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Jabil Inc.
6/17/2025
Greetings and welcome to Jabil's third quarter fiscal year 2025 conference call and webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone requires operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Adam Barry, Investor Relations. Thank you. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and welcome to Jabil's third quarter fiscal 2025 conference call. Joining me on today's call are Chief Financial Officer Greg Hebert and Chief Executive Officer Mike Destor. Please note that today's presentation is being live streamed, and during our prepared remarks, we will be referencing slides. To view these slides, please visit the investor relations section of Jabil.com. After today's presentation concludes, a complete recording will be available on our website for playback. In addition, we will be making forward looking statements during this presentation, including, among other things, those regarding the anticipated outlook for our business, such as our currently expected fiscal year net revenue and earnings. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions involving risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially. An extensive list of these risks and uncertainties are identified in our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2024, and other filings with the SEC. Table disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. With that, I'd now like to hand the call over to Greg.
Thanks, Adam. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining our call today. I'm very pleased with our third quarter performance, which at the enterprise level came in well above our expectations across revenue, core operating income, and core earnings per share. In the quarter, we saw significant upside in our intelligent infrastructure business led by the segment's AI-related revenue. At the same time, our regulated and CLDC segments came in largely as planned. The environment remains dynamic, but our performance this quarter demonstrates the strength of our operating model and our ability to deliver consistent results, even as conditions shift. Let's walk through the details for the quarter. For Q3, the team delivered $7.8 billion in net revenue. up an impressive 16% year-over-year, and $800 million above the midpoint of the guidance range we gave in March. Upside strength and revenue was primarily driven by cloud and data center infrastructure. Additionally, it's worth noting both our capital equipment and connected living end markets also saw higher than expected demand in the quarter. Given all this strength, Core operating income for the quarter came in solidly above our range at $420 million. Core operating margins were at 5.4%, a 20 basis point improvement year over year. Net interest expense in Q3 was $66 million. On a GAAP basis, operating income was $403 million, and our GAAP diluted earnings per share was $2.03. Core diluted earnings per share for Q3 was $2.55, up 35% compared to Q3 of last year. Turning now to our performance by segment in the quarter. Our regulated industries reported revenue of $3.1 billion, roughly in line with our expectations and flat year over year. This reflects ongoing softness in the EV and renewable end markets, partially offset by growth in our healthcare business. Our operating margin for this segment was 5.5%, up 70 basis points sequentially. However, this is down 50 basis points year over year as EVs and renewables remain below normalized levels of profitability. In the intelligent infrastructure segment, we saw revenue of $3.4 billion, up approximately 51% year on year and well ahead of our expectations for the third quarter. This growth continues to be driven by sustained, strong demand in our AI-related cloud and data center infrastructure business, including power, cooling, and server rack solutions. Capital equipment was also strong in the quarter, as the need for testing gear remains robust. This growth was offset slightly by lower demand in our networking and communications end market due to softer 5G demand. Our operating margin for the segment was 5.3%. In our connected living and digital commerce segment, revenue was $1.3 billion, slightly higher than what we thought 90 days ago. On a year-over-year basis, this segment was down approximately 7%. This is mainly reflecting softness and consumer-driven products offset by growth in areas such as warehouse and retail automation. Core operating margins for this segment came in at 5.3% in Q3. 210 basis points year-over-year reflecting both the benefits from the restructuring actions taken earlier this year to reduce costs as well as a changing mix of business within this segment next I'll provide an update on our cash flow and balance sheet metrics for the end of q3 inventory days decreased sequentially by six days to 74 days net of inventory deposits from our customers inventory days were 59 and an improvement of two days sequentially and within our targeted range. In Q3, cash flow from operations was strong at $406 million. Net capital expenditures for the third quarter were $80 million. As a result of this solid performance, adjusted free cash flow for the quarter came in at $326 million, bringing our year-to-date adjusted free cash flow to $813 million. With our results through three quarters, we are well on track to generate over $1.2 