Jonathan Reed
I research foreign-exchange markets and their relationship with the global semiconductor industry. My focus includes the U.S. dollar, Asian currencies, exchange-rate movements, export competitiveness, semiconductor revenue translation, and the geographic structure of chip manufacturing. I publish on this website because semiconductor production and sales are distributed across multiple countries, while many semiconductor companies report financial results in different currencies. Exchange-rate changes can therefore influence both operating economics and reported financial performance. My research follows the U.S. dollar, major Asian currencies, currency volatility, semiconductor exports, manufacturing costs, and international technology trade. I also examine how exchange rates can influence companies with globally distributed supply chains. Another area of my work is the relationship between currency conditions and semiconductor demand. Currency movements can affect purchasing power, regional investment, and the competitiveness of manufacturers operating in different markets. Through my articles, I aim to explain how foreign-exchange movements interact with semiconductor supply chains, corporate earnings, and regional industry conditions.
Macro analyst covering FX, the U.S. dollar, Asian currencies, semiconductor exports, manufacturing costs, currency translation, and global supply chains.
Jonathan Reed is a macroeconomic analyst focused on foreign exchange and its relationship with the global semiconductor industry. His research covers the U.S. dollar, Asian currencies, trade flows, manufacturing costs, and currency translation.
Jonathan examines how exchange-rate movements affect semiconductor companies with globally distributed manufacturing and sales networks. Currency changes can influence production economics, export competitiveness, and reported financial results.
He pays particular attention to Asian semiconductor markets because many important manufacturing and supply-chain activities are concentrated in the region. His research connects currency movements with exports, investment, and regional industry conditions.
Through his articles, Jonathan explains how FX markets interact with semiconductor supply chains and corporate economics across the global chip industry.
His Articles
Liquid Cooling for 1000W+ AI Chips: The Infrastructure Bottleneck Nobody Priced In
The accelerator arrives. The server vendor has completed its work. The software team is ready to begin testing. Then the deployment stalls because the building cannot remove enough heat.
AI Chip TDP Grows 50% Per Gen, Data Center Power Architecture Faces Reassessment
Over the past several AI chip generations, one trend has become impossible to ignore: thermal design power (TDP) is climbing at a pace that would have seemed extreme even a few years ago. When flagship accelerators and high‑end AI chips see TDP grow on the order of 50% per generation, the consequences extend far beyond chip packaging.
The Unexpected Correlation Between Semi Sentiment and Crypto Mining Demand
Semiconductors and cryptocurrencies might seem like inhabitants of different worlds: one, a physical industry of fabs, wafers, and equipment; the other, a digital realm of tokens, blockchains, and speculative cycles. Yet over the past decade, an unexpected correlation has emerged between sentiment in the semiconductor sector and demand from crypto mining. When miners are euphoric and building out capacity, semi sentiment often improves;
Cross-Border Premium/Discount Arbitrage Opportunities Between Korean and US Semi ETFs
Cross-border semiconductor ETF arbitrage sounds like a niche topic, but in reality it sits right at the intersection of market structure, global capital flows, and sector sentiment. When a Korean semiconductor ETF trades at a premium or discount relative to a comparable U.S. semiconductor ETF, that gap can create opportunity for investors who understand both the underlying stocks and the mechanics behind the ETF wrapper. The trade is not just about relative valuation. It is about supply and demand, local investor behavior, currency conversion, index inclusion, and the way global semiconductor narratives travel across markets.
Silicon Photonics (CPO) Penetration Acceleration Curve in AI Cluster Optical Interconnects
As AI clusters scale to tens of thousands of accelerators and beyond, the limitations of traditional electrical interconnects become increasingly apparent. Bandwidth demands, reach requirements, and power constraints push data center architects to seek new ways to move bits efficiently between nodes. Silicon photonics, and in particular co‑packaged optics (CPO), has emerged as a critical technology for addressing these challenges.
Global Semi Sales Post 8 Consecutive Months of Positive Growth, New Uptrend Confirmed
The semiconductor industry has crossed a meaningful threshold: eight consecutive months of positive year‑over‑year sales growth. That streak signals more than a short-term rebound. It suggests a structural rebalancing between demand and supply, improved capital discipline across the value chain, and the emergence of durable demand drivers that could support a multi‑quarter uptrend. For investors, OEMs, procurement teams, engineers, and policymakers, this turning point requires a shift in tactics—from defensive cost control and aggressive destocking toward selective restocking, targeted investment, and technology prioritization. This article examines why eight months matters, what’s driving the recovery, which subsegments will benefit most, the risks that remain, and practical actions stakeholders can take now.
AI Inference Chip Landscape: Startups Challenging Nvidia’s Triton Ecosystem
AI inference has quietly become the backbone of modern digital experiences: search, recommendation, content ranking, copilots, and vision systems all depend on running trained models efficiently and at scale. In this realm, Nvidia’s Triton Inference Server and its GPU‑centric ecosystem have established a powerful beachhead, offering a unified way to deploy and manage models across data‑center GPUs. Yet a growing wave of startups is challenging this dominance, not necessarily by duplicating Triton, but by reshaping hardware and software assumptions around inference.
The Correlation Between Credit Spreads (HY OAS) and Financing Costs for Small-Cap Semis
Small cap semiconductor companies live in a different financial universe than their mega‑cap peers. They don’t issue vast tranches of low‑cost bonds or tap equity markets at will. Instead, they often sit closer to the high‑yield (HY) credit world, where option‑adjusted spreads (OAS) over Treasuries tell you how much the market charges for default risk. When HY OAS widens, the price of money rises for these firms, and the runway for growth shortens. When HY spreads compress, financing becomes more accessible and expansion stories feel more credible.