Report

PSA Global Semiconductors: Opportunities & Risks from the AI Chip Boom

This report looks at the potential for the AI chip market and at who the winners and losers might be.
Underlyings
10x Genomics Inc Class A

3i Infrastructure PLC

3i Infrastructure is an investment company. Co. invests in infrastructure businesses and assets. Co.'s portfolio consisted of Elenia, an electricity distribution; Anglian Water Group, a water utility; Oystercatcher, an oil product storage terminal; Cross London Trains, a passenger train fleet; ESVAGT, an emergency rescue and response vessels and wind farm maintenance support vessel; Infinis, a generator of electricity from landfill gas; TCR, ground support equipment in airport; Wireless Infrastructure Group, communication tower; and Valorem, an onshore wind developer. Co. invests in various sectors, such as utilities, transportation/logistics, natural resources/energy, and communications.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

Advanced Micro Devices is a semiconductor company. The company primarily provides x86 microprocessors, as standalone devices or as incorporated into an accelerated processing unit, chipsets, graphics processing units (GPUs), data center and personnel GPUs, and development services; server and embedded processors, semi-custom System-on-Chip products, development services and technology for game consoles. The company also licenses portions of its intellectual property portfolio. The company's segments are: Computing and Graphics, which consists of desktop, notebooks, commercial, and chipsets products; and Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom, which includes server processors, and embedded P\processors products.

Advantest Corp.

Advantest and its consolidated subsidiaries manufacture and sell semiconductor and component test system products and mechatronics-related products such as test handlers and device interfaces. Co. also engages in research and development activities and provides maintenance and support services associated with these products. Co.'s principal business segments are semiconductor and component test system; mechatronics system; and services, support and others. Product lines include test systems for memory semiconductors and non-memory semiconductors; test handlers, mechatronic-applied products, and for handling semiconductor devices.

Amazon.com Inc.

Amazon.com serves consumers through its online and physical stores. The company also manufactures and sells electronic devices, including Kindle, Fire tablet, Fire TV, Echo, and Ring, and the company develops and produces media content. The company operates customer service centers and provides programs that enable sellers to grow their businesses, sell their products in its stores, and fulfill orders through the company The company serves developers and enterprises of various sizes, including start-ups, government agencies, and academic institutions, through its Amazon Web Services segment, which provides a set of global compute, storage, database, and other service offerings. The company also provides services, such as advertising.

Apple Inc.

Apple designs, manufactures and markets smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables and accessories, and sells a variety of related services. The company's products include: iPhone; Mac; iPad; and wearables, home and accessories, which includes AirPods?, Apple TV?, Apple Watch?, Beats? products, HomePod?, iPod touch? and other Apple-branded and third-party accessories. The company's services include: digital content stores and streaming services; AppleCare, which includes AppleCare + (AC+) and the AppleCare Protection Plan; iCloud, which is the company's cloud service; licensing; and other services, which include Apple Arcade?, Apple Card?, Apple News+, and Apple Pay, a cashless payment service.

Applied Materials Inc.

Applied Materials provides manufacturing equipment, services and software to the semiconductor, display and related industries. The company's segments are: Semiconductor Systems, which develops, manufactures and sells a range of manufacturing equipment used to fabricate semiconductor chips; Applied Global Services, which provides integrated solutions to support equipment and fab performance and productivity; and Display and Adjacent Markets, which is comprised of products for manufacturing liquid crystal displays, organic light-emitting diodes and other display technologies for TVs, monitors, laptops, personal computers, electronic tablets, smart phones, and other consumer-oriented devices.

ARM Cement Ltd

Broadcom Inc.

Broadcom, via its subsidiaries, is a designer, developer and supplier of a range of semiconductor and infrastructure software solutions. The company develops semiconductor devices with a focus on digital and mixed signal complementary metal oxide semiconductor based devices and analog III-V based products. The company provides products that are used in end products such as enterprise and data center networking, home connectivity, set-top boxes, broadband access, telecommunication equipment, smartphones and base stations, data center servers and storage systems, and factory automation. The company has three segments: semiconductor solutions, infrastructure software and intellectual property licensing.

