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

Sumco: Earnings Growth Resumes in 1Q20 Amidst Covid-19 Outbreak

COVID-19 & Semiconductors: Profit Warnings Piling Up Ahead Of Earnings.

Battle Lines Drawn As BABA Builds Out First/Last-Mile Capacity; But Who Will Fund 75+ Bn CNY CapEx?

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)

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

With all of the major silicon wafer manufacturers now having reported Q1 earnings, it's clear that the impact of COVID-19 was relatively minor as far as revenues net profits were concerned. That situation looks set to continue in the current quarter, with mostly flat to modestly higher revenue forecasts. The sector isn't COVID-19 immune however. Most manufacturers reported meaningfully higher logistics and shipping charges as freight-carrying passenger flights all but vanished during March. Furthermore, GlobalWafers reported that two of their facilities were forced to close for a month. While the bullish forecasts for the current quarter are encouraging, many believe this to be the result of inventory building in the face of the pandemic. As for the second half outlook, we were left with no actual forecasts, rather a strong sense that it all depends on the extent to which COVID-19 is demonstrably under control or not by then.Separately,  there was an important milestone during the first quarter with China's <a href="http://nsig.com/en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Semiconductor Industry Group</a> (NSIG) launching its IPO on the Shenzhen STAR market.

With all of the major silicon wafer manufacturers now having reported Q1 earnings, it's clear that the impact of COVID-19 was relatively minor as far as revenues net profits were concerned. That situation looks set to continue in the current quarter, with mostly flat to modestly higher revenue forecasts. The sector isn't COVID-19 immune however. Most manufacturers reported meaningfully higher logistics and shipping charges as freight-carrying passenger flights all but vanished during March. Furthermore, GlobalWafers reported that two of their facilities were forced to close for a month. While the bullish forecasts for the current quarter are encouraging, many believe this to be the result of inventory building in the face of the pandemic. As for the second half outlook, we were left with no actual forecasts, rather a strong sense that it all depends on the extent to which COVID-19 is demonstrably under control or not by then.Separately,  there was an important milestone during the first quarter with China's National Semiconductor Industry Group (NSIG) launching its IPO on the Shenzhen STAR market. 

Silicon Wafers. The Impact Of Covid-19 In Q1 And Likely Outlook For CY 2020.