Funny semi analysis has credibility here of all places. The founder is well-known in the hardware circle to be a black-market information trader.
It works like this:
1. Founder befriends undergrad interns/graduate student interns, buys them gifts, invite them to dinner/yacht/house/vc parties etc, or pays them to write articles 2. Founder extracts insider information out of these interns 3. Founder sells this information to companies paying "consulting" fees