Artificial Intelligence

The Trade Policy and Strategy Office (TPSO) under the Ministry of Commerce reported that Thailand's exports in July 2026 totaled 34,789.1 million US dollars, expanding 21.6% from the same period last year, marking the 25th consecutive month of growth. This was driven by electronics and high-tech products, particularly telephones, equipment, and components, which surged 160.3%, and computers, equipment, and components, which rose 63.2%. During the first seven months, exports reached 231,531.0 million US dollars, up 18.2%. The TPSO director revealed that if the electronics cycle continues to grow, full-year exports could expand by up to 15%, reaching approximately 391,267.4 million US dollars. This would require average monthly exports of about 31,947.3 million US dollars over the remaining five months. However, attention must be paid to geopolitical tensions, especially the Strait of Hormuz, and US tariff measures, which could impact oil prices and global demand. Meanwhile, imports in July expanded 36.7%, resulting in a trade deficit of 3,610.5 million US dollars.

NVIDIA reported record revenue of $96 billion for the second quarter of fiscal 2027, more than doubling year-over-year, with data center revenue reaching $89 billion. The company guided fiscal 2028 revenue growth of approximately 70%, despite supply constraints, and expects third-quarter revenue of $108 billion, plus or minus 2%. Gross margins are expected to decline to 71-72% in the fourth quarter due to memory cost pressures, settling at 72-73% in fiscal 2028. NVIDIA returned a record $26 billion to shareholders in the quarter, including $20 billion in buybacks and $6 billion in dividends. CEO Jensen Huang highlighted strong demand across all segments, with ACIE revenue growing 138% year-over-year, and noted that the unconstrained demand is significantly higher than the 70% growth guidance.

Salesforce reported record Q2 revenue of $11.35 billion, up 11% year over year, and raised its full-year fiscal 2027 revenue guidance to $46.1–$46.4 billion, incorporating a $300 million constant currency raise. The company's AI momentum accelerated, with Agentforce annual recurring revenue reaching $1.5 billion and AI and Data ARR approaching $4 billion, while current remaining performance obligation grew 14% in constant currency. Non-GAAP operating margin came in at 34.1%, and free cash flow surged 81% to $1.1 billion. Salesforce also announced a strategic partnership with Anthropic to launch Cloudforce, a new product combining Anthropic's AI with Salesforce's CRM, available at Dreamforce in September. For the third quarter, the company expects revenue of $11.42–$11.5 billion, representing growth of approximately 11% to 12% in constant currency.

Veeva Systems reported a record second quarter for fiscal 2027, with total revenue of $928 million and non-GAAP operating income of $416 million, both exceeding guidance. The company achieved its best-ever CRM quarter, with two TOP20 biopharma customers, Lilly and Biogen, selecting Vault CRM, bringing the total to 12 of TOP20. Veeva Falcon, its agentic AI product, is generating high customer interest, with early adopters showing promising results and faster implementation. Commercial subscription revenue grew 13% year-over-year, with broad-based strength across CRM, content, data, and Crossix. The company also highlighted progress with its Aspen product, priced at $50 per user per month, and its partnership with IQVIA, which CEO Peter Gassner called one of the best things to happen to Veeva in the past 12 months.

Asian stocks closed mixed at midday on Thursday, following Nvidia, the major US AI chip maker, reporting better-than-expected earnings. However, some trading sentiment was dampened by US inflation data coming in higher than forecast. The Nikkei closed the morning down 0.15%, the Hang Seng fell 0.42%, the Shanghai Composite rose 0.60%, the KOSPI gained 1.83%, and the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.93%. Nvidia announced its latest quarterly results (May-July 2026) with revenue reaching $96.2 billion, up 106% year-over-year, and exceeding analysts' expectations of around $92 billion. The company signaled that future sales would remain strong. Net profit surged to $59.7 billion, or $2.46 per share, up 126% from the same period last year. Excluding special items, earnings per share were $2.22, higher than the average analyst estimate of $2.09 per share. Nvidia's data center business generated revenue of $89 billion, more than doubling from the same period last year. The edge computing business brought in $7.2 billion, up 27%. Nvidia also projected revenue of $108 billion for the current quarter (August-October 2026), exceeding market expectations, which would represent an 89% increase year-over-year. Meanwhile, last night, the US Commerce Department reported that the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index rose 3.7% in July year-over-year, higher than the 3.6% analysts had forecast. The core PCE index rose 3.3%, in line with expectations. The latest inflation figures have investors focused on Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh's speech at the annual Jackson Hole meeting on Friday. The CME Group's FedWatch Tool indicates investors assign a 40% probability of a rate hike at the September Fed meeting, up from 36% previously. On Chinese economic data, industrial profits in China expanded 11.2% in July year-over-year, down from 15.1% in June, marking the slowest growth in seven months. This brought the growth rate for the first seven months to 17.6%, down from 18.7% in the first half. The Bank of Korea raised its policy rate by another 0.25% to 3%, the second consecutive hike, reaching the highest level since January 2025, to counter rising inflationary pressures.

