This weekly newsletter pulls together summaries of the top ten most-read Insights across Tech Hardware and Semiconductor on Smartkarma.
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1. SK Hynix Q126 Earnings Call Transcript
- SK Hynix reported Q1 2026 revenue of ₩52.58 trillion, operating profit of ₩37.61 trillion, and net profit of ₩40.35 trillion.
- Revenue cleared ₩50 trillion for the first time. Operating margin hit 72%, an all time record high
- Shares were already up 88% year-to-date heading into the print, closing at ₩1,224,000 on April 21. The stock has been on a tear all year. Now you know why!
2. NEC (6701 JP): Key Supplier for Mogami Frigates
- Contract with Australia to supply sonar, communications and navigation equipment for Mogami frigates points to long-term growth for NEC’s defense business.
- Three frigates to be built for the Australian Navy by MHI in Nagasaki, followed by eight more to be built in Australia. NEC likely to supply all of them.
- Shares rebounding from their February low, but still more than 25% below their 52-week high. Selling at 23 times EPS guidance as of April 21.
3. Intel Q126. Soaring On Multiple Tailwinds
- Intel reported Q126 revenue of $13.6 billion, $1.4 billion above the midpoint of guidance, and $1.3 billion above Street consensus of $12.3 billion. Non-GAAP EPS was $0.29, versus break-even guidance.
- The company is experiencing multiple tailwinds from insatiable CPU demand, slowly rising 18A yields, progress on 14A and a new phenomenon, LTAs with strategic customers like Google. That’s new!
- Intel’s share price is soaring in after hours trading, currently up ~22%. Is this a turning point for Intel’s resurgence? Let’s see…
4. ServiceNow Q126. Tanking On Not Very Much
- ServiceNow reported Q126 revenues of $3.67 billion, +3% QoQ and +22% YoY. Subscription revenue grew 19%, beating guidance. RPO came in at +21% CC, 100 basis points above guide.
- Looking ahead, the company forecasted current quarter revenues marginally up QoQ to $3.8 billion, and up 22.5% YoY.
- The share price tanked >17% post-earnings. It’s now down 48% over the past twelve months and trading roughly where it was at the trough of the 2022 rout. Interesting..
5. ASMPT Q126. Exploding On AI Demand
- ASMPT Q126 revenue was up 32% YoY to HK$3.97 billion (US$508 million). Bookings up 72% YoY to HK$5.67 billion (US$727 million), the highest in four years.
- The Group’s Photonics solutions achieved a five-fold increase in YoY revenue growth, propelled by strong demand from high-speed transceivers of 800G and beyond.
- Planned NEXX divestiture, potential (lower margin) SMT divestiture, new CEO incoming, BESI M&A premium and soaring AI demand all drove a >100% share price increase YTD. More to come?
6. SK Hynix Q126. Margins On Steroids
- SK Hynix reported Q1 2026 revenue of ₩52.58 trillion, operating profit of ₩37.61 trillion, and net profit of ₩40.35 trillion.
- Revenue cleared ₩50 trillion for the first time. Operating margin hit 72%, an all time record high
- Shares were already up 88% year-to-date heading into the print, closing at ₩1,224,000 on April 21. The stock has been on a tear all year. Now you know why!
7. IBM Q1 2026. Solid Beats But Prudent Guidance Gets Punished.
- IBM Q126 revenue came in at $15.92B, up 9% year-on-year from $14.54B in Q1 2025, and above the Street consensus of $15.62B, a beat of $300M.
- Software growing 8% on a $7 billion quarterly base. Infrastructure growing 12% behind the strongest mainframe cycle in a decade. Data revenue growing 16% behind AI tailwinds. FCF growing 13%
- Given where we are in the year, we believe it prudent to maintain our guidance, even as the underlying performance and execution are off to an encouraging start. Stock tanks!
8. The Token Maxxing Delusion
- Earlier this month, Fortune reported that Meta’s 85,000 employees were competing on an internal AI leaderboard called “Claudeonomics”. Welcome to the world of Token Maxxing.
- Now that the door is closing on Agentic AI being able to sneak in under the cover of a monthly subscription, Token Optimisation should become front & center for every enterprise
- Treat your agentic sessions like sprints. Define a clear objective for each session. Work to completion or a meaningful checkpoint. Then summarise and reset. You will save a fortune…
9. Cerebras. The IPO Returns But The Middle East Concentration Remains
- On April 17 last, Cerebras once again filed to go public, having withdrawn their first attempt back in October 2025, thirteen months after having first filed
- One of the concerns in the original filing was was the extreme customer/revenue concentration with G42. That’s greatly reduced, but overall revenue concentration in the region remains >80%
- The recently announced OpenAI partnership is a game changer for this latest Cerebras IPO; the AWS announcement less so, as it’s still in Term Sheet status. Let’s see…
10. LRCX Q326 Earnings Call Transcript
- LRCX Q326 revenue of $5.84 billion, +9% QoQ, +23.8% YoY. GAAP diluted EPS $1.45; non-GAAP diluted EPS was $1.47. It was the company’s third record revenue quarter in a row.
- LRCX guided Q4 FY2026 revenue to $6.60 billion, ±$400 million, up 13% QoQ. Non-GAAP EPS of $1.65, ± $0.15. Gross margin 50.5%- first time over 50%
- LRCX gross margin trajectory already well ahead of the February 2025 Investor Day target, the company will have to do a reset at the next investor day later this year..
