Apple Inc. (AAPL.US) CEO Tim Cook and his team have in recent weeks approached officials including US President Donald Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, proposing the use of chips from China's CXMT and YMTC in Apple products sold outside the US to ease mounting cost pressures, the Wall Street Journal, citing sources, reported. However, major chip supplier Micron Technology, Inc. (MU.US) has been lobbying strongly against the proposal.

Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra reportedly warned Lutnick and other government officials that allowing Chinese companies such as CXMT to supply US technology firms could destroy the domestic US memory chip industry. He lobbied that Micron could help alleviate tight memory chip supply by accelerating factory construction and increasing investment in the US, reiterating that rising prices of consumer electronics products, including Apple devices, are not solely attributable to higher memory chip prices.
~

AASTOCKS Financial News
Website: www.aastocks.com

CXMT (688825.SH)'s share price skyrocketed on its debut trading day and last reported at RMB51.96, up fivefold from its IPO price. In a report, Nomura said it estimated CXMT's share price to extend its strong momentum from the first trading day, with the stock expected to mushroom 1,239% from the IPO price of RMB8.66 per share as the company continues to expand its market share.

Analyst Donnie Teng said in the report that CXMT's market share growth is expected to accelerate, given global memory supply is unlikely to ease over the next few years. The broker assigned the company a Buy rating with a TP of RMB116.

He projected robust demand for Agentic AI by 2030 to drive global memory usage growth by more than sevenfold. CXMT's memory chip output was forecast to achieve a CAGR of 40-45% through 2030, lifting its global DRAM market share from around 10% currently to 18% by the end of 2028.

However, Morningstar analyst Jing Jie Yu said in a report published last week that the fair value of CXMT is estimated at RMB14.90 per share, way below Nomura's TP and the stock's debut price. The analyst believed that without EUV equipment, it will become increasingly difficult for the company to advance traditional DRAM technology.
~

AASTOCKS Financial News
Website: www.aastocks.com

Goldman Sachs issued a report opining that the US stock market is experiencing noticeable internal divergence and high-momentum volatility, with visible signs of market deleveraging, leaving the market highly challenging. The broker believed the core investment strategy for investors should be to streamline portfolios and focus on high-probability trades.

Meanwhile, speculative long positions in gold have largely been unwound, while central banks around the world have resumed gold purchases. Coupled with solid support for gold prices near USD4,000, investors are advised to buy gold on dips to capture structural buying opportunities.

The broker added that the AI infrastructure investment theme continues to dominate the market, but the issue of surging AI capex without matching revenue growth remains unresolved. Earnings results this week from Microsoft Corporation (MSFT.US), Meta Platforms, Inc. (META.US) and Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN.US) will become the next key test for the stock market. The market needs to see a clear connection between AI investment and revenue growth.
~

AASTOCKS Financial News
Website: www.aastocks.com

Samsung Electronics said it reached an agreement with US chip designer Broadcom Inc. (AVGO.US) to expand cooperation in memory chips, chip foundry services and advanced packaging, with the value of the cooperation expected to exceed USD200 billion by 2030.
~

AASTOCKS Financial News
Website: www.aastocks.com

NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA.US) will invest USD1 billion in Naver to fund an artificial intelligence data center (AIDC) under construction in South Korea. The data center is being developed in partnership with US private equity firm Brookfield and will adopt Nvidia's AI computing hardware.

In addition, Nvidia is cooperating with SK Group to build an AIDC with capacity exceeding 2 gigawatts in South Korea, equivalent to the electricity demand of about 1.5 million households. Nvidia said the first AI computing factory built by SK Telecom will commence operations next year.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said South Korea's semiconductor and industrial businesses are thriving, adding that this is South Korea's golden era and that the country possesses comprehensive capabilities to build global AI infrastructure.
~

AASTOCKS Financial News
Website: www.aastocks.com

NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA.US) said it has secured AI memory supply from South Korea's SK Hynix to lock in key component supply for its advanced processors and systems.

NVIDIA announced the agreement in San Francisco last Friday (24th), saying the deal could be worth as much as USD500 billion over multiple years and includes the construction of a large-scale data center expected to commence operations in 2027.

SK Telecom, a unit of SK Hynix, will use NVIDIA's Vera Rubin systems to build cloud operations. NVIDIA said the target capacity will require 2 gigawatts of electricity, implying the large-scale deployment of hundreds of thousands of GPUs.
~

AASTOCKS Financial News
Website: www.aastocks.com

NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA.US) is discussing providing guarantees of about USD250 billion to help OpenAI lease a 10-gigawatt data center hub being built by Japan's SoftBank Group (9984.JP) in Ohio, the US, the Wall Street Journal, citing sources, reported.