Gulf Development Public Company Limited (GULF) plans to offer four tranches of debentures and digital debentures, with tenors of 4-10 years, to the general public between October 19-21, 2026. The debentures have been rated "AA-" with a "Stable" outlook by Tris Rating, reflecting the strength of its energy and infrastructure businesses, as well as stable dividend income from its stake in Advanced Info Service (ADVANC). Tranches 1, 2, and 4 will be offered through eight leading financial institutions at a price of 1,000 baht per unit, with a minimum subscription of 100,000 baht. Tranche 3 (digital debentures) will be offered through Krungthai Bank's "Paotang" application, with a minimum subscription of 1,000 baht and a maximum of 50 million baht per transaction. The company plans to use the proceeds to repay maturing debentures and to support investments in renewable energy and digital infrastructure, such as data centers, cloud, and AI. For the second quarter of 2026, the company reported a record core profit of 12.332 billion baht, up 74% from the same period last year, and total revenue of 50.294 billion baht, up 24%.

Nvidia has agreed to acquire Hugging Face, the open-source AI model platform, for $12.9 billion, or roughly 400 billion baht, according to The Information, which cited sources familiar with the deal. Neither company has responded to requests for comment on the report. Hugging Face, headquartered in New York City, is a hub for open-source large language models, datasets, and tools for AI developers. It previously received investments from Nvidia, Salesforce, and Alphabet in 2023, totaling $235 million, which valued the company at $4.5 billion. If this deal is completed, the transaction value would be nearly three times that valuation, and higher than the $500 million offer Nvidia made last year, which valued Hugging Face at $7 billion. The acquisition comes as Nvidia forecasts revenue growth of about 70% for the next fiscal year and has $18 billion in investments in other companies through the remainder of fiscal 2027, marking a significant step in expanding its role from an AI chip maker to an ecosystem of models, software, and tools for AI developers.

Nvidia Corp. is on pace to deliver the fastest growth streak in corporate history, guiding for $108 billion in third-quarter revenue after a second quarter that crushed Wall Street's expectations across the board. If Nvidia delivers on its $108 billion guidance, the company would have grown revenue by roughly 1,730% in just four years, a pace unmatched by any company of its size in modern corporate history, according to market commentator The Kobeissi Letter. The guidance came in well above Wall Street's $103.52 billion estimate, according to Benzinga Pro. CEO Jensen Huang said in the earnings announcement that 'AI has reached its inflection point' and that 'compute is revenue,' with demand accelerating but limited by memory, power, and data center capacity. Nvidia reported second-quarter revenue of $96.22 billion, above the $92.11 billion expected by analysts, with adjusted earnings of $2.22 per share, ahead of the $2.09 forecast. Shares closed 1.59% lower on Wednesday at $209.66, then reversed course to gain 4.71% at $219.53 in extended trading on the earnings announcement.

Mr. Koraphat Vorachet, Assistant Managing Director and Head of Research at Krungsri Securities (KSS), revealed that Thailand Focus 2026 sends a positive signal to the Thai capital market, with increased interest from foreign investors and Thailand's readiness as a new investment base, especially in the data center business amid the accelerating AI adoption trend. KSS assesses that the Fed is likely to hold interest rates until the end of the year and may cut rates later in the year, which would be positive for capital flows into emerging markets, including the Thai stock market. It views that foreign net selling on some days should not be used to judge the direction of fund flows based on a single day's data, while the return to long positions in TFEX is a signal to watch. On fundamentals, Thai listed companies' earnings have grown for six consecutive quarters and have the potential to expand further in Q3/2026, with this earnings cycle possibly longer than the 2010-2011 cycle, which saw growth for about seven consecutive quarters. KSS favors sectors that benefit from the investment cycle, including commercial banks, power plants, industrial estates, construction, and power grid businesses, and selects DELTA and GULF as top picks. DELTA is supported by the AI investment cycle, while GULF benefits from data center investment and the country's energy policy.

