Daily Update - July 7th, 2026
Anthropic leases $19B data center from TeraWulf, Broadcom extends Apple chip deal to 2031, and a bunch of important stuff.
TeraWulf locked in a 20-year, $19 billion lease with Anthropic for a Kentucky data center campus, one of the biggest AI infrastructure commitments we’ve seen from either side. Broadcom extended its custom silicon deal with Apple out to 2031. Plus Nvidia swatting down a Kyber delay report, Huawei crashing the Korean AI chip market, and a lot more.
Let’s get into it. — Austin & Vik
Be sure to check out the Semi Doped podcast on YouTube or your favorite podcast playe
Nvidia denies Kyber AI server delay, affirms 2027 launch
Nvidia refuted a SemiAnalysis report claiming its next-generation Kyber AI server systems face a one-year delay. An Nvidia spokesperson stated the company’s roadmap “remains intact.” Nvidia plans to launch its Kyber server, which will feature a new vertical rack design to accommodate 144 GPUs, with the Vera Rubin Ultra platform in the second half of 2027. (finance.yahoo.com)
Vik: Not exactly a rebuttal to the SemiAnalysis article. If it is, Nvidia will probably say so at an earnings call, not as an off-cycle remark to a social media post. That’s how the big leagues play.
Kingboard hikes CCL prices again on rising material costs
Kingboard, a leading Chinese copper-clad laminate (CCL) manufacturer, announced price increases for its products, including FR-4 and PP prepreg by 15%, and CEM-1/22F by 10%. Copper foil processing fees will also rise by RMB 5 to 8 per kilogram, reflecting increased costs for glass fiber cloth and copper foil. This marks a continued trend of price adjustments in the CCL industry due to high demand from AI servers and rising raw material prices. (ctee.com.tw)
Vik: Although there was a temporary concern after SemiAnalysis saying that the midplane PCB in Kyber was delayed, AI PCB makers still face high demand. Strong signal.
Austin: Are CCL price increases going to impact consumers too? i.e. just like memory and recently CPUs?
PC Brands Adopt Chinese Memory to Reduce Costs
PC brands like Lenovo, ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, and Acer are increasingly adopting Chinese memory and storage components from companies such as YMTC, CXMT, and BIWIN due to their price advantage. Lenovo has expanded its use of Chinese components, including YMTC SSDs in flagship laptops. MSI has completed tuning for CXMT DDR5 memory on AMD platforms, and Acer uses BIWIN-manufactured memory modules, some with CXMT standard particles. (ctee.com.tw)
Vik: Memory/storage pressures will be relieved in the consumer markets from Chinese suppliers. AI demand requires a different level of cutting edge performance from both memory and storage, which might not be Chinese suppliers’ strong suit (yet).
Austin: If I’m YMTC or CXMT, I’d use this opportunity of increased demand and increased profits to double-down on R&D. Just having supply might win you revenue today, but innovation drives differentiation and success tomorrow,
TeraWulf secures $19 billion Anthropic lease, sells Abernathy stake
TeraWulf announced a 20-year lease agreement with Anthropic at its Justified Data campus in Hawesville, Kentucky, expected to generate approximately $19 billion in contracted revenue. The campus will accommodate 401 MW of critical IT load, with initial capacity in service by H2 2027. Separately, TeraWulf sold its 50.1% ownership in the Abernathy Joint Venture to an investor group led by Fluidstack, monetizing its $450 million investment at a premium. (investors.terawulf.com)
Vik: 20 year agreement is a long time. Good on TeraWulf for landing an important client.
Austin: I would have titled this “Bitcoin-miner-turned-neocloud flips stake in Abernathy TX datacenter to even-more-neo-cloud”.
Broadcom Extends Apple Custom Chip Supply Deal to 2031
Broadcom has extended its custom chip supply agreement with Apple through 2031, expanding the scope of products and new custom chips it will deliver. The long-term commitment signals Apple’s increasing use of custom ASICs for its products and data center inference stack. Financial terms were not disclosed. (Bloomberg Tech, Reuters)
Vik: Google may be messing around with customer owned tooling (CoT) with MediaTek, but Apple is striking a long term deal with AVGO 0.00%↑ to ensure that Apple can deploy their own custom ASICs for AI.
Austin: The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated. —Broadcom
SK Hynix formally launches $28-29B US ADR listing
SK Hynix has formally launched a US American Depositary Receipt offering targeting a valuation of $28 to $29 billion, according to Bloomberg. The South Korean memory chipmaker, which currently trades on the Korea Exchange, is pursuing the US listing in part to secure a valuation premium that its domestic market has not fully reflected. The ADR structure would give US-based investors direct exposure to SK Hynix without routing trades through Seoul. (Bloomberg.com)
Vik: This basically means that you can buy SK Hynix shares in the US stock market. Supposedly, the domestic market has not fully reflected its valuation 👀 — Also kudos to Tae Kim on X for reading the original filing that shows both Coatue Management and Situational Awareness have indicated an interest in purchasing up to US $7B in these ADRs.
