Kyocera looks compelling on valuation alone, at a look-through EV/EBITDA of 6.5x once it finishes selling cross-shareholdings, plus buybacks. It is broadly exposed to semiconductors and the data-center buildout, with semiconductor revenue already rising, and is a second-order beneficiary of the optical buildout. Optics could later become a bottleneck in its AlN submounts and hermetic packages, but optics is a small share of revenue, and heavy automotive and printing exposure dilutes the appeal. … Show more

TSMC may lose pricing power as performance gains shift from shrinking transistors to stacking, interconnects and optics, while logic folding could make older processes competitive. Despite strong leading-edge demand, investors may overestimate the profit share its node leadership can retain. Its cautious expansion and past reluctance toward advanced packaging suggest a risk-averse culture that protects returns but could leave it late to disruptive technologies and key customers. x.com 

Tower Semiconductor's stronger-than-expected capacity expansion lets it fill more optical-chip orders itself, reducing customers' incentive to move to foundries they regard as technologically weaker. Its hybrid bonding packs dense connections between photonic chips and their driver electronics, an advantage viewed as effectively unmatched among Western suppliers. Tower remains one of the highest-conviction holdings despite the portfolio trim. x.com 

Low multiples give AI infrastructure good risk/reward as demand outruns supply and agentic workloads have runway. TSMC at 17x 2027E EPS appears to have all the accelerator and CPU demand it can handle this year and next; Ultra Clean is at 8x, MKS 12x, TTM 13x, Nvidia 14x and Celestica 15x. Kioxia at 3x and Samsung preferreds at 2.5x carry a big discount on pricing and cycle fears. Multiples imply a 2027 capex peak and meaningful drop; 2028 capex growth is expected, but below 2027's rate. x.com  … Show more

Kioxia is gaining NAND share as AI eats through storage, while Samsung and SK hynix shift resources to HBM. Staying focused on NAND has given it production costs 20-30% below competitors. Its quarterly operating profit hit $3.8B, passing Toyota as one of Japan's most profitable businesses, with about $15B of net income expected in 2027. Even after rising 2,000% in a year it trades at 8.9x forward earnings and is preparing a US listing. The key question is whether NAND pricing holds. x.com  x.com 

Topco Scientific is cheap at about 15x earnings because it is a decent company riding a tailwind, and it still has legs after starting to run. It is Shin-Etsu's primary agent for semiconductor materials such as silicon wafers and photoresists in Taiwan and parts of China, and has a silicone JV with Shin-Etsu. Management expects double-digit revenue growth this year, with exposure to CMP slurries, water treatment and advanced packaging. Such companies tend to outperform with half the volatility. … Show more

Soitec's Q1 shows its photonics wafer monopoly turning into growth. It makes the Photonics-SOI substrate under nearly every silicon photonics chip, from TSMC's COUPE to Applied Optoelectronics and Coherent transceivers and Nvidia and Broadcom CPO switches, with 95%+ share. Photonics-SOI sales doubled to over half the €65M Edge & Cloud AI segment. Revenue of €113M rose 23% at constant currency versus 15% guided, Q2 guidance is 30%+ versus 4% expected, and its Singapore 300mm fab qualified early. … Show more

Soitec is an attractive name in the photonics supply chain. Per @HyperTechInvest, it trades at 14x forward EV/EBITDA, the lowest among key photonics suppliers, versus 33x for Coherent, 45x for Lumentum and 120x for Applied Optoelectronics. @zephyr_z9 flags a risk of demand destruction in mobile. x.com  x.com 

Kioxia, Japan's answer to SanDisk, plans a US share listing to widen its investor base and lift its corporate value, while NAND demand and pricing are soaring. x.com 

Intel is benefiting from this upcycle as a CPU maker and as an overflow and swing producer in foundry, and swing producers always rally more than the low-cost producer in an upcycle. TSMC, Nvidia and ASML showed restraint on capex and pricing, which extended the cycle but cost them volumes that bled to Intel. Stocks run on rate of change: Intel going from dead to maybe not dead was a better long than TSMC going from alive to more alive. x.com  x.com