Foundries
The fabs. Whoever prints the silicon.
The metrics
- Posture
- expanding — 1 of 4 (expanding 1 · hedging 1 · retrenching 1 · consolidating 1) 4 members →
- Capital · available
- across 4 members — open each for the figure + sources 4 members →
- Capital · operating
- across 4 members — open each for the figure + sources 4 members →
- Capital · deployed
- across 4 members — open each for the figure + sources 4 members →
- Capital · in
- across 4 members — open each for the figure + sources 4 members →
- Capital · out
- across 4 members — open each for the figure + sources 4 members →
- Optionality
- across 4 members — open each for the figure + sources 4 members →
- Gravity
- across 4 members — open each for the figure + sources 4 members →
What's new this week
- Korea's "Black Tuesday" session closed −10–11% with circuit breakers — SK Hynix below $140 (−10-13%), Samsung down with it; China chip-competition fear compounding AI volatility. SK Hynix reports within 24h. ([Reuters/Korea Times])
- Samsung chip workers reportedly jumping to SK Hynix — the squeeze's labor-market symptom; MIT TR pins the driver: a ~100x bonus gap.
- Anthropic asked SK Hynix + Samsung for chip supply — a new demand-side actor joins the memory queue (Bloomberg/Digitimes 07-25/27).
- A 7.1 earthquake hit TSMC's Kumamoto (JASM) fab — evacuated, resumed same day; TSMC −3.6%. (Focus Taiwan)
- Intel printed its best quarter in ~15 years (+25% rev, EPS 2x est., AI ~70% of revenue; 07-23, late-caught) — first real revenue evidence against the thread's "thrust ≈ 0" frame. And the federal stake around it: a $26.7B / ~30-deal uncoordinated federal equity portfolio (Fortune). ✅ The stake's THREE-figure value tangle was crawled and resolved same day (ben-steer): one stock-only calc at three dates ($36B Apr · $56.5B May peak · $42B Jul); Trump's "$70B" unsupported by any traded price; the filing-true position is 290.3M issued shares ≈ $25-28B at 8.6% — and no official valuation of it exists anywhere (no 13D, no budget line). Finding:
intel-stake-tangle-2026-07-28.
Members 4
capital ~$200B+ commandable/12mo (~$119B cash+mkt-securities Jun-2026 + ~$89B/yr operating cash flow, self-funded; + …
- opt
- mixed — FCF-free but a rising slice locked to the forced …
- grav
- ~$150B/yr GROSS foundry revenue atop multi-trillion …
Absorbed a 7.1 earthquake at Kumamoto (JASM) — evacuated and resumed same day, stock −3.6% (07-28) — while the capacity race holds; the …
capital ~$150B+ commandable/12mo ($98B cash Mar-2026 group + ~$50-60B/yr operating cash flow)
- opt
- constrained — chaebol Lee-family control; HBM-vs-foundry …
- grav
- ~$220.7B/yr GROSS group revenue; foundry slice small …
Chasing a lead it's never had: UBS projects it overtaking SK Hynix on HBM bit-share in 2027 (41% vs 39%) — its first ever — while still …
capital ~$45B/12mo but consumed ($29.7B cash+STI + ~$14.9B/yr operating cash flow eaten by capex, net -$11.2B TTM); US …
- opt
- locked/constrained — turnaround (24k layoffs, DE/PL fabs …
- grav
- ~$53B/yr GROSS revenue; external foundry gravity tiny, …
Propped upright by stakeholders with strategic, not financial, motives — but Q2 (07-23) printed its best quarter in ~15 years (+25% rev, EPS …
capital ~$5B/12mo organic ($3B cash + ~$1.9B/yr operating cash flow; + CHIPS $1.5B + $375M quantum + Mubadala parent); …
- opt
- mixed — self-funded but Mubadala 82% directs
- grav
- ~$6.84B/yr GROSS — specialty/mature nodes for …
Mubadala controls 82% — specialty/mature-node foundry, trusted supplier to auto/defense/RF.