# Episode 111: Talking Chips and Wafers with Chips and Wafers

- Show: [The Circuit](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-circuit)
- Published: 2025-03-31
- Length: 55m
- Episode: 112
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-circuit/2025-03-31-episode-111-talking-chips-and-wafers-with-chips-and-wafers
- Listen: https://share.transistor.fm/s/b7cd0df6

## Summary

Simi Sherman and Chaim Eisenberg, founders of the semiconductor data analytics firm Chips and Wafers, explain how they aggregate granular, timely data to help investors predict company performance and industry trends. They discuss specific methodologies, such as tracking memory IC exports from Korea to Taiwan to model TSMC's CoWoS capacity, and using Besi's Malaysia-to-China shipments to forecast quarterly misses. The conversation also covers the industry's shift from monolithic SoCs to disaggregated chiplets, highlighting the increasing complexity and cost of ABF substrates and the rising importance of backend packaging.

## Chapters

- [0:06](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-circuit/2025-03-31-episode-111-talking-chips-and-wafers-with-chips-and-wafers#t=6) Introduction and Background
- [5:09](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-circuit/2025-03-31-episode-111-talking-chips-and-wafers-with-chips-and-wafers#t=309) The Need for Granular Data
- [14:47](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-circuit/2025-03-31-episode-111-talking-chips-and-wafers-with-chips-and-wafers#t=887) Tracking CoWoS and ASICs
- [28:48](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-circuit/2025-03-31-episode-111-talking-chips-and-wafers-with-chips-and-wafers#t=1728) Predictive Signals: The Besi Example
- [34:19](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-circuit/2025-03-31-episode-111-talking-chips-and-wafers-with-chips-and-wafers#t=2059) NVIDIA, Chiplets, and Substrates
- [44:33](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-circuit/2025-03-31-episode-111-talking-chips-and-wafers-with-chips-and-wafers#t=2673) The Shift to Backend Packaging
- [49:09](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-circuit/2025-03-31-episode-111-talking-chips-and-wafers-with-chips-and-wafers#t=2949) Chips and Wafers Product Offering

## Topics

- [Sourcing & supply chain](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/sourcing-and-supply-chain)
- [Chips, FPGAs & semiconductors](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/chips-and-fpgas)
- [Pricing, margins & unit economics](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/pricing-and-unit-economics)
- [Manufacturing partners & offshoring](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/manufacturing-partners)
- [Validation & product-market fit](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/validation-and-product-market-fit)

## Most relevant to

early-stage companies

## Mentioned

- Chips and Wafers (company)
- TSMC (company)
- NVIDIA (company)
- Broadcom (company)
- Alchip (company)
- Besi (company)
- Kulicke and Soffa (company)
- ABF Substrate (material)
- Ibiden (company)
- Shinko (company)
- AT&S (company)
- Unimicron (company)
- Intel (company)
- AMD (company)
- Hynix (company)
- Micron (company)
- Samsung (company)
- ASML (company)
- Applied Materials (company)
- Lam Research (company)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [322: Learn Assembly Code](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2020-02-28-322-learn-assembly-code) (Embedded.fm)
- [Building wafer.space with Tim Ansell](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2025-09-25-building-wafer-space-with-tim-ansell) (The Amp Hour)
- [Histogrammic or Histomagraphical](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2022-02-21-histogrammic-or-histomagraphical) (The Amp Hour)
- [Bonkers Birthday Badinage](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2012-06-18-bonkers-birthday-badinage) (The Amp Hour)
- [ON Semi’s Acquisition | TSMC’s Finer Nodes | Tesla’s AI Chip | China’s Fabless Companies](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/ee-times-current/2019-04-26-on-semis-acquisition-tsmcs-finer-nodes-teslas-ai-chip-chinas-fabless-companies) (EE Times Current)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-circuit/2025-03-31-episode-111-talking-chips-and-wafers-with-chips-and-wafers. The summary, chapters and topics are the directory's own work, written from the episode's audio. The episode itself, its title and its audio belong to The Circuit.