Podcasts about semiconductors

Ep.329International investing had a strong 2025, and 2026 is off to a promising start. But when we say “international,” what are we really talking about?Developed markets? Emerging markets? Europe? Asia?In this episode, Gabriel Shahin, CFP®, breaks down the real difference between Asia and Europe as investment regions—and why he's currently more bullish on Asia.Here's what we cover:• Why Europe had a strong 2025—but what actually drove those returns• How 60% of Europe's gains came from financials and industrials• The role of deregulation hopes and a strengthening yield curve• Why Asia's returns were driven by tech and communications• The massive earnings growth gap (20–29% in Asia vs ~4% in Europe)• How AI, semiconductors, digitalization, and innovation are shaping Asia• Taiwan Semiconductor vs ASML—valuation and growth comparison• Why demographic decline and overregulation weigh on Europe• How cultural momentum and government support fuel Asian growth• ETF exposure examples for diversified international positioningIt's not about loving one continent over another—it's about capital allocation.Asia is positioned around:– AI infrastructure– Semiconductor dominance– Digital expansion– Energy transition– Supply chain innovationEurope, while home to strong brands and select standout companies, faces:Slower earnings growth– Aging demographics– Regulatory friction– Higher structural energy costsThat doesn't mean avoid Europe entirely—but it does mean understanding where future growth is likely to accelerate.

Daniel is joined by Ajit Manocha, president and CEO of SEMI, the global industry association serving the semiconductor and electronics manufacturing and design supply chain. Throughout his career, Manocha has been a champion of industry collaboration as a critical means of advancing technology for societal and economic prosperity.… Read More

Technology analyst Dalya Hahn provides an overview of the semiconductor industry and where she sees AI and supply driven stock opportunities.

Nvidia Corp. gave a bullish quarterly revenue forecast, signaling that the build-out of AI computing remains on track, with fiscal first-quarter sales expected to be about $78 billion. The company's outlook helped soothe concerns about a bubble in AI investments, with Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang saying that customers are racing to invest in AI compute. Nvidia shares rose about 4% in extended trading following the announcement, after the company reported revenue gained 73% to $68.1 billion in the fiscal fourth quarter, and profit was $1.62 a share, excluding certain items. For instant reaction, Bloomberg Businessweek hosts Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec speak with analysts and experts from across the Bloomberg newsroom, including: Bloomberg Tech Co-Host Ed Ludlow Jay Goldberg, Senior Analyst, Semiconductors & Electronics with Seaport Research Partners Bloomberg Intelligence senior tech industry analyst Mandeep Singh Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Technology Analyst Anurag Rana See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ireland's National Competence Centre in Semiconductors (I-C3), a significant milestone in Ireland's commitment to semiconductor innovation and European collaboration under the European Chips Act, invites startups and SMEs to lead the future of chips innovation. I-C3 will focus on startups and SMEs by providing access to essential resources, including funding pathways, training, design tools and pilot line facilities. Its mission is to empower Ireland's startups and SMEs in the semiconductor sector with hands-on access to design, production, funding and training to accelerate innovation and growth in Ireland's semiconductor sector. National Competence Centre in Semiconductors for Startups Commenting on the launch, Peter Burke TD, Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment said: "As a hub for the semiconductor ecosystem, my Department is delighted that I-C3 will ensure that opportunities as part of the Chips for Europe Initiative are accessible for businesses of all sizes within the industry, along with bringing greater diversity of expertise and depth of innovation to the knowledge base of the semiconductor ecosystem in Europe. I-C3's launch is another significant milestone in the delivery of Silicon Island: Ireland's National Semiconductor Strategy. "With this launch, my Department is very excited about I-C3's ability to empower Irish SMEs to scale internationally, drive innovation across the semiconductor ecosystem and create high-value jobs. I-C3 will also facilitate the development of skills and talent, and build on our strengths by enhancing the relationship between infrastructure, industry, and RD&I capability to ensure Ireland leads in advanced manufacturing and chip design." Co-ordinated by Tyndall National Institute and supported by the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment (DETE) through Enterprise Ireland, with co-funding secured from the European Union under the Chips Joint Undertaking (Chips JU), I-C3 is a consortium comprising Tyndall National Institute, a research flagship of University College Cork (UCC), MCCI, MIDAS Ireland, NovaUCD, and University College Dublin. The new I-C3 Competence Centre is one of 30 being established across 27 EU countries to strengthen Europe's semiconductor ecosystem. The initiative builds on Ireland's vibrant and extensive semiconductor industry comprising over 130 indigenous and foreign subsidiary companies, employing over 20,000 people, part of a 175,000-person strong broader ICT sector with overall exports of €13.5 billion worth of products annually. Multinational leaders such as Intel, Apple, Qualcomm, AMD, and Analog Devices have long invested in Irish R&D. I-C3 aims to further elevate Ireland's global standing in semiconductor innovation. Professor William Scanlon, CEO, Tyndall, said: "I?C3 plays a key role in delivering Ireland's Semiconductor Strategy, Silicon Island, and it is fantastic to see the centre operational and actively supporting Irish start?ups and SMEs to accelerate and scale their businesses. I?C3 is helping companies across all sectors that use semiconductor technologies to secure investment, access specialist training, and connect to European pilot lines." Joe Healy, Divisional Manager, Research, Innovation and Infrastructure at Enterprise Ireland said: "With the support of I-C3, Ireland is set to double the number of people employed in semi-conductor startups and SMEs by 2030. The centre will act as a catalyst for innovation, collaboration, and growth, ensuring that Irish stakeholders, from academia to industry, can fully participate in the Chips for Europe Initiative." About Tyndall National Institute Tyndall is a leading European deep-tech research centre in integrated ICT (Information and Communications Technology) materials, devices, circuits and systems and a research flagship of University College Cork. Tyndall is Ireland's largest Research and Technology Organisation (RTO) specialising in both electronics and photonics. Tyndall works...

Today's show covers three explosive fronts in American politics: A Supreme Court ruling that could cost the U.S. government $175 billion — and potentially up to $2 trillion in tariff refunds, damages, and legal claims. A renewed immigration battle following testimony from law enforcement about sanctuary policies and ICE detainers. A governor's controversial pardon that reignites the deportation and chain migration debate. We break down: The constitutional limits on presidential tariff authority The lawsuit wave already forming — including major corporations seeking refunds The strategy shift toward manufacturing incentives and domestic investment Senate procedural warfare over election legislation The immigration enforcement fight and sanctuary city policies The deportation implications of executive clemency decisions Federal benefit eligibility law vs enforcement reality And yes — why physical fitness may be the most underrated political survival tool This is a policy-heavy episode. Economic law, border law, Senate procedure, and political incentives — all in one conversation. ⏱ EPISODE STRUCTURE (60–75 Minutes) SEGMENT 1 – The Tariff Liability Bomb (15–20 min) Core Story The Supreme Court ruled the president cannot raise revenue via emergency tariff authority. Financial exposure: ~$175 billion in refunds to entities that paid tariffs Potential total liability: $1–2 trillion including damages, interest, and legal fees Refund claims + harm claims = prolonged litigation Mention: The Wall Street Journal Donald Trump Joe Biden Key Legal Point Congress holds constitutional tariff authority. Emergency Economic Powers Act cannot be used to generate revenue via tariffs. President retains other tools (Section 232, Section 301). Mention: John Roberts Amy Coney Barrett Scott Bessent Strategic Angle Revenue tariffs blocked. Full embargo authority reaffirmed. Manufacturing incentives emerge as alternative strategy. SEGMENT 2 – Manufacturing Pivot & Trade Realignment (10–15 min) Talking Points Trade deficit reportedly down 17% (goods sector). Bilateral deficit with China reduced. Domestic factory expansion accelerating. Geopolitical pivot: Semiconductor relocation strategy Taiwan–China tension Mention: Taiwan China Policy Framework 100% day-one expensing for factory investment. Competition welcomed — but production relocated domestically. National security sectors prioritized (chips, AI, rare earths). SEGMENT 3 – Senate Power Struggle (10–15 min) Procedural Battle Debate over election reform legislation and filibuster strategy. Mention: Mitch McConnell John Thune Lindsey Graham Tim Scott Themes: Committee control “Talking filibuster” vs procedural block 2026 midterm implications SEGMENT 4 – Immigration Enforcement Flashpoint (15–20 min) Ceremony Coverage Controversy Claims that major networks did not air an event honoring “Angel Families.” Mention: CNN Law Enforcement Testimony Officer recounts arrest of Jose Ibarra in New York. ICE detainer lodged. Release under sanctuary policy. Later convicted in Georgia murder case. Mention: Laken Riley U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement New York City Georgia Federal Data Cited Letter from ICE official to: Tony Gonzales Claims referenced: ~13,000 non-citizens with homicide convictions ~15,800+ with sexual assault convictions Additional pending charges Discussion angle: Detention authority Federal vs local enforcement Data interpretation SEGMENT 5 – Executive Clemency & Deportation (10–12 min) Controversial pardon issued by: Gavin Newsom Case involved: Green card holder Attempted murder conviction Deportation order Pardon removes qualifying deportation basis Discussion: Intersection of clemency and immigration law Green card revocation process Chain migration mechanics SEGMENT 6 – Welfare Law & Enforcement Debate (8–10 min) Reference: Bill Clinton 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Resp ...

In this episode of The Circuit, Ben Bajarin, Jay Goldberg, and Paul Karazuba discuss the current state of the semiconductor industry, focusing on the impact of tariffs, supply chain challenges, and the shift from copper to fiber in networking. They explore the inflection points driving demand for AI compute and the potential for mergers and acquisitions in the sector. The conversation highlights the complexities of navigating geopolitical tensions and the evolving landscape of technology and infrastructure.

James Chai, Visiting Fellow at ISEAS and former policy advisor to Malaysia's Ministry of Economy, joins Jeremy Au to unpack how Malaysia is repositioning itself in an era defined by AI, semiconductors, and geopolitical rivalry. They explore the country's shift from oil, gas, and plantations toward advanced manufacturing, examine how decades of semiconductor clustering built a quiet but durable export engine, and discuss why Malaysia is now doubling down on data centers and rare earths. The conversation covers US China competition over chip supply chains, the strategic importance of fabrication and GPU ecosystems, and how rare earth processing may represent the most underappreciated leverage point in the global tech stack. James also explains why execution, not ambition, will determine whether Malaysia can capture long term value from these emerging industries. 02:30 Malaysia balances growth with redistribution: The strategy is to raise high value industries like semiconductors and rare earths while lifting the bottom 40 percent through social protection. 05:42 Semiconductor strength came from decades of compounding: Intel and other multinationals anchored early manufacturing, and local engineers accumulated expertise that later spun into globally competitive firms. 10:18 Clusters beat subsidies alone: Tight networks of engineers, spin offs, and long term continuity allowed Malaysia's chip ecosystem to survive volatility and keep upgrading. 21:05 China uses constraint as strategy: By limiting access to high end Nvidia GPUs, Beijing forces domestic firms to innovate faster and close critical design gaps. 29:45 Chips are not oil: Frontier GPUs power model training, but most real world AI use relies on inference, meaning older chips retain value longer than markets assume. 37:22 Data centers create investment headlines but unclear spillovers: Billions flow into Malaysia, yet long term value depends on whether local firms capture supply chain and technology capabilities. 44:10 Rare earth processing is the real choke point: Deposits are global, but China controls the complex multi step processing chain, making chemistry and technology control more strategic than mining alone. Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/james-chai-rare-earth-power Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VakR55X6BIElUEvkN02e TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jeremyau Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeremyauz Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeremyau LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bravesea English: Spotify | YouTube | Apple Podcasts Bahasa Indonesia: Spotify | YouTube | Apple Podcasts Chinese: Spotify | YouTube | Apple Podcasts Vietnamese: Spotify | YouTube | Apple Podcasts #MalaysiaEconomy #Semiconductors #RareEarths #DataCenters #USChinaTech #Geopolitics #AIStrategy #SupplyChains #IndustrialPolicy #BRAVEpodcast

Feb 9, 2026: The Future of the Chip Industry1) Elon Musk wants Tesla to bypass Taiwan Semi and to build his own massive "TeraFab" facilities that would supply 20% of the world's chips.2) Datacenters that are launched into Low Earth Orbit would operate more efficiently with lower temperatures, zero-gravity, and with abundant solar power.3) Meta Platforms' new 5 gigawatt Hyperion AI lab will require more power than the current output of America's largest nuclear power plant.These aren't just science fiction ideas, nor are they purely academic discussions.These are actual projects on the table, which would cost hundreds of billions of dollars and years of dedicated effort to complete.And their technological, commercial, and geopolitical implications would be felt everywhere across the world.I recently spoke with Robert Quinn about the future of the semiconductor industry.Robert has spent three decades advising companies, investors, and institutions on how to design and operate fabs and then to optimize their yields.On our show, we discuss Elon's latest ambitions, whether "the AI Bubble" is actually "an inflection point of demand" and several of the important bottlenecks the industry is facing.We also describe investing opportunities, including chip designer NVIDIA, equipment provider ASML, and quantum innovator IonQ.