DELIVEROO PLC

Facebook Inc. Class A

Facebook is building and engaging products that enable people to connect and share with friends and family through mobile devices, personal computers, virtual reality headsets, and in-home devices. The company's products include: Facebook, which enables people to connect, share, discover, and communicate with each other on mobile devices and personal computers; Instagram, which is a place where people can express themselves through photos, videos, and private messaging, and explore their interests in businesses, creators and communities; Messenger and WhatsApp, which are messaging applications; and Oculus, which connects people through its Oculus virtual reality products.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES INC

Hitachi Chemical Company Ltd.

Hitachi Chemical and its affiliates are mainly engaged in the manufacture, process, and sale of functional materials and advanced components and systems. Co.'s principal products include electronics materials, such as semiconductor epoxy molding compounds and die bonding paste and insulating varnishes; inorganic materials, such as lithium-ion batteries materials and carbon products; functional resin and adhesive film for display; photographic sensitive films; automotive products, such as molded plastics, friction materials and powder metal products; automotive batteries, industrial batteries and capacitor; electrical equipment, such as printed wiring boards; and diagnostics equipment.

Hitachi Ltd.

Hitachi and its subsidiaries are engaged in the development, manufacture and sale of diversified product mix ranging from electricity generation systems to consumer products and electronic devices. Co.'s businesses are diverse, and include information and telecommunication systems, social infrastructure and industrial systems, electronic systems and equipment, construction machinery, high functional materials and components, automotive systems, life & eco systems, financial services, and others including logistics services, optical disk drive, as well as real estate business.

JUST EAT plc

Just Eat operates a digital marketplace for takeaway food delivery. The Just Eat apps and websites enable customers to search for restaurants in their area using a variety of criteria, such as by cuisine choice and preference for delivery. Customers can read previous customer reviews and examine the menu. Details of the order are sent to the restaurant via Co.'s proprietary technology. The customer can pay online or by cash. Co. has four reportable segments: U.K., Australia and New Zealand, Established Markets and Developing Markets. Established markets include the operations in Canada, Denmark, France, Ireland, Norway and Switzerland. Developing Markets include Italy, Mexico and Spain.

Just Eat Takeaway.com N.V.

Takeaway.com NV. Takeaway.com NV, formerly Takeaway Com Holding BV, is a company based in the Netherlands that operates an online food delivery marketplace. The Company focuses on connecting consumers and restaurants, and allows users to order food from nearby restaurants and have the food delivered to their homes. The Company transmits the order placed by customers and forwards it to restaurants, which prepare and deliver the meal. It is present in Portugal, France, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania and Vietnam, and operates the Websites Lieferando.de, Lieferservice.at, Lieferservice.ch, Pizza.be, Pizza.fr, Pizza.lu, Pizza.pl, Pyszne.pl, BGmenu.com, Oliviera.ro, Takeaway.com, Thuisbezorgd.nl and Vietnammm.com. The platforms feature various kinds of restaurants.

Lam Research Corporation

Lam Research is a supplier of wafer fabrication equipment and services to the semiconductor industry. The company designs, manufactures, markets, refurbishes, and services semiconductor processing equipment used in the fabrication of integrated circuits. The company's customer base includes semiconductor memory, foundry, and integrated device manufacturers that make products such as non-volatile memory, dynamic random-access memory, and logic devices. The company's services include customer service, spares, improvement, and refurbishment of its deposition, etch, and clean products. The company sells its products and services to companies in the United States, China, Europe, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, and Taiwan.

Lasertec Corp.

Lasertec is mainly engaged in the development, manufacture, and sale of semiconductor-related products and other products, as well as the provision of services for its products. Co.'s principal products include systems related to defect inspection/measurement of mask, mask blanks and wafer; systems related to defect inspection of large size photomask and PV cell conversion efficiency distribution measurement system; and systems related to microscope based on confocal optics. Along with its subsidiaries, Co. offers its products and services in Japan as well as in North America, Europe, and Asia regions.

Marvell Technology Group Ltd.

Marvell Technology Group is a semiconductor provider of application-specific products. The company is focused on the development of System-on-a-Chip devices, utilizing its technology portfolio of intellectual property in the areas of analog, mixed-signal, digital signal processing, and embedded and standalone integrated circuits. The company develops integrated hardware platforms along with software that incorporates digital computing technologies. In storage, the company is engaged in fibre channel products and data storage controller solutions spanning cloud, enterprise, edge and personal computing markets. The company's networking products include ethernet solutions, embedded processors and WiFi connectivity solutions.

