Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. operates worldwide in consumer electronics, information technology and mobile communications, and device solutions. It runs four divisions: Device eXperience (DX), Device Solutions (DS), SDC, and Harman. Its products include smartphones, tablets, audio devices, watches, switches, and accessories; TVs and sound devices; home appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, vacuum cleaners, cooking appliances, dishwashers, air conditioners, and air purifiers; monitors and memory storage products; displays and smart and LED signage; and other accessories. The company also engages in venture capital investments, cloud services, network device installation, semiconductor equipment services, digital advertising platforms, marketing, consulting, connected services, logistics, financing, and software design, and provides toll processing and sales of semiconductors and display panels, network solutions, semiconductor and food manufacturing, repair services for electronic devices, semiconductor process defect and quality control software, digital televisions, foundry, and system LSI, as well as connected car systems, audio and visual products, enterprise automation solutions, and connected services. Incorporated in 1969, it is based in Suwon-si, South Korea.
Apple Launches $1,999 Foldable iPhone Duo Under New CEO John Ternus
Apple Inc. has released its first foldable phone, the Duo, priced at $1,999 in the United States, marking the most significant design change to an iPhone in recent years. The device features a 7.6-inch inner display, a 5.4-inch outer screen, the company's A20 Pro chip, a custom hinge, and a titanium build, and it was the first major product launch for new CEO John Ternus, who called it "the most transformational change to iPhone since the original." Apple is billing the Duo as a hybrid of smartphone portability and tablet-like productivity with a Split View that lets users open two apps at a time. Industry analysts expect Apple to capture a significant share of the niche foldable market, with TrendForce projecting 25% market share in its debut year and IDC projecting 40% by the end of 2027. However, the lofty price, entrenched competition from Samsung and Huawei, and Apple's lack of AI development could prevent the Duo from becoming the company's next growth engine.
UBS Cuts KOSPI 12-Month Target to 8,000 From 8,800 on Higher Rates
UBS has cut its 12-month target for South Korea's KOSPI index to 8,000 from 8,800, citing higher interest rates, a stronger won and rising oil prices. Analyst Yong-Suk Son said in a note Friday that the reduction lowers the implied multiple to 7 times earnings from 8 times, reflecting mounting macro headwinds even as earnings growth remains strong. He noted consensus earnings-per-share revisions turned negative in September, falling 0.7% month over month after gains earlier in the year as memory-led upgrades reversed. UBS still forecasts KOSPI EPS growth of 256% in 2026 and 38% in 2027, but Son said the index may remain largely rangebound until the upcoming Q3 and Q4 earnings seasons provide greater clarity on earnings sustainability and shareholder return initiatives. He pointed to a jump in the 10-year government bond yield to 4.5% from 3.4% at the start of the year, two Bank of Korea rate hikes since July and oil above $100 a barrel as pressures on the market, while a stronger won is a further drag, with UBS estimating KOSPI earnings fall about 1.1% for every 1% of appreciation. On positioning, Son said memory remains the firm's preferred sector, including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, but UBS is tilting toward value and quality names with shareholder returns given slowing momentum and tighter liquidity, and it set upside and downside KOSPI targets of 9,200 and 5,100.
China's ChangXin Memory Technologies is preparing to enter the flash-memory chip market, expanding beyond its core DRAM business as a global memory shortage tightens supply and AI-related demand grows. According to a Reuters report citing sources familiar with the matter, CXMT plans to establish a research and development production line for NAND flash memory at its new plant in Beijing, and has also set up a research institute in the Chinese capital with NAND development among its projects. The move would put CXMT in direct competition with domestic rival Yangtze Memory Technologies, China's leading NAND manufacturer, and into a market dominated by Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron Technology. CXMT has discussed its NAND plans with potential customers, including a newly established startup that plans to use its chips in storage products for AI systems and supercomputers, one source said, though it remains unclear when the R&D line will begin operating or whether CXMT will progress from trial production to large-scale commercial manufacturing. The expansion comes as strong AI-server demand has created a global memory shortage that industry executives expect to persist through at least 2027, with memory makers prioritizing DRAM and high-bandwidth memory capacity for AI applications and limiting additions to NAND production. CXMT and YMTC have traditionally focused on DRAM and NAND respectively, but are now expanding into each other's markets as tight supply supports pricing and strengthens their position with Chinese customers.
Zacks: Memory Shortage Far From Over, Micron and Sandisk Seen Extending Gains
The global memory shortage is far from over and may drive further upside for Micron Technology and Sandisk Corporation, according to a Zacks Investment Research analysis. TrendForce data cited in the report show regular DRAM contract prices jumped about 90%–95% in the first quarter of 2026, another 58%–63% in the second quarter, and are on track for a further 13%–18% increase in the third quarter, lifting a $1 DRAM chip to roughly $3.50, while NAND flash is up about 3x over the same stretch. IDC expects 2026 supply growth of only about 16% for DRAM and 17% for NAND, well below what AI demand requires, and new fabs from SK Hynix, Micron and Samsung are not expected to meaningfully add output until mid-to-late 2027 or later. Micron's fiscal Q3 revenue reached $41.5 billion, up from $9.3 billion a year ago, with gross margin of roughly 85% and adjusted EPS of $25.11, and management guided fiscal Q4 to roughly $50 billion in revenue, an 86% gross margin and approximately $31 in EPS ahead of its September 30 report. Sandisk's fiscal fourth-quarter revenue reached $8.97 billion, up 51% sequentially, with adjusted EPS of $39.25, and it guided fiscal Q1 to $10.3 billion to $10.8 billion in revenue and adjusted EPS between $44 and $46, with management saying the total NAND market could exceed $300 billion in 2026.
