Interconnect & Passive Components

Nvidia has committed at least $6.5 billion to photonics companies over the three months prior to May 2026, including $500 million to Corning for advanced optical connectivity solutions and $2 billion each to Lumentum, Coherent and Marvell, according to CNBC. The impact has been significant, with Marvell shares gaining 183.4% year to date, while Lumentum, Corning and Coherent have advanced 142.5%, 68.8% and 60.3%, respectively. Goldman Sachs projects the total addressable market for optical networking to grow from roughly $15 billion in 2026 to about $154 billion by 2028, a more than ninefold increase. Adoption of co-packaged optics is expected to accelerate starting in 2027, reaching roughly 20% to 30% penetration by 2028, while Mordor Intelligence estimates the global photonics market will reach $1.46 trillion by the end of 2026. Investors seeking diversified exposure can consider the Roundhill Photonics & Optics ETF LYTE, with $254.2 million in assets under management across 19 holdings; the KraneShares Photonic and Optical ETF LUMA, with $9.76 million in net assets; and the Tema Photonics & Optical ETF LAZR, with $94 million in net assets across 27 companies.

CGSI has revised up its earnings per share forecasts for KCE Electronics Public Company Limited, or KCE, by 18-35% for 2026-2028, and raised its target price to 70 baht from the previous level, while maintaining its Hold recommendation, as it views the current share price as having already priced in much of the recovery in the printed circuit board business. The revision reflects higher assumptions for sales volume, average selling prices, and improved operating leverage. CGSI raised its PCB sales forecasts for 2027-2028 by 12-20% on rising demand for server boards and the recognition of capacity from new plants. For third-quarter 2026 results, CGSI expects KCE to post normalized profit of 495 million baht, up 70% year on year and 105% quarter on quarter, on sales growth of 25% year on year and a gross profit margin expected to rise to 22.5% from 18.9% in the second quarter of 2026. On new capacity, management said at an analyst meeting in August 2026 that KCE plans to add about 1 million square feet per month of PCB capacity, or a 28% increase from the current capacity of 3.6 million square feet per month, with the new plant expected to start production in mid-2028. CGSI expects capital expenditure of about 6-8 billion baht, compared with cash on hand of 1.7 billion baht at the end of June 2026 and projected 2026 EBITDA of 2.05 billion baht, which could force the company to borrow more and cut its dividend payout ratio during the investment period.

Bualuang Securities says a new angle for KCE shares is the possibility that the selling price increase cycle could extend into 2027, even though the market has already priced in the July increase and another in the fourth quarter of 2026. The key driver is not direct demand for AI circuit boards, but the cost of standard E-glass, the upstream raw material for CCL, which continues to rise after producers gradually shifted capacity to higher-grade materials for AI that offer better returns. Morgan Stanley's price index for standard E-glass fiber rose from 1.0 times in September 2025 to 3.7 times in August 2026 and 4.1 times in September 2026, while KCE's fiberglass purchase price rose from 0.49 US dollars per meter in the second quarter of 2025 to 0.74 US dollars per meter in the second quarter of 2026, an increase of 51% year on year, which is still much smaller than the rise in upstream raw material prices, leaving a risk that cost pressure will feed through further. The research team has not yet included a third price increase in 2027 in its base-case estimates, because the general-grade CCL market is not yet entirely in shortage. It keeps its assumptions for the July and fourth-quarter 2026 price increases, maintains its TRADING BUY rating with a 70 baht target price, and views any additional price increase in 2027 as upside rather than part of the base case. Core profit is expected at 1.44 billion baht in 2026, up 78% year on year, 2.07 billion baht in 2027, up 43.9%, and 2.30 billion baht in 2028, up 11.1%.

Finansia Syrus Securities has issued an analysis recommending a buy on DELTA shares with a target price of 290 baht, expecting third-quarter 2026 profit to reaccelerate to 8.3 billion baht, up 37% from the previous quarter and 12% from a year earlier, supported by a recovery in gross margin after raw material problems eased. Meanwhile, demand for AI data center products remains strong and supports long-term growth. For fourth-quarter 2026 earnings momentum, profit is expected to hit a new high above 10 billion baht from deliveries of delayed orders, supporting 2026 profit of 32 billion baht, up 30% from a year earlier. For 2027, profit is expected to grow another 41% from a year earlier to 45 billion baht. Bond yields that have slowed are a sentiment boost for tech-growth stocks, with support at 235-232 baht and resistance at 248-250 and 259 baht.

The Ministry of Finance has designated the drive to bring companies in future industries, or the New Economy, onto the Stock Exchange of Thailand as one of the key performance indicators, or KPIs, for three agencies: the Board of Investment, or BOI; the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC; and the Stock Exchange of Thailand, through the BOI to IPO project, in order to assess proactive performance beyond their normal mandates. The measure aims to draw foreign capital and operators across the supply chain from upstream to downstream, including advanced electronic components such as PCB and optical transceivers, modern vehicles, smart agriculture, global pet food, and the wellness sector, to raise funds on the Thai stock market. The BOI board meeting on September 11, 2026 approved additional incentive measures, or on-top incentives, for companies that receive investment promotion and list on the stock exchange. New Economy businesses receive an additional three years of corporate income tax exemption beyond the normal criteria, or the option of an additional 50% corporate income tax reduction for five years. General businesses receive an additional two years of corporate income tax exemption, or the option of an additional 50% corporate income tax reduction for three years. From 2023 to June 2026, there were investment promotion applications totaling more than 5 trillion baht in target industries such as semiconductors, PCB, the AI supply chain, digital, clean energy, robotics, and aircraft parts. In the first half of this year, actual investment of more than 500 billion baht already flowed into the economy, and in 2026 alone, four leading Japanese automakers, Isuzu, Mazda, Mitsubishi Motors and Honda, announced additional investments in Thailand worth a combined total of more than 50 billion baht. Asadej Kongsiri, director and manager of the Stock Exchange of Thailand, said the project will create four areas of mutual benefit, or four big wins, covering the business sector, investors, the capital market and the overall economy. The SEC has approved new revised criteria to let target companies enter the fundraising process faster by shortening the track record requirement. Meanwhile, the CMDF fund provides support in the form of a matching fund, subsidizing expenses and fees for IPOs at 7 million baht per company. At the same time, the three agencies agreed to set up a joint task force, with the support framework of the project between the stock exchange and the CMDF set at a total of five years, ending in 2031.

China has unveiled a new five-year development plan for manufacturing in electronics- and information technology-related industries, setting a target to raise revenue above 30 trillion yuan, or 4.5 trillion dollars, by 2030. The plan was drawn up jointly by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, or MIIT, and the National Development and Reform Commission, or NDRC. It covers the strategic framework from 2026 to 2030 and reflects the Chinese government's push for supply chain self-reliance, aiming for global leadership in strategically important emerging technologies from artificial intelligence to advanced computing, amid ongoing global competition. Beyond the revenue target, China also aims to raise research and development investment in the industry to 3.5% by 2030, setting out 17 missions covering nine key industry groups, from electronic components and materials, specialised manufacturing and measurement equipment, photonics, advanced computing, consumer electronics, power electronics, positioning and timing information technology, chips and AI endpoint devices, through to industrial electronics. The plan also drives technology development in the integrated circuit industry supply chain, while upgrading advanced electronic materials and smart sensors. In computing and memory, China will develop high-bandwidth flash memory alongside new forms of storage products such as Ferroelectric RAM, Resistive RAM and Magnetoresistive RAM, and aims to build very large-scale intelligent computing infrastructure supporting AI clusters equipped with hundreds of thousands of accelerator cards, while accelerating the deployment of space computing technology. The announcement of this sector-specific plan follows China's release on September 7 of its 15th five-year development plan for the information and communications industry, drawn up by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Qualcomm has struck a long-term framework under which Amazon could purchase as much as $60 billion of its AI data-center products, Reuters reported. The two companies plan to work together on customized inference chips and optical connectivity capable of reaching 1.6 terabits per second. Purchase-linked warrants could give Amazon roughly $4 billion of Qualcomm equity at an exercise price of $161.26 per share, an incentive worth about 6.7% of the framework's maximum potential purchases. Neither company disclosed a minimum purchasing commitment, a firm delivery schedule or the margins Qualcomm could earn. Qualcomm shares rose approximately 0.75% to $189.19 Wednesday morning, a 7.63% premium to the GuruFocus GF Value estimate of $175.78.

Worldwide data center capital expenditures accelerated sharply in 2Q 2026, growing 92 percent, according to a newly published report from Dell'Oro Group. Continued AI infrastructure investment supported growth across compute, storage, networking, and physical infrastructure, while rising memory and storage prices significantly increased server average selling prices. Baron Fung, Vice President of Research at Dell'Oro Group, said spending remained concentrated in NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra and hyperscaler custom accelerators, while agentic AI created incremental demand for general-purpose compute, storage, and complementary networking. Neocloud providers and AI model builders posted the fastest capex growth among customer segments, reflecting the early stages of their infrastructure buildouts, and Dell led server OEM revenue, followed by Supermicro and Lenovo, while white-box server revenue reached a record high. Fung added that ongoing accelerator deployments and emerging agentic AI and AI-related storage workloads should sustain strong capex growth through the remainder of 2026 and beyond, although supply constraints could limit the pace at which planned infrastructure is deployed.

Tisco Securities has upgraded its investment weighting for the electronics sector to Overweight from Neutral, citing better-than-expected data center CAPEX spending in 2026, stronger second-half trends across all companies, and the sector's underperformance of 33% relative to the market in the recent period, which it believes has already priced in much of the market's remaining concerns. The research team raised its recommendation on DELTA to Buy with a fair value of 282 baht, after the market has already absorbed negative factors. Although raw material shortages, uncertainty over royalty fees, and the recent bond issuance by parent company Delta Taiwan remain pressures in the second half, the 37% decline in the share price is believed to have already reflected downside risks. Meanwhile, HANA was upgraded to Buy with its fair value raised to 61.50 baht, reflecting greater confidence after HANA passed all qualification requirements from end customers to generate AI revenue in the third quarter of 2026, with new HDI PCB expected to be a significant revenue driver in 2027. KCE retains its Hold rating with a fair value adjusted to 60.25 baht, as the share price has fully reflected its prospects, with humanoid robots and capacity expansion being the clearest supporting factors for 2028.

