Over the last few days, absolute chaos has broken out in the world of chips. Billions
are flowing in, billions are flowing out. Companies are crossing the trillion dollar mark in a single day. Deals are being signed between the United States and China. And AI keeps getting hungrier and hungrier, with no signs of slowing down.
So today, I want to go through the four biggest semiconductor stories of the past few days. Stories that, if you connect the dots, show very clearly where this entire game is heading.
MICRON HITS THE TRILLION DOLLAR CLUB
Let’s start with the most shocking one. Micron’s stock surged nearly 18% in a single trading session. Yes, 18% in one day. That officially pushed the memory chip company from Boise, Idaho into the trillion dollar club.
So what happened?
UBS raised its price target on the company from $535 to $1,625 per share. That new Wall Street target would imply a valuation close to $1.8 trillion. To put that into perspective, we are talking about almost tripling the previous target.
Analyst Timothy Arcuri explained why. In very simple terms, the entire memory industry has locked in long term contracts with pricing close to current levels. Up to 30% of the industry’s DDR volume is expected to be secured at these prices. That means Micron could generate stable EPS above $100 from 2027 through 2029, along with more than $400 billion in free cash flow during that same period.
QUALCOMM ENTERS THE AI CHIP RACE
Now let’s move to the second story. Qualcomm, which most people mainly associate with smartphone chips, just signed a massive deal with ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok.
What exactly did they agree on?
Qualcomm will supply millions of specialized ASIC chips that will power ByteDance AI data centers and support the company’s AI agent software. Qualcomm’s stock jumped as much as 8.3% and reached a new intraday all time high.
And why does this matter?
For years, Qualcomm has been trying to break aggressively into the AI chip market, but until now it struggled to land major customers. The problem has one name: Nvidia. Nvidia completely dominates the market.
But now Qualcomm finally found a massive customer, one that just increased its AI infrastructure budget by 25%, reaching 200 billion yuan, or roughly $29.4 billion.
And this is important too. ByteDance’s Doubao, essentially China’s equivalent of ChatGPT, was the most downloaded AI chatbot in the country for most of last year.
ANTHROPIC IS LOOKING FOR MORE AI CHIPS
And this is where things get even more interesting.
Anthropic, the company behind Claude, is reportedly in early discussions with Microsoft to rent Microsoft’s own AI chips, specifically the Maia chips.
So why now?
Last year, Anthropic committed to spending $30 billion on computing capacity through Microsoft Azure. At the same time, Microsoft and Nvidia invested a combined $15 billion into Anthropic itself. So these companies are already deeply connected.
Now here comes the interesting part.
Microsoft started developing its own chips much later than Google and Amazon. The Maia chips are still considered less mature and are available in smaller quantities. But Anthropic is already using custom chips from both Google and Amazon.
So what is Anthropic doing?
It is diversifying its suppliers even further so it does not become dependent on a single company. Smart move.
AMD IS POURING $10 BILLION INTO TAIWAN
And finally, let’s talk about AMD.
The company considered Nvidia’s biggest competitor in AI chips just announced an investment of more than $10 billion in Taiwan.
The goal?
To expand partnerships and increase production capacity. AMD is working with major partners including ASE Technology, Powertech Technology, Sanmina, and Inventec.
Taiwan remains the center of the global semiconductor industry, and every serious player in this market wants a strong presence there.
CEO Lisa Su, who is currently in Taiwan herself, said that as AI adoption accelerates, customers around the world are scaling AI infrastructure at an incredible pace to meet exploding demand.
And honestly, when I look at all four of these stories together, the picture becomes very clear.