billion in free cash flow for the year. We exited the third quarter with a healthy balance sheet with debt to core EBITDA levels of approximately 1.4 times and cash balances of approximately $1.5 billion. In Q3, we repurchased $339 million of our shares. we're on track to complete our current $1 billion share repurchase authorization in Q4. With that, let's turn to the next slide for our Q4 FY25 guidance. Beginning with revenue by segment, we anticipate revenue for regulated industries will be $2.9 billion, down 5% year-on-year as we maintain a prudent near-term outlook on the EV and renewable markets. We are also closely monitoring potential impacts, positive or negative, arising from the impending legislation in the U.S. For our intelligent infrastructure segment, we expect strong growth to continue with the revenue for the quarter to be $3.3 billion, up approximately 42% year-over-year. We expect this increase to be driven by sustained, broad-based, AI-related growth in cloud, data center infrastructure, and capital equipment markets. In our connected living and digital commerce segment, revenues are expected to be $1.3 billion, down 21% year-on-year, reflecting continued softness and consumer-centric products offset slightly by growth in warehouse and retail automation markets. Putting it all together at the enterprise level, total company revenue for Q4 is expected to be in the range of $7.1 billion to $7.8 billion. Core operating income for Q4 is estimated to be in the range of $428 million to $488 million. GAAP operating income is expected to be in the range of $331 million to $411 million. Core diluted earnings per share is estimated to be in the range of $2.64 to $3.04. GAAP diluted earnings per share is expected to be in the range of $1.79 to $2.37. Net interest expense in the fourth quarter is estimated to be approximately $65 million. Our court tax rate for Q4 and for the full year is expected to remain at 21%. In closing, the Jabil team's execution thus far in FY25 amid heightened geopolitical uncertainty has been tremendous. Our ability to execute effectively is a testament to the strength of our diversified portfolio and our strategic alignment with high growth secular trends such as AI and industrial automation. This resilience not only reinforces our competitive position, but also sets the stage in the coming years for continued revenue expansion, margin enhancement, and robust free cash flow generation. With that, I'd like to thank you for your time this morning and your interest in Jabil. I'll now turn the call over to Mike.
Thanks, Greg, and good morning, everyone. I want to start by acknowledging the tremendous work of our global team. Their consistent execution in a complex environment is the driving force behind our performance and our ability to deliver for our customers. The dedication I see across the organization is remarkable, and I am grateful for their efforts. a dedication which is fundamental to our strategy, especially as we navigate the evolving geopolitical landscape. Today, most of our manufacturing has migrated local for local and region for region. This focus on manufacturing mainly in region has continued to play out well for us, particularly in today's geopolitical environment. And furthermore, I continue to see our global and growing U.S. footprint as a significant competitive advantage. Our ability to offer customers diverse, resilient, and localized manufacturing solutions has become more valuable than ever. Being a U.S. domiciled company with deep experience across 30 countries allows us to partner with customers to navigate issues like potential tariffs and supply chain complexities, a capability I believe is unmatched in the industry. Now turning to our performance in the quarter. As Greg detailed, our third quarter results were very strong, reflecting higher than expected growth in cloud and data center infrastructure, capital equipment, and connected living end markets. At the same time, healthcare, automotive, digital commerce, and networking and communications were largely in line with our expectations from March. As a result, the team delivered $7.8 billion in revenue 5.4% core operating margins, and $2.55 in core delivered earnings per share, up 35% from Q3 last year. As I contextualize these strong results with our year-to-date performance and projected FY25 revenue by end market, several key points become evident. First, our intelligent infrastructure segment continues to stand out, as it remains squarely at the epicenter of the AI revolution. Demand for AI hardware is not slowing down. If anything, it's accelerating. The need for complex server and rack integration, advanced networking, and innovative power and cooling solutions is surging. Our holistic approach to the data center, our deep engineering and design architecture collaboration, and our ability to execute complex high-volume production at scale makes us a good partner for the world's leading hyperscalers and silicon providers. Our teams are executing with urgency, ramping capacity, optimizing supply chains, and staying ahead of customer needs. Whether it's racks, photonics, advanced networking, or storage, we're delivering. Given this momentum, we now project our AI-related revenue will reach approximately $8.5 billion this fiscal year. of 50% plus increase year on year. And to support this growth, I'm excited to share that