{"version":1,"schema_version":"1.1.0","snapshot_id":"semiconductors-v1-9ec9a9512e4ae1d5","generated_at":"2026-08-26T04:17:16.045Z","title":"The Supply Chain Behind Advanced AI Chips","deck":"A source-attributed map of the public companies, capabilities, disclosed dependencies, manufacturing projects, and financial intensity behind an advanced accelerator.","methodology":"MTS Intelligence V1 combines a reviewed 54-company public-market universe with primary company and regulatory evidence. Company-wide SEC XBRL facts are reported, not semiconductor-segment estimates. Relationships appear only when a named counterparty is disclosed in a primary source. Missing values remain null and uncollected trade values remain absent.","counts":{"layers":8,"companies":54,"capabilities":67,"facilities":9,"projects":9,"relationships":17,"financial_facts":1836,"hs_codes":4,"trade_flows":0,"claims":4,"explainer_components":40,"sources":111},"coverage":{"by_layer":{"eda-ip":{"companies":3,"capabilities":3,"projects":0},"chip-network-design":{"companies":6,"capabilities":6,"projects":0},"materials":{"companies":10,"capabilities":10,"projects":0},"wafer-fab-equipment":{"companies":11,"capabilities":11,"projects":0},"foundries-idms":{"companies":15,"capabilities":15,"projects":5},"hbm-memory":{"companies":4,"capabilities":4,"projects":3},"advanced-packaging":{"companies":10,"capabilities":10,"projects":6},"assembly-test-inspection":{"companies":8,"capabilities":8,"projects":1}},"financial_companies":30,"financial_company_years":256,"relationship_edges":17,"tracked_projects":9,"source_counts_by_tier":{"1":111,"2":0,"3":0},"missing_financial_companies":24,"missing_relationship_companies":40,"trade_flow_status":"codebook-reviewed-data-not-collected"},"limitations":["The company universe is a reviewed V1 coverage set, not a market-share ranking, investment recommendation, or complete list of every private and public supplier.","SEC financial facts cover issuers available through Company Facts; non-U.S. issuers without comparable SEC XBRL remain explicit gaps.","Financial facts are company-wide unless a fact explicitly says otherwise. No segment allocation or currency estimate is invented.","A disclosed supplier relationship establishes documented dependency, not volume, exclusivity, current allocation, or market share.","Project costs and dates retain the scope and status in the cited announcement; null means not reported in the reviewed source.","The HTS codebook is reviewed at heading level. V1 does not publish trade-flow values because those headings are broader than AI semiconductors and require revision-aware subheading concordance.","Facility coordinates are approximate city-level points for orientation, not parcel boundaries."],"dimensions":{"layers":[{"layer_id":"eda-ip","order":1,"label":"EDA & IP","short_label":"EDA / IP","description":"Software and reusable intellectual property turn architectures into layouts that can be manufactured.","ai_criticality":"Every accelerator begins as verified logic, interface IP, timing closure, and a manufacturable physical design."},{"layer_id":"chip-network-design","order":2,"label":"Chip & network design","short_label":"Design","description":"Fabless and systems companies define accelerator, CPU, interconnect, and networking silicon.","ai_criticality":"Architecture determines useful throughput; networking determines how efficiently thousands of accelerators act as one system."},{"layer_id":"materials","order":3,"label":"Materials","short_label":"Materials","description":"Wafers, gases, chemicals, photoresists, masks, and contamination-control inputs feed each process step.","ai_criticality":"Advanced nodes require purer inputs and tighter defect control across hundreds of repeated process steps."},{"layer_id":"wafer-fab-equipment","order":4,"label":"Wafer-fab equipment","short_label":"Equipment","description":"Lithography, deposition, etch, metrology, cleaning, dicing, and automated test equipment make scaling physical.","ai_criticality":"Leading-edge logic cannot be produced without a narrow set of highly specialized manufacturing tools."},{"layer_id":"foundries-idms","order":5,"label":"Foundries & IDMs","short_label":"Fabrication","description":"Foundries manufacture designs for customers; integrated device manufacturers design and fabricate their own products.","ai_criticality":"This layer converts designs into logic and supporting silicon at yields and volumes suitable for deployment."},{"layer_id":"hbm-memory","order":6,"label":"HBM & memory","short_label":"Memory","description":"DRAM, high-bandwidth memory, and NAND suppliers provide the data movement and storage hierarchy around compute.","ai_criticality":"AI accelerators are frequently constrained by memory bandwidth and capacity rather than arithmetic alone."},{"layer_id":"advanced-packaging","order":7,"label":"Advanced packaging","short_label":"Packaging","description":"Interposers, substrates, chiplets, through-silicon vias, and 2.5D/3D integration join logic and memory.","ai_criticality":"The package is now a system: it places high-bandwidth memory beside compute and provides power, heat, and signal pathways."},{"layer_id":"assembly-test-inspection","order":8,"label":"Assembly, test & inspection","short_label":"Test","description":"Outsourced assembly, wafer probe, final test, inspection, and system-level validation turn dies into qualified products.","ai_criticality":"Known-good dies and reliable packages are prerequisites when individual AI systems combine many expensive components."}],"regions":["Americas","China","Europe","Japan","Middle East","South Korea","Taiwan"],"countries":["China","France","Germany","Israel","Japan","Netherlands","South Korea","Switzerland","Taiwan","United Kingdom","United States"],"project_statuses":["announced","operational","planned","under-construction"],"financial_metrics":["capital_expenditures","depreciation_amortization","gross_profit","operating_cash_flow","operating_income","property_plant_equipment","research_and_development","revenue","total_assets"],"financial_years":[2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2022,2023,2024,2025,2026]},"endpoints":["snapshot","explainers","companies","facilities","projects","financials","relationships","trade","sources"]}