Chip index heads for best H1 in over two decades on AI-fueled rally

SK Hynix

Yesterday 17:19

** The Philadelphia chip index .SOX has nearly doubled since the start of the year and is headed for one of its strongest H1 performances going back to its inception in 1994
** Index soars ~94% YTD, second only to the ~96% surge during the 2000 dotcom boom
** The share run is powered by AI-driven demand for data center chips and hyperscaler capital spending, with bumper forecasts from memory and data center suppliers including Micron MU.O and Qualcomm QCOM.O reinforcing the run
** The rally in chip stocks has also been instrumental in driving Wall Street's main indexes to record highs
** Leading the pack is Micron MU.O, up 300% YTD, followed by Intel INTC.O, up 257% and Marvell Technologies MRVL.O, up 227%
** Micron topped $1 trillion in market value in May and briefly overtook Meta META.O and Tesla TSLA.O for the first time last week
** Elsewhere, South Korea's Samsung Electronics 005930.KS and SK Hynix 000660.KS also hit $1 trillion in market value respectively this year, with the latter planning to list its American Depository Shares imminently

 (Reporting by Medha Singh in Bengaluru)
 ((Medha.Singh@thomsonreuters.com; +91 80 6210 0592; X, formerly Twitter: @medhasinghs;))