Today, we’re breaking down a global semiconductor company known as AMD. AMD isn’t the biggest and hasn’t always been the best chip maker in the world. But as cyclical and structural changes take place in the semiconductor industry, AMD serves as a great proxy for what’s going on and why.To break down the details, both behind the company and the industry, I’m joined by Jay Goldberg, a semiconductor industry consultant at D2D Advisory and Partner at Snowcloud Capital. We explore the rise of custom silicon, AMD’s competition with Intel and Nvidia, and whether or not chip making is a good business at all. Please enjoy this breakdown of AMD. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here. ----- Business Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Business Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @JoinColossus | @patrick_oshag | @jspujji | @zbfuss | @ReustleMatt Show Notes[00:02:27] - [First question] - Where to start when it comes to understanding semiconductors [00:04:21] - Why semiconductors were created in the first place  [00:04:57] - Key milestones and players in the semiconductor industry [00:07:35] - What are the factors that determine who wins and loses[00:08:37] - The semiconductor industry map today writ large[00:12:05] - How the changing geopolitical landscape affects power in this sector [00:14:15] - Why we can’t just throw unlimited money at this problem to solve it [00:15:30] - Whether or not chip businesses are actually defensible and good businesses[00:17:37] - Differences between CPUs and GPUs and how everything we do uses them[00:22:56] - AMD’s history with CPUs and GPUs and how they’ve evolved over time[00:26:55] - Why there is such a high barrier to enter and disrupt the chip design market[00:31:54] - A future where we transition to specific and specialized use-case chips [00:35:36] - Companies like Google and Apple building their own in-house chips[00:38:55] - Other industries where this dynamic exists outside of semiconductors[00:41:57] - The scope and economics of AMD today [00:44:26] - What’s important to know about AMD and Intel’s capital allocation strategies[00:47:28] - What he’d focus on if he was the capital allocator for a big chip company[00:48:55] - One major lesson that this industry has taught him about investing[00:50:28] - Major lessons about AMD and the world writ large that isn’t addressed yet

Jay Goldberg, CEO of D2D Advisory and expert in the semiconductor landscape, joins the discussion on Arm Holdings. They delve into Arm's revolutionary chip architecture and its unique licensing model that empowers giants like Apple and NVIDIA. The talk spans Arm's historical milestones, including its SoftBank acquisition and recent IPO. Goldberg highlights the contrasting RISC vs. CISC architectures and the competitive dynamics driving innovation in the semiconductor industry. A peek into Arm's strategic partnerships reveals how it's shaping the future of tech.

This is Zack Fuss, an investor at Irenic Capital, and today we're breaking down Qualcomm. When you think of semiconductors, Qualcomm isn’t necessarily the first name that comes to mind but its size and utility in our lives is truly striking. The business has an enterprise value of $150 billion and set the standards for 3G, 4G, and 5G mobile connectivity that we rely on so heavily in our daily lives today. I bet that if you don’t have a Qualcomm product in your pocket right now, you most certainly have one in your home. To break down the business, I’m joined by Jay Goldberg, a semiconductor industry consultant and partner at Snowcloud Capital. Please enjoy this breakdown of Qualcomm.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.   -----   This episode is brought to you by Tegus, the modern research platform for leading investors. I’m a longtime user and advocate of Tegus, a company that I’ve been so consistently impressed with that last fall my firm, Positive Sum, invested $20M to support Tegus’ mission to expand its product ecosystem. Whether it’s quantitative analysis, company disclosures, management presentations, earnings calls - Tegus has tools for every step of your investment research. They even have over 4000 fully driveable financial models. Tegus’ maniacal focus on quality, as well as its depth, breadth and recency of content makes it the one-stop, end-to-end research platform for investors. Move faster, gather deep research to build conviction and surface high-quality, alpha-driving insights to find your differentiated edge with Tegus. As a listener, you can take the Tegus platform for a free test drive by visiting tegus.co/patrick.   -----   Business Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Business Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.   Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @JoinColossus | @patrick_oshag | @jspujji | @zbfuss | @ReustleMatt   Show Notes [00:02:41] - [First question] - Describing what a semiconductor is for laypeople  [00:03:51] - Distinguishing between chip designers and producers [00:04:53] - Why the semiconductor industry evolved the way it did  [00:05:57] - The history of Qualcomm from the 50s leading up to today  [00:08:40] - Where Qualcomm fits into the world of wireless phones  [00:12:01] - What winning the war of standards means for their economics writ large [00:13:42] - The dynamics within the business that influenced their growth  [00:16:00] - Qualcomm’s direct competitors as they exist today  [00:17:20] - The relationship between Qualcomm and Apple [00:19:42] - What’s happened over the last couple of years in the industry [00:21:05] - The possibility of a structural tailwind in a digitally interconnected world  [00:22:56] - Some of the competitive hostility in the semiconductor space [00:26:58] - Unique directions Qualcomm could be taken beyond positioning  [00:29:02] - What they can do with their abundant free cash flow  [00:30:24] - Variables that preserve and could threaten their margins  [00:32:58] - Where Qualcomm sits within the global struggle for chip dominance geopolitically  [00:35:00] - Capacity constraints that could impact them directly  [00:36:51] - Lessons for investors and operators when studying Qualcomm’s story [00:39:50] - Unique characteristics of Qualcomm’s company culture   [00:41:06] - Thoughts about Steve and Aman as CEOs [00:43:08] - Where Meta, Apple, and Microsoft source their chips 

The Chips Avengers assemble once again! Reva Goujon of the Rhodium Group, JP Kleinhans of the European think tank SNV, Jay Goldberg of Digits and Dollars, and Dylan Patel, who writes SemiAnalysis.In this episode of ChinaTalk, we all: Deep dive into the CHIPS Act's recent Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO); Discuss the potentially existential impact of AI on global power dynamics; Consider the true intentions of the October 2022 export controls — from military constraining China to crippling manufacturing in the broader economy; Muse about the potential for a "splinternet" to emerge as countries around the world — in particular, the US, China, EU members states — adopt different standards and regulations for their tech industries; And more! Outro music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1_Amc4Ysv0 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ben Bajarin, a technology expert, and Jay Goldberg, a cloud investment commentator, dive deep into the soaring capex of cloud hyperscalers like Google and Amazon. They analyze the link between capex spending and revenue growth, spotlighting the hurdles in monetizing AI investments. The duo discusses the exciting potential of innovations in AI wearables, AR, and autonomous vehicles, while also contemplating the economic impact of these advancements. They emphasize the importance of clear consumer use cases and the deflationary effects on tech costs.