Aug 11, 2026 earnings call — Historic revenue, record orders, DCBBS focus
Recorded fiscal 2026 revenue of $39.1 billion and received over $60 billion in new orders.
Revenue $11.1B (est $11.6B) · EPS $1.70 (est $0.92) · Next-quarter revenue outlook $14.5B–$15.5B
Key quotes
"Our DCBBS is getting very powerful and it will soon contribute significant net income to our business."
"Our fiscal year '26 ending backlog was at record levels with over $60 billion in new orders received during Q4 fiscal year '26, which we expect to fulfill over the coming quarters."
"For the fourth quarter, I am happy to report a non-GAAP gross margin of 17.6% and $1.70 in non-GAAP diluted earnings per share."
Analyst Q&A 9
Gross margin outlook for fiscal 2027
Q (Ananda Baruah · Loop Capital): Analyst asked how to think about fiscal year '27 gross margins and the drivers (mix, CPU, tariffs) and a quick follow-up on the Board investigation.
A: Management said they will balance revenue and profitability, moving more into enterprise, CPU, storage and DCBBS products which have higher margins. They said gross margin should consistently grow and they guided September at 10.4% to 10.8%. On the Board inquiry, they said they expect to provide an update shortly and could not share more on the call.
"So looking forward, we will consistently grow our overall gross margin." — Charles Liang (CEO)
Order mix and customer types
Q (Manmohanpreet Singh · JPMorgan): Analyst asked about the drivers and customer concentration behind the strong order growth and whether those orders were AI versus CPU. He also asked about the nature of the $1 billion+ customers.
A: Management said the roughly $60 billion of orders were about 70% pure AI and 30% CPU or CPU-based AI, which should improve profit margin mix. They said many customers are emerging Neoclouds and CSPs plus some enterprise customers, and noted CPU-based AI is growing alongside GPU-based AI.
"Yes. I mean, around $60 billion, I would like to say 70% AI, pure AI." — Charles Liang (CEO)
Large data center buying and liquid cooling
Q (Asiya Merchant · Citi): Analyst asked whether buying patterns changed for large data center/CSP customers and whether customers are shifting to ODMs. She also asked what percentage of revenue is liquid-cooled and the vertical split.
A: Management said large data centers have power and liquid-cooling readiness concerns but order shipments for September and December quarters have been strong. They emphasized Super Micro serves both OEM and ODM customers and is growing enterprise server and storage business. They said they were an early liquid-cooling leader and that liquid cooling shipped over 80% in 2024 and will grow to dominate the data center business.
"As you know, I mean, we are one of the very early liquid cooling technology leaders." — Charles Liang (CEO)
Sales force investments and go-to-market
Q (Katherine Murphy · Goldman Sachs): Analyst asked about progress in sales force investments to address enterprise customers, product capabilities needed, and whether current OpEx run rate is sustainable.
A: Management said some operating expenses will rise and others fall and they believe current levels are appropriate; historically OpEx grew less than half of revenue growth. They described product investments (high-speed switch, optical tech, DCBBS) and said they elevated leaders and realigned the sales force toward solution sales to address AI and improve margins.
"And there's been a focus on efficiency and aligning the sales force with a solution sale element to address the AI opportunity ahead, which is supportive of better margins." — Michael Staiger
Inventory risk and funding growth
Q (Ruplu Bhattacharya · BofA): Analyst asked how Super Micro manages inventory risk across GPU platform transitions and whether fiscal '27 growth will be self-funded or need external financing.
A: Management said they try to secure noncancelable POs and match procurement to shipment schedules to limit inventory risk, and that many subsystems are compatible across generations which helps. They said they expect cash conversion to improve due to better backlog terms and a stronger balance sheet and that the company can fund growth in the $65 billion to $72 billion range but would reassess if growth goes higher.
"So what we do is we try to ensure as much as possible that we have noncancelable POs." — David Weigand (CFO)
Balancing AI and traditional server business
Q (George Notter · Wolfe): Analyst asked if Super Micro is stepping back from low-margin deals, and how traditional server and storage demand and margins relate to the AI business.
A: Management said they aim to support many customers but the business must meet minimum margin requirements and they forecast $65 billion to $72 billion. They said they are refocusing on enterprise CPU-based markets (enterprise, IoT, storage) to balance revenue and profit, and noted year-over-year they grew top line by 78% and bottom line by almost the same amount.
"I think we did a reasonable job year-over-year because we grew our top line by 78%, and we grew our bottom line by almost the same amount." — David Weigand (CFO)
Value add vs NVIDIA and backlog terms
Q (Nehal Chokshi · Northland): Analyst asked how Super Micro adds value in the NVIDIA ecosystem versus x86 and whether improved backlog terms come from new customers or repeat orders.
A: Management said their DCBBS offers a full data center build-out (GPU, CPU, storage and all major components) and they provide time-to-market, production quality, deployment and maintenance support so customers work with them beyond simple purchases. They said improved backlog terms came from both new customers and tightening terms with existing customers.
"For example, our DCBBS solution that offers customers a complete data center build-out support, not just GPU, CPU storage, but all the major components for data center." — Charles Liang (CEO)
DCBBS contribution and tariff/rebate impact
Q (Brandon Nispel · KeyBanc): Analyst asked how DCBBS contributed to revenue and gross profit and follow-ups on vendor rebates and whether a tariff rebate was booked. He also asked normalized year-over-year gross margin.
A: Management said DCBBS is a large project covering hardware, management software, networking and a proactive service package coming next quarter, and they see big room to grow and expect 20% not far away. On tariffs and rebates, they said they did not book a tariff rebate and are pursuing refunds but will not take benefits until received; they also said they had somewhat higher vendor rebates this past quarter due to mix and called some E&O and tariff improvements nonrecurring.
"And let me say, we did not book a tariff rebate in our numbers." — David Weigand (CFO)
Shift toward agentic/inference workloads
Q (W. Chiu · Raymond James): Analyst asked how much backlog and end demand are shifting from training to agentic/inference workloads and how that affects CPU vs GPU shipment mix.
A: Management said the mix is complicated but estimated still about 70-something percent GPU and maybe high 28% CPU, with some GPUs used for agentic or edge workloads. They said edge GPU profit sits between traditional GPU and CPU and with growing DCBBS they expect to maintain planned profit margins; they also said GPU percentage will continue to grow long-term as it enters many verticals.
"Kind of -- it's basically a complicated mix. I would have to say still 70-something percent GPU, maybe high 20% CPU." — Charles Liang (CEO)