Daily Update - June 9, 2026
Intel's big foundry win, Marvell joins the S&P, and Elon's city-sized fab
Good times for Intel Foundry: word is Alphabet placed an order for roughly three million chips. A real hyperscaler, legit volume, marquee logo. Wafers or just packaging?
Elsewhere, Marvell graduates to the S&P 500, with Astera Labs reportedly on deck, because the index is apparently now an AI connectivity ETF.
And Elon wants to build a chip fab the size of a small city to feed Nvidia-powered satellites.
Normal Tuesday. Let’s get into it.
Be sure to check out the Semi Doped podcast on YouTube or your favorite podcast player!
Alphabet contracts Intel to fabricate three million chips
Alphabet has tapped Intel to manufacture roughly three million of its in-house designed chips, according to a report from The Information cited by Reuters. The arrangement marks a foundry win for Intel, which has been working to expand its contract manufacturing business and attract large customers for its fabrication services. Alphabet, the parent company of Google, develops custom silicon including its Tensor Processing Units and Axion CPUs for use across its data center and consumer product lines. Neither Alphabet nor Intel has publicly confirmed the deal, and specific terms, process node, and timing of the production run were not disclosed in the report. (Reuters, The Information)
Vik: Google TPUs on 18A? Or just EMIB packaging? We needed a CoWoS alternative yesterday! This is great.
Austin: The Information article says “placed an order with Intel to manufacture …”
If it was just packaging, you’d think they’d say “placed an order with Intel to assemble …”
But that’s just me being pedantic, and sometimes journalists don’t get these technical details quite right, so take it with a grain of salt.
Marvell joins S&P 500, Astera Labs flagged as candidate
Marvell Technology shares jumped after the chipmaker was added to the S&P 500 index, replacing a departing constituent in the latest quarterly rebalance. Barron’s flagged Astera Labs, Bloom Energy, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, and Reddit as candidates for upcoming additions to the benchmark, citing market capitalization and liquidity thresholds that each name now clears. Astera Labs, which supplies connectivity silicon for AI servers, has seen its market cap expand alongside hyperscaler infrastructure spending since its 2024 IPO. Index inclusion typically triggers buying from passive funds tracking the S&P 500, which manage trillions in assets. Reuters
Vik: How much longer before S&P500 becomes a blue chip fund? But Astera Labs is next? Clearly connectivity business is booming!
Austin: I think “blue chip” means like old stable companies Coca-Cola, Wal-mart, Johnson & Johnson. Astera and Marvell are quite the opposite! Although I just looked at the stock market and it’s tanking again today, so ya know, as fast as they shot up into the S&P 500 they could fall back out …. but AI is here to stay, and data movement is as valuable as ever, so I think the future is bright for Marvell and Astera.
SpaceX unveils TeraFab plan, Nvidia-powered AI1 satellites
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk outlined plans for a roughly 100 million-square-foot chip factory, dubbed TeraFab, aimed at producing a terawatt of AI compute capacity per year — ten times the footprint of Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas. Musk said the buildout is needed to supply SpaceX’s AI1 satellites, which carry computing modules, a 70-meter solar array, and terabit laser links routed through Starlink. The current reference design uses Nvidia Rubin or GB300 chips, with TPU reference designs also planned. Musk projected an annualized launch rate of one gigawatt of orbital compute by the end of 2027, scaling exponentially from there.
Quick Hits
GlobalFoundries outlines its roadmap to bring RF GaN technology to system-level reality, targeting next-generation wireless infrastructure and base-station power amplifiers. (GlobalFoundries)
Arista Introduces Next-Generation 1.6 Terabit Portfolio for AI Fabrics (Arista)
Broadcom, Apollo, and Blackstone Establish Landmark Strategic Platform to Accelerate More Than 20 Gigawatts of Global AI Deployments (Blackstone)
d-Matrix Corsair AI Inference Platform Enters Full Production to Meet Customer Demand (d-Matrix)
Key Data
Open AI IPO?
Must Watch
Nice Intel 18A video
