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Dylan Patel on Dwarkesh Patel: How EUV Tools Cap AI by 2030

Carl Zeiss optics and specialized mirror stacks bottleneck ASML output; CoWoS deposits and turbine delays add years between capex and delivered compute.

Dwarkesh PatelhostDylan Patelguest
Mar 13, 20262h 31mWatch on YouTube ↗

Episode Details

EPISODE INFO

Released
March 13, 2026
Duration
2h 31m
Channel
Dwarkesh Podcast
Watch on YouTube
▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Dylan Patel, founder of SemiAnalysis, provides a deep dive into the 3 big bottlenecks to scaling AI compute: logic, memory, and power. And walks through the economics of labs, hyperscalers, foundries, and fab equipment manufacturers. Learned a ton about every single level of the stack. Enjoy! 𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐒

𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐒

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To sponsor a future episode, visit https://dwarkesh.com/advertise. 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒 00:00:00 – Why an H100 is worth more today than 3 years ago 00:24:52 – Nvidia secured TSMC allocation early; Google is getting squeezed 00:34:34 – ASML will be the #1 constraint for AI compute scaling by 2030 00:56:06 – Can’t we just use TSMC’s older fabs? 01:05:56 – When will China outscale the West in semis? 01:16:20 – The enormous incoming memory crunch 01:42:53 – Scaling power in the US will not be a problem 01:55:03 – Space GPUs aren't happening this decade 02:14:26 – Why aren’t more hedge funds making the AGI trade? 02:18:49 – Will TSMC kick Apple out from N2? 02:24:35 – Robots and Taiwan risk

SPEAKERS

  • Dwarkesh Patel

    host

    Podcast host and interviewer of the Dwarkesh Patel show, focused on long-form conversations about technology and AI.

  • Dylan Patel

    guest

    Semiconductor and AI compute infrastructure analyst and CEO of SemiAnalysis.

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Dwarkesh Podcast, featuring Dwarkesh Patel and Dylan Patel, Dylan Patel on Dwarkesh Patel: How EUV Tools Cap AI by 2030 explores aI compute scaling hits bottlenecks in chips, tools, and memory Hyperscaler AI capex largely pre-pays long-lead items like turbines, land, and construction years ahead, so spend today does not translate linearly into gigawatts online this year.

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