NetApp Named Official Partner of Tampa Bay Buccaneers
NetApp has been named an official partner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, expanding its existing relationship with the National Football League, for which it already serves as the Official Intelligent Data Infrastructure Partner. Under the new partnership, the Buccaneers will use NetApp Keystone, a subscription-based service providing performance, intelligent data management and high availability across data centers and cloud environments, to support the fan experience at Raymond James Stadium on game days and across the team's digital platforms. Buccaneers chief commercial officer Atul Khosla said reliable and secure access to data is an important part of the game-day experience. The deal follows the Buccaneers' first regular-season game of the 2026 season against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sept. 13. On its first-quarter fiscal 2027 earnings call, NetApp said it closed approximately 350 AI and data lake modernization deals during the quarter, and it also signed a significant agreement with Samsung Electronics to support its EDA environment and AI Center of Excellence.
Barclays strategist Venu Krishna warned Thursday that the Federal Reserve's first rate hike since 2023 will not tame the explosive memory chip price inflation driven by the AI boom, calling it a key earnings risk to watch in 2027. Krishna said rapidly expanding compute requirements for training and inference are straining an already limited supply of memory chips. He pointed to recent commentary from major memory buyers, noting that Apple attributed all of its recent gross margin compression to higher memory costs expected to persist near term, while HP Inc. expects memory and storage costs to rise further as a percentage of bill of materials. Samsung, both a memory manufacturer and customer, said pre-booked demand implies a wider memory supply-demand gap in 2027 than in 2026, reinforcing expectations for sustained pricing strength. The market has tightened as demand for high-bandwidth memory and advanced dynamic random-access memory used in AI servers outpaces supply, with SK Hynix, Samsung Electronics, and Micron largely sold out of premium AI memory capacity through much of 2026 as customers including Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta race to build AI infrastructure. Experts expect supply to remain constrained into 2027, a favorable backdrop for producers such as Micron and Sandisk but likely higher-than-expected costs for companies that run their businesses on these chips.
Asian stock markets: Seoul nearly flat, Sydney rises
Asian stock markets on the 17th saw Seoul's market close nearly flat, while Sydney's market rose. South Korea's KOSPI ended down 0.04 percent, though it had climbed more than 1 percent at one point during the session. The US Federal Reserve raised interest rates on the 16th as expected and signaled further rate hikes in the coming months. Foreign investors were net sellers to the tune of 2.3 trillion won, with semiconductor giant Samsung Electronics down 0.39 percent and its peer SK Hynix down 0.80 percent. Meanwhile, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index ended 0.4 percent higher, having risen as much as 1 percent at one point. The financials index rose 1.4 percent, its biggest gain in more than a month, with all four major banks up more than 1 percent, but the mining index fell 0.5 percent and the energy index dropped as much as 2.2 percent amid falling crude oil prices.
USITC opens investigation into Samsung, Apple and Google over voice technology patent infringement
The United States International Trade Commission, or USITC, has opened an investigation into Samsung Electronics, Apple and Google over allegations of infringing voice technology patents used in each company's electronic devices. The USITC announced the investigation on its website on Wednesday, September 16. The investigation follows a complaint filed on behalf of BoomCloud 360, which claims that the devices of these technology giants infringe three of its voice technology patents. BoomCloud 360 is asking the commission to issue an import ban on the products in question, as well as an order barring the sale and distribution of these products in the United States. Samsung, Apple and Google must file their responses to the allegations within no more than 20 days after receiving notice of the investigation. BoomCloud 360, which is based in the US state of California, develops a cloud-based audio platform designed to improve and enhance sound quality for audio playback on various devices without the need for additional hardware.
Samsung Deepens AI Chip Push With Mistral AI and ASML Deals
Samsung Electronics agreed a new collaboration with Mistral AI to deploy advanced on-premises AI models in chip manufacturing, and expanded its partnership with ASML to include High NA EUV lithography for future memory and logic production lines. The company plans to use these AI and High NA EUV tools to support precision, security and efficiency in its semiconductor operations. Samsung runs a broad hardware and components portfolio across consumer devices, IT and mobile, and chipmaking, so tighter links with specialist AI model developers and lithography equipment suppliers speak directly to how its device solutions arm positions itself within global semiconductor supply chains. The move strengthens the Samsung Electronics Narrative catalyst around tight memory supply and HBM4E demand, while closer cooperation with ASML on High NA EUV and 12 inch photomasks leans into the heavy R&D and capex risk already flagged, since each new generation of tools can lift capital intensity and execution pressure in fabs. Investors should watch how Samsung describes AI enabled yield, defect detection and High NA EUV deployment progress in its next few quarterly disclosures, especially any 2027 to 2028 updates tied to planned High NA introduction in DRAM high volume manufacturing.
A-share consumer electronics sector surges; Hoshine shares hit vertical limit-up in one minute
On September 16, A-shares rebounded from their lows, with the STAR Composite Index surging 3.6% on heavy volume, the ChiNext Index reclaiming 3,300 points, more than 4,200 stocks rising, and turnover expanding to 1.85 trillion yuan. Consumer electronics stocks remained strong throughout the day. Jinghua Laser hit limit-up within seconds after the midday session opened, while Hoshine shares also sealed a vertical limit-up in only about one minute. MYS Group and Rapoo Technologies also hit strong limit-ups in the afternoon. Chip-related stocks rebounded sharply across the board, with Minde Electronics, GRINM Semiconductor, Zhishang Technology, and Jingsheng shares among multiple names surging by the 20% daily limit. Gettop Acoustics hit a straight-line limit-up only about seven minutes after the afternoon session opened. On the news front, market rumors suggest Apple has accepted Samsung Electronics' memory chip quotes for the first quarter of 2027, with DRAM approaching 2.0 US dollars per gigabit and NAND flash approaching 0.33 US dollars per gigabit, up 30% to 40% from quotes in the third quarter of this year. According to TrendForce, the three major original manufacturers Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron have essentially allocated all of their 2027 DRAM and HBM capacity, with customers' actual obtainable quotas at roughly 60% to 70% of requested volumes. On the capital flow front, electronics received net main capital inflows of more than 40 billion yuan, communications received net inflows of more than 23.2 billion yuan, and Accelink Technologies received net main capital inflows of more than 3.1 billion yuan.
