Top Stories This Morning: Oil Prices Spike, SK Hynix Shares Plunge, ChatGPT Hits 1 Billion Users
Oil Prices Jumped Following New Iranian Attacks on U.S. Infrastructure / Photo: Unsplash/Enguerrand Photography
Brent crude rose nearly 5% following Iran’s strike on U.S. military facilities and the U.S. and Saudi Arabia’s attacks on Iranian proxies in Iraq. South Korea’s SK Hynix reported disappointing earnings. Meanwhile, OpenAI is nearing the 1 billion mark for weekly ChatGPT users, but due to competition from Google Gemini and Anthropic, it is increasingly focusing on corporate clients. Read about these and other topics in our roundup of key events as of the morning of July 29.
Oil Prices Rose After Iran's Attack on U.S. Military Forces
Oil prices surged after Iran launched ballistic missiles at U.S. military facilities in the Middle East, according to CNBC. The price of Brent crude rose by more than 5%, exceeding $88 per barrel, while WTI traded above $83 per barrel.
Investors are once again concerned about potential disruptions to oil supplies from the region after several days of hope for de-escalation. Early Wednesday morning, the U.S., together with Saudi Arabia, carried out strikes against Iranian-backed groups in Iraq. Prices received additional support from reports of an attack on a tanker in the Red Sea, ongoing Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure, and tougher rhetoric from new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh, which heightened uncertainty in financial markets.
SK Hynix fell short of profit expectations but will increase its investment in production by 50%
SK Hynix plans to increase its capital expenditures by about 50%—to at least 45 trillion won ($31 billion)—following record quarterly profits, according to Bloomberg. Despite this, the company’s shares plummeted 19% as investors worry about excessive investment in AI infrastructure and a potential slowdown in demand amid large-scale data center construction.
The company dismissed these concerns, stating that long-term demand for memory remains high and that supply will be limited at least through 2030. SK Hynix also announced that it has signed multi-year contracts with approximately ten customers and is preparing to begin mass shipments of its next-generation HBM4E memory to Nvidia starting in 2027.
SK Hynix's operating profit rose 557% last quarter but still fell short of high expectations, Bloomberg noted.
Asian chip manufacturers saw their stock prices plummet in the wake of the U.S. market
The sell-off in tech stocks in Asia intensified following a weak session in the U.S., according to CNBC. In South Korea, in addition to SK Hynix, Samsung Electronics also lost more than 8%, while LG Innotek and Seoul Semiconductor fell 15% and 10%, respectively. Against this backdrop, the Kospi index, after a brief rally, reversed course and plummeted by more than 8%, leading to a temporary halt in trading, while the Kosdaq index of small-cap companies also lost more than 8%. In Japan, Kioxia fell 14%, Tokyo Electron 13%, and SoftBank nearly 10%, while TSMC shares in Taiwan declined 3.9%.
Experts attribute the decline to profit-taking and waning interest in the technology sector, but believe that the industry’s fundamental outlook remains strong. Against this backdrop, shares of Tencent, Meituan, Alibaba, Baidu, and Kuaishou rose in Hong Kong, outperforming most Asian tech companies.
ChatGPT Approached 1 Billion Users in a Week
The number of weekly ChatGPT users has approached 1 billion—a milestone OpenAI reached about seven months later than expected, The Information has learned. The service’s growth has slowed amid intensifying competition from Google Gemini and Anthropic Claude, as well as a mixed user reaction to the launch of GPT-5.
In response, OpenAI is stepping up the development of corporate AI solutions and expects that by the end of the year, business customers will account for half of the company’s revenue, up from 40% at the start of the year. ChatGPT currently has more than 50 million paying subscribers, and the service is increasingly evolving into an AI agent capable of performing user tasks, including managing email, calendars, and other applications.
What's Happening in the Markets
— Japan's broad-based Topix index remained virtually unchanged, while the Nikkei 225 fell 1.7%.
— Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 1.2%, while mainland China's CSI 300 Index rose 1.2%.
— In South Korea, the Kospi fell 5.8%, slowing its decline slightly, while the Kosdaq fell 6%.
— Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 1%.
— In the U.S., Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.4, while S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures declined by about 0.1%.
This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor
