Asia-Pacific Semiconductor Sector Surges: STAR 50 Index Posts Record 8.23% Single-Day Gain
Asia-Pacific Semiconductor Industry Chain Surges Collectively: Structural Bull Market Enters a New Phase Dominated by “Hard Tech”
On a trading day in April, China’s A-share market witnessed a rare “chip frenzy”: the STAR 50 Index surged 8.23% in a single day—the largest one-day gain in its history; heavyweight stocks—including SMIC, Hua Hong Semiconductor, and Hygon Information—hit all-time highs simultaneously; and the total trading volume of the semiconductor sector across the market exceeded RMB 3.1 trillion, accounting for nearly 30% of the A-share market’s total turnover. This surge is no isolated event: South Korea’s KOSPI index rose in tandem by 7%, closing above the psychological 7,000-point threshold for the first time; Samsung Electronics’ market capitalization historically breached USD 1 trillion; and Hong Kong–listed semiconductor stocks also rallied strongly—Hua Hong Semiconductor jumped 12.4% in one day, while SMIC gained 9.6%. The Asia-Pacific semiconductor industry chain is declaring—in unison—that the global allocation logic of tech capital has undergone a fundamental shift: high-certainty “hard tech” has become the core engine driving the next phase of the structural bull market.
Triple-Pronged Catalysts: AI Compute Power, Domestic Substitution, and Geopolitical Realignment
This rally is not a short-term, sentiment-driven pulse—but rather the deep convergence of three highly deterministic forces.
First and foremost is the exponential expansion of global AI compute demand. According to TrendForce’s latest forecast, global AI server shipments will grow 31% year-on-year in 2024; demand for High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) will double; and advanced-node foundry capacity remains persistently saturated. As the world’s largest nation for AI application deployment, China is witnessing rigid, sustained growth in demand for GPUs, AI acceleration chips, and compute-in-memory chips—driven by large-model training and inference. Hygon’s recently launched DCU-series acceleration cards have already entered mass deployment across financial services and scientific research institutions; Cambricon’s MLU-series chips are rapidly gaining traction in intelligent computing centers—these are not conceptual narratives, but hard metrics already translating into real orders and revenue growth.
Second, domestic substitution is accelerating in substance—not just in rhetoric. In Q1 2024, average utilization rates at China’s mature-node (28nm and above) fabrication lines rebounded to 92%; yield rates for 14nm FinFET processes stabilized above 95%. SMIC announced the commencement of operations at Phase II of its Beijing 12-inch fab, dedicated to automotive-grade MCUs and power devices; Hua Hong’s Wuxi 12-inch fab is ramping up production capacity for IGBTs and CIS image sensors. Crucially, policy support has turned systemic: the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s Action Plan for High-Quality Development of the Semiconductor Industry explicitly sets a binding target to raise the domestic localization rate of semiconductor equipment and materials to 35%; and the third phase of China’s National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund (“Big Fund III”), with a total scale of RMB 100 billion, has already initiated its first round of project evaluations. Domestic substitution is evolving—from “functional usability” to “superior performance,” and from “isolated breakthroughs” toward “ecosystem-wide synergy.”
Third, the geopolitical risk premium has significantly receded. A temporary de-escalation in Middle East tensions served as a key catalyst: Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian sent positive signals; Brent crude oil prices fell over 5% within a week; and global risk aversion eased. Simultaneously, the Japanese yen experienced sharp volatility—USD/JPY plunged more than 1.5% intraday, hitting a low of 155.49—reflecting heightened expectations of Bank of Japan intervention and a wave of unwinding yen-carry trades. This development carries dual implications: First, it eases pressure on risk-free rates used to anchor valuations of Asia-Pacific tech equities; second, yen depreciation undermines the export competitiveness of Japanese semiconductor equipment makers (e.g., Tokyo Electron, Advantest), indirectly benefiting Chinese and Korean foundries and OSAT providers in the global reallocation of market share. Geopolitical risk is shifting—from unilateral suppression toward dynamic rebalancing—creating a precious window of certainty for hard-tech investment.
Global Pricing Power Shifts: From Production Hub to Innovation Hub
The simultaneous record highs of Asia-Pacific semiconductor indices signal a structural migration of pricing power across the global semiconductor supply chain. For the past decade, pricing logic was long dominated by U.S.-based IDMs (Intel, Texas Instruments) and TSMC’s capacity scheduling. Today, however, manufacturing leaders—including SMIC, SK hynix, and Samsung—alongside rising AI chip design players such as Cambricon, Biren Technology, and Moore Threads—are jointly building an integrated “manufacturing–design–application” closed loop. The KOSPI’s ascent to 7,000 points was chiefly propelled by Samsung’s six-month lead over U.S. peers in HBM3 mass production; the STAR 50’s explosive rally stems from the irreplaceable role played by Hygon and Cambricon in China’s domestic AI chip ecosystem adaptation.
This transformation carries profound capital-market implications: when semiconductor-sector trading volume exceeds RMB 3.1 trillion, it signifies far more than intra-industry fund rotation—it reflects a collective revaluation by mainstream institutional investors—including public mutual funds, insurance companies, and foreign capital—of A-share “technology sovereignty assets.” Northbound funds posted net inflows into the semiconductor sector for 12 consecutive trading days; QFII holdings of equipment- and materials-related stocks rose to 18.7%—a three-year high. Global capital is voting with real money: hard tech is no longer high-risk beta—it is now a “core asset” delivering sustainable alpha.
Challenges and Evolutionary Pathways in the New Phase
Of course, amid the euphoria, clarity of mind remains essential. The sector’s overall P/E (TTM) currently stands at 68x—approximately 40% above its five-year average; some fabless design firms face risks of earnings realization lagging behind their stock price appreciation. The true test lies ahead: Can this short-term momentum be converted into sustainable technological leaps? Three critical indicators warrant close attention:
- Customer adoption progress for SMIC’s N+2 process node (equivalent to TSMC’s 7nm);
- Commercial-scale deployment of Yangtze Memory’s Xtacking 3.0 technology in enterprise SSD markets;
- Increased coverage of EDA toolchains (e.g., Huada Jiutian,概伦电子 [Gelun Electronics]) across sub-28nm design flows.
It bears emphasis that this bull market differs fundamentally from the thematic speculation of 2015—then, there was no substantive technological foundation or industrial closed loop. Today, China possesses the world’s most complete semiconductor manufacturing cluster, the most vibrant application scenarios, and the most execution-capable policy system. With China’s April Services PMI reaching 52.6—and new orders expanding for 40 consecutive months—it is clear that digital infrastructure and AI empowerment have deeply permeated the capillaries of the real economy. Semiconductors are transforming—from a symbol of “bottleneck anxiety” into foundational bedrock for “new infrastructure.”
This chip feast spanning Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, and Shenzhen will ultimately prove a timeless truth: Over the long arc of human technological evolution, only industry chains rooted in authentic demand and committed to sustained, hardcore innovation can pierce through cyclical fog—and earn the enduring trust of global capital.