021-2022 is still ahead, there is no specific acceleration of that cycle into 2025. He added that RFID had strong Q4 sales growth, with adoption broadening beyond general retail into new use cases like fresh food, government, and manufacturing.

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CEO William Burns attributed healthcare strength to a mix of new customer wins and existing account refreshes, driven by the need to automate workflows. CFO Nathan Winters explained that restructuring benefits are now largely realized, and the 2025 focus for OpEx is on driving productivity and scale through technology like AI, rather than further cost-cutting programs.

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President Josh Isner stated that the key to AI adoption is allowing users to experience the value directly, such as the time savings from Draft1. Regarding immigration funding, he anticipates federal solicitations in Q4 for products like counter-drone, FUSYS, and video, and believes Axon is well-positioned to compete for that business.

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CEO Patrick Smith described the AI products as the fastest-adopting in company history, highlighting that the AI Era Plan closed deals within weeks of its launch. President Joshua Isner explained that the large enterprise win had multiple entry points, including Fusus, body cameras, and Evidence.com, demonstrating a strong and growing product-market fit in the segment.

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Patrick Smith, CEO, described the AI products as the fastest-adopting in company history, highlighting that the AI Era Plan closed deals within weeks of its launch. Joshua Isner, President, explained that the large enterprise win had multiple entry points, including Fusus, body cameras, and Evidence.com, with strong customer interest in other products like Dedrone.

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CEO Charles Treadway explained that the immediate focus is on closing the CCS transaction while continuing to invest in A&S and Ruckus, highlighting recent product developments and strong Q2 results as proof of their progress. CFO Kyle Lorentzen added that a significant portion of G&A will transfer to Amphenol, and the remaining allocated costs to A&S and Ruckus should be representative of the future corporate structure.

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President & CEO Charles Treadway responded that the immediate focus is on running the businesses and closing the transaction, highlighting recent investments and strong Q2 performance in both A&S and Ruckus. EVP & CFO Kyle Lorentzen added that a significant portion of G&A will transfer with the sale, and the currently allocated costs to A&S and Ruckus should be representative of future overhead.

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CEO Chuck Treadway explained that visibility from data center customers is as good or better than the broadband side due to daily communication and strong AI-driven CapEx plans, noting that Q2 bookings are ahead of Q1. For the ANS segment, he highlighted that investments in new products are paying off with significant ramp-ups in nodes and amplifiers with major customers. While some customers are still deciding on upgrade paths, he noted nice wins for the virtual CMTS solution acquired from CASA.

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CFO Kyle Lorentzen indicated that while not providing specific guidance, full-year revenue growth would be in the 20% range. President and CEO Chuck Treadway explained the NICS recovery is driven by the resolution of channel inventory issues, a return to normal growth, traction with RUCKUS One and Wi-Fi 7, and a planned $15 million investment in the direct sales force.

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President and CEO Chuck Treadway explained the investment adds approximately $300 million in revenue capacity to meet strong projected demand of 20-25% annual growth. He clarified that CommScope's focus remains on products used inside the data center, not on data center interconnect opportunities.

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CEO & Chairman Mike Burkland stated that the 'Project Pull-Through' initiative is working well, with partners handling an increasing share of implementations, enabling scale. He also noted that new technology like AgenTeq AI is inherently faster to deploy. President Andy Dignan added that many of these service partners are also resellers, driving both top-line deals and bottom-line efficiency.

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President Andy Dignan clarified that deal elongation stems from increased signature requirements, not Five9's go-to-market process. Regarding Salesforce, he confirmed the partnership is a journey, with the current focus on BYOT for Einstein, to be followed by broader channel routing and eventually Agentforce, calling the current announcement 'only the beginning.'

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CEO Michael Burkland confirmed there has been very little disruption from the leadership transition, crediting a smooth handover. He stated that future investments will be prioritized in two key areas: R&D, specifically to extend the company's leadership in AI, and go-to-market, with plans to continue adding sales quota capacity throughout the year.

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Executive Michael Burkland described the current focus on AI as a 'transitory distraction' with a steep learning curve for customers, but expressed optimism that decision-making will improve. Executive Andy Dignan added that AI delivers high ROI, and Five9 is enabling its sales team to focus on this value proposition while also adjusting implementations to deliver AI benefits earlier in the process.

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CEO David Morken indicated that new Maestro integrations and features would be announced at the upcoming Reverb conference, highlighting the recent NICE acquisition of fellow Maestro partner Cognigy as a validation of their strategy. Chief Product Officer John Bell described customer adoption as a gradual process, where clients first migrate to the cloud and then progressively layer on more advanced services and applications.

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CEO David Morken reported that "hundreds" of enterprise customers are now using the Maestro platform, emphasizing these are significant clients with high average annual spending, not free-tier users. He explained that Maestro serves as a critical orchestration layer for both new and existing customers to integrate their own AI solutions with telephony and CCaaS platforms. While not providing specific revenue KPIs for Maestro, he highlighted its importance in enabling the AI strategies of their enterprise clients via its AI Bridge capabilities.

