$MU $DRAM $SNDK Bank of America just put out their 2030 semi TAM.
$1.96T total.
$900B is memory. Nearly half.
And this is almost certainly outdated. It's not pricing in the Agentic AI boom yet.
$SIVE + Aeva likely coded from the new PR today and SIVE + Apple.
For Sivers lasers powering robotics / physical AI.
-> Sivers lasers powering Boston Dynamics Atlas via. LG Innotek for robotics
-> Nvidia Hyperion ecosystem w/ Sivers lasers for physical AI.
Are possible paths with Aeva.
Apple likely using Sivers also reiterated from the newer webpage:
“Optical sensing modules for wearables” from biometric and health monitoring.
They just can’t namedrop partners due to confidentiality, but consumer sensing is probably the biggest tell.
Physical AI and mass consumer production with Apple would be very material to revenue.
OpenLight (private) seems to get bigger and bigger every time I look at it.
If you’re curious about their public ecosystem outside of Advantest:
$JBL ( $SIVE partner ) for scaling PICs
$MRVL and $MXL for DSPs
$TSEM for the foundry.
$300394.SZ / TFC Optical (OSAT/subassembly)
Can often get exposure into private growth through public equities if you’re not an accredited investor.
Since optical players look very interconnected.
Fun new information discovery from Poet OSINT community:
Seems likely that $POET / $SIVE are going to power a Top-3 hyperscaler (either Amazon, Microsoft, Google).
Given a Linkedin update from Ankur Singla (CEO of Lumilens).
Who stated their customer is one of the top 3 hyperscalers with their post focusing on CPO/NPO.
With that clue, seems more likely the Sivers CW DFB light source path over other EML suppliers given it's CPO Scale Out/NPO.
If you don't remember, Sivers is the laser supplier to Poet. And Poet has purchase agreements with Lumilens.
Always fun to find major potential breadcrumbs in the wild before they're officially confirmed. (Disclosure, long Sive)
Think so. But in the meantime, I call my strategy: Diversified Losses.
With $AXTI, $SOI, $AAOI, and many others.
Had a massive drawdown recently,
CPO exposure was hit the hardest (Foci, Msscorp, etc) and adjacent names, feels bad.
Probably lesson personally, I had too much concentration in photonics vs. memory/other sectors without weighting/hedging properly.
With Soitec, there's been a few negative institutional reports that I'd disagree with.
Think AXT was hit harder in specific just because of float expansion/dilution concerns. AAOI, probably just brought down with the theme.
I can't give advice on buying, so completely up to you to make for cost averaging or entering positions.
But I do think we're still early in the Supercycle with photonics, there's bound to be corrections/crashes along the way up.
If my personal thesis is correct though, many of these names will have a major inflection point in midway through 2027 scaling up to 2028.
Markets don't typically wait to price things in advance, but some ideas might be a tad early or in the buildout given it's H2 2026 now.
Which is why it's important to build your own conviction.
Robotics is next.
Both deal count and investment amounts are skyrocketing per pitchbook March data (source: a16z)
Good thing is: the same AI DC exposure often has cross-exposure to humanoid ramp.
Like DRAM/NAND with memory (on humanoid inference/storage) or DFB lasers with photonics (FMCW LiDAR vision/sensing).
Right now most exposure is upstream component parts… or programs within large players like $AMZN or $TSLA.
So global IPO season H2 into 2027 for pure play humanoids/robotics companies is going to be fun.
IMO photonics theme + CW laser chokepoint is goated.
It's legit like markets have short term memory loss and forgot how $LITE went from $3B -> $65B+ from 2024 to now.
Because $NVDA caused EML bottlenecks, and forced architectural changes.
We're literally seeing the same thing today with CW lasers + 1.6T/CPO shifts with Nvidia signing LTAs everywhere.
Now, $AMD + other CSPs are hunting for remaining scraps with large LTAs for CW lasers + optical components.
GS Research's ~9-10x $154B optical TAM in 2028 and near $0 -> $91B CPO TAM in just 2 1/2 years.
Don't just magically disappear from a month of trading volatility.
$AAOI sitting at ~$13B, $SIVE sitting at ~$3B, and other CW laser players look strategically very valuable.
And next year I think we'll look back and say "Why didn't I learn my lesson the first time with EML from Nvidia and pick up CW laser adjacent names!"
Then there's likely gonna be some new mini trend 1-2 years from now like microled or quantum dot and we're gonna see the same thing repeat.
Think Sumitomo's projections with CW laser share + silicon photonics being majority / dominant architecture should be correct.
I'm personally just focusing on that bottleneck as you've seen with $SOI, $TSEM, $SIVE, and others.
