Matter only goes so far. The new Matter standard has the potential to end the fragmentation and incompatibility of the smart home but even with all of the big digital ecosystems supporting it, there are limitations and scope for substantial complexity to damage the user experience. Matter is an application layer protocol which was created to address the issue of...
Missed the connection. Meta headlined its Connect 2022 event with its new pro-headset but its real message was completely lost meaning that what Meta is really doing in the Metaverse will remain a mystery to the market for at least another year. Most commentators looked at what Meta has today and used this to predict where the company is going,...
No way back. The repercussions of the latest US restrictions (see here) are likely to go both far and wide through the Chinese technology industry slowing its development and putting Huawei even more at a disadvantage than it already was. Huawei’s fate in cellular networks and equipment was pretty much sealed a couple of years ago when the USA implemented...
X is the only place to go. Much has been made of Mr Musk’s plans to create a super app called ‘X’ with Twitter as its starting point, but the reality of numbers demonstrates that this is probably the only way that any money will be made from acquiring Twitter for $44bn. Twitter is what RFM refers to as a...
Samsung and AMD join the chorus. Weak results from Samsung and a profit warning from AMD are more signs that demand is weakening which in the face of all-time highs in capital expenditure could tip the sector into a sharp downturn. Samsung reported preliminary Q3 2022 results that missed expectations almost certainly as a result of weakness in semiconductors with...
The USA goes beyond semis in its war on Chinese technology. The USA is about to ramp up the pressure still further on China’s semiconductor industry which marks a departure from just targeting semiconductors to targeting the other technologies where China, until now, has been doing very well. The US Department of Commerce is expected to publish new guidelines which...
Musk caves. Elon Musk has realised that he is very likely to lose his court case against Twitter meaning that he has again offered to buy the company for $44bn ($54.20 per share) but the transaction is going to be even more expensive now than when he originally made the offer. There are two big winners from this event: First,...
Geopolitics is firmly in the driving seat. Samsung has announced its intentions to triple its foundry business from 2021 as well as migrate from 5nm to 1.4nm within a 5-year time horizon in another sign that the foundry opportunity and the build-out of leading-edge is being driven by geopolitics rather than economics. Samsung is holding its annual Foundry Forum in...
Intel is a committed seller. Mobileye has filed its S-1 with the SEC announcing its intention to relist but looking at how much growth has slowed and how low its margins are, indicates that even the reduced valuation of $30bn is going to be a stretch. Mobileye started life as a chip company selling camera-based ADAS systems to the automobile...
Richard is founder, owner of research company, Radio Free Mobile. He has 16 years of experience working in sell side equity research. During his 11 year tenure at Nomura Securities, he focused on the equity coverage of the Global Technology sector.
China vs. USA – Self censorship
Semi-equipment makers remove China The US and European semiconductor capital equipment industries are self-censoring their business with China in a way that is much more draconian than I expected and if it becomes the norm, will do even more damage to the Chinese semiconductor industry than anyone has anticipated. US companies such as Applied Materials, KLA corp and LAM Research...