Narit Therdsteerasukdi, Secretary-General of the Board of Investment, said the BOI has laid out a five-point strategy to accelerate development and capture innovation-driven investment that will create leapfrog growth as a New S-Curve. The five areas are: high-skilled personnel, such as data center engineers, photonic engineers and aviation engineers; new supply chains, such as electronic circuit boards and semiconductors; clean energy; expanding free trade agreements with new countries; and ease of doing business through improved government regulations. Narit said competition to attract investment in the future will not rely on tax incentives alone, but will focus mainly on speed, certainty and sustainability, which Thailand must use as its selling point to draw high-tech investors. He said the government aims to push Thailand to become a supply chain leader and to build a complete New Economy ecosystem for the data center, AI, automotive and clean energy industries. The BOI cited Thailand's strengths in attracting investment, including high-standard infrastructure and industrial estates, high-skilled personnel, strong production chains, a domestic market of 70 million people and an ASEAN market of more than 600 million, more than 17 free trade agreements covering 24 countries, digital infrastructure, clean energy with Utility Green Tariff and Direct PPA mechanisms, and competitive production costs.

Technology component stocks led by KCE and HANA rose more than 2%. At 10:55 a.m., KCE stood at 67.25 baht, up 1.50 baht or 2.28%, with trading value of 764.19 million baht, while HANA stood at 49.50 baht, up 1.00 baht or 2.06%, with trading value of 677.56 million baht. This followed an analysis note from KGI Securities (Thailand) stating that KCE has an opportunity to expand into the printed circuit board, or PCB, business for humanoid robots, after KCE informed the Stock Exchange of Thailand on September 11, 2026, that it is in negotiations to buy and sell products with a company in the United States, which KGI believes could be Tesla, and the product could be PCBs for the Tesla Optimus robot. Tesla aims to scale up robot production from about 10,000 units initially to 1 million units per year, and eventually to 10 million units in the long term. KGI preliminarily estimates that revenue from this project could account for roughly 0.3% to 1.3% of KCE's total revenue, under the assumption of production of 1 million robots using PCBs worth 150 to 200 US dollars per unit and KCE holding an order share of about 1% to 3%. It has therefore not yet included revenue from this project in its forecasts. It also raised its core business profit forecasts for 2026-2027 by 6% to 25%, recommended "Hold" on KCE, and raised its end-2027 target price to 62 baht from 48 baht, based on a PER of 40 times. Meanwhile, HANA is expected to benefit indirectly from the upgrading of the AI server supply chain through three key businesses: thermal solutions for HBM and GPU through a partnership with Phononic, high-density PCBA testing equipment, and SiC solid-state transformers. KGI raised its profit forecasts for HANA by 6% to 11%, maintained its "Buy" recommendation, and raised its end-2027 target price to 63 baht from 45 baht, based on a PER of 40 times, expecting normal operating profit in 2027 to grow 44%.

The global AI investment wave is driving foreign capital into Thailand's infrastructure sectors, including data centers, power systems, cooling systems, PCB and storage. Data from Kasikorn Thai shows that in the first half of 2026, Thailand received investment promotion applications totaling 1.47 trillion baht, up 37% from a year earlier, while foreign capital rose 80% to 1.36 trillion baht, led by the digital and electronics industries. Among the stocks seen as direct beneficiaries is DELTA, which makes power supply and cooling systems for data centers and is ramping up commercial production of liquid cooling systems. HANA is viewed as the Thai stock market's new AI proxy, with AI-related products set to enter production lines in the second half of 2026. KCE is expected to benefit from the semiconductor upcycle and tight PCB supply, which could support selling prices and profits in the second half of 2026. SMT gains from the shift to optical connectivity, while CCET benefits from rising demand for both HDD and SSD storage as AI computing generates massive volumes of data. INSET has seen a flood of project inquiries, while WHA and AMATA stand to gain because data center businesses use roughly 12 to 16 times more electricity and water than general industrial plants, meaning industrial estate revenue does not end on the day land is sold but continues through long-term utility income. If foreign capital flows and data center investment accelerate further in 2027, the Thai stock market may see an increasingly clear picture of an AI ecosystem.

Japan's JSR, Tokyo Ohka Kogyo, Shin-Etsu Chemical and other companies announced that from October 1, 2026, new photoresist pricing for global customers will be raised by 15% overall, with high-end ArF series long-term contract quotes up 16% to 22%, HBM-specific immersion ArF up as much as 24%, spot bulk orders up 32% to 38%, KrF series standard grades up 9% to 14%, and 3D NAND thick-film KrF up 18% to 20%. Boosted by the price hike news, the electronic chemicals sector remained strong all day. Xilong Scientific surged to limit up with heavy volume shortly after the midday open, hitting a two-month high, with turnover in less than 15 minutes exceeding the entire previous day's total. Haixing shares climbed rapidly on late-session volume, while Guangxin Materials and Zhongshi Technology also showed unusual upward moves during the session. Also lifted by the price hike news, the glass fiber sector index has risen for seven consecutive days, with Honghe Technology up for seven straight days, and China Jushi, International Composites and Sinoma Science & Technology all up for five consecutive days. The latest data from Sublime China Information shows that as of September 15, the ex-factory price of 7628 electronic fabric was about 11.5 to 12.1 yuan per meter, up 10% to 20% month on month, with the year-to-date gain reaching as high as 162%.

