The Circuit - podcast cover

The Circuit

Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldbergthecircuit.fm
A podcast about the business and market of semiconductors
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Episodes

Episode 51: Intel Earnings and Foundry Trends

Summary In this episode, Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg discuss Intel's recent earnings call and the challenges the company is facing. They analyze the guidance provided by Intel and the concerns raised by investors. The conversation also delves into Intel's core businesses, including the consumer and data center groups, and the impact of competition from companies like Nvidia. The hosts explore Intel's partnership with UMC to increase trailing edge capacity and the potential for specialized trail...

Jan 29, 202437 minEp. 53

Episode 50: TSMC Earnings Set Stage for 2024

Summary In this conversation, Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg discuss the latest news and trends in the semiconductor industry, with a focus on TSMC's strong earnings and growth forecast. They explore the importance of AI in TSMC's business and the strong position of NVIDIA in the AI market. They also discuss the challenges of designing AI-first silicon and the need for differentiation in AI accelerators. The conversation touches on the dynamics of leading-edge manufacturing, the transition from fi...

Jan 22, 202438 minEp. 52

Episode 49: CES Semiconductor Trends, Where was AI? 2024 Outlook

Summary In this episode, Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg discuss their experience at CES and the presence of AI in various products. They explore the evolution of massage chairs and the AI wash in the industry. They also analyze the two tracks of AI at CES, with a more muted presence in big vendor booths and a greater focus in Eureka Park. The conversation delves into the role of AI in semiconductor vendors and the importance of on-device AI. They discuss the balance between cloud and edge AI and t...

Jan 16, 202440 minEp. 51

Episode 48: Semiconductor Industry Wish Lists for 2024

Summary In this episode, Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg discuss their hopes and predictions for the semiconductor industry in 2024. They cover topics such as the need for clarity of direction in automotive semis, the potential for partnerships and spin-offs in the industry, the importance of venture funding for semiconductor startups, the need for a more balanced and realistic narrative around AI, and the challenges and tensions between the US and China in the chip industry. They also make some sp...

Jan 08, 202440 minEp. 50

Episode 47: Event Season Insights (Marvell, AMD, Intel)

Summary In this episode, Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg discuss recent semiconductor events, including Marvell's analyst day, AMD's Advancing AI event, and Intel's AI Everywhere event. They analyze the key takeaways from each event, including Marvell's focus on data infrastructure, AMD's new chiplet SOC and AI capabilities, and Intel's architectural advancements in client and data center products. The hosts also discuss the challenges and opportunities in the AI PC market and share their holiday w...

Dec 18, 202342 minEp. 49

Episode 46: A Discussion with Arm CEO Rene Haas

Summary In this conversation Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg have a discussion with Rene Haas, President of ARM, provides an overview of the company and its role as the brain that powers electronic devices. He explains ARM's business model of designing CPUs and licensing them to chip manufacturers. Haas discusses the value capture and increasing ARM's share of the value in the market. He highlights the growth drivers for ARM in various industries, including PCs, cloud data centers, networking, auto...

Dec 11, 202337 minEp. 48

Episode 45: The Japanese Semiconductor Industry

The conversation explores the current state of the Japanese semiconductor industry and its history of decline in the 1990s. It discusses the structure of the industry, key players, and recent developments such as the establishment of Rapidus, a consortium aimed at advancing semiconductor fabrication in Japan. The conversation also touches on the visit of Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry to UC Berkeley and the potential for collaboration between the US and Japan in the semiconducto...

Dec 05, 202339 minEp. 47

Episode 44: Silicon, Tech Exploration and the Awkward Journey of Progress

In this week's episode, Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg chatted about companies pushing the limits of what is possible with technology and breaking new ground with new products and experiences. They discuss the impacts this has on the semiconductor landscape and why its a necessary, even if awkward, step to progress.

Nov 29, 202333 minEp. 46

Episode 43: The Custom Silicon Trend Continues

Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg dive into the recent announcements from Microsoft around their new custom silicon chips. They also discuss MediaTek's ambitions, shared from the MediaTek executive summit last week, where they are doubling down on helping people build custom silicon for the data center.

