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 hosts then analyze the broader semiconductor capital equipment (semicap) sector, arguing that increased CapEx from key fab operators will drive sustained demand for equipment makers. Finally, they cover Texas Instruments’ solid quarterly report, noting signs of recovery in automotive and industrial markets along with surging demand for power semiconductors used in AI data centers.