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A Promising Morning: SK Hynix Shares Rise 6.2%

Monday morning proved bright and promising for SK Hynix shares. The company’s American depositary receipts (ADRs) jumped 6.2% in U.S. premarket trading, reaching $164.20 per share. The increase mirrored positive momentum in the Korean market, where SK Hynix shares also posted a strong advance, gaining 3.24% during the session.

What is driving this optimism? Investors appear to be positioning themselves ahead of the company’s second-quarter 2026 earnings report, scheduled for July 29. Analysts expect revenue of approximately 84 trillion won and a potentially record-high operating margin, supported by rising DRAM and NAND prices. These are not merely strong figures—they could represent historic results confirming that SK Hynix stands at the center of the AI-driven memory supercycle.

However, internal expectations are not the only factor pushing the shares higher. On Saturday, the South Korean government announced new artificial intelligence initiatives worth $950 billion, involving Samsung, SK Group, and U.S. technology companies. The announcement provided an additional catalyst, reinforcing the view that South Korea intends to become a global hub for AI infrastructure. As one of the leading suppliers of memory used in artificial intelligence systems, SK Hynix is positioned to become one of the primary beneficiaries of this trend.

The $950 Billion Initiative: How the Government Is Accelerating the AI Race

Saturday’s announcement of a $950 billion South Korean government initiative aimed at developing artificial intelligence sent an important signal to the market. This is not simply a financial commitment—it is a strategic government-level decision that could reshape the competitive landscape of the entire semiconductor industry.

Major corporations such as Samsung and SK Group, along with U.S. technology companies, will play key roles in the initiative. The objective is to address the shortage of faster chips required for the development of advanced AI...

he Most Expensive Guarantee in History: A Scale That Is Difficult to Imagine

Monday began with news that would have sounded like science fiction only a few years ago. NVDA ... —the chipmaker whose technology has become indispensable to virtually every major artificial intelligence project—is reportedly in talks to provide OpenAI with a financial guarantee worth approximately $250 billion. This is not merely a large transaction; it could become one of the most ambitious financial arrangements in the history of the technology industry.

Should the agreement be finalized, the financing would allow OpenAI to lease an enormous 10-gigawatt data center that SoftBank is building in southern Ohio. For comparison, 10 gigawatts is enough electricity to power several million homes. The total cost of the project is estimated to exceed $500 billion, including the Nvidia chips that would be installed inside the data center.

However, the most remarkable aspect of this story is not simply the astronomical figures but the structure of the proposed deal itself. Nvidia would not provide the money directly to OpenAI. Instead, it would act as a guarantor, effectively backing OpenAI’s obligations to lenders.

As a privately held company that is not yet profitable, OpenAI does not have an investment-grade credit rating. This makes it extremely difficult for the company to secure massive loans on favorable terms. Nvidia’s guarantee would reduce the risks faced by banks and other lenders, allowing them to finance the construction project at lower interest rates.

At the same time, the guarantee would cover only the construction and leasing of the data center—not the purchase of Nvidia’s chips. A separate agreement for the processors could reportedly be worth as much as $350 billion.

The result resembles a circular financing arrangement: Nvidia guarantees the funding for OpenAI’s infrastructure, while OpenAI uses that infrastructure funding to...

A Third Funding Round in Six Months—Something We’ve Never Seen Before

The artificial intelligence industry is in the middle of a full-blown gold rush. Yet even against this backdrop, the latest news from China is making traders and venture capitalists around the world raise their eyebrows. Moonshot AI—a company that, until recently, was barely known outside Beijing and Shenzhen—is reportedly in talks to raise up to $2 billion in a new funding round. What makes this remarkable is that the startup has already secured funding in two previous rounds... within the last six months.

Just think about the numbers. Moonshot AI wants investors to value the company at $30 billion. Thirty billion dollars. That’s more than the market capitalization of many public companies that have been operating profitably for decades. Moonshot, meanwhile, is still a startup. It has a chatbot called Kimi, a team of talented engineers, and plenty of ambition. But a $30 billion valuation is a serious statement.

And that’s only part of the story. According to Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with the matter, Moonshot is already close to completing another funding round led by Meituan, China’s delivery and services giant. That round is expected to value the company at around $20 billion after the deal closes. The subsequent round now under discussion would push the valuation even higher—to $30 billion.

In other words, Moonshot’s valuation could increase sevenfold in just a matter of months compared to last December, when the startup was valued at slightly over $4 billion. A sevenfold increase in half a year would have looked extreme even during the dot-com bubble. Yet in today’s AI market, almost nothing seems impossible.

Kimi: The Chinese Chatbot That Knows More Than You Think

Behind all this money stands a product. Moonshot AI’s flagship offering is a chatbot...