this morning we announced we will be opening a new site in the southeastern U.S. to help fulfill the ongoing increase in AI data center infrastructure demand. As part of this plan, we expect to invest approximately $500 million over the next several years to expand our U.S. footprint. as we remain focused on supporting cloud and AI data center infrastructure customers. With the addition of this new factory, we will now operate more than 30 sites across the United States. This investment is a significant commitment, and there are a few things to keep in mind. We're in the final stages of site selection now, and we expect the facility to be operational by mid-calendar year 2026. This site will further enable our design, architecture, and large-scale manufacturing capabilities in high-complexity AI racks with increased power requirements and infrastructure fit out for liquid cooling. We fully anticipate that this new site will help diversify our revenue growth in the AI hyperscale space. We do not expect this investment to change our outlook for our annual CapEx spend, which currently stands at 1.5 to 2% of revenue. And finally, it is important to highlight that as the new site is projected to come online towards the end of FY26, we do not expect it to have a material impact on our financial results until FY27. Another area of exciting growth in 25 and beyond is digital commerce. The team continues to drive innovation in retail and logistics, helping a diverse set of customers automate everything. from the warehouse to the aisle and checkout. As we've discussed before, labor dynamics and fulfillment speed are driving structural investment here, and our solutions are resonating with customers. As we look further down the road, we see a long runway ahead as robotics, automation, and even human rights become central to the future of day-to-day life. Turning to regulated industries where trends have been more mixed. As expected, EV and renewable energy markets in the U.S. remain soft. Moving forward, we continue to monitor the potential impact of the impending U.S. legislation on these end markets. We're managing these potential headwinds with discipline, staying close to our customers, and continuing to focus on markets with accretive long-term margin potential. Healthcare, on the other hand, remains a bright spark. We are focusing on higher value segments such as drug delivery devices, diagnostic equipment, and pharma solutions where our PII acquisition is already opening new doors. We continue to believe this business will be a margin and cash flow contributor over the long term as we continue to add vertical capabilities in various areas of this end market. With that, let's move to our updated outlook for the full year. We are raising our revenue guidance for fiscal 2025 to approximately $29 billion, while we believe core operating margins will be in the range of 5.4%. As a result, we now expect to deliver core delivered earnings per share of $9.33 for the year. And importantly, we expect to generate an excess of $1.2 billion in adjusted free cash flow. As we close out fiscal 2025, it's worth noting that our diversification strategy continues to aid our results as the demand profile of the end markets we serve are considerably dynamic. For instance, despite persistent weakness in EVs, renewables, and 5G, we're approaching record levels of core EPS. Looking ahead, we remain focused on enhancing core margins, optimizing cash flow, and returning value to shareholders, primarily through share repurchases and targeted investments in higher margin opportunities. This focus, together with a disciplined financial approach, creates a favorable setup for sustained value creation in the coming years. To close, I want to thank the J-WILL team for their outstanding contributions and our investors for their continued confidence in our strategy. I am incredibly optimistic about the future we're building together. I will now turn the call back over to Adam.
Thanks, Mike. Before moving into Q&A, I'd like to quickly summarize our key messages from today's call. First, Jabil delivered strong Q3 results with core EPS above the high end of our guidance, driven primarily by an outstanding performance in intelligent infrastructure. And we provided Q4 guidance that reflects continued robust momentum in AI and data center markets, balanced with a prudent assumption for other areas. Second, we announced further U.S. investments in our AI and data center footprint, which will position us well for future growth. And finally, Jabil remains exceptionally well positioned due to our diversified portfolio, advanced manufacturing and engineering capabilities, and a clear strategy focused on profitable growth and shareholder returns. To that end, I'm pleased to share that we'll be hosting our eighth annual virtual investor briefing in late September. During that briefing, we intend to provide a comprehensive full-year outlook. This will include our customary commentary on the markets we serve, our growth priorities, and our disciplined approach to capital allocation. Specifically, We will outline our expectations for fiscal year 2026 across core operating margins, core EPS, and adjusted free cash flow. I remain incredibly optimistic about the future we're building, and we look forward to sharing our plan with you at that time. Thank you. Operator, we're now ready for Q&A.
