Sandisk Corp at Goldman Sachs Communacopia & Technology Conference Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: James Schneider, Ph.D. - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Very good. So maybe, David, we'll start with you on some high-level strategy questions if we can. It's been about six months since you execute the split between yourselves and Western Digital. How do you progress compared to your initial set of expectations you laid out at your Investor Day? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 10, 2025 / 10:05PM, SNDK.OQ - Sandisk Corp at Goldman Sachs Communacopia & Technology Conference

Question: James Schneider, Ph.D. - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Great. Six months on, anything changed about the way you intend to run the business going forward, you want to course correct on?

Question: James Schneider, Ph.D. - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Great. David, you've clearly articulated a view that supply-demand dynamics in the NAND industry are improving, you see an undersupply situation lasting into next year. What catalyzed this change do you think after quite a long period of weak industry dynamics? And do you believe the change in competitor behavior is sustainable from both a supply and pricing perspective.

Question: James Schneider, Ph.D. - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : And would you have the same level of confidence and sustainability of your competitors' supply? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 10, 2025 / 10:05PM, SNDK.OQ - Sandisk Corp at Goldman Sachs Communacopia & Technology Conference

Question: James Schneider, Ph.D. - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Great. There was a press report recently that you are raising pricing on consumer and channel products by about 10%. Can you confirm that? And maybe contextualize that in terms of your broader pricing expectations you've already laid out?

Question: James Schneider, Ph.D. - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Yeah. And how should we think about Sandisk's overall bid supply growth this year and next?

Question: James Schneider, Ph.D. - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Got it. And have those dynamics changed at all relative to what you thought before? And I guess, I mean, do you believe that there's any consolidation needed in this industry beyond what's -- or do you think we're in good shape and we can sustain with the current number of players?

Question: James Schneider, Ph.D. - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Yeah. I understand. Maybe a couple of product questions if we could. I think back to the Flash Memory Summit last month, you made an interesting announcement about the notion of high bandwidth flash called HBF. And I believe you're targeting sampling sometime back half of next year. Maybe provide a little content what that is, what is the significance? Is it evolutionary, revolutionary, and maybe how critical this is to future of AI training and development?

Question: James Schneider, Ph.D. - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Got it. Is that just meant -- is that meant to compete with anything? Or is it just meant to compete with on device storage and just provide better performance?

Question: James Schneider, Ph.D. - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Okay. There's been a lot of focus on the enterprise SSD market. You've talked about it quite a bit. Maybe remind us how qualifications are going for your products in that space. What are you hoping to achieve by the end of this year and into next?

Question: James Schneider, Ph.D. - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Great. Now at the end of the day, I'm still a chip guy at heart, so I want to ask you about BiCS 8. So you raised it before, step forward in terms of, I guess, performance, but most importantly, cost reduction. Maybe remind us of your expectation for the like-for-like cost production BiCS 8 brings once fully ramped. And maybe, I have a follow-up.

Question: James Schneider, Ph.D. - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Great. Want to ask about -- sorry, relative to BiCS 8, maybe just give us any framing as for when you achieve crossover from a production perspective?

Question: James Schneider, Ph.D. - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Got it. And then maybe returning for a moment to SSD discussion we just had. I think in the past, you had noted and a target or an aspirational level about [16%] market of the SSD market share. Where do you think you are now? And then when do you think that target becomes realistic? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 10, 2025 / 10:05PM, SNDK.OQ - Sandisk Corp at Goldman Sachs Communacopia & Technology Conference

Question: James Schneider, Ph.D. - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Well, I don't want to make Luis feel left out. So let's talk about operational and financial trends for a second. I think relative to your spending targets, given the industry's more prudent supply side behavior. How should we be thinking about CapEx in terms of spending gross or net on a go-forward basis? And is the primary driver of that still the BiCS 8 investment?

Question: James Schneider, Ph.D. - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Great. I think it's fair to say that your JV with Kioxia is one of the few successful tech JVs over the past couple of decades. If you were to point out two or three key highlights of that joint venture, what makes it what it is?

Question: James Schneider, Ph.D. - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Great. Back to financials, two last ones, maybe to end on. Your gross margin guidance, long-term model is 35% through cycle. Can you maybe unpack what through cycle means over time? Is that a true average you expect to achieve? Is it a floor? How should we be thinking about that?

Question: James Schneider, Ph.D. - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Yeah. And then your long-term model implies 15% OpEx intensity. How do we think about your allocation of R&D relative to SG&A, and is there a desire to keep -- to grow R&D materially and try to keep SG&A as flat as possible?

Question: James Schneider, Ph.D. - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Yeah. And then how do you think about the debt load and trajectory of debt paydown? And to the extent you're generating very good free cash flow, if everything plays out as you say, in gross margins and so on are running above normalized, would you accelerate that debt paydown?

Question: James Schneider, Ph.D. - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Yeah. And then just to confirm tactically, relative to the back half of this year versus what you had talked about at your Investor Day sounds like everything is on track for tracking to your expectations versus prior?

Question: James Schneider, Ph.D. - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Great. And maybe very last question, which is you've done a lot of investor meetings over the past day and I'm sure over the last month or so. When investors who do the story or ones have been looking at this story, talk to you, what do you think is the one that is underappreciated about the Sandisk story today?

Question: James Schneider, Ph.D. - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : It's a great place to end. David, Luis, thanks for being here.