semiconductor

According to Reuters, informed sources say that Changxin Storage is considering building a second 12-inch DRAM wafer fab in Beijing's Yizhuang and is negotiating financing with the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone and several state-owned technology companies. The company is seeking at least 60 million yuan (approximately 8.9 million USD) in support, but negotiations are still in the early stages, and the scale and structure of the financing may be adjusted.The proposed factory will be located at the site of Changxin Storage's existing DRAM wafer fab in Beijing. The planned production capacity and total investment for the project have not yet been determined, while building a fab capable of producing advanced DRAM typically requires over 10 billion USD. Currently, Changxin Storage operates two 12-inch DRAM wafer fabs in Hefei and one in Beijing, each with a monthly production capacity of about 100,000 wafers. Changxin Storage is also building new factories in Shanghai and Hefei, and once the related projects are fully operational, the company's monthly production capacity could double to over 600,000 wafers.This expansion comes as demand for storage chips is driven by AI infrastructure, data centers, and consumer electronics entering an upward cycle. The company completed an 8.6 billion USD IPO last month, marking the largest fundraising for a semiconductor company listed in mainland China, and its stock price has risen by 13% since going public. Changxin Storage is currently the fourth largest DRAM manufacturer in the world, but Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron together still account for nearly 90% of the global market share in the first quarter. Beijing and Shanghai are also providing funding and other support to Changxin Storage to gain economic and strategic benefits from its expansion.

According to Gate market data, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index nearly erased its intraday gains, which had previously risen by about 5%. SanDisk (SNDK.O) fell by about 7%, Micron Technology (MU.O) dropped over 4%, and SK Hynix (SKHY.O) declined over 2%. The Nasdaq Composite Index is currently down about 0.2%.

According to South Korean media reports, Doosan Group has signed an agreement with SK Group to acquire semiconductor wafer manufacturer SK Siltron. With the completion of this transaction, Doosan is expected to further enhance its competitiveness in the semiconductor industry based on its core businesses in energy, machinery, and more.Doosan Group's holding company "Doosan" disclosed on the 31st that it has signed a share purchase agreement with SK Group to acquire 70.6% of the shares held by SK in SK Siltron, with a transaction amount of 2.3 trillion won.However, the 29.4% stake personally held by SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won is not included in this acquisition. SK Siltron is the only semiconductor silicon wafer manufacturer in South Korea, ranking third in the global market share based on 12-inch wafers. Last year, SK Siltron's corporate valuation exceeded 5 trillion won.

The trading of technology and semiconductor-related assets is active, with multiple semiconductor-themed tokens on Gate gStocks experiencing significant price increases. According to the latest data from Gate, the SanDisk 2x Long ETF token (SNXXG/USDT) has risen by 63.71% in the last 24 hours, currently priced at $11.368, making it the leading gStocks asset in terms of price increase. Meanwhile, the AXT Semiconductor token (AXTIG/USDT) has performed well, rising by 52.97% in the last 24 hours, currently priced at $58.13; the Micron Technology 2x Long ETF token (MUUG/USDT) is currently priced at $27.91, with a 24-hour increase of 41.46%. As the market attention on the semiconductor industry continues to heat up, Gate gStocks is expanding its global stock tokenization asset ecosystem, providing users with more diversified market participation opportunities.

According to Gate market data, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index is currently up over 6%, expected to achieve the largest single-day increase in more than a month.At the same time, the Nasdaq Composite Index's increase has expanded to 2%.

According to Jinshi reports, Samsung Electronics' semiconductor division reported that its profits have increased by more than 250 times due to the reliance of artificial intelligence on memory. The division's operating profit for the second quarter was 89.2 trillion won (approximately 62 billion USD), exceeding analysts' average expectation of 79.3 trillion won.The group's overall net profit was 71.3 trillion won, also surpassing market expectations.

According to Jinshi reports, the China-Korea semiconductor ETF Huatai-PB (513310) saw a record high trading volume today, with a total transaction amount reaching 25.98 billion yuan, setting a new record and increasing by 121.1% compared to the previous trading day. The top two holdings of this ETF are Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

On July 29, according to WEEX TradFi market data, funds continue to gather in the technology and consumer sectors. Among them, the semiconductor and software sectors performed actively, with SOXS rising over 13.02% in 24 hours, FIGMA rising 6.21%, ADBE rising 5.40%, and CRM rising 4.46%; in the large consumer sector, KO rose 6.08% and PEP rose 3.74%; in the financial payment sector, PYPL rose 4.07% and MA rose 3.71%. WEEX Labs believes that after a significant pullback in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index on the previous trading day, a recovery has occurred, combined with the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision and the concentrated release of large tech company earnings reports, funds have begun to reposition around performance expectations and event-driven strategies. Currently, WEEX's "TradFi Trading Carnival Season" is underway.