Speculation has arisen that the new sensor by Sivers $SIVE has been prototyped for Apple $AAPL
1. You can see here a picture of a watch that quite resembles the Apple Watch.
2. When I consult Gemini it says this technology is a perfect match for the requirements Apple has had for its next generation of Apple Watch for health tracking of blood glucose and more
3. In past corporate communications and across tech-investor forums, Sivers’ leadership hinted at an engagement with a massive US consumer electronics firm requiring immense volume quotes (speculated by analysts to be Apple for a health-sensing pipeline)
If this is indeed becomes used by the next Apple Watch Sivers $SIVE will rerate very quickly towards a 10-20 billion dollar valuation.
It is very likely tomorrow Swedish time is an explosive market day
As for $LPK: Maybe $3B-$5B seems reasonable when they fully volume ramp if I had to guess.
Feels more asymmetrical to me personally since it's just a waiting game and they have the customers for glass substrates.
Small machine supplier chokepoints usually cap out from TAM though and don't go to $20B+ unless you're ASML or hold many chokepoints like KLAC.
Not many dominant "monopolies" like these out there right before volume ramp this small:
Maybe you have stuff like:
- Aixtron (MOCVD) ~$8B
- Towa (compression bonding) ~$2B
- Techwing (memory handler/cube probes) ~$1.5B
- MSScorps (CPO inspection), but pre-ramp. $850M
- Riber (quantum MBE), very pre-ramp ~$350M
Then LPK Laser for glass core substrates (about to ramp) at ~$730M, which thematically should have more premiums than memory. (eg. major advanced packaging shift, CPO adjacent, etc).
Lot of obscure chemical monopolies I know of, but those don't get as much attention cause BOM is much lower than equipment.
But for lpk you have:
eg. “80% of customers among major global players have selected LPKF equipment”.
70% of LIDE market share target for TGV in the glass-core ramp, should be very material. (disclosure: own, the listed names above aside from techwing/aixtron, NFI).
Just kinda the path they go if you follow $AEHR at ~$3.5B now:
- <$500m: "Oh they have no customers!"
---> (probably somewhere in the middle here).
- < $1.5B: "Maybe volume comes soon!"
- $3B+ onward: "Looks like they're starting to volume ramp.
Just a lesson for the cycle of the chokepoint machine suppliers from my personal experiences.
Jefferies: Memory Outlook
> Memory pricing is expected to rise sharply in the near term—climbing 40%–50% QoQ in 3Q26 and another 30%–40% QoQ in 4Q26.
> Price hikes are likely to continue into 2027, with a projected 40%–45% YoY increase due to zero wafer capacity growth.
> Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) are locking down 50% of total capacity (potentially rising to 70%) by signing 2-year LTAs that require a 40% prepayment.
> No CE players have signed these LTAs. Because CSPs are swallowing up supply, CE players face severe pressure and a substantial drop in available supply heading into 2027.
> China will not threaten the current memory bull market in 2026 or 2027 due to a widening technology gap.
> CXMT's DRAM technology lags 1.5 to 2 generations behind global leaders. Without EUV lithography, they cannot upgrade to DDR6 or HBM3E.
> While China's current expansion only impacts low-end segments, its NAND technology is expected to become more globally competitive and could catch up by 2028.
> On HBM4, Samsung is expected to erase its previous tech disadvantage as the industry transitions to hybrid bonding. Additionally, checks suggest Samsung’s 4nm base die for HBM4 offers the best industry performance, giving them a competitive edge.
This chart is exactly why I've been saying the market is underestimating semis.
Look at 2026. Hyperscaler earnings are expected to grow roughly 8-22%, while semis are growing 80-107%. The AI spending is showing up first in the supply chain, not in the companies writing the checks.
Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and Google are spending hundreds of billions on compute. Meanwhile, the suppliers are capturing the profit pool today.
this is the biggest misconception in the market right now. People keep asking whether hyperscaler capex is sustainable. The better question is who gets paid first.
Right now it's $NVDA, $AVGO, $MRVL, $AMD, $MU, $SNDK, $TSM, $ASML and the rest of the AI supply chain.
The hyperscalers are funding the boom.
The semiconductor industry is monetizing it.
🚨 BULLISH ON $MU 🚨
$MU is the only U.S.-based memory chip manufacturer with leading-edge DRAM and NAND production at scale.
$SPCX Elon Musk highlighted the strategic importance of domestic semiconductor manufacturing as AI demand continues to explode. 👇. He mentioned and confirmed $MU is only Memory maker in US till 2029-2030, no other company exist till next few years 🔥🤯