Barclays believes Google can generate $252.7 billion in sales of TPU externally in 2028 by shifting TPUs from internal GCP rentals to an off-platform merchant model, backed by JVs with Blackstone and Broadcom scaling past 11 GW.
External ASP would grow from $20,000 in 2026 to $53,333. $Alphabet(GOOGL.US)
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Speedrun | Upcoming Events This Week - [August 3 - August 7, 2026]
🌐 Geopolitical & Macro Updates: Iran Conflict & EnergyCeasefire Confusion: President Trump initially announced he was calling off planned strikes on Iran after requests from Middle Eastern countries and claims that a preliminary deal—including opening the Strait of Hormuz and ending nuclear threats—had been reached. However, Iranian state media quickly denied that any such deal exists.Oman Negotiations: Iran and Oman are in the final stages of negotiations regarding transit through the Strait of Hormuz, though Iran claims it is separate from closing or reopening the strait.Human & Economic Toll: The conflict has resulted in 653 U.S. military casualties (including 64 high-ranking officers).Gas & Inflation: Elevated gas prices (trending lower at $3.11/gallon from recent highs of $3.50) continue to drive inflationary concerns, which may prompt the Federal Reserve to consider a rate hike before year-end.📊 Earnings Calendar Highlights (August 3 – August 7)While major hyperscalers wrapped up earnings last week, several market-moving names are reporting this week:Monday ($Palantir Tech(PLTR.US),$ON Semiconductor(ON.US)): Focus on Palantir's high-growth sustainability and AI platforms, alongside ON Semiconductor's power semi demand.Tuesday ($AMD(AMD.US),$Arista Networks(ANET.US), $Astera Labs(ALAB.US),$Caterpillar(CAT.US)): Key items include AMD's sales growth and CPU demand, Arista Networks' networking demand, Astera Labs' supply dynamics, and Caterpillar's generator sales.Wednesday ($Sandisk(SNDK.US), $Western Digital(WDC.US),$TTM Tech(TTMI.US)): Sandisk and Western Digital will offer insight into NAND/HDD demand, margins, and outlooks, while TTM Technologies reports on PCB demand for AI.Thursday & Friday ($Applied Optoelectronics(AAOI.US), $Himax Tech(HIMX.US),$Aecom(ACM.US), $Oklo(OKLO.US),$Vistra(VST.US)): Focus areas include transceiver demand (AAOI), WFE spending in China (ACM), and AI power needs (Oklo, Vistra).📈 Market Sentiment & TechnicalsSemis Oversold: Semiconductors are currently experiencing their most oversold conditions since the late March bottom. However, the SOX index remains 19% off its peak, suggesting caution against FOMO buying.Risk/Reward: Many stock names are perceived as having a much better risk/reward profile compared to April and May.📅 Economic Calendar (Friday, August 7)Jobs Report: Nonfarm payrolls are expected to come in at 91K (up from prior), and the unemployment rate is expected to edge up to 4.3% (from 4.2%).Market Implication: A stronger-than-expected labor market could give the Fed more reason to implement a future rate hike, potentially driving bond yields higher.Link 👇
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Jensen Huang: "no HBM for you, I need HBM!"
Overall Market & Demand Growth> Massive Expansion: Total HBM demand is projected to scale dramatically, reaching over 6 million k GB (approx. 48,618 mn Gb) by 2027.> Rapid Multi-Year Trajectory: Historical and projected growth shows a steep upward curve from 2023 through 2027, driven heavily by increasing deployment in AI GPUs and AI ASICs.NVIDIA's Market Dominance> Leading Consumer: NVIDIA remains the single largest consumer of HBM supply, commanding the largest share of the demand stack in 2027.> Key Products: High-demand products like the Rubin R200 stand out with massive total HBM demand (projected at over $1.7 million k GB), utilizing advanced HBM4 12hi configurations.> CoWoS Allocation: NVIDIA dominates advanced packaging allocations, notably with massive wafer distributions for products like the Vera CPU and Rubin series.Key Competitors and Ecosystem Players> Google: Google represents a massive portion of the AI ASIC HBM demand, particularly driven by TPU lines such as the TPU v8i (Sunfish), which demands over 1.1 million k GB of HBM.> AMD: Competes strongly with advanced offerings like the MI455 and MI350 series, utilizing HBM3e and HBM4 configurations sourced primarily through Samsung and Micron.> Cloud Service Providers (ASICs): Other major tech giants like AWS (Trainium 3) and Microsoft (Maia 300) account for significant shares of the total specialized hardware demand footprint.> NVIDIA holds the largest single share of projected HBM consumption at 36%.> Google represents a massive segment of demand at 35%, nearly matching NVIDIA due to its heavy reliance on custom TPU deployments.> AMD follows as the third-largest consumer with 16% of the market share.> AWS accounts for 5%, GUC's customers make up 3%, while Microsoft and Meta each take 2% of the projected 2027 consumption.$NVIDIA(NVDA.US) $Meta Platforms(META.US) $Microsoft(MSFT.US) $AMD(AMD.US) $Alphabet(GOOGL.US) $Micron Tech(MU.US) $DRAM $EWYE
Nvidia's announcement of co-packaged optics entering mass production provides a boost to optical communications.