According to Gate market data, the US Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell more than 5% during the day, reaching a new low in two months.Micron Technology fell nearly 9%, while SanDisk and Western Digital both fell more than 12%. NVIDIA fell more than 1%, AMD fell more than 8%, Intel fell more than 6%, and Broadcom fell 2.8%.

According to Jinshi reports, as the South Korean stock market continues to be sluggish, domestic investors in South Korea have once again turned to U.S. stocks, with net purchases exceeding 5 trillion won this month. According to data from the South Korean securities depository and settlement agency, from the 1st to the 27th of this month, the total net purchase amount of U.S. stocks by domestic investors reached 3.58999 billion dollars, approximately 5.5 times the net purchase amount for the entire month of June.Retail funds are mainly concentrated in the semiconductor and technology stock sectors, with the product that saw the highest net purchases being the Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X ETF, which tracked the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, with a net purchase amount reaching 1.75919 billion dollars.

Citrini analyst Jukan posted on social media that the news of China's progress in DUV lithography technology is not particularly surprising, as the market had already formed certain expectations. He pointed out that The Information's related report only cited a professor from a transportation university in China speaking at an internal meeting in June and did not disclose more substantial information. Jukan believes that the sell-off reaction seen in semiconductor equipment stocks like ASML is an overreaction to this news.According to previous reports, The Information cited sources saying that a state-owned enterprise supported by Chinese state capital has begun mass production of domestically developed DUV (Deep Ultraviolet) lithography manufacturing equipment, marking a key progress in the localization of China's semiconductor industry.Insiders stated that the enterprise plans to produce about 5 domestically made DUV lithography machines by 2026 and expand to about 20 machines by 2027. Although there is still a gap compared to the 131 immersion DUV lithography systems delivered by Dutch lithography giant ASML last year, the entry of domestic equipment into mass production is seen by the market as an important breakthrough in the localization of China's chip supply chain.

According to Gate market data, U.S. chip stocks have declined, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index currently down about 5%. Among them, AMD fell over 8%, NVIDIA dropped over 7%, and Intel decreased nearly 4%.

Recently, global growth sectors have remained active in trading, with the semiconductor, quantum computing, and technology-themed ETF sectors performing well. Market funds continue to focus on high-growth assets. According to data from the Gate platform, AXTIG/USDT (AXT Semiconductor) is currently priced at $49.04, up 4.38% in 24 hours; QNTG/USDT (Quantinuum) is currently priced at $55.55, up 3.46% in 24 hours; SNXXG/USDT (SanDisk 2x Long ETF) is currently priced at $15.169, up 3.13% in 24 hours.Gate gStocks adopts a 1:1 fully-backed native stock reserve mechanism, where each tokenized security corresponds to an equal number of native stocks as underlying asset support, and supports 24/7 trading, unified account management, and a minimum investment of 1 USDT with fractional share trading.Users can participate more flexibly in global popular stock investments, achieving a one-stop allocation of digital assets and traditional securities. As the ecosystem of tokenized securities continues to enrich, Gate gStocks will continue to expand more quality stocks and ETF targets, providing users with a more diverse choice of global asset allocation.

