Semiconductor & Technology Specialist, Ingenuity

William Keating

Dr. William Keating is a highly experienced senior executive with over 25 years experience in the IT/Semiconductor Industry. The majority of Dr. Keating's career was spent at Intel Corporation where he held senior leadership positions in Europe, the US and Asia from 1992 through 2014. He served as Intel's IT Director for APAC, China & Japan from 2005 through 2014 when he was based in Hong Kong and was responsible for the IT systems (Infrastructure, Networks, Data Centres, ERP, Sales & Marketing systems, Business Intelligence etc. ) for all of Intel's offices & factories through the region. From 1998 through 2005, he was the founder & director of an internal IT Consulting Organisation (IT Flex Services), a 500-person team which remains a core part of the Intel IT Organisation to this day. Dr. Keating's first 6 years at Intel were spent in charge of the Factory Automation Systems (Robotics, Databases, Networks, Servers, Clients etc.) supporting Intel's then state-of-the-art 200mm factory network. Since leaving Intel in 2014, Dr Keating established his own Technology Research & Consulting Company (www.ingenuity.hk) where he focuses on the products, roadmaps & technologies of companies such as Intel, AMD, Samsung, Apple, Micron- as well as the key equipment suppliers to those companies e.g. ASML, AMAT, Canon, Nikon etc. Dr. Keating specializes in niche topics of high significance within the semiconductor industry. These include the future of Moore's Law and in particular the significance of Lithography in maintaining Moore's Law (EUV, SDA, NanoImprint), the role & growth of the GPU in specialised applications such as Deep Learning (Neural Networks) for Voice, Image & Pattern recognition at companies such as Facebook, Google & Baidu. He also holds regular discussions on the future of memory, in particular the rise of 3D NAND and the emergence of new memory technologies such as 3D Xpoint.

Semiconductor & Technology Specialist

Sumco 3Q Results: Earnings Beat Consensus; Current Valuation Provides a Good Entry Point

Silicon Wafers for Semiconductors - Ugly Duckling Turns Golden Goose

Sumco: 2Q2019 Earnings Drop but the Decline Is Still Better Than Previous Downturns

Sumco Reports Strong First Quarter Results; We Remain Optimistic on the Stock

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

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

Paraguay Semiconductors and semiconductor equipment / Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<p>Long Term Agreements (LTAs) signed as silicon wafer shortages worsened back in late 2017 have thus far helped wafer manufacturers survive the worst of the current semiconductor downturn by largely maintaining shipment volumes at guaranteed pricing. The manufacturers with the largest percentages of product covered under LTA have fared best while <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/siltronic-ag" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:21741:1" rel="noopener">Siltronic</a>, with the lowest LTA coverage is faring worst. By the same token, joint investment in new capacity between the wafer manufacturers and their customers has helped reduce the risks historically associated with building capacity ahead of anticipated future demand, resulting in a roughly seven fold increase in annual capex since 2015. </p><p>Now, in the wake of the latest quarterly results it is becoming obvious that in fixing one set of problems, those same LTAs &amp; joint investments have created a new set of problems which will prolong the current down cycle for the wafer manufacturers, put their operating profits under increasing pressure in the quarters ahead and likely change the nature of how future LTAs &amp; joint investment programs are crafted. These are the problems we are beginning to see...</p>

Long Term Agreements (LTAs) signed as silicon wafer shortages worsened back in late 2017 have thus far helped wafer manufacturers survive the worst of the current semiconductor downturn by largely maintaining shipment volumes at guaranteed pricing. The manufacturers with the largest percentages of product covered under LTA have fared best while Siltronic, with the lowest LTA coverage is faring worst. By the same token, joint investment in new capacity between the wafer manufacturers and their customers has helped reduce the risks historically associated with building capacity ahead of anticipated future demand, resulting in a roughly seven fold increase in annual capex since 2015. Now, in the wake of the latest quarterly results it is becoming obvious that in fixing one set of problems, those same LTAs &amp; joint investments have created a new set of problems which will prolong the current down cycle for the wafer manufacturers, put their operating profits under increasing pressure in the quarters ahead and likely change the nature of how future LTAs &amp; joint investment programs are crafted. These are the problems we are beginning to see...

Silicon Wafers Q3 2019. LTAs & Joint Investments Are Fixing Some Problems But Creating Others