Semiconductor & Technology Specialist, Ingenuity

William Keating

Semiconductor & Technology Specialist

Ingenuity

Our focus is exclusively on in-depth research & consulting in the broader semiconductor industry. We focus on the key players, namely Intel, Micron, Qualcomm, Apple, Samsung, NVIDIA, AMD, TSMC & Global Foundries - as well as some of the lesser known, but nonetheless critical, companies such as ASML (for EUV), Mellanox, Cavium, Xilinx etc. We specialise in their products, roadmaps, process technologies, competitive advantages & threats etc. We also help our clients understand the implications of new and emerging technologies, e.g. 3D X-Point, 3D NAND, Carbon Nanotubes, Autonomous Driving, Graphene, Silicon Photonics, Wafer-Level Optics, Artificial Intelligence, FPGA, GPU, ASIC etc. 

Semiconductor Analysis & Research

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul>
<li>GlobalWafers last month reported second quarter revenues of NT$15.2 billion, up 8.8% QoQ but down 5% YoY. Gross margin was 20.6%, flat sequentially but down 5.2 pp YoY</li>
<li>AI infrastructure remains main growth driver, supported by higher capital spending and continued growth in agentic AI inference and cloud‑edge integration. Memory supply remains tight; LTAs provide better demand visibility.</li>
<li>Our H1 gross margin was 20.7 %, -5.5 pp YoY. This mainly reflects pricing agreed during last year's weak market, as well as higher qualification and ramp‑up costs at our new sites.</li>
</ul>


GlobalWafers last month reported second quarter revenues of NT$15.2 billion, up 8.8% QoQ but down 5% YoY. Gross margin was 20.6%, flat sequentially but down 5.2 pp YoY
AI infrastructure remains main growth driver, supported by higher capital spending and continued growth in agentic AI inference and cloud‑edge integration. Memory supply remains tight; LTAs provide better demand visibility.
Our H1 gross margin was 20.7 %, -5.5 pp YoY. This mainly reflects pricing agreed during last year's weak market, as well as higher qualification and ramp‑up costs at our new sites.


GlobalWafers Q2 2026 Earnings Review & Full Transcript

APAC IPOs & Placements, Aequitas Research

Akshat Shah

APAC IPOs & Placements

IPOs and Placements coverage across Asia Pacific

Aequitas Research

We cover all listing across the Asia Pacific along with follow-up placements. As of Dec 2020, our team had covered 539 IPOs with a hit rate of 73.5% and 685 placements with a hit rate of 66.8%.

We combine fundamental bottom-up views with our proprietary quantitative framework to provide a holistic coverage across new listings and placements. Our coverage includes pre-IPO notes before the deal is launched, follow-up analysis once the deal is live and post-listing trading analysis as well.

Equity Capital Markets

<ul>
<li>
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/globalwafers-co-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:17916:1" rel="noopener">Globalwafers (6488 TT)</a> is looking to raise up to US$1.5bn in its upcoming global depository receipts (GDRs) offering.</li>
<li>On 4th Aug 2026, GWC announced that it had received its board’s approval to sell around 40-50m common shares via a GDR offering. </li>
<li>Similar to previous GDR listings, the deal is a long drawn out process with the firm required to jump through a number of board/shareholder/regulatory approval loops.</li>
</ul>



Globalwafers (6488 TT) is looking to raise up to US$1.5bn in its upcoming global depository receipts (GDRs) offering.
On 4th Aug 2026, GWC announced that it had received its board’s approval to sell around 40-50m common shares via a GDR offering. 
Similar to previous GDR listings, the deal is a long drawn out process with the firm required to jump through a number of board/shareholder/regulatory approval loops.


Aequitas: GlobalWafers GDR Early Look - US$1.5bn GDR Offering, With Overseas Expansion Ahead

Equity Long-Short

Mo Aziz

<ul>
<li>Sherman is the only CHIPS Act-funded 300mm wafer plant in the US, anchored by Micron's ten-year LTA; Chinese competitors are excluded by statute.</li>
<li>A 20.7% H1 2026 gross margin against a 43.1% peak reflects trough-rate contracts, Texas depreciating before earning, and one Novara-fire quarter — three dated suppressants unwinding through 2027.</li>
<li>Initiating NEUTRAL, fair value NT$920 (11.3x FY2027E EBITDA of NT$41bn); the asset warrants the multiple — the stock, up 3x in twelve months, does not; revisit below NT$850.</li>
</ul>


Sherman is the only CHIPS Act-funded 300mm wafer plant in the US, anchored by Micron's ten-year LTA; Chinese competitors are excluded by statute.
A 20.7% H1 2026 gross margin against a 43.1% peak reflects trough-rate contracts, Texas depreciating before earning, and one Novara-fire quarter — three dated suppressants unwinding through 2027.
Initiating NEUTRAL, fair value NT$920 (11.3x FY2027E EBITDA of NT$41bn); the asset warrants the multiple — the stock, up 3x in twelve months, does not; revisit below NT$850.