AMATA shares surged 10.74% to 33.50 baht, leading industrial estate stocks, while WHA rose 1.65% to 4.94 baht, after the first day of Thailand Focus 2026 drew interest from foreign investors, including from Switzerland, New Zealand, and Israel. TTB Wealth views that the government is signaling a restoration of confidence and restructuring the economy toward becoming a future industrial production base, while adjusting measures to support Data Center investment by having new investors bear the additional natural gas costs and offering the option to purchase clean energy through Direct PPA, which is a positive factor for industrial estate stocks and the AI supply chain such as AMATA and WHA.

Asia Plus Securities research department has issued an analysis of construction contractor stocks, viewing that Data Center investment in Thailand is still in its early stages, thus giving an "overweight" investment rating and recommending "buy" for STECON with a target price of 23 baht, and "buy" for CK with a target price of 24 baht. It stated that Thailand is entering a major Data Center investment cycle driven by the global AI trend, with cumulative investment promotion applications for Digital Infrastructure exceeding 1 trillion baht, which will be a key catalyst for the Thai construction sector over the next 2-3 years, creating construction and system work opportunities worth approximately 150 billion baht. STECON has Data Center work on hand worth another 13 billion baht and is awaiting results of additional bidding for projects worth over 50 billion baht. Meanwhile, CNT has a backlog of 25.536 billion baht, with over 83% being Data Center work, reflecting its status as the most prominent pure-play Data Center contractor in the market. PYLON benefits from demand for foundation work exceeding its production capacity. CK is still in the phase of studying opportunities and selecting only highly reliable projects. SEAFCO holds a cautious view due to concerns over timeline and construction quality.

Tamura Corporation revised upward its consolidated earnings forecast for the fiscal year ending March 2027 on the 27th. Demand for AI data center-related products remains strong, and the recovery in demand for industrial equipment and price revisions for electronic chemical mounting-related products also contributed, with both sales and profit expected to exceed the initial forecast. Operating profit is expected to increase 22.9% from the previous fiscal year to 6.5 billion yen, significantly surpassing the previous record of 5.4 billion yen set in the fiscal year ended March 2018, compared with the previous forecast of 5.6 billion yen. Net profit was also revised to 5.2 billion yen (compared with the previous forecast of 4.5 billion yen and a loss of 1.3 billion yen in the previous fiscal year).

Chinese artificial intelligence company Z.ai released a new model Wednesday that it claims operates entirely on homegrown semiconductors, sending its Hong Kong-listed shares up more than 8% in Thursday trading. The low-cost model, called GLM-5.3-Flash, ranks 10th on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, ahead of DeepSeek V4 Pro Max. Z.ai said it used 100,000 China-made chips to handle all online requests for the model, which was released on Aug. 20 under the code name "Ox Alpha" and ranked first by usage on the global OpenRouter platform in the last week. CNBC could not independently verify the chip claims, and Z.ai declined to name the chip suppliers. The release comes amid U.S. restrictions on advanced chip sales to China, prompting domestic alternatives from Huawei and others. Separately, rival MiniMax's shares rose about 3% in Hong Kong after reporting a 283% revenue surge in the first half, though its adjusted net loss more than doubled to $293 million. Z.ai is scheduled to report its first-half results on Monday.

Nvidia reported fiscal 2027 second-quarter results with revenue of $96.22 billion, beating analyst expectations of $92.17 billion, and net income more than doubled from a year ago to $53.95 billion, or $2.22 per share, compared with $24.76 billion, or $1.87 per share, in the same period last year. The data center business, the main growth driver, posted sales of $89 billion, up 117% year over year, amid strong AI demand. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress said the company expects fiscal 2028 revenue to grow 70%, higher than the 44% analysts had forecast. Despite supply constraints, Nvidia remains a key player in the AI industry and provides financial support through guarantees and agreements to fund new data center construction. Nearly four years after OpenAI launched ChatGPT, latest-quarter revenue more than doubled from $46.7 billion in the same period a year earlier. However, investors have become more cautious as the stock has risen only 13% this year, while competition from Advanced Micro Devices, Google, and others intensifies, and memory costs have surged due to global shortages.

