{"id":434403,"date":"2026-07-23T10:40:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T03:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/market-news\/kospi-jumps-3-nikkei-rises-as-googles-ai-capex-boost-lifts-chip-stocks-434403\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T10:40:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T03:40:16","slug":"kospi-jumps-3-nikkei-rises-as-googles-ai-capex-boost-lifts-chip-stocks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/market-news\/kospi-jumps-3-nikkei-rises-as-googles-ai-capex-boost-lifts-chip-stocks-434403\/","title":{"rendered":"Kospi jumps 3%, Nikkei rises as Google&#8217;s AI capex boost lifts chip stocks"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\">The rally in Korean and Japanese equities underscores how directly Asian chipmakers are now leveraged to the US hyperscaler capex cycle, with <a href=\"https:\/\/investinglive.com\/stocks\/alphabet-beats-q2-estimates-as-cloud-revenue-surges-and-gemini-usage-grows\" rel=\"follow\">Google&#8217;s raised full year spending guidance<\/a> validating expectations that AI infrastructure demand still has further to run. SK Hynix and Samsung&#8217;s outsized gains point to markets pricing sustained strength in memory and advanced chip demand tied to data centre build outs, a read-through likely to extend to other regional semiconductor suppliers in coming sessions. South Korea&#8217;s GDP beat adds a domestic growth tailwind on top of the AI driven rally, though it also raises the odds of further Bank of Korea tightening, a dynamic that could complicate the equity story if higher rates start to weigh on valuations. As a broader risk sentiment gauge, the strength in Asian equities is a modestly supportive backdrop for risk sensitive currencies including the <a href=\"https:\/\/investinglive.com\/central-banks\/aud-usd-has-jumped-higher-after-the-strong-jobs-report-biggest-job-gain-in-a-year\" rel=\"follow\">Australian dollar<\/a>, though FX moves in the region look more idiosyncratic today and are worth covering separately.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\">&#8212;<br \/>\nGoogle&#8217;s bigger AI spending bill is rippling through Asia, sending Korean and Japanese chip stocks sharply higher.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\">Summary:<\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\" class=\"[li_&amp;]:mb-0 [li_&amp;]:mt-1 [li_&amp;]:gap-1 [&amp;:not(:last-child)_ul]:pb-1 [&amp;:not(:last-child)_ol]:pb-1 list-disc flex flex-col gap-1 pl-8 mb-3 print:block print:space-y-1\">\n<li class=\"font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\">Kospi rose more than 3%, its third straight advance, led by SK Hynix up 6.5% and Samsung Electronics up 4.8%<\/li>\n<li class=\"font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\">Nikkei rose around 1% as Asian markets tracked the AI capex rally<\/li>\n<li class=\"font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\">Google raised its full year capex guidance to between $195bln and $205bln, reinforcing expectations AI infrastructure spending remains robust<\/li>\n<li class=\"font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\">Alphabet and Tesla earnings both pointed to continued heavy AI infrastructure investment<\/li>\n<li class=\"font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\">South Korea&#8217;s Q2 GDP grew 0.6% quarter on quarter, ahead of the 0.4% forecast, on strong chip exports<\/li>\n<li class=\"font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\">LG Energy Solution also rose almost 4% on the day<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\">\nSouth Korean and Japanese shares rallied on Thursday, with the Kospi surging more than 3% and the Nikkei adding around 1%, as Google&#8217;s decision to raise its full year capital expenditure guidance reinforced expectations that the AI infrastructure spending boom still has plenty of room to run. The Kospi&#8217;s advance marked a third consecutive session of gains, taking the index up more than 7% over that stretch, though it remains sharply below its record close from late June.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\">Chipmakers led the charge in Seoul, with SK Hynix rising as much as 6.5% and Samsung Electronics gaining 4.8%, while battery maker LG Energy Solution climbed almost 4%. The moves came after Google lifted its full year capex forecast to a range of $195bln to $205bln, a figure that, alongside robust Tesla earnings, reassured markets that hyperscaler spending on AI infrastructure is not slowing. That spending flows directly into demand for the advanced logic and memory chips that Korean suppliers produce for data centres, making Kospi heavyweights among the most direct regional beneficiaries of the AI capex cycle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\">South Korea&#8217;s own economic data added further support, with Asia&#8217;s fourth largest economy expanding 0.6% quarter on quarter in the April to June period, ahead of a median forecast of 0.4% and driven largely by strong chip exports. That represented a sharp slowdown from 1.8% growth in the first quarter, but was still enough to suggest chip led momentum can continue underpinning growth even as policymakers begin a tightening cycle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\">In Japan, the Nikkei&#8217;s more modest gain reflected similar AI driven optimism, with the broader rally in Asian equities extending to the MSCI Asia-Pacific index outside Japan, which was tracking toward a solid weekly advance after two consecutive weekly declines. Currency moves in both South Korea and Japan were also notable on the day, though those developments are better addressed in a separate wrap given the scale of today&#8217;s equity story. For now, the read-through from Alphabet&#8217;s spending plans looks like the dominant driver across Asian markets, with chipmakers set to remain in focus as more hyperscaler earnings land in the weeks ahead.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\">\n<p>                            This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at investinglive.com.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The rally in Korean and Japanese equities underscores how directly Asian chipmakers are now leveraged to the US hyperscaler capex cycle, with Google&#8217;s raised full year spending guidance validating expectations that AI&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":216,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-434403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-market-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/216"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434403\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}