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SK Hynix considers selling stake in Chongqing plant, valued at about $3 billion
Odaily News: Memory chip maker SK Hynix is considering selling its stake in its Chongqing plant in China, and is exploring options including introducing external investors. The company has begun selecting advisory institutions. If a deal is reached, the plant's enterprise value is estimated at around $3 billion, with potential investors including Chinese funds and local enterprises.
Morgan Stanley: Memory Chip Cycle Slows But AI Demand and LTA Reshape Long-Term Value
According to TechFlow Research, Morgan Stanley's latest research report in August indicates that the Q3 DRAM contract price quarter-over-quarter increase has fallen from an expected 20% to 15%, memory module inventory has risen to 12.5 weeks, and signs of weakness have emerged in China's consumer electronics demand. However, Morgan Stanley believes this is merely a normal cyclical slowdown, not a trend reversal. The capex growth rate of the four major cloud vendors was adjusted up from 14% to 29%, and AI demand remains strong. Samsung aims to place 60% to 70% of its capacity under long-term agreements, SK Hynix has completed LTA negotiations with approximately 10 clients, and Micron's 16 agreements cover approximately $100 billion in minimum revenue. Morgan Stanley maintains an overweight rating on Samsung and SK Hynix, with target prices of 381,000 won and 2.6 million won respectively, implying 74% to 84% upside potential. Samsung's current stock price corresponds to an expected P/E ratio of about 5x for 2026, while SK Hynix is about 5.8x. Morgan Stanley believes LTAs are changing industry earnings visibility; the market has not yet assigned a premium to LTA-supported earnings. If LTAs verify downside protection, the memory valuation system may be reshaped.
ChangXin Memory plans to build a second DRAM fab in Beijing and is negotiating financing support.
According to Reuters, sources familiar with the matter revealed that CXMT is considering building a second 12-inch DRAM fab in Beijing Yizhuang and is discussing financing support with the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area and several state-owned technology enterprises. Negotiations are currently still in the early stages, and the financing scale and structure have not yet been finalized. The proposed project may be located at the company's existing Beijing facility, but production capacity plans and total investment amount have not yet been disclosed.
Serenity: Tech Giants' 2026 CapEx May Exceed Expectations; Bottleneck Assets Like Memory Chips Poised for Valuation Reshaping
"White-Haired Stock Guru" Serenity has summarized the capital expenditure guidance from the latest earnings reports of Amazon, Meta, Google, and Microsoft, stating that the four major tech giants are expected to allocate a combined capital expenditure of approximately $720 billion to $745 billion in 2026, exceeding the market's previous expectation of $695 billion to $725 billion. The market has recently experienced significant deleveraging, as well as position liquidations among retail and institutional investors due to margin pressures. While short-term adjustments may persist, it is difficult to maintain a bearish stance on upstream semiconductor companies and next-generation cloud computing infrastructure in the medium to long term.Serenity also proposed the "bottleneck investment" thesis, arguing that when trillions of dollars in capital flow into supply chain segments previously viewed as low-value commodities—such as memory chips and even enterprises in the energy infrastructure sector—these companies may undergo a valuation reshaping. Many currently popular AI supply chain companies were previously overlooked by the market during the telecommunications cycle. However, as AI infrastructure construction enters an acceleration phase and capital expenditure flows into their balance sheets, these enterprises may experience a repricing.
Kong Jianping indirectly holds approximately 18.98 million shares of ChangXin Memory Technologies, with a corresponding market value of about 940 million yuan
According to public information and related disclosure documents, Kong Jianping indirectly holds approximately 18.98 million shares of ChangXin Memory Technologies through the Yifang Changda Fund (with a capital commitment of 21.34 million yuan). Based on the opening price of 49.5 yuan per share that day, the market value of the holdings is approximately 940 million yuan, with a reported return of about 44 times.Kong Jianping stated that when he invested in ChangXin in 2020, the company's valuation was less than 20 billion yuan, but it has now exceeded 3 trillion yuan.
