We're excited to announce a strategic collaboration with @GlobalFoundries to develop advanced silicon photonics solutions for the rapidly growing AI infrastructure market. Our laser arrays will support next-generation optical connectivity architectures, including CPO, LPO, and other emerging data center interconnect solutions, while complementing GlobalFoundries' silicon photonics platform and SCALE™ optical engine offerings targeting a projected $25 billion pluggable optics market by 2030. For full details, visit:

Taiwan's GlobalWafers: "Supply constraints have emerged in 12 inch wafers" Taiwan's GlobalWafers has formally acknowledged a shortage in silicon wafers. At its second quarter earnings conference call on the 4th, GlobalWafers said an imbalance between supply and demand in the semiconductor wafer industry is already underway, adding that its 12 inch (300mm), 8 inch (200mm) and 6 inch (150mm) lines have effectively reached maximum utilization and that supply constraints have already emerged for some advanced 12 inch products. Orders have surged on rising demand from AI semiconductors, high bandwidth memory (HBM), silicon photonics and advanced packaging. The company explained that the shortage has become a reality as logic makers, not only memory makers, move to secure long term capacity. The shortage is appearing across the wafer industry. Germany's Siltronic said in its earnings release on the 30th of last month that inventories at memory and logic customers are normalizing and that customers have begun rebuilding wafer safety stock, adding that this restocking is expected to increase wafer demand further and that new customers as well as existing ones are requesting 300mm volumes. Japan's Shin-Etsu Chemical, the global number one, also said in its earnings release on the 24th of last month that 300mm wafer shipments grew at double digit rates both year over year and quarter over quarter. Japan's SUMCO likewise assessed in May that customer inventory adjustment was entering its final stage. SK Siltron is expanding capacity by bringing equipment at its new fab online in stages, but the pace of order growth is understood to be outrunning that. The way long term agreements (LTAs) are struck is also changing. In the past the purpose was for customers to secure stable volumes, but recently they have taken on a stronger character of locking up capacity ahead of a shortage. Contract terms are also lengthening from around three years to five to eight years. Last month GlobalWafers signed a 10 year LTA with Micron, the longest in the wafer industry. The contract begins next year and includes strategic financial support in the nature of a prepayment. Most of its revenue in the second half of this year and the first half of next year is also expected to come from LTAs. Shin-Etsu Chemical said it currently supplies all of its 300mm wafers under LTAs. Siltronic supplies two thirds of its volume through LTAs. Memory customers are requesting volumes for delivery two to three years out. Moves to raise prices are also emerging. With supply tight, prices have begun to rise first in the non LTA (spot) market. Siltronic said prices for 300mm non LTA wafers have started to rise. GlobalWafers also expects spot prices in the second half of this year to be higher than in the first half. Price increases are expected to spread to LTAs as well. GlobalWafers said it is discussing price increases with customers to reflect higher raw material, energy, logistics and labor costs, adding that while LTAs already signed will maintain their contracted prices, new contracts will reflect not only price and volume but also price adjustment mechanisms, product mix and market changes. Siltronic likewise stressed that with some LTA renegotiations coming up in 2027 and 2028, prices need to recover to levels that allow reinvestment, and that broad and meaningful price increases are necessary. The wafer industry had previously gone through roughly two years of simultaneous shipment declines and price pressure as customer inventories built up sharply from 2023. Customer inventories of 300mm wafers then turned lower from late 2025, and months of inventory also declined from the first quarter of this year, completing the inventory correction. The industry is understood to have turned from the second quarter of this year. A deeper shortage and full scale price increases are expected to appear from the second half of 2027. Rising utilization at existing semiconductor lines is currently driving shipment growth, but once new memory fabs from Samsung Electronics, SK hynix and Micron come online, wafer demand is expected to rise to roughly double current levels.

