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What podcasters are saying about AI chips & semiconductors
Summary
In the past 30 days, 50 speakers on 26 finance podcasts discussed AI chips & semiconductors in 73 views. Chorus has followed AI chips & semiconductors since October 4, 2026.
Who talks about it most
- Stacy Rasgon · 10
- Ted Mortonson · 3
- Naveen Rao · 3
- Cameron Dawson · 3
- George Noble · 3
- Steve Hou · 2
- Gary Gensler · 2
- Jeff deGraaf · 2
- Andreas Steno · 2
- Jordi Visser · 2
The latest views
Newest first. Every quote is checked against the episode's transcript.
Jay Hatfield · Infrastructure Capital Advisors
Chip stocks lack contracted revenue, so the chip trade is fragile; a hedge fund blew up on it.
Hatfield contrasts data center and power contracts, which run five to six years and generate high returns, with chip makers, which lack contracted revenue. Chips are good until they are not, and if demand drops, prices drop and chip manufacturing capacity is worth little. He says a hedge fund overdid the chip trade and blew up. He calls chip stocks a fragile trade relative to contracted infrastructure assets.
“Blew up because they just overdid that trade. Like, chips are okay until they're not. Like, they don't have contracted revenue.”at 25:33
Excess Returns: Tech is Selling Off. AI Debt Fears Are Rising. So Why Does a $4B Manager See a Reverse Bubble? ·
Cody Acree · StoneX
Memory price pressure will persist into next year, so PC buyers and makers face no cheaper PCs soon.
Low-cost memory inventories were depleted, so OEMs had to buy at market rates, which has hit PC volumes. The PC life cycle has already been extending into three- and five-year periods, so CFOs will delay purchases under uncertain memory prices, hoping next year brings better supply. He does not expect that. He expects next year's supply-demand dynamics to look like today's, so cheaper PCs are unlikely anytime soon, though he understands the rationale for delaying purchases.
“We're probably gonna face the same similar supply demand dynamics next year that we're facing today. So I don't think you're gonna get cheaper PCs anytime soon”at 12:16
CNBC Closing Bell: Closing Bell Overtime: Big Tech Faces Another Earnings Test 10/29/26 ·
Stacy Rasgon · Bernstein Research
PC shipments are weak because of a memory shortage, not falling demand; weakness likely lasts into 1H next year.
Rasgon has been nervous about PCs and smartphones and flagged PCs as the biggest risk in his Intel preview. Third-party data show Q3 PC shipments down over 20% year over year and down double digits sequentially, where they usually rise double digits. He says this is the worst sequential quarter for PC shipments in about 20 years of data. He attributes it to PC makers being unable to build machines without memory, plus an inventory flush and PC CPUs having over-shipped for several quarters. He expects smartphones and broader consumer electronics to see the same pattern. Intel itself said the PC dynamics would last at least through the first half of next year, and Rasgon says the memory situation may not resolve for a while.
“And the reason PCs are so weak, it's not because PC demand is necessary, it's because there's no memory. And you can't build the PCs.”at 38:22
CNBC Closing Bell: Closing Bell Overtime: Big Tech Faces Another Earnings Test 10/29/26 ·
Stacy Rasgon · Bernstein Research
Semiconductor equipment (semi cap) is a good way to play the memory shortage and capacity buildout.
Rasgon says there is a memory shortage and chipmakers are adding capacity, but building it takes time. The tool vendors that supply that buildout are at the front of the trade. He cites KLA, which reported the previous night, as evidence the group is already seeing this. He says the firm likes semi cap as another way to play the memory shortage, alongside Nvidia-type AI names.
“And frankly, all of these shortages, there's no memory. I mean, they are adding capacity now to make more of it, but it does take time to add that capacity... We like semi cap as another way to play this.”at 39:44
CNBC Closing Bell: Closing Bell Overtime: Big Tech Faces Another Earnings Test 10/29/26 ·
Rory O'Driscoll · Scale Venture Partners
Chip stocks have been rising since the Anthropic S-1 and memory chips are strong, though CoreWeave weighed earlier.
Chips had fallen about two weeks earlier on CoreWeave concerns, but since the Anthropic S-1 came out, chip stocks have bounced because the consensus is that the filing looks good. He points to DRAM being sharply higher and Korea's SK Hynix up 10%. He says the semiconductor capex business has had a good back half.
