Semicon Briefing

Samsung's chip division generated annual profits of ~$196 billion in 2026, exceeding all cumulative profits from the past 40 years – and dethroning Nvidia as the world's most profitable company. Drivers are skyrocketing memory and HBM prices in the AI capex cycle, which simultaneously triggered a sharp rotation out of chip stocks (Intel, Applied Materials, AMD –8–10 %).

Despite record results, Intel and Applied Materials fell 10%, AMD by 8% – investors fear that stretched valuations leave no further upside buffer and the memory upcycle is approaching its peak. The pattern reveals structural fragility of a sector betting on AI capex continuity.

Meta is reportedly negotiating strategic manufacturing of AI chips at Samsung worth $7.7 billion, which would rehabilitate Samsung's foundry division after years of weakness. A deal would be a direct blow against TSMC as the dominant custom silicon foundry.

Sources confirm that Chinese AI lab DeepSeek is working on proprietary chip hardware – despite (or because of) US export restrictions blocking access to Nvidia GPUs. Should this succeed, it would undermine the thesis that export controls sustainably slow China's AI progress.

Apple and Broadcom have extended their strategic chip supply agreement by several years through 2031 – analysts interpret this as a sign of Apple's massive server expansion for its own AI infrastructure. This qualifies earlier expectations that Apple would replace Broadcom components with entirely internal developments.

Infineon's CEO publicly calls for a second TSMC facility in Dresden with smaller node geometries – as a logical expansion of the ongoing ESMC joint venture. This represents a new political escalation of the European chip sovereignty debate and signals that industry is pressing the EU for additional subsidy commitments.