Parnassus Investments CIO: Anatomy of a Semiconductor Cycle

Focus on semiconductor-equipment providers

When I started my career as an analyst in the mid-1990s at Parnassus, I was 22. Personal computers were becoming mainstream.

Michael Dell was on his way to becoming a billionaire, and millions of people were logging onto the Internet to surf with the new Netscape browser. That is when I began researching semiconductor stocks. Since then, I have been through eight semiconductor cycles, witnessing what has driven the cycles' peaks and recessions, and bringing insights to our research approach of the industry to help us select high-quality companies for our portfolios. The semiconductor industry has grown from around $154bn when I started following it in 1995 to almost $600bn today. It is a growth business be...