Podcast · Tech & Science

The Circuit

by Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg · English · Tech & Science

A podcast about the business and market of semiconductors

New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 53 min
Latest: 12 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

12 Oct 2026 · 1 hr 1 minNew

Unpacking Marvell's Analyst Day, OpenAI Revenue Rumors, and the Heterogeneous Rack

In this episode of The Circuit , Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg kick off a packed conference week (Semicon West, Applied Materials' EPIC Center launch, and the sold-out OCP Summit) before diving into Marvell's upbeat Analyst Day in New York. They examine how Marvell has shifted its narrative beyond Amazon custom ASIC share battles toward a broader data center infrastructure play—spanning optical interconnects, switching silicon, and a newly teased class of AI infrastructure management silicon built to work alongside traditional BMCs and FPGAs in complex, heterogeneous scale-up compute domains.…

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

E188 · 5 Oct 2026 · 58 min
Has the Memory Cycle Broken? Plus: Nvidia & Broadcom’s $40B+ Financing Playbook
In this episode of The Circuit , Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg unpack the shifting structural economics of the semiconductor and AI landscape. Following Micron’s latest earnings, they kick off with a deep-dive debate on whether the memory market has permanently raised its floor to $600B–$800B, or if rapid capacity expansion from players like China’s CXMT will trigger a classic cyclical reckoning by 2028. They also examine the trade-offs between high-margin HBM and "trailing-edge" legacy memory like DDR4, as well as how rising component costs are impacting consumer PC and smartphone upgrade…
E187 · 28 Sep 2026 · 51 min
Memory Pricing Pressures, Meta's Muse AI, and the Agentic CPU Crunch
In this episode of The Circuit , Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg explore the evolving dynamics of the semiconductor memory market, consumer AI agents, and critical compute infrastructure. The hosts begin by analyzing the aggressive capacity expansions and yield improvements of Chinese memory providers YMTC and CXMT, discussing how their growing output might provide pricing relief for consumer electronics OEMs currently squeezed by massive data center demand. The conversation then pivots to Meta's new "Muse" AI assistant, which the hosts view as a potential catalyst for mainstream AI adoption…
E186 · 21 Sep 2026 · 51 min
Conversation with Ayar Labs CEO Mark Wade on Silicon Photonics, Co-Packaged Optics, and Next-Gen AI Infrastructure
In this episode of The Circuit, hosts Ben Bajarin n and Jay Goldberg speak with Mark Wade, CEO of IR Labs, and Jesse Leiter, VP of Capital Strategy and Investor Relations. The conversation focuses on the necessity of solving the interconnect bottleneck in large-scale AI data centers by transitioning to optical connectivity. Mark explains the immense complexity of integrating optical engines into advanced CMOS nodes and highlights how the release of ChatGPT accelerated the market's demand for these large-scale computing solutions. Additionally, the discussion explores IR Labs' strategic…
E185 · 15 Sep 2026 · 30 min
EP 192: Talking Apple Silicon with Apple's Tom Boger, Kaiann Drance, and Sri Santhanam
In this episode of The Circuit, host Ben Bajarin sits down with Apple's product marketing and engineering leaders at Apple Park to unpack their latest silicon and hardware announcements. The discussion explores the benefits of Apple’s vertically integrated approach, diving into the transition to 2-nanometer process technology and its impact on performance, power efficiency, and advanced thermal management across the A20 Pro and M-series chips. The panel also highlights the architectural decisions driving robust on-device AI capabilities—such as the dual neural engine and unified memory—and…
E184 · 7 Sep 2026 · 51 min
Ep 191: Agents Gone Wild: Broadcom’s ASICs and the AI Frontier
In this episode, Ben and Jay discuss the launch of their firm's new AI knowledge agent, Atlas, before diving into Broadcom's latest earnings and the growing complexity of modeling the custom ASIC market. They debate the semiconductor supply chain bottleneck, with Ben arguing that constraints will peak in 2027 before massive new capacity arrives in 2028, while Jay cautions that this incoming oversupply could shift pricing power and lower margins. Finally, they analyze Nvidia's acquisition of Hugging Face and explore the future of AI models, agreeing that while open and closed models will…
E183 · 31 Aug 2026 · 53 min
EP 190: NVIDIA and Marvell Earnings, Hot Chips Hot Takes
Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg break down NVIDIA’s earnings, examining how supply constraints shape growth and rising component costs pressure margins. They discuss NVIDIA’s financing commitments to neoclouds and the risks of using its balance sheet to support the ecosystem. Marvell’s XPU-attach strategy offers another route into custom silicon, with questions around when its Google opportunity will convert into revenue. From Hot Chips, Ben shares why competing inference architectures suggest the industry is still working out how to serve AI at scale. The conversation explores the software and…