TTM Technologies is ramping up its N+M technology family, having already delivered tens of millions of dollars of N+M products and expecting approximately $600 million of N+M business in the second half of 2026, with about one-third of that opportunity in the third quarter and two-thirds in the fourth quarter. The opportunity is supported by strong Data Center and Networking demand, where second-quarter sales surged 91% year over year as customers expanded AI data-center infrastructure, and TTM Technologies expects the end market to account for 49% of third-quarter sales as N+M enters volume production. N+M yields are running better than expected, and further yield improvements as production scales should support margin expansion in the third and fourth quarters. The Zacks Consensus Estimate projects revenue growth of 50.88% year over year in 2026, with earnings per share projected at $4.82 for 2026 and $6.90 for 2027, representing year-over-year growth of 95.9% and 43.2%, respectively. TTM Technologies faces competition in advanced electronics from Amphenol Corporation, which is strengthening its position through Wilder Technologies, and from Sanmina Corporation, which is expanding high-technology PCB capabilities for AI and aerospace-and-defense products.

Kiatnakin Phatra Securities Public Company Limited, or KKP, assesses that global AI investment is moving beyond chips into the surrounding infrastructure, which will create positive ripple effects for the Thai economy, especially the opportunity to attract a new wave of foreign direct investment, or FDI, into the country's industrial sector and advanced technology supply chain. The analysis notes that as AI systems grow larger, power per rack in data centers rises from several tens of kilowatts to about 600 kilowatts and could reach 1 megawatt in the future, shifting the main constraints to power delivery systems, cooling systems, and data transmission. KKP sees two key technologies that will drive the next phase: 800VDC technology and the shift to optical connectivity. KKP expects the new wave of FDI to flow into semiconductors, printed circuit boards, or PCBs, and advanced electronics, estimating that Thailand's major industrial estate developers, WHA and AMATA, will see land sales increase by about 2,500 rai per year and 2,000 rai per year, respectively. For the standout stocks that stand to benefit, KKP states that Delta Electronics (Thailand) Public Company Limited, or DELTA, is ready to serve demand for data center power systems and liquid cooling systems, while Hana Microelectronics Public Company Limited, or HANA, benefits from demand for analog ICs and power semiconductors. KCE Electronics Public Company Limited, or KCE, is ready to serve demand for high-end PCBs, and Stars Microelectronics (Thailand) Public Company Limited, or SMT, benefits directly from the shift to optical connectivity technology. Cal-Comp Electronics (Thailand) Public Company Limited, or CCET, has the potential to serve demand for both HDD and SSD storage devices. Beyond the electronics group, KKP states that AI's expansion also benefits energy infrastructure, as a global shortage of large power transformers bodes well for Thirai Public Company Limited, or TRT, while demand for transformer oil and fluids for liquid cooling systems opens opportunities for P.S.P. Specialties Public Company Limited, or PSP, as well as the strategic partnership of Millennium Group Corporation (Asia) Public Company Limited, or MGC, in developing humanoid robots. Supapong Iamkong-aek, an analyst at Kiatnakin Phatra Securities Public Company Limited, said global AI investment will not stop at software or chips but is spreading to areas where Thailand has good cost advantages, namely infrastructure and downstream industries, which is a window of opportunity that remains wide open for the Thai economy.

Bualuang Securities has raised its target price for KCE Electronics to 70 baht from 60 baht, maintaining a speculative buy recommendation. It estimates core profit for 2026–2027 at 1.44 billion baht, up 78% year on year, and 2.07 billion baht, up 44% year on year, respectively. The research team says the stock's next upside round depends on two factors that are not yet fully confirmed. The first is the chance to enter the supply chain of Tesla Optimus. KCE has not confirmed Tesla as a customer, only that there are potential transactions with a US company. It estimates that one robot uses about 40–50 PCB panels, or roughly 4 square feet, worth about US$90 per unit. If Fremont reaches its designed capacity of 1 million units a year and KCE wins a 10% share, that would generate revenue of about US$9 million, or roughly 2% of sales, and add about 5% to core profit. The second factor is AI/datacom work, which is the larger upside. KCE has installed capacity of 3.6 million square feet per month and is using only about 65%, leaving roughly 1.26 million square feet per month of spare capacity, plus space at the Rojana plant for another 1 million square feet per month. However, KCE is not yet ready to produce high-end AI circuit boards such as UBB/OAM or 800G/1.6T. A more likely starting point is 6–14 layer work for power systems, control and accessories, before moving up to network products of up to 400G after customer certification. If KCE shifts 50% of its spare capacity in 2027 to these higher-value jobs, the research team estimates upside of about 10–15% for revenue and 15–20% for core profit, with yield, process know-how and customer certification the deciding factors. In a bull case where KCE does enter AI/datacom work, the value is 85 baht.

