South Korea's Stock Market Soars on AI Demand Surge
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Updated: Feb 03 2026
0mins
Should l Buy NVDA?
Source: Benzinga
- Memory Chip Profit Surge: South Korea's memory chip giants Samsung and SK Hynix have seen profits soar by 196% and 329% respectively, driven by relentless demand for AI infrastructure, leading to a 25% year-to-date increase in the iShares MSCI South Korea ETF, showcasing robust market performance.
- Samsung's Impressive Earnings: Samsung's fourth-quarter operating profit tripled to 20 trillion won ($13.7 billion), with revenue climbing 23% to 93 trillion won ($63.7 billion), reflecting the strong push of AI deployments on memory chip prices and further solidifying its market position.
- Historic Market Index High: The Kospi index has surpassed the 5,000 mark for the first time, marking a significant achievement for President Lee Jae Myung, who fulfilled his campaign promise to double the market cap within less than a year, indicating strong economic recovery momentum.
- Potential Risk Warning: Economist Yardeni cautions that while the AI boom has yielded substantial short-term gains, soaring valuations and immediate profitability may obscure long-standing structural issues, particularly in corporate governance and economic concentration, posing greater challenges ahead.
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Analyst Views on NVDA
Wall Street analysts forecast NVDA stock price to rise
41 Analyst Rating
39 Buy
1 Hold
1 Sell
Strong Buy
Current: 175.750
Low
200.00
Averages
264.97
High
352.00
Current: 175.750
Low
200.00
Averages
264.97
High
352.00
About NVDA
NVIDIA Corporation is an artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure company. The Company is engaged in accelerated computing to help solve the challenging computational problems. Its segments include Compute & Networking and Graphics. The Compute & Networking segment includes its Data Center accelerated computing and networking platforms and AI solutions and software, and automotive platforms and autonomous and electric vehicle solutions, including software. The Graphics segment includes GeForce GPUs for gaming and personal computers (PCs), and Quadro/NVIDIA RTX GPUs for enterprise workstation graphics. Its technology stack includes the foundational NVIDIA CUDA development platform that runs on all NVIDIA GPUs, as well as hundreds of domain-specific software libraries, frameworks, algorithms, software development kits (SDKs), and application programming interfaces (APIs). Its platforms address four markets, which include Data Center, Gaming, Professional Visualization, and Automotive.
About the author
Emily J. Thompson
Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.
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- Surging Order Forecast: CEO Jensen Huang indicated that Nvidia expects approximately $1 trillion in purchase orders for its Blackwell and Vera Rubin chips by 2027, doubling last year's forecast of $500 billion, signaling sustained strong demand for AI chips.
- Future Revenue Expectations: Nvidia anticipates first-quarter revenue of $78 billion for fiscal year 2027, representing an almost 77% increase compared to the same period last year, reflecting strong growth potential in the Agentic AI applications sector, which will further drive demand for AI chips.
- High Market Valuation: Despite Nvidia's forward P/E ratio of 30, significantly above the average of 20.9 for the tech sector, investors believe the premium is justified given the company's outstanding financial results and its position in a rapidly growing market.
See More
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- Custom Chip Innovation: Broadcom focuses on designing custom AI chips, which are expected to generate over $100 billion in annual revenue by 2027, benefiting from the increasing demand for specific workloads in the AI industry, showcasing significant growth potential.
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- Policy and Investment Dialogue: According to founder Cosmano Lombardo, artificial intelligence has become a political and technological priority, and the summit aims to foster broad discussions among businesses, institutions, and the research community to drive targeted investments and clear regulations.
- Diverse Agenda Setting: The summit will include 13 thematic stages covering areas such as AI for Future, Robotics, and AI Commerce, with experts from Microsoft, LG Nova, and Google sharing insights to promote technological innovation.
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- Stable Dividend Growth: With a 70-year streak of dividend increases, Northwest Natural offers a relatively high dividend yield of 3.69%, providing investors with a reliable cash flow despite competition from larger multi-state utilities.
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See More
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- Surging Market Demand: Taiwan Semiconductor expects the AI chip market to grow at a mid- to high-50% CAGR from 2024 to 2029, planning to invest $52 billion to $56 billion in capital expenditures in 2023, thereby solidifying its leadership position in the AI competition.
- Memory Chip Demand: Micron Technology anticipates the high-bandwidth memory market will expand from $35 billion to $100 billion between 2025 and 2028, and despite price cooling due to Google's TurboQuant algorithm, the strong demand for memory indicates significant investment potential in the coming years.
- Custom Chip Innovation: Broadcom is set to benefit from the skyrocketing demand for custom AI chips, with projections indicating these chips could generate over $100 billion annually by the end of 2027, highlighting Broadcom's substantial growth potential with its $68 billion annual revenue.
- GPU Market Dominance: Nvidia's revenue is projected to rise by 71% this year and 30% next year, with its stock trading at a forward P/E of only 20.2, close to the S&P 500's 20.4, indicating a rare investment opportunity that investors should not overlook.
See More
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- Geopolitical Impact: Gold contracts have plunged over 10% since the onset of the Iran war, yet Newmont's underlying business remains robust, suggesting that as geopolitical tensions ease, investors are likely to refocus on gold and Newmont stock.
- Future Earnings Outlook: Newmont is set to report its first-quarter results on April 23, and while macroeconomic and geopolitical factors may sway stock prices, investors should concentrate on the earnings results to seize potential investment opportunities.
See More
