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

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

Learnings From The History of Memory Part 4- The Insatiable Demand For NAND Flash

Learnings From The History Of Memory Part 5-  China's NAND Flash Mega-Billions Gamble

Reasons Why DRAM Price Might Be Better than NAND in 2017

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

A Brief Analysis of Semiconductor Wafer Fab Equipment's Current Growth Cycle

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)

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

<p>As we saw in a recently published Insight, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/learnings-from-the-history-of-memory-part-1-china-s-dram-dreams" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:14484">Learnings From The History Of Memory Part 1 - China’s DRAM Dreams</a>, both DRAM and NAND are in a super-cycle characterized by increasing demand, limited supply and historically high prices. Analysts are divided with regard to where exactly we are in that cycle. Regarding DRAM specifically, on Oct 17’th 2017, CLSA downgraded <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/16955" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:16955:1">SK Hynix Inc (000660 KS)</a> based on the belief that <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/25969" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:25969:1">Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (SMSD LI)</a> was planning to increase DRAM supply, details <a href="https://www.streetinsider.com/Analyst+Comments/Micron+Technology+%28MU%29+Lower+as+CLSA+Sees+Acceleration+in+DRAM+Supply+in+2018/13395936.html" target="_blank">here</a>. SK Hynix has dropped some 2% that day and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/13382" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:13382:1">Micron Technology Inc (MU US)</a> also dropped briefly. Later that same day, JP Morgan opined that DRAM supply would remain tight at least through year-end and potentially into 2018. Micron was up 3.18% on Oct 18’th while SK Hynix fell another 2%. These reports are just the latest in an ongoing back and forth debate about the future of DRAM supply, demand and pricing. The interesting thing, however, is that the answers to these three questions are a foregone conclusion and in this Insight, we shall demonstrate exactly why.</p>

As we saw in a recently published Insight, Learnings From The History Of Memory Part 1 - China’s DRAM Dreams, both DRAM and NAND are in a super-cycle characterized by increasing demand, limited supply and historically high prices. Analysts are divided with regard to where exactly we are in that cycle. Regarding DRAM specifically, on Oct 17’th 2017, CLSA downgraded SK Hynix Inc (000660 KS) based on the belief that Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (SMSD LI) was planning to increase DRAM supply, details here. SK Hynix has dropped some 2% that day and Micron Technology Inc (MU US) also dropped briefly. Later that same day, JP Morgan opined that DRAM supply would remain tight at least through year-end and potentially into 2018. Micron was up 3.18% on Oct 18’th while SK Hynix fell another 2%. These reports are just the latest in an ongoing back and forth debate about the future of DRAM supply, demand and pricing. The interesting thing, however, is that the answers to these three questions are a foregone conclusion and in this Insight, we shall demonstrate exactly why.

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