Banks "Lurk" in ChangXin Memory Technologies: Equity Appreciation Accounts for 0.3%-10% of the 2025 Revenue of Six Major Banks, Including the "Big Four"
ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) claimed the title of "king of stocks" on its first day of listing on the A-share market, also bringing substantial book-value gains to the five major state-owned banks that indirectly hold shares in the company. It is understood that the five major state-owned banks primarily participated in CXMT's investment through their financial asset investment companies (AICs): Agricultural Bank of China directly holds approximately 0.95% via its subsidiary, ABC Financial Asset Investment, making it the largest investor among the banking AICs; China Construction Bank directly holds about 0.83% through CCB Financial Asset Investment, while also holding additional shares indirectly through CCB International and CCB Leading, bringing its total stake to approximately 1.7% after look-through consolidation, the highest proportion among the five state-owned banks; Industrial and Commercial Bank of China holds approximately 0.64% through ICBC Financial Asset Investment's ICBC Rongjin Investment; Bank of Communications holds about 0.38% through BOCOM Financial; and Bank of China holds approximately 0.38% through BOC Asset.Analysis suggests that banks are likely to place their CXMT equity holdings under FVTPL accounts (financial assets measured at fair value through profit or loss). Assuming the last pre-IPO capital increase price of RMB 2.63 per share as the benchmark, the book values for each bank are approximately RMB 2.46 billion for CCB, RMB 1.5 billion for ABC, RMB 1.01 billion for ICBC, RMB 600 million each for BOC and BOCOM, and RMB 460 million for China Merchants Bank. Under different scenarios simulating CXMT's total market capitalization ranging from RMB 1 trillion to 7 trillion after listing, the equity appreciation portion accounts for approximately 0.3% to 10% of the six banks' 2025 revenues. (Caixin)
US ITC Issues Section 337 Final Determination on Foreign-Made Semiconductor Devices and Their Downstream Products and Components
According to Sina Finance, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) voted to initiate a 337 investigation (Investigation No. 337-TA-1511) against Certain Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) Devices, Products Containing the Same, and Components Thereof (II). It is alleged that the products exported to the US, imported into the US, and sold in the US violate Section 337 of the US Tariff Act (infringing US Registered Patent Nos. 12,646,537, 12,650,937), requesting the US ITC to issue a limited exclusion order and a cease and desist order. South Korea Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Suwon, Republic of Korea, US Samsung Electronics America, Inc., Plano, Texas, US Samsung Semiconductor, Inc., Plano, Texas, US Google LLC, Mountain View, California, US Super Mi
Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron Face US Class-Action Lawsuit, Accused of Manipulating Memory Prices via HBM Transition
According to The Paper, 14 individual consumers and three small businesses filed an antitrust class-action lawsuit on June 25 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accusing Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron of conspiring to manipulate DRAM supply and pricing since 2022, leading to an approximately 700% increase in memory prices over the past four years. The plaintiffs claim the three companies used the transition to High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) as an excuse to artificially cut supply of traditional DDR3 and DDR4 memory, disregarding "all economic and business logic". The lawsuit also cites Apple's recent price increases for iPads and Macs as evidence that supply restrictions have affected downstream products. If successful, the defendants are required to pay treble damages, and the scope of the lawsuit may expand to all consumers and businesses purchasing products containing DRAM. Notably, Samsung and SK Hynix were previously fined in the U.S. for price-fixing behavior in the early 2000s, and Samsung was even handed a $300 million criminal fine in 2005. Investment bank Jefferies predicts that the high level of memory prices is difficult to reverse in the short term, with prices still expected to rise quarter-on-quarter by 30% to 50% in the third and fourth quarters of 2026, and a significant decline may not occur until 2028 at the earliest.