Bualuang Securities says the current picture still supports continued foreign capital inflows into the Thai stock market over the next 3 months, driven by the accelerating global technology and manufacturing cycle, along with upward revisions to Thai market earnings. Historical data from 2016 to 2026 shows that when the 6 main factors are simultaneously above their averages, foreign capital inflows over the following 3 months were positive in 89% of cases, with a median inflow of about 34 billion baht. Currently all 6 factors are above their averages, and 4 of the 6 are more than +0.5SD. The main impetus comes from South Korean exports, which stand at +2.00SD after export figures for May to July 2026 grew 52.9%, 70.4% and 63.0% year on year respectively. Meanwhile, the US manufacturing index rose from 52.6 in January to 55.6 in July. The revision to SET earnings estimates over the past 3 months swung from -7.3% at the start of the year to +12.7% now, or +1.43SD, consistent with foreign investors' net buying of Thai stocks of about 58 billion baht year to date and 38 billion baht over the past 3 months. The base case estimates inflows of about 24.6 billion baht over the next 3 months, while the soft patch case still yields positive foreign inflows of about 10.3 billion baht. On strategy, it recommends accumulating KCE on expected third-quarter 2026 PCB delivery volumes rising quarter on quarter and price increases from 1 July, which support average selling prices by about 9-10% and give PCB revenue a chance to rise 17-19% quarter on quarter. It also picks PTT and PTTGC to benefit from commodity prices that remain at high levels.

Kiatnakin Phatra Securities, part of the Kiatnakin Phatra Financial Group, analyses that accelerating global AI investment will bring a new wave of FDI into Thailand, particularly in semiconductors, printed circuit boards, or PCBs, and advanced electronics. It estimates that Thailand's major industrial estate developers, WHA and AMATA, will see land sales rise by roughly 2,500 rai per year and 2,000 rai per year respectively. Although upstream technologies such as chip design and manufacturing remain concentrated overseas, Thailand is playing a growing role in the semiconductor supply chain for AI, especially in downstream manufacturing, the assembly and processing of advanced technology. Supapong Iamkongek, an analyst at Kiatnakin Phatra Securities, said global investment in AI will not stop at software or chips but is spreading to areas where Thailand has a cost advantage, namely infrastructure and downstream industries. If Thailand can fully attract this new wave of FDI into advanced production chains, it will not only boost the profits of listed companies but also raise the competitiveness of Thai industry on the world stage.

Broadcom said on its September 2 earnings call that it expects to accelerate Ironwood shipments to Anthropic in the fourth quarter, putting Google's TPU technology at the center of a relationship whose economics differ for Broadcom and Alphabet. Broadcom's April 6 filing described agreements to develop and supply Google's future TPUs, plus networking and other rack components, through up to 2031, and separately said Anthropic was to access approximately 3.5 gigawatts of next-generation TPU capacity through Broadcom beginning in 2027, with consumption dependent on Anthropic's continued commercial success. On September 2, management gave a more aggressive deployment outlook, saying it is deploying 1 gigawatt of Ironwood for Anthropic in 2026, expects another 5 gigawatts of TPU v8i deployment in 2027 and sees an incremental 10 gigawatts in 2028, figures it said are expectations rather than equivalent to the 3.5-gigawatt contractual disclosure. Broadcom reported $16.7 billion of AI semiconductor revenue for its fiscal third quarter ended August 2, up 221% year over year, with companywide free cash flow of $13.7 billion, and forecast $21.7 billion of AI semiconductor revenue for the fourth quarter. For Alphabet, its June-quarter cloud revenue grew 82%, with operating income of $8.814 billion, though overall quarterly capital expenditure exceeded operating cash flow, and Google Cloud results do not isolate the profitability of the Broadcom-Anthropic arrangement.

Hongchang Electronics released its 2026 private placement plan on the evening of September 11, proposing to raise total proceeds of no more than 1.8 billion yuan for projects including high-end copper-clad laminates, prepreg technical upgrades, and advanced packaging film materials. The issuance targets no more than 35 specific investors, with an issue price no lower than 80 percent of the average stock trading price over the 20 trading days before the pricing base date, and the number of shares issued will not exceed 30 percent of the total share capital before the issuance. The issuance will not cause any change in the company's controlling shareholder or actual controller. After deducting issuance expenses, the proceeds are planned for four major projects: 1.055 billion yuan for Zhuhai Hongren's annual production capacity of 13.2 million high-end copper-clad laminates and 31.2 million meters of prepreg, 95 million yuan for Wuxi Hongren's intelligent and green upgrade project with annual production of 9.6 million meters of high-end prepreg, 320 million yuan for the advanced packaging film materials project, and an additional 330 million yuan to replenish working capital. The company said that capacity utilization rates for copper-clad laminates and prepreg at its Wuxi and Zhuhai bases have reached high levels, and market demand is growing explosively with the rapid deployment of downstream sectors such as AI computing infrastructure, making it necessary to accelerate the reserve of high-end product capacity. In the first half of 2026, the company achieved revenue of 2.186 billion yuan, up 64.83 percent year on year; net profit attributable to the parent company was 39.3915 million yuan, up 141.15 percent year on year; and non-GAAP net profit was 51.7916 million yuan, up 257.47 percent year on year. As of the close on September 11, Hongchang Electronics' stock price was 17.46 yuan per share, up 3.87 percent, with a total market value of 19.8 billion yuan. The stock has risen more than 130 percent this year, and its current forward price-to-earnings ratio of 251 times has raised concerns among some investors about the private placement at a high level.

