Q1 FY2023 Earnings Call
AVGO · Preprocessing Report
2023-03-02
Quality
100%
79
Turns
14
Speakers
5
Sections
10
Exchanges
382
Claims

Entities by group 42

semiconductors 1
Broadcomcompany
company executives 2
Hock TanpersonKirsten Spearsperson
analysts 10
Harsh KumarpersonVijay RakeshpersonPierre FerragupersonHarlan SurpersonRoss SeymorepersonEdward SnyderpersonKarl AckermanpersonVivek AryapersonStacy RasgonpersonC.J. Museperson
network switch families 1
Tomahawkproduct
artificial intelligence 2
AItechnologyGenerative AItechnology
network fabrics 2
EthernettechnologyRamon Fabricproduct
networking solutions 2
BaileyproductNetworkingcompany
access networks 2
PONtechnology10G PONtechnology
cable access networks 1
DOCSIStechnology
wireless standards 2
WiFi 6technologyWiFi 6Etechnology
compute processors 1
CPUtechnology
financial institutions 2
BNP ParibascompanyMorgan Stanleycompany
switches and routers 2
Jericho 2productJericho 3product
networking and storage 1
Brocadecompany
media 2
BloombergcompanyLexiconcompany
CPU architectures 1
x86technology
storage networking 1
SANtechnology
AI accelerators 1
TPUtechnology
custom semiconductors 1
ASICtechnology
data center operators 1
Data Centerscompany
enterprise customers 1
Enterprisecompany
Ungrouped 3
VMwarecompanyReuterscompanyPacific Timeother
REPORTING 79PROJECTING 26POSITIONING 87EXPLANATORY 25ANALYST 62

Topics 74

revenue×24networking×22artificial intelligence×19wireless×18switch×15compute×15broadband×15network×8inventory×6silicon photonics×6ethernet×5merger×5earnings×5margin×5generative ai×5renewal rate×4cloud×4outlook×4data center×4server storage×3

Themes 209

revenue growth×7semiconductor solutions×6infrastructure software×4operating×4ai demand×4ai growth×4adjusted×3product mix×3growth×3customer demand×3customer urgency×3second half×3customer concentration×3compute offload×3consolidated growth×2core software growth×2demand outlook×2days on hand×2performance×2ai shipments×2accelerated business×2year-on-year growth×2industrial resale×2consolidated guidance×2free×2maturity×2non-gaap diluted×2scale-out networking×2parallel compute×2timing×2generative ai launch×2q2×2workload mix×2power advantage×2scale-out challenge×2product performance×2silicon photonic×2customer relationships×2boring×2webcast×2spending growth×1fiscal 2023 visibility×1exception impact×1ecosystem management×1shipment timing×1hyperscaler deployment×1bandwidth challenge×1networking solution launch×1power efficiency×1ai network deployment×1high-speed networking×1processor density support×1lossless low-latency scaling×1ai deployment at hyperscalers×1higher-performance acceleration×1ai fabric×1generative ai hyperscalers×1next-generation megawatt solutions×1deployment tailwinds×1wi-fi attach rates×1secular drivers momentum×1revenue mix×1sequential decline×1segment mix×1brocade decline×1core software subscriptions×1strategic account bookings×1subscription and maintenance mix×1expiring contracts×1strategic accounts×1annual recurring revenue×1regulatory clearance×1foreign investment clearance×1review process timing×1closing timeline×1multi-cloud strategy×1annual report publication×1product and technology innovation×1quarterly results×1profitability×1cost control×1expense control×1end market strength×1research and development×1revenue and profit growth×1gross×1days sales outstanding×1quarterly balance×1product inventory management×1cash and leverage×1coupon rate and maturity×1cash payout×1common stock repurchase×1tax withholding on equity vesting×1share buyback×1engineering hiring and payroll tax increase×1quarter and guidance×1models commentary×1generative ai comparison×1ai related revenue×1video processing×1ecosystem role×1company framing×1market adoption×1hyperscaler demand×1data center buildout×1large language models×1accelerator stack×1parallel processing×1ai computing×1ai hardware×1ai parallelization×1rack scale-out×1supply constraints×1ai capacity constraint×1hyperscale deployment×1market opportunity×1hyperscale network demand×1cloud deployment×1next-generation programs×1ai programs×1new generation for compute workloads×1company positioning×1customized hyperscaler engines×1second-half outlook×1second-half growth×1broader environment driver×1trend change outlook×1trend outlook×1soft landing expectations×1moderating growth leading to soft landing×1second-half improvement despite q2 slowdown×1ai product demand×1ai-driven growth×1forward outlook×1full-year guidance×1full-year contribution guidance×1conceptual trend×1mid-teens sequential growth×1contribution after first half of fy2023×1second-half impact×1core business and portfolio fit×1business concerns×1media coverage×1regulatory issues×1regulatory progress×1cable and switch×1early innings×1hyperscale demand×1model scale×1ai network support at hyperscalers×1ai network scaling×1data center bottlenecks×1parallel parametric exchange×1ai networking×1latency and scalability×1ai switch investment×1product ramp×1product presence×1advantages×1top-of-rack×1pluggable optics integration×1customer specifics×1disclosure avoidance×1product definition×1customer diversification×1good results×1strategy shift×1wireless adoption×1updates×1clarification×1provider shift×1architecture change×1outlook reset×1division structure×1handset customers×1focus area×1product cycle×1business performance×1stability×1three-year×1hyperscale clients×1server markets×1market growth×1data center growth×1x86 infrastructure growth×1hyperscale spending×1hyperscaler spending×1generative ai exposure×1networking equipment×1sustained strength×1strength into q2×1current quarter only×1data center scale-out demand×1ai ethernet and compute contribution×1analyst interest×1broadband clarification×1tomahawk portfolio growth×1inventory buildup outlook×1government funding growth×1sustaining business×110-gig pon deployment×1utility service rollout×1docsis and fiber deployment×1docsis upgrade competition×1docsis upgrade cycle×1gateway and wifi attach×1attendance×1report date×1

