Lam Research CEO: AI servers are 'fundamental' to driving growth in next several years

By Wallace Witkowski

Shares rise after hours as earnings, outlook top Wall Street view

Lam Research Corp. shares rose in the extended session Wednesday after the silicon-foundry equipment supplier's chief executive said more complicated artificial-intelligence servers are "fundamental" to growth from foundry customers over the next several years.

Lam Research (LRCX) shares rose 2% after hours, following a 1.2% decline to close the regular session at $642.37.

On the earnings call, Chief Executive Tim Archer told analysts that "emerging growth drivers such as generative AI are only in their initial stages of adoption and will be fundamental to driving increased investment in both memory and foundry logic fabs over the next several years."

The Fremont, Calif., company forecast adjusted fiscal first-quarter earnings of $5.30 to $6.80 a share on revenue of $3.1 billion to $3.7 billion, while analysts had estimated $5.56 a share on revenue of $3.3 billion.

Lam makes the very complicated machinery used by foundries like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (2330.TW) to make the silicon for chips produced by the likes of Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) and Apple Inc. (AAPL), while chip makers like Intel Corp. (INTC) forge their own silicon.

Lam reported fiscal fourth-quarter net income of $802.5 million, or $5.97 a share, compared with $1.21 billion, or $8.74 a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted earnings, which exclude amortization and other items, were $5.98 a share, compared with $8.83 a share in the year-ago quarter.

Revenue fell to $3.21 billion from $4.64 billion in the year-ago quarter. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast adjusted earnings of $5.07 a share on revenue of $3.13 billion.

"Advanced AI servers have significantly higher leading-edge logic, memory and storage content versus traditional servers," Archer said on the call. "And every incremental 1% penetration of AI servers and data centers is expected to drive $1 billion to $1.5 billion of additional" investment from foundry customers.

On Tuesday, Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN), which also has its own foundries, said it would keep building out its own capacity even as inventory grows amid declining sales and profits.

Year to date, Lam Research shares have surged 53%, compared with a 46% rally in the PHLX Semiconductor Index , a 19% gain by the S&P 500 and a 35% rise by the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index .

-Wallace Witkowski

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07-27-23 0803ET

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