Nvidia is letting rival AI accelerators into its racks, as Reuters reported September 10 that inference-chip startup d-Matrix will use Nvidia's NVLink Fusion technology to connect its next-generation Raptor processors directly into Nvidia data-center racks, with the systems expected to become available in 2027. Astera Labs is working with d-Matrix on custom connectivity solutions to move data rapidly across the system, creating a three-layer architecture in which d-Matrix supplies the accelerator, Nvidia supplies the rack-scale interconnect technology and architecture, and Astera helps solve the data-movement problem between components. For Nvidia, the bull case is that NVLink can become more valuable even when Nvidia does not sell every accelerator, shifting it from dominating GPUs to controlling an important system standard, while the bear case is that NVLink Fusion deliberately makes alternative accelerators easier to deploy and could cost Nvidia some GPU unit share. For Astera Labs, heterogeneous systems may be an even cleaner opportunity, since more accelerators, memory pools, CPUs and switches create more connectivity bottlenecks for its retimers, fabric switches and other connectivity products, though its valuation already assumes substantial AI infrastructure growth. Hedge-fund positioning turned more bullish on Astera Labs in the second quarter, with 73 hedge funds tracked in the stock versus 53 in the first quarter, while Nvidia rose to 285 hedge funds from 275, and short interest stood at roughly 6.6% of Astera's float on August 14 versus about 1.2% for Nvidia, though ALAB short interest fell from the previous reporting period.

Broadcom and AMD both reported blockbuster quarters that put them squarely in the conversation as challengers to Nvidia's dominance in AI compute. Broadcom's AI semiconductor revenue hit $16.7 billion, up 221% year over year and 54% sequentially, and the company guided for Q4 AI revenue of roughly $21.7 billion, up 236%, with fiscal 2027 AI revenue projected at approximately $115 billion. AMD's Data Center segment reached $6.72 billion, up 107% year over year, powered by MI350 shipments and record EPYC sales, with Anthropic committing to up to 2 GW of MI450 Series and Microsoft expanding Azure deployments. Broadcom CEO Hock Tan argued that co-designed custom silicon runs at less than half the cost of a GPU, while AMD's Lisa Su called it an excellent quarter with record revenue and profitability. Broadcom trades at a forward P/E of 20 and AMD at a forward P/E of 32, and both CEOs flagged HBM, substrates, packaging, and data center power as the key choke points for 2027.

Bualuang Securities issued an analysis of KCE Electronics Public Company Limited, or KCE, noting reports that KCE is in the process of limited-volume printed circuit board production to test systems and the actual production line before beginning mass production, or pilot production, of PCB Optimus. If confirmed, this would open new upside for KCE. Meanwhile, Tesla is installing the first-generation Optimus production line at Fremont to prepare for production to begin in 2026, with that line designed for a long-term robot capacity of 1 million units per year. The second-generation line at Giga Texas is designed for long-term capacity of up to 10 million units per year. Bualuang research assumes one humanoid has about 40 to 50 PCB boards, with an average area of about 80 square centimeters per board, or 0.09 square feet. Compared with KCE, which currently has an average selling price of about US$14 per square foot and HDI at about US$18 per square foot, the research assumes a humanoid PCB ASP of US$22 per square foot, a premium of about 20% over current Auto HDI, which is still below selected AI and datacom PCB at around US$60 to US$100 or more per square foot. Based on these assumptions, one humanoid would have an addressable PCB value of about US$80 to US$95, or roughly US$90 per robot. Based on the Fremont designed capacity of 1 million robots per year, that equals a PCB opportunity of about US$90 million per year. If KCE can capture 10% of that content, it would generate additional revenue of about US$9 million per year, using only about 1% of KCE's production capacity, or about 2% of current revenue. At a gross margin of 25%, the research house estimates incremental profit of about 5% and sees that the potential of humanoids offers much more room to grow, which would also lead to a re-rating of its PER. Based on a 2027 PER of 40 times, that implies a price of about 70 baht. This afternoon, KCE informed the Stock Exchange of Thailand that, following some social media reports about the possibility of trading goods with a company in the United States, the company wishes to clarify that it is in the process of operations but has not reached any conclusion, and asks the public, investors, and related parties to consider information from the company's official channels and verifiable information. KCE shares in the afternoon were at 66.25 baht, up 7.75 baht, or 13.25%, with heavy trading value of 5.30211 billion baht.

