(Source: Caixin)

On August 14, the Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.59% at 68,713.80 points; the South Korea KOSPI index closed up 2.41% at 6,977.34 points. During the day, SK hynix rose as much as 6% at one point, and finally closed up more than 3%. Samsung Electronics closed up more than 2%.

Recently, SK hynix Chairman Choi Tae-won said in an interview that he is very sorry that memory prices have risen so much; they are truly doing their best to expand production. Choi called out that a real “chip inflation” has arrived, and next year the entire industry will face even harsher blows. With computing demand surging by double, memory chip prices skyrocketing by 50%, even Apple has been forced to raise prices for its flagship products. Choi admitted that in the face of this war to secure chips, even if production capacity is doubled within five years, it will still be far from enough. Physical production capacity simply cannot keep up with the wild demand, and the entire tech industry is being completely stuck in a deadly “AI bottleneck.”

Overnight U.S. stocks: Most semiconductor stocks rose, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index gained 0.46%. Among them, memory stocks jumped across the board. Western Digital and SK hynix rose by more than 7%, and Seagate Technology rose nearly 5%. Micron Technology rose more than 4%. In addition, Intel and Lam Research rose by more than 3%, while ARM and Marvell Technology rose by more than 2%.

Among them, SanDisk rose by more than 13%. On the news front, at its 2026 Investor Day, SanDisk released a long-term financial model targeting mid-to-high double-digit revenue growth for fiscal years 2028 to 2030. It expects non-GAAP gross margin of about 80% and non-GAAP operating margin of about 75%. SanDisk also commits that after completing business investments, it will return 100% of remaining cash to shareholders. SanDisk expects that AI data centers will significantly boost demand for storage, and by 2030 the total available market size for enterprise data center flash is expected to reach 1.2 zettabytes.

In this regard, in a research report dated August 13, Goldman Sachs noted that not only did SanDisk provide long-term financial guidance that exceeded market expectations (80% gross margin and 75% operating margin), it also made a major commitment to return 100% of excess free cash flow to shareholders. Furthermore, its next-generation HBF (high-bandwidth flash) technology roadmap for AI inference brings significant upside potential to the company. Goldman Sachs reiterated its “Buy” rating for SanDisk and set a 12-month target price of up to $2,200 (based on a 20x P/E multiple of normalized EPS of $110), implying about 44% upside versus the current share price of $1,528.

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs also pointed out that whether long-term customer agreements (NBM) can truly smooth out industry cyclicality still needs time to be validated, and in the short term it is difficult for it to be fully reflected in valuation multiples. However, with recent NAND market incremental supply remaining limited, combined with ongoing optimization of the product mix, Goldman Sachs’ “Buy” logic for SanDisk remains solid.

Another point worth noting is that recently, the latest U.S. stock holdings data from private equity giant Gaoyi Asset Management’s overseas fund were released. In Q2 2026, Gaoyi Asset Management increased its positions in several stocks including TSMC, Micron Technology, and SanDisk, adding to exposure to the semiconductor memory segment. At the same time, it fully exited holdings in Futu Holdings, XPeng Motors, NIO, Lumentum, Advanced Micro Devices, and Meisn? (Mei Sheng).

Meanwhile, the overseas U.S. stock portfolio under the management of 东方港湾’s fund manager Butn? (Butn) underwent a major reshuffle. In Q2, it newly bought Intel, SanDisk, Advanced Micro Devices, Marvell Technology, ARM, Broadcom, and Lumentum, placing heavy bets on the AI hardware track. It cleared positions in stocks such as Google A, Apple, and Tesla.

Also, according to the Shanghai Securities News, recently international capital has been accelerating its allocation to China’s equity assets. The latest fund flow data show that, as of August 5, over the past nearly one month, China stock funds saw net inflows of $50.82 billion, accounting for nearly 60% of the total emerging markets figure. Overseas-listed China ETFs have also expanded in scale. In recent days, multiple foreign institutions have also spoken out, saying that China companies’ earnings recovery and industrial upgrading will drive the continuation of valuation re-rating. They view sectors such as semiconductors, internet, power, and healthcare as core allocation directions.