Research from Water Tower Research, Water Tower Research

Water Tower Research

Research from Water Tower Research

Water Tower Research is a leading equity research firm that provides research on micro, small and mid cap companies.

Water Tower Research was founded by Wall Street veterans after witnessing a fundamental shift in the investment research industry with the result being a declining knowledge base among investors, a lack of awareness and a shrinking pool of fundamental research being conducted on companies across the small-cap and micro-cap spectrum. The same issues are now increasingly occurring in the mid-cap space. This sea change within the investment community is impacting not only the companies themselves but also current shareholders and potential investors. With significantly less active sell-side sponsorship by Wall Street, a substantial information gap has developed between companies and various constituents in the financial community. The net result is fewer channels for insight and information to flow between companies and investors.

Equity Research Firm

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ul><li>Software led a broad May rally, but the largest names did most of the heavy lifting. </li><li>The WTR AI Index rose 14.9% M/M, outpacing the S&amp;P 500 (+5.1%), Russell 2000 (+4.3%), and Nasdaq (+10.5%), with every sector up double digits.</li><li>After barely participating in April’s advance (+2.6%) even as Semiconductors ran +34%, Software (20% of the index) led all sectors at +28.0%, ahead of Internet &amp; Data Services (+13.8%), Other Tech (+13.0%), Semiconductor (+12.8%), and Other Industries (+12.8%). </li></ul>

Software led a broad May rally, but the largest names did most of the heavy lifting. The WTR AI Index rose 14.9% M/M, outpacing the S&amp;P 500 (+5.1%), Russell 2000 (+4.3%), and Nasdaq (+10.5%), with every sector up double digits.After barely participating in April’s advance (+2.6%) even as Semiconductors ran +34%, Software (20% of the index) led all sectors at +28.0%, ahead of Internet &amp; Data Services (+13.8%), Other Tech (+13.0%), Semiconductor (+12.8%), and Other Industries (+12.8%). 

AI Flow Index : Sailing a Sea of Companies in AI - Jun 1, 2026

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.

<ul><li>Last year, I called 2024 the year of AI’s adolescence, and that was quite a call. I “predicted” growing pains or a tremendous growth spurt, and the immense growth spurt happened all right.</li><li>This last year was the year of AI through and through.</li><li>There’s a deep irony because anything related to AI had a phenomenal year while everything else languished. Surprisingly, SOXX underperformed the SPY, which seemed unheard of for the year that SOXX’s largest components ripped 100%+.</li></ul>

Last year, I called 2024 the year of AI’s adolescence, and that was quite a call. I “predicted” growing pains or a tremendous growth spurt, and the immense growth spurt happened all right.This last year was the year of AI through and through.There’s a deep irony because anything related to AI had a phenomenal year while everything else languished. Surprisingly, SOXX underperformed the SPY, which seemed unheard of for the year that SOXX’s largest components ripped 100%+.

<ul><li><p>This is my quarterly piece, where I round up all of my favorite ideas (more explicitly) and explain some semiconductor jargon. This is a meta piece of content.</p></li><li>First and foremost, I’ll start with performance. SMH returned 14% this quarter, among the best quarters in history for the semiconductor universe (again).</li><li>This quarter's leader was AOSL, who is rumored to have won a socket at Nvidia.</li></ul>

This is my quarterly piece, where I round up all of my favorite ideas (more explicitly) and explain some semiconductor jargon. This is a meta piece of content.First and foremost, I’ll start with performance. SMH returned 14% this quarter, among the best quarters in history for the semiconductor universe (again).This quarter's leader was AOSL, who is rumored to have won a socket at Nvidia.

Fabricated Knowledge Q2 2024 Quarterly Review

<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>This is the first edition of a quarterly summary piece to highlight my ideas and best pieces quarterly.</li>
<li>This is one of the 16th-best quarters in SOXX since 2002. While it’s a pretty solid showing at a 17% quarterly return, this doesn’t compare to the incredible returns in 2020 and 2023.</li>
<li>Now, the misleading thing is that SMH, a broader ETF, is up 30%.</li>
</ul>


This is the first edition of a quarterly summary piece to highlight my ideas and best pieces quarterly.
This is one of the 16th-best quarters in SOXX since 2002. While it’s a pretty solid showing at a 17% quarterly return, this doesn’t compare to the incredible returns in 2020 and 2023.
Now, the misleading thing is that SMH, a broader ETF, is up 30%.


United States

Wolfspeed, Inc. develops and manufactures semiconductor products. The Company offers silicon carbide and GaN solutions for both high power and RF applications. Wolfspeed serves customers worldwide.

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Wolfspeed (WOLF US)

AI Flow Index : Sailing a Sea of Companies in AI - Jun 1, 2026

The WTR AI Index rose 14.9% M/M, outpacing the S&P 500 (+5.1%), Russell 2000 (+4.3%), and Nasdaq (+10.5%), with every sector up double digits.

Water Tower Research

2025 AI & Semiconductor Outlook

Last year, I called 2024 the year of AI’s adolescence, and that was quite a call. I “predicted” growing pains or a tremendous growth spurt, and...

Fabricated Knowledge

Fabricated Knowledge Q2 2024 Quarterly Review

Here's everything that happened this quarter, and some thoughts and ideas. This is my quarterly piece, where I round up all of my favorite ideas...

Fabricated Knowledge

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

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....

Fabricated Knowledge

Fabricated Knowledge Quarterly Review

This is the first edition of a quarterly summary piece to highlight my ideas and best pieces quarterly. This is one of the 16th-best quarters in...

Fabricated Knowledge

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