McDonald's Corporation

McDonald's franchises and operates McDonald's restaurants. The company's menu includes hamburgers and cheeseburgers, Big Mac, Quarter Pounder with Cheese, Filet-O-Fish, several chicken sandwiches, Chicken McNuggets, wraps, fries, shakes, McFlurry desserts, sundaes, soft serve cones, pies, soft drinks, coffee, McCafe beverages and other beverages. The company's restaurants in the United States and various international markets provide a full or limited breakfast menu. Breakfast offerings may include Egg McMuffin, Sausage McMuffin with Egg, McGriddles, biscuit and bagel sandwiches and hotcakes. The restaurants also sells a variety of other products during limited-time promotions

Microsoft Corporation

Microsoft is a technology company. The company develops and supports software, services, devices, and solutions. The company provides an array of services, including cloud-based solutions as well as solution support and consulting services. The company also delivers relevant online advertising. The company's products include operating systems; cross-device productivity applications; server applications; business solution applications; desktop and server management tools; software development tools; and video games. The company also designs, manufactures, and sells devices, including personal computers, tablets, gaming and entertainment consoles, other devices, and related accessories.

NEC Corp.

NEC is the parent company of a group engaged in the manufacture and sale of computers, software, communications equipment, and electric devices. Co. operates in four business segments: public, enterprise, telecom carrier, and system platform. Co. supplies integration, maintenance and support, and outsourcing services and system equipment for government, public and enterprises; network infrastructure to telecom carriers; hardware such as servers and mainframes, software, enterprise networks solutions. In addition, Co. also provides smart energy such as electrodes and energy storage systems, as well as smartphones, mobile phones, "BIGLOBE" Internet services and lighting equipment.

Netflix Inc.

Netflix is engaged in subscription streaming entertainment service including TV series, documentaries and feature films across a variety of genres and languages. Members can watch as much as they want, anytime, anywhere, on any internet-connected screen. Members can play, pause and resume watching, without commercials. Additionally, several members in the United States subscribe to the company's DVD-by-mail service. The company improves its streaming content with a focus on a programming mix of content. The company's members can download a selection of titles for offline viewing. The company operates its business as a global operating segment.

NVIDIA Corporation

NVIDIA engages in graphics processing unit (GPU)-based visual computing and accelerated computing platforms. The company has two segments, GPU and Tegra Processor, which are based on a single underlying architecture. The company's GPU product brands are aimed at markets including GeForce for gamers; Quadro for designers; Tesla and DGX for artificial intelligence data scientists and big data researchers; and GRID for cloud-based visual computing users. The company's Tegra brand integrates an entire computer onto a single chip, and incorporates GPUs and multi-core CPUs to drive supercomputing for autonomous robots, drones, and cars, as well as for game consoles and mobile gaming and entertainment devices.

Ocado Group PLC

Ocado Group is an online grocery retailer. Co.'s principal activities are grocery retailing and the development and monetisation of Intellectual Property and technology used for the online retailing, logistics and distribution of grocery and consumer goods. Co. has two reportable segments: Retail, which provides online grocery and general merchandise offerings to customers within the U.K.; and Solutions, which provides end-to-end online retail solutions to corporate customers within and outside of the U.K. OCADO retails brand include ocado, fetch, Sizzle, and FABLED marie Claire. OCADO solutions brand include Groupe Casino, Sobeys, and Morrisons.

Opto Tech Corp.

OPTOTECH CORPORATION is a Taiwan-based company principally engaged in the manufacture and distribution of optoelectronic semiconductor components and related products. The Company mainly provides light emitting diode (LED) components, including LED chips and infrared emitting diode chips; light detecting diode components, including light detecting diode chips, optoelectronic detecting semiconductor chips and high power electronic components, as well as system products, including LED information display screens, LED lighting systems and LED automobile lights. The Company also provides LED packaging components. The Company distributes its products in domestic market and to overseas markets, including Europe, the Americas, Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia and others.

Oracle Corporation

Oracle provides products and services that address enterprise information technology (IT) environments. The company's products and services include applications and infrastructure offerings. The company's cloud and license business engages in the sale, marketing and delivery of its applications and infrastructure technologies through cloud and on-premise deployment models including its cloud services and license support offerings; and its cloud license and on-premise license offerings. The company's hardware business provides Oracle Engineered Systems, servers, storage, industry-specific hardware, operating systems, virtualization, management and other hardware-related software to support diverse IT environments.

PepsiCo Inc.