Pi Securities assesses SET today (Aug 27) in a range of 1,590-1,620 points, supported by technology and Anti Oil stocks combined with inexpensive Thai stocks, after US PCE inflation came in close to expectations and the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted to hold rates as before. Meanwhile, NVIDIA reported FYQ227 earnings 6% higher than Bloomberg estimates, with profit expanding +126% YoY, revenue +106% YoY, and GPM at 75%, improving from 72.4% in the previous quarter, boosting NVIDIA's stock price in futures trading +4.6%. This morning, the KOSPI index rose +2.5%, a positive factor for local tech groups (DELTA HANA). The MPC views the Thai economy as supported by AI, but growth remains low and uneven, with SME loans still contracting, so it sees holding rates as helping to revive the economy. Investment strategy recommends tech, tourism, retail, banking, power plants, and industrial estate groups.

Kasikorn Securities Public Company Limited holds a positive view on NVIDIA Corporation's performance, assessing that the growth trend of the artificial intelligence (AI) business remains strong, as reflected in its revenue estimate for fiscal year 2028, which is expected to grow at least 70% year-over-year, with potential for higher growth if constraints on land, power, and data center building shell (Land, Power, and Shell: LPS) ease. Meanwhile, NVIDIA's stock price rose approximately 4% in pre-market trading. NVIDIA reported adjusted profit for the second quarter of fiscal year 2027 of $53.9 billion, up 109% from the same period last year, and approximately 6% above market expectations. Revenue increased 106%, beating expectations by about 4%, driven significantly by data center revenue, which grew 117% due to deliveries of the Blackwell Ultra platform. Gross profit margin (GPM) stood at 75%. NVIDIA disclosed total commitments of approximately $366 billion, comprising about $279 billion in supply agreements for raw materials and equipment, approximately $29 billion in cloud leases with Cloud Service Providers (CSPs), and an additional $56 billion in commitments to support AI Labs and customers in expanding infrastructure. Additionally, NVIDIA has guarantees of approximately $109 billion for the SB Energy data center project under the PORT-pike technology initiative, which is planned to be leased to OpenAI for 20 years. The first phase has a power capacity of 4.25 gigawatts and is expected to be completed in fiscal year 2029. The project will use approximately 1.5 million NVIDIA GPUs and has the potential to generate revenue of approximately $150-200 billion, with potential for additional capacity expansion of 3.8 gigawatts in the future. KS Research noted that NVIDIA is aware of market concerns about Circular Finance but assesses the risk as limited, as its compute platform is fungible and durable, allowing GPUs to be reallocated to other customers if a particular project does not succeed. Meanwhile, it expects that next year, about a quarter of customers may be supported through NVIDIA's balance sheet. For the third quarter of fiscal year 2027, NVIDIA guides revenue of $108 billion, up 89% year-over-year and about 4% above market expectations. However, GPM is expected to decline slightly to 74% due to the initial ramp of the Vera Rubin platform, which has higher initial costs. GPM is expected to bottom out at approximately 71-72% in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2027 before recovering to 72-73% in fiscal year 2028, driven by price increases expected to take effect from the first quarter of fiscal year 2028. KS Research views the guidance of at least 70% revenue growth for fiscal year 2028 as a significant signal reflecting NVIDIA's confidence in AI demand trends and improved supply chain visibility, with potential for higher growth if Land, Power, and Shell constraints ease. Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, emphasized that "Compute is revenue," noting that current token usage is profitable and demand for compute is accelerating significantly. While initially only some AI Labs were rushing to invest in increasing compute capacity, now many Frontier AI Labs are accelerating expansion of compute capacity to meet continuously rising AI demand. For new technologies, including Vera Rubin, Vera CPU, and Groq 3LPX, they are currently in full production and began shipping in August 2026, with orders from all customers, and are expected to contribute approximately 20% of data center revenue in the next quarter. NVIDIA also disclosed that revenue per gigawatt for Vera Rubin is approximately $40 billion per GW, compared to about $25 billion per GW for Grace Blackwell, with potential to rise to $60-80 billion per GW in the future. Furthermore, KS Research believes that AI Clouds and IE customers will be another key growth driver, in addition to hyperscalers, which currently have a backlog of approximately $2 trillion. The development toward Recursive Self-Improvement (RSI) is likely to significantly accelerate demand for AI compute compared to the Agentic AI era. In summary, KS Research assesses that NVIDIA is transitioning from a GPU manufacturer and seller to a key player and supporter in the comprehensive AI ecosystem, covering compute, networking, data centers, and related infrastructure, reflecting strong long-term growth potential. Although the company may face near-term pressure on GPM from new technology costs, it is likely to offset these impacts through price increases.