HARMAN, the automotive technology subsidiary of Samsung Electronics, announced it has joined SDVerse, the automotive industry's first B2B marketplace for software, making its software products and engineering services available to automakers through the platform. The company said its initial SDVerse portfolio spans both product and service offerings, including the Ready Link Marketplace white-label app store, the Ready CQuence Loop cloud-based development and validation platform, the Ready CQuence Run type-1 hypervisor, and Ready Care in-cabin intelligence for driver and occupant monitoring. Software services and assets in the initial portfolio include Intelligent Cockpit Middleware, Digital Cockpit Experience Design powered by more than 40 reusable assets, and Software Verification and Validation Services backed by more than 70,000 reusable test assets and global certification labs. HARMAN President and Chief Executive Officer Christian Sobottka said joining SDVerse gives automakers another way to engage with the company's capabilities, while SDVerse CEO Prashant Gulati said bringing HARMAN's portfolio to the marketplace strengthens the ecosystem by giving automakers greater visibility across the vehicle lifecycle. HARMAN said it will continue expanding its SDVerse portfolio with additional software products and engineering services.
Exchange Traded Concepts and Kiwoom Launch KCHP Korea Semiconductor ETF
Exchange Traded Concepts and Kiwoom Securities (USA) Inc. have launched the KICK Korea Semiconductor Index ETF, trading on NYSE Arca under the ticker KCHP, as the first fund in the KICK ETFs series. The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of an index composed of 20 semiconductor companies listed on the Korea Exchange, spanning memory, foundry, equipment, materials, packaging and design, and is anchored by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. U.S. investors can buy and sell shares through a standard brokerage account without opening a foreign account or trading directly on the Korea Exchange, though the fund's underlying holdings are denominated in Korean won, so returns are also affected by changes in the won-dollar exchange rate. The Index uses a modified market-capitalization weighting methodology that limits how much of the portfolio any single constituent can represent, with no individual security weighted more than 20% of the Index and the sum of constituents at 4.5% weight or greater capped at 45%. Under normal circumstances, the fund invests at least 80% of its net assets in securities comprising the Akros Korea Semiconductor Index, whose eligible components are common stocks in the Korean semiconductor industry included in the Korea Composite Stock Price Index and KOSDAQ with a minimum market capitalization of at least $200 million USD and a three-month average daily traded value of at least $1 million USD.
Euclyd raises $231 million Series A with Samsung backing
Dutch semiconductor startup Euclyd has raised $231 million in a Series A round backed by Samsung. The 200-million-euro round was co-led by Samsung alongside Somerset Capital Partners, the Scaleup Europe Fund managed by EQT, and Innovation Industries, according to CNBC. Founded in 2024 by Bernardo Kastrup and Atul Sinha at High Tech Campus Eindhoven in the Netherlands, Euclyd is building chip systems designed to reduce the energy consumption and cost of running AI models, targeting AI inference rather than model training. Chief executive officer Bernardo Kastrup told CNBC that Samsung brings more than capital, citing its memory manufacturing, engineering depth, systems knowledge, supply chain and network. Dede Goldschmidt, senior vice president of Samsung Electronics and head of the Samsung Semiconductor Innovation Center, said Euclyd's approach addresses real constraints in AI data centers. The company plans to use the proceeds to expand its engineering team, advance its silicon and systems development, and build out ecosystem partnerships, and Kastrup said it expects to launch its physical chip systems in 2028 and serve thousands of enterprise customers by 2030, though Euclyd has not yet demonstrated its chip systems in large-scale commercial environments. The funding arrives as investment in AI chip alternatives to Nvidia has grown, with Nvidia's share of the inference chip segment estimated between 60% and 75% in 2025 facing growing pressure from custom silicon developed by hyperscalers and startups alike.
Broadcom CEO Hock Tan Defends $230B AI Chip Revenue Target
Broadcom CEO Hock Tan on Monday reaffirmed the chipmaker's fiscal 2027 and 2028 AI semiconductor revenue projections, pushing back against investor anxiety that a slowdown in frontier AI model building could threaten its outlook. Speaking to CNBC's "Mad Money," Tan said demand for compute infrastructure, AI development and inference remains very strong and durable. His remarks followed an essay over the weekend by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urging AI companies to moderate the pace of capabilities development, which drew public support from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk and rattled AI infrastructure investors on Monday, sending Broadcom stock down 4.8% and the iShares Semiconductor ETF down 5.6%. At Broadcom's fiscal third-quarter earnings call on Sept. 2, Tan projected AI semiconductor revenue would reach $115 billion in fiscal 2027 and double to $230 billion in fiscal 2028, covering both custom AI accelerators and networking chips used in AI systems. Tan also said Anthropic is positioned to surpass all other custom chip buyers at Broadcom by 2027 and remain at the top through 2028, a shift from Google, long considered Broadcom's biggest custom chip customer through its co-designed tensor processing units. Broadcom posted record third-quarter revenue of $29.6 billion, up 86% from a year earlier, and forecast fourth-quarter revenue of approximately $34.8 billion, modestly below analyst expectations, while disclosing a multi-year manufacturing agreement with Samsung Electronics valued at more than $200 billion.
