The Hot Take: AMD seems to be out performing Intel & Nvidia on the market, while Nvidia is still the preferred Ai holy-grail? Just seems odd.
While Nvidia has dominated the "infrastructure boom" since 2022's launch of ChatGPT and "the generative AI craze," CNBC writes that "This week offered the starkest illustration yet of what MIzuho analyst Jordan Klein said could be a 'changing of the guard in AI.'"
Chipmakers Advanced Micro Devices and Intel notched gains of about 25%, while memory maker Micron jumped more than 37% and fiber-optic cable maker Corning climbed about 18%. All four of those companies have more than doubled in value this year, with Intel leading the way, up well over 200%. Nvidia, meanwhile, is only slightly ahead of the Nasdaq in 2026, gaining 15% for the year, aided by an 8% rally this week. In spreading the wealth to a wider swath of hardware companies, investors are clearly betting that the bull market in AI has long legs and that data centers are going to need a wider array of advanced components for years to come.
Memory has been the biggest theme of late due to a global shortage that's driven up prices and turned Micron, a 47-year-old company tucked in a sleepy corner of the semiconductor market, into one of the hottest trades over the past 12 months. Micron blew past an $800 billion market capitalization for the first time this week, and the stock is now up over 750% in the past year. CEO Sanjay Mehrotra told CNBC in March that key customers are only getting "50% to two-thirds of their requirements" because of supply issues. The memory market is largely dominated by Micron, along with Korea-based Samsung and SK Hynix, which are also both in the midst of historic rallies...
Bank of America estimates the data center CPU market could more than double from $27 billion in 2025 to $60 billion in 2030. AMD's quarterly results this week underscored the emerging trend, as earnings, revenue and guidance sailed past estimates on strong data center growth. The company has long led the CPU charge, and CEO Lisa Su said on the earnings call that AMD now expects 35% growth over the next three to five years in the server CPU market, up from a forecast of 18% growth that the company provided in November.
The article cites two other big movers:
Intel "is in the midst of a revival sparked by a major investment from the U.S. government last year. Intel's stock had its best month on record in April, more than doubling, and has continued notching massive gains, rising 33% in the early days of May."
Nvidia still remains the world's most valuable company "and is expected to show revenue growth of 70% this fiscal year," the article points out — adding that companies like Corning are also benefiting from Nvidia partnerships. "Glass maker Corning, which celebrated its 175th anniversary this week, signed a massive deal with Nvidia on Wednesday that involves the development of three new U.S. factories dedicated entirely to optical technologies... likely a major step in Nvidia's move away from copper cables and towards fiber-optic cables as it builds out its rack-scale systems."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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The Hot Take: This gives me hope that the DIY market isn't dying. As it looks like it's dying a slow death with lack of refresh updates and availability due to "Ai Demand".
A new supply chain report has revealed what appears to be Intel’s processor roadmap through 2028, outlining several upcoming CPU architectures including Nova Lake, Razor Lake, Titan Lake, and Moon Lake.
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The Hot Take: While clawing back your market looking ahead as Google and Microsoft have been getting all the headlines with their "Quantum" Chips. Now if they can program quantum computers we might actually make a huge break through. Only thing is we'd be starting at where the 60s where with computers, large and clunky for sure.
QuantWare's US$178 million Series B round aims to accelerate the global rollout of larger, industrial-scale quantum processors, promising hyperscale quantum compute through its VIO-40K architecture and KiloFab foundry — a development that could reshape supply chains, national technology capabilities, and industrial adoption for countries seeking scalable quantum computing.
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The Hot Take: MacRumors posting about it give it more merrit to me.
Apple has held "exploratory" talks with Intel and Samsung about manufacturing the main processors for its devices in the United States, reports Bloomberg ($).
Apple is said to have had early-stage talks with Intel about using its chipmaking services, while Apple executives have reportedly visited a Samsung plant under construction in Texas that will also make advanced chips.
The talks are said to be preliminary, and no orders have been made so far, according to the report's sources who asked not to be identified. Apple is also said to have concerns about using technology that is not made by its longtime chip partner, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), so the talks could still go nowhere.
Apple is said to be seeking potential additional suppliers beyond TSMC as a way to avoid recent shortages almost entirely driven by the current build-out of AI data centers.
Heavy demand for Mac mini and Mac Studio models - sought-after because of their suitability for running local AI models - is also said to have been another factor. On an earnings call last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook acknowledged that Mac mini and Mac Studio supply is constrained, and he said it may take "several months" for Apple to achieve supply-demand balance.