SK Hynix's Optical Interconnect Memory Roadmap: Connecting Larger Shared Memory Pools via Localized HBM
Odaily News, Citrini analyst jukan stated on the X platform that at first glance, SK Hynix's CPO technology roadmap appears to have one axis pointing toward HBM and another toward optical communication. However, the underlying logic is that AI competition is shifting from individual chip performance to data transfer efficiency across the entire system.Over the past few years, HBM has addressed the problem of GPUs being unable to receive data fast enough. By vertically stacking multiple layers of DRAM and placing them next to the GPU, HBM delivers extremely high bandwidth. Yet, as more HBM stacks are placed around each GPU, packaging area, interposer edge space, power supply, and thermal dissipation capabilities are all approaching their limits. Meanwhile, AI clusters have expanded to thousands or even tens of thousands of GPUs. No matter how fast a single GPU computes, the entire system will still be constrained by the "bandwidth wall" if data cannot be efficiently transferred between GPUs and racks.SK Hynix's vision is to extend optical interconnect to memory. Low-latency, high-bandwidth local HBM will remain next to the GPU, while optical fibers connect it to a larger shared memory pool. This approach avoids limiting all memory capacity within a single GPU package and enables horizontal scaling at the rack level.From an investment perspective, this does not mean HBM will be replaced in the near term. What is more likely to emerge is a new memory hierarchy: frequently accessed data remains stored in local HBM, while larger-scale, less frequently accessed data is stored in optically interconnected memory pools, HBF, or SSDs.SK Hynix is repositioning its business, shifting from selling standardized memory chips to co-designing HBM, controllers, advanced packaging, and system-level memory architectures with customers. If this roadmap comes to fruition, SK Hynix could strengthen customer stickiness, increase product added value, and enhance its ability to secure long-term contracts. At the same time, the company may also more proactively address the potential impact of future memory disaggregation on traditional HBM business models.At the supply chain level, areas that may benefit in the long term include silicon photonics chips, optical engines, lasers, fiber coupling technology, and advanced 2.5D and 3D packaging.However, this concept is still in its very early stages and essentially remains just a roadmap. jukan noted that a person involved in TSMC's packaging business whom he interviewed today was completely unaware of this plan.
Jim Cramer: AI-Driven Memory Stock Super Cycle, Four Major Storage Stocks Still Have Upside Potential
According to CNBC, renowned investor Jim Cramer stated that the AI boom has fundamentally changed the cyclical patterns of the memory industry. Although SanDisk has surged 653% this year, Seagate 261%, Micron 254%, and Western Digital 211%, it is still not too late to enter the market now. Cramer pointed out three core reasons why this cycle differs from history: First, memory supply is extremely scarce; Musk has publicly stated that memory has become the biggest bottleneck for data center expansion. Second, manufacturers are no longer blindly expanding production, but instead locking in profit margins through long-term customer agreements. Third, companies are using profits for stock buybacks rather than capacity expansion. SanDisk still has $15.5 billion in buyback capacity, Seagate is advancing a $5 billion buyback plan, and Western Digital added a $4 billion buyback authorization this year. Cramer is particularly bullish on Micron, believing it still has the potential to double provided AI data center demand remains unabated, and has already established positions through his charitable trust fund.
Apple is in early talks with ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) about supply arrangements, planning to use its components in some devices sold in China
Odaily News, Citrini analyst jukan stated on the X platform that, according to WSJ, Apple has entered preliminary discussions with ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) regarding supply, intending to use its components in some devices sold in China.
Serenity: Still Bullish on Memory Stocks, Photonics Sector Focus Shifts Back to AXTI and LITE
Odaily Planet Daily Report: "White-Haired Stock God" Serenity stated on the X platform that he remains bullish on memory stocks such as MU and Samsung. In addition, this week, the focus in the photonics sector has shifted back to AXT and Lumentum. The photonics industry has previously shown signs of supply tightness, with Coherent ($COHR) and Lumentum ($LITE) laser production capacity for the next two years already sold out. AAOI's recent earnings report also showed continued strong demand for optical modules.Meanwhile, a large number of retail investors have been panic-selling in the storage sector. There are indeed some changes in the market at present, such as Nvidia's Rubin Ultra optimizing for memory, and memory prices no longer rising as significantly as previously expected. However, at current prices, the operating profit of storage companies relative to their market capitalization remains extremely compelling, especially given the structural growth in storage demand. Moreover, the supply-demand imbalance next year could become even more severe.Serenity noted that the market tends to panic when an industry declines and follows new narratives. For example, helium during the Iran war, the LNG market, and SpaceX's earnings call, which once again emphasized storage supply tightness. Many times, industry bottlenecks and fundamentals haven't changed significantly, but market sentiment has already undergone a massive shift.