Key Metrics 55

revenue×42gross margin×4sales×4growth×4renewal rate×3operating expenses×3operating margin×3demand×3earnings×3shipments×2r&d expense×2adjusted ebitda×2free cash flow×2inventory×2diluted share count×2power×2revenue growth×2spending×1inventory days×1switching performance×1total system power×1data rate×1attach rate×1revenue mix×1bookings×1renewal value×1arr×1operating income×1operating profit×1capital expenditures×1days sales outstanding×1days on hand×1cash×1debt repayment×1coupon rate×1dividend payment×1share repurchase×1shares repurchased×1share repurchase authorization×1adjusted ebitda margin×1r&d spending×1timing×1design timing×1lead time×1net working capital×1guidance×1impact×1mix×1percentage×1parameters×1ramp×1throughput×1performance×1backlog×1unit deployments×1

Entities 515

Broadcom×249Hock Tan×124Kirsten Spears×27Tomahawk×8Harsh Kumar×6Vijay Rakesh×6Pierre Ferragu×6Ethernet×5VMware×5Harlan Sur×5Ross Seymore×5Edward Snyder×5Karl Ackerman×5Bailey×4AI×4DOCSIS×4CPU×4Vivek Arya×4Stacy Rasgon×4C.J. Muse×4Generative AI×3PON×3WiFi 6×2WiFi 6E×2Brocade×2x86×2BNP Paribas×2Networking×1Jericho 2×1Ramon Fabric×110G PON×1SAN×1TPU×1Jericho 3×1ASIC×1Reuters×1Bloomberg×1Lexicon×1Data Centers×1Enterprise×1Morgan Stanley×1Pacific Time×1

Business Segments 203

Semiconductor Solutions×180Infrastructure Software×18Broadband×5

Sectors 250

semiconductor×103cloud computing×30artificial intelligence×22software×19networking equipment×18telecommunications×14broadband×13data center×12wireless communications×8data storage×3optical communications×1renewable energy×1healthcare×1video processing×1server×1memory×1energy×1media and entertainment×1

Regions 15

North America×3China×2Brazil×1South Africa×1Canada×1Germany×1France×1Austria×1Denmark×1Italy×1New Zealand×1Europe×1

Metadata Distributions

Sentiment
positive 97negative 15neutral 167
Temporality
backward 74forward 46current 159
Certainty
definitive 79confident 90moderate 71tentative 39
Magnitude
major 70moderate 139minor 70
Direction
improvement 26decline 16flat 3mixed 8none 226
Time Horizon
immediate 69near_term 107medium_term 27long_term 3unspecified 73
Verifiability
quantitative 101event 16qualitative 162
Analyst Intent
probing 21challenging 3confirming 8seeking_detail 25seeking_guidance 5

Speakers

Executives
HTHock TanCEOKSKirsten SpearsCFO
Analysts
CMC.J. MuseanalystESEdward SnyderanalystHSHarlan SuranalystHKHarsh KumaranalystKAKarl AckermananalystPFPierre FerraguanalystRSRoss SeymoreanalystSRStacy RasgonanalystVRVijay RakeshanalystVAVivek Aryaanalyst
Other
JYJi YooirOPOperatoroperator

Sections

TypeLabelSpeaker
preamblePreambleJi Yoo
prepared_remarksPrepared RemarksHock Tan, Kirsten Spears
qa_sessionQ&A Session
closing_remarksClosing RemarksJi Yoo
operator_signoffOperator Sign-offOperator

Q&A Exchanges 10

#AnalystFirmTurns
1
HKHarsh Kumar
Piper Sandler5
2
HSHarlan Sur
JP Morgan6
3
VAVivek Arya
Bank of America4
4
SRStacy Rasgon
Bernstein13
5
CMC.J. Muse
Evercore ISI4
6
VRVijay Rakesh
Mizuho11
7
RSRoss Seymore
Deutsche Bank7
8
ESEdward Snyder
Charter Equity7
9
PFPierre Ferragu
New Street Research12
10
KAKarl Ackerman
BNP Paribas3

Claim Taxonomy 279

REPORTING79
resultFinancial outcome for a completed period59
metricNon-financial quantitative fact14
operationalDiscrete completed event6
PROJECTING26
guidanceQuantitative expectation with number + time15
commitmentPromise with binary verifiable outcome9
targetLong-term aspirational quantitative goal2
POSITIONING87
strategyPriority, direction, or initiative60
competitiveCompany's position or advantages2
opportunityMarket condition framed as growth driver19
riskHeadwind, constraint, or uncertainty6
EXPLANATORY25
attributionWhy a specific outcome happened2
contextNon-company macro/industry fact23
FRAMING0
thesisFalsifiable belief about how the world works0
ANALYST62
questionInterrogative seeking information37
observationRestates a fact or data point17
concernFlags a risk or challenge3
estimateAnalyst's own projection or calculation5
sentimentOpinion, praise, or critique0

