Chips -- November 18, 2021

Overview of the top five foundry companies: link here, October 1, 2021.

• TSMC
• Phoenix announcement; expansion; investment with this announcement: $40 billion
  
• update: March 25, 2022; 
• Samsung
• United Microelectronics Corporation (Taiwan) (UMC)
• Global Foundries
• China's Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC)

EVs -- tracked here. EVs need three basic components:

• hardware manufacturer; assembly line; huge facility;
• chips, semiconductor: outsourced to foundries
• software development: in-house, outsourced, combination

Foundries vs Designers

ASML: link here.

Foundries:

• INTC
• Samsung
  
• TSMC (wiki here)
• GlobalFoundries (wiki here)
•  long history; fourth largest in 2021
• IPO: October, 2021 
• at this site, only four foundries as noted above (Intel, Samsun, TSM, Global)
  

The "chip" companies of interest:

• Nvidia: best "chip" company -- Jim Cramer
• architecture history;
  
• on 13 September 2020, it was announced that Nvidia would buy Arm from SoftBank for $40 billion, subject to regulatory approval, with the latter acquiring a 10% share in Nvidia [Later: the deal never went through.]
  
• more and more, the tea leaves suggest this deal will not go through; US DOJ will fight this; [Later: the deal never went through.]
• tea leaves: it doesn't matter; in fact over time, it might be better for Nvidia not to buy Arm, Ltd, except to prevent some other chip company from buying it
  
• Arm, Ltd: owned by SoftBank Group
• wiki: SoftbankGroup
• wiki: Arm, Ltd
  
• AMD
• had planned to close on XLNX by end of CY21
• looking more and more likely that could be delayed 
• was completed; no more XLNX; shortly after deal closed, semiconductor market collapsed; still beat down in earl 2023, with little sign of early rebound;
  
• XLNX
• see AMD
  
• Qualcomm
• the break from Apple, when first announced, shocked the community
• November, 2021: after recovering, set all-time highs 
• January, 2023: both Broadcom and Qualcom downgraded with news that Apple reiterates goal to separate ties with AVGO and QCOM.
  
• AAPL
• tracked here;
• with introduction of the "Silicon" chip, AAPL became a "chip" company
• some day it's possible AAPL will be valued like a "chip" company
  
• INTC: across the board, most feel this company has significant challenges

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