E182 · 23 Aug 2026 · 39 min
EP 189: Analyzing ADI Earnings, Custom Silicon Shifts, and Semiconductor Debt
In this episode of The Circuit , hosts Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg break down the shifting dynamics across the semiconductor landscape, from analog chips to custom silicon and corporate balance sheets. Analog Devices (ADI) & The Data Center Wave: ADI reports a strong quarter, driven by a doubling of its data center revenue and expanding opportunities in 800-volt data center architectures. Ben and Jay discuss ADI’s conservative focus on SAM (Serviceable Addressable Market) over TAM, high gross margins, and how analog content per gigawatt is becoming a key driver for power, safety, and…
E181 · 17 Aug 2026 · 56 min
EP 188: The Wild West of Optical, Cisco's AI Hack, and Is Compute an Investable Asset
In this episode of The Circuit , hosts Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg break down the evolving structural dynamics across optical networking, semiconductor manufacturing, and AI infrastructure financing. They begin by analyzing the divergent earnings from Lumentum and Coherent, pointing to margin pressures and the yield challenges Coherent faces during its transition to 6-inch indium phosphide wafers. This leads to a detailed debate on optical interconnect architectures—distinguishing Linear Pluggable Optics (LPO) from Near-Packaged Optics (NPO) and Co-Packaged Optics (CPO)—while noting that…
E180 · 9 Aug 2026 · 41 min
EP 187: Inside the Future of Memory Summit & AMD’s "Boring" Bullishness
n this episode of The Circuit , Ben and Jay unpack a busy week of tech earnings and the buzzing Future of Memory Summit. The hosts kick things off by analyzing AMD’s latest earnings, discussing why the street had a mixed reaction to a quarter that demonstrated solid, reliable execution and surprisingly bullish signals for data center CPU demand. Ben then reports back from the Future of Memory Summit, where the convention center was completely packed—a clear sign of the times for the booming memory industry. He explains why the ecosystem around CXL (Compute Express Link) is finally maturing,…
E179 · 3 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 4 min
EP 186: Mobile Bottlenecks, Skyrocketing AI CapEx, and the Compute Crunch
In this episode of The Circuit , hosts Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg break down a packed earnings week across the technology and semiconductor sectors, grouping major updates into key themes around mobile markets and AI infrastructure. They analyze softness in mobile demand alongside severe supply chain bottlenecks impacting Apple, Qualcomm, ARM, and MediaTek, highlighting how surging AI demand is squeezing capacity across foundry and memory partners. The hosts then dive into hyperscaler CapEx trends from Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta, evaluating the transition from AI training to inference,…
E178 · 27 Jul 2026 · 55 min
EP 185: AMD Advancing AI, Intel Earnings and WFE Demand
In this episode of The Circuit , hosts Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg review major updates across the semiconductor industry, beginning with AMD’s Advancing AI Day where they discuss CEO Lisa Su’s performance, the technical details of the Helios rack-scale architecture, and AMD's strategic fit for inference with partners like Anthropic. They next unpack Intel’s strong quarterly earnings, pointing out that the company beat revenue and margin estimates while confirming customer traction for its 18A and 14A process nodes, despite mixed market reactions over its conservative CapEx approach. The…
E177 · 20 Jul 2026 · 59 min
Ep 184: Earnings TSMC/ASML/AEHR, State of AI Semis
In this episode, Ben and Jay analyze the latest developments in the semiconductor industry, focusing on TSMC, ASML, Air, and the broader market implications of AI and chip manufacturing advancements. They explore how these trends impact supply chains, CapEx, and future growth prospects. Key Topics: TSMC's CapEx increase and demand signals ASML's capacity expansion and high NA EUV technology Air's role in semiconductor testing and optical advancements Market sentiment and investor rotation in semiconductors The impact of AI on chip demand and manufacturing
E176 · 14 Jul 2026 · 47 min
EP 183: SKHynix IPO, AI Model Wars, and NVIDIA Supply Chain Rumors
In this episode of The Circuit, Ben and Jay dive into SK Hynix's ambitious US stock listing, discussing how the AI-driven memory boom and a need for deeper capital pools prompted the move, while speculating if companies like MediaTek might follow suit. The hosts also explore the fierce competition among frontier AI models, noting that enterprise evaluation is shifting toward token efficiency for knowledge work and emphasizing the growing importance of AI orchestration layers and data ownership. Additionally, they break down Wall Street's harsh reaction to ON Semiconductor's acquisition of…