Transcript

Preamble
OP
Operatoroperator
Welcome to Broadcom Inc.'s First Quarter Fiscal Year 2023 Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, for opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to Ji Yoo, Head of Investor Relations of Broadcom Inc.
JY
Ji YooirBroadcom Inc.
Thank you, Operator, and good afternoon, everyone. Joining me on today's call are Hock Tan, President and CEO; Kirsten Spears, Chief Financial Officer; and Charlie Kawwas, President Semiconductor Solutions Group. Broadcom distributed a press release and financial tables after the market closed, describing our financial performance for the first quarter fiscal year 2023. If you did not receive a copy, you may obtain the information from the Investors section of Broadcom's website at broadcom.com. This conference call is being webcast live and an audio replay of the call can be accessed for one year through the Investors section of Broadcom's website. During the prepared comments, Hock and Kirsten will be providing details of our first quarter fiscal year 2023 results, guidance for our second quarter, as well as commentary regarding the business environment. We will take questions after the end of our prepared comments.
Please refer to our press release today and our recent filings with the SEC for information on the specific risk factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements made on this call. In addition to U.S. GAAP reporting, Broadcom reports certain financial measures on a non-GAAP basis. A reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP measures is included in the tables attached to today's press release. Comments made during today's call will primarily refer to our non-GAAP financial results. I will now turn the call over to Hock.
Prepared Remarks
HT
Hock TanCEOBroadcom Inc.
Thank you, Ji, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. In our fiscal 20 — in our fiscal Q1 2023, consolidated net revenue that was — revenue was $8.9 billion, up 16% year-on-year. Semiconductor Solutions revenue increased 21% year-on-year to $7.1 billion. While as we expected, Infrastructure Software declined 1% year-on-year to $1.8 billion, even as our core software sustained growth of 5% year-on-year. Stepping back, let me sum up what happened in Q1. From our view, infrastructure spending continues to be up, particularly in service providers, even as hyperscale and enterprise sustain. Spending in technology for infrastructure has been strong, showing double-digit growth for nine consecutive quarters. We continue to be booked for fiscal 2023 and our lead times and visibility on semiconductors remain largely at 50 weeks. While there have been a small number of requests to push out certain orders, we know that these are the exceptions and they have not had a material impact on our business. Because we ship linearly throughout the quarter to our customers, inventory on our books has been consistent around 80 days and overall inventory of Broadcom products across the ecosystem remains very well managed. We continue, needless to say, to be very disciplined in shipping our backlog only as and when needed by our end customers. With that, let me now provide more color on each of our end markets.
Starting with networking. Networking revenue was $2.3 billion and was up 20% year-on-year, in line with guidance, representing 32% of our semiconductor revenue. We see continued deployment of our advanced Tomahawk switches by hyperscalers in their leaf and spine architectures. Even as we deliver on increased bandwidth for the hyperscalers, having said that, power remains a major challenge. So just this week, we announced the industry's first integrated silicon photonics networking solution code name Bailey, which integrates the active optical interconnects with our next-generation Tomahawk 5 switch at 51.2 terabit per second. Bailey doubles switching performance but it will reduce total system power.
Keep in mind that at hyperscalers, a growing portion of our switches have been deployed within their AI networks, which are separate from the traditional x86 CPU scale outrunning existing workloads. Now this is today. Tomorrow, we generated AI using large scale — large language, I should say, models with billions of parameters, we have to run thousands of AI engines in tower enabling large and synchronized bus of data at speeds of 400 gig and 800 gig. The network to support this massive processor density is critical and it's important SDAI engines. Such networks have to be lossless, low latency and be able to scale.
So as you know, such AI networks are already been deployed at certain hyperscalers through our Jericho 2 switches and Ramon Fabric. In fact, in 2022, we estimated our Ethernet switch shipments deployed in AI was over $200 million. With the expected exponential demand from our hyperscale customers, we forecast that this could grow to well over $800 million in 2023. We anticipate this trend will continue to accelerate and mindful that we need even more higher performance networks in the future. We have been investing in a new generation of this lossless low latency Ethernet fabric designed specifically to handle such data and compute-intensive AI workloads. Of course, additionally, the exciting growth prospects for generative AI are driving our compute offload accelerated business at hyperscalers. As we have indicated to you last quarter, this business achieved over $2 billion in revenue in 2022. We are on track to exceed $3 billion in revenue in our fiscal 2023. In Q2, looking forward, short-term, we expect these tailwinds to drive our networking revenue to grow about another 20% year-over-year.
Moving on next to our server storage connectivity revenue. There was a record $1.3 billion or 18% of semiconductor revenue and up 57% year-on-year. Once again, as we discussed in preceding quarters, the rapid transition to next-generation megawatt solutions drove this substantial year-on-year content increase. After four consecutive quarters of such increases, this transition, however, is significantly complete and we expect that in Q2 on a year-on-year basis server storage connectivity revenue will moderate towards 20% year-on-year growth. Moving on to broadband.
Revenue grew 34% year-on-year to a record $1.2 billion and represented 17% of semiconductor revenue. During this quarter, our broadband business particularly benefited from robust deployments by telcos of 10G PON and cable operators of DOCSIS 3.1. These gateways have high attach rates of WiFi 6 and 6E. And in Q2, we expect the secular drivers behind broadband to sustain momentum on a sequential basis, and year-on-year, broadband will grow a solid 10%.
Moving on to wireless. Q1 revenue of $2.1 billion represented 29% of semiconductor revenue. Demand from our North American customer drove wireless revenue up 4% year-on-year, reflecting content increases, which we had previously indicated last quarter. Sequentially, wireless was flattish compared to Q4, and seasonally, we expect wireless to be down sequentially in Q2 and down high single-digit percentage year-over-year. Finally, Q1 industrial resale of $229 million decreased 4% year-over-year as softness in China offset strength in renewable energy and medical. And in Q2, we forecast industrial resales to be down low-single digits percentage year-on-year on continuing softness in China. So, in summary, Q1 Semiconductor Solutions revenue was up 21% year-on-year and in Q2 we expect semiconductor revenue growth of high single-digit percentage year-on-year.