"Gilad Shainer, Senior Vice President of NVIDIA, announced that Co-Package Optics (CPO) has entered mass production." "According to foreign media reports, Gilad Shainer announced at a recent technology forum that CPO has begun mass production. Switches developed by Nvidia in collaboration with its supply chain have been delivered to close customers and are also being deployed at Nvidia's own facilities. It is expected that a large number of switches with CPO technology will be introduced into AI factories around the world this year."E
CMB International: CPO
> CPO Market Growth: Co-packaged optics (CPO) are projected to experience rapid expansion with a 219% revenue CAGR over 2025–30E, including 300%/350% YoY growth in 2026E/27E, driven primarily by early adopters.> Pluggable Optical Modules: Traditional pluggables will continue steady volume and technology growth, posting a 30% CAGR over 2025–30E alongside 58%/33% YoY growth in 2026E/27E.> Market Dynamics & Roles: CPO is not an immediate replacement for pluggables. Pluggables remain the near-term volume engine, while CPO/NPO act as faster-growing extensions addressing escalating AI network power, density, and copper-reach constraints.$Lumentum(LITE.US) $Coherent Corp.(COHR.US) $Applied Optoelectronics(AAOI.US) $Marvell Tech(MRVL.US) $Broadcom(AVGO.US)
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GF Securities is forecasting global WFE to reach $236 billion in 2027 and then $295 billion in 2028.
$ACM Research(ACMR.US) $KLA(KLAC.US) $ASML(ASML.US) $Lam Research(LRCX.US) $Applied Materials(AMAT.US)
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BofA: Hyperscalers
Massive Capital Expenditure (Capex) Surge> Record Growth in 2025–2026: Combined capex for the top US tech companies (Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, and Oracle) is projected to grow ~65% YoY in 2025 to reach a massive scale, followed by an additional ~100% YoY jump in 2026 to hit $730 billion.> Hitting the $1 Trillion Milestone: Combined annual capex is expected to surpass $1 trillion per annum by 2027 and 2028.> Individual Hyperscaler Breakdown (2026E): Oracle and Alphabet lead the YoY percentage growth chart for 2026E with triple-digit increases (around 120% and 118% respectively), closely followed by Microsoft and Meta.Robust Cloud Revenue Growth> Consistent Expansion: Cloud revenue across major providers (AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud) remains structurally strong, maintaining a solid 35–45% YoY growth trajectory through 2026–2028.> Revenue Trajectory: AWS continues to hold the top spot in total revenue terms heading into 2028, with Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud tracking closely behind on steep upward curves driven by surging AI infrastructure demand.Temporary Free Cash Flow (FCF) Pressure> Short-Term Dip: Driven by unprecedented AI infrastructure investments, several hyperscalers are expected to experience temporarily negative Free Cash Flow (FCF) through 2026 and 2027 as spending outpaces near-term cash flow growth.> Quarterly Volatility: Quarterly trends highlight notable dips into negative FCF territory for companies like Amazon and Alphabet during peak spending quarters before stabilizing.$Oracle(ORCL.US) $Microsoft(MSFT.US) $Meta Platforms(META.US) $Alphabet(GOOGL.US) $Amazon(AMZN.US)+1E
BofA: Memory
