Semiconductor Supply Chain in Taiwan

Based in New York, Jahanara Nissar serves as managing partner at Lynx Equity Strategies. Jahanara Nissar has extensive knowledge of hardware, information technology, and semiconductor stocks and touched on Taiwanese chip production bottlenecks in a piece published in Street Insider.

In early June 2021, chip testing services leader King Yuan Electronics (KYEC) was forced to suspend production for two days because of a COVID-19 outbreak among foreign workers at the company. This impacted the semiconductor backend supply chain, which provides product testing, wafer probing, and assembly solutions to major companies such as Nvidia, Qualcomm, Intel, and Mediatek.

KYEC boasts the backend supply chain industry’s second-largest testing revenue for semiconductors. It supplies wafer probing, product testing, and assembly services to the likes of Qualcomm, Intel, Nvidia, MediaTek, and Novatek.

The broader global semiconductor shortage continues to be a high-profile issue. America’s top diplomat went so far as to raise the issue with Taiwan in formal meetings, as it has impacted several United States auto manufacturers.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd., a leader in contract chipmaking, describes a situation of gradually easing supply stress but notes that semiconductor capacity tightness is a persistent issue that will likely extend to 2023. At the same time, Apple iPhone assembler Foxconn stated that the COVID-19 resurgence in Asia could further impact its technology supply chain.

AMD and Xilinx Merger Hinges

Based in New York, Jahanara Nissar serves as managing partner at Lynx Equity Strategies and delivers research focused on technology stocks spanning hardware, semiconductors, and the Internet. Drawing on leadership experience with Alliance Bernstein, Jahanara Nissar regularly provides opinions on financial sites such as Bloomberg and Street Insider.

In early August 2021, she described a widening spread related to the proposed merger between Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) and Xilinx, as having reached "extreme irrationality.” The discount market close of 40 percent seemed to reflect an investor's belief that the deal closure probability was nearly zero. With Chinese antitrust approval the major obstacle, AMD stock rose nearly six percent, while Xilinx fell 3.7 percent.

The AMD stock price surge, 24 percent total from late July to early August, reflected strong reported corporate results. Regulatory approvals for the Xilinx acquisition were attained in markets such as the UK and EU. From AMD’s perspective, the firm was still on track to achieve approval from Chinese authorities, with a 50 percent chance of ultimate success forecast.

According to Ms. Nissar, despite China’s increasingly harsh stance on technology mergers, this moderately positive potential for the merger is closer to reality than the “near-zero probability scenario” envisioned by some investors.

Broadway Theaters Open to Full Capacity

As a managing partner at Lynx Equity Strategies, Jahanara Nissar is a Technology Strategist who focuses on tech stocks spanning semiconductors and the Internet. An avid theatergoer, Jahanara Nissar enjoys going to Broadway shows when she has the opportunity.

The first half of 2021 has been quiet on Broadway, with shows such as Hamilton at the Richard Rodgers Theatre closed due to pandemic restrictions. This has had a profound economic impact. The theater industry is large, with financial benefits rippling throughout the community, from stagehand and actors to local hotels.

For this reason, three of the most profitable mega-musicals, “Wicked,” “The Lion King,” and “Hamilton,” are returning to full capacity from mid-September 2021. To ensure safe reopening, the Broadway League announced strict protocols, such as vaccination and mask requirements, at every theater on Broadway.

A larger factor than the ability to sell the maximum number of tickets is whether tourism will recover quickly enough to generate the sold-out halls envisioned. Tourists make up more than two-thirds of Broadway ticket sales, and their numbers are still drastically reduced. With 66.6 million visitors having visited New York City in 2019, the forecast for 2021 is 36.1 million visitors.