Citrini Analyst: Short-Term May See "Short Memory, Long Optical" Trading, Long-Term Outlook for Storage Industry Remains Positive
Odaily News, Citrini analyst Jukan stated on the X platform that the market may have to adopt a "short memory, long optical" trading strategy in the short term, with some hedge funds already positioning in this direction, primarily based on three reasons:First, after Korea's leveraged ETF market largely ceased to function, related investors are facing redemption pressure, which may lead to additional selling outflows. Adjustments in the capital chain of leveraged products could still put pressure on Korean memory stocks.Second, Nvidia is adjusting its next-generation AI system architecture. Nvidia may reduce the HBM configuration per cabinet for Rubin Ultra and connect multiple cabinets via optical interconnect technology, keeping Rubin Ultra cluster-level performance ahead. Even if the HBM reduction stems from supply constraints rather than declining demand, optical communications could still become a key beneficiary in AI infrastructure.Third, the market is forming a consensus that memory prices may peak within the next two quarters.However, the long-term outlook for the storage industry remains positive, though the short-term view is cautious. AI infrastructure investment is gradually shifting from a sole focus on HBM storage capacity to the overall efficiency of data center architecture, including high-speed optical interconnects and other components, which may drive funds to rotate from memory chips to optical communications in the short term.
SK Hynix Stock Still Favored by Institutions After Volatility: HBM4 and Long-Term Supply Agreements Support AI-Era Growth
According to Korean media NATE, driven by the AI investment boom, SK Hynix's stock price has recently experienced severe volatility. Against the backdrop of intensifying market volatility, SK Group released an advertisement quoting the famous words of founder Choi Jong-geon (최종건): "Despair and hope are two sides of the same coin; despair can be turned into hope like flipping a hand," and rewrote it as "Anxiety and expectation in the AI era are also two sides of the same coin; anxiety can be turned into expectation," thereby conveying confidence in the long-term development of the AI industry. Securities firms believe that short-term stock price volatility has not changed SK Hynix's fundamentals, and the market should focus on its HBM4 technology leadership advantage and the performance stability brought by Long-Term Agreements (LTA). Hyundai Motor Securities analyst Noh Geun-chang (노근창) stated that SK Hynix's DRAM and NAND bit growth rates for the third quarter are expected to reach 9.7% and 1.5% respectively; with the expansion of HBM4 sales contribution, even if the proportion of Long-Term Agreements increases, DRAM Average Selling Price (ASP) is still expected to rise 19.9% quarter-over-quarter. Regarding competition concerns brought by China's ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), Noh Geun-chang believes that considering the US continues to strengthen semiconductor equipment export restrictions and Micron is expanding domestic investment in the US, the possibility of major companies like Apple adopting Chinese memory chips is relatively low.
Bitget Stock Contracts Now Live for CXMT (ChangXin Memory Technologies)
Odaily News: According to the official announcement, Bitget's stock perpetual contracts have been listed for CXMT (ChangXin Memory Technologies). These contracts are settled in USDT and support up to 20x leverage with 7×24 trading. As of now, Bitget supports a total of 273 stock contract instruments.
Binance Futures Will List Multiple TradFi USDT Perpetual Contracts
According to the official announcement, the Binance Futures platform will sequentially launch 6 USDT perpetual contracts based on traditional finance underlying assets from August 17 to 18, 2026, as follows: • GDXUSDT (Underlying: VanEck Gold Miners ETF) — August 17, 13:30 UTC • NETUSDT (Underlying: Cloudflare Class A Common Stock) — August 17, 13:35 UTC • VSTUSDT (Underlying: Vistra Corp Common Stock) — August 17, 13:40 UTC • SHOPUSDT (Underlying: Shopify Class A Shares) — August 17, 13:45 UTC • LYTEUSDT (Underlying: Roundhill Photonics & Optical ETF) — August 17, 13:50 UTC • CXMTUSDT (Underlying: ChangXin Memory Technologies, SSE 688825) — August 18, 05:00 UTC The above contracts all support up to 20x leverage, 24/7 trading, and multi-asset mode, with funding rates settled every 8 hours, capped at ±2%.