DRAM Pricing Trends > Record Highs: DRAM spot and contract prices climbed to record highs of approximately US$35–40 following a strong rally in 4Q25 and 1Q26.> Growth Trajectory: After the sharp surge, prices are exhibiting moderate growth moving into 2Q26.> Spot vs. Contract: Both 16Gb DDR5 spot and contract prices remained relatively flat between 1Q23 and 3Q25 before experiencing a steep vertical breakout starting in late 2025.NAND Wafer Pricing Trends > Record-High Levels: Both 512Gb wafer spot and contract prices are currently at record-high levels.> Contract vs. Spot Dynamics: NAND wafer contract prices have surged significantly ahead of spot prices during the recent upswing.> Historical Baseline: Prices hovered stably between US$2 and US$5 from early 2023 through late 2025 before skyrocketing sharply into mid-2026.DDR4 vs. DDR5 Contract Price Comparison> Disappearance of Price Premium: DDR4 and 16Gb DDR5 contract prices have converged at similar levels (US$35–50 by mid-2026); the traditional DDR5 price premium no longer exists.> Driver of Convergence: The collapse of the price gap is driven primarily by an acute DDR4 shortage.Timeline: Both technologies tracked closely below US$10 until mid-2025, after which they escalated rapidly through July 2026.$Micron Tech(MU.US) $EWY $DRAM
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Lumentum leads in market share of laser chips
$Lumentum(LITE.US) $Broadcom(AVGO.US) $Coherent Corp.(COHR.US) $Macom Tech(MTSI.US)
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Kioxia $258A.T earnings:
Consolidated Financial Performance (Q1 FY2027)Driven by robust demand centered on generative AI applications and strong average selling prices, the company achieved significant year-over-year growth: > Net Sales: 1,767,117 million yen (an increase of 415.5% or +1,424.3 billion yen compared to Q1 FY2026). > Operating Profit: 1,270,017 million yen (compared to 44,899 million yen in Q1 FY2026). > Non-GAAP Operating Profit: 1,326,216 million yen. Profit Before Tax: 1,234,720 million yen. > Quarterly Profit Attributable to Owners of the Parent: 842,165 million yen (a massive surge from 18,284 million yen in the same period last year).Sales Breakdown by Application> SSD & Storage: 1,174,719 million yen (up from 217,411 million yen in Q1 FY2026). > Smart Devices: 525,656 million yen (up from 79,040 million yen in Q1 FY2026). > Other: 66,742 million yen (up from 46,348 million yen in Q1 FY2026).Stock Split Resolution: The Board of Directors resolved on July 31, 2026, to execute a 3-for-1 stock split of common stock, with an effective date of October 1, 2026. Q2 FY2027 Outlook: Anticipating continued strong demand from data centers, Kioxia projects further sequential growth for Q2 (July 1 to September 30, 2026), forecasting net sales of 2,390,000 million yen and an operating profit of 1,890,000 million yen.E
Situational Awareness is down around 67% so far in July. Including July's losses, the fund remains up about 80% on the year.
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$Amazon(AMZN.US): "We see a strong linkage between AI spend and core growth as customers invest in AI."
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$Amazon(AMZN.US) Jassy: "it takes a little less than three years to break even on that investment [servers and networking equipment]."
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$Amazon(AMZN.US) Jassy: "We've long believed AWS could become a few hundred billion dollars revenue business and now believe it will be at least double that and very possibly be $1 trillion annual revenue business for us in time with very appealing accompanying free cash flow and return on invested capital."
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$AXT(AXTI.US): "We're seeing high demand from the industry migration to 800G and 1.6 T transceivers modules for which any phosphate based lasers and detectors are essential for higher performance optical links. Longer term hyperscalers are advancing towards near packaged and co-packaged optics, which will continue to drive increasing demand for our material overall."