Asia Plus Securities said in an analysis that TSMC's August 2026 sales came in at 510 billion Taiwan dollars, up 10% from the previous month and up 53% from August 2025. Combined sales for the first two months of the third quarter of 2026 stood at 980 billion Taiwan dollars, up 49% year on year and up 14% from the first two months of the previous quarter. In September 2026, sales are likely to remain supported by expanding investment in AI and data centres by the world's major cloud operators. The research team views TSMC's growth, as the world's largest manufacturer of AI chips, as positive for the global semiconductor and electronics supply chain, including Thai operators such as DELTA, HANA and KCE, and maintains an overweight stance on the electronics sector. It expects normalised profit for the ETRON stocks under coverage to grow about 43% year on year in 2026 and a further roughly 41% in 2027, and picks DELTA as its Top Pick because it makes power supplies and cooling systems used in AI and data centres. It expects DELTA's profit to grow by an average of about 42% in 2026-2027, and notes the stock remains a laggard, up 56% since the start of the year, less than HANA and KCE, which have risen 187%-209%.

MLCC leader Murata Manufacturing has officially issued a notice announcing a product line optimization starting in fiscal year 2026, under which it will discontinue some MLCC products and expand other capacity. The discontinuation covers specific part numbers in consumer-grade standard series and automotive specification series. Affected by the news, the MLCC concept rallied again on the afternoon of September 11, with Yunzhong Technology up more than 18 percent. Earlier, Shuangxing New Materials hit the daily limit, and Hongming Electronics, Torch Electron, Sinocera Materials, and Three Ring Group surged quickly. Among them, Fenghua Advanced Technology rose rapidly in the afternoon to hit the daily limit, closing at 55.99 yuan per share, with turnover of nearly 10 billion yuan and a latest market value of about 64.25 billion yuan. On the earnings front, Fenghua Advanced Technology's 2026 semi-annual report showed that the company achieved operating revenue of 3.5 billion yuan in the first half of the year, up 26.28 percent year on year, and net profit attributable to the parent of 290 million yuan, up 74.01 percent year on year. Net profit attributable to the parent after deducting non-recurring items was 288 million yuan, up 68.84 percent year on year. In terms of industry supply and demand, since 2026, accelerated construction of AI computing power servers, rising penetration of new energy vehicles, and recovering consumer electronics demand have jointly driven continued growth in demand for passive components such as MLCCs, chip resistors, and inductors. Global MLCC leaders have raised prices one after another. Murata Manufacturing announced it would raise prices of high-end MLCCs by 15 to 35 percent, and Samsung Electro-Mechanics announced a uniform 30 percent increase in shipment prices for all MLCC categories starting August 1. In addition, on September 1, Samsung Electro-Mechanics announced that it had signed an MLCC supply contract worth 1.07 trillion Korean won with a well-known global customer. The products are for AI servers, with a supply period covering all of 2027, and the contract amount accounts for 21 percent of the annual revenue of Samsung Electro-Mechanics' MLCC business division.

NVIDIA Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang said generative AI demand and the end of Moore's law are driving a surge in computing infrastructure spending that could reach $3 trillion to $4 trillion by 2030. Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference, Huang said demand is growing faster than supply, with NVIDIA targeting 70% annual revenue growth while describing unconstrained demand growth as exceeding 100%. He cited supply-chain constraints in packaging, DRAM, connectors, voltage regulators and wafers, as well as downstream limits in land, power and data-center buildings, and said the company has a year to expand supply. Huang named CoreWeave, Nebius, Nscale, Lambda and Firmus as regional cloud providers helping secure capacity beyond the largest cloud service providers, and said NVIDIA announced work in Australia involving 2 gigawatts of capacity for 2027, representing approximately $80 billion in infrastructure. He also pointed to cybersecurity, drug discovery and physical AI as major growth opportunities, citing partnerships with CrowdStrike, Cisco and Palantir, and said NVIDIA has $100 billion in lined-up contracts.

d-Matrix announced a multi-year collaboration with NVIDIA that will integrate its next-generation inference XPUs, starting with d-Matrix Raptor, directly into NVIDIA's MGX rackscale architecture via NVLink Fusion. The rack-level system is aimed at AI labs, hyperscalers, and neoclouds seeking ultra-low latency premium-level token services, and pairs d-Matrix XPUs with NVIDIA Vera CPUs, NVLink switches, BlueField-4 DPUs, ConnectX-9 SuperNICs, and Spectrum-X Ethernet networking. d-Matrix is also partnering with Astera Labs to deliver custom connectivity solutions for high-throughput data flow, and the MGX-based rack will use modular cable-free trays built on NVIDIA's proven supply chain. Raptor, a follow-on to the Corsair XPU platform, uses a first-of-its-kind 3D DRAM stacking approach that combines a DRAM memory chip and an SRAM compute chip into a single two-story package, is backed by more than 100 patents, and is expected to tape out before the end of the year. Initial availability of d-Matrix Raptor XPUs integrated into the NVIDIA MGX rack is expected in Q4 2027.