SK Hynix Stock Still Favored by Institutions After Volatility: HBM4 and Long-Term Supply Agreements Support AI-Era Growth
According to Korean media NATE, driven by the AI investment boom, SK Hynix's stock price has recently experienced severe volatility. Against the backdrop of intensifying market volatility, SK Group released an advertisement quoting the famous words of founder Choi Jong-geon (최종건): "Despair and hope are two sides of the same coin; despair can be turned into hope like flipping a hand," and rewrote it as "Anxiety and expectation in the AI era are also two sides of the same coin; anxiety can be turned into expectation," thereby conveying confidence in the long-term development of the AI industry. Securities firms believe that short-term stock price volatility has not changed SK Hynix's fundamentals, and the market should focus on its HBM4 technology leadership advantage and the performance stability brought by Long-Term Agreements (LTA). Hyundai Motor Securities analyst Noh Geun-chang (노근창) stated that SK Hynix's DRAM and NAND bit growth rates for the third quarter are expected to reach 9.7% and 1.5% respectively; with the expansion of HBM4 sales contribution, even if the proportion of Long-Term Agreements increases, DRAM Average Selling Price (ASP) is still expected to rise 19.9% quarter-over-quarter. Regarding competition concerns brought by China's ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), Noh Geun-chang believes that considering the US continues to strengthen semiconductor equipment export restrictions and Micron is expanding domestic investment in the US, the possibility of major companies like Apple adopting Chinese memory chips is relatively low.
Morgan Stanley: Memory Chip Cycle Slows But AI Demand and LTA Reshape Long-Term Value
According to TechFlow Research, Morgan Stanley's latest research report in August indicates that the Q3 DRAM contract price quarter-over-quarter increase has fallen from an expected 20% to 15%, memory module inventory has risen to 12.5 weeks, and signs of weakness have emerged in China's consumer electronics demand. However, Morgan Stanley believes this is merely a normal cyclical slowdown, not a trend reversal. The capex growth rate of the four major cloud vendors was adjusted up from 14% to 29%, and AI demand remains strong. Samsung aims to place 60% to 70% of its capacity under long-term agreements, SK Hynix has completed LTA negotiations with approximately 10 clients, and Micron's 16 agreements cover approximately $100 billion in minimum revenue. Morgan Stanley maintains an overweight rating on Samsung and SK Hynix, with target prices of 381,000 won and 2.6 million won respectively, implying 74% to 84% upside potential. Samsung's current stock price corresponds to an expected P/E ratio of about 5x for 2026, while SK Hynix is about 5.8x. Morgan Stanley believes LTAs are changing industry earnings visibility; the market has not yet assigned a premium to LTA-supported earnings. If LTAs verify downside protection, the memory valuation system may be reshaped.
NVIDIA Considers Reducing Rubin Ultra GPU Configuration to Address HBM Memory Shortage
To address HBM memory supply shortages, NVIDIA is considering reducing the specifications of the next-generation Rubin Ultra GPU. According to sources cited by The Information, NVIDIA has internally tested at least three versions of the Rubin Ultra GPU with lower HBM configurations over the past few weeks, requiring HBM capacity lower than the initially announced specifications. Possible downgrade paths include scaling down from HBM4E to HBM4, and from 12Hi HBM to 8Hi HBM. This move aims to advance product launch plans under supply constraints.