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Nomura: Optical
Market Overview & Growth Projections> Revenue Expansion: The global datacenter optical transceiver market is projected to reach USD 47.7bn in 2026F and surge to USD 144.2bn by 2028F, representing a rapid CAGR of 74% from 2026 to 2028F.> Primary Growth Catalyst: Market expansion is primarily driven by robust, buoyant demand coming from large language model (LLM) training and inference workloads.High-End Transceiver Shipment ForecastsHigh-end speeds (800G and 1.6T) are experiencing stronger momentum due to accelerated technology upgrades within AI networking segments:> 800G Transceivers: Projected shipments stand at 33.8mn units in 2026F, scaling to 55.0mn units in 2027F, and 78.0mn units in 2028F.> 1.6T Transceivers: Projected shipments stand at 26.1mn units in 2026F, increasing to 71.5mn units in 2027F, and reaching 126.0mn units by 2028F.> Next-Generation Speeds (2.4T / 3.2T): Initial shipments are expected to commence in 2027F and 2028F, ultimately reaching volumes of 5mn units and 2mn units respectively by 2028F.Architectural Evolution & Supply Chain Dynamics> Co-Packaged Roadmap: As the industry migrates toward co-packaged optics, deliveries of NPO (Near-Package Optics) and CPO (Co-Packaged Optics) products are expected to start rolling out between 2027F and 2028F, serving as fresh demand multipliers for high-power optical lasers.> Supply Chain Constraints: Unprecedented demand cycles continue to pressure optical chip suppliers' fulfillment capabilities, giving IDM players like Yuanjie a competitive edge in a supply-constrained market environment.$Coherent Corp.(COHR.US) $Lumentum(LITE.US) $Applied Optoelectronics(AAOI.US) $Macom Tech(MTSI.US) $Broadcom(AVGO.US)E
BofA: AI LLMs
Frontier Leadership & Benchmarks> Closed Models Still Lead: Proprietary (closed) models currently retain top slots on the hardest AI evaluations and benchmarks, including HLE, GPQA Diamond, and SWE-bench.> Performance Gap: The performance gap between closed and open models widens most in critical enterprise value pools, specifically agentic tool-use, coding, and complex reasoning.> Benchmark Examples: Top closed models like Claude Opus 5, GPT-5.6 Sol, and Gemini 3.1 Pro outperform open alternatives like GLM-52, DeepSeek V4, and Kimi K3 across major indices.Adoption Curve & Standards> Industry Standards: Closed model APIs serve as the reference implementation for the industry (defining chat/completions shapes, function-calling schemas, and evaluation norms) which open providers frequently mimic.> Enterprise Preference: Closed models dominate enterprise adoption because they offer zero infrastructure burden, managed compliance, predictable SLAs, and single-vendor accountability. Conversely, self-hosted open models place GPU provisioning and compliance risks directly on the buyer.The Nature of Open Models> Distillation Concerns: Unlike Linux (which was built via clean-room development), leading open models are widely believed to be derivatives of closed models created via distillation. For example, US officials and labs have alleged connections between certain overseas open models and frontier US closed models.> Risks: Open-weight models—many of which originate from China—carry ongoing intellectual property (IP) and national-security risks that could be heavily regulated or altered by governments or closed-lab developers.Coexistence & Market Outlook> Coexistence Over Displacement: The long-term market outcome is expected to be a coexistence model similar to Windows and Linux, rather than open-weights entirely replacing closed systems.> Cost vs. Capability: Open models generally win on cost and efficiency (running 5–10x cheaper per token), while closed models win on technological leadership, adoption, and enterprise trust.> Implications for Semiconductors: Semiconductor demand can benefit regardless of the winner:If closed models lead, frontier-scale training and runs will likely remain highly capital-intensive.If open models proliferate, cheaper tokens will drive broader usage and surge overall inference volumes (Jevons paradox).E
Goldman Sachs: Memory
Market & Pricing Outlook> DRAM Pricing Growth: Conventional DRAM pricing is expected to see solid double-digit sequential growth in both the third and fourth quarters of 2026, driven by an ongoing supply shortage.> HBM Upside Next Year: High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) pricing could potentially double next year due to rising conventional DRAM pricing. Goldman Sachs expects SEC's HBM pricing to rise 87% year-over-year, outpacing the Bloomberg sell-side consensus estimate of 52%.> Capacity vs. Bit Growth: While capacity additions this year are outpacing historical levels, overall bit growth is expected to remain below historical averages because of a high HBM trade ratio.Industry Dynamics & Competition> Long-Term Agreements (LTAs): LTAs are providing strong binding power—covering over half of server DRAM—backed by terms such as sizable prepayments, take-or-pay clauses, and cancellation penalties. Coverage ratios are expected to rise.> Chinese Suppliers: Chinese memory competitors pose a limited threat in the near-to-mid term due to sizable gaps in production yields, technology levels, and product reliability, despite active capacity expansion.> Hybrid Bonding: Adoption is expected to be gradual. Although stacking more DRAM dies makes existing bonding tech harder, achieving mass-production yields for hybrid bonding will take considerable time, leading companies to explore options like fluxless bonding in the interim.E
Im done with sharing CC highlights. Apologies to anyone if you couldn't handle it...trying to incorporate the sharing of highlights from big tech earnings because I don't think a lot of people bother to listen toconference calls.