Turning to software. In Q1, Infrastructure Software revenue of $1.8 billion declined 1% year-on-year and represented 20% of total revenue. While core software revenue grew 5% year-on-year, the Brocade business declined because of lumpiness in enterprise consumption in this very narrow vertical of SAN storage.
For core software, consolidated renewal rates averaged 119% of expiring contracts, and within our strategic accounts, we averaged 129% and within this strategic accounts, annualized bookings of $536 million included $197 million, which represent 37% of cross-selling of our portfolio of products to these same core strategic customers. Over 90% of the renewal value represented recurring subscription and maintenance. Now in — by way of comparison, over the last 12 months, consolidated renewal rates averaged 119% over expiring contracts, and in our strategic accounts, we averaged 134%.
Because of this, our ARR, the indicator of forward revenue at the end of Q1 was $5.3 billion, which is up 3% from a year ago. In Q2, we expect our Infrastructure Software segment revenue to be up low-to-mid single-digit percentage year-on-year, as the stable core software growth continues to be partially offset now by weakness in Brocade. So, in summary, we are guiding consolidated Q2 revenue for the company to be $8.7 billion, up 8% year-on-year. Before Kirsten, tells you more about our financial performance for the quarter, let me provide a brief update on our pending acquisition of VMware. We continue to make progress with our various regulatory filings around the world, having now received legal merger clearance in Brazil, South Africa and Canada, and foreign investment control clearance in Germany, France, Austria, Denmark, Italy and New Zealand. As we stated on our last earnings call, we continue to anticipate that the time line for the review process will be extended in other key regions, especially given the size of this transaction. Having said that, we continue to expect the transaction to close within our fiscal 2023. We believe the combination of Broadcom and VMware is about enabling enterprises to accelerate innovation and expand choice by addressing their most complex technology challenges in this multi-cloud era and we are confident regulators will see this when they conclude their review. Finally, Broadcom recently published its third annual ESG report available on our corporate citizenship website, which discusses the company's ESG initiatives. As a global technology leader, we recognize Broadcom's responsibility to have a positive impact on our customers, employees and communities through our product and technology innovation and operational excellence, we remain committed to this mission. With that, let me turn the call over to Kirsten.
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KS
Kirsten SpearsCFOBroadcom Inc.
Thank you, Hock. Let me now provide additional detail on our financial performance. Broadcom had another great quarter with robust financials.
Consolidated revenue was $8.9 billion for the quarter, up 16% from a year ago. Gross margins were 74% of revenue in the quarter, about 10 basis points higher than we expected. Operating expenses were $1.1 billion, down 1% year-on-year. R&D of $929 million was also down 1% year-on-year, primarily from streamlined project and other variable spending, offset in part by higher people costs resulting from increased headcount as we are hiring. Operating income for the quarter was $5.4 billion and was up 17% from a year ago. Operating margin was 61% of revenue, up approximately 50 basis points year-on-year.
Adjusted EBITDA was $5.7 billion or 64% of revenue. This figure excludes $127 million of depreciation. Now a review of the P&L for our two reportable segments. Revenue for our Semiconductor Solutions segment was $7.1 billion and represented 80% of total revenue in the quarter.
This was up 21% year-on-year. As Hock discussed, this came from strength across all of our semiconductor end markets. Gross margins for our Semiconductor Solutions segment were approximately 69%, down approximately 160 basis points year-on-year, driven primarily by product mix within our semiconductor end markets. Operating expenses were $802 million in Q1, down 2% year-on-year. R&D was $716 million in the quarter, down 1% year-on-year. Q1 semiconductor operating margins were 58%. So while semiconductor revenue was up 21%, operating profit grew 23% year-on-year.
Moving to the P&L for our Infrastructure Software reportable segment. Revenue for Infrastructure Software was $8 — $1.8 billion, down 1% year-on-year and represented 20% of revenue. Gross margins for Infrastructure Software were 91% in the quarter and operating expenses were $346 million in the quarter, down 1% year-over-year. Infrastructure Software operating margin was 72% in Q1 and operating profit was stable year-on-year.
Moving to cash flow. Free cash flow in the quarter was $3.9 billion, representing a 16% increase year-over-year. Free cash flow represented 44% of revenues in Q1 2023 consistent with what we achieved the same quarter last year. We spent $103 million on capital expenditures. Days sales outstanding were 33 days in the first quarter compared to 30 days in the fourth quarter. We ended the first quarter with inventory of $1.9 billion, down 1% from the end of the prior quarter or 78 days on hand. Overall, inventory of Broadcom's products across the ecosystem, as Hock indicated, remains well managed. We ended the first quarter with $12.6 billion of cash and $39.3 billion of gross debt of which $1.1 billion is short-term.
During the quarter, we repaid $260 million in senior notes that were due on maturity. The weighted average coupon rate and years to maturity of our fixed rate debt is 3.61% and 10.2 years, respectively.
Turning to capital allocation. In the quarter, we paid stockholders $1.9 billion of cash dividends.
Consistent with our commitment to return excess cash to shareholders, we repurchased $1.2 billion of our common stock and eliminated $333 million of common stock for taxes due on vesting of employee equity, resulting in the repurchase and elimination of approximately 2.7 million AVGO shares. The non-GAAP diluted share count in Q1 was $434 million. As of the end of Q1, $11.8 billion was remaining under the share repurchase authorization. Excluding the potential impact of any share repurchases, in Q2, we expect the non-GAAP diluted share count to be 438 million. Based on current business trends and conditions, our guidance for the second quarter of fiscal 2023 is for consolidated revenues of $8.7 billion and adjusted EBITDA of approximately 64.5% of projected revenue. In forecasting such profitability, we expect gross margins to be up approximately 150 basis points sequentially on product mix and R&D spending to be up sequentially on continuing hiring of engineers and seasonal payroll tax step-ups. That concludes my prepared remarks. Operator, please open up the call for questions.