Austin: Get ready for some US retail nonsense! Volatility, on.
Huawei Brings 8,192-Chip Atlas SuperPod Cluster to South Korea
Huawei is entering the South Korean AI chip market with its Atlas SuperPod system, a cluster packing 8,192 Ascend 950 accelerators per deployment. The company claims the system delivers triple the inference performance of Nvidia’s H20 at one-quarter the cost, positioning it as a direct alternative to Nvidia hardware in a market where the H20 remains available following U.S. export controls that restrict more advanced Nvidia chips. (Tom’s Hardware)
Vik: Hahaha! 3x the performance of a nerfed dinosaur Nvidia chip. Why this weird comparison? So they can say 3x? How does it compare to a Blackwell? Hmm?
Austin: South Korea doesn’t have export controls? So this must be a “cheap” alternative—as in lower upfront CapEx?
Must Watch
Brilliant video from Anthropic — recommend!
Also here is the link —> full whitepaper — give it a read
Sector Watch
Memory
CXMT ChangXin Memory Technology has ended its DRAM price war amid surging AI-driven demand. (chosun.com)
Micron is investing to expand its Hiroshima, Japan chip fab as part of a multibillion-dollar capacity buildout. (hardwareluxx.de)
Advanced Packaging
Samsung Electro-Mechanics is reportedly forming a glass-core substrate joint venture with a Sumitomo unit, targeting 2H27 production. (TrendForce)
Foundry & Logic
TSMC is localizing equipment and materials suppliers into a resilient “second fleet” to secure CoWoS and CoPoS packaging supply chains. (DigiTimes)
Tesla hired 17-year Intel fab veteran Gary Jiang, likely to oversee Terafab’s licensing of Intel’s 14A process. (Toms Hardware)
AI & Compute
Nvidia longtime sales chief Jay Puri is retiring. (The Information)
Power & Infrastructure
MLCCs AI-driven demand for high-end multilayer ceramic capacitors is pushing Japanese and Korean suppliers’ book-to-bill ratios to post-pandemic highs, raising 2H26 shortage risk. (TrendForce)
EDA & IP
Intel 18A Synopsys detailed the foundation IP ecosystem underpinning Intel’s 18A process and why it matters for adoption. (SemiWiki)
Infrastructure
SK Telecom announces a 15GW AI data center buildout plan for South Korea, targeting a position as the region’s leading AI infrastructure hub. (EE News Europe)
KT Corp commits $12 billion to networks and AI data centers as South Korean telcos accelerate investment in domestic AI infrastructure capacity. (Light Reading)
Csquare, Brookfield’s data center subsidiary, seeks $1.35 billion in an IPO to fund continued AI-driven data center construction and expansion. (Bloomberg.com)
Packaging
LG Chem begins mass production supply of semiconductor process strippers to Amkor Technology, expanding into advanced packaging materials for outsourced assembly. (The Elec)
Hiring & Layoffs
Celestica announces a leadership transition in its Connectivity and Cloud Solutions segment as the company sharpens its focus on AI infrastructure products. (Celestica)
Microsoft cuts approximately 4,800 jobs in an AI-driven workforce restructuring, joining the broader wave of tech-sector headcount reductions. (The Detroit News)
ASM International appoints KPN CFO Chris Figee as its new chief financial officer, filling the top finance role at the Dutch semiconductor equipment maker. (Reuters)
Samsung appliance division workers plan a protest rally against the separate wage deal negotiated by the company’s semiconductor unit employees. (Reuters)
EDA
Siemens EDA and Samsung Foundry deepen collaboration on silicon design enablement, covering process design kits and verification flows for advanced nodes. (dqindia.com)
By the Numbers
Closing moves, Jul 6:
Up: IREN +13.1%, CRDO +9.8%, LCID +9.5%, ANET +8.3%, RIVN +8.1%, CLSK +7.1%
Why:
IREN — Anthropic eyeing a massive Australian data center deal directly benefits IREN, Australia’s largest publicly listed AI data center operator.
CRDO — Russell index reconstitution drove mechanical buying as CRDO was swept into index moves alongside a strong demand outlook.
BE +9.8% — Brookfield expanded its AI power agreement with Bloom Energy to $25B, guaranteeing long-term fuel cell demand.
ALAB +6.5% — Bank of America assigned Astera Labs a new street-high price target, triggering a broad re-rating.
IMOS +15.1%, AEHR +3.4% — no clear public catalyst yet