Samsung Electronics shares rose 2.7% to ₩281,250 on Tuesday, as a strong rally on Wall Street tied to the artificial intelligence theme pushed up stocks of South Korean semiconductor manufacturers.
Overnight the previous night, major Wall Street indexes rose together, driven by the momentum of AI-related stocks, and the Nasdaq Composite jumped sharply, setting a record high for the trading session.
The rally was driven mainly by optimism about Meta’s AI agent Muse (recognized as an extremist organization and banned in the Russian Federation), whose viral popularity prompted bets that demand for chips and computing capacity, fueled by AI, will continue to grow.
At the level of individual corporate news, several factors strengthened the positive outlook for Samsung at once. The yield of chips for Samsung's HBM4 production improved to about 80% versus less than 60% at the initial stages of production, enabling expanded shipments and higher profitability. At the same time, HBM4 revenue in the third quarter is forecast to grow by more than 3 times compared with the previous quarter.
In addition, semiconductor exports from South Korea reached a record level in the first 20 days of September, showing a 259% year-over-year increase.
Samsung and its competitor SK Hynix contributed to the 1.7% rise in the KOSPI index.