The Circuit

In this episode of The Circuit, hosts Ben Bajarin n and Jay Goldberg speak with Mark Wade, CEO of IR Labs, and Jesse Leiter, VP of Capital Strategy and Investor Relations. The conversation focuses on the necessity of solving the interconnect bottleneck in large-scale AI data centers by transitioning to optical connectivity. Mark explains the immense complexity of integrating optical engines into advanced CMOS nodes and highlights how the release of ChatGPT accelerated the market's demand for these large-scale computing solutions. Additionally, the discussion explores IR Labs' strategic reliance on leading-edge foundries like TSMC, their ecosystem partnerships with tech...

In this episode of The Circuit, host Ben Bajarin sits down with Apple's product marketing and engineering leaders at Apple Park to unpack their latest silicon and hardware announcements. The discussion explores the benefits of Apple’s vertically integrated approach, diving into the transition to 2-nanometer process technology and its impact on performance, power efficiency, and advanced thermal management across the A20 Pro and M-series chips. The panel also highlights the architectural decisions driving robust on-device AI capabilities—such as the dual neural engine and unified memory—and underscores Apple's deep commitment to hardware-level security and privacy through innovations like t...

In this episode, Ben and Jay discuss the launch of their firm's new AI knowledge agent, Atlas, before diving into Broadcom's latest earnings and the growing complexity of modeling the custom ASIC market. They debate the semiconductor supply chain bottleneck, with Ben arguing that constraints will peak in 2027 before massive new capacity arrives in 2028, while Jay cautions that this incoming oversupply could shift pricing power and lower margins. Finally, they analyze Nvidia's acquisition of Hugging Face and explore the future of AI models, agreeing that while open and closed models will coexist, closed "frontier" models remain essential for enterprise...

Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg break down NVIDIA’s earnings, examining how supply constraints shape growth and rising component costs pressure margins. They discuss NVIDIA’s financing commitments to neoclouds and the risks of using its balance sheet to support the ecosystem. Marvell’s XPU-attach strategy offers another route into custom silicon, with questions around when its Google opportunity will convert into revenue.

From Hot Chips, Ben shares why competing inference architectures suggest the industry is still working out how to serve AI at scale. The conversation explores the software and system-design challenges facing accelerator startups, along with c...

In this episode of The Circuit, hosts Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg break down the shifting dynamics across the semiconductor landscape, from analog chips to custom silicon and corporate balance sheets.

In this episode of The Circuit, hosts Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg break down the evolving structural dynamics across optical networking, semiconductor manufacturing, and AI infrastructure financing. They begin by analyzing the divergent earnings from Lumentum and Coherent, pointing to margin pressures and the yield challenges Coherent faces during its transition to 6-inch indium phosphide wafers. This leads to a detailed debate on optical interconnect architectures—distinguishing Linear Pluggable Optics (LPO) from Near-Packaged Optics (NPO) and Co-Packaged Optics (CPO)—while noting that adoption remains largely rack-to-rack rather than internal to the rack due to manufacturing and serviceability bottlenecks. Turning to e...

n this episode of The Circuit, Ben and Jay unpack a busy week of tech earnings and the buzzing Future of Memory Summit. The hosts kick things off by analyzing AMD’s latest earnings, discussing why the street had a mixed reaction to a quarter that demonstrated solid, reliable execution and surprisingly bullish signals for data center CPU demand.

Ben then reports back from the Future of Memory Summit, where the convention center was completely packed—a clear sign of the times for the booming memory industry. He explains why the ecosystem around CXL (Comp...

In this episode of The Circuit, hosts Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg break down a packed earnings week across the technology and semiconductor sectors, grouping major updates into key themes around mobile markets and AI infrastructure. They analyze softness in mobile demand alongside severe supply chain bottlenecks impacting Apple, Qualcomm, ARM, and MediaTek, highlighting how surging AI demand is squeezing capacity across foundry and memory partners. The hosts then dive into hyperscaler CapEx trends from Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta, evaluating the transition from AI training to inference, the rising adoption of behind-the-meter power solutions, and severe labor constraints in...

In this episode of The Circuit, hosts Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg review major updates across the semiconductor industry, beginning with AMD’s Advancing AI Day where they discuss CEO Lisa Su’s performance, the technical details of the Helios rack-scale architecture, and AMD's strategic fit for inference with partners like Anthropic. They next unpack Intel’s strong quarterly earnings, pointing out that the company beat revenue and margin estimates while confirming customer traction for its 18A and 14A process nodes, despite mixed market reactions over its conservative CapEx approach. The hosts then analyze the broader semiconductor capital equipment (semica...