GlobalWafers (6488 TT): America's Only CHIPS Act Wafer Plant — But Not at This Price

Independent Fund Manager, Swaen Capital

Swaen Capital

Independent Fund Manager

Swaen Capital is a Singapore based licensed independent fund manager with an open architecture, a non bias financial platform creating access to the best custodians and investment managers. Our focus lies within the wealth management business, covering client relationships, financial planning, advisory, as well as discretionary portfolio management. We have developed strategic alliances with other leading independent firms to complement and extend our offerings to clients (global hedge fund research capability, alternative investment offerings, corporate finance, fund structuring & administration, etc). Our know-how, extensive global network and long standing presence in Asia allows us to provide a global footprint and at the same time enables us to capitalize on regional opportunities.

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ul>
<li>The copper wall is here. Above ~200Gbps per lane, copper can no longer carry signals more than a few metres without prohibitive power and signal-integrity penalties. The industry's answer is to move the optics off the faceplate and onto the chip package itself — Co Packaged Optics (CPO).</li>
<li>Adoption is switch-first. NVIDIA and Broadcom are shipping CPO switches in 2026 on external-laser designs; the XPU side and an in-package laser are deferred by packaging and reliability limits, not yet solved.</li>
<li>Money moves with the architecture. As the optical engine moves into the package, value migrates away from module assemblers toward the layers that fabricate the optical engine itself.</li>
</ul>


The copper wall is here. Above ~200Gbps per lane, copper can no longer carry signals more than a few metres without prohibitive power and signal-integrity penalties. The industry's answer is to move the optics off the faceplate and onto the chip package itself — Co Packaged Optics (CPO).
Adoption is switch-first. NVIDIA and Broadcom are shipping CPO switches in 2026 on external-laser designs; the XPU side and an in-package laser are deferred by packaging and reliability limits, not yet solved.
Money moves with the architecture. As the optical engine moves into the package, value migrates away from module assemblers toward the layers that fabricate the optical engine itself.


Co-Packaged Optics 101: The Future of High-Density AI Interconnects

<ul>
<li>Taiwan companies are required to report revenue on a monthly basis. These updates can help us understand how a given quarter is progressing &amp; predict quarterly earnings ahead of time</li>
<li>Initially we focused on MoM %  increase/decrease. This is useful, but one needs to account for anomalies such as seasonality and potential non-linearity month to month within a given quarter </li>
<li>We now also provide the monthly YoY revenue comparison. This eliminates anomalies due to both seasonality and intra-quarter non-linearity, enabling a clearer perspective on where the industry is at. </li>
</ul>


Taiwan companies are required to report revenue on a monthly basis. These updates can help us understand how a given quarter is progressing &amp; predict quarterly earnings ahead of time
Initially we focused on MoM %  increase/decrease. This is useful, but one needs to account for anomalies such as seasonality and potential non-linearity month to month within a given quarter 
We now also provide the monthly YoY revenue comparison. This eliminates anomalies due to both seasonality and intra-quarter non-linearity, enabling a clearer perspective on where the industry is at. 


Semiconductor Real Time Indicators Update

Taiwan

Globalwafers Co., Ltd. specializes in silicon wafer manufacturing and also provides solar wafers and crystal rods. The Company possesses a complete production line from ingot growth, slicing, etching, diffusion, polishing to epitaxy. Their products include Epi wafers, polished wafers, etched wafers, ultra thin wafers and deep diffusion wafers.

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Globalwafers (6488 TT)

GlobalWafers Q2 2026 Earnings Review & Full Transcript

GlobalWafers last month reported second quarter revenues of NT$15.2 billion, up 8.8% QoQ but down 5% YoY. Gross margin was 20.6%, flat sequentially...

William Keating

Aequitas: GlobalWafers GDR Early Look - US$1.5bn GDR Offering, With Overseas Expansion Ahead

GlobalWafers Co Ltd (6488 TT, GWC) is looking to raise up to US$1.5bn in its upcoming global depository receipts (GDRs) offering.

Akshat Shah