EUCLYD Raises Over €200 Million Series A to Break AI Efficiency Wall
EUCLYD has signed a Series A financing round of more than €200 million, the Eindhoven-based semiconductor systems company announced. The round is co-led by Samsung, Somerset Capital Partners, Scaleup Europe Fund, which is managed by EQT, and Innovation Industries, with participation from EIFO, the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark, imec.xpand, Brabant Development Agency (BOM), and Quadri. Peter Wennink, former President and CEO of ASML, joins EUCLYD as Chairman of the Board. The financing will expand EUCLYD's engineering organization, accelerate its silicon and systems roadmap, strengthen ecosystem partnerships, and prepare the company for commercial deployment across enterprise, sovereign, and hyperscale AI markets. At the center of EUCLYD's roadmap are craftwerk, which it describes as the world's first agentic AI silicon, and craftwerk station CWS, which it calls the world's lowest-power exascale AI factory.
TCL sues Samsung over M Series TV ads claiming Mini LED technology it says is overstated
TTE Technology, Inc., also known as TCL North America, the US arm of TCL's electronics business, has filed suit against South Korean rival Samsung in a US federal court in Los Angeles, California, alleging that Samsung marketed certain televisions in the United States as using Mini LED technology even though the products do not have the technical features claimed. The case, filed in court on Monday, August 31, 2026, states that Samsung marketed its M Series TVs as coming with Mini LED technology designed to enhance picture quality. TCL says Samsung repackaged a cheaper, non-Mini LED television derived from an earlier model and marketed it as a Supreme-tier Mini LED TV at a price designed to attract consumers. Samsung said in a statement on Tuesday that it will fight the case fully and remains fully confident in the quality of its products and the accuracy of the details it uses to communicate about them. R.C. Harlan, a lawyer for TCL North America, said in a statement that Samsung's false advertising led consumers seeking the picture quality they should expect from a Mini LED TV to buy Samsung products that are allegedly mislabeled, unfairly damaging TCL's sales, business reputation and the value of the technology it developed. TCL says the Mini LED technology used in its TVs delivers significantly better picture quality, with a wider dynamic range and a higher contrast ratio, and that it overtook Samsung in US Mini LED TV sales between 2023 and 2025 because Samsung could not develop a competitively priced Mini LED TV. TCL adds that Samsung launched the M Series in March, priced below TCL's cheapest Mini LED model and advertised as using Mini LED technology. According to TCL's complaint, the M Series TVs lack the technological advances that are a key element of Mini LED and are in fact a repackaging and remarketing of Samsung's standard LED model. In its claims, TCL asks the court to bar Samsung from using the term Mini LED on the products at issue and seeks monetary damages, without disclosing a specific amount.
Samsung Falls 3.85% as $18.7 Billion Power Prepayment Demand Rejected
Samsung Electronics shares fell 3.85% to 249,500 won in Seoul Monday as investors weighed a broad retreat in AI-linked stocks against a proposed electricity-infrastructure bill for Korea's next chip factories. Korea Electric Power proposed roughly 25 trillion won, or $18.7 billion, in advance payments from Samsung and rival SK Hynix to secure electricity for planned semiconductor mega-clusters, an arrangement both companies rejected, according to Reuters. Samsung is also preparing to introduce ASML's High-NA lithography into memory-chip manufacturing from 2028, underscoring its push at the advanced end of production. The company carries a GF Score of 92 out of 100, with strong profitability, growth, financial strength and momentum, while GF Value remains its clear weak spot. Rejecting the upfront demand preserves Samsung's financial flexibility today, but the underlying power requirement for the AI chip buildout remains unresolved.
Apple Unveils Foldable iPhone Duo Starting at $1,999, Gary Black Calls It a Must-Have
Apple Inc unveiled its highly anticipated foldable iPhone, the iPhone Duo, on Wednesday, with pre-orders beginning Oct. 16 and a release scheduled for Oct. 23 at a starting price of $1,999. Future Fund Managing Partner Gary Black said the device will become a must-have product for 20- and 30-somethings, usher in a new iPhone upgrade cycle, substantially increase iPhone average selling price, and let business travelers carry one small device rather than two. Black said the iPhone Duo holds an advantage over rival foldables such as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Google 10 Pro Fold because it shows no crease when unfolded, and he dismissed the argument that people do not want a foldable phone, saying the fold mechanism can double or triple screen size and that investors should not underestimate the power of the Apple marketing machine. Black's main caution is that limited production of the new foldable could cap incremental earnings for potentially six months, with unknown cannibalization of iPad sales.
AI Stocks Plunge, 10-Year Treasury Yield Tops 5%, Oil Surges Over 4%
Wall Street traded lower on Monday as AI-related shares tumbled after executives at leading U.S. AI companies called for a slower pace of development, with SoftBank falling as much as 13.2% in Japan, SK Hynix dropping 6.4%, Samsung Electronics declining 4%, and in the U.S. Nvidia slipping 2.4% premarket while Micron and AMD each fell 5% and Broadcom dropped 3.4%, following an essay Saturday by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei arguing that progress on improving AI model capabilities should be slowed. Crude oil surged, with front-month Nymex crude jumping 4.3% to $104.37/bbl and Brent rising 4.5% to $109.32/bbl, after Persian Gulf countries called off a planned meeting with Iran on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and a Friday drone strike knocked out Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline, which feeds the Red Sea port of Yanbu and moves 4M bbl/day; traders estimate the closure could cut off up to 4% of global oil supply, with Yanbu storage covering just 5-7 days of exports. The benchmark 10-Year Treasury yield reached 5% for the first time since October 23, 2023, adding 3 basis points Monday, while the 2-Year yield rose 4 basis points to about 4.66% and the 30-Year added 2 basis points to 5.37%. Kimberly-Clark is preparing possible asset sales to resolve European Union competition concerns over its proposed $40 billion acquisition of Kenvue, with the European Commission expected to notify the company of its concerns this week ahead of a preliminary review deadline on September 29.
