Daniel Brooks
I study the semiconductor industry through the relationship between supply, demand, manufacturing utilization, inventory, pricing, and capital expenditure. My research is particularly focused on understanding how changes in wafer capacity and fab utilization eventually influence semiconductor availability, pricing power, and company investment decisions. I also follow changes in production plans across memory, foundry, logic, and other major semiconductor segments. I joined this publication to provide a more data-oriented perspective on semiconductor industry developments. The semiconductor market can move quickly, but many of its most important changes develop over several quarters. A utilization rate that gradually improves, an inventory correction that reaches a turning point, or a new capacity expansion plan can provide important information about the direction of the industry. I try to place these individual signals into a broader framework. My research also examines the geographic dimension of semiconductor manufacturing. Production capacity is distributed across Asia, North America, and Europe, while demand comes from an increasingly global customer base. Understanding where capacity is being added, which technologies are being expanded, and why companies are making those decisions is an important part of my work. I also follow semiconductor investment themes because financial markets often respond to industry changes before they become fully visible in company results. My goal is not to provide simplistic conclusions, but to explain the underlying operating conditions that may influence market expectations. On this website, I write about semiconductor supply-demand conditions, capacity expansion, utilization trends, inventory cycles, and capital spending. I aim to give readers a practical framework for interpreting industry data and understanding the forces behind changes in the semiconductor cycle.
Semiconductor supply-demand analyst specializing in wafer capacity, utilization, inventory, pricing, and foundry investment. Daniel provides data-driven analysis of manufacturing conditions and the forces shaping global semiconductor supply cycles.
Daniel Brooks is a semiconductor industry researcher specializing in global supply-and-demand conditions. His work on this website focuses on the manufacturing indicators that help explain changes in semiconductor availability, pricing, utilization, and investment.
Daniel closely follows wafer capacity, fab utilization, inventory levels, production plans, and semiconductor capital expenditure. His research examines how these indicators develop over time and how they interact during different stages of the semiconductor cycle.
A significant part of Daniel's coverage is dedicated to manufacturing expansion. He tracks new fabrication capacity, technology migration, regional production strategies, and investment plans across major semiconductor manufacturing markets. This allows his analysis to connect individual fab announcements with broader changes in global supply.
Daniel also examines the relationship between semiconductor fundamentals and financial markets. His research considers how changes in utilization, inventory, pricing, and investment can influence expectations for semiconductor companies and the wider sector.
Through his articles, Daniel provides readers with a data-oriented perspective on semiconductor supply, demand, and manufacturing conditions, helping put short-term industry developments into the context of longer-term market cycles.
His Articles
The "Pseudo-Correlation" Trap in Thematic ETFs – Does an AI ETF Truly Represent Memory?
AI storage and computing power are two sides of the same hardware story. GPUs, accelerators, and custom AI chips get most of the attention, but without DRAM, HBM, and fast storage, they simply stall. It is therefore tempting to assume that any AI ETF—or semi ETF marketed as “AI exposure”—automatically represents memory. After all, if the fund moves with AI cycles, and AI cycles require memory, isn’t that enough?