📣 Brace yourselves, tech lovers! The chip market just hit a rough patch, and it's making waves across the globe. 🌍💻
Chip equipment maker ASML, a big player in the semiconductor world, dropped some gloomy news. They cut their annual sales forecast due to weak demand for non-AI chips. 😔 Not cool, right?
This news sent shockwaves through the stock markets. In the U.S., semiconductor stocks took a nosedive. 📉
Nvidia, the AI chip giant that had just flexed by briefly surpassing Apple as the world's most valuable company, saw its shares drop by 4.5%. That's a whopping $158 billion wiped off its market cap! 💸 Ouch!
Other tech biggies like AMD, Intel, Arm, Broadcom, and Micron weren't spared either, falling between 3.2% and 5%. This dragged down the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index by nearly 5%, putting pressure on the Nasdaq index as well. 📊🚫
ASML itself saw its U.S.-listed shares plunge by 16% after accidentally publishing its results ahead of schedule. Talk about a whoopsie! 😅 They reported weak bookings and lowered forecasts, hinting at slower chip demand recovery outside the AI boom.
Even though AI-related chips are hot right now 🔥, other parts of the semiconductor market aren't keeping up. Logic chip makers are delaying orders, and memory chip makers are only planning \"limited\" new capacity. Not exactly the hype we were hoping for. 😕
Over in Asia, chipmakers felt the ripple effects too. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) dropped by 2.3%, Samsung Electronics fell 2.5%, and SK Hynix declined by 2.2%. The chip chill is real! ❄️
Remember how everyone was scrambling to build extra chip capacity during the pandemic? Well, now that things are stabilizing, those factories aren't as busy as expected. ASML's forecast seems to be a late reflection of what's been going on in the chip world for months, according to analysts. 🧐
Earlier this month, Samsung warned that its third-quarter profits might not meet market expectations as it struggles to cash in on the AI chip craze. 📉 But not all is doom and gloom!
TSMC, Samsung's rival and a major supplier for AI leader Nvidia, is expected to report a massive 40% jump in third-quarter profits on Thursday. 🎉 Now that's something to look forward to!
The chip industry is definitely going through some twists and turns, and we'll be keeping an eye on how this unfolds. Stay tuned, amigos! 👀
Reference(s):
cgtn.com