In this episode, Ben and Jay analyze the latest developments in the semiconductor industry, focusing on TSMC, ASML, Air, and the broader market implications of AI and chip manufacturing advancements. They explore how these trends impact supply chains, CapEx, and future growth prospects.

Key Topics:

In this episode of The Circuit, Ben and Jay dive into SK Hynix's ambitious US stock listing, discussing how the AI-driven memory boom and a need for deeper capital pools prompted the move, while speculating if companies like MediaTek might follow suit. The hosts also explore the fierce competition among frontier AI models, noting that enterprise evaluation is shifting toward token efficiency for knowledge work and emphasizing the growing importance of AI orchestration layers and data ownership. Additionally, they break down Wall Street's harsh reaction to ON Semiconductor's acquisition of Synaptics, attributing the stock drop to a lack of...

In this episode of The Circuit, Ben and Jay break down the recent volatility and AI fatigue hitting semiconductor stocks. They analyze how retail "tourists" and passive index funds might be driving market valuations ahead of actual fundamentals. The hosts also unpack the rumors surrounding Meta reportedly leasing data center capacity to Google, debating whether Mark Zuckerberg's broad AI vision is struggling to align with the company's core advertising model, or if the company is simply bartering excess compute for access to coding tools like Gemini. Finally, the conversation shifts to the evolving foundry landscape, highlighting Infineon's new 300mm...

 This episode of The Circuit covers a mix of tech industry tributes and major semiconductor financial updates. Hosts Ben and Jay begin by paying their respects to pioneering tech blogger and journalist Om Malik, who recently passed away. They then dive into Cerebras’s first earnings report as a public company, highlighting strong top-line demand for AI inference but noting investor concern over their complicated gross margins. Next, the hosts unpack Qualcomm’s Investor Day, focusing on the company's aggressive $15 billion data center revenue guidance for fiscal 2029, their "Dragonfly" custom ARM CPU roadmap, and their strategic acquisition of software start...

Key Topics:

AI infrastructure evolution
Server and rack engineering innovations
Analog components and power management
Semiconductor industry growth and GPU impact
Enterprise and hyperscaler strategies for differentiation
Cooling technologies and hybrid solutions
Networking and infrastructure for AI workloads
Multi-cloud and on-prem AI deployment trends

In this episode of The Circuit, Ben and Jay dive deep into Apple's WWDC announcements, unpacking the "applied AI" strategy behind the newly indexed Siri, system-level CPU scheduling updates, and Apple's surprising embrace of Nvidia for private cloud compute. Ben also shares his takeaways from the Nebius conference in San Francisco, analyzing their unique custom server racks and their positioning as a highly capable neo-cloud infrastructure provider. Finally, Jay reports back from his recent trip to China, sharing ground-level observations on why US entity list restrictions are losing their impact, how IoT chipmaker Espressif creatively markets globally via Reddit...

Welcome back to another episode of The Circuit with Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg! Broadcasting out of the post-Computex haze—with Jay still stationed somewhere in Asia —the guys dive into a hardware industry undergoing a massive transition. Computex is no longer just a traditional PC and motherboard showcase; it is officially the new epicenter of AI server and data center infrastructure. Alongside the hardware pivot, Ben and Jay break down Broadcom's recent earnings, discussing how a 20% post-earnings stock dip highlights a volatile market where long-term AI expectations are getting dangerously ahead of near-term deployment realities

n this episode of The Circuit, hosts Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg break down the latest tech earnings and shifting infrastructure narratives driving the AI boom. Recorded slightly late ahead of the Computex frenzy in Taipei, the duo kicks things off with a surprising reading recommendation: Pope Leo XIV’s balanced, 40,000-word encyclical on AI. Shifting to the markets, they analyze Marvell's solid quarter, highlighting how the transition from training to a heterogeneous inference era is shifting Wall Street's focus toward the company's robust optical and throughput networking portfolio rather than just core compute tiles. They also tackle the op...

In this episode of The Circuit, hosts Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg dive into the latest tectonic shifts across the technology and semiconductor sectors, starting with a deep dive into Nvidia's recent earnings report . They analyze Nvidia's impressive numbers—including $91 billion in revenue guidance and strong gross margins—and contrast that success with the stock's stagnant post-earnings performance, comparing the current market skepticism to Apple’s smartphone growth cycle around 2010 . The duo breaks down Nvidia's new segment reporting structure, debating the strategic implications of blending networking into data center revenue and splitting the segment into hyperscalers and "Neo clouds" . Ben th...

