AI Stocks Roar Back Across Asia on Earnings Wins
Today, Asian chip stocks staged a sharp rebound on October 21 as SK hynix and Samsung surged over 7 percent on strong earnings from SpaceX and Super Micro.
Asian tech stocks staged a sharp rebound on Wednesday as strong earnings from SpaceX and server maker Super Micro eased fears about the artificial intelligence boom. Chipmakers led the gains in Seoul and Tokyo, ending a painful slide for the sector. South Korea's SK hynix and Samsung Electronics both surged at least 7 percent. Japan's Kioxia, Advantest and SoftBank gained between 2 and 4 percent. The KOSPI index rose more than 3 percent to 5,735.14, bouncing back from a 3.73 percent fall the day before. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed 0.9 percent, with two stocks rising for every one that fell. The rally followed weeks of losses fueled by worries that the hundreds of billions of dollars pouring into AI data centers and chips may not earn enough profit.
Earnings wins change the mood
The shift came after Elon Musk's SpaceX reported its first quarterly profit as a public company. Net income for the July-to-September period was $4.4 billion, more than double what analysts expected, compared with a loss of $1.1 billion a year earlier. Revenue jumped 161 percent to $14.6 billion, driven by deals to rent out computing power to AI firms. SpaceX shares rose 8 percent in extended trading. Musk also said he would back a merger of SpaceX and Tesla, which would rank as the largest corporate tie-up of all time. Investors are now watching the rest of the earnings season closely. Meta reports its third-quarter results soon, and the outcome could set the tone for AI stocks into the end of the year.
Super Micro's blowout preliminary numbers
Super Micro Computer gave the AI trade another jolt on October 20 with preliminary results that beat its own forecasts by a wide margin. The company said revenue for the quarter ended September 30 will land between $18.5 billion and $19.5 billion, far above its earlier guidance of $14.5 billion to $15.5 billion and analyst estimates of around $15 billion. Gross margins are expected to come in at 12 to 12.5 percent, up from the 10.4 to 10.8 percent range it had guided to before. The company credited strong demand for AI servers, which are built with Nvidia chips and used to train and run AI models. Shares jumped about 12 percent in extended trading after closing at $32.47. Dell Technologies and Hewlett Packard Enterprise each rose more than 5 percent on the read-through, and Nvidia shares climbed as well. The company has set full-year revenue targets of $65 billion to $72 billion and will report final results on November 3.
Nomura stays bullish on memory chips
Adding to the optimism, Nomura Securities kept its bullish view on the global memory industry, arguing that fears about AI investment returns and China's progress in chips had been overdone. The brokerage set price targets of 4.7 million won for SK hynix and 670,000 won for Samsung Electronics, keeping buy ratings on both. Nomura expects global memory demand to outpace supply through at least 2028, helped by new data center capacity rising from 22.3 gigawatts this year to 31.5 gigawatts in 2027. It also estimated that combined revenue at OpenAI and Anthropic grew about 507 percent from a year earlier in the third quarter.
Worries have not gone away
Not every AI bet recovered. In Australia, data-center developer Nextdc plunged 45 percent after cutting its outlook and renewing its spending plans, a reminder that heavy investment in AI infrastructure still makes investors nervous. Analysts warn the rebound could be fragile. Concerns about AI profitability and how companies are financing their data center spending continue to cloud the outlook. With more tech earnings due this week, the next few days will test whether Wednesday's rally has real staying power.
Sources
- Malay Mail (AFP) - https://www.malaymail.com/news/money/2026/10/21/ai-stocks-roar-back-across-asia-lifting-seoul-and-tokyo-markets/239988 - Bloomberg (via swissinfo.ch) - https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/asian-shares,-us-futures-rise-on-ai-trade-revival:-markets-wrap/92248255 - Aju Press - https://www.ajupress.com/view/20261021102326568 - The Business Times (Bloomberg) - https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/super-micro-preliminary-results-top-estimates-shares-jump-12