Analysts from Asia Plus Securities, or ASPS, recommend a Selective Buy strategy in groups with specific positive factors, pointing out that the technology sector has a tendency to grow through 2028, especially the AI theme, which remains strong, led by NVIDIA Corporation, or NVDA, which reported second-quarter revenue of $96.2 billion, up 106% year-on-year, and earnings per share growth of 111%, supported by the Data Center business, which grew 117%, with revenue expected to grow another 70% in 2028. Meanwhile, ANTA Sports Products Limited, or ANTA, saw first-half revenue grow 13% and earnings per share grow 35%. They recommend speculating via DRs, namely NVDA80 and ANTA23. For Thai stocks that benefit, these include power plant groups such as BGRIM, GPSC, GULF; petrochemical and construction materials groups such as SCC, PTTGC; high-dividend groups such as TTB, KKP; infrastructure groups such as CK, STECON; electronics group such as DELTA; tourism group such as CENTEL; and shipping groups such as PSL, RCL. Meanwhile, the Monetary Policy Committee kept the interest rate at 1.00% per year to support the economy, which is expected to grow 2.3% in 2026 and 1.8% in 2027, and the market is watching July exports, which are expected to grow 17.8%.

It was revealed on the 27th that major semiconductor memory manufacturer Kioxia Holdings will construct a new building for memory production within its plant site in Kitakami City, Iwate Prefecture. The investment is expected to exceed 1 trillion yen, making it a large-scale investment aimed at expanding the company's production capacity. Through the construction of the new facility, the company plans to respond to the increasing demand for advanced memory.

Profits of China's industrial firms in July expanded 11.2% year-on-year, slowing from 15.1% in June and marking the lowest growth rate in seven months. Export-oriented sectors benefited from the global AI boom, while those reliant on domestic demand continued to face pressure. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that total profits of industrial firms with annual revenue of at least 20 million yuan (about 2.95 million U.S. dollars) in the first seven months stood at 4.58 trillion yuan, up 17.6%, slowing from 18.7% in the first half. The most profitable sectors were computer, communication equipment, and other electronics manufacturing, which surged 110%, followed by smelting and processing of non-ferrous metals, up 91.8%. Meanwhile, optical fiber manufacturing grew 468.4%, optical cables grew 62.6%, and communication system equipment grew 55.0%. In contrast, consumer goods and real estate-related sectors were still hit by weak domestic demand, which is beginning to drag on the recovery of China's 20-trillion-dollar economy amid uncertainties from trade tensions and geopolitical risks.

Salesforce reported better-than-expected fiscal second-quarter results, sending shares up about 12% in after-hours trading on Wednesday. Revenue came in at $11.35 billion, up 11% year over year and above the LSEG estimate of $11.32 billion. Net income rose 87% to $3.53 billion, with adjusted earnings per share of $5.90. The company also raised its full-year revenue guidance to $46.1–$46.4 billion, up from $45.9–$46.2 billion, driven by rapid growth in its AI business. Annualized revenue from its Agentforce AI product surpassed $1.5 billion, up 240% from the same period last year, and it recorded a $2.6 billion gain from its strategic investment in Anthropic. Meanwhile, Salesforce and Anthropic announced an expanded partnership to launch Claudeforce, a tool that lets sales staff access Salesforce data and work directly through Claude. This marks the first time Salesforce has appended "force" to another company's product name. Claudeforce will be available as a plugin with 37 ready-made sales skills, with plans to add Slack integration in the future. The move comes amid concerns about a "SaaSpocalypse" where generative AI could replace traditional software, but Salesforce's CEO insists this is not a SaaSpocalypse and views AI as an opportunity rather than a threat.

