semiconductors

According to Nikkei Asia, SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-Jung stated that the global shortage of memory chips is expected to last until the end of 2030, with a low risk of oversupply. He pointed out that in the AI era, memory chips are no longer just "commodities," and there are currently no signs of oversupply or industry downturn; demand from AI customers remains strong.SK Hynix is a major supplier to NVIDIA. The report stated that the company remains open to further expanding its investments in the U.S. after launching its first HBM chip packaging plant in Indiana.

According to eight people familiar with the discussions, despite warnings from tech companies that this move could affect the United States' dominance in the field of artificial intelligence, the Trump administration is still considering imposing a new round of comprehensive tariffs on semiconductors.

According to SemiWiki, WSTS data shows that the global semiconductor market sales reached $368 billion in the second quarter of 2026, a quarter-on-quarter increase of 35% and a year-on-year increase of 104%, setting a new historical high. The growth is mainly driven by AI demand, with significant quarter-on-quarter increases from memory manufacturers, SK Hynix and Sandisk at 51%, Kioxia at 76%; Nvidia's AI processor business grew 18% quarter-on-quarter, and Broadcom is expected to grow 33% quarter-on-quarter.Kioxia and Sandisk rose to eighth and ninth place globally, respectively, with both companies' revenues growing more than four times year-on-year. Excluding major AI suppliers, the other top 20 semiconductor manufacturers only saw a quarter-on-quarter increase of 9%, with guidance indicating a total quarter-on-quarter growth of about 6% for the third quarter of 2026. The growth expectations for memory manufacturers in the third quarter have clearly slowed down.Based on the latest forecasts, the semiconductor market growth rate for the entire year of 2026 is expected to reach or exceed 90%, with Semiconductor Intelligence predicting a growth of 101% and RCD Advisors predicting 112%; in the storage sector, WSTS expects a growth of 249%, while Gartner predicts 280%. Most institutions expect the growth rate to fall back to the mid-20% range in 2027.

According to the Chosun Ilbo, in the context of the U.S. government increasing pressure on investment in South Korea, the U.S. has recently made demands to the South Korean government and companies to build storage semiconductor production facilities in the U.S. and ensure a stable supply of storage chips. In response to South Korea's promotion of a 800 trillion won semiconductor cluster plan, the U.S. has also informally expressed dissatisfaction, believing that South Korea is actively supporting domestic semiconductor investments while showing a negative attitude towards investing in the U.S. This is the first time the U.S. has mentioned the South Korean government's "super project" while pressuring for investment.Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Lee Chang-yang also discussed related matters during his recent visit to the U.S. for investment negotiations. The South Korean government believes that the U.S. semiconductor investment demands are independent of the previously agreed $350 billion investment arrangement with the U.S., and plans to announce its first investment project in the U.S. in September. Domestic semiconductor companies are concerned that if they formally accept the U.S. request to establish factories while promoting the Hunan cluster, it may create a dual burden. Additionally, it is reported that Foreign Minister Park Jin spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Rubio that evening to exchange views on investments in the U.S. and bilateral relations.

According to the Dong-A Ilbo, Samsung Electronics plans to expand the core project of the P5 1·2 factory (Fab 5·6) in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, from a dual-layer wafer factory to a three-layer wafer factory to respond to the global artificial intelligence semiconductor and memory supercycle and maximize production capacity. Samsung Electronics has recently submitted a plan to change the industrial park, proposing to increase the floor area ratio from 350% to a maximum of 490%. This change must be reviewed by the Gyeonggi Province governor and approved by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's industrial site policy review committee before it can be finalized.The Pyeongtaek P5 1·2 factory is the largest semiconductor factory in the world under a single standard, which began construction in 2022 and aims to be completed by 2030. It will produce high bandwidth memory (HBM), high-end DRAM, next-generation V-NAND, and advanced foundry products. The currently operational Pyeongtaek P4 uses a dual-layer structure with four clean rooms in a single building; if the change is approved, P5 will be configured with up to six clean rooms, and the number of clean rooms and production capacity is expected to increase by about 1.5 times. SK Hynix also plans to use a three-layer structure for all newly constructed wafer factories in the Yongin semiconductor cluster.Market research firm Counterpoint Research expects the global memory market size to increase from approximately 360 trillion won last year to 1,500 trillion won this year and 2,100 trillion won next year. In the context of increasingly difficult access to electricity, water, and land, increasing the floor area ratio to build three-layer wafer factories has become an important path to overcome the physical limitations of limited space and rely on the existing semiconductor industry ecosystem.