“since the Anthropic S1 hit, chips have been bouncing up because the consensus is that looks good. One thing that the S1 was good for was chips. So those stocks are actually up.”at 21:08
20VC: 20VC: Anthropic Files S1 Ahead of $2TRN IPO | Instinct's Rumoured $30 Billion Fundraise | Microsoft Laysoff 27,000 While Meta Taps Equity Markets for $95 Billion Capex Spending Spree ·
Steve Hou · Silicon Data
Price rises in memory and logic chips with strong pricing power will hit AI capex more than small components.
Hou argues that what matters for a supplier's effect on costs is how large it is as a share of the bill of materials. Memory and logic chips are big items, so when their prices rise with strong pricing power, they move capex much more than a small component whose price rises because of a shortage. He sees the consolidation in optics as notable but says the bill-of-materials share is what matters.
“how big you are as a share of the overall BOM... memory and logic chips are obviously big deals, and when they go up in price with very extremely strong pricing power, that's going to affect the CapEx much more”at 1:00:59
Monetary Matters: Why Compute Prices Are Still Rising | Steve Hou of Silicon Data on GPU Rental Indices, Fed Meeting, and Anthropic S-1 (LIVE) ·
Paul Hickey · Bespoke Investment Group
Semis and memory stocks must lead the AI bull market; holding their support range is key for the trade.
He calls this an AI bull market, so the semiconductor and memory stocks must lead it. They finished last week at support after a washout and are rallying from it. As long as they hold that range, he thinks it is very positive for the overall trade. He sees these two sectors as the keys to the market right now.
“This has been an AI bull market, and for those... AI is gonna have to lead, those two sectors need to lead. They finished last week right at support and they're rallying.”at 4:59
CNBC Closing Bell: Big Tech Earnings Put the Rally to the Test; Warsh’s Latest Fed Decision 10/28/26 ·
Lisa Shalett · Morgan Stanley Wealth Management
Chipmakers will keep supplying picks and shovels while capex spending continues, with pricing power that could intensify.
Shalett says that as long as capex dollars are being spent, chipmakers will be the picks and shovels. The bottleneck is moving to power, but semiconductor makers have shown pricing power. If capex slows, scarcity could keep that pricing power going through the supply chain and possibly intensify it.
“as long as you have a capex dollar being spent, you absolutely are gonna have the picks and shovels.”at 26:42
Bloomberg Surveillance: Bloomberg Surveillance TV: October 28th, 2026 ·
Palmer Luckey · Anduril Industries
Computer chip pricing and delivery timelines are unusually hard to forecast because of the AI boom.
Luckey explains why he cannot give exact pricing or delivery dates for the Blue Chip laptop. He argues it may be the hardest time in history to predict computer chip prices and delivery timelines because of the AI boom. He says he cannot confidently commit to a date or price he would be able to hit when delivering. Blue Chip is expected to enter production next year, with prototype production already underway at Arsenal 1 and with about two dozen other American companies.
“you'll know this is maybe the hardest time in history to predict the pricing and delivery timelines of computer chips because of this AI boom.”at 16:24
Bloomberg Talks: Anduril Founder Palmer Luckey Talks Partnership With Qualcomm ·
Andrew McDermott · Mission Value Partners
Japan is close to a 1.5nm chip leap with IBM, potentially beyond TSMC, and TSMC is investing there.
He says Japan is very close to partnering with IBM on a 1.5-nanometre process, which he claims would be ahead of TSMC. He notes that TSMC is aggressively investing in Japan. He presents this as evidence that Japan's industrial capacity is being bid for as the world rebuilds manufacturing.
“Japan is very close to partnering with IBM to make a leap to one and a half nanometer technology higher than TSMC.”at 21:14
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Gary Gensler · MIT Sloan School of Management
AI chips bought today may lose most value by 2032 given rapid scaling, despite 4-7 year useful lives.
Gensler says a lot of the funding is going to chips, including memory chips, which may have four to seven year useful lives on the books. He acknowledges that someone in another country may still use them later. However, he argues that scaling and technological advances are so fast that the chips of 2026 will not be very valuable in 2032. He says he does not have a clear picture of whether the market understands this depreciation or obsolescence risk, which is why he is worried about the financing built on these assets.
“And a lot of the funding is funding the chips, the memory chips, and those chips might have four to seven year useful lives... the chips of 2026 won't be that valuable in 2032.”at 12:08
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Mike Preston · New Harbor Financial Group
Semiconductors broke down, so the market can't make much upside progress.
Mike notes semiconductors had been bouncing between swing highs and lows. Over the last ten days they fell in a straight line, and he expected them to take out the swing high but they did not. Because technology is so central to the market's gains, he doesn't think the broader market can make much progress to the upside. He also doesn't expect a blow-off top, and he is watching whether the tech selling is a panic reaction or something that spreads.
“It looked to me like we were going to take out the swing high, but in the last ten days, we went from north to south in a straight line. So I don't really think that the market can have a lot of progress to the upside.”at 1:04:53
Thoughtful Money: "No Signs Of The A.I. Party Slowing Down" | Craig Fuller ·
Gary Gensler · MIT Sloan School of Management
AI chips funded today have 4 to 7 year lives and will be worth far less by 2032.
Gensler says much of the AI funding goes to chips, including memory chips, which might have four to seven year useful lives. Given rapid scaling and technological advances, he argues the chips of 2026 will not be that valuable in 2032, so he is unsure about depreciation and obsolescence.
“I do not have a clear picture. So a lot of the funding is funding the chips, the memory chips, and those chips might have four to seven year useful lives. ... the chips of 2026 won't be that valuable in 2032.”at 32:06
Bloomberg Surveillance: Previewing the Fed Meeting and AI IPOs ·
Jeff deGraaf · Renaissance Macro Research
Tech hardware and semis are oversold and set up for a bounce into month-end and November.
DeGraaff's chart read is that tech hardware and semiconductors have become oversold after the tech selloff. He expects a nice bounce into the end of October and probably a decent part of November. He notes the market is churning, so the near-term relief in tech is a short-term move, not a change in the larger picture.
“I see tech hardware and semis in particular being oversold and set up for a nice bounce into the end of the month and, probably, a decent part of November.”at 42:49
Mike Wilson · Morgan Stanley
Semiconductor index likely falls another 10–15% into mid-November, serving as a broader correction benchmark.
Semiconductors remain at the center of the AI-related concern and may offer a good benchmark for monitoring the broader market correction. Early-cycle areas including semiconductors have been hit more severely than the market since June. On that basis he sees another 10 to 15% decline in the semiconductor index into mid-November.
“Specifically, I see another 10 to 15% lower for the semiconductor index into mid November.”at 2:48
Thoughts on the Market (Morgan Stanley): The Next Stage of the Market Correction ·
Andreas Steno · Steno Research
GPU rental prices are rising and beating depreciation schedules, so the AI build-out returns look fine.
Steno shows that the rental price of H100 GPUs, mostly installed in 2022 and 2023, is up about 30% this year, and that the first Blackwell series, the B200, has more than doubled. Consensus spreadsheets assume falling GPU prices, so he calls this bizarre. He says capex is depreciated over about five years, and rising rental prices mean every GPU installed since 2020 has beaten its depreciation profile by miles. He takes this as a sign the market is short of compute, which makes the return on investment fine if the trend continues.
“They're up 30% in rental prices this year. Look at the [B200], the first Blackwell series. It's more than doubled this year.”at 10:36
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Andreas Steno · Steno Research
Market prices the AI build-out as over; forecasts of chip growth falling to zero next year are debatable.
Steno argues the market has priced in the end of the AI build-out. Either the build-out ends, in which case AI-related stocks should not rally, or it does not end, in which case AI-related stocks should rally hard. The assumption now is that chip growth will slow to zero next year and turn negative into Q2, which he finds highly debatable.
“I'd argue that the market has basically priced now that the AI build out is over... the assumption now is that chips growth will basically slow to zero next year... which I find highly, highly debatable.”at 18:55
Real Vision: Why AI Is NOT the Next Dot-Com Bubble with Andreas Steno and Mikkel Rosenvold | Macro Mondays ·
Noah Weisberger · BCA Research
Chipmakers face little earnings risk; revenues are strong and AI chip demand is holding up.
Asked whether chip-sector earnings are at risk, he says no because revenues are strong and demand overwhelmingly remains. He says the chip trade is not an earnings bubble because the supply curve is vertical, so demand growth drops straight to profit for some of these companies. He doesn't think 30-40% earnings growth is needed, since 20% is a good number for names in the group.
