back-end

For decades this was the cheap end of chipmaking, but stacking DRAM into HBM and setting it beside a compute die made it a bottleneck instead. A company that controls the back end can sell into memory economics without ever running a memory fab, which is why packaging leadership hires are now read as memory strategy.

Predictions & track record (3)

• Awaiting grading Intel is looking at memory again, and the man it hired has a packaging titleWe will score whether Intel formally announces a memory product or memory architecture programme by the end of June 2027.
• Awaiting grading The Wafer Maker Says Supply Is Short. It Just Cut Its Own Forecast.To be scored at the Q3 earnings call around November 2026, checking whether second-half spot prices actually came in higher than first-half
• Awaiting grading The long-term contracts said to cap SK hynix's upside turn out to carry no price ceiling at allCheck at the third-quarter results whether SK hynix's DRAM average selling price growth comes close to the conventional DRAM spot move over the same period. Close means the contracts locked volume only, well short means July's price-lock reading was right.

4 related posts

• Watch Intel is looking at memory again, and the man it hired has a packaging title Jukan (@jukan05) · 2026-08-11
• Watch The Wafer Maker Says Supply Is Short. It Just Cut Its Own Forecast. Jukan (@jukan05) · 2026-08-05
• Watch The long-term contracts said to cap SK hynix's upside turn out to carry no price ceiling at all Jukan (@jukan05) · 2026-07-29
• Bull The inside story of how Samsung is lifting DRAM output 15% at Hwaseong without a new fab Jukan (@jukan05) · 2026-07-27