Asian stock markets opened mostly higher this morning, buoyed by Nvidia, the major U.S. AI chip maker, which reported better-than-expected earnings and forecast continued strong revenue growth. Nvidia shares surged over 4%. The Nikkei index opened at 66,775.78 points, up 513.62 points or 0.78%. The Hang Seng Index opened at 25,774.87 points, up 121.90 points or 0.48%. The Shanghai Composite Index opened at 3,911.89 points, down 0.63 points or 0.02%. The KOSPI surged 2.48%, while the S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.56%. Nvidia announced its latest quarterly results (May-July 2026) with revenue reaching $96.2 billion, up 106% year-over-year, and exceeding analysts' expectations of about $92 billion. Net income surged to $59.7 billion, or $2.46 per share, up 126% from the same period last year. Excluding special items, earnings per share were $2.22, above the analysts' estimate of $2.09 per share. Nvidia's data center business generated revenue of $89 billion, more than doubling from a year ago. The edge computing business brought in $7.2 billion, up 27%. Nvidia also projected current-quarter (August-October 2026) revenue of $108 billion, above market expectations, which would represent an 89% year-over-year increase. The company expects revenue in the next fiscal year starting January 2027 to grow by about 70%, citing supply chain constraints as a limiting factor on sales, not weakening demand. Investors are also watching the Federal Reserve's annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on August 27-29. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh will deliver a speech on Friday, August 28, at 10:00 a.m. U.S. time, which is 9:00 p.m. Thailand time.

Salesforce and Anthropic have announced a new partnership to integrate Claude into Salesforce's agentic enterprise platform and workflows, introducing prebuilt sales skills and enabling agents to automate tasks directly within both Claude and Salesforce. The collaboration, which Salesforce plans to extend across its product suite including Slack, is positioned as a key step in the company's long-term push into AI-powered enterprise SaaS solutions. For investors, this move reinforces the narrative of Salesforce as a workflow and data hub, potentially raising switching costs and supporting revenue and margin growth. The key test will be whether Salesforce quantifies Claude-driven agentic and AI annual recurring revenue or customer expansions in upcoming earnings updates through late 2026, which would help judge if the partnership is strengthening its AI moat or being offset by competing CRM and AI bundles from hyperscalers.

US semiconductor giant Nvidia reported on the 26th that its revenue for the May-July period of 2026 was approximately 2.1 times higher year-on-year at $96.221 billion, with net profit up about 2.3 times to $59.688 billion. According to the announcement materials accompanied by a photo of CEO Jensen Huang, this reflects the company's strong performance.

Krungsri Securities (KSS) expects the SET to move sideways/up today, with resistance at 1,614 and 1,630 points and support at 1,592 and 1,587 points. This is supported by accelerating AI CAPEX after NVIDIA reported better-than-expected earnings, and US PCE inflation rose slightly. Meanwhile, the Thailand Focus event highlights Thailand's strengths in attracting foreign investment, recommending three investment themes: stocks benefiting from AI CAPEX such as HANA, DELTA, and GULF, as well as power stocks and re-rating stocks.

GULF expects continued growth in H2 performance due to rising electricity demand from data center and electric vehicle expansion. It plans to commercially operate new power plants with a combined capacity of about 700 megawatts, including six solar and solar-plus-battery projects totaling 623 megawatts, which will gradually reach COD in September, November, and December, adding 600 million baht in annual profit. This includes the Chiang Mai community waste-to-energy plant (10 megawatts) slated for operation in October 2026, contributing 120 million baht annually, and 60-70 megawatts of rooftop solar under GULF1. The LNG import business is expected to import 5 million tons, generating 1.5 billion baht in profit, along with increased profit sharing from ADVANC. This year, total revenue and EBITDA are expected to grow 12-15%. The company also unveiled a five-year investment plan (2026-2030) worth 130-140 billion baht, focusing on renewable energy, natural gas power plants, LNG terminals, and digital businesses under Gulf Edge, such as data centers, cloud, and AI, as well as the Laem Chabang deep-sea port Phase 3 project. It plans to offer 20 billion baht in bonds in October 2026 to institutional, high-net-worth, and retail investors, including via the Paotang app, to refinance existing bonds and fund working capital and business expansion, with emphasis on overseas projects and data centers.