Thank you. The floor is now open for questions. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad at this time. A confirmation tone will indicate that your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up the handset before pressing the star keys. Again, that is star 1 to register a question at this time. Our first question today is coming from Ruplu Bhattacharya of Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for taking my questions. Mike, you're seeing strong growth in data center and cloud revenues, and today you guided AI-related revenues to $8.5 billion for fiscal 25. What's a reasonable level of growth to expect in this segment for fiscal 26 and beyond? And can you help us rank order the revenue growth and margins for the different segments within intelligent infrastructure? So for capital equipment, cloud data center, and networking comms, how should we think about revenue growth and margins for these?
Hey, Rupalu. So I think before I even start, I think the $8.5 billion of revenue in the AI sector World is a big achievement for the team. I think the team has performed and executed solidly. I think they've worked 24-7 over the last few weeks. So a really good result in our Q3 quarter. I think the 8.5 is just testament to the growth rate from 24 to 25 being almost 50%. So really well done. From a growth rate and margin, Rupal, we'll provide more guidance in September for 26. I don't want to touch on 26 right now. But I think overall, if you look at margin in the three different end markets in that segment, I do think capital equipment would be would be a creative. I think if you look at wafer fab equipment side on the capital equipment, that's a slightly higher margin. The automated testing where the bulk of our growth has been a slightly lower margin than WIP. So a mixed sort of margin profile in capital equipment. I think cloud data center, we've mentioned this a few times, before its ad enterprise level. And I think the explosive growth that we continue to see in that area will be good for 26. And then from a networking and comms perspective, networking, I expect that to be slightly accretive, while communications and mainly 5G is a lot more dilutive to our margin. So mixed profile, I think it's different for different end markets, even within the same segment.
Okay. Thanks for the details there, Mike. Can I ask fiscal year 25 operating margin, you're holding steady at 5.4%. What needs to happen for operating margins to get to 6% plus? I mean, what do you need to see in terms of revenues and other things to get the operating margin to that level?
Sure. So, if you look at, you know, we've talked about this in the past. Today, we find ourselves with a little bit of underutilized capacity, our normal capacity utilization is in the 85, 86% range. Today, we're still at the 75% range. Even with the explosive growth that you see in the AI world, the underutilized capacity still exists because there's a mismatch in geographies. The AI growth is all in the U.S., while the underutilized capacity is in countries outside of the U.S. So I do expect 20 BIPs to come back from a better utilization, and I'm not suggesting that would happen next year. It would all depend on recovery of end markets and our ability to execute to those end markets. So 20 BIPs on utilization, I would expect. Another 20 bips on SG&A leverage. I think as we continue to grow our SG&A, and especially at the corporate level, we'll continue to hold steady, and that will have a big impact on margins going forward. Again, not suggesting 20 bips in 26. It's a very high-level number over the next two, three years. And then last but not least, 20 bips from... From a mixed standpoint, it's growth in higher margin business. As we get into some of the other better performing markets, I think that 20 pips does come through. And then if you go beyond 6% as well, we're not just going to stop at 6%. There's a whole bunch of vertical integration. We've talked about things like pharma filling. We've talked about other parts that we can collaborate on with customers in a deeper end-to-end solution, that will get us to that next step beyond 6%.
Thank you. The next question is coming from Mark Delaney of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Congratulations on the strong results, and thanks very much for taking my questions. First, I'm hoping to better understand how you're assessing the potential risk that some of the strong sales that you saw in the third quarter was due to pull-in buying, perhaps because of tariff uncertainty. And is that a factor in the guidance for sequential moderation in revenue in the fourth quarter?
So, no. I think if you look, bulk of our revenue beat was in capital equipment and capital in the cloud data center infrastructure. Both of those are U.S.-centric. Tariff impact is minimal there, so I don't expect to see any pull-ins. We're not overall, even beyond that, Mark, I don't think we're seeing pull-ins of any magnitude. Right now, the whole tariff situation is still fluid, still dynamic. Things are moving around, and nobody wants to make decisions based on on paying too much of a tariff or too little of a tariff. So I think at this stage, we're just customers and Jabil, we're collaborating, we're obviously having a lot of discussions, but no pull-in of significance. At least we're not seeing that.
Very helpful. Thanks, Mike. My second question was around the announced planned expansion in the U.S. Is this primarily to support current customers and programs, or do you see incremental opportunities that's giving you the confidence to commit more capital domestically? Thank you.
No, so I think the best part about this new investment is it's not due to just existing customers. It's a portfolio that we're looking at. It's diversified, expanding our hyperscaler base, expanding our polo base. So I think overall it is – expanding our customer base in a really positive manner. I really have good thoughts about this site. Once it's up and running, it's not just going to be in the cloud data center. We're going to look at liquid cooling, power management. So everything associated with that entire AI ecosystem will be sort of showcased in that facilitator. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is coming from Stephen Fox of Fox Advisors. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. A couple questions if I could. First, just looking at the quarter just reported, can you just sort of discuss the I.I. margins quarter over quarter? So it looks like you were flat at 5.3% on almost an $800 million increase in revenue. So what specifically were the puts and takes there that we should consider and how those apply maybe going forward? And then I had a follow-up.
Yeah. So, hey, Steve. Good morning. It's Greg. So, on margins for II, it was at 5.3%, similar to what we saw in Q2. You know, what we did see with the very strong growth during the quarter, we did incremental investments during the quarter that did put some pressure on margins for the segment. And, you know, as we get that to scale, we do see that improving to get at and above our enterprise-level margins.
There's always some level of cost associated with an explosive growth level at this scale, Steve. So I think overall we will continue to get leverage going forward. We did get some leverage, by the way, on the cloud and DCI side. I think you don't see it all in the intelligent infrastructure because our communications 5G side is a little bit dilutive there. So there's a little bit of a mix there. going on in intelligent infrastructure as well.
Great. That's very helpful. And then just sort of looking ahead, not just necessarily for this quarter but beyond, Mike, how do we think about just managing all of this growth? You mentioned you highlighted a new plant coming online, new customers. There seems to be vendor consolidation going on, new opportunities for other technologies for you guys to focus on. How do you sort of ensure that you're adding capacity at the right rate, focused on the right technologies, et cetera? Just any thoughts there given, you know, how great the growth is and going forward?
Yeah, so the team is really focused on this expansion, Steve. They're talking to customers constantly. One of the things we were seeing in the chicken and egg market situation with capacity versus new customers and new orders, potential customers want to see your site as well. I think the team is fully engaged. They've been talking to multiple players. They've been talking to multiple customers and potential customers. Obviously, we feel like there's certainly a path to filling out that site over the next few years. So overall, I do think that expansion continues in good shape. Don't forget, beyond cloud data center, we have the photonics side. We're winning some liquid cooling sort of customers as well. So it's across the board, thermal management, power management, all of that will come into play here. And it just allows us to showcase our entire end-to-end solution, again, in that site across the entire ecosystem.
Great. That's very helpful. Thank you. Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is coming from Melissa Fairbanks of Raymond James. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Thanks very much. Great news on the U.S. manufacturing investment. You mentioned that this is largely AI-driven or AI-related data center business that's driving this investment. Are there any other segments or end markets that are exploring moving to the U.S. or maybe consolidating in other geographies longer term? Are you seeing more customer conversations about this given the tariff uncertainties?