In this episode of The Circuit, hosts Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg dive into the rapidly shifting economics and structural changes across the semiconductor and AI industries. From the recent Cerebras IPO to the massive long-term forecast visibility in wafer fabrication equipment, they analyze whether current capital cycles align with the reality of enterprise AI demand. Finally, they debate how the "Angstrom era" and the end of Moore’s law are forcing a complete reinvention of chip manufacturing from scratch.

In this episode, Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg dive deep into the rapidly shifting landscape of semiconductor supply chains and the unexpected "CPU renaissance" driven by agentic AI. The duo explores the "ultimate constraint" currently bottlenecking the industry, breaks down the latest earnings from ARM and AMD, and analyzes why the "Neo Cloud" players might be facing a massive strategic deficit.

Key Discussion Points:

This episode of The Circuit features Jeremy Werner, SVP and GM of Micron’s Core Data Center Business Unit, discussing the transformative impact of AI on the memory and storage industry. Werner explains that the industry has shifted from a traditional cyclical model to a period of sustainable growth, driven by the unique demands of AI training and inference. He highlights the emergence of a "memory wall" in inference, where massive amounts of high-speed memory and storage are required to manage expanding context windows and avoid redundant recomputation. The conversation also covers Micron's efforts to innovate across the memory hi...

In this episode of The Circuit, Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg dive deep into an action-packed week for the semiconductor industry. Ben shares his firsthand insights from Google Next, detailing the launch of the new TPU v5p and v5i(referenced as 8T and 8I) and Google’s strategic shift toward disaggregated training and inference silicon. The duo then pivots to Intel’s surprisingly strong earnings, discussing whether the "CPU resurgence" and foundry improvements signal an end to the company’s existential crisis. Finally, they analyze the "drama" from the TSMC Symposium regarding High-NA EUV adoption and debate the lo...

In this episode of The Circuit, Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg analyze a pivotal week in tech, beginning with TSMC’s strong earnings and their strategic decision to ramp up CapEx and N3 production specifically to meet massive AI demand. The duo explores the industry-wide compute deficit impacting firms like Anthropic and the potential IPO of Cerebras, while discussing the fragmenting market for custom ASICs as Google explores design partners like Marvell and MediaTek. Finally, they weigh in on the end of an era at Apple with Tim Cook stepping down; they argue his greatest legacy was preserving the co...

Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg analyze recent developments in the semiconductor industry, AI advancements, and data center innovations, providing insights into market dynamics, strategic moves by Intel, and the future of AI hardware and software.

Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg discuss the latest developments in the semiconductor industry, focusing on MediaTek's strategic shift into ASICs, memory shortages, supply chain constraints, and Intel's recent acquisitions. They analyze market dynamics, technological advancements, and future trends shaping the industry.

This episode explores ARM's strategic shift into product manufacturing, the implications for the CPU market, and the evolving landscape of AI and memory technology. Hosts Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg analyze ARM's new CPU launches, market positioning, and the future of AI models like Mythos, providing insights into the industry's next phase.

Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg discuss Nvidia GTC, AI infrastructure, optical networking, and the future of semiconductor technology. They analyze Nvidia's strategic positioning, product innovations, and industry trends shaping the AI and data center landscape. They also talk OFC/optical trends and Micron earnings. 

In this episode of The Circuit, hosts Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg dive into NVIDIA’s strategic positioning within the AI infrastructure stack, colloquially referred to as a "five-layer cake". They dissect NVIDIA’s recent push into open-source models, comparing it to Intel’s historical dominance through Linux optimizations, while questioning the true intent behind NVIDIA’s $26 billion "investment" in open-source R&D. The conversation shifts to the rapidly evolving world of "agentic orchestration," where AI agents collaborate across different models to maximize efficiency and token spend. Finally, the duo explores the broader hardware ecosystem, including Meta’s ambitious six-month...

Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg analyze the latest earnings reports from Broadcom and Marvell, discuss the future of AI semiconductors, optical vs copper interconnects, and Apple's strategic moves in affordable devices. They explore industry trends, supply chain dynamics, and technological innovations shaping the semiconductor and consumer electronics markets.

In this episode, Ben and Jay discuss a whirlwind week of announcements in the tech industry, focusing on AMD's partnership with Meta, NVIDIA's impressive quarterly performance, and OpenAI's significant funding round. They explore the implications of these developments for the semiconductor market, the rise of AI agents, and the future of SaaS. The conversation highlights the importance of profitability, strategic partnerships, and the evolving competitive landscape in the tech sector.

