Asian memory chipmakers’ earnings test AI spending surge amid market-bubble worries

This week’s earnings from SK Hynix, Samsung Electronics, Japan’s Kioxia Holdings and China’s CXMT will reveal whether the rapid growth in AI-related data-centre spending is backed by durable demand. The companies together hold over $2 trillion in market value and supply roughly a third of the memory used by big-tech cloud providers. Investors remain cautious after higher borrowing costs and recent turmoil in the bond and IPO markets for data-centre players, prompting questions about whether spending plans outpace future returns.

Analysts stress that price trends in DRAM and NAND are a real-time indicator of AI demand, but modest trading multiples signal expectations of a downturn. Long-term supply contracts covering most of the Korean firms’ 2027 output will be examined, as will CXMT’s push into advanced memory despite yield challenges. The outcomes will shape market sentiment on the broader AI hardware boom and the potential for a memory-chip cycle peak.