The Circuit

Hosted by Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg

Technology Business

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Episodes

181

Latest episode

Aug 2026

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About the show

A podcast about the business and market of semiconductors

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August 23, 2026Episode 18238 min

EP 189: Analyzing ADI Earnings, Custom Silicon Shifts, and Semiconductor Debt

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. Analog Devices (ADI) & The Data Center Wave: ADI reports a strong quarter, driven by a doubling of its data center revenue and expanding opportunities in 800-volt data center architectures. Ben and Jay discuss ADI’s conservative focus on SAM (Serviceable Addressable Market) over TAM, high gross margins, and how analog content per gigawatt is becoming a key driver for power, safety, and sub-volt conversion. AI Sentiment vs. Market Reality: The hosts address the hype around AI "curing cancer," clarifying Moderna’s recent bio-informatics announcement, and discuss the growing local friction surrounding massive data center construction projects. Custom ASICs & Marvell’s Google Win: Analysis of Marvell’s expanding relationship with Google for periphery XPU attach, optical interconnects, and CXL. They unpack why this is a massive win for Marvell’s diversification and clear up misconceptions regarding Broadcom's market position. The Era of "Balance Sheet Competition": Semiconductor giants are using equity, warrants, and Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) to fund data center capacity. Ben and Jay debate the risks of chip companies taking on debt-like obligations to compete with NVIDIA.

August 17, 2026Episode 18156 min

EP 188: The Wild West of Optical, Cisco's AI Hack, and Is Compute an Investable Asset

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 enterprise networking, the hosts highlight Cisco's resurgence powered by its proprietary Silicon One chips and its clever use of Anthropic's Mythos model to run security audits that drive hardware refreshes. Applied Materials' record quarter is evaluated next, where eight quarters of visibility backed by Long-Term Agreements (LTAs) demonstrate structural supply chain shifts, despite market hesitancy likely tied to Intel's pending capex plans. Finally, they examine NVIDIA's proposed $500 billion data center financing initiative, debating whether vendor-backed capital creates circular demand or serves as a necessary bridge for capital markets, while challenging Jensen Huang's assertion that compute should be viewed as a standalone, non-obsolescent asset class.

August 9, 2026Episode 18040 min

EP 187: Inside the Future of Memory Summit & AMD’s "Boring" Bullishness

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 (Compute Express Link) is finally maturing, driven by the rise of rack-scale AI architectures and the urgent need for hyperscalers to reuse vast amounts of legacy DDR4 memory for inference workloads. Finally, the duo debates the trajectory of the current memory supercycle—touching on the durability of long-term agreements (LTAs)—and highlights why SiTime is perfectly positioned to benefit from the growing need for precision timing and synchronization in AI data centers

August 3, 2026Episode 1791 hr 4 min

EP 186: Mobile Bottlenecks, Skyrocketing AI CapEx, and the Compute Crunch

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 electrical trades. Finally, they address the growing reliance on debt financing for data center expansion and unpack the market mechanics behind recent stock volatility and hedge fund unwinds.

July 27, 2026Episode 17854 min

EP 185: AMD Advancing AI, Intel Earnings and WFE Demand

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 (semicap) sector, arguing that increased CapEx from key fab operators will drive sustained demand for equipment makers. Finally, they cover Texas Instruments’ solid quarterly report, noting signs of recovery in automotive and industrial markets along with surging demand for power semiconductors used in AI data centers.

July 20, 2026Episode 17759 min

Ep 184: Earnings TSMC/ASML/AEHR, State of AI Semis

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: TSMC's CapEx increase and demand signals ASML's capacity expansion and high NA EUV technology Air's role in semiconductor testing and optical advancements Market sentiment and investor rotation in semiconductors The impact of AI on chip demand and manufacturing

July 14, 2026Episode 17647 min

EP 183: SKHynix IPO, AI Model Wars, and NVIDIA Supply Chain Rumors

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 clear corporate messaging regarding both sprawling businesses. Finally, the duo analyzes the rumors surrounding Nvidia's product roadmaps, concluding that while minor delays won't impact Nvidia's overall revenue given the massive compute demand, these shifts can trigger significant market volatility for the smaller optical and supply chain players dependent on those exact timelines.

July 6, 2026Episode 17559 min

EP 182: AI Fatigue , Meta's Neo-Cloud Rumors , and Samsung's Foundry Comeback

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 fab in Germany and Samsung's strategic use of its memory business to win new logic deals. They conclude with a warning about the unprecedented pricing power and margin expansion currently rippling through the entire semiconductor supply chain

June 29, 2026Episode 1741 hr 2 min

EP 181: Cerebras Earnings, QCOM Investor Day, Micron Earnings and the Memory Mafia

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 startup Modular. Finally, they analyze Micron's massive earnings report, detailing a staggering 60% quarter-on-quarter memory price surge that has caught major buyers like Apple by surprise, concluding with a lively discussion on the "Game of Thrones" style market dynamics driving the memory industry.

June 22, 2026Episode 17348 min

EP 180: HPE Reflections on AI Compute Racks, Analog Analog Analog Semis.

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