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President and CEO Gary Smith stated that routing wins are accelerating as service providers return to core network investments after a period focused on 5G. Executive Advisor Scott McFeely quantified this, noting routing orders in the first half of 2025 were over 75% of the total for all of fiscal 2024. On installation, Smith confirmed that the need for engineering, furnishing, and installation (EF&I) services is growing "exponentially" and Ciena has good visibility as a key partner for its large customers.

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CEO Gary Smith explained that cloud spending is not susceptible to typical seasonality due to the massive scale-up, describing the trend as "up and to the right." CFO Jim Moylan stated that the guidance does not include effects from potential new tariffs due to the fluid situation, but noted Ciena has a resilient supply chain and will work with customers on reimbursement if tariffs are enacted.

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CEO Gary Smith stated that Ciena has high confidence in deployment capabilities, citing closer customer collaboration and an expanded services role in managing and executing installations for both service providers and cloud customers. Regarding investments, Smith and CFO Jim Moylan noted that foundational investments have already been made, positioning them with leading technology. The focus now shifts to execution and driving operating leverage over the next three years to achieve their 15-16% operating margin target.

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CFO Jim Moylan stated that while the company feels great about its market position and the 6% to 8% long-term growth rate is a good target, Ciena would not comment on specific 2025 estimates at this time. CEO Gary Smith confirmed that pluggables are viewed as an incremental TAM opportunity, primarily in the short-reach data center interconnect space where Ciena has not historically had significant revenue, and is not seen as cannibalizing the core long-haul and submarine systems business.

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CEO Antonio Neri explained that AI server traction varies by segment, from compute-heavy builds for service providers to integrated solutions for enterprises focused on time-to-value. CFO Marie Myers added that Hybrid Cloud margins, which include storage, are expected to improve to the high single-digits by the end of the fiscal year.

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CFO Marie Myers clarified that while the original 10-11% Server margin guidance for Q1 anticipated pressure from AI GPU transitions, the magnitude was greater than expected. She stated that the primary unanticipated factor was significant pricing challenges within the traditional compute business, which was not factored into the initial guidance.

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CFO Marie Myers stated that while segment-level gross margins are not disclosed, the Server segment's operating margin was strong at 11.6%, which included the final acceptance of El Capitan. She attributed the performance to a high mix of Gen11 traditional servers driving richer average unit prices (AUPs), successful pass-through of commodity costs, and disciplined OpEx. CEO Antonio Neri added that traditional server orders saw a third consecutive quarter of double-digit year-over-year growth.

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CFO Marie Myers attributed the 10.8% Server margin to several factors. She highlighted the successful shift to higher-margin Gen11 servers, the ability to pass on commodity costs in a competitive environment, and disciplined operational expense (OpEx) management, which was down sequentially.

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CEO George Kurian described the AI momentum as an "ongoing unfolding" of the enterprise AI market, with inferencing representing the core opportunity, suggesting it is the beginning of a trend. He confirmed that the strong cloud performance is indeed partly driven by customers using NetApp's cloud services for AI proofs of concept and deployments, in addition to strong technology differentiation and execution in other enterprise use cases.

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CEO George Kurian characterized the current AI momentum as the 'ongoing unfolding of the enterprise AI market,' expecting fiscal 2026 to be a pivotal year for inferencing opportunities. He confirmed that AI use cases are a significant driver of the strong cloud performance, complementing the business's core technology differentiation and execution in other enterprise workloads.

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CEO George Kurian responded that the AI momentum is part of the ongoing evolution of the enterprise AI market, particularly in inferencing, and he expects the opportunity to continue accelerating in fiscal 2026. He confirmed that the strong cloud performance is partly driven by enterprise AI customers using NetApp's cloud services for proofs-of-concept or full deployments, in addition to strong overall technology differentiation and execution in expanding use cases.

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CEO George Kurian acknowledged a degree of caution in European markets, particularly France and Germany, and noted that the Q4 guidance accounts for expected caution in the U.S. public sector. He clarified that in Q3, the U.S. public sector performed as planned and reiterated that the primary issue was deal timing and procurement cycles, not a fundamental shift in demand.

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CFO Kevan Krysler noted that while two strong quarters do not constitute a trend, he was pleased with the performance in Q4 and Q1. He described the current environment as 'business as usual,' with both large deals (over $5 million) and higher-velocity transactions tracking as expected, indicating stable deal cycles.

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CEO Charles Giancarlo described the market for on-prem as-a-Service offerings as 'immature,' leading to a longer, more complex sales cycle involving customer finance departments. CFO Kevan Krysler added that the Q3 peak in conversions to traditional sales moderated in Q4, and the FY25 decline was driven by the timing of large deals in the first half of the year.

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CEO Charles Giancarlo explained that the primary variable is the customer's data center build-out schedule, which Pure does not control. He added that while Pure has qualified for a very large portion of the data center, the exact percentage is also somewhat unknown as they aim for an even larger share. The customer's own design work for other components is also a factor.

