Asian semiconductor stocks advanced on Thursday after Nvidia reported a second-quarter revenue surge and forecasted continued strong growth, reinforcing expectations for sustained AI-related capital expenditure.
South Korea’s KOSPI index climbed 1.5%, with chipmakers among the top gainers. SK Hynix rose 2.5% to 1.73 million won, while Samsung Electronics added 1.7% to 265,000 won. The gains followed Nvidia’s quarterly results, which showed total revenue of $96.2 billion, up 106% year-over-year, with data center revenue reaching $89 billion, a 117% increase.
Nvidia’s fiscal 2028 revenue growth is projected at about 70%, exceeding the 44% average analyst estimate, according to Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress. Chief Executive Jensen Huang noted demand remains well above the 70% growth rate the company can currently support. The company’s third-quarter guidance assumes no revenue from data center compute sales in China.
Japan’s chip-related equities also gained, led by Largan, which surged nearly 10%. Kioxia rose 5%, TDK gained 1.5%, and Murata added 1.7%. Advantest and Disco were notable laggards, falling 3.1% and 1.4%, respectively.
Taiwan’s Powertech Technology declined 3.2%, while TSMC shed 0.2%. In China and Hong Kong, the CSI 300 index rose 0.9% and the Shanghai Composite gained 1.1%, though the Hang Seng index fell 0.3%. Among major Chinese tech names, Baidu advanced 5.3%, SMIC gained 2.3%, and Tencent rose 0.5%, while Alibaba, Xiaomi, NetEase, and Meituan declined.
European chip stocks also tracked higher, with ASML up 1.6%, Infineon Technologies rising 4%, STMicroelectronics adding 4.3%, ASM International up 2.8%, and BE Semiconductor climbing about 2%.
Nvidia’s stock initially slipped 1.6% in regular trading but surged more than 7% in premarket futures by 05:48 ET on Thursday, reflecting investor optimism toward the AI infrastructure theme.
