Chip Magic

Thanks to both a range of demanding new applications, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Natural Language Processing (NLP) and more, as well as a perceived threat to Moore's Law (which has "guided" the semiconductor industry for over 50 years to a state of staggering capability and complexity), we're starting to see an impressive range of new output from today's silicon designers. Entirely new chip designs, architectures and capabilities are coming from a wide array of key component players across the tech industry, including Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), AMD (NASDAQ:AMD), Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM), Micron (NASDAQ:MU) and ARM, as well as internal efforts from companies like Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Samsung (OTC:SSNLF), Huawei, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). It's a digital revival that many thought would never come. In fact, just a few years ago, there were many who were predicting the death, or at least serious weakening, of most major semiconductor players. Growth in many major hardware markets had started to slow, and there was a sense that improvements in semiconductor performance were reaching a point of diminishing returns, particularly in CPUs (central processing units), the most well-known type of chip.