Shares of chipmakers soar after Nvidia CEO fueled AI euphoria at Davos

Shares of global semiconductor companies rose after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's speech in Davos, which bolstered investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence. His words reinforced the effect of US President Donald Trump's conciliatory rhetoric about Greenland, which triggered broad demand for risk assets.

Shares of Samsung Electronics, the largest memory chip maker, jumped 5% to an all-time high of 157,000 won ($106.8) per paper at the opening of trading on January 22 in Seoul. This allowed the South Korean benchmark Kospi for the first time to overcome the mark of 5000 points, reports Bloomberg. Quotes SK Hynix, Samsung's main competitor in this market, rose by 4.5%.

Kioxia (former Toshiba Memory) and ARM owner Softbank Group became the leaders of growth in Japan, according to Trading Economics. In the course of trading their shares soared by 10.6% and 12.7% respectively. Japanese chip equipment suppliers Advantest and Tokyo Electron also rose sharply. Another notable move during the trading day in Tokyo was a 17% jump in shares of precision tool maker Disco Corp. after an unexpectedly strong earnings report.

The rise in Asia was preceded by a surge in New York in shares of full-cycle chip makers. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose more than 3%, setting a new record. Intel shares soared 11.7%, Micron Technology - 6.6%, GlobalFoundries - 5.2%, ON Semiconductor - 5.1%.

The growth of quotations was observed amid broad demand for risk assets after US President Donald Trump dropped his threats to impose duties on European countries because of support for Greenland. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang boosted the rally with his statement in Davos that the global deployment of artificial intelligence infrastructure will require trillion-dollar investments, Bloomberg writes.

"Expanding AI infrastructure and a surge in demand for data storage are further adding to the supply shortage," Bloomberg quoted Ha Seok Keung, chief investment officer at Eugene Asset Management, as saying. - The market is now increasingly pricing in these strengthened industry fundamentals."

Chinese tech stocks were mixed on Jan. 22 after recent strong gains driven by Beijing's push for technological sovereignty. "While geopolitical concerns are evident in an ever-changing global landscape, one thing is clear from Davos: the U.S. technology sector dominates the AI revolution and China remains far behind," Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives wrote to clients.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor