We are in the midst of a number of cross currents buffeting the industry. The Korea risk seems to have escalated again and our government has thrown fuel on the fire by threatening trade agreements at the most inopportune timing possible. However we are also a week away from the roll out of one of the most anticipated Iphones ever which… Read More
Tag: semiconductor advisors
Foundry is Majority of KLAC Business!
As we had projected, with KLA having the highest exposure to foundry/logic of any tool company, they are seeing the most near term strength as foundries (read that as TSMC) spend big for 10NM and 7NM. In addition the first tools you buy are yield management/metrology tools which KLA is the king of.
KLA put up numbers well above estimates….Generating… Read More
DOJ takes victory Lap in KLAC / LRCX deal post mortem (3 of 3)
The KLA deal died due to fox guarding the hen house.
Fox can’t guard Hen House…
In an industry where there are relatively few widget makers and only one, very dominant, widget inspector, the thought of one of the widget makers buying the most crucial widget inspector obviously would be anti-competitive. Not only would… Read More
Diversity of chip segments had tempered downturns but no more?
* The Current Downturn is more Broadly Based…
* Back to the “bad old days” of Lemmings off a cliff???
* Its not just a Foundry thing…
* All corners of the chip industry are impacted!!!… Read More
Samsung to cut Semi Capex 20% due to over capacity
Article confirms market fears…
An article in the Korea Times cites sources that say Samsung will cut Semi Capex by 20% due to current oversupply and weak pricing. This is obviously a huge negative as Capex for 2016 will certainly be down significantly from 2015 given these cuts which follow on cuts by Intel and others. We can… Read More
Apple’s Implications for Semiconductor
Apple’s iPhone 6 alone represents at least 50K wafer starts/month plus the iPad (A8X). What could the Iphone 6S/7 & A9 mean? What about the iWatch? Apple is the technology and volume driver of the semiconductor industry so lets take a look at the broader implications.
If we do the math the A8 is 89mm2 and 8.47 X 10.5mm. Using… Read More