Semiconductors

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.

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.

Apple is preparing to hold a major product launch event on September 9, where it is expected to unveil the new iPhone series and possibly the long-awaited first foldable iPhone. Analysts view this as a significant milestone and a key driver for increasing selling prices and profit margins. The foldable screen is expected to be similar in size to the iPad mini. This event will also be the first major event for new CEO John Ternus, who officially takes office on September 1, succeeding Tim Cook, who moves to the role of executive chairman. Entering the foldable market will put Apple in direct competition with Samsung Electronics, the current market leader. Although the foldable market is still a niche segment, it is expected to become mainstream in the future. IDC forecasts that Apple will ship more than 17 million foldable iPhones by 2027, while global foldable smartphone shipments this year are expected to grow 12.6%, contrasting with overall smartphone shipments, which are expected to decline 16.7%. However, the launch comes amid severe shortages of memory and storage chips, which are pressuring costs and consumer purchasing power. Apple has already raised prices on Macs and iPads and disclosed in July that it is facing significant supply chain shortages that will pressure sales in the current quarter.

Thailand's exports in July 2026 expanded 21.6% year-on-year, higher than market expectations and accelerating from the previous month's 20.8% growth, reaching a value of 34,789.1 million US dollars or 1,128,984 million baht. Meanwhile, imports grew 36.7%, below expectations and slowing from 50.3% in the previous month, resulting in a reduced trade deficit of 3,610.5 million US dollars, which is a positive factor for the Thai economy. Krungsri Securities assesses that these figures are a positive psychological boost for the Thai stock market, especially for technology export stocks such as DELTA, HANA, KCE, and investment theme stocks like industrial estate AMATA, power companies GULF and GPSC, construction firms STECON, PYLON, INSET, and banks KBANK and KTB. The strong exports are supported by the AI investment cycle and demand for electronic goods. However, risks remain from tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and US tariff measures, which need to be monitored.

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.

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).

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.

Krungsri Securities Public Company Limited stated that the total net profit of the Electronics group in the second quarter of 2026 was 6.67 billion baht, up 38% year-on-year but down 29% quarter-on-quarter. The year-on-year increase was driven by improved profits across all companies in the group, especially HANA, whose profit surged 840%, and KCE, which rose 52%. Meanwhile, DELTA increased only 31% and declined 33% quarter-on-quarter due to raw material shortages. DELTA's profit is expected to recover in the third quarter of 2026, but not as strongly as the first quarter's 9 billion baht. In contrast, HANA and KCE are expected to see stepwise profit growth from a new upward earnings cycle. The group's profits are forecast to grow 45% and 41% in 2026 and 2027, respectively, with HANA growing 44% and KCE 50% in 2027, while DELTA's growth slows to 29% from 42% as hyperscalers like Amazon and Microsoft delay data center investments. The brokerage maintains a Reduce rating on DELTA with a target price of 244 baht, and recommends buying HANA and KCE, with KCE as the top pick due to its upstream position and better raw material cost control.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Tongguan Copper Foil disclosed its 2026 semi-annual report on August 26. During the reporting period, it achieved revenue of 4.021 billion yuan, up 34.16% year on year; net profit attributable to the parent company was 215 million yuan, up 514.75% year on year; and net profit attributable to the parent company after deducting non-recurring items was 207 million yuan, up 754.21% year on year. The company plans to distribute a cash dividend of 0.6 yuan per 10 shares, including tax, totaling approximately 49.56 million yuan in cash dividends. The company said the profit growth was mainly due to the recovery of the copper foil industry, with high-end PCB copper foil in short supply. The company optimized its product structure, and the proportion of high-value-added products such as high-frequency and high-speed copper foil increased, with high-frequency and high-speed copper foil output already exceeding 50% of total PCB copper foil output. The industry as a whole has rebounded, and peers such as Jiayuan Technology, Nuode New Materials, Defu Technology, Zhongyi Technology, and Shengyi Technology all posted substantial first-half profit growth. A research report from Soochow Securities estimates that in 2026, the global market demand for high-end copper foil dedicated to AI servers will reach 24,000 tonnes, up 260% year on year; Goldman Sachs expects the global AI server PCB market to reach 84 billion US dollars by 2028.

