Podcast
Asianometry
Hosted by Jon Y · EN
Newsletter for the Asianometry channel. Studies on Asia - Financials, semiconductors, history, demography, development and other stuff.
96episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
How TSMC Uses Old Fabs to Make New Chips
YesterdaySummary readyTSMC is working hard to build new fabs. In Taiwan, there are simultaneous builds in three cities: Fab 20 in Baoshan, Hsinchu with four phases. One is now done. Fab 22 in Nanzih, Kaohsiung has five phases planned, one done. Two with shells up and moving in equipment. And then there is Fab 25 in Taichung. This site is just dirt right now. TSMC has allocated over $60 billion of capital expenditure in 2026 to build these fabs. Yet AI demand has been insatiable and customers like Nvidia want their chips now. But the hard truth - one mentioned by top management like CC Wei - is that capital expenditure spent in 2026 will not hit the market until 2028. Maybe a bit earlier. Does that mean that the AI Boom is now on pause? Not quite! TSMC has a trick up its sleeve: Cross-node utilization. In today’s rather meandering video, what a fleet of little trucks has to do with the AI Boom. Get all episodes of Asianometry, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, and Dithering as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year. Listen to Stratechery. Listen to Dithering. Listen to Sharp China. Listen to Sharp Tech. Listen to Greatest Of All Talk.
SummarySK hynix and the HBM Revolution
4d agoSummary readyIn July 2026, SK hynix raised a record $26.5 billion by listing its ADRs on the NASDAQ, the second-largest offering in US history. The company had always been well-known inside Korea. But now, they are taking a momentous step into the world spotlight. In today’s video, how a company long seen as South Korea’s semiconductor basket case clawed back from the brink to become an AI memory titan. Get all episodes of Asianometry, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, and Dithering as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year. Listen to Stratechery. Listen to Dithering. Listen to Sharp China. Listen to Sharp Tech. Listen to Greatest Of All Talk.
SummaryThe Subsea Cables Are Listening
1w agoSummary readyThere are 5 million route-kilometers of optical fiber around the world, both under the sea and ground. Over the past six to eight years, telecoms and tech companies have laid down over half a million kilometers. Such a broad and growing network of simple boring infrastructure. Now imagine a new technology that can turn all that into a massive network of listening sensors. In today’s video, the recent, ongoing rise of Distributed Acoustic Sensing, or DAS. Get all episodes of Asianometry, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, and Dithering as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year. Listen to Stratechery. Listen to Dithering. Listen to Sharp China. Listen to Sharp Tech. Listen to Greatest Of All Talk.
SummaryADSL Made the Modern Internet Possible
2w agoSummary readyOther than a few minor size changes, AT&T has been using the same type of copper wire technology since 1887. Millions of miles of copper wire that for decades carried just analog voice calls. Then came along a remarkable technology that takes that decades-old copper wire, and somehow makes it able to carry millions of digital bits per second: ADSL. In the 2000s, ADSL brought fast, always-on internet to millions of people around the world. And did it using their existing telephone lines. What is perhaps most funny about ADSL’s rise is that it was never intended for Internet broadband. Many of us might have forgotten it today now that we have fiber, 5G, and Starlink, but ADSL truly helped make the modern Internet. In today’s video, the accidental copper miracle. Get all episodes of Asianometry, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, and Dithering as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year. Listen to Stratechery. Listen to Dithering. Listen to Sharp China. Listen to Sharp Tech. Listen to Greatest Of All Talk.