“I don't wanna say no, but, I mean, the revenues are strong and demand overwhelmingly remains.”at 10:17
Bloomberg Surveillance: Bloomberg Surveillance TV: October 26th, 2026 ·
Jason Draho · UBS Global Wealth Management
Favors higher-quality semiconductor and hardware companies that benefit directly from AI infrastructure spending.
UBS's equity team takes a barbell approach to technology. One side favors higher-quality semiconductor and hardware companies that can benefit directly from AI infrastructure spending. This sits alongside a defensive side of mega-cap platforms and defensive tech. Semis sold off sharply in the summer deleveraging, but the core view is that direct beneficiaries of the AI build-out remain the preferred exposure while capex continues.
“On the one hand favoring higher quality semis and hardware companies that can stand to benefit directly from AI infrastructure spending.”at 16:13
UBS On-Air: Top of the Morning: CIO Strategy Snapshot - An assessment of recent market pricing ·
Steve Hou · Silicon Data
Memory and storage demand has gone exponential from AI conversations, driving memory stock gains.
Steve links the explosive rise in memory and storage stocks (SanDisk, Micron, SK Hynix, Samsung) to AI's need for memory. Models must keep track of long conversational context, and each conversation generates far more data that must be stored. He argues that this has made demand for memory and storage grow exponentially, which explains why Korea has drawn intense global attention.
“part of the reason why we have seen such an explosive growth in the stock prices of memory and storage stocks such as SanDisk or Micron... is exactly that, right? We suddenly have a exercise where the demand for memory and demand for storage of data has just gone exponential.”at 22:32
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Chance Finucane · Oxbow Advisors
Semiconductor stocks face about 50% downside; memory chips peaked in June and are already down about 40%.
Memory semiconductor names and the Korean stock index, which is mostly two memory names, all peaked in June. A September rally in AI names made a lower high, and they have fallen again. Memory semiconductors and the Korean index are down about 40% from highs, and semiconductors fell 16% in eight trading sessions. Semiconductors are cyclical, and cyclical tech tends to struggle when growth and inflation slow, which Oxbow sees as the backdrop for at least half of 2027. Its downside for semiconductor stocks is about 50%, so Oxbow isn't adding to or holding those sectors.
“the downside for semiconductor stocks specifically is more like 50. That's just too much downside for us to meaningfully add or hold positions in those sectors.”at 3:53
Thoughtful Money: "We're Worried About 2027" - Stocks To Plunge 30%? | Chance Finucane @OxbowAdvisors ·
Patrick Boyle · Patrick Boyle On Finance
AI chips will become obsolete far faster than the buildings housing them, mismatching long-term loan collateral.
Boyle argues that much of the debt financing AI data centers is secured against the computer chips. Nvidia keeps releasing faster chips, so the chips inside will be obsolete long before the buildings, which last decades. Lenders are therefore lending long-term money against an asset that depreciates quickly. Boyle cites Carlos Mendez, who compared it to financing a fax machine just before email was invented. He presents this as a structural weakness in the financing.
“A lot of this debt is secured against the computer chips themselves, and Nvidia keeps releasing better and faster ones. The buildings will last for decades, but it is pretty much guaranteed that the chips inside them will be obsolete long before that.”at 16:24
Ted Mortonson · Baird
Semiconductor index peaked up 87% as retail bought the top; institutions sold and avoided 35% downside.
He uses the semiconductor index as a benchmark of the cycle. It rose 87% to a peak while retail investors were all in and buying the top. His institutional clients sold on risk-reward and avoided about 35% downside. After the prior day's 6.3% drop in the index, he says institutions are not yet interested in getting back into secular names. He argues the group is still in the process of falling and should not be caught on the way down.
“the semiconductor index as perfect benchmark of what's happened. At the peak, we're up 87% on all semiconductors, and the retail investors were all in and buying at the top.”at 7:50
Excess Returns: Baird's Tech Strategist Says This Isn't 2000. So Why Is He Warning Against Buying the Dip? ·
Ted Mortonson · Baird
Two-nanometer gate-all-around chips are a major architecture shift that limits leading-edge production to five companies.
Ted explains the architecture change from FinFET to gate-all-around with backside power at two nanometers and below. The design cost is hundreds of millions of dollars, which limits the leading-edge work to five companies. He says the technology is evolutionary within the AI timeframe. At two nanometers performance is about 30% higher and power is significantly lower. He expects this evolution to show up across semiconductor logic players including Marvell, Broadcom, AMD and Nvidia.
