Weekly Top Ten Tech Hardware and Semiconductor - Sep 7, 2025

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. Samsung’s Intel Gambit: A Signal of TSMC’s Widening Lead

Samsung’s potential Intel stake highlights need for packaging know-how, not customers, and provides a hedge if its 2nm yields or production slip.
TSMC extends lead with stable N3, on-track N2, AI packaging dominance, and customer migrations, while Samsung’s foundry share declines below 8%.
Implications: Positive for TSMC (2330 TT), negative signal for Samsung (005930 KS), validating for Intel (INTC US) though regulatory and governance constraints remain important.

Nidec dropped 22% on Thursday following management’s decision to establish an independent committee to investigate accounting irregularities. It bounced back nearly 5% on Friday, but finished the week down 20%.
In June, the Company received approval to postpone submitting its FY Mar-25 securities report until September 26. In July, it released incomplete 1Q results while postponing full disclosure.
Without correct numbers, we can only guess at the full impact of the accounting irregularities and their effect on management.

Intel Corp (INTC US) has not given up on Intel Foundry Service (IFS), even though it currently lacks any sizable clients.
We are puzzled as to why Intel former CEO Pat Gelsinger insisted on entering the foundry market, which has so far weakened Intel’s financials without generating meaningful returns.
Qualcomm Inc (QCOM US) CEO has publicly stated that Intel’s manufacturing technology is still not competitive.

TSMC: 26.2% Premium; Historically Extreme Level to Open Fresh Short of the Spread
UMC: +1.0% Premium: Wait for More Extreme Level Before Going Long or Short
ASE: +2.7% Premium; Open Fresh Longs of ADR Spread Closer to Parity