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CEO Charles Giancarlo confirmed that the delayed deals are with large enterprise customers. He specified that the issue pertains to a handful of deals each quarter, which makes their exact closing dates more challenging to forecast.

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President and CEO Rajiv Ramaswami noted that the Cisco partnership is a consistent contributor to new logo growth across various segments. He described the Dell relationship as earlier, with the PowerFlex solution just becoming generally available. At the .NEXT conference, key customer interests included broader external storage support, easier migration paths, modern applications, and capabilities for secure, air-gapped environments.

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CEO Rajiv Ramaswami attributed the 50% year-over-year new logo growth to a maturing pipeline, effective go-to-market initiatives, and increased leverage from OEM and channel partners. CFO Rukmini Sivaraman added that the U.S. federal business improved in Q2 with solid year-over-year growth, though it remains less than 10% of annual revenue, and that uncertainty for the remainder of the year has been factored into the annual guidance.

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CEO Rajiv Ramaswami stated that the Q2 federal business forecast is based on their current near-term view and that they feel comfortable it will return to more normal levels, while acknowledging they cannot predict what a new administration will do. He also confirmed the Dell PowerFlex integration is expected to be in the market in the first half of calendar 2025, with revenue contributions anticipated in fiscal 2026.

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President and CEO Rajiv Ramaswami explained that Nutanix is deliberately targeting larger enterprises, where the biggest market opportunity exists, which involves longer but more fruitful sales cycles. He affirmed the mid-market remains a sweet spot. CFO Rukmini Sivaraman noted that the available-to-renew pool for FY25 shows strong year-over-year growth, with fiscal Q2 and Q4 typically being the strongest renewal quarters.

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CEO Vlad Shmunis explained that the company aims to grow all cohorts but is seeing strong traction with smaller businesses and Global Service Providers (GSPs), which together represent over $1 billion in ARR and are growing in double digits. He noted that RingSense adoption is strong in voice-centric verticals like healthcare, financial services, and retail, where enterprise-grade reliability is critical.

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President and COO Kira Makagon explained that GSP partners like BT and Vodafone are already eagerly adopting the new multiproduct portfolio, including RingCX and AI add-ons. She stated that potential upside is a combination of both factors: exceeding the $100 million new product ARR target and driving new product sales into the large installed base, which is a relatively new and accelerating motion for the company.

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Chief Revenue Officer Thomas Wyatt responded that multiproduct adoption is broad, including customers adding second and third channels (e.g., messaging, email) and adopting software add-ons like SMS Pumping Protection and Verify. He added that ISVs are also expanding their usage, often adding Voice for customer care, which is happening in both domestic and international markets.

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CEO Khozema Shipchandler described the current business environment as positive, with customers engaged, although the company continues to plan for a neutral macro environment. Regarding Segment's net expansion rate, he noted that while they don't manage to that specific metric, underlying improvements in deal stickiness, faster customer activation, and new interoperability features are expected to positively influence expansion characteristics over time.

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CEO Khozema Shipchandler attributed the DBNE improvement to customers adopting additional products rather than a macro shift, which he characterized as neutral. On Segment, he noted that while go-to-market improvements in churn and time-to-value have been made, it will take more time for these to reflect in revenue. He highlighted the successful pairing of Segment data with Communications products as a key strategic win.

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EVP and CFO Cooper Werner responded that Q3 has started strong with healthy linearity and no signs of demand erosion. He noted that while a weaker dollar provides a slight benefit to international customers, it is currently balancing out earlier strength in the year and has not caused a material change in sales velocity or customer behavior.

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CFO Cooper Werner responded that early Q3 results were strong, with healthy linearity tracking to expectations and no signs of demand erosion. On the currency question, he acknowledged that a weaker dollar provides some benefit on street pricing but noted the dollar had strengthened earlier in the year, so the recent move was more of a balancing effect and had not materially changed sales velocity or customer behavior.

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President and CEO François Locoh-Donou stated the systems strength comes from both competitive displacements and a more material tech refresh cycle. He noted customers who had been sweating assets now have more budget certainty. EVP and CFO Frank Pelzer added that customers are now comfortable with their long-term hybrid multi-cloud architectures, which encourages reinvestment in their on-premise hardware estates.

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Chairman and CEO Wendell Weeks confirmed that Lumen's demand is as anticipated, with shipping commencing after extensive product qualification. He also expressed enthusiasm for the new Samsung phone content, stating it aligns with the 'More Corning' strategy and positively reinforces the value of their latest innovations.

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CFO Ed Schlesinger stated that while there is an opportunity to exceed the current 39% gross margin, the company's primary focus is the 20% operating margin target by the end of 2026. CEO Wendell Weeks added that Corning is making progress on milestones to launch a new solar market access platform and expects to provide a detailed update around the Q1 2025 investor event.

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The time-to-upsell varies, but there is a strong trend of customers buying the full technology stack from day one, which hit a record in Q3. Visibility into specific customer inventory levels is difficult, but the dialogue indicates that Cloud and SP customers will focus on deploying existing inventory for the next few quarters before placing significant new orders.

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