Brokers expect the Thai stock market to have a chance to rise to the resistance level of 1,620 points today, supported by tech stocks, especially DELTA and HANA, after NVIDIA reported better-than-expected Q2 FY70 results. Profit expanded 126% year-on-year, revenue increased 106%, and gross margin stood at 75%, 6% higher than Bloomberg's forecast. This drove NVIDIA's stock price up 4.6% in after-hours trading, and this morning the KOSPI index rose 2.5%. On the domestic front, the Monetary Policy Committee kept interest rates unchanged but assessed that the Thai economy is supported by AI, although growth remains low and uneven. They believe that looser interest rates will help revive the economy. Analysts from Pai Securities stated that SET today has a trading range of 1,590 – 1,620 points, recommending investment in tech, tourism, retail, banking, power plant, and industrial estate stocks.

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.

Amazon.com Inc. will add an additional 2 million Nvidia Corp. graphics processing units to its data center fleet in the next two years, a sign that the company remains committed to the AI hardware leader's products despite its own competitive chipmaking efforts. The two companies said on Wednesday that Amazon would deploy some 2 million of Nvidia's high-end chips, which are designed to train and run artificial intelligence models, in 2027 and 2028. That's in addition to the 1 million Nvidia chips Amazon in March said that it would be installing in Amazon Web Services data centers, beginning this year. The chips in the latest deal include Nvidia Blackwell Ultra, Rubin and Rubin Ultra GPUs. Those products will likely carry a list price of at least tens of thousands of dollars a unit, though big customers can get discounts. Amazon and Nvidia didn't announce financial terms of their latest deal.

U.S. chip giant Nvidia on Thursday gave a third-quarter (August-October) revenue forecast that beat market expectations. However, shares fell 1.2% in after-hours trading on concerns about whether it can maintain its dominant position in the artificial intelligence (AI) chip market over the long term. The revenue forecast was $10.8 billion (plus or minus 2%), above LSEG analysts' estimate of $10.419 billion. Sales of data center chips to China are not included in the forecast.

SK hynix is spending $720 billion on what it calls the largest network of memory factories in the world, a buildout so large that South Korea's president is urging both SK hynix and rival Samsung to add capacity even faster under a national plan to double the country's memory production within five years. The company, which controls 58% of the high-bandwidth memory market, raised $26.5 billion in July through its Nasdaq listing, the most ever by a foreign company on US markets, and has signed a $500 billion co-development deal with Nvidia. However, its Nasdaq-listed shares have fallen about 21% from their July 14 high, closing recently at $154.41 amid AI-trade volatility. Meanwhile, Samsung, which trades at just 4.2 times forward earnings, saw its shares surge 6.7% in a single day on reports that Singapore's Temasek plans to invest directly in the company. The massive investment underscores SK hynix's conviction that AI memory demand is structural, but the stock's slide suggests investors remain skeptical.

Nvidia reported stronger-than-expected second-quarter results on Wednesday after the market close, with adjusted earnings per share of $2.22 beating analyst estimates of $2.09, and revenue of $96.2 billion surpassing the expected $92.38 billion. Data center revenue reached $89 billion, ahead of the $85.86 billion forecast, while the company guided third-quarter revenue to $108 billion, above the consensus of $105.16 billion. Gross margin improved to 75% from 72.7% a year earlier. The company also noted that its Vera Rubin platform is now in full production. Despite the strong numbers, analysts are focused on concerns about competition from major customers like Alphabet and Amazon, as well as questions about circular financing in the AI sector.

Synopsys reported third-quarter non-GAAP earnings per share of $3.91, beating estimates by $0.24, and revenue of $2.48 billion, up 42.5% year-over-year and $40 million above consensus. The company raised its full-year revenue guidance to $9.715 billion at the midpoint, versus the consensus of $9.68 billion, and its non-GAAP EPS guidance to $15.07, versus the consensus of $14.77, citing continued AI-driven demand strength. Shares fell 1.4% in after-hours trading.

