▲ AI PRISM* Personalized Economic Briefing
* Editor's Note: AI PRISM (Personalized Report & Insight Summarizing Media) is an AI-based personalized news recommendation and summary service developed with support from the Korea Press Foundation. It selects and provides six customized news items by reader type.
[Key Issue Briefing]
■ China Allows H200 Imports: China has permitted imports of Nvidia's latest AI chip, the H200, onto the mainland, with ByteDance and Tencent each bringing in 10,000 units over recent weeks, the Financial Times reported. The shift is seen as a pivot toward U.S.-made chips after export restrictions on extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment left the country short of advanced domestic manufacturing capacity.
■ Memory Stocks Fall Together: AI memory chip stocks fell sharply across the board in New York on the 18th, sending the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) down 4.98%. In the aftermath, Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and SK hynix (000660.KS) dropped 7.82% and 9.75%, respectively, based on closing prices on the 19th. The U.S. 30-year Treasury yield climbing above 5.33% during the session is cited as the direct cause, though some in the market question whether cracks are forming in the AI memory supercycle.
■ Hybrid Memory: SK hynix demonstrated hybrid memory that uses NAND flash-based solid-state drives (SSDs) as memory for AI, presenting a solution that changes the very memory architecture of AI accelerators. With the same DRAM budget, data processing capacity was up to three times higher than existing models. Compared with a 1TB distributed DRAM system, performance was about 30% lower, but DRAM usage was confirmed to be just one-sixteenth as much.
[CEO Featured News]
1. China Allows Nvidia H200 Imports for ByteDance and Tencent
- Key Summary: China has permitted imports of Nvidia's latest AI chip onto the mainland to narrow the technology gap amid U.S.-China AI competition. Citing sources, the FT reported that ByteDance and Tencent each brought in 10,000 H200 units over recent weeks, and that other Chinese tech companies could receive import approvals of similar scale. The H200 lags Nvidia's latest chip by at least two generations, but it is the highest-performing U.S.-made chip approved for export to China. Still, observers say actual use remains uncertain, as Chinese authorities have required that most U.S.-made chips be kept outside the mainland and directed them to be shipped to Hong Kong, which lacks data centers to accommodate them.
2. Has the AI Memory Supercycle Cracked? Samsung and SK hynix Hit Despite Steady HBM Demand
- Key Summary: AI memory chip stocks fell sharply across the board in New York on the 18th, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index down 4.98% at 11,992.46. Micron Technology plunged 7.02% to $940.76, and SK hynix's American depositary receipts (ADRs) closed down 9.20% at $155.62, while SanDisk, Western Digital and Seagate Technology also weakened. A stalemate in U.S.-Iran negotiations kept oil prices elevated, reigniting inflation concerns, and the 30-year Treasury yield rose above 5.33%, its highest since 2007. Adding fuel to the debate over cracks in the supercycle were Anthropic's annualized revenue coming in below market expectations, questions over the sustainability of Big Tech's 2026 AI infrastructure spending, which The Economist estimated at about $900 billion, and China's CXMT (Changxin Memory Technologies) expanding commodity DRAM capacity.
3. Linking NAND to Cut DRAM Use to One-Sixteenth: SK hynix Aims to Change the AI Chip Paradigm
- Key Summary: The hybrid memory that SK hynix demonstrated is a technology aimed at the surging key-value (KV) cache storage problem driven by the spread of AI agents. The industry projects KV cache demand will expand to as much as 100EB (exabytes) next year, 200EB the following year and 1ZB (zettabyte) by 2030. Unlike Google and Microsoft, which respond with data compression, SK hynix took an approach that keeps only data for immediate use in DRAM and stores the rest on SSDs, expanding capacity by applying the Compute Express Link (CXL) standard. With commercialization expected as early as next year, SK hynix also appears to be moving to expand investment in NAND production lines in Cheongju, South Korea, and Dalian, China.
[CEO Reference News]
4. Reuters: Samsung Electronics Raises Foundry Order Prices by Up to 15%
- Key Summary: Samsung Electronics raised prices on some new foundry (contract chip manufacturing) orders by up to 15%, Reuters reported on the 18th. In July, prices for U.S. and Chinese customers on the 4-nanometer SF4 process rose 10-15% from the previous month, while prices for Taiwanese customers rose 5-10%, the 5-nanometer SF5 rose 10-15% and the 8-nanometer process rose nearly 10%. Behind this is the fact that surging demand for AI accelerators and high-performance computing (HPC) chips has left TSMC's advanced process facilities effectively at capacity. Lee Min-hee, an analyst at BNK Investment & Securities, projected that if further price increases are made, the foundry business could turn a profit as early as the start of next year, sooner than expected.
- Key Summary: Hanwha Aerospace (012450.KS) was selected as the sole prototype supplier for the U.S. Army's next-generation Mobile Towed Cannon (MTC) program. The achievement, beating out top global defense firms such as Germany's Rheinmetall, Britain's BAE Systems, the U.S.'s General Dynamics and Israel's Elbit Systems, has drawn analysis crediting the early investment decisions of Hanwha (000880.KS) Group Chairman Seung-youn Kim and the market research and strategy of Hanwha Group Vice Chairman Kim Dong-kwan. Hanwha detected the trend toward wheeled self-propelled howitzers early in the U.S. Army's budget proposal in March 2024, then began development of the K9MH in December that year, completing its first prototype in the first quarter of this year, little more than a year later. The market is focusing on the potential for entry into full-scale production worth around 10 trillion won ($6.9 billion) and expansion into follow-on support contracts such as maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO).
- Key Summary: The management dispute at Korea Zinc (010130.KS), now entering its third year, has reached a new phase with the enforcement of the revised Commercial Act. A provision requiring listed companies with assets of 2 trillion won or more to separately elect two audit committee members independent of the board takes effect on the 10th of next month, and Korea Zinc will hold an extraordinary shareholders' meeting on the 9th, a day earlier, to elect one additional audit committee member. Park Yoo-kyung, the candidate recommended by largest shareholders MBK Partners and Young Poong, stressed in an interview with Seoul Economic Daily that an audit committee member's duty is to represent the interests of all shareholders, independent of management and major shareholders. The key variable in this vote is the 3% rule, which caps a major shareholder's voting rights at a combined 3% including specially related parties. The MBK-Young Poong side, holding about 41%, will exercise only 3%, while Chairman Choi Yun-birm's side is expected to exercise more broadly, around 38% including friendly stakes.