So, Melissa, I think overall, if you look at what we've done over the last few years, we've regionalized our manufacturing base. A lot of our manufacturing is done in region. So there's not that much of a tariff impact. Sure, there will be odds and bits here and there in terms of tariff impact. But I think from a customer perspective, we seem to be in a decent shape in terms of where They're located, and most of the locations are close to their end consumer market. So we're in good shape there. We'll constantly look at moving things around. I think the end markets that suit better to the U.S., obviously health care is a big one. The entire intelligent infrastructure segment is one. And then if you look at digital commerce as well, that's an area that we're focused on. And bits and pieces could move to the U.S. on that as well as automation, as robotics, as some of the capabilities that we have in that space get more meaningful and more necessary as we expand in the U.S.
Okay, great. Thanks. And then just to give you a little break from the cloud and AI questions, I was wondering, you know, the stock has obviously moved up pretty considerably recently. Free cash flow is outstanding. Just wondering how you're thinking about capital allocation. You mentioned that this US investment was not going to change your CapEx levels, but thinking about how you're looking at deploying cash in the future.
Yeah, good morning, Melissa. What I would say is that we continue to remain committed to returning value to our shareholders. To your point, free cash flow is looking very strong this year at $1.2 billion. Returning 80% of our free cash flow to buybacks, we're committed to that. We do see our current $1 billion share authorization program being completed in Q4. And our typical cadence of, you know, new authorizations and continuing that type of policy, we typically announce between July and September. So, you know, more to come on that in the coming months.
And Melissa, if I may just add, I think if you remember the mobility divestiture, once we completed that divestiture, our CapEx requirements have gone down considerably. Our free cash flow is in really, really good shape. We're almost a completely different company from a capital allocation perspective. We continue to see share buybacks as a major sort of part of our strategy. So everything's moving in the right direction as it relates to cash flows.
Great. Thanks very much. Fantastic job managing it. Thanks very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is coming from Tim Long of Barclays. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Um, yeah, two as well, if I could, um, first back to the, you know, cloud data center, obviously upside in the quarter, uh, and in the guide pretty meaningfully, uh, just give us a little update on, I think you talked about some of the, the product, uh, breadth that you're seeing in that upside. Could you just, you know, maybe double click on that and also talk about kind of customer diversity within, within that bucket, how, uh, how broad that's getting. And then to follow up on the, I was hoping you could update us on the Transceiver business. Anything new on customer activity there? And now that we're a few months away from the release of the 1.6T, any customer feedback or outlook on timing there would be helpful. Thank you.
So a couple of drivers in the intelligent infrastructure segment talked about capital equipment. I think the automated testing cycle is in full play, I think, with the custom chip requirements, with new technologies, with all the complexity with AI-based infrastructure, that whole testing is expanding considerably. And I think it's got pretty long legs. So WFE on that side is a little bit sluggish, but AI on WFE is actually doing quite well. The sluggishness is more on the automotive consumer side. And then the cloud data center itself, the bulk of the increase in revenue was driven by our server rack integration. Don't forget that server rack integration is heavily, heavily driven by our design architecture and engineering teams where we create a situation where there's a handshake between the hyperscaler and us, brings the yields to launch to a much more acceptable percentage. So it's not just by chance that we're winning that business. Obviously, end market is growing. It continues to grow. It's actually accelerating in my view. And we're winning market share there as well. Obviously, for the future, we'll be looking at liquid cooling and some of the other power management, thermal management pieces. But those are in early stages yet. And, again, big drivers for growth in the future.
And on the transceiver side?
Yes, so on the transceiver side, we're seeing really good growth. I think if you go back a couple of years, we made the photonics acquisition from Intel. We acquired a design and engineering capability, so there was a whole bunch of engineers that we acquired with clean rooms and capacity to build out the transceivers demand. for transceivers is obviously on the rise today. Today we're moving the 200 and 400, moving to 800G. We showcased our 1.6T capability at OFC two or three months ago, and that's been well received by our customer base, obviously 1.6T. is more advanced, and probably towards the end of the year, early part of next calendar year is when we'll see an uptake there. But we're definitely seeing 200, 400s moving to the 800s, and at some point in time, that will continue into the 1.60s as well.
Okay, thank you.