E175 · 6 Jul 2026 · 59 min
EP 182: AI Fatigue , Meta's Neo-Cloud Rumors , and Samsung's Foundry Comeback
In this episode of The Circuit, Ben and Jay break down the recent volatility and AI fatigue hitting semiconductor stocks. They analyze how retail "tourists" and passive index funds might be driving market valuations ahead of actual fundamentals. The hosts also unpack the rumors surrounding Meta reportedly leasing data center capacity to Google, debating whether Mark Zuckerberg's broad AI vision is struggling to align with the company's core advertising model, or if the company is simply bartering excess compute for access to coding tools like Gemini. Finally, the conversation shifts to the…
E174 · 29 Jun 2026 · 1 hr 3 min
EP 181: Cerebras Earnings, QCOM Investor Day, Micron Earnings and the Memory Mafia
This episode of The Circuit covers a mix of tech industry tributes and major semiconductor financial updates. Hosts Ben and Jay begin by paying their respects to pioneering tech blogger and journalist Om Malik, who recently passed away. They then dive into Cerebras’s first earnings report as a public company, highlighting strong top-line demand for AI inference but noting investor concern over their complicated gross margins. Next, the hosts unpack Qualcomm’s Investor Day, focusing on the company's aggressive $15 billion data center revenue guidance for fiscal 2029, their "Dragonfly" custom…
E173 · 22 Jun 2026 · 48 min
EP 180: HPE Reflections on AI Compute Racks, Analog Analog Analog Semis.
Key Topics: AI infrastructure evolution Server and rack engineering innovations Analog components and power management Semiconductor industry growth and GPU impact Enterprise and hyperscaler strategies for differentiation Cooling technologies and hybrid solutions Networking and infrastructure for AI workloads Multi-cloud and on-prem AI deployment trends
E172 · 15 Jun 2026 · 53 min
EP 179: Apple's WWDC and Siri AI, Nebius Inflection, China Trip Takeaways
In this episode of The Circuit, Ben and Jay dive deep into Apple's WWDC announcements , unpacking the "applied AI" strategy behind the newly indexed Siri, system-level CPU scheduling updates, and Apple's surprising embrace of Nvidia for private cloud compute. Ben also shares his takeaways from the Nebius conference in San Francisco, analyzing their unique custom server racks and their positioning as a highly capable neo-cloud infrastructure provider. Finally, Jay reports back from his recent trip to China , sharing ground-level observations on why US entity list restrictions are losing their…
E171 · 8 Jun 2026 · 43 min
Ep 178: COMPUTEX! Broadcom Earnings, other nuggets from the Week
Welcome back to another episode of The Circuit with Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg! Broadcasting out of the post-Computex haze—with Jay still stationed somewhere in Asia —the guys dive into a hardware industry undergoing a massive transition. Computex is no longer just a traditional PC and motherboard showcase; it is officially the new epicenter of AI server and data center infrastructure. Alongside the hardware pivot, Ben and Jay break down Broadcom's recent earnings, discussing how a 20% post-earnings stock dip highlights a volatile market where long-term AI expectations are getting…
E170 · 1 Jun 2026 · 45 min
EP 176: Earnings! Marvell, Synopsis, Dell and more thesis time.
n this episode of The Circuit , hosts Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg break down the latest tech earnings and shifting infrastructure narratives driving the AI boom. Recorded slightly late ahead of the Computex frenzy in Taipei, the duo kicks things off with a surprising reading recommendation: Pope Leo XIV’s balanced, 40,000-word encyclical on AI. Shifting to the markets, they analyze Marvell's solid quarter, highlighting how the transition from training to a heterogeneous inference era is shifting Wall Street's focus toward the company's robust optical and throughput networking portfolio…
E169 · 26 May 2026 · 59 min
EP 166: NVIDIA Earnings, Dell Tech World and Storage Shock, Tech IPOs
In this episode of The Circuit , hosts Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg dive into the latest tectonic shifts across the technology and semiconductor sectors, starting with a deep dive into Nvidia's recent earnings report . They analyze Nvidia's impressive numbers—including $91 billion in revenue guidance and strong gross margins—and contrast that success with the stock's stagnant post-earnings performance, comparing the current market skepticism to Apple’s smartphone growth cycle around 2010 . The duo breaks down Nvidia's new segment reporting structure, debating the strategic implications of…
E168 · 18 May 2026 · 56 min
EP 165: Cerebras IPO, Premium Tokens, Neo Clouds, and the Angstrom Era
In this episode of The Circuit , hosts Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg dive into the rapidly shifting economics and structural changes across the semiconductor and AI industries. From the recent Cerebras IPO to the massive long-term forecast visibility in wafer fabrication equipment, they analyze whether current capital cycles align with the reality of enterprise AI demand. Finally, they debate how the "Angstrom era" and the end of Moore’s law are forcing a complete reinvention of chip manufacturing from scratch.
