Monday, 9 November 2026
Silicon Analytica
Every AI story is a chip story.
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Every analysis, report and news story published on Silicon Analytica. Weekly digests →

44 articles

November 20267

  1. Briefs / ReportedTSMC's September revenue rose 54.6% from a year earlierTSMC's monthly revenue filing for September 2026: NT$511.9B (~US$16 billion), +54.6% from a year earlier.1 min read
  2. Markets / AnalysisMemory's profit machine: SK hynix earns 80 cents of operating profit on every won of revenueSK hynix's preliminary third-quarter revenue topped KRW 100 trillion (~US$74.5 billion) for the first time, with an operating margin of about 80%. Price increases, not only volume, are behind the margins.3 min read
  3. Companies / AnalysisASML's record quarter and a supply gap that now stretches to 2028ASML's third-quarter net sales reached a record €11.7 billion (~US$13.1 billion) with a 57.5% gross margin. The company now expects planned supply for 2027 and 2028 to fall short of customer demand.6 min read
  4. Companies / AnalysisTSMC's record quarter: revenue up 51%, margins slip on 2 nm rampTSMC's third-quarter revenue rose 50.9% from a year earlier to NT$1,494.24 billion (~US$46.8 billion). Gross margin fell to 66.4% as the first 2 nm volumes diluted profitability.2 min read
  5. Markets / AnalysisFrom cloud capex to chip margins: the Q3 earnings chainQ3 2026 results trace one chain: hyperscaler capital spending, record ASML and TSMC quarters, and memory margins near 80%. Global chip sales reached $517.7 billion.3 min read
  6. Markets / AnalysisChip sales top half a trillion dollars in a single quarterGlobal semiconductor sales reached $517.7 billion in Q3 2026, up 24.1% on the quarter, as September alone hit $172.6 billion.2 min read
  7. Markets / AnalysisTwo days, two directions: why chip stocks broke as markets digested the midtermsWall Street rallied on the election result, then turned on the AI trade. Semiconductors took the hardest hit, even though nothing in the industry's reported numbers changed this week.4 min read

October 202620

  1. Markets / AnalysisThe AI spending boom: more computing, or more expensive computing?TrendForce expects AI server revenue to almost double in 2027 while shipments rise about a third. The gap shows how much of the boom is higher value per system.7 min read
  2. Manufacturing / AnalysisThe Race to 1 nm — and the Chip Economy Beyond ItWhat process-node names mean, which chips use them, and why manufacturing progress, revenue and capacity do not move in lockstep.12 min read
  3. Markets / ExplainerThe global chip supply chain: how it works, where it is strained and whyA plain-language guide to the steps, the places and the bottlenecks, with the evidence and the caveats.22 min read
  4. Markets / AnalysisThe 2026 chip forecast has moved from $975B to $1.65 trillion in ten monthsEach new forecast has been far higher than the last. What the revisions show, and what they do not.4 min read
  5. Markets / AnalysisBeyond the Machine Sale: Who Captures the Next Wave of Equipment Spending?How process complexity, service revenue and changing competition shape the economics of semiconductor equipment.8 min read
  6. Markets / ExplainerWhere Every $100 of Chipmaking Equipment Spending GoesA visual guide to lithography, etch, deposition and the companies supplying the machines behind semiconductor manufacturing.9 min read
  7. AI infrastructure / AnalysisMicrosoft's Maia expansion puts the economics of AI inference in focusMicrosoft plans to scale its custom AI infrastructure to multiple gigawatts from 2027. The implications reach beyond accelerator competition to memory, manufacturing and the cost of delivering AI services.5 min read
  8. Markets / AnalysisMcKinsey lifts its 2030 chip forecast to $2.3 trillionThe new base case is 44% higher than before, while expected wafer volume growth is little changed.4 min read
  9. Policy / ReportedSIA report: the US chip industry's dependence on China runs deeper than the headline numbersChina supplies a small share of direct inputs, but a much larger share of some materials further upstream.4 min read
  10. Markets / AnalysisMemory leads the forecasts: what WSTS and McKinsey expectTwo forecasters point to memory as a main driver of growth, and both tie it to new capacity.4 min read
  11. Markets / AnalysisThe economics inside an AI rackAccelerators dominate the value of a representative AI rack. Lower-cost chips still underpin its operation.3 min read
  12. Markets / AnalysisAI needs more than advanced chipsA rack’s supporting trays rely on different process generations. System dependence reaches beyond leading-edge silicon.3 min read
  13. Markets / AnalysisThe research investment cycleShared research infrastructure connects prototypes with manufacturing. Funding allocations show priorities, not completed commercial output.3 min read
  14. Memory & packaging / ExplainerThe AI system is only as useful as its memoryWhy bandwidth, capacity and packaging belong alongside compute in the investment discussion.4 min read
  15. Research / AnalysisInference changes the question from training cost to cost per answerServing an AI model creates a different economic problem from building one.4 min read
  16. Equipment / ExplainerInside lithography: the tools that make smaller chips possibleASML’s place in the value chain, and why manufacturing tools deserve their own analysis.4 min read
  17. Manufacturing / ReportedTSMC revenue reaches NT$3,898.73B (~US$122 billion) for Jan–Sep, up 41.1%The latest identified monthly release gives a more current view of TSMC than its 2024 annual total. Strong year-on-year growth coexists with a modest monthly decline.4 min read
  18. Manufacturing / ReportedTSMC's Q2 2026 revenue reaches US$40.20B, up 33.7%TSMC's latest quarterly report and its September sales show how much of the AI build-out still runs through one manufacturer.5 min read
  19. Companies / ReportedSamsung guides for ₩107.4 trillion (~US$80.1 billion) operating profitThe preliminary figure for the third quarter is a company estimate, not a final result. Sales are estimated at about ₩195 trillion (~US$145 billion).3 min read
  20. Companies / ReportedTSMC revenue up 54.6% in SeptemberThe world's largest contract chipmaker posted NT$511.86 billion (~US$16 billion) for the month, and NT$3,898.73 billion (~US$122 billion) for the first nine months of the year, up 41.1%. The numbers come one week before the third-quarter report.3 min read

