EP 123: Marvell ASIC TAM, ASIC Challenges Remain, More Semi 2.0

The Circuit · 23 Jun 2025 · 40m · Episode 124

What this episode covers

Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg discuss Marvell's recent custom semiconductor event, analyzing their technical differentiation against Broadcom and the challenges of the lumpy, cyclical nature of custom ASIC revenue. They explore the strategic tension between GPUs and ASICs, noting that hyperscalers like Amazon and Google are playing both sides, while examining the rising costs of leading-edge foundry services and the economic shift toward chiplet architectures. The conversation concludes with a thesis on 'Semi 2.0,' driven by AI workloads outstripping compute capacity, and the physical limits of monolithic chip scaling due to skyrocketing wafer prices.

Mentioned

Companies
Marvell, Broadcom, Amazon, Google, Nvidia, TSMC, Qualcomm, Intel, Samsung, Apple, Alchip, Astera Labs
Products
Vera Rubin, Feynman, Blackwell, Graviton, Tranium

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