America’s top stock picker Benjamin sees beauty in chips

For all of his confidence picking individual stocks, Benjamin is less assured about the broader market. — Bloomberg

SINCE the beginning of the century, when he started following the industry that makes silicon and germanium, whose units are measured in a billionth of a meter, or a nanometer, Adam Benjamin has helped investors profit from the smartest part of the world.

“The beautiful thing about semiconductors,” the mass-produced 14-and 10-nanometer chips used in diodes, transistors, rectifiers and integrated circuits, “is they are the brains for smartphones, virtual reality headsets, autonomous driving, cloud computing transition, electric vehicles and a US national security priority,” he said in a January 2022 interview.