SK Hynix, Samsung shares skyrocket to clock best days as AI rally roars back
South Korea's chip heavyweights SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics soared more than 20% on Friday, tracking a sharp rally in U.S. technology stocks.
South Korean chip giants SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics surged to record highs on Friday, coinciding with a broad rally in U.S. technology stocks. The AI boom, fueled by Amazon and Microsoft earnings, rekindled investor optimism over AI spending. SK Hynix's share price climbed nearly 30%, setting a new daily record, while Samsung Electronics saw a 27% jump.
LG Innotek and Seoul Semiconductor also saw substantial gains of 21.23% and 15%, respectively. Other Japanese chipmakers, including Advantest, Tokyo Electron, Disco, Lasertec, and Renesas Electronics, rallied as well. SoftBank Group, which owns Arm, also jumped 13.8%. This marked a stark contrast to the week's sharp sell-off, driven by concerns over inflated AI valuations and heightened competition from Chinese memory chipmakers.
The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) surged over 8% overnight, as investors rushed back into AI-linked chipmakers following the strong cloud earnings of Amazon and Microsoft. Amazon's shares rose over 9% in extended trading after reporting second-quarter revenue that surpassed analysts' expectations, driven by robust cloud-computing business.
Microsoft, which jumped 16% during Thursday's regular session, reported faster-than-expected Azure cloud growth, reinforcing confidence in AI infrastructure spending. Andrew Jackson, head of equity strategy at Ortus Advisors, attributed the market's rebound to Microsoft's stronger-than-expected quarterly results, which reassured investors about the resilience of risk-on and AI stocks.
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