On this page of StockholderLetter.com we present the 9/25/2024 shareholder letter from LAM RESEARCH CORP — ticker symbol LRCX. Reading current and past LRCX letters to shareholders can bring important insights into the investment thesis.

 •  9/25/2024 Letter Continued (Full PDF)
 •  9/27/2023 LRCX Stockholder Letter
 •  9/24/2025 LRCX Stockholder Letter
 •  More "Industrial Machinery & Equipment" Category Stockholder Letters
 •  LRCX Benford's Law Stock Score = 48

LRCX 9/25/2024 Shareholder/Stockholder Letter Transcript:

Engineering the world   s
most advanced chips
We have entered the age of artificial intelligence     an era
of intense complexity requiring transformative shifts and
breakthrough innovations in the semiconductor industry.
Lam Research is at the forefront, developing technologies to
continue to move the industry forward and bring AI from the
cloud to the edge.
The demand for more advanced computational capabilities is
increasing considerably and data-intensive AI applications require
significant advancements in both memory and logic technology.
Lam Research is the industry leader to tackle these compute,
memory, and storage challenges to unleash the transformative
power of AI. Semiconductor breakthroughs start here.
Let   s prove it.   


LETTER TO OUR STOCKHOLDERS
Dear Lam Stockholders,
Lam demonstrated strong performance in fiscal year 2024. Amid a steep cyclical decline in
investment in equipment for the non-volatile memory sector, we delivered revenue of nearly
$15 billion and diluted earnings per share of $29.00, while making significant strategic investments
in our business. Our results showed strong improvements since the prior cyclical industry trough in
2019, including operating margin expansion and stronger cash generation. In addition, we benefited
from our growing service and support capabilities for our 90,000-plus chamber installed base. We
returned more than $3.7 billion to our stockholders through stock repurchases and company-record
dividends of $7.73 per share during the fiscal year, underscoring our commitment to returning capital.
Lam   s performance would not be possible without the dedication of our global teams and the close
collaboration we have with our supply chain and, of course, our customers.
We believe the wafer fabrication industry is in the early
stages of a recovery, driven by the initial phase of
spending tied to artificial intelligence (AI) applications,
which is driving strong growth in demand for advanced
CPUs and GPUs, high bandwidth memory, and
enterprise storage devices. Ultimately, AI applications
are expected to advance from large language model
training to inferencing, which has the potential to drive
broader adoption of semiconductors in end-use
devices, including edge servers, smartphones,
and personal computers.
Lam is a critical enabler of the device innovation that
will be required to make this exciting future a reality.
To meet their increasingly complex device roadmaps,
our customers require solutions that address device
scaling requirements. These include providing precise control of the dimensions that need to be
printed on the wafers and enabling production in high-volume manufacturing environments with
ever-higher productivity, reliability, and cost-efficiency.
Lam has a long history of helping customers meet their manufacturing requirements, highlighted
over the past decade by our clear leadership in the etch and deposition technologies that enabled

the industry   s adoption of 3D NAND. Now, as more vertical scaling comes to logic and DRAM
devices, we are driving innovation further to deliver critical solutions. We are excited by the breadth
of opportunities we see ahead for the company, especially those created by technology inflections
to gate-all-around, backside power delivery, advanced packaging, and dry extreme ultraviolet
photoresist processing. All of these inflections are etch- and deposition-intensive, and each
represents approximately a $1 billion or greater incremental served available market opportunity
for Lam.
To capitalize on these opportunities and grow our market share, we have increased our research and
development (R&D) investments, including over 10% spending growth in fiscal year 2024 compared
to fiscal year 2023. In addition, we have strategically
expanded our global supply chain and located
R&D centers and manufacturing capacity in closer
proximity to our customers. We are driving faster,
more productive collaboration with our customers
through R&D and engineering labs in the United
States, India, Korea, and Taiwan.
We are scaling manufacturing at our new Malaysia
facility, where we ended the fiscal year by shipping
our 5,000th chamber, the fastest manufacturing
ramp in our history. And we are collaborating virtually
using our SemiverseTM Solutions, including digital twin
capabilities that rapidly accelerate product design and
testing in simulated production environments. On top
of these initiatives, we have also invested in digital
transformation of the entire organization to drive
greater operational agility and efficiency.
With these initiatives, Lam is not only entering the anticipated cyclical recovery in memory in a strong
position but is also focused on having the right breadth of capabilities to compete and execute
at the highest levels across all device segments in what is widely expected to be a trillion-dollar
semiconductor industry by the end of the decade.



 9/25/2024 Letter Continued (Full PDF)