We’re pouring more and morepower into copper just to move bits a few meters – and paying for it in cooling. Silicon photonics slashes interconnect power per bit, easing the power/cooling crunch and freeing budget for compute, not heat. #Datacenters# #EnergyEfficiency#

Earnings Takeaways- Tower Semiconductor (TSEM) • 2Q26 revenue $460mn (+24% YoY), GP +72%, OP +125%; EPS $0.79 a beat, driven by higher utilization, better mix & accelerating silicon photonics demand
• 3Q26 guide: record $520mn (+31% YoY, +13% QoQ) suggests a strong growth 
• The co targets sequential revenue & profit improvement through 2026
• Raised 2026/27 EPS to $4.5 / $10; Maintain Buy, TP $260 (26x 2027E)
• $1.3bn contract SiPho revenue locked for 2027 from hyperscalers
• 2028 wafer order commitments expected to exceed 2027 levels
• Additional new SiPho customer qualifications underway
• Leading specialty foundry for NPO (near-package optics); CPO longer-term
• Capacity ramp focused on Japan Fab 7; NPO volume ramp expected 2H27 #TSEM# #Towersemi#

US Gov to take 1% stake in $GFS, and award them $300m for the US CHIPS ACT. This is actually a strong read through on $SIVE / $LITE, given this CHIPS ACT is specifically aimed at advancing CPO + Silicon Photonics. (For reference, Sivers and Lumentum were the only two public laser suppliers named in GFS presentation slides. Sivers laser arrays was named recently as a reference design in Globalfoundries SCALE for CPO). Per US Gov announcement: "GlobalFoundries will receive up to $300 million to accelerate domestic CPO R&D by two to three years" (NIST) Never thought we'd see the US Gov / $INTC foundry playbook for CPO in specific...

🚀 New Listing on DeShare — this batch is solid 🔹 EACON (07687) – No.1 autonomous mining stock, backed by Zijin and XCMG 🔹 DTECH (01377) – First AI silicon-photonics interconnect stock in HK, +75% on debut 🔹 ROKAE ROBOTICS (03752) – China's industrial robot leader, a hidden champion in high-end manufacturing 🔹 SK hynix (SKHY) – Global HBM leader, the backbone of AI computing, just listed on Nasdaq All assets: 1:1 backed by real equity, on-chain verifiable, licensed custody. 24/7 trading, no KYC — one wallet, all markets. 👉

Two different capacity expansion announcements today across $TSEM and $AAOI. Tower Semi, supported by the Japanese government, announced expansion of its 300mm Silicon Photonics (SiPho), Silicon Germanium (SiGe), and advanced packaging capabilities. Targeting $1.2B net profit, and $3.6B revenue in 2028 (with a ~$28B MC, that's ~23.3 2028 forward p/e). AAOI announced the commencement of its buildout, roughly 400,000 square feet of manufacturing to make 800g/1.6T production go brrr. The overall expansion is also supported by the local city government in Texas. (they also $20.85M worth of subsidies from the State earlier). This one isn't exactly as materially new as Tower, since AAOI originally announced these plans before. Just commencement of it. Regardless, glad to see both of these companies in their Anime training arc phase as they power up.

🚀 New listings on DeShare 🔹 Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM) – World’s first pure‑play memory ETF 🔹 HELIX BIOMEDIX INC (HXBM) – Peptide therapies for rare skin diseases 🔹 SEER TECH (06106) – First robotics brain stock in HK 🔹 WENGE AI (01956) – Decision‑intelligence AI stock with CAS backing 🔹 BAIGE DIGITAL (02672) – First AI‑driven insurance tech stock 🔹 CREALIGHTS (01191) – First silicon‑photonics interconnect stock in HK All assets: 1:1 backed by real equity, on‑chain verifiable, licensed custody. 24/7 trading, no KYC. 👉

🚀 We're hiring! Join Sivers Semiconductors and help develop the next generation of SatCom, 5G, 6G, Photonics & Silicon Photonics technologies. We're looking for experienced Custom IC Layout Engineers with expertise in RF & mmWave IC layout, verification, and full-chip integration. For more details and to apply, visit: #Hiring# #RFIC# #MMWave# #Semiconductors# #Photonics# #5G# #6G# #SatCom# #EngineeringJobs#

Today, $FOTO launches on @CBOE. The Tuttle Capital Photonics ETF. Learn more: Lasers. Optical transceivers. Silicon photonics. Specialty wafers. Foundry capacity. The highway between the chips is moving from copper to light. Distributor: Foreside Fund Services