Previously, SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son said the project's cost could reach about USD500 billion. NVIDIA's guarantees would help SoftBank secure additional financing to support the project.
~

AASTOCKS Financial News
Website: www.aastocks.com

Tesla (TSLA.US) shares tumbled a cumulative 18% last week, closing at USD313.03 on Friday, marking the company's largest weekly decline since 2022. SpaceX also extended its downturn, diving 7.2% over five days to close at USD115.07 on Friday, the lowest level since its record IPO last month.

The declines in the two stocks wiped out around USD130 billion from Elon Musk's net worth, only weeks after he became the world's first trillionaire. Elon Musk posted on X on Friday: "(Former) trillionaire".

Tesla's downswing was mainly dented by weaker-than-expected 2Q26 results. The EV maker released its 2Q results after market close on Wednesday. Owing to surging spending on future projects including Robotaxi, humanoid robots and large-scale chip factories, the company's cash flow turned negative.

Tesla shares have slumped 30% YTD, markedly underperforming other large-cap tech peers.
~

AASTOCKS Financial News
Website: www.aastocks.com

Middle East tensions remained elevated, while sharp post-results downswings in Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL.US) and Tesla, Inc. (TSLA.US) weighed on the three major US stock indices, which fell about 1-2%.

Dampened by external market weakness, the HSI opened down 278 pts this morning (24th) and remained subdued throughout the session. The index once dived nearly 400 pts to an intraday trough of 24,812 before closing at 24,963, down 247 pts or 0.98%. Total market turnover for the day shrank to HKD209.877 billion. The HSCEI closed at 8,271, down 81 pts or 0.98%. The HSTECH closed at 4,629, down 68 pts or 1.47%.

Hong Kong-listed tech shares echoed the weakness in overseas technology stocks. TENCENT (00700.HK) closed down 2.38%; BABA-W (09988.HK) slumped 4.26%; BIDU-SW (09888.HK) and KUAISHOU-W (01024.HK) each slid more than 2%.

Solar and glass sectors saw more notable declines. XINYI GLASS (00868.HK) closed down 5.14%, making it the worst-performing blue chip; XINYI SOLAR (00968.HK) tumbled 4.09%. Rising expectations for US interest rate hikes also dragged down resource and metal stocks broadly. CMOC (03993.HK) fell off 4.49%; CHALCO (02600.HK) and ZIJIN MINING (02899.HK) shed more than 3%; CHINAHONGQIAO (01378.HK) slipped 2.67%. Gold jewelry stocks came under pressure, with LAOPU GOLD (06181.HK) cratering 4.29%; CHOW TAI FOOK (01929.HK) closed down 2.32% for the day after Daiwa downgraded the stock to Outperform.

Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese property developers were also suppressed by interest rate hike concerns. CHINA RES LAND (01109.HK), LONGFOR GROUP (00960.HK) and HANG LUNG PPT (00101.HK) each lost more than 3%; CHINA OVERSEAS (00688.HK) lost 2.06%; SHK PPT (00016.HK) also faded 1.87%.

BOC HONG KONG (02388.HK) set a record high, rising against the broader market by 5.98% to close at HKD51.25, after JPMorgan upgraded the stock to Overweight and raised its TP to HKD53.3; BANK OF E ASIA (00023.HK) also shot up 6.03%. However, international banks were softer, with HSBC HOLDINGS (00005.HK) dipping 0.06% and STANCHART (02888.HK) falling 1.15%.
~

AASTOCKS Financial News
Website: www.aastocks.com

The "Magnificent 7" suffered their biggest single-day slump in stock prices overnight (23rd) since tariff threats in April 2025, losing USD797 billion in market cap, as major Wall Street firms grew concern over massive spending by major technology companies in the AI sector.

Meanwhile, the reignited Iran conflict also cast a shadow over the global macroeconomic outlook. The Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF (MAGS.US), which tracks the "Magnificent 7", plunged 4.6% overnight (23rd).

Earnings released by Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL.US) and Tesla, Inc. (TSLA.US) after the close on Wednesday (22nd) sparked panic among traders and raised doubts over whether the AI-driven trade that propelled equities higher over the past three years can sustain.

Alphabet raised its capex forecast for this year to as much as USD205 billion, whereas Tesla CEO Elon Musk also said this year would be a year of massive capex.

Tesla, Inc. (TSLA.US) cascaded 14.5%, marking its worst single-day performance since March 2025, while Alphabet nosedived 7.1%, its largest decline since May 2025. Microsoft Corporation (MSFT.US) dropped 2.2%, Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN.US) slumped 4.6%, and Meta Platforms, Inc. (META.US) also slid 3.4%. All three companies are scheduled to release earnings next week.
~

AASTOCKS Financial News
Website: www.aastocks.com