Where the math is defensible.
Long-form research on live enterprise decisions. Publication is selective. Every number traces to a named source. No takes without evidence.
Korean chipmakers in 2026: Samsung and SK Hynix between US export controls and China demand
Korea's twin giants face a structural squeeze in 2026 as Washington tightens advanced compute controls while Beijing remains their largest single market and Texas and Indiana fabs come online.
Korea sits at the center of the 2026 semiconductor trade map. Samsung and SK Hynix together produce roughly 60 percent of the world's DRAM and 45 percent of NAND, while SK Hynix dominates HBM3e shipments to Nvidia. They also operate large memory fabs inside China that depend on Validated End User authorizations from the US Bureau of Indus...
TSMC's Three Continent Fab Ramp: Arizona, Kumamoto, Dresden, and the Cost of Geographic Diversification
Arizona Phase 1 production live, Phase 2 4 nm pulled forward, Kumamoto JASM Phase 1 in volume, Dresden ESMC ground broken, and capex per wafer above the Taiwan baseline. The geographic diversification is happening; the unit economics still favor Hsinchu and Tainan.
TSMC's overseas footprint is no longer a slide deck. Arizona Fab 21 Phase 1 began commercial 4 nm production in 2024 with first revenue in late 2024 and Apple, AMD, and Nvidia chipsets ramping through 2025. Phase 2, originally scheduled for 3 nm in 2028, was pulled into a 4 nm and 3 nm dual-node configuration with first wafer outs targete...
The CHIPS Act and the Taiwan share that went up, not down
US imports of integrated circuits from Taiwan climbed from 11 percent of the total in 2021 to 28 percent in 2024. Three years into a $52 billion reshoring push, the trade data is pointing the other way. Here is what it actually means.
The CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 committed $52.7 billion to rebuilding US semiconductor manufacturing. Three and a half years in, Commerce has awarded roughly $33 billion of the $36 billion manufacturing pot. Yet US imports of integrated circuits from Taiwan have more than doubled and Taiwan's share of the US HS 8542 import basket has go...