SMIC is one of the few low-valued Hong Kong-listed leaders of China's full-stack AI supply chain, and AI chip foundry should enter a long boom. China's AI capex is a tenth of the US's, and the binding constraint is chip manufacturing, specifically foundry capacity, not money, power, applications or materials. Solving it would let capex expand quickly. SMIC is catching up, with strong demand and tight capacity. Huawei and T-Head are unlisted and Cambricon looks pricey. x.com 

Tower Semiconductor and UMC stand to benefit as 8-inch legacy foundry capacity tightens, another Macronix-style squeeze. Per @jukan05, UMC is raising 8-inch wafer prices 10-15%, with its Taipei and Xiamen fabs running at about 105-108% utilization, while 12-inch hikes are smaller at 5-10%. The same dynamic is playing out in E-glass. The bullish view on both foundries sits alongside a non-consensus bet on GlobalFoundries' photonics business, which won AMD's PIC order. x.com  x.com 

UMC has a meaningful re-rating path into 2H26-2028, with the target raised to NT$215 at 25x 2027 EPS. Worries about no 2H26 price hike miss that this year's hikes are selective, with broad 10-30% increases coming in 1Q27. Utilization should reach about 93% for 12-inch and 90% for 8-inch by end-2026, with full 8-inch loading by 2H27. From 2028, an asset-light 12nm FinFET model, likely driven by Apple display drivers, and optical solutions add growth, with TFLN EPS of NT$0.7 and NT$1.6 in 2027-28. … Show more

SMIC should reach an all-time high soon because its gross profit could ramp quickly as foundry capacity everywhere else is sold out. It is one of four foundries able to ship 7nm chips and sits at the core of Huawei's ramp and China's strategic interests, so a levered tier-2 player should get a real utilization and pricing boost. It is not cheap, at 30x+ market cap to gross profit like TSMC, and its sanctions-list status limits offshore buyers. x.com  x.com  x.com 

Wafer Works is gaining pricing power, but the pace of its earnings inflection is now uncertain. It has raised 6-inch wafer prices twice this year and is signalling further increases for 8-inch and 12-inch wafers in the second half, with customer negotiations ongoing, per the Taiwan Commercial Times. Legacy lines such as automotive still drag despite growth in GaN, SOI and 12-inch, monthly revenue is lumpy, and significant capex for the 12-inch expansion clouds timing. x.com 

Navitas Semiconductor's GaN chips address the power bottleneck in AI data centers, where rising GPU power draw has pushed silicon power chips to their physical limits. Its CEO puts GaN's design value at $10,000-$15,000 per MW, and high-power market revenue rose 35% year over year in Q1. After a brutal 2025 of weak consumer demand, dilution and losses, the Navitas 2.0 pivot and Q1's return to sequential growth suggest the worst is over, with its AI power line moving into system validation. x.com 

X-FAB is a good name because 800V demand is booming for its traditional CMOS business, not because of CPO, which is too small and far from taking off. It can shift capacity from unprofitable automotive to profitable cloud-provider work, and its silicon carbide also targets 800V. It is a rare fab with products at about 1.5x book, cheap because past profits were weak; earnings should improve as Chinese foundry costs have doubled. A 2–2.5x book multiple looks achievable, but not a 5–10x return. … Show more

Magnachip's Q1 showed solid progress that still lost out to overheated sentiment, confirming the warning that merely meeting expectations wouldn't sustain April's momentum. Gross margin rose to 15.6% from 9.3%, the top of guidance, and inventory days fell to 77, suggesting genuine server MOSFET demand. But planned Fab 3 downtime in the second half and conservative Q2 guidance limit near-term growth. With $94.6M of cash against a $135M valuation, it must win AI-server power before the cash thins. … Show more

Taiwan's AI supply chain, led by TSMC, Hon Hai and MediaTek, should keep rising as foreign capital pours in and the world stays dependent on its manufacturing. Foreign investors set a weekly net-buying record of NT$188.5B despite Iran-war and oil pressure. About 90% of chips are made in Taiwan, and nowhere else can meet 2026-27 CoWoS targets for Google and NVIDIA; US fabs won't be at capacity for years. China fears look overblown. The main risk is hyperscalers cutting capex. x.com  x.com 

Amkor could fill its underused traditional packaging capacity, such as in the Philippines, at higher prices if a reported shortage materializes, lifting nearer-term revenue. IC design insiders say packaging providers have warned clients of a traditional packaging capacity deficit exceeding 20% by 2027, as AI server shipments drive demand for mature chips and absorb existing capacity. The main ramp still comes in early 2028 in Arizona, once TSMC and Nvidia work there takes off. x.com  x.com