Insight
Manickam: Tech industry is shifting back to vertical integration for silicon
“I believe now we are going one full circle, right? So all that outsourcing, you know, has happened, right? Now, you know, they're trying to become vertically integrated again, right? So this system companies want to make their own chips, right?”
Opinion
Manickam: Nvidia's dominance stems from optimizing hardware for its CUDA software
“The reason why NVIDIA is successful is because they actually had this software, AI software, they call it CUDA, right? So now they had that hardware that runs this CUDA very, very efficiently.”
What-if
Manickam: Nvidia would not have survived long-term without the AI boom
“If AI was not there, you know, NVIDIA would not have been able to survive in the long term, right?”
Opinion
Manickam: Southeast Asian chip hubs lack talent depth for fabrication
“Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, and Singapore and all that, they have a lot of manufacturing and not so much on the fab, but on the backend, we call packaging and so on. But the depth of, you know, engineering requirements, right? Are still not there, right? …”
Opinion
Manickam: Semiconductor companies with in-house manufacturing are currently struggling
“If you look at Broadcom, Qualcomm, they're all, you know, fabulous chip. They don't have any manufacturing. The guys who have manufacturing are struggling.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Manickam: The US has lost semiconductor process capabilities over 30–40 years
“And in this last, I would say, 3040 years, right? We've lost, I mean, when I say we, meaning, you know, US has lost the expertise, the capabilities of process, right?”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Manickam: High pay will eventually draw US workers into semiconductor manufacturing
“You know, and, you know, money-wise, right, obviously, you know, a semiconductor pays really well. So I'm sure, you know, being a very capitalist society, people will eventually get into it. It's going to take a, take some time to do it.”
Assertion Contradicted
Manickam: Taiwan Was Historically the Largest or Second-Largest Investor in China
“In fact, I think Taiwan was the biggest investor in in China for a long time. I think next only to Japan.”
Insight
Manickam: The US CHIPS Act Is Essentially Viability Gap Funding
“A lot of these companies, if they have to do it in the U S completely, they will need this, you know, in India, we call it viability gap funding. Right? So that Chips Act is basically a viability gap funding.”
Opinion
Manickam: Western and Japanese Chipmakers Won't Build Low-Cost Microcontrollers
“You look at, you know, US or European countries or even Japanese companies for the matter, right? They need to have, you know, 55% gross margin and net margins about 40% or so, right? They have certain criteria, right? And they will not be interested in, you k…”
Prediction Open · timeframe Jun 2030
Manickam: Domestic Indian Firms Designing 2nm/3nm Chips Are 4-5 Years Away
“Indian company designing a two nanometer, three nanometer, Indian, Indian company, not a GCC. It's a ways off. I would say probably four, five years from now.”
Assertion Partly supported
Manickam: YES built complete wafer fab deposition equipment in Coimbatore
“There's a company called YES, which actually make a deposition equipment for the wafer fab. They made the entire equipment out of Coimbatore. They started about, I think, seven or eight years ago as engineering development in Coimbatore, because I was involved…”
Insight
Manickam: Soft Loans Fund Chip Startups Better Than Direct Government Grants
“So low cost loans and soft loans will be a better way of, you know, creating more companies and move faster.”
Insight
Manickam: Hardware requires complex global multi-player coordination unlike software
“It is hard because it involves a lot of multiple players that you will have to interact with versus, you know, software, right? You pretty much, you can create your own software package and then so The engagements that you'll need to have within the ecosystem …”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Manickam: India has many chip designers but zero domestic chip companies
“We have a lot of chip designers, but we don't have a chip company.”
Assertion Partly supported
Manickam: TSMC is the only game in town for leading-edge nodes
“If you want to go into the highest node possible, you have to, you know, TSM is the only game in town.”
Insight
Manickam: Application-specific custom silicon is no longer prohibitively expensive
“You can now differentiate your products based on the application and it is not too expensive to do that now.”
Assertion Supported
Manickam: Nvidia charges $20,000 to $30,000 per module due to zero competition
“But because they're only game in town, they can charge 20,030 thousand dollars per, per module.”
Insight
Manickam: NVIDIA cannot maintain a 90% market share indefinitely
“I always believe that you can't hold like 90% market share in anything. Right. So eventually, yes, you know, I know how quickly it is, you know, anybody's guess.”
Assertion Supported
Manickam: Bangalore produces more engineering graduates annually than all of Taiwan
“Bangalore will have more than, right? You know, the entire Taiwan put together, right? Or Chennai, for example, right? You know, they have so many engineering colleges and all that.”
Prediction Open · timeframe Jan 2035
Manickam: Global semiconductor market will double to $1T in ten years
“The semiconductor market is supposed to double, right? It's about half a trillion right now, right? 506 hundred billion dollars is a semiconductor market. It's supposed to double. Right. It took about 40 years. So, you know, to get to this level in the next 10…”
Prediction Didn’t hold up
Manickam: India's Semicon 2.0 budget will target ecosystem and product companies
“The two point O is going to be announced, you know, the next budget. And there's significant amount of money that is coming. Now they may focus on the ecosystem guys, equipment guys there are chip product companies and so on. May not be as much for the manufac…”
Assertion Supported
Manickam: India currently imports nearly 100% of its semiconductors
“No, today, almost hundred percent semiconductor is important. Nothing is made here. Hundred percent.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Manickam: Ambien Scientific Builds Edge AI Processors From Bangalore House
“This morning I was in a company called Ambien Scientific, right, which makes edge processes, right? About a 40, 50 people team here, small office, right? You know, it's actually in a house, right? Two floors in a house, and excellent engineers, right? All youn…”
