Asian AI Stocks Surge · Chinese Foldables · AI Compute Arms Race · Yen Hits Six-Month High

Market Overview

Asian markets kicked off the week with a powerful rally led by AI and semiconductor stocks. South Korea‘s KOSPI surged 4.61% to close at 6,995.39, with SK Hynix jumping 8.26% and Samsung Electronics gaining 5.68%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed 2.12% to 66,399.84, while SoftBank soared 11.22%. In China, the Shenzhen Component Index advanced 1.91%, and the ChiNext Index rallied 3.41%.

Chinese consumer electronics and semiconductor stocks also saw heavy trading as Xiaomi unveiled the 18 Fold and Huawei launched the Mate XT 2 on the same day. ChangXin Memory Technologies LPDDR6 also made its global debut in a commercially available smartphone.

Meanwhile, the global AI compute arms race continues to intensify. OpenAI launched GPT-6 Astra, trained on more than 100,000 NVIDIA chips. Anthropic has secured $517 billion worth of computing agreements over the past 11 months, while its annualized revenue has surpassed $65 billion.

Geopolitical tensions in the Middle East flared up again after Saudi Aramcos Jizan facility came under another attack, with shipments from the facility falling to zero in August. Brent crude rose 0.75% to $97 per barrel after briefly touching $98 intraday.

The Japanese yen strengthened past 155 against the U.S. dollar, reaching a six-month high. Japan reportedly deployed approximately $98.6 billion in currency intervention during August, while its foreign exchange reserves fell below $1 trillion.

U.S. stock and bond markets were closed Monday for the Labor Day holiday.

Key Themes to Watch● Can Asias AI Rally Spill Over Into U.S. Stocks？

Technology stocks in South Korea and Japan posted sharp single-day gains, led by memory-chip makers and the broader AI supply chain, signaling that demand for computing capacity remains on an accelerating trajectory.

With U.S. markets returning from the Labor Day holiday this week, investors will be watching whether the buying momentum in Asia carries over to the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index and NVIDIA-related stocks. Upcoming semiconductor earnings will also be closely scrutinized for further evidence of tight supply in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and advanced packaging.

● How Quickly Can Chinas Semiconductor Self-Sufficiency Push Translate Into Real-World Adoption？

Xiaomi and Huawei unveiled new foldable smartphones on the same day, while ChangXin Memory Technologies LPDDR6 made its first appearance in a commercial handset. Together, these developments point to accelerating localization across Chinas consumer electronics and memory-chip industries.

Going forward, investors should watch the mass-production yields of domestically developed processors such as the Xring O100, the pace at which Chinese-made memory chips penetrate flagship smartphones, and whether the domestic supply chain can establish sustainable advantages in both cost and performance.

Key Events to Watch

• Canadas retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods take effect: Approximately 700 categories of U.S. products will face tariffs ranging from 15% to 50%, with tariffs on steel raised to 50%.

• South Korea: Preliminary second-quarter GDP data.

• Japan: July current account data and final second-quarter GDP figures.

• United States: August NFIB Small Business Optimism Index.

• Longsys Electronics: Begins trading on the Hong Kong stock market.

• Germany: Political developments following the Saxony-Anhalt state election, where the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) emerged as the largest party for the first time.