Semiconductor & Technology Specialist, Ingenuity

William Keating

Dr. William Keating is a highly experienced senior executive with over 25 years experience in the IT/Semiconductor Industry. The majority of Dr. Keating's career was spent at Intel Corporation where he held senior leadership positions in Europe, the US and Asia from 1992 through 2014. He served as Intel's IT Director for APAC, China & Japan from 2005 through 2014 when he was based in Hong Kong and was responsible for the IT systems (Infrastructure, Networks, Data Centres, ERP, Sales & Marketing systems, Business Intelligence etc. ) for all of Intel's offices & factories through the region. From 1998 through 2005, he was the founder & director of an internal IT Consulting Organisation (IT Flex Services), a 500-person team which remains a core part of the Intel IT Organisation to this day. Dr. Keating's first 6 years at Intel were spent in charge of the Factory Automation Systems (Robotics, Databases, Networks, Servers, Clients etc.) supporting Intel's then state-of-the-art 200mm factory network. Since leaving Intel in 2014, Dr Keating established his own Technology Research & Consulting Company (www.ingenuity.hk) where he focuses on the products, roadmaps & technologies of companies such as Intel, AMD, Samsung, Apple, Micron- as well as the key equipment suppliers to those companies e.g. ASML, AMAT, Canon, Nikon etc. Dr. Keating specializes in niche topics of high significance within the semiconductor industry. These include the future of Moore's Law and in particular the significance of Lithography in maintaining Moore's Law (EUV, SDA, NanoImprint), the role & growth of the GPU in specialised applications such as Deep Learning (Neural Networks) for Voice, Image & Pattern recognition at companies such as Facebook, Google & Baidu. He also holds regular discussions on the future of memory, in particular the rise of 3D NAND and the emergence of new memory technologies such as 3D Xpoint.

Semiconductor & Technology Specialist

Cypress/Infineon Versus Bloomberg: A Case for Mindful Understanding of the Press

Learnings From The History Of Memory Part 3- The Amazing Resurgence of NOR Flash

Learnings From The History Of Memory Part 2- DRAM Supply, Demand & Pricing Are Foregone Conclusions

Learnings From The History Of Memory Part 1 - China's DRAM Dreams

Ingenuity

Our focus is exclusively on in-depth research & consulting in the broader semiconductor industry. We focus on the key players, namely Intel, Micron, Qualcomm, Apple, Samsung, NVIDIA, AMD, TSMC & Global Foundries - as well as some of the lesser known, but nonetheless critical, companies such as ASML (for EUV), Mellanox, Cavium, Xilinx etc. We specialise in their products, roadmaps, process technologies, competitive advantages & threats etc. We also help our clients understand the implications of new and emerging technologies, e.g. 3D X-Point, 3D NAND, Carbon Nanotubes, Autonomous Driving, Graphene, Silicon Photonics, Wafer-Level Optics, Artificial Intelligence, FPGA, GPU, ASIC etc. 

Semiconductor Analysis & Research

Equity Bottom-Up

There's a lot to like about <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/609" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:609:1">Cypress Semiconductor</a>. Since taking the helm back in August 2016, CEO Hassane El-Khoury has led the company through a series of strategic realignments as part of his Cypress 3.0 initiative. While some of those moves were initially counterintuitive, they are now proving prescient as the company demonstrates far more resilience in the face of the current downturn compared to any period in its history.Cypress offers exposure to the high growth automotive and IoT markets, industrial and consumer to a slightly lesser degree. Their product portfolio is the #1 market leader in new fewer than seven key segments, up from #3 just two years ago. On the latest earnings call, the company reported annual revenues of $2.48 billion for 2018, a 7% YoY increase. The company's financial model targets a growth CAGR of 7-9% through 2021 and is well on track to achieve that goal. Like many of its peers, last year's downturn saw Cypress share price fall more than 30% from its 52-week high at the trough. Currently, after a 6.63% rise on the back of solid earnings and reasonable outlook, its stock currently trades at $14.79, a 21.6% discount to the 52-week high. It also comes with an impressive dividend yield of 3.5% annualized as of December 31'st 2018.We believe that the company would be an excellent acquisition target for the likes of <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/969" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:969:1">Qualcomm</a> whose failed bid for NXP last year thwarted its attempt to expand into the market for automotive semiconductors. We expect any such takeover offer would instantly add ~30% to the company's share price.

There's a lot to like about Cypress Semiconductor. Since taking the helm back in August 2016, CEO Hassane El-Khoury has led the company through a series of strategic realignments as part of his Cypress 3.0 initiative. While some of those moves were initially counterintuitive, they are now proving prescient as the company demonstrates far more resilience in the face of the current downturn compared to any period in its history.Cypress offers exposure to the high growth automotive and IoT markets, industrial and consumer to a slightly lesser degree. Their product portfolio is the #1 market leader in new fewer than seven key segments, up from #3 just two years ago. On the latest earnings call, the company reported annual revenues of $2.48 billion for 2018, a 7% YoY increase. The company's financial model targets a growth CAGR of 7-9% through 2021 and is well on track to achieve that goal. Like many of its peers, last year's downturn saw Cypress share price fall more than 30% from its 52-week high at the trough. Currently, after a 6.63% rise on the back of solid earnings and reasonable outlook, its stock currently trades at $14.79, a 21.6% discount to the 52-week high. It also comes with an impressive dividend yield of 3.5% annualized as of December 31'st 2018.We believe that the company would be an excellent acquisition target for the likes of Qualcomm whose failed bid for NXP last year thwarted its attempt to expand into the market for automotive semiconductors. We expect any such takeover offer would instantly add ~30% to the company's share price. 

Cypress Semiconductor. The Perfect Acquisition Target.