Episode 27: Industry Cyclicality On Display in Big Semi Co. Earnings

The Circuit · 3 Aug 2023 · 39m · Episode 29

What this episode covers

Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg analyze the recent earnings of Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm, highlighting a broad semiconductor downturn driven by cyclical weakness in PCs and smartphones, while noting that AI spending is currently concentrated almost exclusively in NVIDIA's data center business. They discuss how the smartphone market has shrunk due to extended upgrade cycles and how the PC market remains depressed despite inventory clearance, with value increasingly accruing to Apple. The hosts debate whether on-device AI capabilities, specifically NPUs in chips from Qualcomm and AMD, will create compelling consumer use cases that kickstart a new hardware refresh cycle in 2024, or if the industry will remain in a holding pattern until software use cases mature.

Mentioned

Companies
Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, NVIDIA, Apple, Media Tek, Microsoft, Amazon
Products
Snapdragon, H100, MI300, Grace Hopper, Mellanox, M Series, PCX

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