E167 · 11 May 2026 · 1 hr 2 min
EP 164: ARM, ARM Earning, Agentic CPU Inflections, A World of Constraints
In this episode, Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg dive deep into the rapidly shifting landscape of semiconductor supply chains and the unexpected "CPU renaissance" driven by agentic AI. The duo explores the "ultimate constraint" currently bottlenecking the industry, breaks down the latest earnings from ARM and AMD, and analyzes why the "Neo Cloud" players might be facing a massive strategic deficit. Key Discussion Points: The Anhydrous Hydrogen Bromine Crisis: Jay reveals the "ultimate shortage" involving a rare gas essential for EUV lithography and memory production, involving a geopolitical…
E166 · 5 May 2026 · 52 min
EP 163: Breaking the Memory Wall: Micron’s Strategy for the AI Era
This episode of The Circuit features Jeremy Werner, SVP and GM of Micron’s Core Data Center Business Unit, discussing the transformative impact of AI on the memory and storage industry. Werner explains that the industry has shifted from a traditional cyclical model to a period of sustainable growth, driven by the unique demands of AI training and inference. He highlights the emergence of a "memory wall" in inference, where massive amounts of high-speed memory and storage are required to manage expanding context windows and avoid redundant recomputation. The conversation also covers Micron's…
E165 · 27 Apr 2026 · 49 min
EP 162: TPUs Via Cloud Next, Intel Earnings, Foundry Scarcity
In this episode of The Circuit , Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg dive deep into an action-packed week for the semiconductor industry. Ben shares his firsthand insights from Google Next, detailing the launch of the new TPU v5p and v5i (referenced as 8T and 8I) and Google’s strategic shift toward disaggregated training and inference silicon. The duo then pivots to Intel’s surprisingly strong earnings, discussing whether the "CPU resurgence" and foundry improvements signal an end to the company’s existential crisis. Finally, they analyze the "drama" from the TSMC Symposium regarding High-NA EUV…
E164 · 21 Apr 2026 · 52 min
EP 161: TSMC Earnings, Cerebras S1, Custom Semi Rumors, Apple CEO Change
In this episode of The Circuit , Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg analyze a pivotal week in tech, beginning with TSMC’s strong earnings and their strategic decision to ramp up CapEx and N3 production specifically to meet massive AI demand. The duo explores the industry-wide compute deficit impacting firms like Anthropic and the potential IPO of Cerebras, while discussing the fragmenting market for custom ASICs as Google explores design partners like Marvell and MediaTek. Finally, they weigh in on the end of an era at Apple with Tim Cook stepping down; they argue his greatest legacy was…
E163 · 13 Apr 2026 · 44 min
Ep 160: More good News for Intel, AI Model Trends, Future of Datacenter
Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg analyze recent developments in the semiconductor industry, AI advancements, and data center innovations, providing insights into market dynamics, strategic moves by Intel, and the future of AI hardware and software.
E162 · 6 Apr 2026 · 54 min
EP 159: MediaTek and the Evolving Custom ASIC Business, More Memory Pain, and More
Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg discuss the latest developments in the semiconductor industry, focusing on MediaTek's strategic shift into ASICs, memory shortages, supply chain constraints, and Intel's recent acquisitions. They analyze market dynamics, technological advancements, and future trends shaping the industry.
E161 · 30 Mar 2026 · 49 min
EP 158: Arm 2.0, Memory Freak Out, and AI Models
This episode explores ARM's strategic shift into product manufacturing, the implications for the CPU market, and the evolving landscape of AI and memory technology. Hosts Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg analyze ARM's new CPU launches, market positioning, and the future of AI models like Mythos, providing insights into the industry's next phase.
E160 · 23 Mar 2026 · 59 min
EP: 157 GTC! OFC! Micron Earnings (margin city)
Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg discuss Nvidia GTC, AI infrastructure, optical networking, and the future of semiconductor technology. They analyze Nvidia's strategic positioning, product innovations, and industry trends shaping the AI and data center landscape. They also talk OFC/optical trends and Micron earnings.

About The Circuit

A podcast about the business and market of semiconductors

The Circuit is a English tech & science podcast from Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg
Language: English
Category: Tech & Science
New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 53 min
Latest episode: 12 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1661329711

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