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Paradis

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@ParadisLabs

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Memory fundamentals are still very strong (stronger than Q1). $MU CEO: - "We expect memory and storage supply demand conditions to be much tighter in fiscal 2027 and 2028 than they were in 2026." - "We do not have line of sight to when supply and demand will return to balance." Back in July, $NVDA supply commitments rocketed from $119B -> $279B which was "primarily related to the procurement of memory", with ~$175B of commitments for 2028-29... $MU also said that >75% of FY27 output is already committed + "a majority of discussions with our customers today are already around 2028." So as a reminder....ultra long-term demand visibility in the context of the memory market. Samsung’s Q3 prelim last week was 107.4T Won O.P. on 195T Won revenue: - So that's ~55% margins company-wide. - Micron did 87% GM in their most recent quarter - $SNDK 84.6% GM. All accelerating/stabilizing margins as of their most recent fiscal Q's. Mass production from new capacity (from Micron, Samsung and SKHY) is also not expected to come online for quite some time. In other words, the shortage will intensify next year at least. Then long-term contracts solidify long-term earnings further via price floors + committed volumes: - $MU with 26 SCAs worth >35% of revenue through to 2030 with some now running into 2031. - $MU CFO: "even at floor prices, we expect margins meaningfully above any prior cycle peak margins." - $SKHY has ~10 LTAs of ~5 yrs w/ pricing structures "designed to respond to price fluctuations." - Sammy (as of recent reporting) holds ~70% of memory capacity under LTAs until 2031 with $MSFT, $NVDA and $GOOGL, with ~25% of contract value prepaid. - $SNDK also has their "New Business Model" agreements with 8 customers that lock in ~66% of fy28. Then on buybacks, $MU will step up returns from December - "over time, we expect to return 100% of our excess cash." Just crazy how much cash these companies are bathing in rn. Obviously there are risks, mainly with positioning and sentiment towards the AI trade currently - thanks to macro/ARR fears/pacing talks/other stuff I'm probably forgetting rn. China is ofc another risk with CXMT but I don't see how they'll be a massive problem for HBM / US hyperscaler RDIMM where they'll continue to face US restrictions + massive qualification walls imo. But ultimately, memory fundamentals are in-tact and very strong. Stronger than Q1.
@ParadisLabs

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I think Gavin's correct. Open-weight models that compress frontier margins are positive for AI infra -- they don't shrink demand for compute. An example is after Deepseek R1, Tencent, Alibaba and Bytedance *significantly* increased H20 orders...and smaller healthcare & education firms started buying $NVDA H20's to run DeepSeek in-house. So we saw a broadening out of the customer base for the infra providers. In the West, I think $DELL is the best read on whether the buyer base is broadening beyond frontier labs. Hyperscalers mostly buy directly from Taiwanese ODMs, so Dell's AI customers are mostly neoclouds, sovereigns and enterprises. Dell's AI customer count went from >5,000 to >6,500 last quarter (30% growth in one quarter) which management say is mainly down to enterprise acceleration. Feels like that's one of the better public data points on how fast the self-hosting buyer base is growing. Which is a net-positive for AI infra. I don't understand how it can't be?
@ParadisLabs

Paradis on X

With the Singapore Grand Prix in a few hours, I can't help but draw comparisons to the financial markets and the AI trade. One slow pitstop or a miscalculated overtake can undo weeks of preparation and cost millions of dollars. So with AI and semiconductor earnings fast approaching, it feels like we need a quick pitstop to get the race back on track. Rates remain high. Oil prices are elevated. Fresh frontier lab ARR concerns. AI capex. Circular financing.....all create some dark clouds which have resulted in de-risked positioning and low sentiment. Similarly, consumer confidence is low. New research from Morgan Stanley finds that net sentiment from Americans towards AI is at +14% compared with -20% for data center construction, with water requirements and environmental concerns among the biggest objections. It therefore seems like AI policy will become an even bigger stumbling block in the years to come... But the positive is that business fundamentals have remained strong highlighted by recent sold-out comments from $MU and $LITE CEOs. Plus $TSM reporting 55% YoY revenue growth as the de-facto proxy for the wider AI trade. My beloved Chelsea won 5-1 yesterday. But conceding even just 1 goal won't be good enough for the AI trade. With sentiment at fresh lows, I feel like all the key infrastructure companies need to report without any hiccups.