SummaryGallium Nitride: From Light to Power
3w agoSummary readyGallium Nitride is a remarkable material. Dr. Umesh Mishra - a UC Santa Barbara professor and pioneer in GaN transistors and LEDs - said at a retrospective of the WBGS-RF program (what that is, we will talk about later): “Gallium nitride actually is kind of God’s gift to mankind ... [It] just kept cooperating and cooperating and you’re like, ‘Why is this material working?’” GaN’s physical problems are legendary. Despite those problems, this grumpy material has changed the worlds of light, radio, and power. That’s kind of interesting. In today’s video, Gallium Nitride’s journey from a technical flop to a bringer of light to the gates of power. Get all episodes of Asianometry, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, and Dithering as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year. Listen to Stratechery. Listen to Dithering. Listen to Sharp China. Listen to Sharp Tech. Listen to Greatest Of All Talk.
SummaryTrue 3D DRAM
3w agoSummary readyDRAM long ago hit the slow curve of lateral scaling. The only real way left for big bit density gains is stacking up. In a previous video, I discussed 3D NAND, the most scalable semiconductor. 3D NAND sparked a scaling revolution in the industry. Can it do the same for DRAM? But stacking DRAM - cells, not dies - is not as easy as stacking NAND cells. In today’s video, we talk true 3D DRAM. Get all episodes of Asianometry, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, and Dithering as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year. Listen to Stratechery. Listen to Dithering. Listen to Sharp China. Listen to Sharp Tech. Listen to Greatest Of All Talk.
SummaryFrance Sold Its Nuclear Steam Turbine Champion. Then Bought It Back.
4w agoSummary readyIn 2015, the French company Alstom sold the world’s largest nuclear steam turbine to General Electric. The French government controversially approved the sale. Then spent nearly a decade trying to buy it back. In today’s video, that time when France sold off the world’s biggest nuclear steam turbine. Get all episodes of Asianometry, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, and Dithering as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year. Listen to Stratechery. Listen to Dithering. Listen to Sharp China. Listen to Sharp Tech. Listen to Greatest Of All Talk.
SummaryThe Cochlear Ear Miracle
Jul 16Summary readyHere’s an idea. A machine that translates sounds into electrical signals, and then stimulates the auditory nerves to send that sensory data to the brain. Can it work? And can it convey actual words? For many years, people didn’t believe it. Eminent auditory scientists like Dr. Merle Lawrence stated that speech comprehension was “not feasible”. The inner ear was too complex. Too many nerves. We knew too little about how it works. And the surgical trauma and electrical stimulation will kill the nerves, anyway. Yet they did it. And now, hundreds of thousands have had their lives improved with this device. In this video, the long and winding road to the cochlear ear implant. Get all episodes of Asianometry, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, and Dithering as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year. Listen to Stratechery. Listen to Dithering. Listen to Sharp China. Listen to Sharp Tech. Listen to Greatest Of All Talk.
SummaryRCA and the Vacuum Tube’s Last Stand
Jul 9Summary readyThe emergence of the transistor shook the world. It certainly shook the vacuum tube makers. Some believed that the category was a dead man walking. The transistor was going to replace the vacuum tube everywhere. But the iconic American company RCA believed that vacuum tubes still had a future. And in 1959, they poured all their skill and knowledge into one “revolutionary” tube. In today’s video, RCA and the vacuum tube’s last stand. Get all episodes of Asianometry, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, and Dithering as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year. Listen to Stratechery. Listen to Dithering. Listen to Sharp China. Listen to Sharp Tech. Listen to Greatest Of All Talk.
SummaryThe Debt-Fueled Collapse of China’s Top Machine Tool Maker
Jul 5Summary readyIn December 2012, Guan Xiyou, Chairman of Shenyang Machine Tool Group, was honored by Chinese state media CCTV as one of its 2012 China Economic People of the Year. Guan received the award for taking control of a failing machine tool company and turning them around into a $2.8 billion giant. Or so it seems. Even as Guan received this award, his company was on the decline and eventually fall into insolvency. In today’s video, we profile the debt-fueled fall of a Chinese machine tool giant. Get all episodes of Asianometry, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, and Dithering as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year. Listen to Stratechery. Listen to Dithering. Listen to Sharp China. Listen to Sharp Tech. Listen to Greatest Of All Talk.
Summary