A Few Macro Notes On the AI Software Boom — and SaaS-pocalypse — and What Comes Next

Since 2020, one of our favorite macroeconomic data points comes from the U.S. Census Bureau, specifically its monthly new business formation statistics press release. The data for July 2026 will be out on Wednesday August 12, you can find it here: https://www.census.gov/econ/bfs/index.html Here’s the high-level numbers for June 2026, and the updated trend chart. Take a […]

Intel EMIB vs. TSMC CoWoS — Advanced Packaging Was Always the Real Next Big Thing

But before that, due to a number of questions, we thought we would upload our research notes with the slides from the CSI Live presentation a couple weeks ago regarding Intel (INTC) EMIB vs. TSMC‘s (TSM) CoWoS advanced packaging processes. Enjoy! Where is resurgent Intel optimism coming from? What is happening at Intel, where is […]

Boring Corning Up Over 200% In A Year – Time to Ask Harder Questions

Corning CSI title image

As we’ve been discussing the last month or so, first half 2026 was a “buy now, ask hard questions later” event for many semiconductor and related supply chain company stocks. July is now the time many investors have decided it’s time to ask some hard questions. Corning (GLW) spent years as a quiet, steady industrial name […]

Broadcom and Apple, and the End of Apple’s Run of Squeezing Suppliers?

Last week, via a brief SEC filing, Broadcom (AVGO) and Apple (AAPL) revealed an expanded “custom silicon” (or ASIC, application-specific integrated circuit) deal lasting through 2031. Today, we received a bit more detail on the expanded Apple-Broadcom agreement (Broadcom has been an Apple supplier for years, even as Apple has slowly divorced itself from Qualcomm). According to Apple, it is […]

AMD and Intel — the Actual “Next $1 Trillion Companies”

AI data center CPU shortage

After spending a couple of years urging AMD (AMD) to spend less time talking about GPUs and more time focusing on its actual money-making hardware — CPUs specifically, as well as FPGAs via the Xilinx acquisition — 2026 has been a moment of vindication. As AI goes into production (inference, or in other words, more usable software), […]

Adobe CFO Returns to the Semiconductor Industry, Where Does That Leave Adobe?

SaaS-pocalypse isn’t over, at least not for select software industry verticals. Digital payments are still down in the dumps (slowing growth, higher competition, profitability questions), even dragging down the dominant infrastructure providers Visa (V) and Mastercard (MA) this year. The creative software market is another key area of weakness in the world of software. And Adobe‘s (ADBE) chief financial officer […]

Ouster 2026: Color LiDAR, Physical AI, and Robotics (OUST Stock)

On CSI Live this week, we were requested to revisit Ouster (OUST), a notable constituent in our “small bets” basket. It has been about a year since our initial deep dive. And while it remains a “prove-it” business, OUST’s recent Q1 2026 earnings and a technological breakthrough give us plenty of reasons to pay attention. Here is where […]

Quantum Computing Stocks Get U.S. Government Investment Boost

A lot has happened in the quantum computing R&D startup industry since the start of 2025 — culminating in the U.S. Department of Commerce announcing $2 billion-worth in investments in various quantum computing companies on May 21, 2026. We’ll come back to those investments in a moment, but how did we get here? Let’s run […]

What Is A Semiconductor IDM? Why Are IDM Stocks Booming In 2026?

After a roughly six-month downturn in from late 2025 to March 2026, semiconductor stocks are booming. April 2026 was perhaps the hottest run for chip stocks ever. At least the hottest run since the semiconductor industry was tracked as a standalone thing. But why? And why in particular are IDMs leading the charge? And… what’s […]