Thanks. Thank you. The next question is coming from Samak Chatterjee of JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Samak Chatterjee Hi. Thanks for taking my question. I guess maybe if I start with the Q4 guide and, Mike, the run rate that you have for Q4 in regulated industries and connected living and digital commerce. Both of them are down modestly in Q4 while intelligent infrastructure is growing rapidly. I'm just trying to think in terms of when we look below that headline number for regulated industries and connected living, are there drivers that as you go over the next 12 months drive those segments back to growth or should the sort of starting assumption for the next 12 months be that those two segments remain a bit sluggish while most of the growth comes from intelligent infrastructure? Thank you. And I have a follow-up.
Yeah, good morning, Sameek. This is Greg. I'll start with your question on Q4. You know, for regulated, you know, we're still being very prudent on our guidance, especially when you look at EVs and renewables. So that's definitely, you know, impacting our guidance for Q4. And then on consumer living and digital commerce, you know, we definitely have been very prudent as well on the revenue guide there. You know, we have been pruning Various customers and programs in the consumer-related area still feel good about the margins that we're seeing there. But, again, just being prudent and conservative on the guidance for those two segments.
And anything in terms of drivers to call out that changes as we go into fiscal 2016?
No, no, no specific drivers. I mean, other than just, you know, we're not seeing any turnaround yet in automotive and also in the renewable energy markets. So still to be determined there. And then also just on consumer, you know, we're just being conservative.
I do see some level of growth in healthcare and the digital commerce. Those are a great emergence. So Really good progress there in terms of what we're seeing coming again in the healthcare space from booking to actually getting in the factory. There's an 18, 24-month time lag. We are winning business. Some of it will head towards the end of 26. Some of it will head in 27, 28. So just something to be aware of. But healthcare... is definitely an area that we're quite excited about. If you look at digital commerce, that's another area that we're pretty excited about. You're looking at warehouse automation. You're looking at a whole bunch of handheld devices. We're looking at humanoids, robots. That's further out, obviously. That's not going to be any time soon. And then there's the retail sector. shelf piece as well. That entire digital commerce is an exciting area for us as well.
For my follow-up, if I can just go back to the announcement on the manufacturing capacity, broad way for us to think about the $500 million, how to split that between capital versus operating expenses over the time period. And maybe, Mike, in terms of your reference to this being largely capacity for incremental sort of customer wins, in terms of tightening up utilization in the international locations, do you see sort of over time tilting your manufacturing more to the U.S. and maybe sort of restructuring some of the manufacturing in international locations to achieve that better utilization? Or do you see enough demand to fill the international locations where you have a bit more underutilization at this point?
Thank you. I do think today our manufacturing base is really well regionalized. We are manufacturing in regions. So we're in the right locations for manufacturing. Some of it will make sense to bring back to the U.S. Some of it won't because it's It's region for region and local for locals. It'll have to be within the region or within the country itself. I don't think the U.S. The site here is specifically going down to infrastructure. It's not a multi-end market site. I do I do think the whole CapEx piece will be a long-term. The $500 million is not a year one, year two, year three. I think it's over multiple years, and it's a little bit of a chicken and egg as well. As we win business, the capital expenditure will occur as it gets pushed out. It will slow down. So there's a whole bunch of dynamics in that side. I wouldn't focus too much on the $500 million piece, I think we did say from a CapEx standpoint, we're still extremely comfortable with our 1.5% to 2% range, and that's not going to change going forward. So it'll all be within the 1.5% to 2% range in terms of capital expenditure.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is coming from David Vogt of UBS. Please go ahead.
Great. Thanks, guys, for getting me in. And Mike, I know you said not to focus on the 500 million, but I'm going to focus on it anyway. Can you help frame sort of the revenue opportunity that underpins that incremental 500 million of investment over the next couple of years? And without that 500 million, do you have enough capacity to kind of hit your growth plan over the next two to three years, particularly in cloud and data center? And then my follow-up is, You know, on the networking side, obviously you called out weakness in 5G. Can you maybe speak to the trends underneath 5G? What I mean by that is X5G, how is networking trending over the last couple of quarters and how should we think about that going forward if we strip out the 5G business? Thanks.
