Technology shares jumped across Asia Wednesday, with chip giant SK hynix’s bumper earnings helping to lift optimism in the AI trade ahead of results from Wall Street behemoths Microsoft and Alphabet. Oil prices climbed as investors monitored Israel’s election results that might decide the future of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war on Iran.
AI-linked enterprises were back on the front foot after a brief wobble this month in the IT arena from fresh worries about massive investment spending, profitability and company financing. Front-runner in the chip boom SK hynix said Wednesday that third-quarter operating profit rose 632 percent to US$62.8bn (€54.2bn) on booming demand for its cutting-edge chips. The company claimed it has now posted record revenue and operating profit for six consecutive quarters.“While Wall Street bickers over whether the AI arms race can fund itself, SK hynix just reminded the market that someone on the other side of all that capex is getting the cheque,” said Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management.
The reading increased optimism across the sector when Anthropic, the parent company of Claude AI, revealed in its IPO filing Monday that first-half revenue jumped roughly 1,300% and signalled considerable capital spending ahead.
Then on Tuesday, Broadcom announced with Citi, Blackstone and Morgan Stanley a US$63bn (€54.4bn) funding structure to construct new capacity for its AI start-up Anthropic.Pepperstone’s Chris Weston said: “Anthropic’s… filing has undoubtedly provided a healthy shot in the arm for the AI trade. Its incredible revenue growth, improving compute economics and substantial commitments to future infrastructure investment reinforce the longer-term opportunity across the AI supply chain.
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