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

Semiconductor Memory DRAM Supply, Demand Pricing Review Q2 2018

Semiconductors. Is the Bubble About To Burst?

Semiconductor Storage NAND Flash Supply, Demand & Pricing Review Q2 2018

Intel's Potential $720 Million Holiday Season Gift To AMD

TSMC May Have Another New Customer. Intel.

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

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

Colombia Semiconductors and semiconductor equipment / Thematic (Sector/Industry)

Three important data points in recent weeks point to continued strength in the global semiconductor markets in the face of increasing pessimism and a general perception that the sector is due for an imminent correction if not collapse. Firstly, global semiconductor sales remain robust, reaching $40.16 billion for the month of August, an increase of 14.9% YoY and 1.7% sequentially. Secondly, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/191" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:191:1">Samsung Electronics</a>'s latest earnings guidance points to record revenues of $57.5 billion and profits of $15.5 billion. Finally, the latest report from DRAMeXchange suggests that DRAM prices increased by 1-2% during the current quarter, although a drop of around 5% is anticipated in the fourth quarter. Robust semiconductor sales are an important indicator of the overall health of the sector and the August data points to continued strength in the underlying segments. As the world's #1 producer of DRAM and NAND, Samsung's guidance in conjunction with <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/13382" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:13382:1">Micron</a>'s recent record quarter are clear indications that the sector has thus far remained highly profitable in spite of the growing pressure on margins as ASP's decline. We acknowledge that there are headwinds aplenty on the horizon from trade wars to cyclical downturn scenarios but for now these three data points belie the general sector doom and gloom.

Three important data points in recent weeks point to continued strength in the global semiconductor markets in the face of increasing pessimism and a general perception that the sector is due for an imminent correction if not collapse. Firstly, global semiconductor sales remain robust, reaching $40.16 billion for the month of August, an increase of 14.9% YoY and 1.7% sequentially. Secondly, Samsung Electronics's latest earnings guidance points to record revenues of $57.5 billion and profits of $15.5 billion. Finally, the latest report from DRAMeXchange suggests that DRAM prices increased by 1-2% during the current quarter, although a drop of around 5% is anticipated in the fourth quarter. Robust semiconductor sales are an important indicator of the overall health of the sector and the August data points to continued strength in the underlying segments. As the world's #1 producer of DRAM and NAND, Samsung's guidance in conjunction with Micron's recent record quarter are clear indications that the sector has thus far remained highly profitable in spite of the growing pressure on margins as ASP's decline. We acknowledge that there are headwinds aplenty on the horizon from trade wars to cyclical downturn scenarios but for now these three data points belie the general sector doom and gloom.

Growing Semiconductor Sales, Samsung Record Guidance & Stable DRAM Pricing Belie Sector Doom & Gloom