It's not just Nvidia anymore. We will discuss the earnings from companies like ARM and Broadcom, analyzing the shift toward "Custom Silicon" designed specifically for distinct AI models.Today's Stocks & Topics: Tenet Healthcare Corporation (THC), CMOC Group Limited (CMCLF), Market Wrap, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. (BBVA), Cloudflare, Inc. (NET), Semiconductors: The "Custom Chip" War, How to Rollover a 401k, Dollar General Corporation (DG), Alphabet Inc. (GOOG), Housing Market, Equinix, Inc. (EQIX).Our Sponsors:* Check out Anthropic: https://claude.ai/invest* Check out Quince: https://quince.com/INVESTAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

This week's episode covers a proposed FAR provision entitled “Prohibition on Certain Semiconductor Products and Services” implementing Section 5949 of the FY23 NDAA, and is hosted by Peter Eyre and Addie Cliffe. Crowell & Moring's "Fastest 5 Minutes" is a biweekly podcast that provides a brief summary of significant government contracts legal and regulatory developments that no government contracts lawyer or executive should be without.

In this episode, Ben and Jay discuss various topics related to the tech industry, focusing on hyperscalers, cloud computing, and the memory market. They analyze the earnings of Nebius and CoreWeave, the implications of heavy asset businesses, and the dynamics of AI and memory. The conversation also covers the performance of Applied Materials and networking companies like Cisco and Arista, highlighting the challenges and opportunities in these sectors.

Is AI eating the software industry, or is it just making it more powerful?In this episode, we sit down with Braden Dennis, CEO and co-founder of Fiscal.ai, to discuss the shift happening in enterprise SaaS. If you've watched our videos, you know we use Fiscal's charts every single day to analyze the markets, so it was great to get Braden's perspective on where the industry is headed.We dive deep into the software apocalypse narrative and whether it's based in reality or just a market overreaction. Braden explains why maintaining software is getting easier, how his engineering team has achieved 10x productivity, and why internal AI solutions are coming for the "busy work" that off-the-shelf SaaS can't solve.Join us on Discord with Semiconductor Insider, sign up on our website: www.chipstockinvestor.com/membershipSupercharge your analysis with AI! Get 15% of your membership with our special link here: https://fiscal.ai/csi/Sign Up For Our Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/b1228c12f284/sign-up-landing-page-short-formChapters:0:00 – Is AI Eating Software? 1:12 – Meet Braden Dennis, CEO of Fiscal.ai 1:45 – Why Software Engineering Has Changed Completely 2:40 – 2026 Outlook: Opportunities vs. Traps 3:30 – What Software is Becoming Obsolete? 4:30 – Automating the "Unsolvable" Internal Busy Work 5:15 – "Intelligence in the Sky": A New Data Layer 6:10 – Pricing Power Debate: Will Clients Pay Less? 7:45 – Broadcom & VMware Case Study8:55 – Comparing the Software Correction to 2018 Semiconductors 11:45 – Lessons on Market Cyclicality 13:55 – The Problem with Late-Stage Venture Capital 16:00 – Why We Need More Tech IPOs 18:10 – The Incentive for Founders to Stay Private 20:00 – Evaluating Figma and Adobe in the AI Age21:30 – ServiceNow: Narrative vs. Financial Reality 22:45 – Final Verdict: Being Selective in a Sell-offIf you found this video useful, please make sure to like and subscribe!*********************************************************Affiliate links that are sprinkled in throughout this video. If something catches your eye and you decide to buy it, we might earn a little coffee money. Thanks for helping us (Kasey) fuel our caffeine addiction!Content in this video is for general information or entertainment only and is not specific or individual investment advice. Forecasts and information presented may not develop as predicted and there is no guarantee any strategies presented will be successful. All investing involves risk, and you could lose some or all of your principal. #AI #SaaS #SoftwareStocks #Investing #ChipStockInvestor #FiscalAI #TechInvesting #ServiceNow #stockmarket2026 Nick and Kasey own shares of Adobe, Figma, ServiceNow

เคยสงสัยกันไหมครับว่า ทำไมประเทศที่เคยเป็นเจ้าโลกด้านเทคโนโลยีอย่างประเทศญี่ปุ่น ถึงยอมเสียแชมป์ในอุตสาหกรรมที่สำคัญที่สุดอย่าง Semiconductor ไป ย้อนกลับไปในช่วงปี 1980 หรือประมาณ 40 กว่าปีก่อน ในยุคนั้นบริษัทญี่ปุ่นถึง 6 แห่งติดอันดับท็อป 10 ของผู้ผลิตชิปที่ใหญ่ที่สุดในโลก บริษัทญี่ปุ่นผลิตชิปคิดเป็นสัดส่วนเกือบครึ่งหนึ่งของโลกครับ แต่ในวันนี้ส่วนแบ่งนั้นเหลืออยู่แค่ประมาณ 10% เท่านั้น เกิดอะไรขึ้นกับมหาอำนาจที่ครั้งหนึ่งเคยยิ่งใหญ่ในวงการนี้ พอดแคสต์ EP นี้จะมาชวนคุยถึงการต่อสู้ครั้งสำคัญของญี่ปุ่นครับ ซึ่งไม่ใช่การต่อสู้เพื่อทวงบัลลังก์เดิมกลับคืนมาแบบตรงไปตรงมา แต่เป็นการต่อสู้เพื่อยึดครองส่วนที่สำคัญที่สุดในห่วงโซ่อุปทานหรือ Supply Chain ที่แม้แต่ยักษ์ใหญ่อย่าง TSMC หรือ Samsung ก็ต้องยอมสยบให้ นี่คือการกลับมาแบบเงียบๆ แต่ทรงพลังที่สุดครั้งหนึ่งในประวัติศาสตร์อุตสาหกรรมเทคโนโลยี เลือกฟังกันได้เลยนะครับ อย่าลืมกด Follow ติดตาม PodCast ช่อง Geek Forever's Podcast ของผมกันด้วยนะครับ =========================  สนับสนุนโดย ========================= 

Tech Contrarians take on tech's tug of war between fear and greed (0:45) Software stock sell-off (2:45) Valuation concerns on Nvidia and others (9:10) Entry point alert example for Credo (17:00) What's going to happen with China? (18:30) Investing timelines (24:30)Show Notes:AI Spending Surge, Contrarian Take On Tech StocksNvidia And The H200 Landscape; Broadcom's Strategic PositioningRead our transcriptsFor full access to analyst ratings, stock and ETF quant scores, and dividend grades, subscribe to Seeking Alpha Premium at seekingalpha.com/subscriptions

China says the Netherlands should create conditions for enterprises to resolve internal disputes and for maintaining stability in the global semiconductor industrial and supply chains.

From fusing wafer maps and test logs to powering lights-out factories, Contextual AI offers grounded, secure, and context-aware intelligence to make testing more efficient. Thanks for tuning in to "Advantest Talks Semi"! If you enjoyed this episode, we'd love to hear from you! Please take a moment to leave a rating on Apple Podcast. Your feedback helps us improve and reach new listeners. Don't forget to subscribe and share with your friends. We appreciate your support!

Over the past several weeks, nearly $1 to $2 trillion in market value has been erased from software and SaaS equities.At the same time, semiconductor foundries and data center infrastructure companies are demonstrating relative resilience, and in some cases outperforming.This episode examines whether we are witnessing a temporary correction or a structural repricing of the AI technology stack.We break down:• The 20 to 25 percent correction in the S&P 500 Software & Services Index• Why AI-native tooling, including developments from Anthropic and other model providers, is pressuring traditional SaaS assumptions• The resilience of advanced-node manufacturers like TSMC• IonQ's acquisition of SkyWater Technology and what it signals about vertical integration and domestic manufacturing• The accelerating build-out of power and cooling infrastructure, with companies like Vertiv benefiting from AI-driven density requirements• Where durable value may accrue across the AI stackFor allocators, venture investors, and operators, this is less about short-term volatility and more about capital rotation.The key question is no longer whether AI is real.It is where long-term value concentrates:Application layerCompute layerPhysical infrastructure enabling itIf you allocate capital across technology, public or private, this is a critical moment.Subscribe to VC10X for in-depth conversations with leading fund managers, founders, and LPs navigating the next phase of the AI cycle.LINKSPrashant Choubey - https://www.linkedin.com/in/choubeysahabSubscribe to VC10X newsletter - https://vc10x.beehiiv.comSubscribe on YouTube - https://youtube.com/@VC10X Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/vc10x-investing-venture-capital-asset-management-private/id1632806986Subscribe on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/7F7KEhXNhTx1bKTBFgzv3k?si=WgQ4ozMiQJ-6nowj6wBgqQVC10X website - https://vc10x.comFor sponsorship queries reach out to prashantchoubey3@gmail.comSUBSCRIBE FOR MOREVC10X breaks down the most important stories in finance, tech, and markets every week. Subscribe for actionable insightsLet us know in the comments:Is software experiencing temporary multiple compression or structural repricing?#AI #VentureCapital #SaaS #Semiconductors #DataCenters #TechInvesting #CapitalMarkets

