COMPANIES
Company Deep Dives
The key companies behind semiconductors and data centers, organized by their role in the industry. Pick a company that interests you and step into the industry map.
15 companies
Manufacturing the Chips2
TSMC, Intel, and other companies that fabricate chips in their own fabs
TSMC by the Numbers: 70% Foundry Share, 58% of Revenue from AI Servers — a Deep Dive into the Business Behind the Chip Monopoly
Apple's smartphones and NVIDIA's AI accelerators alike depend on one Taiwanese company for their leading-edge logic chips. This deep dive breaks down where the world's first pure-play foundry earns its money, why it holds over 70% market share, and where its risks lie — including the Kumamoto, Japan fab it built to hedge Taiwan concentration.
記事を読む Company Deep Dive / RapidusRapidus Explained: Japan's Last Bet on a 2nm Foundry — and Why It Refuses to Copy TSMC
Rapidus is Japan's advanced-logic foundry startup, founded in 2022 and backed by Toyota, Sony, Kioxia, NTT and four other corporations plus the Japanese government. Armed with IBM's 2nm technology and a research alliance with Belgium's imec, it is targeting volume production in 2027. This deep dive unpacks the three realities behind the headlines — enormous state funding, customers still unsigned, and a yield ramp that has barely begun — from both the technology and market sides.
記事を読むMemory & Packaging1
The companies behind memory and advanced packaging
Chips All Around Us2
Sensor, analog, and microcontroller makers
Renesas: The Japanese Chipmaker Whose Microcontrollers Run Inside Nearly Every Car
Renesas Electronics is a world-leading supplier of automotive microcontrollers (MCUs) — the small chips that control engines, brakes and everything in between. When the global chip shortage halted car production worldwide, this company was at the center of it. Born from the semiconductor arms of NEC, Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric, here is how its business, strengths and competitive structure fit together.
記事を読む Company Deep Dive: Sony SemiconductorSony Makes the Camera Sensor in 4 of Every 10 Smartphones — the Technology Behind Its 43% Market Share
Sony Semiconductor Solutions holds over 43% of the global CMOS image sensor market — the light sensors inside smartphone cameras. This deep dive examines how two breakthroughs, the back-illuminated sensor of 2009 and the stacked sensor of 2012, built a dominant position, and how the business is now diversifying into automotive and AI sensing.
記事を読むBuilding the Machines That Make Chips3
ASML, Tokyo Electron, and other equipment makers
Advantest: The Final Test Every AI Chip and HBM Stack Must Pass Before Shipping
NVIDIA's AI GPUs and the HBM stacks beside them all go through one last gate before shipping: a tester, and more often than not it is made by Advantest. With about 58% of the global ATE market, the Japanese company is the world's largest maker of semiconductor test equipment. This deep dive covers its revenue mix, technological moat, supply-chain position and competitive structure, using annual-report and IR figures.
記事を読む Company Deep Dive: DISCODISCO's Quiet Monopoly: The Japanese Company That Cuts, Grinds and Polishes the World's Chips
Every wafer on Earth has to be ground thin and diced into chips before it becomes a product — and one Japanese company controls 70-80% of the machines that do it. DISCO's dicing saws and grinders, paired with the diamond blades they consume, form one of the strongest niche monopolies in semiconductors. This deep dive covers its equipment-plus-consumables model, its role in back-end processing, and a five-forces view of its moat.
記事を読む Company Deep Dive: Tokyo ElectronTokyo Electron Controls ~90% of the Coater/Developer Market — Inside Japan's Largest Chip Equipment Maker
Tokyo Electron (TEL) holds roughly 90% of the global coater/developer market — nearly 100% for EUV — and ranks among the top vendors in etch, deposition and cleaning. This deep dive maps where the world's No. 4 equipment maker sits in the chip supply chain, how its business is structured, and where its competitive moat and risks lie.
