Global semiconductor stocks advanced yesterday, as comments by Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) at Davos, Switzerland, helped reinforce investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI).
Samsung Electronics Co gained as much as 5 percent to an all-time high, helping drive South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI above 5,000 for the first time. That came after the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose more than 3 percent to a fresh record on Wednesday, with a boost from Nvidia.
The gains came amid broad risk-on trade after US President Donald Trump withdrew his threat of tariffs on some European nations over backing for Greenland.
Photo: AP
Huang further fueled that rally with his comments on Wednesday to the World Economic Forum in Davos, saying that the global AI buildout would require trillions of dollars of investment.
He told delegates that today’s AI boom “has started the largest infrastructure buildout in human history.”
“We’re now a few hundred billion dollars into it... There are trillions of dollars of infrastructure that needs to be built out in fields including energy, cloud computing and electronics,” he said.
South Korea’s Samsung and SK Hynix Inc closed up about 2 percent in Seoul, while in Japan tech investment giant Softbank Group Corp jumped 11.61 percent, with chip firms Advantest Corp 4.96 percent higher and Tokyo Electron Ltd up 3.13 percent.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), Asia’s largest stock, was up 1.15 percent in Taipei.
“Davos is all about AI Revolution,” Wedbush Securities Inc analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note. “While there are clearly geopolitical worries in a constantly changing global landscape, the one thing that is clear from Davos is that the US tech world is dominating the AI Revolution, with China a distant second.”
The AI boom is riding high into this year, defying concerns about lofty valuations, as well as tensions between various nations. Earnings due later yesterday from Intel Corp might shed further light on crucial industry capital expenditure plans, along with results next week from Apple Inc and Meta Platforms Inc.
“The expansion of AI infrastructure and a surge in data storage demand are further tightening overall supply,” Eugene Asset Management Co chief investment officer Ha Seok-keun said in Seoul. “The market is now increasingly pricing in these strengthened industry fundamentals.”
While AI’s funding needs are massive, there seems to be no shortage of investors willing to pile in through private deals as well as in the markets. OpenAI chief executive officer Sam Altman has been meeting with top investors in the Middle East to line up funding for an investment round of at least US$50 billion, at a valuation of about US$750 billion to US$830 billion.
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