Gotrade News - Asian chip stocks rallied to record levels on Monday, led by a nearly 5 percent surge in South Korea's KOSPI index. The move came as Cerebras Systems raised its IPO price range to $150 to $160 per share.
AI memory chip demand drove the regional semiconductor rally as investors looked to global supply tightness. Traders also positioned ahead of the Trump-Xi summit on May 13-15, expected to address tariff de-escalation.
Key Takeaways
- Cerebras lifted its IPO price range from $115-$125 to $150-$160, targeting up to $4.8 billion in proceeds.
- KOSPI jumped nearly 5 percent to a record, with SK Hynix up 12 percent and Samsung Electronics up 6 percent.
- SoftBank launched a large-scale battery business in Japan to power AI-era data center infrastructure.
What Drove the Asia Chip Rally
South Korea's KOSPI closed up nearly 5 percent at a record high during Monday's session. According to Investing.com, the move was led by SK Hynix rising 12 percent and Samsung Electronics climbing 6 percent.
Both memory chip makers hit all-time highs in the same trading session on heavy volume. Tight memory chip supply against surging AI demand continues to push average selling prices higher.
The Shanghai Composite added 0.7 percent while the CSI 300 gained 1.2 percent on Monday. Investors are awaiting the Trump-Xi summit scheduled for May 13-15 in a closely watched bilateral meeting.
The summit is expected to cover a possible tariff truce between the two largest global economies. Shares of NVIDIA (NVDA) and Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) tracked the positive Asian sentiment in premarket trade.
Japan's Nikkei 225 was the regional outlier, slipping 0.4 percent on weakness in Nintendo shares. The pullback did little to dent the broader regional semiconductor rally narrative.
Cerebras IPO and SoftBank's AI Power Bet
Cerebras Systems lifted its IPO price range from $115-$125 to $150-$160 per share late Sunday. As reported by Investing.com, the offering size also rose from 28 million to 30 million shares.
At the top of the new range, Cerebras could raise about $4.8 billion versus an initial $3.5 billion plan. The order book was reportedly oversubscribed by roughly 20 times the available shares.
Cerebras will list on the Nasdaq under the ticker CBRS the week after pricing on May 13, 2026. Key customers include Amazon and OpenAI, which use its chips for large-scale AI inference workloads.
The company competes directly with NVIDIA (NVDA) in the fast-growing AI inference chip segment. The Cerebras IPO ranks as the largest global new listing of 2026 so far by deal size.
In Japan, SoftBank Group launched a large-scale battery business to support AI-era power infrastructure. Per Seeking Alpha, the strategy spans development through integrated battery manufacturing.
The move addresses Japanese grid constraints caused by surging AI data center electricity loads nationwide. Data center power demand has become a primary driver of SoftBank's push into energy storage.
Positive sentiment around AI infrastructure spending is also lifting interest in chip ETFs like VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH). The AI stack from silicon to power has emerged as the dominant global market theme this week.
