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Silicon Futures is a neXt Curve reThink Podcast series on AI and semiconductor tech and the industry topics that matter.

This month, the world of AI and semiconductors has gone truly mad. Drama and volatility are the only ways to describe what we witnessed in July with AI agent swarms going rogue, a frantic effort to save open-weight models from being banned by the U.S. government, and AMD coming to market with their first rack-scale AI supercomputing system to take on NVIDIA's dominance.

In this episode, Leonard, Karl and Jim talk about some of the top headlines from July of 2026.

➡️ AMD Advancing AI 2026 highlights (3:47)
➡️ AMD + Cerebras partnership for inference AI (4:18)
➡️ AMD's strategy for heterogeneous AI inference compute (7:04)
➡️ AMD touts CPU portfolio and diversity for AI (10:34)
➡️ Is agentic AI compute the same as AI training compute? (13:57)
➡️ Is AMD's ecosystem 18-month behind NVIDIA's? (17:29)
➡️ Could ROCm.ai be a CUDA equalizer for AMD? (19:46)
➡️ Are we in the infancy of AI still? (24:54)
➡️ Will closed AI models and labs continue to lead? (26:34)
➡️ AI for security vs. AI for threat actors. Who wins? (33.39)
➡️ Is the gigawatt a good metric for "AI capacity"? (37:57)
➡️ QUANTUM NEWS! IBM acquires HRL Laboratories (43:58)
➡️ What to make of Intel's public commitment to 14A? (43:58)

Hit Leonard, Karl, and Jim up on LinkedIn and take part in their industry and tech insights.

Check out Jim and his research at Tirias Research at www.tiriasresearch.com.
Check out Karl and his research at Cambrian AI Research LLC at www.cambrian-ai.com. Check out Karl's Substack at: https://substack.com/@karlfreund429026

Please subscribe to our podcast which will be featured on the neXt Curve YouTube Channel. Check out the audio version on BuzzSprout or find us on your favorite Podcast platform.

Also, subscribe to the neXt Curve research portal at www.next-curve.com and our Substack (https://substack.com/@nextcurve) for the tech and industry insights that matter.

NOTE: The transcript is AI-generated and will contain errors.

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for informational purposes only.

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Silicon Futures is a neXt Curve reThink Podcast series on AI and semiconductor tech and the industry topics that matter.

Leonard Lee (neXt Curve), Karl Freund (Cambrian AI Research), and Jim McGregor (Tirias Research), unpack a dense and drama-filled month in AI and chips.

U.S. AI labs start a whining campaign as Chinese open-weight models threaten the AI world order, NVIDIA resuscitates the AI PC, neoclouds lay out their vision for reinvention, Apple flexes its agentic AI muscle, Qualcomm brings heterogeneous computing to the AI data center game, and much more.

In this episode, Leonard, Karl and Jim talk about some of the top headlines from June of 2026.

➡️ Jim's takes from COMPUTEX 2026 (2:41)
➡️ The agentic workstation and revival of the AI PC with NVIDIA RTX Spark (3:22)
➡️ WWDC 2026: Strike 3 for Apple Intelligence? - (10:25)
➡️ Revisiting Apple's AI strategy (11:20)
➡️ Neocloud takes from Nebius Inflection 2026 (16:03)
➡️ Neocloud and their enterprise pivot play beyond GPUaaS (18:40)
➡️ Leonard's take on Cisco Live! 2026 (21:43)
➡️ The race to reduced the procurement-to-first-token for AI clusters (23:55)
➡️ The great closed AI model drama (26:49)
➡️ The great U.S. AI lab whining campaign (32:00)
➡️ Inflective reflections on Qualcomm's Investor Day 2026 (34:10)
➡️ Qualcomm's Reverse Ricky Bobby move (37:57)
➡️ Qualcomm's hybrid approach to the AI data center opportunity (43:44)
➡️ Apple's dramatic move to raise prices thanks to memory crunch (49:05)

Hit Leonard, Karl, and Jim up on LinkedIn and take part in their industry and tech insights.

