Semi / supply-chain.txt

Semiconductor Supply Chain

cradle_to_grave() : from sand to GPU. Where the value is locked, who holds the moat, and the Tier-2 inputs nobody watches.

Watchlist

Core Tier-1 choke points plus Tier-2 upstream / infrastructure enablers.

TickerTierRole
NVDAT1Fabless / AI GPU
TSMT1Foundry
ASMLT1EUV equipment
AMDT1Fabless
AVGOT1Fabless / IP
AMATT1Equipment
LRCXT1Equipment
ARMT1IP
ENTGT2Materials
LINT2High-purity gases
VRTT2Power / cooling
ETNT2Power

Cradle to Grave

  1. 01

    Raw Materials / Substrates

    Silicon ingots, wafers, base inputs

    Shin-Etsu, SUMCO, GlobalWafers

  2. 02

    EDA / IP

    Chip design software & licensed blueprints

    Synopsys, Cadence, Siemens, ARM

  3. 03

    Fabless

    Design chips, outsource fabbing

    NVIDIA, AMD, Broadcom, Qualcomm

  4. 04

    Equipment / Tooling

    The machines that print the work

    ASML, AMAT, LRCX, KLA, TEL

  5. 05

    Foundries

    Manufacture wafers at scale

    TSMC, Samsung, GlobalFoundries

  6. 06

    Packaging / CoWoS

    Chiplets, advanced 2.5D/3D packaging

    TSMC CoWoS, Amkor, ASE

  7. 07

    Memory / HBM

    High-bandwidth memory stacks

    SK Hynix, Samsung, Micron

  8. 08

    Systems / Datacenter

    Infrastructure, power, cooling

    NVIDIA, Vertiv, Eaton, Arista

Upstream Ingredients & Secondary MarketsTier-2 Critical Inputs

Raw Silicon & Substrates

The wafers every chip is printed on.

Shin-Etsu (4063.T), SUMCO (3436.T), GlobalWafers (6488.TWO)

Photoresists & Specialty Chemicals

Light-sensitive materials for lithography.

Tokyo Ohka Kogyo (4186.T), JSR Corp, DuPont (DD), Entegris (ENTG)

Specialized Optics & Laser Sources

The mirrors and lasers behind EUV.

Carl Zeiss (ASML EUV mirrors), Trumpf (lasers)

High-Purity Gases

Process gases at ppb purity for fabs.

Linde (LIN), Air Liquide (AI.PA)

ABF & Advanced Substrates

Build-up film for dense packaging.

Ajinomoto (2802.T), Ibiden (4062.T), Unimicron (3037.TW)

Datacenter Infrastructure & Power/Cooling

The electrical and thermal backbone.

Vertiv (VRT), Eaton (ETN), Arista Networks (ANET)