Verizon Adds Nine Members to 6G Innovation Forum, Reports ISAC and AI Trials
Verizon announced the expansion of its 6G Innovation Forum with nine new members and reported successful pre-standard field trials of Integrated Sensing and Communication and an AI Sports Companion prototype. Amazon Web Services, Cisco, Intel, Keysight Technologies, MediaTek, NVIDIA, Palo Alto Networks, Rohde & Schwarz and VIAVI Solutions have officially joined the forum, which was launched last year and already includes founding members Ericsson, Samsung, Nokia, Meta and Qualcomm Technologies. In one trial staged at a major international soccer celebration in Dallas, Texas, Verizon and Samsung used a single 5G base station and 40MHz of CBRS spectrum to track radio variations from six Samsung Galaxy smartphones, with Samsung's AI RAN and edge AI platform Network in a Server generating real-time crowd-density heatmaps on commercial phones and a tablet. In a second trial at Qualcomm's San Diego campus, the companies used 100 to 400MHz of millimeter-wave spectrum and four synchronized Transmission and Reception Points to track an airborne drone and moving ground vehicles while maintaining uninterrupted 5G Standalone communications to a phone user on the ground. Verizon also showcased a prototype AI Sports Companion application running on the Verizon Edge Network with Meta AI glasses, a locally optimized Small Language Model, an NVIDIA DGX Spark and statistics from SportsDataIO, letting users ask verbally for real-time player statistics, live score interpretations and game-winning probabilities. Verizon said forum members will continue sharing learnings from future demonstrations involving ISAC, digital twins, robotics, AI and advanced wearables, and it views the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles as the ultimate interim proving ground on the road to commercial 6G deployment, supported by its dedicated 6G Lab already established in the host city.
US Futures Slide as AI Leaders Urge Slowdown, OpenAI Delays Listing to 2027
US stock futures sank on Monday after the two leading frontier artificial intelligence companies called for an industrywide slowdown in AI development, sending tech stocks tumbling. Futures on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 fell 1.5%, led by losses in chip stocks including Nvidia, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures dropped 0.3% and S&P 500 futures fell 0.6%, and in Asia memory chip makers SK Hynix and Samsung declined. The sell-off followed a 3,800-word essay from Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei, who argued over the weekend that AI companies should slow the pace of improving their models to address safety concerns, and OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman agreed in a post on X, putting the two labs at odds with a Wall Street that has banked on rapid progress. Altman also told Fortune that OpenAI has delayed its stock market debut until 2027, while Anthropic still plans to list this autumn and has reportedly chosen the Nasdaq. Oil added to the pressure, with Brent crude trading near $108 a barrel after Saudi Arabia shut a key pipeline, and attention now turns to Wednesday's Federal Reserve meeting, with bets on a rate rise having spiked to 86% after Friday's inflation report.
AI Stocks Slide as Amodei, Altman and Musk Back Slowing AI Development
AI-linked stocks fell across Asia, Europe and U.S. premarket trading on Monday after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for a deliberate slowdown in AI capabilities development, drawing support from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk. Nvidia fell nearly 3% in premarket trading, Intel dropped close to 6% and Micron Technology declined around 5%, while in Asia SK Hynix ended the session down more than 6% and Samsung Electronics shed more than 4%. SoftBank, one of OpenAI's largest investors, fell roughly 10% to 11% in Tokyo and South Korea's Kospi dropped 3.3%, while in Europe ASML lost between 5% and 6%, Nokia gave up roughly 8% and Infineon retreated more than 7%. Amodei published an essay on Saturday outlining a three-step plan he called pacing the frontier, which would embed third-party evaluators inside AI companies, establish shared safety benchmarks and agreed limits on how fast capabilities can advance, and eventually coordinate with governments including China. Altman posted on X that he agrees with Amodei's call, Musk wrote that Dario is right, and Altman later clarified that pacing does not mean stopping, while President Donald Trump rejected any reduction in pace on Sunday and China's Foreign Ministry described the warnings as fear mongering.
Oil Jumps as Saudi Pipeline Shuts, AI Warnings Hit Tech Stocks
Oil prices jumped Monday after Saudi Arabia closed its East-West pipeline following drone attacks by Yemen's Houthis, with Brent North Sea Crude up 3.0 percent at $107.71 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate up 2.9 percent at $102.90. US average diesel prices hit a new record high above $6.0 a gallon, reaching $6.23, as markets priced a 92 percent probability of a Federal Reserve rate hike on Wednesday. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called on AI firms to slow development of the technology, adding to a selloff in tech stocks that sent Tokyo-listed SoftBank down more than 10 percent and chipmaker Kioxia down more than six percent, with SK hynix, Samsung and TSMC also sharply lower. European markets were mostly lower around midday, though London's FTSE 100 rose 0.7 percent to 10,727.07 points on gains for Shell and BP, while Paris's CAC 40 fell 0.8 percent and Frankfurt's DAX lost 0.5 percent. Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said oil and AI fears were causing a double headache for investors, compounding inflation worries stoked by last week's elevated US consumer price index data.
Samsung and SK Hynix Reject KEPCO's $18.7B Power Prepayment Plan
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have turned down a proposal from Korea Electric Power Corp. that would have required the chipmakers to put up a combined 25T won, or $18.7B, in advance to help fund power infrastructure for their planned semiconductor clusters, Reuters reported. Under the proposal, Samsung Electronics would have paid about 20T won, while SK Hynix would have contributed roughly 5T won, with the money intended to speed up development of electricity infrastructure needed to support the companies' expanding chip operations. A company official said the firms were unsure whether such large upfront payments were necessary, given uncertainty over the long-term durability of semiconductor demand. South Korea faces rising power demand from semiconductor manufacturing and AI infrastructure, and the rejection leaves KEPCO to seek other ways to fund the required power infrastructure. Shares of Samsung Electronics fell 3.7%, while SK Hynix dropped 5.3% in Seoul on Monday.