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Q&A Session
Q&A 1/10
OP
Operatoroperator
Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question will come from the line of Harsh Kumar with Piper Sandler. Your line is open.
HK
Harsh KumaranalystPiper Sandler
Yeah. Hey, guys. Congratulations on yet another solid quarter and guide and thanks for all the color you guys provided.
Hock, you mentioned generative models in your commentary. I wanted to understand the difference between what you are doing in AI so far versus maybe what our understanding of generative is. You talked about $200 million in Ethernet related to AI, is that largely generative, because we have heard other companies say that for large part, the generative models are using InfiniBand and then you talked about $2 billion in compute offload going to sort of $3 billion. My understanding was that was mostly for video processing. Maybe help us think about how we think of Avago's place or Broadcom's place in the generative process?
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HT
Hock TanCEOBroadcom Inc.
Well, yeah, thank you for that question and opportunity to clarify why we highlighted and why I highlighted it very purposefully. In 2022, generative is just barely starting to kick off. But they exist AI networks within the hyperscalers, particularly in fairly significant volume. And one we are trying to say is, very similar to CPUs, traditional CPUs in traditional workloads in those same data centers. We have constrained on performance of those silicon CPUs and Moore's Law, we are starting to see scale out buying positioning rows and rows of server, CPUs and networking them together to work closely in parallel. As we step up to large language models in AI, generative AI in particular coming into play. GPUs are starting to be strung together in hundreds, soon to be thousands of racks and working in parallel and you know how that goes. And basically, those GPUs work in parallel in fairly synchronous manner to basically run and do what we call bulk parametric exchange, basically, run GPUs together, all AI engines together, whether they are GPUs, AI or TPUs or other AI engines.
You run them together. It becomes network. The network becomes now potentially a critical part of this whole AI phenomenon in hardware. To make it work, you have got to put together many racks of AI engines in parallel, very similar to what we have been doing — hyperscalers have been doing on CPUs to make them run faster, high performance as Moore's Law comes to an end and doesn't make any difference here in the form of AI engine. They come from silicon, they have — they face similar constraints. So network becomes a problem — becomes the constrained, network becomes a very key part of fulfilling generative AI dream here. And what we are saying here — what I am saying in my comments is, last year, 2022, these are more AI — what you call the AI workloads that are running in hyperscale and the advent of generative AI is still relatively fresh and new, we are doing $200 million as far as we could estimate of silicon, Ethernet switches and fabric that goes into those AI networks as far as we could identify in hyperscalers. With generative AI and the urgency and excitement of it coming in that we are seeing today. We are seeing that increase very, very dramatically and we are seeing urgency in our hyperscale customers coming to us to secure products, to secure ability to put in place those very, very low lossless, I would call, very low latency networks that can scale and Ethernet is what makes those networks scale.
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HK
Harsh KumaranalystPiper Sandler
Understood.
#154
HT
Hock TanCEOBroadcom Inc.
Thanks, Harsh.
#155
Q&A 2/10
OP
Operatoroperator
Thank you. One moment for our next question. And that will come from the line of Harlan Sur with JP Morgan. Your line is open.
HS
Harlan SuranalystJP Morgan
Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. Hock, as your cloud customers are now aggressively focused on generative AI development and deployment across their data center footprint, right? This is driving strong AI-focused Ethernet switch port demand and demand for our compute offload as like TPU for this year, as you mentioned. But from a new product ramp and design win funnel perspective, is this also causing your cloud customers to want to pull forward some of your future programs like Tomahawk 5 or Jericho 3 next-gen switching and routing products and/or pulling the design and tape out of their next-generation compute offload AI ASIC programs?
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HT
Hock TanCEOBroadcom Inc.
Yes. We are seeing all of the foregoing by the way and that happened over the last 90 days. We have seen a lot of that urgency, a lot of that, you might call it excitement, but you hit it right on.
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HS
Harlan SuranalystJP Morgan
Okay.
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Hock TanCEOBroadcom Inc.
Yes.
Which is accounting for the color in my commentary about both net — generative AI-based network and pushing us to develop a new generation altogether of Ethernet switching that can support this kind of very compute and data intensive workloads. So that's one side of it. And the other side of it, you are right, we have typically not want to talk much about compute offload, which is another way of saying, yeah, these are very related to some of the engines that certain — that are fairly customized dedicated to certain hyperscalers.
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Harlan SuranalystJP Morgan
Thank you, Hock.
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Q&A 3/10
OP
Operatoroperator
Thank you. One moment for our next question. And that will come from the line of Vivek Arya with Bank of America. Your line is open.
VA
Vivek AryaanalystBank of America
Thank you for taking my question.
Hock, I am just curious to understand just the views about the second half. If I look at the last few years, Broadcom has managed to grow semiconductor sales, right, anywhere between 5% to kind of double-digit second half half-over-half, just the broader business environment. So it's kind of more of a broader business environment question, not guidance per se, what could change that trend for Broadcom in a positive or negative way this year?
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HT
Hock TanCEOBroadcom Inc.
In a sort of broadly conceptual, not a guidance, as you say, but trend this way. We are kind of getting rather hopeful that it would be a soft lending. That will be moderation as we are indicating this future — in this Q2 quarter moderating growth, but we see nonetheless, as probably leading to a soft landing of still a year-on-year improvement in the second half.
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VA
Vivek AryaanalystBank of America
Understood. Thank you, Hock.
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Q&A 4/10
OP
Operatoroperator
Thank you. One moment for our next question. And that will come from the line of Stacy Rasgon with Bernstein. Your line is open.
SR
Stacy RasgonanalystBernstein
Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my question. I just wanted to verify, Hock, did you say that you started hearing urgency from your hyperscale customers around the AI in the last 90 days, and just given that, how do I think about that in the context of lead times that are still 50 weeks. You have got like, sounds like, $1.6 billion in incremental net working growth in year-over-year in 2023 from AI across both Ethernet and the ASICs. I guess given the lead times, is that more of a second half kind of thing when that contributes to the model or does it contribute more linearly for the year or I guess just how do I think about the timing levels in the wake of the strong demand right now just given the broader lead times?
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Hock TanCEOBroadcom Inc.
Stacy, thank you for your question. Very perceptive. And as I say, we are not — we are trying not to — we are not guiding you guys what happens beyond the second quarter, not the second half of this year and…
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Stacy RasgonanalystBernstein
You give us some guidance for the year on this, right, so…
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Hock TanCEOBroadcom Inc.
No guidance. Sorry, I give you a conceptual trend, how is that. But…
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Stacy RasgonanalystBernstein
Okay.
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Hock TanCEOBroadcom Inc.
But having said that, no, we are still working through timing of when our customers need those urgent — those products in a fairly urgent manner and our ability to obviously want to be very, very helpful to help customers launch aggressively into generative AI. So we are in the midst of that.
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Stacy RasgonanalystBernstein
Okay.
Because like the networking implied guide for Q2 has got to be up like, call it, mid-teens sequentially. Is that some of that contributing or do I get even more — I guess as we go beyond, because we are already — once you get through this quarter, we are already through the first half, right? So I guess…
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Hock TanCEOBroadcom Inc.
I think…
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Stacy RasgonanalystBernstein
….I have been asking in the second half, right?
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HT
Hock TanCEOBroadcom Inc.
Stacy, I wish you guys will not do too much analysis, but I know that won't happen.
I am only guiding Q2. I will let you figure out what happens in the second half. I think you are probably better of did than I am.
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Stacy RasgonanalystBernstein
Got it. Okay. Thank you so much, Hock.
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Hock TanCEOBroadcom Inc.
Thank you.
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Q&A 5/10
OP
Operatoroperator
Thank you. One moment for our next question. And that will come from the line of C.J. Muse with Evercore ISI. Your line is open.
CM
C.J. MuseanalystEvercore ISI
Yeah. Good afternoon. Thank you for taking the question and I know that it might be difficult to share too much on the ongoing review from the European Commission. But I was hoping maybe you could speak a little bit about where they are concerned, i.e., mix fiber channel, host bus adapters and other storage adapters. Do you view these as core businesses within Broadcom, are they easy to extract out of your portfolio and is there IP that is critical for these businesses that are clearly used by your other larger core businesses? Anything to kind of help us understand would be grateful. Thank you.
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HT
Hock TanCEOBroadcom Inc.
C.J., I appreciate the fact that you have been definitely reading a lot of those Reuters and Bloomberg and Lexicon report. I appreciate that.
And you equally know that I cannot — I will not comment on any of this as we are working very, very positively and progressively with regulators on all the issues related to our clearance. So, sorry, I can't comment. But just to let you know, we are making good progress.
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C.J. MuseanalystEvercore ISI
Thank you.
#228
Q&A 6/10
OP
Operatoroperator
Thank you. One moment for our next question. And that will come from the line of Vijay Rakesh with Mizuho. Your line is open.
VR
Vijay RakeshanalystMizuho
Yeah. Hi, Hock. Just a quick question on — you talked about generative AI. Just wondering, as you look at the workload, what percent of workload would be on generative AI, like exiting 20 — calendar 2023 or 2024? And also I want to hit on the silicon photonics side, I think, you briefly mentioned the silicon photonics cable with integrated switch, the 51.2 terabytes switch. When do you see this ramping and what's the power advantage on that? Thanks.
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HT
Hock TanCEOBroadcom Inc.
Okay. Well, it's — I am sure I don't need to elaborate on what we all hear about on generative AI and it's — I think it's still early innings on generative AI. But we obviously are also indicating, as we are seeing a very strong and a strong sense of urgency among our customers especially in the hyperscale environment to be — to not miss out — not to be late in this trend. And with generative AI, as I said, with many more — much more billions of parameters that come into the models that they are doing.
You are talking about scale out of A — of data centers driving AI engines network together in a manner that we probably have not seen before. It's not a problem that's not solvable. It is very, very clearly solvable. As evidenced by the fact that we have and deploy technology to support AI networks even today to certain hyperscalers, where we are talking about at least hundreds and on thousands of AI engines, AI service network together and working in a synchronous manner. So this is about ability to scale out in a fairly substantial manner. And that was the color I was providing and it's really about trying to make sure that happens and not be the bottleneck to our ability to get the best performance — system performance and I emphasize the word system performance of an AI data center. And where it's coming from right now is, frankly, how to network them and how to do those massive parametric exchange, so to say, when you run large numbers of engines or machines in parallel, as you grind through this huge database and that we need to do.
So that's — we are in early innings and which is why we think we have time to come up — to start to work on even a new generation of switches in Ethernet that are dedicated — that are specifically designed dedicated to these kind of workloads, which are very different from the normal workloads that we see today traditionally in data centers and we have to address that. They have to be, as I say, literally lossless, virtually lossless, very low latency and be able to scale into thousands of engines and that's the main three criteria we are aware of and we are driving solutions — silicon solutions that enable that. We have it but we think we need to improve the performance of what we have to — and in anticipation of a trend that we foresee over the next several years and so we are putting…
