Investor Intelligence

The money is structural, not a sidebar. Four views of the same map: the names that define it, every ticker by layer, where the single points of failure live, and what ships when.

Data as of 13 September 2026   Open in the 3D atlas

The shortlist

The names that structurally define the map — chokepoint monopolies, scale players and pure-plays — and exactly why each one matters.

Chokepoint monopolies

Single points of failure — if any one stalls, the whole stack stalls. Highest barriers, near-impossible to displace.

• TSMC TSM
  Makes the GPU AND the CoWoS packaging that bonds HBM to it — everything routes through its fabs. CoWoS sold out into 2027.
• ASML ASML
  A 100% EUV-lithography monopoly. No sub-7nm chip — logic or HBM base die — exists without an ASML machine.
• Ajinomoto 2802.T
  ~95% of ABF film, the insulating layer in every high-end chip package. The quietest monopoly in the whole chain.

The scale players

The deepest revenue pools — where the AI build-out shows up first and largest in the P&L.

• NVIDIA NVDA
  The demand engine. Sets the roadmap, buys the most HBM and optics, and pre-buys supply to lock out rivals.
• SK Hynix 000660.KS
  The HBM bellwether — #1 in the scarcest component, first to qualify HBM4, ~60–70% of Rubin's allocation — and the biggest beneficiary of the DRAM price spike it is causing.
• Broadcom AVGO
  Switching (Tomahawk) + custom XPUs for hyperscalers; the anchor of the merchant-silicon / UALink camp.
• Marvell MRVL
  The most complete optical stack — ~70% DSP share + Celestial photonic fabric + custom AI silicon.

The pure-plays

Concentrated bets — smaller floats, high leverage to one specific part of the build-out.

• Astera Labs ALAB
  The cleanest pure-play on AI connectivity — retimers, CXL, fabric switches. Wins the interconnect war either way.
• Lumentum LITE
  The laser chokepoint — the only volume supplier of 200G/lane EML lasers, capacity locked through 2027; NVIDIA put $2B in (Mar 2026) to lock it.
• BE Semiconductor BESI
  The hybrid-bonding tool the next HBM generations require. Tiny float, enormous optionality.

Every ticker, by layer

Grouped by where each company sits in the chain. The dot is the worst chokepoint severity of any layer it touches.

Memory · HBM oligopoly (+ the challenger)

Advanced packaging & equipment

Materials & substrates

Connectivity · CXL · switching

Optics · photonics

The AI buyers

China's stack

Where the single points of failure live

Where each critical step physically happens, ordered by single-point-of-failure risk.

The numbers — what the market already prices in

A static snapshot, not a feed — so you can see what the market already prices into each layer. Market cap and price were confirmed from two sources; 12-month return is shown only where two sources agreed. Forward P/E is consensus as quoted by stockanalysis.com.

Snapshot 11–12 Sep 2026 · stockanalysis.com, cross-checked against Google Finance / Yahoo Finance · FX USD/KRW 1,386 · USD/JPY 153.6 · USD/CNY 6.71 · EUR/USD 1.16. n/a = could not be verified from two sources, so it is left blank rather than guessed.

The roadmap — and the scorecard

What happens when, and who benefits. Entries whose date has passed carry a verdict: the atlas grades its own forecasts.