Nov 20, 202339 minEp. 45

Episode 42: Analyzing Arm's First Q Earnings as a Public Company

Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg analyze Arm's most recent quarterly earnings in this episode. These also happen to be Arm's first earnings report and investor call as a public company. Ben and Jay discuss the read from the earnings and the investor call and insights learned.

Nov 13, 202338 minEp. 44

Episode 41: B2B The Story of Qualcomm

In this episode of our short series in Back to Basics, Jay Goldberg shares the key moments in Qualcomm's story that led to the market position they have today.

Nov 06, 202333 minEp. 43

Episode 38: The Future of Transistor Design and Advanced Packaging

Ben Bajarin is joined by guest Huiming Bu from IBM Research to discuss the future of the transistor (design) and advanced packaging. They also discuss some of the larger technology challenges facing the semiconductor industry in the years to come.

Oct 16, 202333 minEp. 40

Episode 37: Updated Thoughts on Entity Lists

Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg discuss the anticipated update to the entity list facing US and China semiconductor relations. They also discuss the relevance of the RISC-V being discussed as potentially being regulated as it relates to China as well.

Oct 09, 202329 minEp. 39

Episode 36: The Wide World of Memory

Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg welcome guest Steven Woo, a Fellow at Rambus, to discuss the wide world of memory. The discussion covers how memory differs from logic, the many types of memory and their purpose and function, how to gauge innovation in memory advances, and the key applications driving the need to innovate more in memory.

Oct 02, 202337 minEp. 38

Episode 35: The State of Intel via Their Innovation Summit

Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg discuss the state of Intel as interpreted by what they saw and learned from Intel's Innovation Summit - Called Innovation. Topics: - Intel's products and product roadmap competitiveness - Read on What Public Investors took away - Intel's Foundry Opportunity and Timing

Sep 25, 202335 minEp. 37

Episode 33: The Land of IoT with Guest Stacey Higginbotham

On this week's episode of The Circuit, Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg are joined by Stacey Higginbotham to discuss the land of IoT. They cover everything from market segments, use cases, the unified software dream, key companies in silicon, and more.

Sep 10, 202333 minEp. 35

Episode 32: Nvidia and the AI Raging Bull

Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg discuss Nvidia's recent earnings, and the growth prospects for the company going forward. They discuss a number of key debates surrounding the company and if this is a bubble or a buildout technology cycle as it relates to AI and the demand on compute infrastructure.

Sep 05, 202346 minEp. 34

Episode 31: The Arm F1 and Pending IPO

Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg discuss the Arm F1 takeaways, challenges, and IPO upside. Show note links: Register Report on Graviton Revenue

Aug 28, 202342 minEp. 33

Episode 29: The Myth of Semiconductor Industry Deglobization

Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg discuss some of the recent political narratives from different countries around their desire to lessen dependence on certain nations. They discuss how much of this narrative dismisses the deeply intertwined global supply chain that makes up the semiconductor industry.

Aug 15, 202329 minEp. 31

Episode 28: A Whole Lot of Custom Going On

Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg discuss where and why more custom silicon is showing up in pockets of the industry. They also dive into Amazon's overall strategy with custom silicon and sometimes this strategy gets talked about and other custom efforts get no airtime.

Aug 07, 202341 minEp. 30

Episode 27: Industry Cyclicality On Display in Big Semi Co. Earnings

Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg explain some of the nuanced dynamics of the semiconductor industry cyclicality. They outline the challenges in areas like data center spending, PC market doldrums, and softness in smartphones and what that may mean for 2024 if AI is a true computing inflection point.

Aug 03, 202339 minEp. 29

Episode 25: Challenges for the Semiconductor Industry to Grow to $1 Trillion

Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg discuss the opportunities and challenges facing the semiconductor industry growing to a trillion-dollar industry by 2030, as some predict. They explore foundry opportunities and challenges, chiplets, and the role of scarce resources like material and energy.

Jul 17, 202343 minEp. 27

Episode 24: The Arm CPU Datacenter Potential

Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg explore the potential for Arm CPUs in the datacenter and whether they can truly challenge x86's dominance when it comes to datacenter CPU workloads.

Jul 09, 202339 minEp. 26

B2B Series: Wireless Standards

Jay Goldberg continues his series of Back to Basics with some history and anecdotes of wireless standards.

Jun 26, 202343 minEp. 25
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