Semiconductor Sales Are Booming, But Will It Last?
If you'd like to gauge the health of the technology market, there are a few large semiconductor companies that act as bellweathers for the industry. Three of the biggest and broadest are Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM), and Microchip Technology (NASDAQ: MCHP).
Microchip serves a broad array of industries with its analog chips and microcontrollers. Intel's processors are heavily concentrated in both PCs and data centers. Taiwan Semiconductor makes a broad array of chips for designers that don't own their own fabs, with particular emphasis on mobile phone modems, high-performance computing chips, and graphics chips.
By observing these three companies, investors can get a sense of how chips are selling overall. That has implications for all kinds of technology companies, from the chip producers themselves, to the software and cloud companies that are their buyers.
Source Fool.com