Jim Cramer highlighted Sandisk Corporation's capital-return plans on the August 24 episode of Mad Money, noting that the memory maker intends to return 100% of its excess cash to shareholders, with $4.5 billion in buybacks in its fiscal fourth quarter and an additional $14 billion added to its repurchase authorization. The stock has surged 529% year to date, making it the top performer in the S&P 500. Sandisk's fiscal 2026 revenue reached $20.25 billion, up 175% from fiscal 2025, with GAAP net income of $11.43 billion versus a $1.64 billion loss a year earlier. The company's fourth-quarter non-GAAP gross margin hit 84.6%, up from 78.4% in the previous quarter and 26.4% in the year-ago quarter. Sandisk has signed agreements with eight customers covering about 50% of bits in fiscal 2027 and roughly two-thirds in fiscal 2028, aiming to reduce exposure to the NAND cycle. Hedge fund participation increased to 128 funds in Q2 from 114, while short interest stands at 7.36% of the float.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, the world's largest contract chipmaker, reported July revenue of NT$467.58 billion, a 44.7% leap from a year earlier, with shares trading at $415.66. Revenue for the first seven months soared 37% to NT$2.872 trillion, and second-quarter sales reached $40.2 billion with a 67.7% gross margin and a 60.3% operating margin. Management expects third-quarter revenue between $44.6 billion and $45.8 billion, with a midpoint of $45.2 billion indicating another 12.4% sequential jump. However, the stock trades 30.24% above its GF Value of $319.14, signaling that investors already expect advanced-node production and AI accelerators to remain hot, and any soft demand signal could hit hard given the growth is priced in.

Nvidia has informed some of its largest customers that prices for servers containing its AI chips will increase by more than 15%, according to a Bloomberg News report from August 22. The hikes, which take effect on systems shipped early next year, will include those with the flagship Vera Rubin and Grace Blackwell chips. The increases are driven by soaring memory costs, not Nvidia's own manufacturing expenses, and server manufacturers supplying Microsoft, Oracle, and Google have already begun notifying customers. The news comes just days before Nvidia's earnings release on August 26, where investors will watch for confirmation and margin impact. While the hikes could signal pricing power and strong demand, they may also push buyers toward alternatives, though major customers like Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Google remain dependent on Nvidia for their data center build-out.

Applied Materials has entered a new AI-driven growth cycle, reporting record revenue of $9.12 billion with non-GAAP EPS of $3.50 and GAAP EPS of $3.17, and gross margin above 50% for the 13th consecutive quarter of year-over-year expansion. The company expects Q4 revenue of approximately $10.25 billion, up 51% year-over-year, with non-GAAP EPS of $4.02, up 85%, and Semiconductor Systems revenue projected to rise 62% to about $7.9 billion. UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri maintains a Buy rating with a $675 price objective, citing aggressive capacity expansion and share gains, and the company aims to double systems output capacity by CY 2028. Applied Materials also rolled out six new systems targeting DRAM and advanced packaging, and its $500 million Singapore expansion more than doubles advanced cleanroom capacity there. However, rising expectations leave little room for error, as any slowdown in AI-related semiconductor spending, subdued DRAM investment, or delays in advanced-node capacity additions could weigh on the stock.

Rosenblatt Securities has lifted its price target on Marvell Technology to $300 from $240, reiterating a Buy rating ahead of the company's fiscal second-quarter earnings report on Thursday. Analyst Sajal Dogra expects another beat-and-raise quarter, driven by strength in optical interconnects and expanding custom AI-chip programs. Wall Street forecasts earnings of $0.93 per share, up about 39% year over year, on revenue of roughly $2.72 billion, representing about 35% growth. Dogra sees more than 25% sequential growth in optical interconnects and highlights Marvell's custom-chip partnerships with Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, which are expected to become increasingly important in fiscal 2028 and 2029. Google, in particular, has expanded its partnership with Marvell and holds warrants to purchase up to 58.97 million shares at $206.58 each. The analyst also notes that rising semiconductor-development costs could benefit Marvell due to its ability to reuse intellectual property across customers. Investors are advised to focus on guidance and commentary on optics and custom silicon, as well as any changes to long-term outlook, with Marvell's investor day in early October also a key event.