Semiconductor stocks surge on China AI chip easing reports

The semiconductor sector's sharp rebound on Tuesday reflects investor reassessment of near-term AI opportunity following a painful two-day selloff. Two days earlier, memory stocks had dropped 9.9% after Samsung Electronics reported record quarterly profit—an earnings beat that paradoxically triggered a textbook "sell-the-news" reaction because the strong results had already been priced in, giving holders immediate reason to lock in gains. That drop was compounded by reports of DeepSeek developing its own custom AI inference chip, reviving structural concerns about whether custom silicon erodes Nvidia's competitive advantage.

Tuesday's reversal was triggered by a report from The Information that Chinese authorities may permit top technology companies to purchase a capped quantity (under 200,000 units) of Nvidia's H200 AI processors. Critically, SK Hynix's concurrent $24.5 billion（約3.9兆円） ADR offering being oversubscribed more than seven times demonstrated that institutional capital remains abundantly available for AI memory infrastructure—a tangible signal that large investors still view the AI memory supercycle as intact despite the earlier profit-taking. The pattern suggests market participants distinguish between near-term volatility (profit-lock-in on confirmed good news) and underlying demand durability (institutional commitment to memory chip supply chains).