SMT Jumps 7.63% as Broker Says PER Still Low, Stock Leads Group on AI-Driven Optical Orders

AT&S announced an expanded long-term collaboration with Marvell Technology to increase advanced IC substrate capacity for next-generation AI and cloud infrastructure. Marvell Technology is the additional customer identified in AT&S's previously announced expansion of its Kulim manufacturing site in Malaysia, which includes the fit-out of Plant 2 and the construction of a new manufacturing facility for IC substrate cores and advanced packaging. The agreement builds on the companies' existing relationship and is supported by long-term customer commitments that AT&S said provide visibility for future growth while supporting a disciplined investment strategy. AT&S CEO Michael Mertin called the deal an important milestone and said the two companies are well positioned to capture opportunities created by the global build-out of AI infrastructure, while Marvell Senior Vice President and Chief Supply Chain Officer Vinay Krishna said the expanded collaboration strengthens Marvell's supply chain foundation as its data center business expands. AT&S, which employs around 15,000 people and operates production sites in Austria, China, Malaysia and India, said the expansion responds to industry shifts including the move from monolithic chips to chiplet-based designs and rising demand for larger substrate formats, higher integration density and increased layer counts.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing anchored a new Kaohsiung industrial park aimed at tightening the link between advanced-packaging development, testing and workforce training, sending its U.S.-listed shares up approximately 0.6% to $447.86. TSMC plans to occupy two buildings at the site, including a laboratory and training center, with operations targeted for the fourth quarter of 2029. Industrial facilities will cover 53.6 hectares of the 88.7-hectare park, roughly 60% of the total area, giving equipment and materials suppliers space to test technologies closer to TSMC's qualification process. The company disclosed no investment figure, output target or customer commitment, so the project should not be mistaken for an immediate capacity surge. At $447.86, TSMC trades 23.32% above its GF Value estimate of $363.17.

Arm Holdings shares rose 17% to $323 after CEO Rene Haas told CNBC that demand for the company's technology was off the charts and that he is increasingly convinced Arm can surpass its $2 billion revenue target for its developing AGI CPU business. That goal has moved quickly: Arm began in March with an initial target of $1 billion, raised it to $2 billion in May, and by September Haas said the pipeline was above that level. Nvidia's Vera CPU, Google's Axion, Amazon's Graviton5, and Microsoft's Azure Cobalt all use Arm-based computation, tying the company to the expanding trend of CPUs paired with AI accelerators. Haas also pointed to supply restrictions on wafers, substrates and testing capacity that could take years to work through, a problem that nonetheless shows demand is outstripping available capacity. The larger story is Arm's effort to move away from its usual licensing arrangement and capture more value from the chips themselves, and Monday's surge suggests investors are increasingly focused on that opportunity.