{"text":[[{"start":7.9,"text":"The extraordinary rally in semiconductor stocks has minted two new trillion-dollar companies in successive days, as Micron and SK Hynix reap the benefits of AI’s insatiable appetite for memory and storage technology. "}],[{"start":21.85,"text":"South Korea’s SK Hynix on Wednesday joined its local rival Samsung in the elite group of companies valued at more than $1tn, just hours after US-based Micron jumped 19 per cent on Tuesday to cross the market capitalisation threshold. "}],[{"start":38.45,"text":"The rapid surge in the top memory suppliers’ shares over the past year has allowed them to far outpace Nvidia’s stock price gains, showing how traders are seeking out new winners providing the picks and the shovels of the AI boom. "}],[{"start":52.150000000000006,"text":"“The heat has returned to the tech market overnight . . . as memory chip fever continues,” analysts at Deutsche Bank wrote in a note to clients on Wednesday. "}],[{"start":61.10000000000001,"text":"SK Hynix, Micron and Samsung’s shares are up by 1,007 per cent, 859 per cent and 469 per cent respectively over the past 12 months. AMD and Intel, whose central processing units have returned to the spotlight in recent months thanks to exploding use of AI agents, are up 340 per cent and 500 per cent respectively over the past year, with AMD now valued at $820bn. "}],[{"start":90.80000000000001,"text":"SK Hynix is the 16th company to hit a trillion-dollar valuation, eight years after Apple first reached the milestone. "}],[{"start":97.95000000000002,"text":"Among the current members of the trillion-dollar club, only Saudi Aramco and Berkshire Hathaway are outside the tech industry. Drugmaker Eli Lilly and retailer Walmart both crossed the trillion-dollar threshold in November and February respectively but have since dropped below that level. "}],[{"start":115.45000000000002,"text":"Next month is likely to take the trillion-dollar tally to 17 as SpaceX’s initial public offering is expected to value Elon Musk’s rocket company at upwards of $1.75tn. OpenAI and Anthropic, meanwhile, are both nearing trillion-dollar valuations on the private markets. "}],[{"start":134.15,"text":"The new chipmakers joining the elite cohort of the world’s most valuable companies have been propelled by a sharp increase in demand and pricing for memory, which has become a vital component in the expanding capabilities of AI systems such as ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude. As AI usage moves beyond chatbots into coding agents and other longer-running tasks, they need to retain more information. "}],[{"start":160.9,"text":"Three-and-a-half years after ChatGPT kicked off an unprecedented trillion-dollar spending spree on data centre infrastructure, Big Tech companies and the top AI start-ups are still unable to find enough computing capacity to serve their customers. "}],[{"start":176.25,"text":"Demand for memory is widely expected to continue to outstrip supply until at least next year, with some analysts projecting shortages could continue until late in the decade. "}],[{"start":186.35,"text":"SK Hynix, Micron and Samsung are the biggest manufacturers of the high-bandwidth memory needed to run Nvidia’s most powerful AI chips, putting them in a unique position to raise prices in the face of soaring demand. Analysts at Mizuho on Tuesday said that Micron might be able to double prices of its latest HBM4 chips next year. "}],[{"start":210.2,"text":"The memory chipmakers’ triple-digit stock gains contrast with Nvidia’s 58 per cent rise over the past year. The leading AI chipmaker remains the world’s most valuable company at $5.2tn, after hitting new highs around $5.7tn ahead of last week’s earnings report. Its shares are up more than 1,100 per cent since OpenAI debuted ChatGPT at the end of November 2022. "}],[{"start":238.54999999999998,"text":"Nvidia’s latest quarterly filing last week revealed that it had increased its manufacturing, supply and capacity commitments by 27 per cent since January to $119bn, as it tries to secure memory and production pipelines amid intense competition. "}],[{"start":255.29999999999998,"text":"Micron is expanding its US manufacturing as part of a $200bn US investment scheme. That has won the company plaudits from US President Donald Trump, who said on Friday at a rally in New York: “Boy, Micron’s great.” "}],[{"start":271.4,"text":"That has prompted speculation from some traders that the US government may seek to take a stake in the Idaho-based company, similar to its deals with Intel and a group of quantum companies. "}],[{"start":290.79999999999995,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1779930702_3486.mp3"}