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VR
Vijay RakeshanalystMizuho
Okay.
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HT
Hock TanCEOBroadcom Inc.
… a lot of investment in that direction.
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Vijay RakeshanalystMizuho
On the silicon photonics cable, just wondering when the time of ramp and…
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HT
Hock TanCEOBroadcom Inc.
It's there…
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VR
Vijay RakeshanalystMizuho
… or advantages there? Thanks.
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HT
Hock TanCEOBroadcom Inc.
Well, we intend to launch Tomahawk 5 early 2024 as we indicated previously and that's the conventional silicon-based with pluggable optics switch top of the rack switch Tomahawk 5 51.2 terabit per second. Bailey, which is the fully integrated silicon photonic version. You don't fully integrate the active component — element — active elements of those pluggable optics into the switch. We anticipate launching that shortly thereafter.
Power wise, you can see silicon photonics, that's a lot. The Tomahawk 5 compared to what we have today is 2x the performance of Tomahawk 4 and but we believe we can do Tomahawk 5 at the same power, close to the same power if not lower than Tomahawk 4.
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Vijay RakeshanalystMizuho
Great. Thank you.
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Hock TanCEOBroadcom Inc.
Sure.
#264
Q&A 7/10
OP
Operatoroperator
Thank you. One moment for our next question. And that will come from the line of Ross Seymore with Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.
RS
Ross SeymoreanalystDeutsche Bank
Thanks certainly ask the question.
I wanted to go into the compute offload number that you talked about, Hock, the $2 billion last fiscal year going to $3 billion this year. I know it's a touchy subject and so no customer specifics, of course. But generally speaking, can you just talk about the breadth and types of compute offload and how that's changing in the mix from the $2 billion last year to $3 billion this year?
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HT
Hock TanCEOBroadcom Inc.
Well, I'd rather not answer that question, Ross. Highly sensitive to some of my very limited customer base. But as I said, it includes some of the engines — the compute engines and some are related components that support this engine.
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RS
Ross SeymoreanalystDeutsche Bank
Is the concentration changing? So are you broadening customers in that growth?
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HT
Hock TanCEOBroadcom Inc.
No. No. Very concentrated.
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Ross SeymoreanalystDeutsche Bank
Okay. Thank you.
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Hock TanCEOBroadcom Inc.
Thank you.
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Q&A 8/10
OP
Operatoroperator
Thank you. One moment for our next question. And that will come from the line of Edward Snyder with Charter Equity. Your line is open.
ES
Edward SnyderanalystCharter Equity
Thank you very much.
Good quarter, Hock. So apparently over the last quarter you were getting out of wireless, you are getting into wireless or handset guys are going to start doing wireless. So I wanted to get a couple of updates. So maybe you could set the record straight. First of all, even if you see a sea change in, let's say, silicon, mixed silicon baseband providers in the next year or two, does that fundamentally change your opinion of your wireless group, and either way, actually, does it get better, does it get worse, because obviously, if architectures change, it has a big impact on supply chain and I know, historically, you have worked very closely with key players and helping develop all the other pieces of the puzzle like transceivers that are required if you are going to do your own. So maybe you could just kind of reset the bar on what you expect for without guidance, but in general, the wireless division in the next year or two, does that for you to get greater? Thanks.
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HT
Hock TanCEOBroadcom Inc.
Thanks. Good question, Ed.
As you know, our wireless division — group, as you call it, division, it's really not one single product line or one single division, it's not one homogenous group either and it is several — a few key products that comprises this wireless division. All selling — you are right — you are correct, to the same application and very high end flagship status handsets and largely focused on one key customer in North America are much below the North American OEM customers. So in that sense, it's one single focus area.
And to answer your question, while we are multiple — on these multiple products and they tend to keep progress as each new generation happens may not be every year, but it happens pretty — fairly regular frequency on a cadence that is pretty predictable after while each on its own cadence. It's a very, very good business for us. And to answer your question directly, no, it's nothing significant — meaningful has changed. Our relationship, our strategic engagement continues very much the same as it has for the last multiple years and we see that to continue in a fairly predictable stable manner.
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ES
Edward SnyderanalystCharter Equity
And then just to remind if we could, a three-year roadmap, I mean, you see stuff pretty far out, right?
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HT
Hock TanCEOBroadcom Inc.
Yes.
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Edward SnyderanalystCharter Equity
Great. Thank you.
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HT
Hock TanCEOBroadcom Inc.
Thank you.
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Q&A 9/10
OP
Operatoroperator
Thank you. One moment for our next question. That will come from the line of Pierre Ferragu with New Street Research. Your line is open.
PF
Pierre FerraguanalystNew Street Research
Great. Thank you for taking question. Can you hear me well?
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KS
Kirsten SpearsCFOBroadcom Inc.
Yeah.
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HT
Hock TanCEOBroadcom Inc.
Yes.
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PF
Pierre FerraguanalystNew Street Research
Great.
So I am trying to put together a perspective of what's happening at hyperscale clients this year. So if I look at your networking division, if you grow like at least $600 million this year in AI and if you have compute for $1 billion growth — by the billion, that might well represent all your growth in that — in networking. So that would mean the only thing that is really growing and that we bring a lot this year in that space is AI. And when I look at outside of Broadcom, what we have seen is memory and x86 CPU servers are having a very difficult time at the moment, we expect a recovery in the second half, while the GPU segment of the market is actually in very, very good shape and growing very well and accelerating again. So my question at the end of the day is, is it fair to say that in these large data centers this year only AI is growing and is that a sign of what the future will be or do you think the general purpose started in infrastructure or like centered around x86 or similar or general purpose CPUs still is a very good growth market?
