Asia tech stocks rally as Nvidia earnings soothe AI slowdown fears

Asian technology stocks rose in early trading Thursday as Nvidia’s stronger-than-expected results eased concerns that momentum in the AI ​​sector is cooling.

Shares of South Korean chipmaking giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix jumped in early trading.

SK Hynix, Nvidia’s main supplier of high-bandwidth memory used in artificial intelligence applications, rose over 2%. Samsung Electronics, decades old Nvidia’s partner gained nearly 5%.

“This is a positive read for most supply chain players in Asia, including SK Hynix, Samsung and others, given the boom in data center demand,” said Dan Ives, senior equity research analyst at Wedbush Securities.

Other South Korean tech stocks also rose, with parts maker LG Innotek gaining almost 14% and Seoul Semiconductor gaining 13%.

In Japan, the TOPIX Information and Communications index increased by 2.6%, exceeding the previous day’s gain of 0.58%.

Software company Trend Micro gained 5.95%. Sony Group It rose above 3.86 percent. SoftBank Group 5% added.

Andrew Jackson, head of Japanese equity strategy at ORTUS Advisors, said flows will continue to support AI-related names and pointed to potential bullishness for Japanese gallium nitride and silicon carbide plays such as Fuji Electric as investors position themselves for sustainable data center construction. The company’s shares rose 1.7%.

Nvidia reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue rose 73% year over year to $68.13 billion, beating analysts’ estimates of $66.21 billion. The company now derives more than 91% of its sales from its data center unit, which houses its market-leading AI chips.

Niles Investment Management portfolio manager Dan Niles noted that the current setup still favors semiconductor infrastructure names over software, noting that Nvidia remains “really the king of infrastructure for all of this.”

Japanese chip companies cutting edge And Renesasbut were lower by 2.35% and 1.75%, respectively.