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Investing.com — Asia's leading semiconductor manufacturer fell overnight as markets awaited further clues about the AI-driven boom from the semiconductor maker's fourth-quarter results. Most stocks were in a flat to low range Wednesday. .
Nvidia wiped out about $100 billion in market capitalization on Tuesday, but there was also some profit-taking as investors waited to see if the chipmaker's huge revenue surge materialized as expected. The gains could also justify the sharp rise in Nvidia's valuation over the past year.
Nvidia is expected to report fourth-quarter results after the U.S. market closes on Wednesday, with revenue expected to be $20.37 billion and EPS of $4.58.
Expectations for profits left most Asian semiconductor manufacturing stocks volatile on Wednesday.Japanese semiconductor inspection equipment manufacturer Advantest Co., Ltd. (TYO:) and TSMC (TW:) (NYSE:), the world's largest contract chipmaker, fell 3.2% and 1%, respectively. Both companies are major suppliers to Nvidia, and Morgan Stanley analysts said in a recent note that TSMC stock could be used to capture Nvidia's quarterly profits.
Korean memory chip manufacturer SK Hynix Co., Ltd. (KS:) – which also stands to benefit from the boom in artificial intelligence development – rose 0.5% after briefly hitting a record high this week. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (KS:) fell 0.1%.
Japanese tech investment company SoftBank Group Corp. (TYO:) fell 2% after the UK chip design unit's share price fell more than 5%. arm Holdings (NASDAQ:) has also recently seen a significant increase in valuation on the back of AI hype.
Tokyo Electron Ltd. Japan's most valuable chipmaker (TYO:) fell 1.3%.
The AI hype has driven a big rally in global tech stocks in recent months, as investors expect demand for semiconductor makers and chip companies to rise on the back of increased development of generative AI.
Nvidia is at the center of this boom because it makes processors specialized for running generative AI programs.
Most Asian semiconductor stocks have largely tracked Nvidia's post-earnings gains, beating expectations in three of the four quarters so far in 2023.
Elsewhere, China's SMIC (Hong Kong:), the country's largest semiconductor maker, surged 4.6% in Hong Kong trading on Wednesday after reports the company would be one of the biggest recipients of government funds in 2024. .