Georgia Power announced that its contract to serve OpenAI's new project in Effingham County has been approved by the Georgia Public Service Commission, marking the latest step in a portfolio of large-load contracts expected to deliver approximately $950 million in annual savings beginning in 2029. The company now projects that typical residential customers will save at least $15 per month, or $180 per year, up from its December 2025 commitment of $102 per year. The increased savings stem from projected incremental revenue from new large-load customers, boosting customer benefits to $2.847 billion over 2029-2031. Under the OpenAI agreement, which includes 3,200 megawatts of new demand, OpenAI will pay the full cost of infrastructure and commit up to 1,000 megawatts of flexible demand response. This approval follows a base rate freeze in July 2025 and a plan to lower overall rates approved in May 2026, with CEO Kim Greene emphasizing that growth is not pushing rates up in Georgia.

Severe flash floods along the Nepal-China border have killed at least 100 people and left hundreds missing, with 384 travelers reported missing from the area. President Xi Jinping has called for a full-scale rescue effort, while Nepalese security forces have already rescued over 250 people. Derek Grossman, a political science professor at the University of Southern California, said that a reduced U.S. role in Asia would force regional allies to take on more responsibility for their own defense. His comments came after President Donald Trump reiterated demands for a significant reduction in joint military exercises with South Korea. Meanwhile, Qatar's prime minister will visit Tehran on Thursday to revive diplomatic talks after the U.S.-Iran ceasefire agreement stalled. The U.S. has announced it will increase economic pressure by sanctioning countries that trade with Iran. Oil prices closed lower, with WTI down 0.16% to $82.23 per barrel and Brent down 0.84% to $87.84 per barrel. Spot gold fell 1.3% to $4,595.93 per ounce after U.S. inflation data came in line with expectations. Nvidia reported better-than-expected fiscal second-quarter 2027 results, with earnings per share of $2.22, above the expected $2.10, and revenue of $96.22 billion, above the expected $92.17 billion, sending shares up 4% after market close. Meta Platforms has agreed to pay up to $18 billion and implement strict usage restrictions for youth on Facebook and Instagram to settle a legal dispute brought by four states—California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey—which alleged the company's apps harm children.

Genesis stated at its earnings briefing on August 26 that the liquid cooling industry in 2025 will focus mainly on sampling and small-batch deliveries, with formal mass production only beginning in 2026. Currently, only demand from leading overseas customers has entered the ramp-up phase, while demand from other overseas AI manufacturers and domestic computing power manufacturers is still in its early stages. In addition, edge-side computing power demand beyond central computing power has not yet started. The company expects the industry's boom cycle to be sustainable.

Tokyo stocks are expected to be firm on the 27th, with the predicted range between 66,500 and 67,000 yen. Although U.S. stocks fell the previous day, Nvidia's May-July quarter results showed revenue of $96.2 billion, up 2.1 times year-on-year, exceeding market expectations, and rose in after-hours trading. This serves as a catalyst for semiconductor-related stocks. The yen is trading narrowly at the upper 159 yen level against the dollar and the mid-185 yen level against the euro. Chicago Nikkei futures were 440 yen lower at 65,970 yen compared to the Osaka settlement price.

Nvidia delivered another blockbuster quarter, beating Wall Street's expectations as demand for AI infrastructure continues to surge. Amid growing scrutiny over Nvidia's investments in AI companies and data-center projects, CFO Colette Kress pushed back on the characterization of these as "circular financing," explaining that the chipmaker views its partnerships and investments as strategic opportunities. Kress said Nvidia is going through a major computing platform shift and that the companies it invests in are "once in a generation" with proven technology leadership and skyrocketing customer traction. She expects these investments to yield excellent returns measured against demand strength, business creation, ecosystem building, and equity returns, while noting that Nvidia's compute platform is fungible and can be redeployed to support other customers, limiting risk.