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HT
Hock TanCEOBroadcom Inc.
You post very, very interesting and good questions, Pierre. The problem is, I do not — my customers — hyperscale customers do not necessarily honor me by sharing all those insights that you — and on those questions you are asking.
I do not know. I do not know. All I know and what I do know, because I don't sell CPUs. I don't even sell them GPUs, by the way. But I know what you know out there, which is in certain areas of their business, we are seeing some of these hyperscalers bringing on a sense of urgency and focus, and of course, spending to be up to speed if not to not be left behind as we see the excitement hype perhaps in pushing applications and workloads in generative AI. That's what we see driving a lot of this excitement, and we are always saying is, we have seen some of that effect on our networking business with those hyperscalers. That's what it is.
Beyond that, we, unfortunately, other than the backlog we get in normal networking switches, routers and key components, we see that. And as I indicated in the last quarter's results, we continue to see sustained strength. Now last quarter and continuing as we indicate this particular quarter Q2. Beyond that, we don't get to see — we do not want to guide what we are going to see beyond that. But right now, last quarter, this quarter, yeah, traditional data centers scale out in networking and deployment in networking continues to be strong and sustained in hyperscalers as well I might indicate in the enterprise.
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Pierre FerraguanalystNew Street Research
Okay. Great. And just to clarify specifically on what you are doing, is that fair to assume that the majority — a very large majority of your growth this year in networking is going to come from AI, which you have $600 million coming from AIs Ethernet and $1 billion coming from [inaudible] or is that not the right way to think about it? Just for your business, I am not looking at anything else?
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Hock TanCEOBroadcom Inc.
I will not think about it at this point. It might be a bit too mature. Don't forget generative…
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Pierre FerraguanalystNew Street Research
Okay.
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Hock TanCEOBroadcom Inc.
…AI is still early stage.
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Pierre FerraguanalystNew Street Research
Yes. Okay. That' very clear. Thanks, Hock.
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Hock TanCEOBroadcom Inc.
Thank you.
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Q&A 10/10
OP
Operatoroperator
Thank you. And we do have time for one final question and that will come from the line of Karl Ackerman with BNP Paribas. Your line is open.
KA
Karl AckermananalystBNP Paribas
Yeah.
Thank you for taking my question. There were many great questions, quite frankly, on the networking business, which I think is quite significant for you. Maybe if I could, a clarification on that and then a broader question that I want to address on broadband. On the networking piece, I was curious if you could discuss the growth opportunity in your Tomahawk portfolio now that a peer has elected to stop investing in their switch division. And then as it relates to broadband, several companies across the broadband ecosystem have guided a softer outlook due to a buildup of inventory, but quite frankly, that's been on the customer premise side, you obviously have more weighting towards fiber and sell into the infrastructure portion. And so I was hoping you could discuss how you are thinking about the growth of your fiber business within broadband both from an infrastructure side and a consumer equipment standpoint as governments begin to deploy funds for broadband infrastructure? Thank you.
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Hock TanCEOBroadcom Inc.
Thank you for that question. Yes. Broadband is, for us, a very, very good business and very sustaining. Used to be boring. Boring is good at this point. And last quarter, Q1, as I reported, we actually grew 34% year-on-year.
In my view, that's rather exceptional even though in broadband, we have been seeing year-on-year growth now at least for the past four quarters, five quarters. But still 34% was rather exceptional and sure enough Q2, it normalizes to a most date level, but still growing.
And the growth in that is simply because we are very well positioned with respect to next-generation PON, 10-gig PON, which has been deployed in big volumes now by telcos supported by the governments and countries all over Europe and even in North America, not to mention other country — other nations beyond that. Basically, it is about reaching these key utility broadband service to every household and we see a lot of deployment. And then more vertical market, we also see simultaneous with PON or fiber, as you call it, a large strong continued deployment of cable, DOCSIS certainly coax to the home, because the cable operators, a few of them who on the scale of the telcos and who need to maintain competitiveness as the telcos launch 10 gigabit PON. That cable has to update DOCSIS to be able to compete and not lose subscribers in the market — in the same market they compete against each other. So we see strength both in cable, DOCSIS 3.1, as I call it, and potentially next generation, not yet happening, but hopefully within the next couple of years, DOCSIS 4. — 4.0. Meanwhile, PON is happening, which accounts for the strength we saw last quarter and continuing strength over the last several quarters and content increases come to not just unit deployment of those gateways and infrastructure, but also the fact that a lot of this deployments come with very high attach rates of WiFi 6 and 6E. And that provides additional boost, content increases more, what I would call it, to our revenue growth in broadband. So that's quietly still chugging along very nicely for us. All right.
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Closing Remarks
OP
Operatoroperator
Thank you. As I am showing no further questions in the queue at this time. I would now like to turn the call back over to Ji Yoo for any closing remarks.
JY
Ji YooirBroadcom Inc.
Thank you, Sherri.
In closing, we would like to highlight that Broadcom will be attending the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference on Tuesday, March 7th. Broadcom currently plans to report its earnings for the second quarter of fiscal 2023 after close of market on Thursday, June 1, 2023. A public webcast of Broadcom's earnings conference call will follow at 2 p.m. Pacific Time. That will conclude our earnings call today. Thank you all for joining. Sherri, you may end the call.
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Operator Sign-off
OP
Operatoroperator
Thank you all for participating. This concludes today's program. You may now disconnect.