Sentiment Analysis of the earnings transcript to help figure out if there are any bullish or bearish sentiments that could be gathered from it. We're doing ML and AI based analysis on the earnings call to get some more insights.
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| And so we really feel confident about that |
| But what's incredibly exciting is that there's something different that's happening here because one of our differentiators is our capability and understanding of all things, artificial intelligence |
| And look, I mean, at the end of the day, I know we're talking about the core business, but AI, generally, and generative AI, specifically, is going to drive our modernization around infrastructure that is not only relevant to generative AI systems, but is also going to bode very well for our core server and storage business |
| And we finished strong in storage above our seasonality, and it was good to see growth in our power scale portfolio and triple-digit sequential growth in our PowerFlex portfolio |
| We see really strong adoption with our 16G portfolio, given the performance, security and embedded intelligent automation that we have in that |
| Something I think we all are very interested in is, I'll make this question simple is, why is Dell winning, right? Your commentary obviously stands out very positively amidst the market |
| And given the breadth of our portfolio, our services capability and our other durable advantages, we feel like we're very well positioned to capture the opportunity, and you heard a little bit about that last Thursday |
| So a really great opportunity or great results there |
| In Q4, we entered that quarter wondering exactly how it would come out, right, but really finished quite strong, delivering $22.3 billion of revenue and $2.20 of EPS |
| So again, a solid performance there |
| But I think, again, what was really exciting in the fourth quarter and as we enter this year, as we saw some recovery, if you will, and some signs of recovery |
| And what's really cool about that is we're way up the stack in the conversation, which gives us great opportunity, a much higher opportunity in order to capture that system that the enterprise customer is deploying |
| So that's really what I'm super excited about for FY '25, the year we're in right now, but for many years to come because this isn't a one and done |
| When I look through to FY '25, which we talked about, we've just started, I guess, we're in month two now as FY '25, really excited and really optimistic about the year that we're in |
| And I think that's just a great opportunity |
| I feel confident about our strategy |
| And so we're calling for growth this year and super excited to deliver against that expectation holistically |
| So again, this is like an incredibly exciting time to be in technology, and I think we're extremely well positioned to capture the opportunity |
| So super exciting |
| And therefore, AI is the significant tailwind that we called back in October, which really underpins the mid-teen growth that we're calling for FY '25 |
| Well, I think last year was a very exciting year for us, and it made a few things very clear to us |
| We did announce the dividend increase of 20% last week, which was really, to us, a commitment and confidence in the capital returns we will be driving |
| Now why am I so optimistic? Well, AI is part of it, but it's great to return to growth |
| You had a strong ending to the year in the storage business |
| So what we're looking for is the absolute number of customers that we're engaged with quarter-over-quarter and the mix of customers that we see quarter-over-quarter, which would include enterprise customers versus CSP customers, right? And then sort of the percent of the bookings and the percent of the backlogs, everything we saw in Q4 was trending in a very positive direction |
| And so we leveraged the strong relationships we have with our customers, but there's some price aggression that we're expecting, and that's also embedded into our guide |
| I mean if you think about sort of my answer to the previous question, we think that we've created a pretty strong barrier to entry for competitors to come in, including ODMs |
| So why is this business perhaps better positioned than history and expected to see stronger growth this year than maybe you even talked about longer term? Arthur Lewis Yes, good question, Erik, and thanks for having us |
| And I want to reiterate what Yvonne said, growing is a lot better than not growing |
| And as we look to FY '25, we exited the year with three - on the server business, with three consecutive quarters of sequential growth and the first year-on-year growth |
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| What's interesting is that the shift of workloads to the cloud has historically been a headwind for a business that sells into on-premise data centers |
| So maybe simplistically, my question is, are we past the worst of the down cycle? What gives you confidence that the traditional business can grow this year? Just given something you started the conversation with, which was large enterprise spending is still weak at the moment |
| And so can you talk about the kind of cost and margin landscape, how that evolves over the next 12 months? You told us last week, gross margins in fiscal '25 will be down 100 basis points year-over-year |
| Customers are cautious, and especially in the large customers, large enterprises |
| How do you guys think about the progression of AI PC mix? And when we think about the real use cases to drive adoption, there's some skepticism |
| I think there's uncertainty in the macro environment, and that's not helpful to -- for people to lean into spending |
| So what we've seen is less opportunities in, let's say, the large corporate and enterprise space |
| That kind of implies low incremental margins kind of below your normal model |
| And something as mundane as content creation, you'd be surprised, and I certainly was surprised how much money we at Dell spent on this and how much money customers say they spent on this and the amount of savings that they could realize through deploying generative AI |
| So I've got increased input costs |
| So you'll see that pressure holistically on our operating margin rate |
| And that has been lengthening the sales cycle |
| This down cycle has been one of the longest in history for the traditional business |
| I've got more competition |
| We've seen lots of competition for there |
| And it was also that things don't always go as you expect them to during the year |
| We have a competitive environment |
| So I think that will have an impact on margins |
| Actual results and events could differ materially due to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those discussed in the company's SEC filings |
| So how should we all be thinking about those most significant headwinds that you're facing in light of growing? And that includes some of the more cyclical stuff |
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