Database section · 26 records
Foundries & Packaging
Where the chips are actually made: leading-edge process nodes, advanced packaging, and the equipment monopolies underneath.
Field notes
Everything above this layer is design; this layer is where atoms actually get moved. It is also the most concentrated place in the world economy: one company fabricates nearly every advanced AI chip, using machines only one other company can build.
Start with these three
TSMC
The indispensable company. Nearly every chip in this database was born here.
EL
EUV Lithography
The machine only ASML can build — tin droplets, lasers, and the flattest mirrors ever made.
CO
CoWoS
The packaging step that rationed the world's GPU supply for two years.
Foundries & packaging houses
5
TS
TSMC
The indispensable factory: nearly every leading AI chip is made here.
ASE Technology
The world's largest packaging and test house (OSAT).
AT
Amkor Technology
The US-headquartered OSAT building advanced packaging in Arizona.
GL
GlobalFoundries
The trailing-edge specialist that still fabricates Groq's LPU.
SM
SMIC
China's leading foundry, pushing 7 nm-class production without EUV.
ASE Technology
The world's largest packaging and test house (OSAT).
AT
Amkor Technology
The US-headquartered OSAT building advanced packaging in Arizona.
GL
GlobalFoundries
The trailing-edge specialist that still fabricates Groq's LPU.
SM
SMIC
China's leading foundry, pushing 7 nm-class production without EUV.
Process nodes
6
TN
TSMC N5 / 4N (5 nm class)
The node of the AI era: Hopper, MI300, TPU v5, Maia all live here.
I1
Intel 18A
America's leading-edge hope: RibbonFET + backside power at Intel's fabs.
TN
TSMC N2 (2 nm)
Gate-all-around arrives: volume production from late 2025.
TN
TSMC N3 (3 nm)
The current leading edge in volume: MI355X, Trainium3, Rubin-class parts.
TN
TSMC N4P / 4NP
The refined 5 nm derivative under Blackwell.
TN
TSMC N7 (7 nm)
The 2018–20 node of A100, TPU v4 and the first AI boom.
Lithography
2
EL
EUV Lithography
13.5-nanometer light from exploding tin droplets — the machine behind every leading-edge chip.
HN
High-NA EUV
The ~$380M next step: bigger optics, finer features, halved field size.
Advanced packaging
3
CO
CoWoS
TSMC's 2.5D packaging — the assembly step that rationed the world's GPUs.
E&
EMIB & Foveros
Intel's bridge-and-stack packaging arsenal.
S(
SoIC (3D Stacking)
TSMC's die-on-die hybrid bonding — true 3D chips.
Semiconductor equipment
7
ASML
The only maker of EUV lithography machines — a literal monopoly at the source.
AM
Applied Materials
The broadest toolmaker: deposition, etch, implant — and packaging tools too.
BS
BE Semiconductor (Besi)
The hybrid-bonding specialist for the 3D-stacking era.
DC
DISCO Corporation
The company that cuts and grinds nearly every advanced chip.
KL
KLA
Process control: the inspection tools that make advanced yields possible.
LR
Lam Research
Etch and deposition leader — critical to HBM's through-silicon vias.
TE
Tokyo Electron
Japan's equipment giant — coaters, etchers and bonders in every fab.
