Nvidia's latest earnings just sent shockwaves through Asian markets, with chip stocks rallying up to 7% in early trading Thursday. The AI giant's third-quarter beat and stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter guidance is being read as proof that AI demand remains red-hot, despite mounting bubble fears. For investors watching the global semiconductor supply chain, this morning's reaction shows just how tightly the entire industry orbits around Nvidia's performance.
The numbers tell the story of an industry still running full throttle. Nvidia's third-quarter earnings didn't just beat Wall Street expectations - they delivered the kind of guidance that has Asian chip suppliers calculating bigger order books for 2026.
SK Hynix, Nvidia's top supplier of high-bandwidth memory for AI applications, popped 4% in Seoul trading. The Korean memory giant has been riding the AI wave harder than anyone, with its HBM chips becoming as crucial to data centers as graphics cards themselves. Not far behind, rival Samsung Electronics climbed nearly 4% as investors bet the company's aggressive push to catch up in high-bandwidth memory will land it more Nvidia contracts.
But it's Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company that might matter most in this equation. The world's largest contract chipmaker, which fabricates most of Nvidia's chip designs, rose 4% in Taipei as traders processed what stronger AI demand means for the foundry's already-packed production schedule.
"We expect Nvidia's results to drive higher earnings estimates across the sector, including for its primary GPU supplier TSMC, memory vendors SK Hynix and Samsung, and the broader Asian subcomponent and assembly value chain," Rolf Bulk, equity research analyst at New Street Research, told CNBC.
The ripple effects spread deeper into Japan's chip ecosystem. Renesas Electronics, a key Nvidia supplier, added about 4%. Tokyo Electron, which provides essential chipmaking equipment to foundries manufacturing Nvidia's chips, gained nearly 6%. Another Japanese equipment maker, Lasertec, jumped 6% as investors positioned for increased capital spending across the semiconductor manufacturing chain.
Perhaps most telling was SoftBank's 7% surge, even though the Japanese conglomerate for $5.83 billion. The company's rally reflects its ownership of British semiconductor firm , which supplies with chip architecture and designs. 's also deeply involved in AI ventures using 's technology, including the massive $500 billion Stargate data center project in the U.S.
