Global chip stocks \u2060surged on Thursday \u200bafter Micron Technology\u2019s blockbuster results reignited the AI-driven rally, lifting tech shares from Seoul to Frankfurt as investors grew more confident about persistent demand and tightening supply.<\/p>\n
Micron (MU-Q<\/a>), a key supplier for Nvidia\u2019s (NVDA-Q<\/a>) AI chipsets alongside South Korean chipmakers, forecast quarterly profit and revenue well above expectations on Wednesday and said its customers had \u200bcommitted US$22-billion to lock in supplies of memory chips.<\/p>\n The read-across was \u200cimmediate in Europe, where Dutch chip-equipment maker ASML, the region\u2019s most valuable company, rose more than 4 per cent following two days of heavy losses triggered by investors taking profits after a record surge.<\/p>\n Infineon, STMicroelectronics and ASM International also rose by around 4 per cent to 6 per cent, helping provide the main support for benchmark indices. Europe\u2019s tech index was the biggest sectoral gainer, up more \u200cthan 2 per cent, bringing \u200byear-to-date gains to 24 per cent.<\/p>\n South Korean \u200csemiconductor shares also rallied sharply, pushing the benchmark KOSPI index up 5.4 per cent on the day to recoup most \u200bof this week\u2019s losses.<\/p>\n Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, which together account \u2060for more than half the index\u2019s market capitalisation, rose 5.3 per cent and 13.1 per cent, respectively.<\/p>\n \u201cMicron\u2019s earnings will \u2060likely give a sugar boost to tired tech runners,\u201d said Swissquote senior analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya. \u201cIt was hard to find a \u200breason to take profits after such a strong beat.\u201d<\/p>\n Micron\u2019s Frankfurt-listed shares rose more than 18 per cent, tracking after-market gains on Wall Street.<\/p>\n The upbeat Micron outlook reinforced expectations that AI-driven demand for memory chips will remain robust despite concerns over heavy spending on AI infrastructure.<\/p>\n JPMorgan said it saw little sign of demand destruction, adding that tight supply should persist and \u2060recommending investors \u201cadd on any dips\u201d, while maintaining an overweight stance on South Korea.<\/p>\n \u201cMemory shortages were triggered by the explosive need for AI factory infrastructure … and we believe the role of memory as a strategic asset in Artificial General Intelligence remains unchanged,\u201d analysts at the U.S. bank said. South Korea\u2019s SK Hynix also said on Wednesday it plans to raise up to US$29.4 billion through a U.S. stock market listing, boosting investor expectations of \u2060a reduced valuation gap between the chipmaker and its smaller U.S. \u200brival Micron.<\/p>\n In a rollercoaster ride, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have seen their market capitalization climb above US$1-trillion this \u2060year.<\/p>\n Samsung is now worth around US$1.47-trillion, giving it a market value greater than Tesla or Meta.<\/p>\n JPMorgan also described South Korea as its preferred \u200cmarket in the region, while raising a 12-month KOSPI target to 12,500 points. The KOSPI closed Thursday at 8,930.30.<\/p>\n Jeff Kim, \u200bhead of research at KB Securities-Jefferies, said Samsung is likely to join SK Hynix in listing in the U.S. market through American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), giving a boost to the share prices of Korean chipmakers, which lag behind Micron in valuation.<\/p>\n \u201cChip stocks are at an inflection point. ADRs will \u200bbe a strong catalyst for their valuation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Global chip stocks \u2060surged on Thursday \u200bafter Micron Technology\u2019s blockbuster results reignited the AI-driven rally, lifting tech shares…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6744,1262,3013,1249,1263,1242,1240,1264,1261,1239,1255,1256,1252,1241,1238,980,76,88,1254,1248,1275,1243,1244,597,1250,1251,774,1265,1247,1270,1271,1273,1268,1272,1266,1269,1245,1258,1259,464,1257,1267,915,134,1260,1253,465,1246,1274],"class_list":["post-85626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-agi","tag-agi","tag-alberta","tag-artificial-general-intelligence","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}