Hello world, it’s Tuesday, September 15th.
MediaTek’s new Dimensity 9600 Pro puts the company on TSMC’s 2nm before Qualcomm gets there, and that same node is already choked with demand from AWS, Google, and MediaTek itself through 2027. Broadcom’s CEO pushed back on a chip-stock selloff tied to Anthropic’s call for AI pacing, global semiconductor revenue hit a record $425 billion in Q2, and ASML is weighing output beyond its 110-unit EUV ceiling for 2028.
Let’s get into it. — Austin & Vik
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MediaTek Dimensity 9600 Pro Arrives on TSMC 2nm, Beating Qualcomm’s Next Flagship
MediaTek has launched the Dimensity 9600 Pro, its first flagship chip built on TSMC’s 2nm process, giving the company a node lead over Qualcomm’s next flagship before that rival has reached production. The chip debuts exclusively on OPPO’s Find X10 Pro Max, which OPPO confirmed will launch globally. Architecturally, the 9600 Pro is built around agentic AI workloads, with MediaTek positioning its on-device inference capabilities as a core differentiator. The launch makes MediaTek the first mobile chipmaker to ship a 2nm product at volume, arriving before Qualcomm’s next-generation Snapdragon.
Vik: Mobile phone processors are usually the first ones to adopt the smallest transistor nodes because power savings is extremely important for handheld devices. AI chips tend to cluster on 3nm. When AI chips go to 2nm, mobile phones will likely go to 1.4nm. This is just how the dynamic is. Interesting that MediaTek beat Qualcomm to the new node though.
TSMC Advanced Nodes and CoWoS Face Sustained Allocation Squeeze Through 2027
AWS, MediaTek, and Google’s TPU division are all competing for capacity at TSMC’s 3nm, 2nm, and CoWoS packaging nodes simultaneously, according to Digitimes, a pile-up that leaves virtually no slack across the foundry’s most advanced process tiers. SK Hynix is compounding the pressure by deepening its logic partnership with TSMC as it pursues 3D DRAM production in South Korea, adding a memory-side claimant to an already contested allocation queue.
TSMC’s Co-COO has publicly urged caution about AI demand, comparing it to a “three-year-old Superman” with strength that outpaces judgment, though the comment hasn’t visibly cooled customer appetite. Construction of the ESMC fab in Germany is proceeding on schedule, but that site targets mature nodes and won’t relieve advanced-node strain. Digitimes puts allocation pressure running through at least 2027, a window long enough to give TSMC considerable weight in contract talks with every name on that list.
Vik: This has got to be the best imagery ever for the AI demand — Superman as a 3-year old toddler. Strength that outpaces judgement. Y. J. Mii, TSMC’s co-COO is an analogy genius.
Austin: This CoWoS shortage is good for advanced packaging broadly and OSATs specifically. Companies like SPIL, Amkor, and Powertech Technology are called on to finish the job.
ASML Weighs Surpassing 110-Unit EUV Output Ceiling for 2028
JPMorgan reports that ASML is actively examining production routes beyond its 110-unit EUV ceiling for 2028, a figure that already stretches the Dutch company’s stated capacity. Chipmaker demand is outrunning what ASML has publicly committed to, and the news sent the stock lower according to market coverage. The pressure compounds an awkward technical reality: ASML and TSMC have both acknowledged that High-NA EUV carries architectural constraints that limit how far the technology can be pushed before a successor approach is needed. No competitor sits anywhere close to filling that gap. The lithography supply chain is tightening from both ends, with demand pulling capacity up and physics pulling the roadmap short.
Vik: Key things to note:
JPM said ASML’s limiting factor is its speed of EUV assembly, not supply chain
Adoption of next-generation High NA tools will start in 2028 but “more meaningfully over the next decade”.
Given laser advances, ASML sees no reason to try new “FEL” light source favored by Musk
Broadcom CEO Holds AI Revenue Targets as Chip Stocks Sell Off
Semiconductor names including Nvidia and Micron tumbled after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for “pacing” at the AI frontier, with Microsoft and OpenAI offering loose backing for the idea. Broadcom’s CEO directly addressed the selloff, telling CNBC that AI revenue targets remain unchanged despite the slowdown rhetoric. Axios separately reported that Anthropic’s IPO timetable is unaffected by the safety uproar, with a $2 trillion valuation still in play. The pacing debate has drawn a sharply different reception outside the US: Chinese state media dismissed the call as self-serving, and a DeepSeek engineer invoked stark historical comparisons while warning against concentrated AI power in American hands, introducing a competitive asymmetry that chip customers will have to reckon with regardless of what Wall Street decides the rhetoric is worth.
Vik: Hock says AI demand is here to stay. I argued the same on my Substack post, where I outlined the reasons the AI buildout will not slow down.