Check out Jim and his research at Tirias Research at www.tiriasresearch.com.
Check out Karl and his research at Cambrian AI Research LLC at www.cambrian-ai.com. Check out Karl's Substack at: https://substack.com/@karlfreund429026

Please subscribe to our podcast which will be featured on the neXt Curve YouTube Channel. Check out the audio version on BuzzSprout or find us on your favorite Podcast platform.

Also, subscribe to the neXt Curve research portal at www.next-curve.com and our Substack (https://substack.com/@nextcurve) for the tech and industry insights that matter.

NOTE: The transcript is AI-generated and will contain errors.

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for informational purposes only.

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Silicon Futures is a neXt Curve reThink Podcast series on AI and semiconductor tech and the industry topics that matter.

This month, the AI narrative has rediscovered its mojo with hyperscalers continuing to double down on their CapExc on AI infrastructure, while realizing unrealized "other income" from their investments in AI startups and labs as the likes of Anthropic, OpenAI, and xAI prepare to go public. We didn't cover it in our discussion, but yes, Elon Musk lost his case against OpenAI. Too bad.

Regardless, another action packed month in May 2026.

In this episode, Leonard, Karl and Jim talk about some of the top headlines from May of 2026.

➡️ Qualcomm's mystery hyperscaler customer?
➡️ The geopolitical risk of playing the AI game
➡️ Huawei teases "1.4 nm" chip and novel architecture
➡️ Cerebras finally IPOs!
➡️ NVIDIA's Q1 FY27 results and new reporting structure
➡️ Memory vendors are now $trillion market cap
➡️ Will Apple use Intel Foundry for Apple Silicon?
➡️ The state of Intel Foundry business
➡️ Alex Katouzian joins Intel to head up Client Computing Physical AI
➡️ AMD proving they are more than AI accelerators
➡️ Is the AI infrastructure boom driving IoT revival?
➡️ AMD, Arm, NVIDIA, Intel, and the CPU boom
➡️ Dell's pivot toward warm-water cooling
➡️ Dell leans into AI workstation!
➡️ NVIDIA investments in Taiwanese AI startups
➡️ "Other income" unrealized gains of AI investments
➡️ All eyes on COMPUTEX 2026

Hit Leonard, Karl, and Jim up on LinkedIn and take part in their industry and tech insights.

Check out Jim and his research at Tirias Research at www.tiriasresearch.com.
Check out Karl and his research at Cambrian AI Research LLC at www.cambrian-ai.com. Check out Karl's Substack at: https://substack.com/@karlfreund429026

Please subscribe to our podcast which will be featured on the neXt Curve YouTube Channel. Check out the audio version on BuzzSprout or find us on your favorite Podcast platform.

Also, subscribe to the neXt Curve research portal at www.next-curve.com and our Substack (https://substack.com/@nextcurve) for the tech and industry insights that matter.

NOTE: The transcript is AI-generated and will contain errors.

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for informational purposes only.

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It was great to have a chance to share the stage with Azita Arvani, Stanford Sloan Fellow at Sensors Converge 2026 to talk about the "Edge Continuum" as it relates to edge AI and what I call the Perception Edge (Sensors + Edge AI).

Azita and I talk about what the edge continuum is, what is shaping the present and future of the perception edge, where AI makes sense across the edge, and what the role of sensors and edge AI will play in physical AI.

Thanks to David Drain and the Sensors Converge team for setting us up with this spot to share with this year's attendees! Congrats on another great event!

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I had a great time hanging out with Pete Bernard, CEO of EDGE AI FOUNDATION at Sensors Converge 2026 which took place at the Santa Clara Convention Center this week. We had a chance to chat about the key trends that we see shaping what I've been calling the Perception Edge. What is it?

Simple. Sensors + Edge AI. Check out our brief conversation where we touch on the implications of this convergence of sensor technology with edge AI, the possibilities created, and the critical mindset shifts we need to make to appreciate and capitalize on the change and opportunity that is coming at the Perception Edge.

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Silicon Futures is a neXt Curve reThink Podcast series on AI and semiconductor tech and the industry topics that matter.

This month shall be dubbed the month of specialization as the tide of AI compute make a hard turn toward inference and agentic AI. What is all this all this madness about CPUs about? The Silicon Futures Trio unpacks the mystery of the month.

In this episode, Leonard, Karl and Jim talk about some of the top headlines from April of 2026.