Neither Intel nor Samsung can reliably provide the kind of production and scale that TSMC offers, so it's not clear how much, if anything, will come out of the discussions. Apple has already worked with TSMC to help expand its plant in Phoenix, which is now producing a limited number of chips for Apple and expects to make 100 million chips for the company in 2026.Tags: Bloomberg, Intel, SamsungThis article, "Apple Eyes Intel and Samsung as Backup US Chipmakers" first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums
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The Hot Take: USA domestic manufacturing is taking off, TSMC announcing huge expansions in Arizona. Intel getting that Federal injection is definitely keeping them alive and making them relevant again. Probably also why Nvidia dumped money into Intel too to make sure there is choice states side.
TSMC is turning into a victim of its own success as the world's preferred chip foundry, leaving its heretofore prized customers such as Apple in a bind of sorts as they suddenly find themselves crowded out by AI hyperscalers. In its frustration, Apple is now reportedly exploring the possibility of dividing up its silicon load between Samsung, Intel, and TSMC rather than remaining largely TSMC-exclusive. Apple is looking for contingencies by tentatively probing Intel and Samsung as additional vectors for manufacturing its custom chips According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple has already held "early-stage talks" with Intel for using its […]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/apple-quietly-courts-intel-and-samsung-for-its-most-critical-chips-as-tsmcs-advanced-nodes-remain-choked-under-ai-demand/
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The Hot Take: Would just consider this verified he joined Intel.
Intel appoints Alex Katouzian to lead client computing and physical AI efforts and confirms Pushkar Ranade as CTO, signaling a deeper shift toward AI-driven and edge computing systems
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The Hot Take: Interesting, wonder is he'll be working on any RISC-V stuff for Intel.
Intel has made two big changes: the appointment of Alex Katouzian from Qualcomm in the Client Computing & AI segment, along with Purskar Randae as CTO. Alex Katouzian Appointed to Lead Intel's Client Computing & Physical AI Group Press Release: Intel Corporation today announced two key leadership appointments to strengthen its core product business and advance the company’s innovation agenda. Alex Katouzian will join Intel as executive vice president and general manager of the Client Computing and Physical AI Group. In this role, Katouzian will align Intel’s client computing business with emerging physical AI systems that span robotics, autonomous machines, […]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/intel-appoints-qualcomm-alex-katouzian-to-lead-client-computing-physical-ai-lip-bu-tan-reshapes-top-ranks/
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The Hot Take: If this all is true they have a winner on their hands.
Intel's Z-Angle Memory (ZAM) is approaching completion as it races towards taking a bite at the AI boom while challenging HBM as a viable alternative. Intel's ZAM Challenges HBM As A Big Memory Innovation In the High-Bandwidth, High-Capacity Segment Offering 2x The Speed of HBM4 Z-Angle Memory or ZAM has been stirring up a lot of talk in the memory segment. The upcoming memory standard is being developed by Intel and SoftBank & aims to offer a low-power, high-density replacement to HBM. Now, new details have been shared that provide more insight into ZAM memory. For starters, the new memory […]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/intel-zam-memory-threatens-hbms-ai-throne-with-2x-the-bandwidth-of-hbm4/
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The Hot Take: Just what we need Ai specific instructions for them to gobble up all the CPU's now.
APX or Advanced Performance Extensions are the next evolution of x86 as Intel & AMD co-develop new standards for the architecture. APX Expands the x86 Instruction Set, Bringing Faster Performance & New Features That Will Benefit Both Intel and AMD's Next-Gen Chips Two days ago, we talked about ACE (AI Compute Extensions), which is a unified instruction set that aims to increase matrix-multiply performance for next-gen x86 chips. ACE is just one part of the grander scheme in which both Intel and AMD are working together to evolve the x86 architecture under a single unified framework through the recently established […]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/intel-amd-work-on-apx-the-next-major-step-in-the-evolution-of-x86-architectures/
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The Hot Take: Getting confusing with weather they are dropping their GPU's.
Benchmarks of Intel's upcoming and fastest gaming handheld SoC, the Arc G3 Extreme, have been leaked, surpassing the Ryzen Z2 by 25%. Intel Packs Its Strongest Battlemage GPU, & 14 CPU Cores Inside the Arc G3 Extreme Gaming Handheld SoC We recently covered Intel's first Arc G3 gaming handheld, which has been listed by online retailers. While the retailer listing was void of details for the SoC itself, we now have more specs and even benchmarks of the upcoming chip & they look phenomenal. Starting with the CPU, the Intel Arc G3 Extreme is going to be the top offering […]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/intels-arc-g3-extreme-handheld-chip-crushes-ryzen-z2-extreme-benchmark-leak/
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