Rephonic
Artwork for Semi Doped
Nvidia
Intel
LIDAR
AI Infrastructure
Semiconductor Industry
IEDM
GPU Compute
Groq
Copper
Silicon Photonics
Meta MTIA
Matx
Turboquant
ARM AGI Cpus
Marvell
Qualcomm
Cerebras Systems
CES 2026
DGX Spark
Transistor Technology

The business and technology of semiconductors. Alpha for engineers and investors alike.

PublishesTwice weeklyEpisodes41Founded7 months ago
Number of ListenersCategory
Technology

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Artwork for Semi Doped

Latest Episodes

The physical limits of copper are forcing a shift to optical interconnects in AI data centers. Austin sits down with GlobalFoundries' Thomas Barber to unpack why GF thinks it can lead that transition twice over: once with its long-running silicon pho... more

A retimer is a small, unglamorous chip. Astera turned it into a high-margin franchise. Austin and Vik cover why copper gives up at PCIe speeds, what a retimer does that a redriver can't, and how one H100 socket became a moat. Then Scorpio: can Astera... more

Austin Lyons and Vik Sekar break down the market's recent volatility. They discuss the rising fear around hyperscaler debt, visible in credit default swap (CDS) premiums, and the counter-argument that GPU ROI is actually understated. They then analyz... more

Vik Sekar and Austin Lyons tackle the biggest bottleneck in inference: moving data. They break down the three tiers of datacenter networking — scale up, scale out, scale across — and the core engineering trade-off at each layer: copper vs. optics. To... more

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Recent Guests

Vik Shekhar
Contributor from Vicks Newsletter
Vicks Newsletter
Episode: Huawei's Tau Scaling Law: Is the "EUV Killer" Real?
Vik Sekar
Contributor on Vik's Newsletters; technical analyst in power and semiconductors
Vik's Newsletters
Episode: Power as the Next Physics Wall for AI
Matt Steiner
VP of Monetization Infrastructure, Ranking and AI Foundations at Meta
Meta
Episode: Meta VP Matt Steiner on Ads Infra, GPUs, MTIA, and LLM-Written Kernels
Reiner Pope
Co-founder and CEO of MatX
MatX
Episode: Reiner Pope (MatX): Designing AI Chips From First Principles for LLMs

Hosts

Austin Lines
Host of the Semi Doped podcast; frequently introduces topics and anchors technical discussions.
Vik Shekhar
Co-host providing industry newsletter insights and technical questions; runs Vik's Newsletter.
Austin Lyons
Co-host focusing on explaining packaging, data-center infrastructure, and industrial context; connected to Semi Doped.

Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars from 24 ratings
  • Amazing Amazing! 🩶👾

    Semi Doped has quickly become my absolute favorite due to its insightful and well-researched content, including detailed interviews with industry experts and comprehensive analysis of current trends.

    I always learn something new from every episode, thanks to the clear explanations that make even the most complex topics accessible and understandable.

    Thanks so much, Vik and Austin, for all the hard work! Your effort truly means a lot. 🚀🚀

    Apple Podcasts
    5
    Overclocked Espresso
    United States6 months ago
  • Best thing to listen if you’re into tech and semiconductor space

    Thankyou. Absolutely and wholeheartedly love your show. Both your Substack are joy to read. Every. Single. Time.

    With gratitude 🙏

    Apple Podcasts
    5
    Iuy123
    India7 months ago

Listeners Say

Key themes from listener reviews, highlighting what works and what could be improved about the show.

The show is lauded for timely industry context and practical insights into AI compute economics.
Listeners praise deep technical rigor and accessible explanations for complex hardware topics.
Guests and discussions are repeatedly described as authoritative and well‑informed.

Chart Rankings

How this podcast ranks in the Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube charts.

Apple Podcasts
#189
United States/Technology
Apple Podcasts
#184
United Kingdom/Technology
Apple Podcasts
#48
Hong Kong/Technology
Apple Podcasts
#101
Finland/Technology
Apple Podcasts
#176
Singapore/Technology
Apple Podcasts
#180
Taiwan/Technology

Talking Points

Recent interactions between the hosts and their guests.

Qualcomm's HBC Memory, Alphawave, Modular, and more
Q: How does Modular fit into Qualcomm's data-center vision?
Modular provides Mojo, MAX, and distributed cloud tooling to unify software across multiple silicon providers, effectively enabling a common programming model and facilitating deployment from cloud to edge, which could help Qualcomm scale its multi-vendor strategy.
Qualcomm's HBC Memory, Alphawave, Modular, and more
Q: What is the significance of disaggregated inference and the memory approach?
Disaggregation enables assembling tailored racks for specific workloads and reduces dependency on any single vendor, while HBC and stacked memory aim to dramatically boost memory bandwidth and throughput near the compute, which could redefine data-center and edge AI performance.
Qualcomm's HBC Memory, Alphawave, Modular, and more
Q: Do you think they can build a real data center business?
Yes, the guests argue Qualcomm can, given its IP, scale, and past M&A activity, but the approach needs true technological differentiation and a credible, multi-vendor software/acceleration strategy to coexist with established players.
Reiner Pope (MatX): Designing AI Chips From First Principles for LLMs
Q: How do you justify the shift from software and hardware lock-in to a multi-vendor approach?
The company argues that the traditional software lock-in is not as strong as it seems because ecosystems are multi-platform, and customers can benefit from hardware diversity when performance and efficiency are optimized through memory-aware architectures.
Reiner Pope (MatX): Designing AI Chips From First Principles for LLMs
Q: What is MatX aiming to build and why is it different from GPUs?
MatX targets a first-principles hardware design optimized for large language models, prioritizing matrix-multiply throughput, a memory hierarchy that unifies SRAM and HBM, and multi-platform software to reduce lock-in, with a roadmap designed for data-center scale rather than repurposing general GPUs.

Audience Metrics

Listeners, social reach, demographics and more for this podcast.

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Frequently Asked Questions About Semi Doped

What is Semi Doped about and what kind of topics does it cover?

This show covers the business and technology of semiconductors, with in-depth dives into AI hardware, data-center infrastructure, and advanced packaging. Episodes repeatedly explore how system-level design, memory hierarchies, interconnects, and power delivery shape performance and cost, often featuring practitioners and researchers who bridge engineering detail with market strategy. A notable strength is translating complex technical trends into actionable insights for engineers and investment-focused audiences, including real-world implications for hyperscalers, startups, and tooling ecosystems. The format tends to balance rigorous technical discussion with practical industry context, making it valuable for listeners who want to understan... more

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Which podcasts are similar to Semi Doped?

These podcasts share a similar audience with Semi Doped:

1. SemiAnalysis Weekly
2. The Circuit
3. Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy
4. Training Data
5. Sourcery

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Semi Doped launched 7 months ago and published 41 episodes to date. You can find more information about this podcast including rankings, audience demographics and engagement in our podcast database.

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What guests have appeared on Semi Doped?

Recent guests on Semi Doped include:

1. Vik Shekhar
2. Vik Sekar
3. Matt Steiner
4. Reiner Pope

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