PepsiCo is a food and beverage company. The company's segments include: Frito-Lay North America, which includes food and snack businesses in the United States and Canada; Quaker Foods North America, which includes cereal, rice, pasta and other food businesses in the United States and Canada; PepsiCo Beverages North America, which includes beverage businesses in the United States and Canada; Latin America, which includes beverage, food and snack businesses in Latin America; Europe, which includes beverage, food and snack businesses in Europe; and Africa, Middle East and South Asia, which includes beverage, food and snack businesses in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.

Procter & Gamble Company

Procter & Gamble provides consumer packaged goods. The company's products are sold primarily through mass merchandisers, e-commerce, grocery stores, membership club stores, drug stores, department stores, distributors, wholesalers, baby stores, beauty stores, other stores and pharmacies. The company has five reportable segments: Beauty, which includes hair care, and skin and personal care products; Grooming, which includes shave care products; Health Care, which includes oral care and personal health care products; Fabric and Home Care, which includes fabric care and home care products; and Baby, Feminine and Family Care, which includes baby care, feminine care and family care products.

Procter & Gamble Health

Procter & Gamble Health Limited, formerly Merck Limited, is engaged in manufacturing and marketing of pharmaceuticals, bulk drugs, fine chemicals and pigments. The Company operates through two segments: Pharmaceuticals and Chemicals. Its geographical segments include Domestic and Exports. Its Pharmaceutical segment consists of ethicals used in the treatment of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, consumer healthcare products and vitamins-based formulations. The Pharmaceuticals segment has two business divisions: BioPharma and Consumer Health. Its Chemicals segment includes bulk drugs and pigments. It consists of two divisions: Pharma Chem Solutions and Performance Materials. The Pharm Chem Solutions division offers products and solutions, including active pharmaceutical ingredients, excipients. It offers products, such as vitamin E, guaizulene, thaiminedisulphide (TDS).

QUALCOMM Incorporated

Renesas Electronics Corporation

Renesas Electronics is a semiconductor solution provider. Co.'s solutions include electronic products and systems for communications, computing and peripherals, consumer electronics, as well as automotive and industrial sectors. Along with its subsidiaries and associated company, Co. operates in four business segments: automotive, industrial, broad-based and other semiconductors. Co.'s principal products are microcontrollers, microprocessors, smart analogs, secure MCUs (Microcontroller Units), embedded systems platform, software, tools, IPDs (Intelligent Power Devices), power MOSFET (Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors), analog and mixed-signal ICs, and transistors.

SAP SE

SAP is engaged in selling licenses for software solutions and related support services. Co. derives its revenue from fees charged to its customers for the use of its cloud solutions and for licensing of on-premise software products and solutions. Additional sources of revenue are support, professional services, development, training, and other services. Co. has more than 300,000 customers in over 180 countries. Co.'s SAP HANA platform holds the ability to simplify both the user experience and the overall IT landscape, creating a smaller data footprint, increased system throughput, and easier data processing and operation.

SCREEN Holdings Co. Ltd

Screen Holdings is a holding company. Co., through its subsidiaries and associated companies, is engaged in the manufacture and sale of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, printing-related equipment, printed-circuit board-related equipment and flat panel displays ("FPDs") manufacturing equipment. Co.'s principal products include single wafer cleaner, wet station, scrubber and laser annealer, full-color variable printing system, thermal plate recorder, direct imaging system, automatic optical inspection system, automatic final visual inspection system, coater/developer, LIA plasma CVD/sputter equipment, coater/dryer, coater/developer for LTPS and others.

Snap Inc. Class A

Snap is a camera company. The company's primary product, Snapchat, is a camera application that helps people to communicate visually through short videos and images called Snaps. The company's products are: Camera, which includes tools for people to personalize their Snaps; Chat, which includes interacting with friends on Snapchat; Discover, which includes providing Stories and Shows from publishers, creators, and the community; Snap Map, which shows a live map of the user's location; Memories, which enables users to save the Snaps they create in a personal collection called Memories; and Spectacles, which includes creating Memories by using Spectacles, which are the company's sunglasses that make Snaps.

Snowflake Inc. Class A

SoftBank Corp.

SoftBank Group Corp.

SoftBank Group is a holding company. Domestic Telecommunications business provides mobile communication services, mobile devices, broadband services to retail customers, and telecom services to corporate customers in Japan. Sprint business provides mobile communication services and fixed-line telecommunication services in the U.S. Yahoo Japan business operates Internet-based advertising and e-commerce business. Distribution business distributes mobile devices overseas, and sells software and mobile device accessories in Japan. ARM business designs microprocessor intellectual property and related technology. SoftBank Vision Fund & Delta Fund business is engaged in the investment activities.