“And the complexity and the design on these chips, not only does it cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and that limits it to five companies that can actually do this, but this technology is evolutionary in the AI timeframe.”at 57:15
Excess Returns: Baird's Tech Strategist Says This Isn't 2000. So Why Is He Warning Against Buying the Dip? ·
Ted Mortonson · Baird
Memory and storage must get more efficient for inference, so he would buy six named chip and storage names.
Ted argues that inference is what drives superintelligence and that the industry needs much more efficient memory. He points to HBM, the next phases of DRAM and NAND as very high-density stacked solutions, and high-density hard disk drives from the two US vendors that control the market. He would surround the theme with six companies and let them run for the next decade. The horizon he gives is about a decade.
“Inference is what's driving superintelligence. We just need a tremendous more efficient memory, both on the hard disk side on DRAM... I think you just buy all six and let your chips run for the next decade.”at 58:36
Excess Returns: Baird's Tech Strategist Says This Isn't 2000. So Why Is He Warning Against Buying the Dip? ·
Naveen Rao · Unconventional AI
Physical chip efficiency gains have largely stopped; future gains come from model-hardware co-design and specialized chips.
Moore's law and Dennard scaling, which were physical shrinks, have largely stopped, and the last few GPU generations show little efficiency gain from the physical layer. Most recent gains came from lower-precision data types (32 to 4 bit). The bigger remaining opportunity is co-designing the model and the architecture to reduce data movement. Specialized hardware for workloads, like the brain's co-evolved sparsity, is the future of compute, and GPUs already move this way.
“I think one thing I wish I'd known is the fact that we don't really see physical efficiency gains anymore.”at 11:25
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Naveen Rao · Unconventional AI
Chips won't commoditize because intelligence has infinite demand and sells as energy-to-intelligence conversion.
Intelligence has no demand ceiling because the environment is adversarial, and every organism and nation competes for better intelligence. Intelligence needs energy, and converting energy to intelligence is hardware across chips, systems, cloud and networks. Providers that convert energy to intelligence more efficiently capture more value, so he does not expect commoditization soon.
“So I actually don't see chips being commoditized. ... intelligence, to me, it will have infinite demand.”at 21:20
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Naveen Rao · Unconventional AI
Hardware is the place to be over the next decade, because the hardware layer keeps value that the infrastructure layer loses.
Rao expects model and inference-service margins to compress. He argues the hardware side will not collapse because there is still a lot of efficiency to gain in converting energy into intelligence. He says there is more room to squeeze performance out of hardware than out of the infrastructure layer, so hardware keeps its advantage.
“I actually think the hardware is the place to be over the next ten years.”at 41:10
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Carter Braxton Worth · Worth Charting LLC
Stay away from semis; they are following gold's pattern of steep run, epic giveback, weak bounce.
Carter says the group has been pushed steeply higher over one to three years with a lot of money flowing in. He compares it to precious metals and gold, which saw an epic giveback, then a small bounce, then rolled over again. He says that pattern means semis won't recover quickly, so he would not be involved. He sees some idiosyncratic weak tech names starting to bottom, but not semis.
“It's a stay away from me... you get an epic, equally epic giveback. Think of precious metals, gold, think of semis. And then you get a little bit of a bounce... It doesn't recover quickly. I don't like it.”at 12:22
CNBC Fast Money: Parts Of Tech Showing Strength Amid Sell-Off… And A Catch-Up Call In Oil 10/23/26 ·
Mark Headley · Matthews
Asian chip stocks ran too hot, then sold off too far; Korean chipmakers are extremely cheap.
Asian semiconductors ran too hot too fast on massive local buying, then got clobbered, with Korea the prime example. Korean chipmakers are not at peak levels, are still earning great money, have strong demand and locked-in profits, and are extremely cheap. He expects the stocks to stay volatile but thinks the sell-off went too far.
“Asian markets and semiconductors in particular ran too hot too fast. Everybody dove in. Massive local buying. They got clobbered... They are extremely cheap. It's gonna be volatile, but honestly, I think this sell off went too far.”at 39:30
CNBC Closing Bell: Closing Bell Overtime: Markets Search for Opportunity After a Wild Week 10/23/26 ·
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