September 20261

  1. Companies / ReportedMicron's revenue rises to $133.2B in fiscal 2026The memory maker's annual revenue more than tripled, and the fourth quarter alone brought in $54.23 billion. Memory has moved from being a cyclical commodity to being a bottleneck for AI.4 min read

August 20262

  1. Companies / ReportedNVIDIA's quarterly revenue reaches $96.2B, up 106%Data center revenue made up $89.0 billion. The company is guiding for $108.0 billion next quarter, without counting on data center compute sales to China.4 min read
  2. Companies / ReportedAMD's revenue rises 50% to a record $11.5BAMD's second quarter shows Data Center sales more than doubling and now making up 58% of the business.3 min read

July 20263

  1. Companies / ReportedASML raises its 2026 outlook to €43–45B (~US$48.2–50.4 billion)Net sales in the second quarter were €9.3 billion (~US$10.4 billion). The raised annual outlook is the company's own forecast. Note: the report is nearly three months old.3 min read
  2. Markets / ReportedChip sales reached $795.6B in 2025SIA's annual industry report confirms a record year, driven by logic and memory chips for AI. The forecast for 2026 points even higher, but SIA's own figures differ between documents.4 min read
  3. Research / ReportedUS chip companies spent $76.8B on R&D in 2025R&D spending rose 10.3% in a year. Measured as a share of sales, the US leads among the economies SIA compares, but Chinas total R&D spending is growing faster.4 min read

June 20264

  1. Markets / ExplainerMost chips in an AI server cost less than $10 — and they are still mission-criticalMore than half of the chips in an AI data center server sit in the lowest price bucket. The pricing breakdown shows why the cheap end of the chip market matters.4 min read
  2. Markets / ExplainerAdvanced nodes live in the compute tray — the rest of the rack runs on mature siliconA die-by-die breakdown of an AI server rack shows that cutting-edge process technology is concentrated in one tray, while power, cooling and management functions rely on older nodes.4 min read
  3. Research / ExplainerOne AI server rack holds over 4,500 chipsA report by SIA and Deloitte breaks down where the value sits in an AI server rack. Semiconductors make up about 95% of the content value, and the accelerator alone accounts for more than 70% of it.5 min read
  4. Research / AnalysisAI data center chips could reach $1.2T by 2028Deloitte's forecast in the SIA report implies close to a tenfold increase. The figure is a forecast with a wide range, not a result.4 min read

March 20262

  1. Industry outlook / ReportedGlobal chip sales reached $795.6B in 2025, up 26.2%The latest finalized 2025 annual release identified from WSTS puts chip sales above SIA’s earlier $791.7B announcement. The distinction matters when comparing growth across reports.4 min read
  2. Industry outlook / ReportedGlobal chip sales reached $795.6B in 2025, up 26.2%The latest finalized 2025 annual release identified from WSTS puts chip sales above SIA’s earlier $791.7B announcement. The distinction matters when comparing growth across reports.4 min read

February 20261

  1. AI infrastructure / ReportedNVIDIA's $215.9B year puts the AI infrastructure build-out in focusFiscal 2026 revenue rose 65%, and the first half of fiscal 2027 has kept accelerating. How durable is demand for accelerated computing?5 min read

June 20252

  1. Markets / AnalysisResearch is the other semiconductor investment cycleFabs get the headlines, but a separate cycle of research programs connects early innovation to pilot production and high-volume manufacturing. A 2025 SIA report describes how the US CHIPS research programs are meant to work.4 min read
  2. Research / ExplainerThe CHIPS research programs total about $11BAn SIA paper from June 2025 describes the federal R&D programs that complement factory investments, and their status at the time.3 min read

May 20242

  1. Research / AnalysisUS fab share projected at 14% by 2032A 2024 report by SIA and BCG projects that the US share of global chip manufacturing capacity will rise from 10% to 14%. The report is over two years old.4 min read
  2. Markets / AnalysisChipmaking investment enters a $2.3 trillion decadeA 2024 report by SIA and BCG projected about $2.3 trillion of private investment in wafer fabrication between 2024 and 2032 — more than three times the previous decade. The geography of capacity is expected to shift with it.5 min read