SK Hynix and SanDisk Unveil First HBF Standard Specification, Capacity Up to 512GB
Odaily News: SK Hynix and SanDisk have unveiled the first standard specification for High Bandwidth Flash (HBF), a next-generation storage technology based on NAND flash. SK Hynix presented the specification at FMS 2026, held from August 4 to 6 in Santa Clara, California, USA.HBF stacks NAND flash vertically in a manner similar to High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) to enhance capacity and data transfer speeds. The specification defines two stacked configurations—8-layer and 16-layer NAND dies—with a maximum capacity of 512GB and bandwidth offered in three tiers, supporting 0.4TB to 3.0TB per second.HBF connects to processors using the industry-standard UCIe interface, enabling compatibility with different processor types such as GPUs and CPUs. The specification has been released through the Open Compute Project (OCP), and the HBF Consortium currently includes Google and AI semiconductor company Tenstorrent.SK Hynix will also showcase its in-development 10th-generation (V10) 375-layer 4D NAND wafers and products for the first time at this event, with plans to begin mass production of high-performance, high-capacity enterprise SSDs (eSSD) utilizing this technology early next year.
Related news
SK Hynix's Optical Interconnect Memory Roadmap: Connecting Larger Shared Memory Pools via Localized HBM
Odaily News, Citrini analyst jukan stated on the X platform that at first glance, SK Hynix's CPO technology roadmap appears to have one axis pointing toward HBM and another toward optical communication. However, the underlying logic is that AI competition is shifting from individual chip performance to data transfer efficiency across the entire system.Over the past few years, HBM has addressed the problem of GPUs being unable to receive data fast enough. By vertically stacking multiple layers of DRAM and placing them next to the GPU, HBM delivers extremely high bandwidth. Yet, as more HBM stacks are placed around each GPU, packaging area, interposer edge space, power supply, and thermal dissipation capabilities are all approaching their limits. Meanwhile, AI clusters have expanded to thousands or even tens of thousands of GPUs. No matter how fast a single GPU computes, the entire system will still be constrained by the "bandwidth wall" if data cannot be efficiently transferred between GPUs and racks.SK Hynix's vision is to extend optical interconnect to memory. Low-latency, high-bandwidth local HBM will remain next to the GPU, while optical fibers connect it to a larger shared memory pool. This approach avoids limiting all memory capacity within a single GPU package and enables horizontal scaling at the rack level.From an investment perspective, this does not mean HBM will be replaced in the near term. What is more likely to emerge is a new memory hierarchy: frequently accessed data remains stored in local HBM, while larger-scale, less frequently accessed data is stored in optically interconnected memory pools, HBF, or SSDs.SK Hynix is repositioning its business, shifting from selling standardized memory chips to co-designing HBM, controllers, advanced packaging, and system-level memory architectures with customers. If this roadmap comes to fruition, SK Hynix could strengthen customer stickiness, increase product added value, and enhance its ability to secure long-term contracts. At the same time, the company may also more proactively address the potential impact of future memory disaggregation on traditional HBM business models.At the supply chain level, areas that may benefit in the long term include silicon photonics chips, optical engines, lasers, fiber coupling technology, and advanced 2.5D and 3D packaging.However, this concept is still in its very early stages and essentially remains just a roadmap. jukan noted that a person involved in TSMC's packaging business whom he interviewed today was completely unaware of this plan.
Jim Cramer: AI-Driven Memory Stock Super Cycle, Four Major Storage Stocks Still Have Upside Potential
According to CNBC, renowned investor Jim Cramer stated that the AI boom has fundamentally changed the cyclical patterns of the memory industry. Although SanDisk has surged 653% this year, Seagate 261%, Micron 254%, and Western Digital 211%, it is still not too late to enter the market now. Cramer pointed out three core reasons why this cycle differs from history: First, memory supply is extremely scarce; Musk has publicly stated that memory has become the biggest bottleneck for data center expansion. Second, manufacturers are no longer blindly expanding production, but instead locking in profit margins through long-term customer agreements. Third, companies are using profits for stock buybacks rather than capacity expansion. SanDisk still has $15.5 billion in buyback capacity, Seagate is advancing a $5 billion buyback plan, and Western Digital added a $4 billion buyback authorization this year. Cramer is particularly bullish on Micron, believing it still has the potential to double provided AI data center demand remains unabated, and has already established positions through his charitable trust fund.