A major new European initiative, Photonics for Quantum (P4Q), will launch in 2026 across twelve countries, marking a decisive step in Europe's effort to accelerate quantum technology development and manufacturing. In Ireland, P4Q is hosted at Tyndall National Institute (based at University College Cork), and is co-funded by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Skills (DFHERIS), reflecting the strategic national priority to build sovereign capability in advanced semiconductors and quantum technologies. Coordinated by the University of Twente (NL), P4Q brings together Europe's leading research institutes, semiconductor foundries, and deep-tech companies. The consortium's mission is to create the manufacturing ecosystem Europe needs to produce high-quality quantum photonic chips at scale, a critical capability as the global race for quantum accelerates. Photonic chips are a key quantum technology, enabling breakthroughs in quantum sensing, communication, and computing. The major challenge today is scale: future quantum systems will require large numbers of high-quality photonic chips, produced reliably and in high volumes. Ireland's Contribution to Advanced Quantum Packaging, Supported by DFHERIS As a key partner in P4Q, Tyndall will contribute its specialist expertise in advanced packaging of quantum photonic chips, a critical component in the development of scalable quantum systems. Tyndall's work will focus on one of the major challenges in quantum technology: packaging chips designed to operate at ultralow (cryogenic) temperatures. These processes must deliver extreme precision and performance, while also being scalable for high-volume production as quantum markets emerge. DFHERIS Minister James Lawless welcomes the news: "My Department is deeply committed to advancing quantum technologies, because this is an area with enormous potential to strengthen our economy and make a real difference in people's lives. Last year, I signed the Quantum Pact, an important step toward positioning Europe as the 'quantum valley' of the world. Progress in quantum hardware depends on strong partnerships, and collaboration like this is essential for developing cutting-edge technologies and building secure, reliable supply chains. I am delighted to see Tyndall contributing to such a high-calibre consortium. Their leadership reflects our national strategic ambitions and continues to elevate Ireland's reputation in quantum innovation." A SiN chip for a quantum photonics application being tested Professor William Scanlon, CEO, Tyndall, said: "We are proud to be playing a leading role in P4Q, which represents an important milestone for Europe's quantum and semiconductor ambitions. Advancing the packaging of quantum photonic chips is essential for building a scalable manufacturing base in Europe. This partnership reinforces Ireland's leadership in quantum and enabling technologies innovation and supports our national strategy to grow a resilient, future-focused semiconductor ecosystem." Commenting on the announcement, Professor Peter O'Brien, Head of Photonics Packaging, Tyndall, said: "P4Q provides Ireland with a unique opportunity to lead the development of advanced packaging technologies for quantum devices. With our state-of-the-art infrastructure and unique expertise, Ireland is exceptionally well-positioned to stay at the forefront of quantum research and industrialisation, fully aligned with our national semiconductor strategy." Recent commentary has highlighted the strategic importance of building strong indigenous semiconductor capability to secure Ireland's long-term economic and technological resilience. P4Q is a targeted response to that national need, placing Ireland's expertise at the centre of a high-impact European quantum manufacturing ecosystem. The P4Q partners include Tyndall National Institute, University of Twente (coordinator), AIT, Aluvia, AMIRES, AQT, C2N, CEA-Leti, Delft Networks, ICFO,...