KB Financial Group announced the establishment of the "KB National Growth Unicorn Scale-up Fund," with a scale of 150 billion Korean won (approximately 108 million USD), fully funded by the group's subsidiaries' own capital, and managed by the KB Securities PE Growth Investment Division. The fund will focus on investing in companies in fields such as AI, semiconductors, secondary batteries, aerospace, mobile transportation, robotics, and biotechnology, aiming to cultivate unicorn companies in cutting-edge strategic industries.This decision was finalized at the "4th Productive Financial Consultation Meeting" held on July 24. KB Financial also formulated a financial support plan in line with the government's "three major super projects," covering support for semiconductors, power infrastructure investment, and physical AI companies and AI data centers. KB Financial plans to focus on discovering local innovative small and medium-sized enterprises through the CIB center and promote a shift in corporate evaluation culture from traditional financial statements and historical performance orientation to a evaluation system based on technological strength and future growth potential.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang stated in a Bloomberg podcast interview that South Korea is in a "golden era," and its semiconductor and industrial capabilities can help build AI infrastructure globally. NVIDIA has reached multiple collaborations with SK Group, and the scale of their future business exchanges in areas such as storage procurement, AI supercomputers, and data center construction will exceed $500 billion. NVIDIA will purchase a large number of storage chips from SK Hynix for several consecutive years and will work together to advance the technology roadmap from HBM2, HBM3, HBM3E, HBM4, HBM4E to subsequent products.Meanwhile, SK Telecom plans to expand its AI cloud infrastructure to a maximum of 2 gigawatts soon, and NVIDIA will sell supercomputers to it. The cooperation between the two parties includes both NVIDIA's procurement of storage and SK Group's procurement of AI infrastructure.Jensen Huang believes that as AI entities and robots begin to use computers on a large scale, chip demand will no longer be driven solely by human users. In the next approximately 10 years, the global semiconductor industry scale may need to expand to 10 times its current size. Currently, resources such as HBM storage, land, electricity, and data center construction are all under tight conditions; the industry may be capable of doubling its capacity each year, but faster expansion will be very difficult. The entire industry may be able to double its supply scale each year, but land, electricity, and factory space cannot expand as quickly as consumer electronics, so the construction of AI infrastructure may continue to progress at a limited pace over the next 10 years.Regarding the AI competition between China and the United States, Jensen Huang stated that both countries have excellent AI researchers. Although resources, conditions, and restrictions differ, both will continue to drive advancements in AI technology. The number of AI researchers trained in China each year may exceed the total in other regions of the world, and the United States still needs to continue learning, collaborating, and maintaining competition.

According to South Korean media outlet Chosun Ilbo, Morgan Stanley was not selected as the sole lead underwriter for SK Hynix's American Depositary Receipts (ADR) listing. The transaction size is approximately $26.5 billion (about 40 trillion Korean won), making it the largest IPO for foreign capital in the U.S. The commission, calculated at a 0.5% underwriting fee rate, is about $130 million. The final underwriting syndicate consists of Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase. Industry insiders generally believe that Morgan Stanley's exclusion is related to its repeated issuance of bearish reports on South Korean semiconductors.The report's author is Korean-American Managing Director Shawn Kim, who has repeatedly downgraded the stock ratings of memory stocks such as Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron in research reports published in 2017, 2021, 2024, and on June 6 of this year, with the 2021 report titled "Memory, Winter is Coming." Additionally, Morgan Stanley has recently faced setbacks in South Korea: as a co-underwriter for the SpaceX IPO, Korea's Mirae Asset applied for $1.14 billion in subscriptions but received zero allocation; the sale of IGIS Asset Management, promoted in conjunction with Goldman Sachs, also ended in failure. Morgan Stanley's largest shareholder is Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), which holds approximately 24% of the shares.

The Korean stock market's semiconductor concept stocks are actively traded, and the market's attention to related assets continues to rise. According to data from the Gate platform, Samsung Electronics (005930) is currently priced at $175.14, with a 24-hour increase of 6.14%; SK Hynix (000660) is currently priced at $1241.59, with a 24-hour increase of 4.08%.CoinGlass data shows that trading in Gate-related stock derivatives is active, with the Gate SKHX contract's open interest reaching $37.73 million and a 24-hour trading volume of $88.09 million; the Gate SAMSUNG contract's open interest is $2.63 million, with a 24-hour trading volume of $7.75 million, both ranking among the industry's top.Gate stocks have established a 7×24 hour trading service system covering the three core markets of US stocks, Hong Kong stocks, and Korean stocks, supporting over 10,000 US stocks and ETFs, more than 1,500 Hong Kong stocks, and over 1,000 Korean stocks, totaling coverage of more than 12,500 stocks and ETF assets globally.Users can participate in global stock investments through Gate's unified account using USDT, supporting fractional share trading starting from a minimum of 0.01 shares, and enjoying stock dividend rights. The platform also supports cross-brokerage transfer of US and Hong Kong stocks and company actions such as stock splits and consolidations, further optimizing the stock investment service experience.