NVIDIA's fiscal second-quarter revenue reached $96.2 billion, a 106% year-over-year increase, with the Data Center segment contributing $89.0 billion, or 92% of total revenue. For the first time, the company disclosed its ACIE segment—covering AI Cloud, Industrial, Enterprise, and Sovereign AI—which generated approximately $40.0 billion, accounting for 45% of Data Center revenue and growing 138% year-over-year. Sovereign AI alone tripled year-over-year, signaling broader demand beyond hyperscalers. NVIDIA also announced $500 billion in compute financing memorandums of understanding with major financial institutions including Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs, and KKR. The Vera Rubin platform is now in full production, with racks operational at CoreWeave, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, and Nebius. For the third quarter, NVIDIA guides revenue of $108 billion, plus or minus 2%, excluding China Data Center compute revenue, with gross margins projected at 74.0%, plus or minus 50 basis points, down from 75.0% in the second quarter. The company returned approximately $26.0 billion to shareholders in the quarter and has $99.0 billion remaining under its repurchase authorization.

NVIDIA reported fiscal second-quarter earnings of $2.22 per share on revenues of $96.2 billion, surpassing Zacks estimates of $2.09 per share and $91.85 billion, marking a 120% year-over-year increase in earnings and 106% in revenue. The Data Center segment alone generated $89.00 billion in revenue, up 117% from a year ago, and the company expects to exceed $100 billion in revenue next quarter for the first time, with guidance of $108 billion plus or minus 2%. In other earnings news, Salesforce posted a big beat with $5.90 per share versus the $3.27 consensus, driven by its partnership with Anthropic, and returned $27.5 billion to shareholders. CrowdStrike shares rose 9.7% after reporting record annual recurring revenue of $333 million, up 51% year over year, and beat on both earnings and revenue. Hewlett-Packard also beat estimates with $0.83 per share versus $0.74 expected, helped by an 11-cent gain from tariff refunds, and raised guidance, while Urban Outfitters met earnings expectations of $1.72 per share on record revenues of $1.66 billion, up 10.4% year over year.

Amazon Web Services and Nvidia announced an expansion of their partnership to meet growing demand for AI infrastructure, planning to deploy 2 million additional Nvidia GPUs across AWS's global infrastructure in 2027-2028. The collaboration covers AI factories, CPUs, networking, open models, data processing, and robotics, with AWS adding Nvidia Blackwell Ultra, Rubin, and Rubin Ultra GPUs, and becoming the first major cloud provider to offer RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Server Edition GPUs for Amazon EC2 G7 instances. The companies are also bringing Vera CPU-based infrastructure to AWS and building AI factories for the U.S. government, delivering 100,000 GPUs on secure infrastructure for federal and national-security workloads classified at Impact Level 6 and above. AWS CEO Matt Garman emphasized customer choice and seamless integration, while Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang noted that demand is running ahead of every forecast. Additionally, Nvidia's Nemotron open models are available on Amazon Bedrock and SageMaker, and Amazon Robotics is collaborating with Nvidia on next-generation robots using Nvidia's physical AI platform.

Anthropic has signed a deal to rent about $45 billion in AI compute from Nscale, a British AI infrastructure company, according to a source familiar with the deal. Nscale, founded in 2024, will supply Anthropic with compute via Nvidia's Vera Rubin chips, with capacity expected to start powering Anthropic's services in late 2027. The six-year deal, first reported by Bloomberg, is part of Anthropic's aggressive expansion of compute capacity over the past eight months to compete with rivals like OpenAI. Earlier this month, Anthropic signed a $10 billion deal with AI cloud startup Volta, and in July, a $5 billion deal with AMD. In May, it entered a large computing deal with SpaceX, and in April, it expanded partnerships with Amazon, Google, and Broadcom.

Nvidia reported quarterly earnings of $2.22 per share, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.09, and revenue of $96.22 billion, beating estimates by 4.82%. This compares to earnings of $1.05 per share and revenue of $46.74 billion a year ago. The company has topped consensus EPS estimates in each of the last four quarters. Nvidia shares have gained about 14.2% year-to-date, outperforming the S&P 500's 12.2% rise. Looking ahead, the consensus EPS estimate for the current quarter is $2.33 on $102 billion in revenue, and for the fiscal year it is $8.92 on $388.46 billion in revenue. The stock currently holds a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).