On Friday, SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics experienced a surge of more than 20% in their stock prices, driven by a broader rally in U.S. technology stocks. This rally was sparked by impressive earnings from Amazon and Microsoft, which highlighted robust spending in artificial intelligence.
Other companies in the semiconductor sector also saw gains, with LG Innotek rising 11.2% and Seoul Semiconductor increasing by 7.8%. Japanese chip stocks followed suit, with Advantest climbing nearly 18% and Tokyo Electron gaining almost 9%.
The rally marks a significant turnaround from earlier in the week when semiconductor stocks faced a sell-off due to concerns over high valuations in the AI sector and increased competition from Chinese memory chipmakers. The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) rose over 8%, indicating a renewed interest in AI-linked chipmakers after the positive cloud results from Amazon and Microsoft.
Amazon's stock jumped more than 9% in after-hours trading following a second-quarter revenue report that exceeded expectations, while Microsoft saw a 16% increase after reporting strong growth in its Azure cloud services. This resurgence in the semiconductor market underscores the ongoing optimism surrounding AI infrastructure spending, despite previous market volatility