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$Meta Platforms(META.US) Zuckerberg: "On instagram and Facebook, I'm very optimistic about our work to integrate large language models into our recommendation systems. LLMs add a first principles understanding of what the content is about and why it is compelling, as well as a deeper understanding of what people are interested in and what their goals are when they're using our apps."
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Meta EPS miss is an overreaction.
"The second quarter 2026 general and administrative expenses include $2.40 billion of charges related to legal proceedings."Without this, they would've likely beat EPS.$Meta Platforms(META.US)E
$Meta Platforms(META.US)
Revenue: $60.8B vs $60.24B expected EPS: $6.18 vs $7.14 expected Full-year capex: $130B to $145B vs $125B to $145B previouslyE
SK Hynix $SK Hynix(SKHY.US) on HBM price negotiations for 2027:
"Discussion is underway for 2027 HBM supply volume and pricing with our key customers, which is progressing smoothly, supported by solid customer demand. But of course, we cannot disclose the contractual terms or pricing details for individual customers. With conventional DRAM prices rising sharply in recent months, such market environment may also have some influence on our HBM pricing discussions. Having said that, of course, HBM pricing is not determined solely by conventional DRAM prices."E
SK Hynix $SK Hynix(SKHY.US) has turned green, maybe Korea got saved?
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BofA: Intel
Investment Rating & Price Objective> Rating & Price Objective: Maintain BUY with a Price Objective (PO) of $160.00 USD (against a stock price of $91.67 USD). > Valuation Basis: Based on 31x CY30E EPS power of $6+, discounted back two years to account for long-term server CPU and external foundry wafer/packaging opportunities. Server & Market Positioning> Supply-Driven Share: Server market share through 2026–2028 is viewed as a function of supply rather than design. Coral Rapids (slated for 18A-P in 2027) will further help close the performance gap against competitors. > ASP Strength: Q2 server Average Selling Price (ASP) jumped +48% YoY, driven by higher core-count Granite Rapids adoption. > Competitive Edge in AI: Intel argues that agentic AI workloads vary in requirements and may not always favor ARM or AMD. Intel’s NVLink design-in establishes a level playing field for system-level integration, while x86's security lead provides an advantage in enterprise AI. > PC TAM: The PC Total Addressable Market (TAM) is tracking for a 10–12% YoY decline in 2026, though Intel sees limited inventory risk due to clear sell-in vs. sell-through visibility. Intel Foundry Progress> Yields & Margins: Under CEO Lip-Bu Tan, 18A/4/3 nodes are showing upside on yield, cycle times, and unit costs. 18A yields are expected to approach industry standards by the end of 2026, with a path to operating margin (OpM) breakeven by 2027 (excluding external customers). > External Nodes (18A-P & 14A): 18A remains internal-only, while 18A-P targets external customers (risk production underway, 2027 volume committed). 14A High Volume Manufacturing (HVM) has been committed for 2028, featuring external customer engagements from the outset. > Long-Term Financial Goals: Long-term gross margin targets are set at mid-40%+ to 50%+. Multiple financial levers—including prepayments, non-core asset sales, and equity—are available to support rising capital expenditure intensity. Advanced Packaging (EMIB)> Backlog & Ramps: The EMIB-T (Through-Silicon Via variant) backlog is actively building for a 2027 ramp-begin and full 2028 ramp. > Revenue Potential: Each packaging engagement is projected to be worth multiple billions of dollars per year. > Capacity & Constraints: Assembly and packaging (A/P) capital intensity is lower than wafers (roughly 1 to 5), and Intel already has capacity to handle multiple engagements in 2027. Current supply constraints are centered on external substrates, which are being managed via supplier prepayments.$Intel(INTC.US)