Takeaways from the Sept Wrap-Up report - Cautious Market, Intact AI •July was tough; mild recovery through Aug/1H-Sept still felt challenging. Positioning remains cautious despite robust AI-infrastructure demand. Sentiment is more on worst-case capex & monetization fears. •Worst of the pullback looks behind us: positioning cleaned up, Sept rate hike was expected, and recent tech-CEO comments reinforced AI confidence. •Long-term AI/capex: US CSP capex forecast +85% / +45% / +20% YoY for 2026/27/28. CSP balance sheets (ex-Oracle) stay healthy — net leverage ~0.5x, net debt-to-equity only 18% by 2029. •Neoclouds + Nvidia’s $530bn off-balance-sheet backstop = Nvidia wins if demand holds, manageable if it weakens •GPT-6 is a step-up toward AGI: Unlocks monetizable automation across knowledge work, enterprise agents, DevOps/security, synthetic data/RL. •Scaling + inferencing demand continues even as CEOs talk about “pacing the frontier.” •Recent supply tour + SEMICON 2026: bullish on AI infra demand. Tight supply across wafer fab, advanced packaging, memory, LPS, substrate, DSP, etc. Strong backlogs + multi-year visibility. •Still like: NVDA, CPU, UMC/INTC, DRAM/HBM, thermal, interconnect/optics (Credo, SMTC), PCB/PTFE. •August data: TSMC sales +10% MoM (tracking inline). Neoclouds momentum helps OEMs. Substrate upcycle intact, CCL margin expansion. Aspeed +118% YoY with solid 4Q guide / likely BMC price hike. #AI# #Semis# #NVDA# #MU# #TSMC# #capex#

Takeaways of Intel (INTC) 2Q26 earnings note •TP to $136 (5x 2027E BVPS / 34x 2028E EPS) •2Q26 the strongest rev growth in 15+ years of $16.1B, beat estimates (consensus $14.3b, GFe $14.8b) •Strong 3Q guidance of Rev $16.3b (vs consensus $15.1b, GFe $16.2b). GM guide of 42% (vs consensus 40%, GFe 42.2%). Foundry Accelerating: •Foundry business gaining strong traction with sound execution •18A yields ahead of internal targets; Panther Lake inline with our ~80% view •Intel 18A-P entered risk production — competitive node for external customers (e.g. Apple M-series highlighted in Dec 2025) •14A clear timeline: PDK 0.9 by Oct, risk production + external customer volume in 2H28 •Robust pipeline, especially Apple smartphone & server CPUs •Aggressively raising 2026 capex >$20B, with significantly higher 2027 capex — big capacity buildout for 14A/18A/Intel 3, inline with our earlier note of a Big Lift in Capacity •On track for profitability in 2H27 driven by yield + scale Other Highlights: •Upward EPS revisions (+3% 2026E / +11% 2027E) 🆚 Per our earlier TSMC (2330 TT) Downgrade note on July 16, we note that TSMC’s capex acceleration was late in this AI cycle, leaving room for Intel, which also backed by Made in U.S. and improving execution. #Intel# #INTC# #Semiconductors# #Foundry#