Software AG

Software is a holdinc company. Co. is engaged as a provider of process and integration software. Co.'s operates through three reporting lines: business process management or Business Process Excellence (BPE), data management or Enterprise Transaction Systems (ETS) and Consulting. The BPE segment consists of software products for integrated solutions in the field of Business Process Management for organizations of all industries and sizes. The ETS segment is engaged in providing database solutions for mainframes and the development of mainframe-based IT systems. The Consulting segment includes all consulting and services pertaining to the BPE, ETS and IDS Scheer Consulting business lines.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. Sponsored ADR

Tesco PLC

Tesco is a retailer. Co. and its subsidiaries are engaged in retailing and associated activities in the U.K. and Republic of Ireland; and Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Co. provides retail banking and insurance services through Tesco Bank in the U.K. Co. sells and services of motor and home insurance policies underwritten by Tesco Underwriting Limited, or in a minority of cases by a third-party underwriter. As of Feb 25 2017, Co. had a total of 6,809 stores worldwide, including 256 franchised stores.

Tesla Inc

Tesla designs, develops, manufactures, sells and leases electric vehicles and energy generation and storage systems, and provides services related to its products. The company operates as two reportable segments: automotive, which includes the design, development, manufacturing, sales, and leasing of electric vehicles as well as sales of automotive regulatory credits; and energy generation and storage, which includes the design, manufacture, installation, sales, and leasing of solar energy generation and energy storage products, services related to such products, and sales of solar energy system incentives.

Tokyo Electron Ltd.

Tokyo Electron is a supplier of semiconductor production equipment ("SPE") and flat panel display ("FPD") selling through global network that spans Japan, the U.S., Europe and Asia. Co.'s principal products are coater/developers, plasma etch systems, thermal processing systems, single wafer deposition systems, cleaning systems (auto wet station, single wafer cleaning system, pre-clean system and scrubber system), wafer prober, FPD coater/developers and FPD plasma etch/ash systems. In addition, Co., through its subsidiaries, is engaged in the provision of transportation services, insurance services, as well as the support services for Co.'s photovoltaic cell ("PV") production equipment.

Uber Technologies Inc.

Uber Technologies provides ride hailing services. The company develops application for road transportation, navigation, ride sharing, and payment processing solutions. The company serves customers in the United States and Canada, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific markets, excluding its discontinued China operations.

VMware Inc. Class A

VMware is engaged in the development and application of technologies with x86 server-based computing, separating application software from the underlying hardware. The company's product and service solutions are organized into three main product groups: Software-Defined Data Center, which is designed to transform the data center into an on-demand service that addresses application requirements; Hybrid Cloud Computing, which is comprised of VMware Cloud Provider Program and VMware Cloud Services; and End-User Computing solution, which consists of VMware Workspace ONE, its digital workspace platform, that includes Unified Endpoint Management and VMware Horizon application and desktop virtualization.

Walmart Inc.

Walmart is engaged in global operations of retail, wholesale and other units, as well as eCommerce, located throughout the U.S., Africa, Argentina, Canada, Central America, Chile, China, India, Japan, Mexico and the U.K. The company's operations are conducted in three reportable segments: Walmart U.S., which is a mass merchandiser of consumer products, operating under the Walmart and Walmart Neighborhood Market brands, as well as walmart.com, jet.com and other eCommerce brands; Walmart International, which includes various formats divided into retail, wholesale and other categories; and Sam's Club, which is a membership-only warehouse club that also operates samsclub.com.

Provider
Pelham Smithers Associates Ltd
Pelham Smithers Associates Ltd

Founded in 2009, Pelham Smithers Associates (PSA) provides market intelligence on Asian technology, focusing in particular on Japan. The industries covered by our team of specialists are: consumer electronics, telecomms, pharmaceuticals, internet, electronic parts and materials, automotive technology, retail and capital goods. 

PSA produces both company and sector reports. The focus of PSA’s research is to identify winners and losers as new technologies impact the top and bottom lines of corporations. Critical to our research is the clear explanation of how these new technologies work and how they impact companies and industries. 

The founding partners have worked closely together for twenty years and the team has more than doubled in size since 2012. 

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Pelham Smithers

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