Major global chip stocks rally on strong Micron forecast

Global chip stocks rallied on Thursday after U.S. memory semiconductor maker Micron posted revenue guidance that topped expectations and boosted its share price.

Micron forecast revenue for its quarter ending at the end of November of $8.7 billion, plus or minus $200 million, ahead of estimates of $8.28 billion, according to LSEG data.

Shares of Micron jumped nearly 15% in after-hours trade in the U.S. on Wednesday.

Its bigger rivals Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix both saw their shares rise on Thursday in South Korea. Samsung closed more than 4% higher while SK Hynix closed up more than 9%.

SK Hynix was buoyed by an announcement on Thursday after the company said it has started mass production of a new version of its high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips and aims for delivery by the year-end.

SK Hynix and Micron are both suppliers of memory chips to Nvidia’s products designed for artificial intelligence processes in data centers. HBM chips are seen as key for AI.

Micron’s earnings highlighted that demand for data center chips are still strong as investors look for signs on whether a rally in AI-related stocks will continue. Micron reiterated that its HBM chips are sold out for 2024 and 2025.

In Japan, shares of Tokyo Electron jumped 8%. Part of this rise was fuelled by comments from the company’s CFO to the Nikkei that it sees AI-related sales rising about 15% in its current fiscal year to 690 billion yen ($4.8 billion).

SoftBank Group, which is the majority owner of chip designer Arm, was up more than 4%.

The optimism around Asian chip stocks filtered through to Europe.

Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML rose more than 4% in early trade in Europe. Other names including ASMI, Be Semiconductor and STMicro were also sharply higher.