According to Daum, the South Korean stock market has recently experienced increased volatility, with investors' risk appetite significantly cooling, and funds are flowing back from the stock market to safer assets such as banks. Due to adjustments in the semiconductor sector and stricter regulations on leveraged investments, the funds waiting to be invested in the South Korean stock market are rapidly withdrawing, leading to a phenomenon of "reverse capital migration."Data shows that by the end of July, the balance of time deposits at the five major banks in South Korea (KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, NH Nonghyup) reached 973.49 trillion won, an increase of 24.09 trillion won compared to the end of the previous month, marking the largest monthly increase this year.There has also been a noticeable contraction in funds around the stock market. Data from the Korea Financial Investment Association shows that the deposits in investors' securities accounts (funds waiting to be invested in stock trading) reached a historical high of 139.69 trillion won on June 4, but had fallen to 107.20 trillion won by July 28, a decrease of over 32 trillion won in less than two months. The balance of credit trading financing, which represents the scale of market financing transactions, also dropped to 33.19 trillion won during the same period, down approximately 4.5 trillion won from the peak of 37.72 trillion won recorded on July 2, a decrease of about 12%.

According to CNBC, Situational Awareness, an AI-themed hedge fund founded by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, sold its entire publicly traded stock portfolio in a single transaction to another hedge fund before the market opened on Thursday, with the buyer undisclosed. The fund also sold a significant stake in Anthropic. The fund manages approximately $20 billion to $24 billion, and as of the end of June, it had a net return of 439%, making it one of the best-performing hedge funds this year.According to insiders, this liquidation was due to significant losses in recent weeks. The fund had long positions in AI infrastructure and semiconductor stocks such as SK Hynix, Nvidia, Micron, and CoreWeave, most of which fell over 35% this month, while its short positions in software stocks like Adobe also experienced significant reverse volatility. According to its 13F filing submitted on March 31, about 62% of its $13.68 billion holdings were bearish options betting on declines in semiconductor and tech stocks. It is reported that major brokers such as Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan are assisting the fund in meeting margin calls or orderly reducing positions, and Aschenbrenner has sought new capital from existing investors and lenders.

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.

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 Jinshi, the Bank of England is investigating the rapid growth of investment banks operating in London with exposure to Asian stocks, as officials hope to avoid highly concentrated bets on a few companies related to artificial intelligence.Hedge funds and other institutional investors are rushing to invest in companies providing key infrastructure for the artificial intelligence semiconductor industry in Asia, such as SK Hynix and TSMC. The Bank of England is concerned that these stocks are gradually becoming an increasingly important part of the positions held by major brokers, with holdings highly concentrated in a few companies.

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.

According to sources cited by the Financial Times, Chinese regulators are considering tightening export controls on AI and semiconductor technology. The Ministry of Commerce has discussed with AI companies such as Alibaba, ByteDance, and Zhipu about restricting the transfer of key data used for model training overseas, as well as limiting foreign users from downloading model weights. However, China will still allow overseas customers to access these models and services. The Ministry of Commerce is also soliciting opinions from various parties on potential restrictive measures, which would prohibit overseas chip manufacturers like Qualcomm and TSMC from producing advanced semiconductors based on designs developed by companies such as Huawei, Alibaba, and ByteDance.Sources indicate that most proposals are still under discussion, and regulators are assessing industry feedback before making a final decision.

According to ChaoXiang Research, Morgan Stanley's stock strategy report on July 20 pointed out that AI-related stocks have faced fierce selling in recent weeks, with the South Korean stock market dropping 25% from its peak, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index falling 20%. Individual stocks like Samsung and Micron have seen declines between 20% and 50%. The report believes that the core driving force behind this round of decline is technical factors and position clearing, with no deterioration in fundamentals. The gap between relative prices and relative earnings trends in semiconductors continues to widen, but the supply-demand tight balance for DRAM and NAND is expected to last until 2028. DRAM spot prices remain high, and Micron has also raised its performance guidance, indicating that supply-demand tightness will last at least until 2027. The RSI of the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index is nearing the oversold zone, and the accumulated momentum gains for the year have basically been retraced.Morgan Stanley believes that once the oversold signal is confirmed, a rebound window will open, and it suggests that investors gradually position themselves in semiconductors during the summer. The proportion of second-quarter earnings reports exceeding expectations reached 97%, and companies in the S&P 500 that reported better-than-expected earnings outperformed the market by an average of 1.7 percentage points on the day of the report. In terms of allocation, Morgan Stanley has raised its equity allocation from 60% to 65%, increased its Eurozone allocation from 8.7% to 11%, and is overweight in sectors such as semiconductors, mining, capital goods, automotive, insurance, and banking, while underweighting software, business services, and media in the "AI erosion group." Regarding geopolitical conflicts, the report believes that the "buying on dips" strategy since the end of March remains effective.