Samsung Electronics’ fourth-generation high bandwidth memory or HBM3 chips have been cleared by Nvidia for use in its processors for the first time, three people briefed on the matter said.
SeongJoon Cho | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Tech and chip-related stocks in Asia fell on Thursday, after U.S. chip darling Nvidia reported its second-quarter results overnight, amid a broader decline in the region’s key markets.
Losses were most pronounced in companies with direct links to the U.S. tech giant, such as South Korean chipmakers SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics.
SK Hynix, which manufactures high bandwidth memory chips — used in AI applications— for Nvidia, saw shares slump as much as 6.74%.
Samsung Electronics, the highest weighted stock on the South Korea’s benchmark stock index, Kospi, fell as much as 3.8%.
The spillover also extended to other tech stocks, although to a smaller extent. Japanese semiconductor related stocks such as Renesas, Advantest and Tokyo Electron fell as much as 3.2%, 3.6% and 3.49% respectively.
Separately, Chinese chipmakers listed in Hong Kong fell, despite being largely unrelated to the Nvidia value chain. SMIC, which is partially state owned, lost about 1.4%, while Hua Hong Semiconductor fell 1.66%.
Runaway train slowing down
While the Nvidia beat quarterly revenue and earnings per share estimates, the fall in shares could have been triggered by fears that the company may not be able to deliver explosive growth in the current quarter, according to Luke Rahbari, CEO of Equity Armor Investments told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.”
Rahbari said the results are “really good”, but also noting that “For so many quarters, Nvidia had blown out expectations of analysts … People [are] maybe thinking the runaway train is slowing down a little bit.”
He still remains bullish on the company, highlighting “no company in the world, in my estimation, has the position that Nvidia has in their industry, such a dominant position.”
Nvidia’s gross margin, however, slipped to 75.1% from 78.4% in the prior period, while it annual gross margin forecast of “mid-70% range” was below analysts’ estimate of 76.4%, according to StreetAccount.
Speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia,” Mark Lushcini, chief investment strategist at financial advisory firm Janney Montgomery Scott, called the decline in Nvidia shares a “rounding error,” citing how much Nvidia had risen this year. On a year to date basis, shares have risen about 150%.
He noted, “the company is growing fast, but the pace of growth is slowing down for 4 quarters now. For a company that’s trading on a 40-50 times forward earnings, that’s a high demand hurdle to overcome vs expectations.”
The logo of LG Electronics is seen on the opening day of the Integrated Systems Europe exhibition in Barcelona on January 31, 2023.
Pau Barrena | Afp | Getty Images
South Korea-based LG Energy Solution announced Wednesday that it had signed a $4.3 billion contract for supplying batteries to a major corporation, without naming the customer.
The effective date of contract — receipt of orders — began Tuesday and will conclude at the end of July, 2030. During this period, the counterparty will not be disclosed to maintain business confidentiality, the company’s filing with the Korea Exchange showed Wednesday.Reuters reported that Tesla was the counterparty.
Earlier this week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed that the EV maker was behind a previously undisclosed $16.5 billion chip contract with South Korea’s Samsung Electronics.
LG Energy said in its filing that details of the contract such as the deal amount were subject to change and the contract period could be extended by up to seven years.
“Investors are advised to carefully consider the possibility of changes or termination of the contract when making investment decisions,” the company cautioned. It’s shares were trading 0.26% lower.
The filing did not clarify whether the lithium iron phosphate batteries would be used in vehicles or energy storage systems. Its major battery customers include American electric-vehicle makers Tesla and General Motors.
The company has been expanding its battery production in the U.S., and is constructing a plant in Arizona that will produce lithium iron phosphate batteries.
LG Energy Solution and Tesla did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.
Nikesh Arora, CEO of Palo Alto Networks, looks on during the closing bell at the Nasdaq Market in New York City, U.S., March 25, 2025.
Jeenah Moon | Reuters
CyberArk shares soared as much as 18% on Tuesday after The Wall Street Journal reported that cybersecurity provider Palo Alto Networks has held discussions to buy the identity management software maker for over $20 billion.
Cloud security is becoming an increasingly critical piece of the enterprise tech stack, especially as rapid advancements in artificial intelligence bring with them a whole new set of threats, and as ransomware attacks become more commonplace.
Founded in 2005, Palo Alto Networks has emerged in recent years as a consolidator in the cybersecurity industry and has grown into the biggest player in the space by market cap, with a valuation of over $130 billion. CEO Nikesh Arora, who was appointed to the job in 2018, has been on a spending spree, snapping up Protect AI in a deal that closed in July, and in 2023 buying Talon Cyber Security, Dig Security and Zycada Networks.
But CyberArk would represent by far Arora’s biggest bet yet. The Israeli company, which went public in 2014, provides technology that helps companies streamline the process of logging on to applications for employees.
CyberArk faces competition from Microsoft, Okta and IBM‘s HashiCorp. Another rival, SailPoint, returned to the public markets in February.
With Tuesday’s rally, CyberArk shares climbed to a record, surpassing their prior all-time high reached in February. The stock is up 29% this year, pushing the company’s market cap to almost $21 billion, after jumping 52% in 2024. Palo Alto shares, meanwhile, slid 3.5% on the report and are now up about 9% for the year.
Representatives from Palo Alto Networks and CyberArk declined to comment.
During the first quarter, CyberArk generated around $11.5 million in net income on around $318 million in revenue, which was up 43% from a year earlier.
It’s been an active stretch for big deals in the cyber market. Google said in March that it was spending $32 billion on Wiz, its largest acquisition on record by far, and a purchase intended to bolster its cloud business with greater AI security technology.
Networking giant Cisco also made its biggest deal ever in the security space, buying Splunk in 2023 for $28 billion. Splunk’s technology helps businesses monitor and analyze their data to minimize the risk of hacks and resolve technical issues faster.
Spotify shares dropped about 4% Tuesday after the music streaming platform fell short of Wall Street’s expectations and posted weak guidance for the current quarter.
Here’s how the company did versus LSEG estimates:
Loss: Loss of .42 euros vs earnings of 1.90 euros per share expected
Revenue: 4.19 billion euros vs. 4.26 billion expected
The Sweden-based music platform’s revenues rose 10% from about 3.81 billion euros in the year-ago period. The company posted a net loss of 86 million euros, or a loss of .42 euros per share, down from net income of 225 million euros, or 1.10 euros per share a year ago.
Third-quarter guidance came up short of Wall Street’s forecast.
The company expects revenues to reach 4.2 billion euros, compared to a 4.47 billion euro estimate from StreetAccount. Spotify said the forecast accounts for a 490-basis-point headwind due to foreign exchange rates.
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Monthly active users on the platform jumped 11% to 696 million, while paying subscribers rose 12% from a year ago to 276 million.
For the current quarter, Spotify said it expects to reach 710 million monthly active users, with 14 million net adds. The company expects 5 million net new premium subscribers in the third quarter to reach 281 million subscriptions.
During the period, Spotify said it rolled out a request feature for its artificial intelligence DJ. The company said engagement with the offering has roughly doubled over the last year.
In 2024, Spotify posted its first full year of profitability. Shares are up 57% this year.