Weekly Summary: August 24th - 30th, 2026 (Sunday)
I've compiled the daily messages from our stock Telegram channel into a weekly summary. Since it's Sunday, I'm covering the entire week instead of just one day.
Memory Prices: A Week in Numbers
The story that began on Monday culminated on Sunday. Here's a chronological breakdown:
Monday. Nvidia raised AI server prices by 15%, citing Korean memory prices as the reason.
Wednesday. Market research firms projected a 50% increase in high-bandwidth memory contract prices for 2027 compared to 2026.
Thursday. Nvidia announced its earnings. Revenue reached $96.2 billion, a 106% year-on-year increase, and the company projected 70% revenue growth for the next fiscal year. Market expectations were 44.5%. However, gross margin guidance fell short of market expectations (74.2%), coming in at 72%-73%. The CFO explained that memory price increases had significantly exceeded initial projections and are expected to rise further next year. Purchase agreements, including memory, increased from $119 billion to $279 billion.
Saturday. Chinese memory chip maker Changxin Memory Technologies released its first-half results. Q2 gross margin was 92.4%, and operating margin was 82.1%. Estimates were 81.1% and 68.9%, respectively.
Sunday. Spot market figures emerged. Supply fulfillment rates dropped below 50%, and the price of 16Gb DDR4 spot memory surged 879% year-on-year. An investment bank predicted a further 10%-20% increase in spot prices in September.
It was a week where server sellers, Chinese newcomers, and the spot market all pointed to the same place.
Interest Rates: Three Shifts in a Week
Wednesday. News broke that the US and Iran had agreed on a ceasefire, including Hormuz Strait navigation. This led to a simultaneous decline in oil and interest rates. "Rate cuts" were the most frequent messages on the channel that day.
Thursday. The Bank of Korea raised its benchmark interest rate by 25bp to 3.00%, marking the second consecutive increase.
Saturday. At Jackson Hole, Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Walsh delivered a hawkish speech. He characterized AI as "a transformative innovation" that is advancing much faster than anticipated and reshaping productivity and economic structures. However, he also stated that "there's more work to be done" if inflation doesn't fall towards the 2% target quickly enough. US futures markets saw September rate hike bets rise to around 40%.
Over the weekend, "rate hikes" were the most frequent messages on the channel.
Nuclear Power and Electrical Equipment Emerge as New Themes
Tuesday. A report surfaced that the US had proposed acquiring a stake in Westinghouse from Korea. Existing investors were asked to sell their shares or participate in an IPO.
Wednesday. Follow-up reports indicated that the government and Korea Electric Power Corporation are considering supporting US nuclear power construction and securing equity stakes.
As the weekend approached, discussions shifted towards electrical equipment. Hyosung Heavy Industries and HD Hyundai Electric were mentioned in relation to increased transformer installations in the US due to a national grid emergency. The conversation also touched on stricter regulations for Chinese electrical equipment in the US.
The key themes were nuclear power (six steps up), construction and real estate (six steps up), and electrical equipment and wires (three steps up).
Self-Interest Revealed
Last week, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix announced share buybacks simultaneously. This week revealed the different approaches they took due to contrasting regulatory directions.
SK Hynix needed to increase its stake ratio. Its parent company, SK Square, held a stake in SK Hynix exceeding 20%, but US depositary receipts had brought it close to that threshold. Burning shares would reduce the total number of shares outstanding, thereby increasing the remaining shareholders' stake ratio. This made share buybacks a defensive measure.
Conversely, Samsung Electronics needed to avoid exceeding its limit. The combined ordinary shareholdings of Samsung Life Insurance and Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance in Samsung Electronics were precisely at the 10% legal limit set by the Financial Investment Act.
A distinction was also made. Samsung Electronics clarified that the 15 trillion won share buyback currently underway is intended for employee compensation and is entirely separate from the share repurchase program.
The US Market This Week
Nvidia was the most discussed US stock this week, outperforming Alphabet by nearly six times. Following Nvidia were Micron, Amazon, SpaceX, and Apple.
On Friday, cybersecurity stocks surged collectively. An open letter signed by 116 companies, including OpenAI, urged a coordinated response to "imminent widespread cyberattacks using AI." The letter named Ansys, Google, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, Visa, and Mastercard.
The same day, analysts projected negative free cash flow for Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, and SpaceX in both 2026 and 2027. This was attributed to AI infrastructure investments exceeding $1.3 trillion by 2027.
Data included in this article
Item | Quantity |
|---|
Collection Channels | 317 |
Collected Messages per Week | 31,609 (from August 24th to 30th) |
Domestic Theme Aggregation | 23 Themes |
US Theme Aggregation | 15 Themes |
Source: hatzze.fun/kadera
※ The mention volume and aggregation are expressions that indicate how much something is being mentioned, and are for entertainment and reference purposes only. They are not buy or sell signals. This does not verify the truth of rumors.
▶ Original source: https://hatzze.fun/