SoftBank shares plunge over 10% as AI safety calls rattle Asian markets
Shares of Japanese investment conglomerate SoftBank Group, a key investor in OpenAI, fell more than 10% on Monday after Anthropic and OpenAI called for slowing AI development for safety, dragging Asian markets to a mixed close. SoftBank stock traded in Japan plummeted 11.2% after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman backed Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's weekend calls for the AI industry to slow down, and Altman told Fortune on Saturday that OpenAI would not hold its initial public offering this year as it focuses on safety. Other AI-related Asian stocks also fell, with South Korea's SK Hynix down 5.3%, Samsung Electronics off 2.8%, Japan's Tokyo Electron down 0.9% and Kioxia Holdings sinking 6%. South Korea's Kospi lost 2.5% to 6,739.68, Japan's Nikkei 225 slid 0.8% to 63,474.58, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.3% to 24,886.81 and the Shanghai Composite climbed 0.2% to 3,894.28. Oil prices gained more than 3% after Saudi Arabia shut a major pipeline used to bypass the Strait of Hormuz following an attack, with Brent crude up 3.2% to $107.94 a barrel and benchmark U.S. crude up 3.2% to $103.26 a barrel.
Ambarella CEO Targets 10%-15% Fiscal 2027 Growth on Edge AI Demand
Ambarella CEO Fermi Wang said the fabless chipmaker is positioning its system-on-chip portfolio for broader edge AI adoption across enterprise security, consumer video, wearables, automotive and edge infrastructure, speaking at Citi's TMT Conference. Automotive accounts for about 30% of Ambarella's revenue and security remains its largest market, while wearables represented roughly 10% of revenue, according to figures cited by the conference moderator. Wang said the company's Cooper software development kit supports its 15 AI SoCs across a portfolio spanning 1 TOPS to 1,000 TOPS, and he named power efficiency as its primary competitive advantage, calling Qualcomm its largest competitor. Ambarella recorded record automotive revenue in its second quarter and has announced partnerships involving Aurora, Continental and Bosch, and Wang said a single consumer vehicle design win could represent several hundred million dollars of revenue. The company works exclusively with Samsung Foundry and expects its first 4-nanometer chip to enter production, and it is targeting 10% to 15% fiscal 2027 revenue growth, with memory availability and pricing the main uncertainty.
South Korea's Korea Exchange Extends Stock Trading to 8 p.m.
South Korea's main stock exchange is extending trading until 8 p.m. starting Monday, making Korea Exchange the first major Asian bourse to offer such extensive evening trading. Investors will be able to trade nearly all locally listed stocks for another 4½ hours after the regular 3:30 p.m. close, with about 2,400 stocks listed on the Kospi and Kosdaq markets eligible along with short selling, while exchange-traded funds are excluded for now. Korea Exchange also plans to introduce premarket trading by the end of 2027. The move follows a powerful but volatile year for South Korean equities, in which the Kospi more than doubled before a July selloff erased 22% from its peak, though the benchmark remains up 64% in 2026 as the best-performing major stock index worldwide. The initiative could make Korean shares more accessible to investors in Europe and allow faster reactions to after-hours news, potentially boosting the appeal of major stocks such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, but thin evening volume could produce wider bid-ask spreads, sharper price swings and higher trading costs, particularly for large orders. South Korea already has some experience with extended trading through Nextrade, an alternative trading platform launched in March 2025 that offers premarket and evening sessions in roughly 600 stocks and captured almost one-third of local trading activity within several months, although retail investors generated more than 80% of its volume outside regular hours.
French AI Startups Turn to U.S. Capital as Europe's Funding Gap Widens
France is producing a growing number of high-value artificial intelligence and technology companies, but their success is highlighting Europe's shortage of late-stage capital compared with the U.S., according to Bloomberg. Mistral AI raised €3 billion in Europe's largest technology funding round, quantum computing company Pasqal listed on Nasdaq, and Nvidia agreed to acquire AI platform Hugging Face for about $13 billion. U.S. startups raised $97 billion for generative AI last year, compared with $5.9 billion across Europe, according to EY data cited by Bloomberg, though France attracted more funding than the UK and Germany within Europe. Mistral's latest round valued the Paris-based company at more than €21 billion, nearly double its valuation a year earlier, led by Samsung Electronics with the Scaleup Europe Fund and Boston-based PSG Equity sharing co-lead status. Pasqal chose Nasdaq for its initial listing and plans a later Euronext listing, while Mistral Chief Executive Arthur Mensch has said an eventual IPO could help preserve the company's independence, though its listing venue has yet to be decided.
Apple Launches $1,999 Foldable iPhone Duo as Analysts Question Mass-Market Appeal
Apple Inc. has launched the iPhone Duo, a foldable phone priced at $1,999, with a top storage option costing $3,199. The device runs work, entertainment and creative apps across its larger foldable display, and Apple is promoting it as a personal AI hub. Analysts at the launch event questioned who the device is really for, noting the foldable market remains a niche, with IDC forecasting foldables to account for less than 3% of worldwide smartphone sales in 2026 and little change next year. Counterpoint expects Apple may sell about 6 million handsets by the end of the year, potentially giving it almost a quarter of the worldwide foldable market, where Samsung presently holds about 40% share. The next test for Apple will be whether sales remain robust once pent-up demand from existing iPhone owners starts to dry up.
Samsung Expands OpenAI AI Partnership but No Chip Contract Announced
Samsung Electronics expanded its relationship with OpenAI across advanced processors and enterprise artificial intelligence, but no new chip supply agreement was announced. OpenAI Korea described progress in chip manufacturing and research and called Samsung one of ChatGPT's largest corporate users, while OpenAI later said the remarks covered existing cooperation, including Samsung's internal AI adoption and an earlier letter of intent. Samsung shares closed 3.5% lower at 259,500 won Friday as investors looked for commercial results rather than another AI headline. South Korean ChatGPT Enterprise usage has surged 28-fold in one year, and Samsung holds a GF Score of 92/100, though its GF Value rating is noticeably weaker. Without firm production commitments, the collaboration remains strategic upside rather than revenue investors can count today.
