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One of the more recent tour deforces in the semiconductor industry today is the analyst firm SemiAnalysis, headed up by CEO Dylan Patel and a team of around 50 employees all aimed at providing reports and models for the AI ecosystem - everything from datacenter build-out to supply-chain economics and deployments. The firm is relatively new on the stage, but quickly gained significant notoriety for its in-depth analysis and strong opinions, that over time was backed by substantial research. The substack for SemiAnalysis is the front facing part of the business, but the $50m+* revenue the company pulls in is mostly from selling its quarterly industry reports and other data features such as its InferenceX benchmarking and rating system for AI companies and datacenters. It’s at a point where Dylan and SemiAnalysis are referenced directly in NVIDIA keynotes and by people like Jim Cramer.
*This number has big error bars. I’ve tried to extrapolate it from data I once knew was correct…
The reason I’m writing this post today is because of a filing made in San Francisco County’s Superior Court. Former employee Wei Zhou is suing SemiAnalysis for, among other things, breach of contract and wrongful termination.
This seems plausible to me (Dylan/co taking shortcuts):
Zhou’s filing against SemiAnalysis boils down to the fact that when given material non-public information (MNPI) and told to incorporate it into the SemiAnalysis models that were then sold to clients (financial and in the semi industry), he refused to do so on the understanding it would break several laws. Zhou claims that as a retaliatory measure, Dylan/SemiAnalysis promptly fired him from the business, removing all access. To make matters worse, the MNPI was related to a $50m investment vehicle that Dylan Patel was in charge of personally, and Zhou highlighted that SemiAnalysis team members worked on this were doing so in company time. Zhou highlights that SemiAnalysis President, Doug O’Laughlin, had duties to stop the use of MNPI, but claims he was too busy fundraising for Patel’s investment vehicle.
..
But the defense statement is interesting (posted by Dylan):
In January 2026, SemiAnalysis terminated an employee due to severe misconduct. The former employee demeaned coworkers, came to work drunk, refused to work with certain SemiAnalysis employees, caused repeated workplace disruptions, made an inappropriate sexual comment to a coworker referencing another Company employee by name in a demeaning and sexually explicit manner, and engaged in other misconduct.