Samsung Electro-Mechanics and Qualcomm Build Organic Bridge to Avoid Intel Patents
Samsung Electro-Mechanics and Qualcomm are jointly developing an organic bridge chiplet for 2.1D packaging, according to The Elec, which broke the story. The organic bridge serves the same interconnect function as Intel’s embedded multi-die interconnect bridge, or EMIB, but is built from organic substrate material rather than silicon, a construction choice that routes around Intel’s packaging intellectual property. The collaboration targets 2.1D packaging, a heterogeneous integration tier that sits between conventional 2D planar assembly and the more complex, costlier 2.5D interposer-based approaches. Intel has long held licensing leverage over silicon bridge packaging through its EMIB patents, and an organic alternative developed by two heavyweights gives the broader industry a viable path that doesn’t require negotiating with a competitor.
Vik: I’m actually surprised you can build an “organic substrate” EMIB and circumvent Intel patents of silicon-based EMIB. If it works, more packaging capacity. If it does not, more business for TSMC and Intel.
Global Semiconductor Revenue Hits Record $425B, Q3 Forecast Tops $500B
Global semiconductor revenue surged a record 31.4% quarter-over-quarter to surpass $425 billion in Q2 2026, according to Omdia, beating the previous sequential growth record of 29.2% set just one quarter earlier in Q1 2026. That back-to-back record run pushed first-half 2026 revenue to $752 billion. AI demand and strong memory prices drove the headline number, but the breadth of gains across logic and analog segments gave the result extra weight. Omdia has not observed sequential growth of this magnitude in any quarter since it began tracking the market in Q1 2002. The research firm forecasts Q3 revenue will surpass $500 billion, which would lift cumulative revenue for the first three quarters of 2026 above $1.25 trillion.
Sector Watch
Memory
Micron launches the world’s first ultra-dense memory module for next-generation servers, targeting higher-capacity AI inference and training racks. (Micron)
Micron Taiwan union presses a profit-sharing demand and keeps strike preparations active, per Reuters, introducing potential supply-continuity risk at a key HBM and DRAM site. (Reuters)
Micron and NY Creates welcome the first apprenticeship cohort at the company’s New York fab, advancing skilled-workforce pipelines for its HBM and DRAM expansion. (Semiconductor Digest)
Foundry & Packaging
Taesung demonstrates a physical 2T glass core substrate with through-glass vias at KPCA Show 2026, a meaningful step toward glass-core advanced packaging commercialization. (The Elec)
Aspeed secures dedicated chip-packaging capacity at ASE Group, Taiwan News reports, ensuring supply for its BMC and server-management silicon amid tight advanced-packaging availability. (Taiwan News)
Samsung is reportedly being considered as a second-source foundry for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6, according to Android Headlines, reviving the Exynos fab relationship. (Android Headlines)
Compute & Edge
Astera Labs bolsters its Leo Smart Memory Controller family with new SKUs targeting agentic AI and general-purpose cloud workloads. (Globe Newswire)
Rambus releases a production-ready CryptoManager Root of Trust supporting the Caliptra specification, targeting security hardening for AI data-center SoCs. (Rambus)
FuriosaAI and Equinix announce a partnership to bring FuriosaAI’s AI accelerators into Equinix colocation facilities across Europe, targeting sovereign AI deployments. (조선일보)
Optics & Networking
Credo Technology expands its ZeroFlap portfolio with 224G-based 1.6T optical transceivers, targeting hyperscale AI network infrastructure demand. (Credo Investor Relations)
Nokia and Telxius complete deployment of 800G coherent pluggable optics across Telxius terrestrial transport networks spanning Europe and the Americas. (Nokia)
Tower Semiconductor will present high-volume silicon photonics and SiGe solutions for AI infrastructure and telecom applications at ECOC 2026. (Tower Semiconductor)
Data Centers
Wiwynn opens its NT$50.9 billion Texas manufacturing hub, deepening the Taiwan ODM’s US AI-server production footprint as hyperscaler demand accelerates. (digitimes)
Meta announces an expansion of its Eagle Mountain, Utah data center campus with over $3 billion in investment and more than $2.5 million in community commitments. (Data Center Dynamics)
Crusoe opens its second Tulsa manufacturing facility, a 400,000-square-foot plant that will employ more than 300 workers building AI data center hardware components. (Crusoe)
Power
GE Vernova signs gas turbine supply agreements with Thailand’s B.Grimm Power, Reuters reports, adding firm capacity orders to its AI-driven backlog. (Reuters)
LS Electric signs a $34 million supply contract with Bloom Energy in the US, Evertiq reports, expanding the Korean power-equipment maker’s fuel-cell infrastructure business. (Evertiq)
Eggtronic and Renesas unveil a 140W USB-C GaN power delivery reference design, targeting next-generation fast-charging platforms for AI-edge devices. (New Electronics)
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