Qualcomm and Samsung 2nm Chip Talks Stall Over Pricing
Qualcomm and Samsung Electronics are struggling to finalize terms for a potential 2nm chip manufacturing arrangement, with pricing emerging as a key obstacle in the discussions. Qualcomm is seeking more competitive manufacturing costs, while Samsung appears less willing to reduce pricing as it builds its advanced foundry business around larger customer commitments. The disagreement could delay production of Qualcomm's next-generation chips until 2027. The timing could matter for Samsung's efforts to rebuild its relationship with Qualcomm, which shifted some production away from Samsung after 2021. Samsung's expanding customer base may also be affecting its negotiating position, after it agreed in July to a multiyear AI-chip arrangement with Broadcom worth more than $200 billion through 2030, covering advanced manufacturing and packaging technologies. The discussions could still lead to Qualcomm using Samsung's 2nm process for future application processors, and neither company had issued an official statement on the reported delay.
Apple Launches First Flip Phone, the Duo, Priced From £1,999
Apple has taken what Uswitch calls its "biggest gamble in years" by launching its first-ever flip phone, the Duo, which is also its most expensive phone ever at a starting price of £1,999, rising to £3,199 for maximum storage. British customers can pre-order from 1pm on 16 October, with phones available from 23 October. Uswitch mobiles expert Ernest Doku flagged trade-offs for early adopters of a first-generation model, including Touch ID instead of Face ID and a smaller battery than the Pro Max, all at a higher cost, noting you could get an iPhone 17, an iPad Air and an Apple Watch combined for less. He said the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max have had a proper upgrade with a faster A20 Pro chip, longer battery life and an adaptive main camera, with prices starting at £1,199 and £1,299, up £100 on last year due to memory chip scarcity driven by the AI boom. Doku said Apple has spent its first-gen effort on the hinge, the part that matters most for a fold, and that early looks suggest a genuinely crease-free display, which could be the difference-maker against Samsung if it holds up in daily use.
Crude oil closes above $100 after worst attack on cargo ships since US-Iran war
West Texas and Brent crude futures both closed above $100 a barrel as investors feared that supply tightness would intensify, after reports of the largest attack on cargo ships since the war between the United States and Iran began in late February. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump of the United States insisted he does not regret deciding to launch war against Iran, and Scott Bessent, the US Treasury Secretary, revealed on Thursday, September 10, that the US government will sanction a major bank next week to pressure Iran into ending a war that has lasted more than six months. The news website Axios reported, citing two US officials, that Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, called President Trump twice last Thursday to urge the United States to launch strikes on the Houthis, but President Trump rejected the request. On the economic front, The Wall Street Journal reported that the US Department of Defense is negotiating a loan of about $5 billion for Fluidstack, an AI cloud startup, to strengthen the US data center supply chain. Meanwhile, Micron Technology announced total compensation for direct production-line employees in Taiwan of up to the equivalent of 35 to 68 months' salary, or at least NT$1.7 million in cash, for fiscal year 2026, and Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm have still not reached an agreement to hire Samsung to produce processor chips using 2-nanometer technology, as they cannot agree on price, which could push production back to next year.
Apple to launch 360,000-yen foldable 'iPhone Duo' in October
Apple will launch its foldable smartphone, the iPhone Duo, in October. Priced at a steep 360,000 yen, debate over whether it will truly sell looks set to continue for the time being. As soon as Apple wrapped up its new product announcement on September 9, it released technical documentation for software developers, laying out numerous user-interface refinements to make the foldable experience better. When closed, the device adopts a 'passport type' shape with a width close to that of the iPhone 18 Pro Max but a shorter height, and CEO John Ternus criticized rival products shaped like two phones placed side by side, touting his company's superiority. Apple's strategy is to make a single high-value-added model that stirs the desire to own it, a different direction from Samsung, which seeks to cover the market broadly with multiple form factors. For now, foldable smartphones are targeted at roughly 2 percent of total smartphone unit sales, or 20 million units globally and 700,000 to 800,000 units in Japan.
Global HVAC Market Projected to Reach USD 292.20 Billion by 2031
The global HVAC market was valued at USD 215 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach USD 292.20 billion by 2031, expanding at a 5.25% CAGR, according to a new report added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Air conditioning represented approximately 45% of global HVAC market revenue in 2025, while heat pumps generated around 40% of heating equipment revenue and air handling units held more than 38% of the ventilation equipment market. The commercial end-user segment is forecast to record the fastest CAGR of 6.13% through 2031, and Asia-Pacific accounted for more than 44% of global market revenue, making it the leading regional market. Consolidation continues to reshape the competitive landscape: Bosch Group completed its approximately USD 8 billion acquisition of Johnson Controls' residential and light commercial HVAC business on July 31, 2025, and Samsung Electronics expanded its commercial cooling position through the approximately USD 1.7 billion acquisition of European HVAC solutions provider FlaktGroup from Triton. In 2025, Daikin introduced its EWYK-QZ modular air-to-water heat pump for commercial and industrial facilities, using low-global-warming-potential R-290 refrigerant. Leading companies in the fragmented market include Lennox International, Midea Group, Gree Electric Appliances, Carrier Global, Bosch, Daikin, LG Electronics, Mitsubishi Electric, Panasonic, Samsung, Trane Technologies, and Vaillant Group.