Infrastructure was passé…uncool. Difficult to get dollars from Private Equity and Growth funds, and almost impossible to get a VC fund interested. Now?! Now, it's cool. Infrastructure seems to be having a Renaissance, a full on Rebirth, not just fueled by commercial interests (e.g. advent of AI), but also by industrial policy and geopolitical considerations. In this episode of Tech Deciphered, we explore what's cool in the infrastructure spaces, including mega trends in semiconductors, energy, networking & connectivity, manufacturing Navigation: Intro We're back to building things Why now: the 5 forces behind the renaissance Semiconductors: compute is the new oil Networking & connectivity: digital highways get rebuilt Energy: rebuilding the power stack (not just renewables) Manufacturing: the return of “atoms + bits” Wrap: what it means for startups, incumbents, and investors Conclusion Our co-hosts: Bertrand Schmitt, Entrepreneur in Residence at Red River West, co-founder of App Annie / Data.ai, business angel, advisor to startups and VC funds, @bschmitt Nuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedro Our show: Tech DECIPHERED brings you the Entrepreneur and Investor views on Big Tech, VC and Start-up news, opinion pieces and research. We decipher their meaning, and add inside knowledge and context. Being nerds, we also discuss the latest gadgets and pop culture news Subscribe To Our Podcast Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Introduction Welcome to episode 73 of Tech Deciphered, Infrastructure, the Rebirth or Renaissance. Infrastructure was passé, it wasn’t cool, but all of a sudden now everyone’s talking about network, talking about compute and semiconductors, talking about logistics, talking about energy. What gives? What’s happened? It was impossible in the past to get any funds, venture capital, even, to be honest, some private equity funds or growth funds interested in some of these areas, but now all of a sudden everyone thinks it’s cool. The infrastructure seems to be having a renaissance, a full-on rebirth. In this episode, we will explore in which cool ways the infrastructure spaces are moving and what’s leading to it. We will deep dive into the forces that are leading us to this. We will deep dive into semiconductors, networking and connectivity, energy, manufacturing, and then we’ll wrap up. Bertrand, so infrastructure is cool now. Bertrand Schmitt We're back to building things Yes. I thought software was going to eat the world. I cannot believe it was then, maybe even 15 years ago, from Andreessen, that quote about software eating the world. I guess it’s an eternal balance. Sometimes you go ahead of yourself, you build a lot of software stack, and at some point, you need the hardware to run this software stack, and there is only so much the bits can do in a world of atoms. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Obviously, we’ve gone through some of this before. I think what we’re going through right now is AI is eating the world, and because AI is eating the world, it’s driving a lot of this infrastructure building that we need. We don’t have enough energy to be consumed by all these big data centers and hyperscalers. We need to be innovative around network as well because of the consumption in terms of network bandwidth that is linked to that consumption as well. In some ways, it’s not software eating the world, AI is eating the world. Because AI is eating the world, we need to rethink everything around infrastructure and infrastructure becoming cool again. Bertrand Schmitt There is something deeper in this. It’s that the past 10, even 15 years were all about SaaS before AI. SaaS, interestingly enough, was very energy-efficient. When I say SaaS, I mean cloud computing at large. What I mean by energy-efficient is that actually cloud computing help make energy use more efficient because instead of companies having their own separate data centers in many locations, sometimes poorly run from an industrial perspective, replace their own privately run data center with data center run by the super scalers, the hyperscalers of the world. These data centers were run much better in terms of how you manage the coolings, the energy efficiency, the rack density, all of this stuff. Actually, the cloud revolution didn’t increase the use of electricity. The cloud revolution was actually a replacement from your private data center to the hyperscaler data center, which was energy efficient. That’s why we didn’t, even if we are always talking about that growth of cloud computing, we were never feeling the pinch in term of electricity. As you say, we say it all changed because with AI, it was not a simple “Replacement” of locally run infrastructure to a hyperscaler run infrastructure. It was truly adding on top of an existing infrastructure, a new computing infrastructure in a way out of nowhere. Not just any computing infrastructure, an energy infrastructure that was really, really voracious in term of energy use. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro There was one other effect. Obviously, we’ve discussed before, we are in a bubble. We won’t go too much into that today. But the previous big bubble in tech, which is in the late ’90s, there was a lot of infrastructure built. We thought the internet was going to take over back then. It didn’t take over immediately, but there was a lot of network connectivity, bandwidth built back in the day. Companies imploded because of that as well, or had to restructure and go in their chapter 11. A lot of the big telco companies had their own issues back then, etc., but a lot of infrastructure was built back then for this advent of the internet, which would then take a long time to come. In some ways, to your point, there was a lot of latent supply that was built that was around that for a while wasn’t used, but then it was. Now it’s been used, and now we need new stuff. That’s why I feel now we’re having the new moment of infrastructure, new moment of moving forward, aligned a little bit with what you just said around cloud computing and the advent of SaaS, but also around the fact that we had a lot of buildup back in the late ’90s, early ’90s, which we’re now still reaping the benefits on in today’s world. Bertrand Schmitt Yeah, that’s actually a great point because what was built in the late ’90s, there was a lot of fibre that was built. Laying out the fibre either across countries, inside countries. This fibre, interestingly enough, you could just change the computing on both sides of the fibre, the routing, the modems, and upgrade the capacity of the fibre. But the fibre was the same in between. The big investment, CapEx investment, was really lying down that fibre, but then you could really upgrade easily. Even if both ends of the fibre were either using very old infrastructure from the ’90s or were actually dark and not being put to use, step by step, it was being put to use, equipment was replaced, and step by step, you could keep using more and more of this fibre. It was a very interesting development, as you say, because it could be expanded over the years, where if we talk about GPUs, use for AI, GPUs, the interesting part is actually it’s totally the opposite. After a few years, it’s useless. Some like Google, will argue that they can depreciate over 5, 6 years, even some GPUs. But at the end of the day, the difference in perf and energy efficiency of the GPUs means that if you are energy constrained, you just want to replace the old one even as young as three-year-old. You have to look at Nvidia increasing spec, generation after generation. It’s pretty insane. It’s usually at least 3X year over year in term of performance. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro At this moment in time, it’s very clear that it’s happening. Why now: the 5 forces behind the renaissance Maybe let’s deep dive into why it’s happening now. What are the key forces around this? We’ve identified, I think, five forces that are particularly vital that lead to the world we’re in right now. One we’ve already talked about, which is AI, the demand shock and everything that’s happened because of AI. Data centers drive power demand, drive grid upgrades, drive innovative ways of getting energy, drive chips, drive networking, drive cooling, drive manufacturing, drive all the things that we’re going to talk in just a bit. One second element that we could probably highlight in terms of the forces that are behind this is obviously where we are in terms of cost curves around technology. Obviously, a lot of things are becoming much cheaper. The simulation of physical behaviours has become a lot more cheap, which in itself, this becomes almost a vicious cycle in of itself, then drives the adoption of more and more AI and stuff. But anyway, the simulation is becoming more and more accessible, so you can do a lot of simulation with digital twins and other things off the real world before you go into the real world. Robotics itself is becoming, obviously, cheaper. Hardware, a lot of the hardware is becoming cheaper. Computer has become cheaper as well. Obviously, there’s a lot of cost curves that have aligned that, and that’s maybe the second force that I would highlight. Obviously, funds are catching up. We’ll leave that a little bit to the end. We’ll do a wrap-up and talk a little bit about the implications to investors. But there’s a lot of capital out there, some capital related to industrial policy, other capital related to private initiative, private equity, growth funds, even venture capital, to be honest, and a few other elements on that. That would be a third force that I would highlight. Bertrand Schmitt Yes. Interestingly enough, in terms of capital use, and we’ll talk more about this, but some firms, if we are talking about energy investment, it was very difficult to invest if you are not investing in green energy. Now I think more and more firms and banks are willing to invest or support different type of energy infrastructure, not just, “Green energy.” That’s an interesting development because at some point it became near impossible to invest more in gas development, in oil development in the US or in most Western countries. At least in the US, this is dramatically changing the framework. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Maybe to add the two last forces that I think we see behind the renaissance of what’s happening in infrastructure. They go hand in hand. One is the geopolitics of the world right now. Obviously, the world was global flat, and now it’s becoming increasingly siloed, so people are playing it to their own interests. There’s a lot of replication of infrastructure as well because people want to be autonomous, and they want to drive their own ability to serve end consumers, businesses, etc., in terms of data centers and everything else. That ability has led to things like, for example, chips shortage. The fact that there are semiconductors, there are shortages across the board, like memory shortages, where everything is packed up until 2027 of 2028. A lot of the memory that was being produced is already spoken for, which is shocking. There’s obviously generation of supply chain fragilities, obviously, some of it because of policies, for example, in the US with tariffs, etc, security of energy, etc. Then the last force directly linked to the geopolitics is the opposite of it, which is the policy as an accelerant, so to speak, as something that is accelerating development, where because of those silos, individual countries, as part their industrial policy, then want to put capital behind their local ecosystems, their local companies, so that their local companies and their local systems are for sure the winners, or at least, at the very least, serve their own local markets. I think that’s true of a lot of the things we’re seeing, for example, in the US with the Chips Act, for semiconductors, with IGA, IRA, and other elements of what we’ve seen in terms of practices, policies that have been implemented even in Europe, China, and other parts of the world. Bertrand Schmitt Talking about chips shortages, it’s pretty insane what has been happening with memory. Just the past few weeks, I have seen a close to 3X increase in price in memory prices in a matter of weeks. Apparently, it started with a huge order from OpenAI. Apparently, they have tried to corner the memory market. Interestingly enough, it has flat-footed the entire industry, and that includes Google, that includes Microsoft. There are rumours of their teams now having moved to South Korea, so they are closer to the action in terms of memory factories and memory decision-making. There are rumours of execs who got fired because they didn’t prepare for this type of eventuality or didn’t lock in some of the supply chain because that memory was initially for AI, but obviously, it impacts everything because factories making memories, you have to plan years in advance to build memories. You cannot open new lines of manufacturing like this. All factories that are going to open, we know when they are going to open because they’ve been built up for years. There is no extra capacity suddenly. At the very best, you can change a bit your line of production from one type of memory to another type. But that’s probably about it. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Just to be clear, all these transformations we’re seeing isn’t to say just hardware is back, right? It’s not just hardware. There’s physicality. The buildings are coming back, right? It’s full stack. Software is here. That’s why everything is happening. Policy is here. Finance is here. It’s a little bit like the name of the movie, right? Everything everywhere all at once. Everything’s happening. It was in some ways driven by the upper stacks, by the app layers, by the platform layers. But now we need new infrastructure. We need more infrastructure. We need it very, very quickly. We need it today. We’re already lacking in it. Semiconductors: compute is the new oil Maybe that’s a good segue into the first piece of the whole infrastructure thing that’s driving now the most valuable company in the world, NVIDIA, which is semiconductors. Semiconductors are driving compute. Semis are the foundation of infrastructure as a compute. Everyone needs it for every thing, for every activity, not just for compute, but even for sensors, for actuators, everything else. That’s the beginning of it all. Semiconductor is one of the key pieces around the infrastructure stack that’s being built at scale at this moment in time. Bertrand Schmitt Yes. What’s interesting is that if we look at the market gap of Semis versus software as a service, cloud companies, there has been a widening gap the past year. I forgot the exact numbers, but we were talking about plus 20, 25% for Semis in term of market gap and minus 5, minus 10 for SaaS companies. That’s another trend that’s happening. Why is this happening? One, because semiconductors are core to the AI build-up, you cannot go around without them. But two, it’s also raising a lot of questions about the durability of the SaaS, a software-as-a-service business model. Because if suddenly we have better AI, and that’s all everyone is talking about to justify the investment in AI, that it keeps getting better, and it keeps improving, and it’s going to replace your engineers, your software engineers. Then maybe all of this moat that software companies built up over the years or decades, sometimes, might unravel under the pressure of newly coded, newly built, cheaper alternatives built from the ground up with AI support. It’s not just that, yes, semiconductors are doing great. It’s also as a result of that AI underlying trend that software is doing worse right now. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro At the end of the day, this foundational piece of infrastructure, semiconductor, is obviously getting manifest to many things, fabrication, manufacturing, packaging, materials, equipment. Everything’s being driven, ASML, etc. There are all these different players around the world that are having skyrocket valuations now, it’s because they’re all part of the value chain. Just to be very, very clear, there’s two elements of this that I think are very important for us to remember at this point in time. One, it’s the entire value chains are being shifted. It’s not just the chips that basically lead to computing in the strict sense of it. It’s like chips, for example, that drive, for example, network switching. We’re going to talk about networking a bit, but you need chips to drive better network switching. That’s getting revolutionised as well. For example, we have an investment in that space, a company called the eridu.ai, and they’re revolutionising one of the pieces around that stack. Second part of the puzzle, so obviously, besides the holistic view of the world that’s changing in terms of value change, the second piece of the puzzle is, as we discussed before, there’s industrial policy. We already mentioned the CHIPS Act, which is something, for example, that has been done in the US, which I think is 52 billion in incentives across a variety of things, grants, loans, and other mechanisms to incentivise players to scale capacity quick and to scale capacity locally in the US. One of the effects of that now is obviously we had the TSMC, US expansion with a factory here in the US. We have other levels of expansion going on with Intel, Samsung, and others that are happening as we speak. Again, it’s this two by two. It’s market forces that drive the need for fundamental shifts in the value chain. On the other industrial policy and actual money put forward by states, by governments, by entities that want to revolutionise their own local markets. Bertrand Schmitt Yes. When you talk about networking, it makes me think about what NVIDIA did more than six years ago when they acquired Mellanox. At the time, it was largest acquisition for NVIDIA in 2019, and it was networking for the data center. Not networking across data center, but inside the data center, and basically making sure that your GPUs, the different computers, can talk as fast as possible between each of them. I think that’s one piece of the puzzle that a lot of companies are missing, by the way, about NVIDIA is that they are truly providing full systems. They are not just providing a GPU. Some of their competitors are just providing GPUs. But NVIDIA can provide you the full rack. Now, they move to liquid-cool computing as well. They design their systems with liquid cooling in mind. They have a very different approach in the industry. It’s a systematic system-level approach to how do you optimize your data center. Quite frankly, that’s a bit hard to beat. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro For those listening, you’d be like, this is all very different. Semiconductors, networking, energy, manufacturing, this is all different. Then all of a sudden, as Bertrand is saying, well, there are some players that are acting across the stack. Then you see in the same sentence, you’re talking about nuclear power in Microsoft or nuclear power in Google, and you’re like, what happened? Why are these guys in the same sentence? It’s like they’re tech companies. Why are they talking about energy? It’s the nature of that. These ecosystems need to go hand in hand. The value chains are very deep. For you to actually reap the benefits of more and more, for example, semiconductor availability, you have to have better and better networking connectivity, and you have to have more and more energy at lower and lower costs, and all of that. All these things are intrinsically linked. That’s why you see all these big tech companies working across stack, NVIDIA being a great example of that in trying to create truly a systems approach to the world, as Bertrand was mentioning. Networking & connectivity: digital highways get rebuilt On the networking and connectivity side, as we said, we had a lot of fibre that was put down, etc, but there’s still more build-out needs to be done. 5G in terms of its densification is still happening. We’re now starting to talk, obviously, about 6G. I’m not sure most telcos are very happy about that because they just have been doing all this CapEx and all this deployment into 5G, and now people already started talking about 6G and what’s next. Obviously, data center interconnect is quite important, and all the hubbing that needs to happen around data centers is very, very important. We are seeing a lot movements around connectivity that are particularly important. Network gear and the emergence of players like Broadcom in terms of the semiconductor side of the fence, obviously, Cisco, Juniper, Arista, and others that are very much present in this space. As I said, we made an investment on the semiconductor side of networking as well, realizing that there’s still a lot of bottlenecks happening there. But obviously, the networking and connectivity stack still needs to be built at all levels within the data centers, outside of the data centers in terms of last mile, across the board in terms of fibre. We’re seeing a lot of movements still around the space. It’s what connects everything. At the end of the day, if there’s too much latency in these systems, if the bandwidths are not high enough, then we’re going to have huge bottlenecks that are going to be put at the table by a networking providers. Obviously, that doesn’t help anyone. If there’s a button like anywhere, it doesn’t work. All of this doesn’t work. Bertrand Schmitt Yes. Interestingly enough, I know we said for this episode, we not talk too much about space, but when you talk about 6G, it make me think about, of course, Starlink. That’s really your last mile delivery that’s being built as well. It’s a massive investment. We’re talking about thousands of satellites that are interconnected between each other through laser system. This is changing dramatically how companies can operate, how individuals can operate. For companies, you can have great connectivity from anywhere in the world. For military, it’s the same. For individuals, suddenly, you won’t have dead space, wide zones. This is also a part of changing how we could do things. It’s quite important even in the development of AI because, yes, you can have AI at the edge, but that interconnect to the rest of the system is quite critical. Having that availability of a network link, high-quality network link from anywhere is a great combo. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Then you start seeing regions of the world that want to differentiate to attract digital nomads by saying, “We have submarine cables that come and hub through us, and therefore, our connectivity is amazing.” I was just in Madeira, and they were talking about that in Portugal. One of the islands of Portugal. We have some Marine cables. You have great connectivity. We’re getting into that discussion where people are like, I don’t care. I mean, I don’t know. I assume I have decent connectivity. People actually care about decent connectivity. This discussion is not just happening at corporate level, at enterprise level? Etc. Even consumers, even people that want to work remotely or be based somewhere else in the world. It’s like, This is important Where is there a great connectivity for me so that I can have access to the services I need? Etc. Everyone becomes aware of everything. We had a cloud flare mishap more recently that the CEO had to jump online and explain deeply, technically and deeply, what happened. Because we’re in their heads. If Cloudflare goes down, there’s a lot of websites that don’t work. All of this, I think, is now becoming du jour rather than just an afterthought. Maybe we’ll think about that in the future. Bertrand Schmitt Totally. I think your life is being changed for network connectivity, so life of individuals, companies. I mean, everything. Look at airlines and ships and cruise ships. Now is the advent of satellite connectivity. It’s dramatically changing our experience. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Indeed. Energy: rebuilding the power stack (not just renewables) Moving maybe to energy. We’ve talked about energy quite a bit in the past. Maybe we start with the one that we didn’t talk as much, although we did mention it, which was, let’s call it the fossil infrastructure, what’s happening around there. Everyone was saying, it’s all going to be renewables and green. We’ve had a shift of power, geopolitics. Honestly, I the writing was on the wall that we needed a lot more energy creation. It wasn’t either or. We needed other sources to be as efficient as possible. Obviously, we see a lot of work happening around there that many would have thought, Well, all this infrastructure doesn’t matter anymore. Now we’re seeing LNG terminals, pipelines, petrochemical capacity being pushed up, a lot of stuff happening around markets in terms of export, and not only around export, but also around overall distribution and increases and improvements so that there’s less leakage, distribution of energy, etc. In some ways, people say, it’s controversial, but it’s like we don’t have enough energy to spare. We’re already behind, so we need as much as we can. We need to figure out the way to really extract as much as we can from even natural resources, which In many people’s mind, it’s almost like blasphemous to talk about, but it is where we are. Obviously, there’s a lot of renaissance also happening on the fossil infrastructure basis, so to speak. Bertrand Schmitt Personally, I’m ecstatic that there is a renaissance going regarding what is called fossil infrastructure. Oil and gas, it’s critical to humanity well-being. You never had growth of countries without energy growth and nothing else can come close. Nuclear could come close, but it takes decades to deploy. I think it’s great. It’s great for developed economies so that they do better, they can expand faster. It’s great for third-world countries who have no realistic other choice. I really don’t know what happened the past 10, 15 years and why this was suddenly blasphemous. But I’m glad that, strangely, thanks to AI, we are back to a more rational mindset about energy and making sure we get efficient energy where we can. Obviously, nuclear is getting a second act. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro I know you would be. We’ve been talking about for a long time, and you’ve been talking about it in particular for a very long time. Bertrand Schmitt Yes, definitely. It’s been one area of interest of mine for 25 years. I don’t know. I’ve been shocked about what happened in Europe, that willingness destruction of energy infrastructure, especially in Germany. Just a few months ago, they keep destroying on live TV some nuclear station in perfect working condition and replacing them with coal. I’m not sure there is a better definition of insanity at this stage. It looks like it’s only the Germans going that hardcore for some reason, but at least the French have stopped their program of decommissioning. America, it seems to be doing the same, so it’s great. On top of it, there are new generations that could be put to use. The Chinese are building up a very large nuclear reactor program, more than 100 reactors in construction for the next 10 years. I think everybody has to catch up because at some point, this is the most efficient energy solution. Especially if you don’t build crazy constraints around the construction of these nuclear reactors. If we are rational about permits, about energy, about safety, there are great things we could be doing with nuclear. That might be one of the only solution if we want to be competitive, because when energy prices go down like crazy, like in China, they will do once they have reach delivery of their significant build-up of nuclear reactors, we better be ready to have similar options from a cost perspective. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro From the outside, at the very least, nuclear seems to be probably in the energy one of the areas that’s more being innovated at this moment in time. You have startups in the space, you have a lot really money going into it, not just your classic industrial development. That’s very exciting. Moving maybe to the carbonization and what’s happening. The CCUS, and for those who don’t know what it is, carbon capture, utilization, and storage. There’s a lot of stuff happening around that space. That’s the area that deals with the ability to capture CO₂ emissions from industrial sources and/or the atmosphere and preventing their release. There’s a lot of things happening in that space. There’s also a lot of things happening around hydrogen and geothermal and really creating the ability to storage or to store, rather, energy that then can be put back into the grids at the right time. There’s a lot of interesting pieces happening around this. There’s some startup movement in the space. It’s been a long time coming, the reuse of a lot of these industrial sources. Not sure it’s as much on the news as nuclear, and oil and gas, but certainly there’s a lot of exciting things happening there. Bertrand Schmitt I’m a bit more dubious here, but I think geothermal makes sense if it’s available at reasonable price. I don’t think hydrogen technology has proven its value. Concerning carbon capture, I’m not sure how much it’s really going to provide in terms of energy needs, but why not? Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Fuels niche, again, from the outside, we’re not energy experts, but certainly, there are movements in the space. We’ll see what’s happening. One area where there’s definitely a lot of movement is this notion of grid and storage. On the one hand, that transmission needs to be built out. It needs to be better. We’ve had issues of blackouts in the US. We’ve had issues of blackouts all around the world, almost. Portugal as well, for a significant part of the time. The ability to work around transmission lines, transformers, substations, the modernization of some of this infrastructure, and the move forward of it is pretty critical. But at the other end, there’s the edge. Then, on the edge, you have the ability to store. We should have, better mechanisms to store energy that are less leaky in terms of energy storage. Obviously, there’s a lot of movement around that. Some of it driven just by commercial stuff, like Tesla a lot with their storage stuff, etc. Some of it really driven at scale by energy players that have the interest that, for example, some of the storage starts happening closer to the consumption as well. But there’s a lot of exciting things happening in that space, and that is a transformative space. In some ways, the bottleneck of energy is also around transmission and then ultimately the access to energy by homes, by businesses, by industries, etc. Bertrand Schmitt I would say some of the blackout are truly man-made. If I pick on California, for instance. That’s the logical conclusion of the regulatory system in place in California. On one side, you limit price that energy supplier can sell. The utility company can sell, too. On the other side, you force them to decommission the most energy-efficient and least expensive energy source. That means you cap the revenues, you make the cost increase. What is the result? The result is you cannot invest anymore to support a grid and to support transmission. That’s 100% obvious. That’s what happened, at least in many places. The solution is stop crazy regulations that makes no economic sense whatsoever. Then, strangely enough, you can invest again in transmission, in maintenance, and all I love this stuff. Maybe another piece, if we pick in California, if you authorize building construction in areas where fires are easy, that’s also a very costly to support from utility perspective, because then you are creating more risk. You are forced buy the state to connect these new constructions to the grid. You have more maintenance. If it fails, you can create fire. If you create fire, you have to pay billions of fees. I just want to highlight that some of this is not a technological issue, is not per se an investment issue, but it’s simply the result of very bad regulations. I hope that some will learn, and some change will be made so that utilities can do their job better. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Then last, but not the least, on the energy side, energy is becoming more and more digitally defined in some ways. It’s like the analogy to networks that they’ve become more, and more software defined, where you have, at the edge is things like smart meters. There’s a lot of things you can do around the key elements of the business model, like dynamic pricing and other elements. Demand response, one of the areas that I invested in, I invest in a company called Omconnect that’s now merged with what used to be Google Nest. Where to deploy that ability to do demand response and also pass it to consumers so that consumers can reduce their consumption at times where is the least price effective or the less green or the less good for the energy companies to produce energy. We have other things that are happening, which are interesting. Obviously, we have a lot more electric vehicles in cars, etc. These are also elements of storage. They don’t look like elements of storage, but the car has electricity in it once you charge it. Once it’s charged, what do you do with it? Could you do something else? Like the whole reverse charging piece that we also see now today in mobile devices and other edge devices, so to speak. That also changes the architecture of what we’re seeing around the space. With AI, there’s a lot of elements that change around the value chain. The ability to do forecasting, the ability to have, for example, virtual power plans because of just designated storage out there, etc. Interesting times happening. Not sure all utilities around the world, all energy providers around the world are innovating at the same pace and in the same way. But certainly just looking at the industry and talking to a lot of players that are CEOs of some of these companies. That are leading innovation for some of these companies, there’s definitely a lot more happening now in the last few years than maybe over the last few decades. Very exciting times. Bertrand Schmitt I think there are two interesting points in what you say. Talking about EVs, for instance, a Cybertruck is able to send electricity back to your home if your home is able to receive electricity from that source. Usually, you have some changes to make to the meter system, to your panel. That’s one great way to potentially use your car battery. Another piece of the puzzle is that, strangely enough, most strangely enough, there has been a big push to EV, but at the same time, there has not been a push to provide more electricity. But if you replace cars that use gasoline by electric vehicles that use electricity, you need to deliver more electricity. It doesn’t require a PhD to get that. But, strangely enough, nothing was done. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Apparently, it does. Bertrand Schmitt I remember that study in France where they say that, if people were all to switch to EV, we will need 10 more nuclear reactors just on the way from Paris to Nice to the Côte d’Azur, the French Rivière, in order to provide electricity to the cars going there during the summer vacation. But I mean, guess what? No nuclear plant is being built along the way. Good luck charging your vehicles. I think that’s another limit that has been happening to the grid is more electric vehicles that require charging when the related infrastructure has not been upgraded to support more. Actually, it has quite the opposite. In many cases, we had situation of nuclear reactors closing down, so other facilities closing down. Obviously, the end result is an increase in price of electricity, at least in some states and countries that have not sold that fully out. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Manufacturing: the return of “atoms + bits” Moving to manufacturing and what’s happening around manufacturing, manufacturing technology. There’s maybe the case to be made that manufacturing is getting replatformed, right? It’s getting redefined. Some of it is very obvious, and it’s already been ongoing for a couple of decades, which is the advent of and more and more either robotic augmented factories or just fully roboticized factories, where there’s very little presence of human beings. There’s elements of that. There’s the element of software definition on top of it, like simulation. A lot of automation is going on. A lot of AI has been applied to some lines in terms of vision, safety. We have an investment in a company called Sauter Analytics that is very focused on that from the perspective of employees and when they’re still humans in the loop, so to speak, and the ability to really figure out when people are at risk and other elements of what’s happening occurring from that. But there’s more than that. There’s a little bit of a renaissance in and of itself. Factories are, initially, if we go back a couple of decades ago, factories were, and manufacturing was very much defined from the setup. Now it’s difficult to innovate, it’s difficult to shift the line, it’s difficult to change how things are done in the line. With the advent of new factories that have less legacy, that have more flexible systems, not only in terms of software, but also in terms of hardware and robotics, it allows us to, for example, change and shift lines much more easily to different functions, which will hopefully, over time, not only reduce dramatically the cost of production. But also increase dramatically the yield, it increases dramatically the production itself. A lot of cool stuff happening in that space. Bertrand Schmitt It’s exciting to see that. One thing this current administration in the US has been betting on is not just hoping for construction renaissance. Especially on the factory side, up of factories, but their mindset was two things. One, should I force more companies to build locally because it would be cheaper? Two, increase output and supply of energy so that running factories here in the US would be cheaper than anywhere else. Maybe not cheaper than China, but certainly we get is cheaper than Europe. But three, it’s also the belief that thanks to AI, we will be able to have more efficient factories. There is always that question, do Americans to still keep making clothes, for instance, in factories. That used to be the case maybe 50 years ago, but this move to China, this move to Bangladesh, this move to different places. That’s not the goal. But it can make sense that indeed there is ability, thanks to robots and AI, to have more automated factories, and these factories could be run more efficiently, and as a result, it would be priced-competitive, even if run in the US. When you want to think about it, that has been, for instance, the South Korean playbook. More automated factories, robotics, all of this, because that was the only way to compete against China, which has a near infinite or used to have a near infinite supply of cheaper labour. I think that all of this combined can make a lot of sense. In a way, it’s probably creating a perfect storm. Maybe another piece of the puzzle this administration has been working on pretty hard is simplifying all the permitting process. Because a big chunk of the problem is that if your permitting is very complex, very expensive, what take two years to build become four years, five years, 10 years. The investment mass is not the same in that situation. I think that’s a very important part of the puzzle. It’s use this opportunity to reduce regulatory state, make sure that things are more efficient. Also, things are less at risk of bribery and fraud because all these regulations, there might be ways around. I think it’s quite critical to really be careful about this. Maybe last piece of the puzzle is the way accounting works. There are new rules now in 2026 in the US where you can fully depreciate your CapEx much faster than before. That’s a big win for manufacturing in the US. Suddenly, you can depreciate much faster some of your CapEx investment in manufacturing. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Just going back to a point you made and then moving it forward, even China, with being now probably the country in the world with the highest rate of innovation and take up of industrial robots. Because of demographic issues a little bit what led Japan the first place to be one of the real big innovators around robots in general. The fact that demographics, you’re having an aging population, less and less children. How are you going to replace all these people? Moving that into big winners, who becomes a big winner in a space where manufacturing is fundamentally changing? Obviously, there’s the big four of robots, which is ABB, FANUC, KUKA, and Yaskawa. Epson, I think, is now in there, although it’s not considered one of the big four. Kawasaki, Denso, Universal Robots. There’s a really big robotics, industrial robotic companies in the space from different origins, FANUC and Yaskawa, and Epson from Japan, KUKA from Germany, ABB from Switzerland, Sweden. A lot of now emerging companies from China, and what’s happening in that space is quite interesting. On the other hand, also, other winners will include players that will be integrators that will build some of the rest of the infrastructure that goes into manufacturing, the Siemens of the world, the Schneider’s, the Rockwell’s that will lead to fundamental industrial automation. Some big winners in there that whose names are well known, so probably not a huge amount of surprises there. There’s movements. As I said, we’re still going to see the big Chinese players emerging in the world. There are startups that are innovating around a lot of the edges that are significant in this space. We’ll see if this is a space that will just be continued to be dominated by the big foreign robotics and by a couple of others and by the big integrators or not. Bertrand Schmitt I think you are right to remind about China because China has been moving very fast in robotics. Some Chinese companies are world-class in their use of robotics. You have this strange mix of some older industries where robotics might not be so much put to use and typically state-owned, versus some private companies, typically some tech companies that are reconverting into hardware in some situation. That went all in terms of robotics use and their demonstrations, an example of what’s happening in China. Definitely, the Chinese are not resting. Everyone smart enough is playing that game from the Americans, the Chinese, Japanese, the South Koreans. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Exciting things are manufacturing, and maybe to bring it all together, what does it mean for all the big players out there? If we talk with startups and talk about startups, we didn’t mention a ton of startups today, right? Maybe incumbent wind across the board. But on a more serious note, we did mention a few. For example, in nuclear energy, there’s a lot of startups that have been, some of them, incredibly well-funded at this moment in time. Wrap: what it means for startups, incumbents, and investors There might be some big disruptions that will come out of startups, for example, in that space. On the chipset side, we talked about the big gorillas, the NVIDIAs, AMDs, Intel, etc., of the world. But we didn’t quite talk about the fact that there’s a lot of innovation, again, happening on the edges with new players going after very large niches, be it in networking and switching. Be it in compute and other areas that will need different, more specialized solutions. Potentially in terms of compute or in terms of semiconductor deployments. I think there’s still some opportunities there, maybe not to be the winner takes all thing, but certainly around a lot of very significant niches that might grow very fast. Manufacturing, we mentioned the same. Some of the incumbents seem to be in the driving seat. We’ll see what happens if some startups will come in and take some of the momentum there, probably less likely. There are spaces where the value chains are very tightly built around the OEMs and then the suppliers overall, classically the tier one suppliers across value chains. Maybe there is some startup investment play. We certainly have played in the couple of the spaces. I mentioned already some of them today, but this is maybe where the incumbents have it all to lose. It’s more for them to lose rather than for the startups to win just because of the scale of what needs to be done and what needs to be deployed. Bertrand Schmitt I know. That’s interesting point. I think some players in energy production, for instance, are moving very fast and behaving not only like startups. Usually, it’s independent energy suppliers who are not kept by too much regulations that get moved faster. Utility companies, as we just discussed, have more constraints. I would like to say that if you take semiconductor space, there has been quite a lot of startup activities way more than usual, and there have been some incredible success. Just a few weeks ago, Rock got more or less acquired. Now, you have to play games. It’s not an outright acquisition, but $20 billion for an IP licensing agreement that’s close to an acquisition. That’s an incredible success for a company. Started maybe 10 years ago. You have another Cerebras, one of the competitor valued, I believe, quite a lot in similar range. I think there is definitely some activity. It’s definitely a different game compared to your software startup in terms of investment. But as we have seen with AI in general, the need for investment might be larger these days. Yes, it might be either traditional players if they can move fast enough, to be frank, because some of them, when you have decades of being run as a slow-moving company, it’s hard to change things. At the same time, it looks like VCs are getting bigger. Wall Street is getting more ready to finance some of these companies. I think there will be opportunities for startups, but definitely different types of startups in terms of profile. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Exactly. From an investor standpoint, I think on the VC side, at least our core belief is that it’s more niche. It’s more around big niches that need to be fundamentally disrupted or solutions that require fundamental interoperability and integration where the incumbents have no motivation to do it. Things that are a little bit more either packaging on the semiconductor side or other elements of actual interoperability. Even at the software layer side that feeds into infrastructure. If you’re a growth investor, a private equity investor, there’s other plays that are available to you. A lot of these projects need to be funded and need to be scaled. Now we’re seeing projects being funded even for a very large, we mentioned it in one of the previous episodes, for a very large tech companies. When Meta, for example, is going to the market to get funding for data centers, etc. There’s projects to be funded there because just the quantum and scale of some of these projects, either because of financial interest for specifically the tech companies or for other reasons, but they need to be funded by the market. There’s other place right now, certainly if you’re a larger private equity growth investor, and you want to come into the market and do projects. Even public-private financing is now available for a lot of things. Definitely, there’s a lot of things emanating that require a lot of funding, even for large-scale projects. Which means the advent of some of these projects and where realization is hopefully more of a given than in other circumstances, because there’s actual commercial capital behind it and private capital behind it to fuel it as well, not just industrial policy and money from governments. Bertrand Schmitt There was this quite incredible stat. I guess everyone heard about that incredible growth in GDP in Q3 in the US at 4.4%. Apparently, half of that growth, so around 2.2% point, has been coming from AI and related infrastructure investment. That’s pretty massive. Half of your GDP growth coming from something that was not there three years ago or there, but not at this intensity of investment. That’s the numbers we are talking about. I’m hearing that there is a good chance that in 2026, we’re talking about five, even potentially 6% GDP growth. Again, half of it potentially coming from AI and all the related infrastructure growth that’s coming with AI. As a conclusion for this episode on infrastructure, as we just said, it’s not just AI, it’s a whole stack, and it’s manufacturing in general as well. Definitely in the US, in China, there is a lot going on. As we have seen, computing needs connectivity, networks, need power, energy and grid, and all of this needs production capacity and manufacturing. Manufacturing can benefit from AI as well. That way the loop is fully going back on itself. Infrastructure is the next big thing. It’s an opportunity, probably more for incumbents, but certainly, as usual, with such big growth opportunities for startups as well. Thank you, Nuno. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Thank you, Bertrand.