So I'll answer your second question first. I think 5G is a little bit dilutive to our business environment. I think excluding that, the margins are accretive in that networking space. I think we'll provide more guidance in September. I think photonics is ramping in that networking line item. I think we've done maybe 300 to 400 in 25. We're looking at Yeah, maybe $750 million, $826 million, and then could be a billion dollars beyond that as well. So good growth rates expected for that line item. Can you repeat your first question, please?
Yeah, on the $500 million investment, obviously, you're mostly local for local, as we've talked about pretty extensively. But without the $500 million, could you hit your growth targets today within intelligent infrastructure? Or is this critical capacity addition needed to kind of hit your multi-year plan? And if so, what kind of revenue can be supported by this incremental $500 million of capacity? If we just think about what your gross PPD looks on the balance sheet, I'm just trying to make sort of an extrapolation of how to think about what the incremental revenue could look like, particularly within that segment.
I think over time the revenue will be considerable, will be material. I won't suggest any numbers yet, but the $500 million, again, is a very long-term sort of number. It's not first two, three, or four years. It's over multiple years. I do think the site, with all the capabilities that we have, the execution of the team, They should be able to ramp up relatively soon. I did highlight that it only comes online in the middle of calendar year 26. I don't expect much of an impact in 26 itself. In 27, there'll be a step up, and 28 will be an even bigger step up. So I do think very high potential for the site. In terms of growth rate, for our existing outside of that site. I think we have capacity. We're ramping different parts of that intelligent infrastructure in different locations as well. So overall, we do have a decent path to growth even beyond that site.
Great. Thanks, guys.
Thank you. The next question is coming from Rupal Bhattacharya of Bank of America. Please proceed with your follow-up question.
Hi. Thanks for taking my follow-up. Mike, you know, a lot of things are going strong for Jabil. What's the biggest risk you see to this story today? And also, you've done some acquisitions in the past. Over the last couple of years, you've bought the Intel transceiver business, liquid cooling. How would you prioritize M&A versus buybacks over the next year? Thank you.
So a couple of end markets are performing as well, and we've highlighted those over the last several quarters. Obviously, EV has taken a little bit of a downward move. And then renewables. Now, I do want to highlight that in that line item of renewables, energy, and infrastructure, renewables is only $600 million. So when I say downside, I'm thinking of maybe $200 million, $300 million. Most of it could be an upside. of $200 million, $300 million in that line item as well. I think even from an automotive and EV perspective, one of the things, we've got three or four dynamics going on there where obviously our China business is doing well. We're actually gaining new customers there. We manufacture in region in that EV space for most of our customers, so very minimal tariff impact. And then the power business for our largest customer is doing reasonably well, and that's a little bit of an offset, lower car volume sales. And most of all, we've been very conservative and prudent already in that line item. So answer to your question in terms of what risk, those are more – small sort of hiccups. I don't see that as major items to get worried about. What was the second question again?
Just on M&A versus buybacks.
Oh, yeah, so your follow-up to your follow-up? Yes. So, look, we've always made tuck-in acquisitions. Most of them are capability acquisitions. If you go and look back at our history over the last maybe 24 months, the silicon photonics from Intel, the liquid cooling, micros acquisition, the PII drug filling acquisition, they're all capability driven. They all open up huge TAMs for us. And that will continue to be the approach, I think. Right now, the focus is still no change in the whole buyback capital allocation methodology. We're looking at 80% being allocated to buybacks, so no major change there. We'll probably renew our buyback authorization in July with the board. So I think overall, no major change in the M&A methodology. in the M&A piece. Having said that, if a larger M&A does come through, which we think would be highly accretive for Jay, we'll execute on that as well. One thing to remember is our debt to EBITDA is very low. It's only 1.4, and there's plenty of room to move around in that leverage as well, if needed.
Thank you. At this time, I would like to turn the floor back over to Mr. Berry for closing comments.
Thank you. That's our call today. If you have any questions, please reach out.
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