Applied Materials' larger stake in BE Semiconductor points to long-term hybrid-bonding potential despite delayed adoption in HBM. Applied agreed to raise its BESI holding from 9% to about 20%; HBM adoption timelines may not reflect the prospects for the technology as a whole. x.com  x.com 

Nvidia's co-investment supports Samsung Electro-Mechanics' substrate expansion because it expects capacity to be tight when it needs supply. Samsung Electro-Mechanics says dedicated compute and switch substrate supply to Nvidia starts this year, with double-digit annual volume growth; by 2028 Nvidia orders should take a substantial share of its package-substrate capacity. Global customers fund part of its 6.78 trillion won expansion, but new Sejong output starts in September 2028. x.com 

ASMPT should outperform BE Semiconductor over the next two years because hybrid bonding for HBM has slipped toward 2028, keeping older bonding in use longer. At Hot Chips 2026, SK hynix signaled it will extend MR-MUF through 16-high HBM4; per Yole, wafer-to-wafer hybrid bonding arrives around 2028. ASMPT specializes in the conventional bonding that is sticking around; BESI loses its main near-term driver. BESI is no slam-dunk short, since Intel's Diamond Rapids uses hybrid bonding in chiplets. … Show more

Buyer-funded expansion at Ibiden signals a real substrate shortage, with added supply only starting in early 2028. Per an Nvidia press release quoted by paurooteri, Nvidia is providing billions upfront to reserve capacity at Ibiden's Ohno plant, aiming to triple output. Micron's customers similarly prepaid to lock memory supply. x.com 

Leading-edge wafer demand is bullish for semiconductor equipment makers because TSMC is already at over 100% utilization on those nodes. Per Ben Bajarin, rack-scale pods drive more wafers across categories. Close collaboration at the leading edge also gives equipment makers and TSMC visibility into plans years ahead. x.com  x.com 

TSMC sits at the end of the money trail as agentic AI reprices the chip supply chain, and Google's $40 billion Anthropic deal is the clearest proof. That deal is effectively a prepaid inference contract for 5GW of TPU capacity over five years, and every TPU flows through TSMC, where advanced-node demand runs about 3x supply. Agentic AI burns 10-100x more compute per session than a chatbot. CoWoS packaging is the tighter bottleneck, with prices rising 10-20% a year, double logic wafers. x.com  … Show more

BESI should see a huge hybrid bonding order wave, especially from HBM4E and HBM5 roadmaps, and its price is compelling after the July selloff. x.com 

TSMC captures more value as advanced nodes and packaging expand revenue beyond wafer volumes. In Q3 2026, N2 rose from 3% to 8% of wafer revenue, HPC reached 68%, and revenue grew 50.9% in TWD versus 9.6% wafer-shipment growth. N2 ramping squeezed gross margin, yet TSMC generated nearly $15B in free cash flow after $13.8B of capex. TSMC expects 2026-28 capex significantly above the prior three years; Wendell Huang says revenue growth should outpace capex growth if they do their job right. x.com  … Show more

TSMC's strong AI demand is straining supply, while solid company fundamentals and attractive semiconductor valuations make an abrupt stop to its advance unlikely. TSMC's Wendell Huang expects 2026-28 capex to be significantly higher than in the previous three years to support customer growth; he says most capex is tied to long-term demand. x.com 

TSMC's capex plans suggest the AI chip trade is not over for semiconductors, Nvidia, AMD and Micron. CFO Wendell Huang cites robust multi-year demand, including agentic AI, behind $60-64 billion of 2026 capex; TSMC expects 2026-28 spending to be even more significantly higher than in the prior three years. Hyperscaler earnings should reinforce the higher AI capex trajectory. CoreWeave-driven fears feel overdone, though the neocloud model does not appeal long term. x.com  x.com