Tesla is embarking on a shift in business operations, and the implications for the semiconductor industry could be significant. In this video, we examine Tesla's 2026 capital expenditure (CapEx) outlook through the lens of operating leverage.With a projected $20 billion in CapEx for 2026—not including the proposed TeraFab, Tesla is moving further away from being just an automaker and closer to becoming a vertically integrated robotics and AI powerhouse. What does this mean for current suppliers like Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Micron? We break down the risks of Tesla shoring up its own supply chain and how it could shift pricing power back away from the chipmakers.Join us on Discord with Semiconductor Insider, sign up on our website: www.chipstockinvestor.com/membershipSupercharge your analysis with AI! Get 15% of your membership with our special link here: https://fiscal.ai/csi/Sign Up For Our Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/b1228c12f284/sign-up-landing-page-short-formIf you found this video useful, please make sure to like and subscribe!*********************************************************Affiliate links that are sprinkled in throughout this video. If something catches your eye and you decide to buy it, we might earn a little coffee money. Thanks for helping us (Kasey) fuel our caffeine addiction!Content in this video is for general information or entertainment only and is not specific or individual investment advice. Forecasts and information presented may not develop as predicted and there is no guarantee any strategies presented will be successful. All investing involves risk, and you could lose some or all of your principal. #Tesla #TSLA #Semiconductors #ChipStocks #Investing #Optimus #AI #SupplyChain #FinanceEducation

