Equity Long-Short, Semiconductors, Fabricated Knowledge

Douglas O'Laughlin

Equity Long-Short, Semiconductors

Fabricated Knowledge

Learn more about the world's most important manufactured product. Meaningful insight, timely analysis, and an occasional investment idea.

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ul><li>Subsystems did the results you should expect, and MKSI did a questionable (and understandable) convertible offering that tanked shares right after.</li><li>All subsystems (except Ichor which sucks) look to be in a much better spot.</li><li>The summary is that Subsystems revenue should continue improving into the second half and that 2025 will be a strong year.</li></ul>

Subsystems did the results you should expect, and MKSI did a questionable (and understandable) convertible offering that tanked shares right after.All subsystems (except Ichor which sucks) look to be in a much better spot.The summary is that Subsystems revenue should continue improving into the second half and that 2025 will be a strong year.

Earnings Subsystems (MKSI, ICHR, UCTT), Semicap (ONTO, CAMT, AMAT, TOELY), and SiTime

<ul><li>To make my content readable, this is an optics-only earnings update.</li><li>I will discuss everything together and put together a high-level overview.</li><li>The specific things I am interested in are Marvell’s ZR and custom silicon.</li></ul>

To make my content readable, this is an optics-only earnings update.I will discuss everything together and put together a high-level overview.The specific things I am interested in are Marvell’s ZR and custom silicon.

Optics Earnings (FN, ANET, COHR, LITE, AAOI)

<ul><li>Like last week, I will do a meta-level overview summary. That’s why I read these calls; to understand the whole, you must understand the parts.</li><li>Smartphone markets continue to recover, but the demand is sluggish, and handsets should be flattish for the year. Industrial is bottoming at multiple companies, and Skyworks looks like it lost RF share to Qorvo. Telecom looks to be bottoming (NXPI).</li><li>I think it's pretty clear that the automotive cycle should be bought, not sold. And we continue to see strength in consumers (AMKR, QCOM). I am starting to like the Rambus story again, as I think their client business, the PMIC, and potentially CXL businesses could add 200m+ incremental revenue on top of the DDR5 share story in the coming years.</li></ul>

Like last week, I will do a meta-level overview summary. That’s why I read these calls; to understand the whole, you must understand the parts.Smartphone markets continue to recover, but the demand is sluggish, and handsets should be flattish for the year. Industrial is bottoming at multiple companies, and Skyworks looks like it lost RF share to Qorvo. Telecom looks to be bottoming (NXPI).I think it's pretty clear that the automotive cycle should be bought, not sold. And we continue to see strength in consumers (AMKR, QCOM). I am starting to like the Rambus story again, as I think their client business, the PMIC, and potentially CXL businesses could add 200m+ incremental revenue on top of the DDR5 share story in the coming years.

Earnings (AMKR, RMBS, NXPI, SWKS, ENTG, QCOM, WOLF, QRVO, ACLS)

<ul><li>I will start with a AMD section. Shares are down ~6-7% on last week’s result. Let’s talk about the result and why it was so disappointing.</li><li>AMD exactly matched EPS, was slightly light on revenue, and guided essentially in line with Q2 guidance.</li><li>This also was one of the slightest EPS and revenue beats in recent years. The last time this happened, the PC segment was imploding. This time it’s embedded revenue.</li></ul>

I will start with a AMD section. Shares are down ~6-7% on last week’s result. Let’s talk about the result and why it was so disappointing.AMD exactly matched EPS, was slightly light on revenue, and guided essentially in line with Q2 guidance.This also was one of the slightest EPS and revenue beats in recent years. The last time this happened, the PC segment was imploding. This time it’s embedded revenue.

AMD's MI300 Disappointment, Hyperscalers Capex, and FPGAs

<ul><li>This earnings post will be a bit less detailed than usual. I just finished a move mid-earnings, and it was insanely distracting. So, I’ll start with the spark notes before I go into depth.</li><li>Industrial (TXN) is possibly bottoming, Automotive is probably bottoming (TXN), but SiC (STM) is doing much worse, and mobile (TER) hasn’t changed quite much. Consumer (NOD) got a substantial call out.</li><li>Telecom (MXL, INTC) is about to bottom imminently. I continue to like MaxLinear and other companies that are exposed to telecom. HBM (TER, SK) continues to be strong. In Semicap, Logic is strong, HBM is strong, and China is declining less than expected.</li></ul>

This earnings post will be a bit less detailed than usual. I just finished a move mid-earnings, and it was insanely distracting. So, I’ll start with the spark notes before I go into depth.Industrial (TXN) is possibly bottoming, Automotive is probably bottoming (TXN), but SiC (STM) is doing much worse, and mobile (TER) hasn’t changed quite much. Consumer (NOD) got a substantial call out.Telecom (MXL, INTC) is about to bottom imminently. I continue to like MaxLinear and other companies that are exposed to telecom. HBM (TER, SK) continues to be strong. In Semicap, Logic is strong, HBM is strong, and China is declining less than expected.