記事を読むControlling Materials & Components4
Wafers, photoresists, electronic components — Japan's stronghold
HOYA's Near-Monopoly in EUV Mask Blanks: The Glass Purity Wall No Rival Has Crossed
The mask blanks used to print the world's most advanced chips come from a tiny circle of suppliers led by HOYA and AGC. How did an optical-glass maker that started with eyeglass lenses come to control a chokepoint of semiconductor lithography? This article explains the technical requirements, the entry barriers, and HOYA's second quiet dominance in HDD glass substrates.
記事を読む Company Deep Dive: JSRJSR: The Ex-Rubber Maker Whose Photoresist Is in a Third of the World's Chips
Founded in 1957 as Japan's state-backed synthetic rubber company, JSR is now a materials giant whose photoresist is used in roughly one-third of all semiconductors produced worldwide. In EUV resist it holds a powerful card — metal-oxide chemistry acquired with US-based Inpria — and in 2024 it was taken private by the government-backed fund JIC. This deep dive unpacks its business segments, technological strengths and competitive structure from securities filings and IR materials.
記事を読む Company Deep Dive: SUMCOSUMCO: Japan's Other Wafer Giant — How Two Companies Control Most of the World's Silicon
The global silicon wafer market is close to a duopoly: Japan's Shin-Etsu Chemical and SUMCO together hold more than half of it. Born from Sumitomo and Mitsubishi silicon operations, SUMCO runs second worldwide in the 300mm wafers that leading-edge logic is built on — quietly supplying the substrate under every AI chip. This deep dive unpacks its business mix, technological strengths and competitive structure from earnings reports and IR materials.
記事を読む Company Deep Dive: Shin-EtsuShin-Etsu Chemical: The Company Behind 42% of the World's Silicon Wafers
Before TSMC, Samsung or Intel can print a single circuit, they buy a polished silicon disc — and about 42% of those wafers come from one Japanese chemical company. Shin-Etsu Chemical also leads the world in PVC resin, quietly controlling the very top of the semiconductor supply chain. This deep dive unpacks its business segments, technological moat and competitive structure using annual-report and IR figures.
記事を読むCloud, Telecom & Data Centers3
The giants that own and operate AI infrastructure
Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN): Why France Nationalized the World's Biggest Subsea Cable Maker
ASN (Alcatel Submarine Networks) is the French company that leads the world in manufacturing and laying submarine cables. After passing from Alcatel-Lucent to Nokia ownership, it was nationalized at the end of 2024 when the French state (APE) acquired 80% of its shares. This deep dive analyzes ASN — holder of the largest share of new submarine cable systems and builder of many hyperscaler projects — from both the technology and market sides. It does not cover the stock.
記事を読む Company Deep Dive: NECNEC's Submarine Cable Business: One of Only Four Companies That Can Build the Internet's Undersea Backbone
NEC is one of Japan's flagship IT and network-infrastructure companies. But one of its lesser-known identities is far rarer: it is one of only four companies in the world that can manufacture submarine cables. Alongside France's ASN, America's SubCom and China's HMN, NEC handles everything from cable and optical-repeater manufacturing to laying and maintenance. This deep dive focuses not on NEC's IT and systems-integration business but on NEC as a submarine-cable and communications-infrastructure player, unpacking its business structure and competitive environment with sources from securities filings and IR materials. It does not cover the stock or investment advice.
記事を読む Company Analysis / FujikuraFujikura: The 140-Year-Old Japanese Cable Maker Wiring AI Data Centers With Light
Founded in 1885, Fujikura is one of Japan's Big Three wire and cable makers — but what has investors looking again is not copper, it is light. Fujikura is the world leader in fusion splicers, the machines that join optical fibers in the field, and a global top player in multi-fiber connectors and ultra-high-density cables. This quiet company underpins the optical cabling running through AI data centers. We break down its segments, technology moats, and competitive structure with figures from earnings and IR filings.
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