In today's episode, Kip dives into the market's surprising midday volatility and the unwavering strength of the semiconductor sector, highlighting how semis and Bitcoin remain key liquidity indicators for savvy investors. Kip explores the persistent negative media narrative, contrasting it with robust jobs data and economic trends that suggest Trump's policies are fueling a genuine economic boom. We'll unpack the historic undervaluation and explosive potential of gold miners, discuss the surge in tariff revenues, and analyze what these signals mean for your portfolio. Plus, Kip addresses AI's impact on industries, dispelling myths about job destruction and predicting an exciting wave of innovation that could create new industries and extend lifespans. Tune into today's podcast to learn more.

Daniel Lam discusses the sharp underperformance of software stocks, especially vs. semiconductors, what are our thoughts and implications for investors.Speaker: - Daniel Lam, Head of Equity Strategy, Standard Chartered BankFor more of our latest market insights, visit Market views on-the-go or subscribe to Standard Chartered Wealth Insights on YouTube.

In this episode, Ben and Jay discuss the significant surge in capital expenditure (CapEx) among major tech companies, dubbed 'CapEx Palooza.' They explore investor sentiment and market reactions to these expenditures, the implications of backlogs and demand in the tech sector, and the future of AI and cloud services. The conversation also delves into the dynamics of CapEx spending among hyperscalers, emerging trends in semiconductor mergers and acquisitions, and the impact of rising memory prices on consumer electronics. Additionally, they highlight the strategic acquisition of Silicon Labs by Texas Instruments and the potential of timing technologies in the market. The episode concludes with an announcement about their upcoming live stream.

The McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2025 highlights 13 transformative technology trends impacting global business. Artificial intelligence serves as a foundational amplifier for other technologies, enhancing robotics, bioengineering, and energy systems. Agentic AI is emerging, creating virtual coworkers that autonomously plan and execute workflows. Semiconductor innovations are responding to increased AI demands, leading to new products and ecosystems. Quantum technologies offer potential in cryptography and material science. Autonomous systems and human-machine collaboration are advancing, emphasizing the need for responsible innovation. Investment in frontier technologies has stabilized and rebounded, with cloud computing and bioengineering seeing increased equity investment.Learn more on this news by visiting us at: https://greyjournal.net/news/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chuck Eesley, a professor of management science and engineering, studies entrepreneurship across diverse contexts – from refugee entrepreneurs in Uganda to semiconductor startups navigating U.S.-China economic policy. His research on recent export controls revealed a counterintuitive outcome: Rather than solely strengthening U.S. semiconductor innovation, these policies accelerated Chinese investment in its own domestic chip industry, boosting startups there as much as – or more than – here. This finding underscores how global technology markets are deeply interconnected: Barriers can produce unintended consequences that accelerate innovation abroad rather than protecting it at home. Open technology trade and investment create larger markets for American innovations, strengthen collaborative partnerships, and demonstrate that interconnected markets drive progress for all participants. “Entrepreneurial talent exists everywhere,” Eesley tells host Russ Altman on this episode of Stanford Engineering's The Future of Everything podcast.Have a question for Russ? Send it our way in writing or via voice memo, and it might be featured on an upcoming episode. Please introduce yourself, let us know where you're listening from, and share your question. You can send questions to thefutureofeverything@stanford.edu.Episode Reference Links:Stanford Profile: Charles (Chuck) EesleyConnect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>> Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / FacebookChapters:(00:00:00) IntroductionRuss Altman introduces guest Chuck Eesley, a professor of management and engineering at Stanford University.(00:03:04) Why Study Entrepreneurship?Chuck explains why entrepreneurs are drivers of modern economic growth.(00:03:30) Defining EntrepreneurshipBroad vs. narrow entrepreneurship, from startups to large organizations.(00:04:33) Institutional EnvironmentsHow policies and culture both shape entrepreneurial outcomes.(00:05:44) Studying Institutions & EntrepreneurshipMeasuring ​institutional shifts to isolate entrepreneurial outcomes.(00:08:12) Founder & Talent IncentivesWhat's needed for high-opportunity-cost talent to start companies.(00:09:36) AI EntrepreneurshipThe impact of data and compute concentration on startup dynamism.(00:11:28) Designing AI RegulationHistorical examples of regulation enabling startups to compete fairly.(00:13:43) Incentives Inside Big TechWhy some incumbents support startups while others tilt the playing field.(00:15:28) Ad Placement & Misinformation FundingHow digital advertising can unintentionally fund low-credibility content.(00:21:24) Misinformation Market SolutionThe disclosure mechanisms that may reduce misinformation incentives.(00:25:23) Semiconductors & EntrepreneurshipThe importance of startups in a field often dominated by large incumbents.(00:29:30) Unintended Policy EffectsHow U.S. policy may be accelerating Chinese semiconductor investments.(00:31:09) Competing Industrial PoliciesWhy evaluation and iteration are essential for effective policy design.(00:32:31) Global EntrepreneurshipEmerging entrepreneurship models spreading across regions and contexts.(00:36:26) The Universal Entrepreneurial MindsetShared entrepreneurial traits across cultures, contexts, and countries.(00:37:14) Future In a MinuteRapid-fire Q&A: democratizing entrepreneurship, context, and equitable inclusivity.(00:41:02) Conclusion Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Dylan Patel (SemiAnalysis) joins Matt Turck for a deep dive into the AI chip wars — why NVIDIA is shifting from a “one chip can do it all” worldview to a portfolio strategy, how inference is getting specialized, and what that means for CUDA, AMD, and the next wave of specialized silicon startups.Then we take the fun tangents: why China is effectively “semiconductor pilled,” how provinces push domestic chips, what Huawei means as a long-term threat vector, and why so much “AI is killing the grid / AI is drinking all the water” discourse misses the point.We also tackle the big macro question: capex bubble or inevitable buildout? Dylan's view is that the entire answer hinges on one variable—continued model progress—and we unpack the second-order effects across data centers, power, and the circular-looking financings (CoreWeave/Oracle/backstops).Dylan PatelLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanpatelsa/X/Twitter - https://x.com/dylan522pSemiAnalysisWebsite - https://semianalysis.comX/Twitter - https://x.com/SemiAnalysis_Matt Turck (Managing Director)Blog - https://mattturck.comLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/turck/X/Twitter - https://twitter.com/mattturckFirstMarkWebsite - https://firstmark.comX/Twitter - https://twitter.com/FirstMarkCap(00:00) - Intro(01:16) - Nvidia acquires Groq: A pivot to specialization(07:09) - Why AI models might need "wide" compute, not just fast(10:06) - Is the CUDA moat dead? (Open source vs. Nvidia)(17:49) - The startup landscape: Etched, Cerebras, and 1% odds(22:51) - Geopolitics: China's "semiconductor-pilled" culture(35:46) - Huawei's vertical integration is terrifying(39:28) - The $100B AI revenue reality check(41:12) - US Onshoring: Why total self-sufficiency is a fantasy(44:55) - Can the US actually build fabs? (The delay problem)(48:33) - The CapEx Bubble: Is $500B spending irrational?(54:53) - Energy Crisis: Why gas turbines will power AI, not nuclear(57:06) - The "AI uses all the water" myth (Hamburger comparison)(1:03:40) - Circular Debt? Debunking the Nvidia-CoreWeave risk(1:07:24) - Claude Code & the software singularity(1:10:23) - The death of the Junior Analyst role(1:11:14) - Model predictions: Opus 4.5 and the RL gap(1:14:37) - San Francisco Lore: Roommates (Dwarkesh Patel & Sholto Douglas)