Bitget Stock Contracts Now Live for CXMT (ChangXin Memory Technologies)
Odaily News: According to the official announcement, Bitget's stock perpetual contracts have been listed for CXMT (ChangXin Memory Technologies). These contracts are settled in USDT and support up to 20x leverage with 7×24 trading. As of now, Bitget supports a total of 273 stock contract instruments.
Morgan Stanley: Traditional Storage Without Long-Term Contracts Not Necessarily a Bad Thing, DDR4 and SLC NAND in Strongest Price Hike Cycle
According to TechFlow Research, Morgan Stanley's research report on August 14 pointed out that the fundamentals of the three major traditional memory products, DDR4, SLC NAND, and NOR Flash, continue to improve, with widening supply-demand gaps and enhanced pricing power; mainstream manufacturers are exiting DDR4 supply faster than expected. Morgan Stanley expects DDR4 prices to rise by 50% in 3Q26 and another 10%+ in 4Q26; SLC NAND prices are expected to increase by over 50% in both 3Q26 and 4Q26, with tight supply potentially extending into 2027; NOR Flash will see another price hike in 4Q26, with momentum likely extending into 1H27. The report judges that the market is overly pessimistic about pricing the sustainability of the traditional memory cycle. Morgan Stanley has comprehensively upgraded earnings forecasts for Macronix, Winbond, GigaDevice, and PSMC; AP Memory is listed as the top pick due to its SiCap business, with the preference ranking being AP Memory > GigaDevice > Macronix > Winbond > PSMC > Nanya Technology. Macronix's earnings per share for 2026 to 2028 were upgraded by 139%, 144%, and 147% respectively; GigaDevice's were upgraded by 108%, 49%, and 48% respectively. Morgan Stanley believes that the absence of LTAs (Long-Term Agreements) means no constraints on price ceilings; when supply gaps widen and pricing power rests with suppliers, traditional memory manufacturers actually have greater profit elasticity.
Binance Futures Will List Multiple TradFi USDT Perpetual Contracts
According to the official announcement, the Binance Futures platform will sequentially launch 6 USDT perpetual contracts based on traditional finance underlying assets from August 17 to 18, 2026, as follows: • GDXUSDT (Underlying: VanEck Gold Miners ETF) — August 17, 13:30 UTC • NETUSDT (Underlying: Cloudflare Class A Common Stock) — August 17, 13:35 UTC • VSTUSDT (Underlying: Vistra Corp Common Stock) — August 17, 13:40 UTC • SHOPUSDT (Underlying: Shopify Class A Shares) — August 17, 13:45 UTC • LYTEUSDT (Underlying: Roundhill Photonics & Optical ETF) — August 17, 13:50 UTC • CXMTUSDT (Underlying: ChangXin Memory Technologies, SSE 688825) — August 18, 05:00 UTC The above contracts all support up to 20x leverage, 24/7 trading, and multi-asset mode, with funding rates settled every 8 hours, capped at ±2%.
SK Hynix Chairman: Most Severe "Memory Shortage" Expected in 2027, AI Agent Usage May Grow 77-Fold Within 5 Years
Odaily News: Recently, SK Hynix Chairman Choi Tae-won gave an exclusive interview to the media at the company's headquarters in South Korea. During the interview, he once again emphasized the explosive growth in memory demand and stated that the most severe "memory shortage" will occur next year.He noted that demand for memory from the AI ecosystem has already exceeded SK Hynix's supply capacity. "Current demand is explosive," Choi said. "All my customers are requesting nearly double the supply volume of their original needs." He stated that capacity expansion could take four to five years, describing the scramble among companies for memory chips as "like a war." Without sufficient memory, customers "cannot produce AI computing devices or AI chips." He also added that as demand for AI servers continues to surge, HBM high-bandwidth memory is in short supply, with many tech giants even arriving in South Korea early to secure long-term agreements.Choi also warned that next year could see the most severe memory shortage in history. He compared today's AI to a four-year-old child, noting that as the industry matures, memory demand will grow substantially. He predicted that AI agent usage could increase 77-fold within five years. (Cailian Press)