In this episode of The Circuit, Ben Bajarin, Jay Goldberg, and Paul Karazuba discuss the current state of the semiconductor industry, focusing on the impact of tariffs, supply chain challenges, and the shift from copper to fiber in networking. They explore the inflection points driving demand for AI compute and the potential for mergers and acquisitions in the sector. The conversation highlights the complexities of navigating geopolitical tensions and the evolving landscape of technology and infrastructure.

In this episode, Ben and Jay discuss various topics related to the tech industry, focusing on hyperscalers, cloud computing, and the memory market. They analyze the earnings of Nebius and CoreWeave, the implications of heavy asset businesses, and the dynamics of AI and memory. The conversation also covers the performance of Applied Materials and networking companies like Cisco and Arista, highlighting the challenges and opportunities in these sectors.

In this episode, Ben and Jay discuss the significant surge in capital expenditure (CapEx) among major tech companies, dubbed 'CapEx Palooza.' They explore investor sentiment and market reactions to these expenditures, the implications of backlogs and demand in the tech sector, and the future of AI and cloud services. The conversation also delves into the dynamics of CapEx spending among hyperscalers, emerging trends in semiconductor mergers and acquisitions, and the impact of rising memory prices on consumer electronics. Additionally, they highlight the strategic acquisition of Silicon Labs by Texas Instruments and the potential of timing technologies in the...

This episode of The Circuit dives into the current "gold rush" of semiconductor earnings, navigating the tension between unprecedented demand and the hard physical constraints of the supply chain. Hosts Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg explore why the current Wafer Fab Equipment (WFE) cycle is structurally different from the past, the internal "compute wars" happening within hyperscalers like Microsoft and Meta, and the surprising volatility in the storage and analog markets.Whether it's the "AI hotel" backlog or the high-stakes memory negotiations at Apple, this discussion provides a deep look at the plumbing behind the AI revolution.

In this episode, Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg discuss Intel's recent earnings report, highlighting the company's strong Q4 performance but disappointing guidance due to wafer capacity constraints. They explore the challenges Intel faces in scaling its foundry operations, the market's reaction to the earnings call, and the strategic decisions being made by Intel's leadership. The conversation also delves into the complexities of advanced packaging and yield issues, as well as the future opportunities for Intel in the semiconductor industry and the importance of customer relations.

In this episode of The Circuit, Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg discuss the launch of Ben's new publication, "The Diligent Stack." The duo then performs a deep dive into TSMC’s recent earnings, analyzing the risks of semiconductor cyclicality, the massive CapEx requirements for the future, and the specific bottlenecks in advanced packaging (CoWoS). Later, they shift focus to OpenAI’s partnership with Cerebras and the introduction of ads to fund massive compute needs. Finally, they break down the latest data on GPU pricing, highlighting the significant premiums hyperscalers charge compared to NeoClouds and the difficulty of tracking pricing for...

In this episode, Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg discuss the highlights from CES 2023, focusing on the significant advancements in robotics, AI infrastructure, and the competitive landscape among major tech companies like NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel. They explore the themes of modularity in data centers, the evolving role of CPUs, and the challenges posed by memory supply constraints. The conversation also touches on the future of autonomous vehicles and the integration of AI in everyday technology, emphasizing the rapid pace of innovation in the tech industry.

In this conversation, Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg engage with Benedict Evans to explore the current state of AI development, its historical context, and future predictions. They discuss the potential for an AI bubble, the importance of productization for user adoption, and the varying levels of AI integration across different industries. The conversation also touches on the comparison between Nvidia and Sun Microsystems, highlighting the challenges and opportunities in the AI landscape.

In this episode, Ben Bajarin, Jay Goldberg, and Austin Lyons delve into the evolving landscape of networking, particularly in the context of AI and GPU technologies. They discuss the transition from traditional networking methods to more complex AI-driven networking, the significance of scaling strategies, and the critical role of SerDes in modern data centers. The conversation also touches on the ongoing debate between copper and optical networking solutions, highlighting the challenges and innovations in the field.

This discussion analyzes the evolving landscape of semiconductor networking and custom silicon, anchored by recent updates from Marvell and Broadcom. Ben and Jay review Marvell’s Industry Analyst Day, noting the company’s strategic pivot toward networking and optical interconnects over pure custom logic. They debate the technical and timeline challenges of shifting AI clusters from copper to optical (fiber) cabling, contrasting Google’s proprietary all-optical approach with the broader merchant market. The conversation then moves to Broadcom’s recent earnings, dissecting the market’s negative reaction to CEO Hawk Tan’s low-energy performance, the looming competitive threat of MediaTek at...