This episode of The Circuit dives into the current "gold rush" of semiconductor earnings, navigating the tension between unprecedented demand and the hard physical constraints of the supply chain. Hosts Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg explore why the current Wafer Fab Equipment (WFE) cycle is structurally different from the past, the internal "compute wars" happening within hyperscalers like Microsoft and Meta, and the surprising volatility in the storage and analog markets.Whether it's the "AI hotel" backlog or the high-stakes memory negotiations at Apple, this discussion provides a deep look at the plumbing behind the AI revolution.

In this episode of SparX, we speak with Neelkanth Mishra one of the leading voices of India Semiconductor Mission. He talks about India's semiconductor journey from the origins of the Semiconductor Mission to the realities of execution and global competition.He breakdown how the semiconductor ecosystem works, why entry barriers are so high, and what India's roadmap looks like today. The conversation also explores Micron's entry into India, early implementation learnings, India's geopolitical advantage, and the question of whether the country can truly challenge global leaders like NVIDIA.If you're looking for a clear, grounded understanding of India's semiconductor ambitions beyond the headlines, this SparX conversation offers context, realism, and long-term perspective.0:00 – 1:42 Introduction1:43 – 3:34 Neelkanth's journey in Semiconductors 3:35 – 11:46 India's Semiconductor Mission11:47 – 14:44 Semiconductor Manufacturing Process14:45 – 17:44 Objective of Semiconductor Mission17:45 – 18:50 Early days of Semiconductor Mission implementation18:51 – 21:08 Entry of Micron in India21:09 – 26:30 Early Implementation Challenges26:31 – 30:34 First Implementation Results30:35 – 32:28 Current State Global Semiconductor Industry32:29 – 35:41 India's Semiconductor Roadmap35:42 – 37:41 Entry Barriers in Semiconductor Industry37:42 – 41:09 India's Geopolitical Advantage41:10 – 44:10 India's Emerging Companies44:11 – 47:50 Can India Challenge NVIDIA?47:51 – 51:56 Why India Can't Be Aatmanirbhar51:57– 52:46 Outro

Disease accelerates years in a month. Cancer cells reveal which patients might be most impacted by metastasis - a diagnosis invisible on Earth. Single crystals heal themselves through mechanisms we can't explain. These aren't projections. They're validated results from 2022-2025 that made 40-year NASA veterans say they'd never seen anything like it.The economics flipped. Merck flew Keytruda 30 days, discovered a crystal form missed in a decade of labs - $20B/year by 2030, exceeding SpaceX's entire revenue. The thesis: Two paths to space affordability: cut launch costs 10x AND multiply payload value 1,000x. Do what Earth cannot do at any price.Paradigm Shifts:

A poorly designed and destined to backfire tariff has just been announced; this time, the Trump administration has turned its focus to high-end semiconductors.Join the Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/PeterZeihanFull Newsletter: https://bit.ly/4b7HKA4

In this episode, Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg discuss Intel's recent earnings report, highlighting the company's strong Q4 performance but disappointing guidance due to wafer capacity constraints. They explore the challenges Intel faces in scaling its foundry operations, the market's reaction to the earnings call, and the strategic decisions being made by Intel's leadership. The conversation also delves into the complexities of advanced packaging and yield issues, as well as the future opportunities for Intel in the semiconductor industry and the importance of customer relations.

【欢迎订阅】每天早上5:30，准时更新。【阅读原文】标题：Steam, Steel, and Infinite Minds —— by Ivan Zhao正文：Every era is shaped by its miracle material. Steel forged the Gilded Age. Semiconductors switched on the Digital Age. Now AI has arrived as infinite minds. If history teaches us anything, those who master the material define the era.知识点：infinite adj. /ˈɪnfɪnət/having no limit or end. 无限的e.g. A parent's patience sometimes feels infinite, but it can be tested by a toddler's tantrums. 父母的耐心有时感觉是无限的，但也可能被幼儿的脾气所考验。获取外刊的完整原文以及精讲笔记，请关注微信公众号「早安英文」，回复“外刊”即可。更多有意思的英语干货等着你！【节目介绍】《早安英文-每日外刊精读》，带你精读最新外刊，了解国际最热事件：分析语法结构，拆解长难句，最接地气的翻译，还有重点词汇讲解。所有选题均来自于《经济学人》《纽约时报》《华尔街日报》《华盛顿邮报》《大西洋月刊》《科学杂志》《国家地理》等国际一线外刊。【适合谁听】1、关注时事热点新闻，想要学习最新最潮流英文表达的英文学习者2、任何想通过地道英文提高听、说、读、写能力的英文学习者3、想快速掌握表达，有出国学习和旅游计划的英语爱好者4、参加各类英语考试的应试者（如大学英语四六级、托福雅思、考研等）【你将获得】1、超过1000篇外刊精读课程，拓展丰富语言表达和文化背景2、逐词、逐句精确讲解，系统掌握英语词汇、听力、阅读和语法3、每期内附学习笔记，包含全文注释、长难句解析、疑难语法点等，帮助扫除阅读障碍。

In this episode of Lead-Lag Live, I sit down with Hervé Van Caloen**, Owner and Portfolio Manager at **Mercator Investment Management, to break down why global markets outside the United States are entering a powerful new phase of leadership.From Japan's aggressive stimulus and corporate reform push to structural dominance in semiconductors, defense technology, space, and energy infrastructure, Van Caloen explains how capital is rotating toward regions and industries aligned with long-term geopolitical and economic realities.In this episode:– Why Japan's stock market continues to hit record highs– How semiconductors have become global oligopolies with pricing power– Why defense and space spending are entering a multi-year upcycle– How infrastructure and electricity demand are driven by AI growth– Why global diversification may matter more as U.S. valuations stretchLead-Lag Live brings you inside conversations with the financial thinkers who shape markets. Subscribe for interviews that go deeper than the noise.Start your adventure with TableTalk Friday: A D&D Podcast at the link below or wherever you get your podcasts!Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgB6B-mAeWlPM9KzGJ2O4cU0-m5lO0lkr&si=W_-jLsiREjyAIgEsSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/75YJ921WGQqUtwxRT71UQB?si=4R6kaAYOTtO2V Support the show

Chips are the new oil. And that's not just a catchy line, it's the lens through which national security, supply chain strategy, and trillion-dollar investments are being made right now. With a hundred-plus fabs going up globally and the industry sprinting toward a trillion dollars by 2032, the semiconductor boom isn't coming. It's here.This episode comes to you from SEMICON West 2025 in Phoenix, with guests joining from HARTING Technology Group and Rockwell Automation. Jeffrey Miller and Danielle Collins kick things off with a semiconductor primer for folks who aren't living and breathing this space every day. Danielle's been in the industry since her first SEMICON in 1999, seen the shift from 200 to 300-millimeter wafers, and watched manufacturing go local while R&D went global.Anuj Mahendru joins Chris on the show floor to dig into the challenges facing legacy and digital fabs, from worker productivity and material movement challenges to why copy exact is finally loosening its grip on this industry. This is part one of a two-part semiconductor series, so stay tuned for the bonus episode dropping right after this one.In this episode, find out:Why chips have become a national security priority on par with oilWhat's driving the trillion-dollar march toward 2032How legacy fabs are solving material movement problems they didn't planned forWhy the semiconductor industry was doing AI long before it was a buzzwordWhat equipment manufacturers mean by "do more with less"Why copy exact is starting to crack post-COVIDHow sustainability shifted from compliance checkbox to business imperativeWhat it takes to become a trusted partner in an industry that's famously risk-averseEnjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It's feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going!Tweetable Quotes:“Manufacturing is being localized, while R&D is being globalized. R&D has moved from being concentrated in Northern California and the Boston area to regions like India, Asia and Japan.” - Danielle Collins“The semiconductor industry is defined by data economics, and it's the currency of conversations. Successful partners that will lead the way will be companies who can speak the language of operational data.” - Jeffrey Miller“Before semiconductor and chips, it was oil. Now chips have become the new oil. After and during COVID, the world came to the realization that there needs to be resiliency of the supply chain. From a geopolitical standpoint people see semiconductors at the front end of national security and self-sufficiency.” - Anuj MahendruLinks & mentions:HARTING Technology Group, a leading global provider of industrial connectivity solutions enabling the transmission of...

In this episode of The Circuit, Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg discuss the launch of Ben's new publication, "The Diligent Stack." The duo then performs a deep dive into TSMC's recent earnings, analyzing the risks of semiconductor cyclicality, the massive CapEx requirements for the future, and the specific bottlenecks in advanced packaging (CoWoS). Later, they shift focus to OpenAI's partnership with Cerebras and the introduction of ads to fund massive compute needs. Finally, they break down the latest data on GPU pricing, highlighting the significant premiums hyperscalers charge compared to NeoClouds and the difficulty of tracking pricing for Nvidia's new Grace Blackwell chips.