Three major copper-clad laminate producers have raised prices in succession, driving PCB-related stocks to strengthen against the market trend. At the end of August, Kingboard Laminates issued its seventh price increase letter this year, raising FR-4 copper-clad laminate prices by 10 percent across the board, adjusting prepreg prices by specification, and raising thin fabric prices by up to 20 percent. Panasonic then announced it would raise copper-clad laminate prices from September 1, with some products up by as much as 30 percent, and Nan Ya Plastics followed with increases of 20 to 25 percent. Boosted by this, Goldenmax International surged to its daily limit up, closing the morning session at 76.45 yuan, with more than 180,000 lots locked on the limit-up board, turnover exceeding 3.7 billion yuan, and a total market value of 55.6 billion yuan. Yihao New Materials rose by the 20 percent daily limit, GD-Goworld posted a strong run of two limit-up moves in four sessions, and Sihui Fushi, Sdic, and Wanyuan Tong rose more than 10 percent, while China Jushi and Founder Technology also advanced. According to a China Securities Journal report on September 9, several electronic fabric companies and downstream copper-clad laminate producers said the market has shown relatively good acceptance of the new round of price increases, that electronic fabric supply is somewhat tight, and that leading companies are actively expanding capacity, with new projects expected to come on stream this year and next, at which point price trends will need further market confirmation.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Oracle announced an expanded collaboration on September 2 to scale Oracle's global AI infrastructure using HPE Juniper Networking across Oracle Cloud Infrastructure data centers, building on over a decade of joint engineering. HPE issued stock warrants to Oracle to align long-term incentives. Following the announcement, Barclays raised HPE's price target by $12 to $79, while Morgan Stanley boosted Oracle's target by $3 to $210. HPE reported record Q3 2026 revenue of $12.2 billion, up 34% year over year, with networking revenue up 74.9% to $2.9 billion, and raised its full-year revenue growth guidance to 34%-37%. Oracle ended fiscal 2026 with record Q4 revenue of $19.2 billion, up 21%, and full-year revenue of $67.4 billion, up 17%, with cloud infrastructure revenue surging 93% to $5.8 billion and remaining performance obligations jumping 363% to $638 billion. The partnership aims to support Oracle's gigawatt-scale GPU superclusters, positioning both companies for growth in AI networking and cloud infrastructure.

Fujikura shares rose 8% to ¥5,493 on September 9, recovering more than 10% from the September 3 low of ¥4,951. In the first quarter of fiscal year ending March 2027, the company reported sales of ¥402 billion, operating profit of ¥104.8 billion, ordinary profit of ¥111.5 billion, and net profit attributable to parent shareholders of ¥80.4 billion. The full-year forecast issued at the same time calls for sales of ¥1.755 trillion, operating profit of ¥432 billion, and net profit of ¥326 billion, representing a 128.9% increase in operating profit and a 107.4% increase in net profit from the previous year. This is more than double the initial plan of ¥211 billion in operating profit, which the company says reflects actual results rather than conservative assumptions. By segment, the information and communication business accounted for sales of ¥264.4 billion and operating profit of ¥98 billion, representing over 90% of total operating profit, with an operating margin of 37.1%. The stock's valuation is at a PER of 27.9 times and a PBR of 14.95 times, suggesting that the market is effectively pricing in the growth potential of the information and communication segment.

Qualcomm has announced a deal with Amazon to supply up to $60 billion of its AI data center chips, marking a major push beyond its smartphone business. As part of the agreement, Qualcomm will grant Amazon warrants worth about $4 billion that vest with product purchases, allowing Amazon to buy Qualcomm shares at $161.26 per share. The two companies will also collaborate on high-performance optical connectivity for AI infrastructure, and Qualcomm will increase its use of Amazon Web Services and Bedrock to reduce chip design cycles. Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said the partnership will span multiple generations of chips for large-scale AI data centers. The deal comes as Qualcomm faces declining handset revenue and Apple's plan to phase out its modems, and it aims to generate more than $15 billion in data center revenue by 2029.

U.S. semiconductor giant Qualcomm announced on the 8th a partnership with Amazon.com to supply AI semiconductors for large-scale data centers. Through this partnership, Qualcomm could see future revenue of up to $60 billion (approximately 9.2 trillion yen). The two companies will jointly develop semiconductors specialized for AI inference processing and will also collaborate on optical interconnect technology to speed up semiconductor processing. Additionally, Qualcomm will expand its use of AI services from Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon's cloud division, in semiconductor design.

Qualcomm shares rose 6.02% intraday after announcing a multi-generation collaboration with Amazon on customized silicon for large-scale AI data centers, focused on inference. The two companies will also work on optical connectivity extending up to 1.6T, leveraging Qualcomm's SerDes and optical DSP technologies to support bandwidth demands inside AWS networks. Qualcomm plans to deepen its use of AWS infrastructure, including Amazon Bedrock, for electronic design automation workloads to shorten chip design cycles. CEO Cristiano Amon said data center infrastructure will require advances in both computing and connectivity. Qualcomm unveiled the Dragonfly C1000 data center CPU in June and said Meta Platforms would use it from 2028 production, while targeting $15 billion in data center sales in fiscal 2029. Neither company disclosed terms for the Amazon arrangement.