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

SMIC Q2 2026. Record Quarter & “AI Companion Chip” Demand Is Enormous

SMIC (981 HK): Tactical Outlook as Overseas AI Orders Rise to Offset Earnings Miss

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TechChain Insights Q&A: ARM's Only Listed Rival - Powering Meta and Taiwan's AI Cycle - Andes (6533 TT)

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

SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp) / Equity Bottom-Up

SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp) (688981 CH)

SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp)

<ul>
<li>SMIC reported Q1 2026 revenues of $2,505 million, up 0.7% QoQ and up 11.5% YoY. Gross margin was 20.1%, up 0.9 pp QoQ but down 2.4 pp YoY.</li>
<li>For the second quarter 2026, SMIC expects revenue to increase by 14% to 16% sequentially and growth margin is expected to be in the range of 20% to 22%</li>
<li>CapEx is expected to remain similar to CY2025 at ~$8 billion. Depreciation expenses are expected to increase 30% YoY.  Bye bye dividend!</li>
</ul>


SMIC reported Q1 2026 revenues of $2,505 million, up 0.7% QoQ and up 11.5% YoY. Gross margin was 20.1%, up 0.9 pp QoQ but down 2.4 pp YoY.
For the second quarter 2026, SMIC expects revenue to increase by 14% to 16% sequentially and growth margin is expected to be in the range of 20% to 22%
CapEx is expected to remain similar to CY2025 at ~$8 billion. Depreciation expenses are expected to increase 30% YoY.  Bye bye dividend!


SMIC Q1 2026. Dumping The Dividend To Maintain The CapEx Cadence