Welcome back to the Investor Professor Podcast— In Episode 180, we kick off 2026 with a market that's already moving fast and giving investors zero time to catch their breath. The major indexes are positive to start the year, but the “Magnificent Seven” have stumbled out of the gate, hinting at a possible broadening in market leadership. From Venezuela and oil headlines, to sudden shifts in defense stocks, to a proposed credit card interest cap shaking financial names like Capital One and American Express, the theme of this episode is clear: don't let breaking news whip you into impulsive portfolio decisions. Headlines can move stocks quickly—but those moves can fade just as fast if the underlying fundamentals haven't truly changed. We also dig into the current state of the AI trade and earnings season, highlighted by a strong Taiwan Semiconductor report that helped reignite confidence across the chip and AI ecosystem. With banks reporting solid results and tech earnings ramping up, the focus turns to forward guidance and what companies are seeing for 2026—especially as political risk continues to rise and markets remain sensitive to sudden policy shifts. Even with all the noise, the bigger message remains steady: build a portfolio you believe in, own companies you understand, and stay committed through volatility—because markets can climb a wall of worry, but only disciplined investors benefit from it. *This podcast contains general information that may not be suitable for everyone. The information contained herein should not be construed as personalized investment advice. There is no guarantee that the views and opinions expressed in this podcast will come to pass. Investing in the stock market involves gains and losses and may not be suitable for all investors. Information presented herein is subject to change without notice and should not be considered as a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Rydar Equities, Inc. does not offer legal or tax advice. Please consult the appropriate professional regarding your individual circumstance.  Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Today, our hosts discuss the Spin Semiconductor FV-1, the chip at the heart of many digital pedals from the boutique pedal boom. They talk about what makes it special, both in strengths and weaknesses, and how key it was to Dan's arc as a pedal creator. Listen, enjoy, and ask yourself: is this really cool pedal made with an FV-1?Buy yourself some OBNE: http://www.oldbloodnoise.comJoin the conversation in Discord: https://discord.com/invite/PhpA5MbN5uFollow us all on the socials: @danfromdsf, @andyothling, @oldbloodnoiseSubscribe to OBNE on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/oldbloodnoiseSubscribe to Andy's Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/powereconomyLeave us a voicemail at 505-633-4647!

We talk Taiwan and the US finalizing a trade deal, questions over the special defense budget, and plans to create a 'smoke-free city' in Taipei. -- Hosting provided by SoundOn

-The US Department of Commerce announced that Taiwanese businesses will make an upfront investment of at least $250 billion into their US production capacity. -Live Now is included as part of Bluesky's latest update, alongside "cashtags," a separate type of hashtag for collecting conversations about publicly-traded companies. -The Netflix/Sony deal expands on the exclusive rights the companies have in the US, and means the service will be the first place people will be able to stream upcoming projects. Sony's films will stream worldwide on Netflix in what's called "Pay-1," the first window of availability after a movie's theatrical and VOD releases. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Semiconductors are back in the spotlight. In today's episode, we break down the latest trade deal with Taiwan and what it could mean for the global technology supply chain, chipmakers, and broader market leadership. Is this deal a tailwind for Big Tech—or does it introduce new risks traders need to price in? We'll also shift gears to the surging silver market, unpacking the key forces driving prices higher—from macro flows to industrial demand—and discuss whether those drivers have staying power or are setting up a near-term fade. If you trade tech, commodities, or macro themes, this episode connects the dots. Listen now:

The market is mispricing the human brain. Some Investors view Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) and other neurotech as the next iteration of the medical device, a slightly better stent or a more advanced catheter. This is a category error. As Matt Angle (Paradromics) and Connor Glass (Phantom Neuro) articulate its not a product, its the next modem.The parallel is the internet in 1993. We are moving from a low-bandwidth, text-based era of biology into a streaming, high-fidelity era. This shift requires a convergence of disciplines, Material science, analog engineering, and machine learning, mirroring the semiconductor boom of the 1960s. Austin, with its unique trinity of industrial scale, software speed, and risk-tolerance, has emerged as the global command center for this revolutionThe Agenda:0:00 - Intro 02:48 - Electrical Input and Output of the Body 08:13 - Navigating the Valley of Death via DARPA 16:54 - Moral Hazard of Regulatory Caution 23:45 - BCI as the Next Internet 37:51 - Capital Stack and the Platform Shift 50:31 - Declaring Austin the Global Neurotech Capital 55:23 - Convergence of Semiconductor DisciplinesGuest LinksMatt Angle: LinkedIn, Paradromics (Website, X, LinkedIn)Connor Glass: LinkedIn, Phantom Neuro (Website, X, LinkedIn) -------------------Austin Next Links: Website, X/Twitter, YouTube, LinkedInEcosystem Metacognition Substack

In this episode, Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg discuss the highlights from CES 2023, focusing on the significant advancements in robotics, AI infrastructure, and the competitive landscape among major tech companies like NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel. They explore the themes of modularity in data centers, the evolving role of CPUs, and the challenges posed by memory supply constraints. The conversation also touches on the future of autonomous vehicles and the integration of AI in everyday technology, emphasizing the rapid pace of innovation in the tech industry.

Derek Moore is joined by Shane Skinner and Mike Snyder to talk about whether higher valuations are warranted based on rising profit margins. Then, they think about whether the upcoming Supreme Court ruling on tariffs matters for the market. Later, they discussed Google passing Apple for the #2 highest valued company in the S&P 500 Index, midterm election years performance vs other years, regression channels in the S&P 500 Index, payroll numbers, interest rates, and even copper prices.   Midterm year performance vs other presidential cycle years Supreme Court Ruling on Tariffs and what it means for markets Copper prices are about to break out or break down? Fed interest rates saying no cuts until after Powell leaves? Semiconductor earnings estimates vs the S&P 500 Index as a whole Polymarket sees only a 25% chance tariffs are upheld Google (Alphabet) surpasses Apple to be world #2 behind Nvidia Three-Month payroll contraction on nonfarm payrolls Talking technical analysis with regression channels on the SPX Free cash flow margins tech vs the rest Valuation forward pe ration adjusted for net profit margins S&P 500 companies' real revenue per worker highest going back to 1986 S&P 500 quarter EPS growth estimates Y/Y % change   Mentioned in this Episode   Derek Moore's book Broken Pie Chart https://amzn.to/3S8ADNT   Jay Pestrichelli's book Buy and Hedge https://amzn.to/3jQYgMt   Derek's book on public speaking Effortless Public Speaking https://amzn.to/3hL1Mag   Contact Derek derek.moore@zegainvestments.com  

David Faber and Sara Eisen discussed precious metals rebounding from Monday's sell-off — which resulted in the worst day for silver in almost five years. AI in the spotlight: Sources told David that SoftBank has completed its $40 billion investment commitment to OpenAI. Meta has agreed to acquire Singapore-based AI startup Manus. The anchors reacted to President Trump's harsh words for Fed Chair Powell. 2026 outlook: Semiconductors and the AI trade, commercial real estate, media and the battle for Warner Bros. Squawk on the Street Disclaimer Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Let's talk about Trump semiconductor tariffs and the reshoring fantasy....

Across the country, data centers that run A.I. programs are being constructed at a record pace. A large percentage of them use chips built by the tech colossus Nvidia. The company has nearly cornered the market on the hardware that runs much of A.I., and has been named the most valuable company in the world, by market capitalization. But Nvidia's is not just a business story; it's a story about the geopolitical and technological competition between the United States and China, about what the future will look like. In April, David Remnick spoke with Stephen Witt, who writes about technology for The New Yorker, about how Nvidia came to dominate the market, and about its co-founder and C.E.O., Jensen Huang.  Witt's book “The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World's Most Coveted Microchip” came out this year.   This segment originally aired on April 4, 2025.New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians.

Original Release Date: November 19, 2025Our CIO and Chief U.S. Equity Strategist Mike Wilson explains why he continues to hold on to an out-of-consensus view of a growth positive 2026, despite near-term risks.Read more insights from Morgan Stanley.----- Transcript -----Welcome to Thoughts on the Market. I'm Mike Wilson, Morgan Stanley's CIO and Chief U.S. Equity Strategist. Today I'll discuss our outlook for 2026 that we published earlier this week. It's Wednesday, Nov 19th at 6:30 am in New York. So, let's get after it. 2026 is a continuation of the story we have been telling for the past year. Looking back to a year ago, our U.S. equity outlook was for a challenging first half, followed by a strong second half. At the time of publication, this was an out of consensus stance. Many expected a strong first half, as President Trump took office for his second term. And then a more challenging second half due to the return of inflation. We based our differentiated view on the notion that policy sequencing in the new Trump administration would intentionally be growth negative to start. We likened the strategy to a new CEO choosing to ‘kitchen sink' the results in an effort to clear the decks for a new growth positive strategy. We thought that transition would come around mid-year. The U.S. economy had much less slack when President Trump took office the second time, compared to the first time he came into office. And this was the main reason we thought it was likely to be sequenced differently. Earnings revisions breadth and other cyclical indicators were also in a phase of deceleration at the end of 2024. In contrast, at the beginning of 2017—when we were out of consensus bullish—earnings revisions breadth and many cyclical gauges were starting to reaccelerate after the manufacturing and commodity downturn of 2015/2016. Looking back on this year, this cadence of policy sequencing did broadly play out—it just happened faster and more dramatically than we expected. Our views on the policy front still appear to be out of consensus. Many industry watchers are questioning whether policies enacted this year will ultimately lead to better growth going forward, especially for the average stock. From our perspective, the policy choices being made are growth positive for 2026 and are largely in line with our ‘run it hot' thesis. There's another factor embedded in our more constructive take. April marked the end of a rolling recession that began three years prior. The final stages were a recession in government thanks to DOGE, a rate of change trough in expectations around AI CapEx growth and trade policy, and a recession in consumer services that is still ongoing. In short, we believe a new bull market and rolling recovery began in April which means it's still early days, and not obvious—especially for many lagging parts of the economy and market. That is the opportunity. The missing ingredient for the typical broadening in stock performance that happens in a new business cycle is rate cuts. Normally, the Fed would have cut rates more in this type of weakening labor market. But due to the imbalances and distortions of the COVID cycle, we think the Fed is later than normal in easing policy, and that has held back the full rotation toward early cycle winners. Ironically, the government shutdown has weakened the economy further, but has also delayed Fed action due to the lack of labor data releases. This is a near-term risk to our bullish 12-month forecasts should delays in the data continue, or lagging labor releases do not corroborate the recent weakness in non-govt-related jobs data. In our view, this type of labor market weakness coupled with the administration's desire to ‘run it hot' means that, ultimately, the Fed is likely to deliver more dovish policy than the market currently expects. It's really just a question of timing. But that is a near-term risk for equity markets and why many stocks have been weaker recently. In short, we believe a new bull market began in April with the end of a rolling recession and bear market. Remember the S&P [500] was down 20 percent and the average S&P stock was down more than 30 percent into April. This narrative remains underappreciated, and we think there is significant upside in earnings over the next year as the recovery broadens and operating leverage returns with better volumes and pricing in many parts of the economy. Our forecasts reflect this upside to earnings which is another reason why many stocks are not as expensive as they appear despite our acknowledgement that some areas of the market may appear somewhat frothy. For the S&P 500, our 12-month target is now 7800 which assumes 17 percent earnings growth next year and a very modest contraction in valuation from today's levels. Our favorite sectors include Financials, Industrials, and Healthcare. We are also upgrading Consumer Discretionary to overweight and prefer Goods over Services for the first time since 2021. Another relative trade we like is Software over Semiconductors given the extreme relative underperformance of that pair and positioning at this point. Finally, we like small caps over large for the first time since March 2021, as the early cycle broadening in earnings combined with a more accommodative Fed provides the backdrop we have been patiently waiting for. We hope you enjoy our detailed report published earlier this week and find it helpful as you navigate a changing marketplace on many levels. Thanks for tuning in. Let us know what you think by leaving us a review. And if you find Thoughts on the Market worthwhile, tell a friend or colleague to try it out!

David Shedd outlines strategies to counter Chinese espionage, advocating for "partial decoupling" to protect critical technologies like semiconductors and AI. He argues for modernizing legal deterrence to prosecute theft effectively and warns that Chinese platforms like DeepSeek harvest user data to advance their "Great Heist" of American wealth. 1950 RED ARMY