Asia’s tech stock rally gains momentum as Nvidia’s stronger-than-expected results ease fears of an AI slowdown.
Cheng Xin | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Asian technology shares advanced in early trading on Thursday after Nvidia’s robust earnings alleviated concerns that the AI boom might be cooling. In South Korea, chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix led the gains. SK Hynix—an essential supplier of high-bandwidth memory used in AI workloads for Nvidia—rose a bit over 2%, while Samsung Electronics, a long-standing Nvidia partner, climbed around 5%.
Dan Ives, senior equity research analyst at Wedbush Securities, described the move as a positive read-through for many Asia-based supply-chain players, including SK Hynix and Samsung, amid surging data-center demand.
Other Korean tech names also advanced: LG Innotek jumped nearly 14%, and Seoul Semiconductor surged 13%.
In Japan, the TOPIX Information & Communication index rose 2.6%, building on the prior day’s 0.58% gain. Trend Micro Software surged 5.95%, while Sony Group climbed over 3.86%. SoftBank Group gained 5%.
Andrew Jackson, head of Japanese equity strategy at ORTUS Advisors, noted that flows are likely to continue favoring AI-linked stocks, suggesting potential upside for Japanese gallium nitride and silicon carbide players such as Fuji Electric as investors position for ongoing data-center expansion. Fuji Electric rose 1.7%.
Nvidia announced that its fiscal fourth-quarter revenue jumped 73% year over year to $68.13 billion, topping analysts’ expectations of $66.21 billion. More than 91% of Nvidia’s sales now come from its data-center segment, which houses its leading AI chips.
Dan Niles, portfolio manager at Niles Investment Management, commented that the current setup still favors semiconductor infrastructure names over software, describing Nvidia as “the king of the infrastructure” for this entire AI wave.
In Japan, however, Advantest and Renesas lagged, slipping 2.35% and 1.75%, respectively.
