Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Charles Shi: Thanks, Dror. So maybe the next question I want to ask just a follow-up to Vivek’s question. So your market assumption for next year 5%, I mean you said mid-single digit, I want to correct, a young year next year. But what’s the half-over-half profile you’re seeing is like first half more or less I mean, extending the second half 2023 run rate and maybe a recovery in the second half? Or you are seeing something like a more gradual more linear into next year? Thanks.

Gaby Waisman: So we believe that the second half of next year is going to be stronger than the first half, driven by leading edge and recoveries in the memory side.

Charles Shi: Got it. So is it fair to assume like a first half probably – I mean maybe this is more specific to your business, you probably will also try to keep the business at a similar level as Q3, Q4 this year?

Dror David: So Charles, we obviously are not giving specific guidances for specific orders beyond the fourth one.

Charles Shi: Yes, fair enough. Thanks.

Dror David: Sure.

Operator: Thank you. The next question is from with Vedvati Shrotre with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Vedvati Shrotre: Hi, thanks for taking my question. So the first one I wanted to double-click on the memory growth – the growth you’re seeing in memory. So I understand that it’s driven by adoption of your material metrology tools. But could you give us a sense of what’s the technology transition that’s really driving this growth? Is there something different that architecture wise that wasn’t there before that is really pushing the adoption here?

Gaby Waisman: Thank you, Vedvati. Basically, and first and foremost, I’d like to highlight the fact that it’s driven by material metrology adoption but not only. So we see this across the board with both our optical and chemical. And specifically, I mentioned also the orders we received from memory customers on our direct metal replenishment, which is part of the chemical metrology offering that we have, which is also, of course, driving some of that growth related to high-bandwidth memory. In addition, what you’re asking is interesting and related to two product platforms. One is the VERAFLEX in which we can see some of the cabled around applications that were initially driving the adoption in XPS. We see those – some of those applications in memory devices as well.

And also, we see the adoption of ELIPSON and that perspective as an enabler to some of those applications that were either not performed well before or are now enabled by this solution as well. So all of those are offering, I would say, are not necessarily say an inflection point in the DRAM specifically, but definitely an inflection point for us in terms of the adoption of both those platforms that I mentioned.

Vedvati Shrotre: Got it. And so maybe pushing on that, so can you characterize how big of an increase it was driven by your chemical metrology versus just the DRAM type applications, HPM versus DRAM is what I’m trying to gauge?

Gaby Waisman: So HPM in the third quarter was relatively low. We expect it to become stronger in the fourth quarter. So most of that was driven by the adoption of the material metrology solutions and in part, of course, by optical.

Vedvati Shrotre: Okay. Got it. And then for my second question, so there is some weakness in foundry/logic. Could you give us a sense of how that splits out between heating edge versus trailing nodes and comment on the areas of strength or pockets of weakness you’re seeing there?

Gaby Waisman: So obviously, the ratio of trailing node is relatively still high or relatively high but we expect advanced nodes to take the lead sometime, I would say, in the first half of next year.

Vedvati Shrotre: And is that primarily driven by gate-all-around adoption essentially. So most of the companies have talked about 2025 being a gate-all-around ramp, and so you’d start to see the benefits flow through before the ramps come in?