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 […]

$750 Billion AI Arms Race: Q1 2026 and Full-Year Data Center CapEx

As has become the norm in this bull market, Q1 2026 earnings season is once again a referendum on the AI infrastructure race. The video linked above, from late in 2025 amidst a selloff for the same reason, is proof. Massive capital expenditure (CapEx, an accounting term denoting spending on property and equipment with an […]

TSMC Announces New Manufacturing Nodes Through 2029 – but No ASML High-NA EUV

TSMC factory

At its North America Technology Symposium this week, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) debuted its manufacturing process node through 2029. Last year, TSMC announced its A14 process (the Angstrom process naming lines), which will debut in 2028. This year management announced enhanced versions of A14, dubbed A13 and A12, that will begin production in 2029. This […]

Planet Labs — Commercial Space Race of the 2020s Stock Update

While there are several notable differences between the present bull market and the dot-com boom of the 1990s, there is one key commonality: The Earth-based infrastructure boom (AI data centers now, internet infrastructure then) has a corresponding expansion of the space economy (next-gen communications and space data center experiments now, early SatComm networks then). Starting […]