➡️ What's up with the CPU mania in AI?
➡️ Why is everyone going custom, specialized AI systems?
➡️ The diverse velocities of AI change & digestion.
➡️ The many roles of CPU in an agentic AI system.
➡️ Cloud demand driven by AI system complexity and speed.
➡️ The AI narrative has graduated from the "chip".
➡️ Is the AI boom sustainable?
➡️ Clarifying the Google TPU 8 Enigma.
➡️ How will AI system specialization and general purpose play out?
➡️ The hyperscale red flag for NVIDIA.
➡️ Where are the AI business model transformations?
➡️ A quick thought on Terafab by Intel & Elon.
➡️ Impressions on Qualcomm's custom AI silicon & systems.

Hit Leonard, Karl, and Jim up on LinkedIn and take part in their industry and tech insights.

Check out Jim and his research at Tirias Research at www.tiriasresearch.com.
Check out Karl and his research at Cambrian AI Research LLC at www.cambrian-ai.com. Check out Karl's Substack at: https://substack.com/@karlfreund429026

Please subscribe to our podcast which will be featured on the neXt Curve YouTube Channel. Check out the audio version on BuzzSprout or find us on your favorite Podcast platform.

Also, subscribe to the neXt Curve research portal at www.next-curve.com and our Substack (https://substack.com/@nextcurve) for the tech and industry insights that matter.

NOTE: The transcript is AI-generated and will contain errors.

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for informational purposes only.

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The topic of agentic security was a very big one at RSAC Conference this year. The conversation was split between safe and secure agentic AI enablement for the enterprise (and consumers), and the agentic enablement of threat actors armed with a new generation of AI tools.

The second part of our conversation with Rajneesh Chopra, SVP and CPO of Cisco Security, touched on the crisis of trust that we face, and the framework that Cisco is contributing openly to help foster safe, enterprise grade GenAI and agentic AI applications.

Raj does a great job of outlining a holistic blueprint that Cisco is working off for safe agentic AI and enterprise GenAI.

Bottom line, Getting to safe agentic AI is a journey with many twists and chasms along the way. We are in the early rounds facing a threat environment that is highly fluid and moving at machine speed.

It will take a mindset of safe AI innovation that preemptively injects what Raj calls "common sense" in lieu of lagging best practices to meet the challenges and threats of fast-evolving AI-assisted cyberattacks.

Please subscribe to our podcast which will be featured on the neXt Curve YouTube Channel. Check out the audio version on BuzzSprout or find us on your favorite Podcast platform.

Also, subscribe to the neXt Curve research portal at www.next-curve.com and our Substack (https://substack.com/@nextcurve) for the tech and industry insights that matter.

NOTE: The transcript is AI-generated and will contain errors.

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for informational purposes only.

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It was a busy week at RSAC Conference 2026. The topic of agentic security was a very big one, whether you were contemplating it for securing agents you deploy in your enterprise or protecting it from malicious AI agents.

neXt Curve's Leonard Lee had an enlightening conversation with Raj Chopra, SVP and CPO of Cisco Security, about what the company is discovering about the path to enabling safe and secure agentic AI. What impressed was the humility with which Raj approaches the task. We are dealing with unknown unknowns in the age of agentic AI.

Yes, agentic AI is here, whether we like it or not, as a productivity tool or a threat.

Check out this conversation. Raj highlights some priorities and approaches that we agree with based on neXt Curve research. He also introduces some additional angles that CISOs and security practitioners need to contemplate in approaching safe agentic AI for their organizations.

AI security will require the cybersecurity community to think beyond its comfort zone. Yes, fundamentals matter more than ever, but the threats and the countermeasures are unknown.

We hope you find part one of this conversation with Raj Chopra informative. Remember to follow neXt Curve for the agentic security insights and analysis that matter.

Please subscribe to our podcast which will be featured on the neXt Curve YouTube Channel. Check out the audio version on BuzzSprout or find us on your favorite Podcast platform.

Also, subscribe to the neXt Curve research portal at www.next-curve.com and our Substack (https://substack.com/@nextcurve) for the tech and industry insights that matter.

NOTE: The transcript is AI-generated and will contain errors.

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for informational purposes only.