South Korea raises chip data espionage penalty to up to 30 years in prison
South Korea is set to enforce its revised anti-espionage law on Sunday, September 13, to prevent advanced memory chip technology from leaking to competitors in China. The amended law raises the penalty for those who illicitly pass on sensitive technology to foreign nations or entities of equivalent status to up to 30 years in prison, and elevates the classification of industrial data espionage from a corporate-level offense to a threat to national security. Data from South Korean police authorities shows that half of the cases detected in the past year involving leaks of sensitive technology to foreign entities had destinations in China. Meanwhile, Samsung and SK Hynix are facing pressure from Chinese competitors CXMT and Yangtze Memory Technologies, and the South Korean government has just unveiled an investment plan worth 880 billion dollars to develop a large semiconductor industrial hub project in the south of the country, in order to maintain its position as a leader in the global chip industry. In a major case still ongoing, prosecutors have charged 10 former Samsung Electronics employees who are accused of illicitly passing technology to CXMT. The Seoul Central Prosecutors' Office said this caused damage to Samsung's sales in 2024 of about 5 trillion won, or 3.7 billion dollars, and prosecutors said the former employees passed on Samsung's 18-nanometer DRAM manufacturing process along with concealment methods such as relocating offices and switching flights at airports to avoid detection.
DeepSeek Uses Less HBM, Sending Samsung and SK Hynix Shares Down More Than 3%
Shares of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix fell more than 3% in Friday trading after DeepSeek revealed that its latest AI model can reduce the amount of high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, required in AI models. The news stalled a recovery that had only just begun after heavy selling in July and added to concerns about technology stocks amid worries over the outlook for U.S. interest rate hikes. Retail investors in South Korea have already sold more than 10 billion dollars' worth of Samsung and SK Hynix shares this month alone. Ha Seok-geun, chief investment officer of Eugene Asset Management, said DeepSeek's new model may fuel concerns about a short-term slowdown in semiconductor demand, but new models from companies such as Meta Platforms and OpenAI are likely to have a greater effect on the industry's fundamentals. Meanwhile, Isaac Thong, senior director of investments and fund manager of the Aberdeen Asian Income Fund in Singapore, believes South Korean memory chipmaker stocks are still relatively cheap, with Samsung trading at about 2.7 times book value and SK Hynix at about 5 times, compared with about 11 times for the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index. However, both stocks remain more than 25% below their all-time highs, and Matthew Tuttle, chief executive officer of Tuttle Capital Management, said these shares are likely to remain volatile. Jae In-yun, chief executive officer of Fibonacci Asset Management Global, assessed that the DeepSeek news will likely create pressure from investor sentiment rather than lead to sustained selling of semiconductor stocks.
Apple's iPhone Duo Faces Price Test in China's Crowded Foldable Market
Apple's first folding phone, the iPhone Duo, is drawing a tepid response from Chinese consumers focused on its price against established domestic rivals. Priced at 15,999 yuan, or $2,230, in China, the device was announced Wednesday and drew immediate pushback on social media platform WeChat, where one user said they would wait for the second-generation foldable next year. Apple shares climbed more than 3% after the launch event, but the company faces a key test in Greater China, its third-biggest market, which generates around 17% of total revenue and is one of the world's most competitive foldable-phone markets. Huawei, Xiaomi, Honor, Oppo and Vivo already sell devices across book-style, flip-phone and, in Huawei's case, trifold designs, and ahead of Apple's event Xiaomi and Huawei on Monday launched new flagship foldables, the Xiaomi 18 Fold and the trifold Mate XT2, priced at 10,999 yuan and 19,999 yuan. Huawei led China's smartphone market in both the first and second quarters according to Counterpoint, with Apple second, followed by Vivo and Oppo, while worldwide Samsung narrowly reclaimed the lead over Apple in second-quarter smartphone shipments and is expected to surpass Apple in foldable market share with a 32% share versus Apple at 25% and Huawei at 24%. Beyond price, Chinese social media users also raised concerns about the Duo's lack of a physical SIM-card slot, which may require mainland users to visit a carrier store for ID verification to activate an eSIM. Xiaomi's 18 Fold goes on sale Thursday, Huawei's Mate XT2 follows days later, and Apple's iPhone Duo pre-orders begin Oct. 16 with sales starting Oct. 23.
Apple Unveils Foldable iPhone Duo Priced Up to $3,200
Apple introduced its first foldable iPhone, the iPhone Duo, priced starting at $1,999 and reaching up to $3,200 for the 2 TB model with maximum storage. Apple's new CEO John Ternus said the new iPhone duo will "redesign the experience of using a new foldable phone." Wall Street analysts expect the device to sell strongly, with Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management saying Apple has got its device design mojo back, and Ben Bajarin of Creative Strategies predicting Apple will easily take 20-25% of the foldable market in 2026 and 35-40% in 2027, though supply chain limited. Samsung, projected by Counterpoint Research to lead the foldable market this year with a 32% share, mocked the launch, while Counterpoint expects Apple to capture a quarter of the market. The iPhone accounts for half of Apple's annual revenue at $200 billion, and the company must sway price-sensitive consumers only months after hiking Macbook and iPad prices due to scarce memory and storage components. The iPhone Duo folds like a book, comes in star white and night sky, can be preordered starting Oct. 16 and goes on sale Oct. 23, offers 31 to 44 hours of battery life and storage from 256 GB to 2TB, but observers noted it is bulkier than its sleeker predecessors and bendable screens are more fragile with shorter lifespans.
Samsung Unveils 100 Trillion Won Payout, Investors Push for Buybacks
Samsung Electronics has put an estimated 90 trillion to 110 trillion won shareholder-return program in the spotlight, with roughly 30 trillion won to be paid through third-quarter cash dividends while the company expects to decide the rest of the distribution in January. The confirmed dividend represents only about 30% of the program's 100 trillion won midpoint, leaving most of the capital-allocation story unwritten. Management has kept buybacks and share cancellations on the table, but investors wanted something firmer, since repurchases followed by cancellations shrink the share count, a distinction that matters as shareholders push for a stronger response to undervaluation and ownership concerns. Samsung shares closed 0.2% lower at 269,000 won in Seoul as investors waited for a clearer answer on how the technology giant will deploy its AI-driven cash. The company carries a GF Score of 92 out of 100 on strong growth, profitability and financial strength, while GF Value remains its weakest category.
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