CEO Choi Hyun-deok: "Nuclear Power and Energy will Soar, Riding AI Momentum… Samsung Electronics Also Has Catalyst Materials"

Increased power demand driven by AI technology development is leading a strong upward shift for the nuclear power and energy sectors. CEO Choi Hyun-deok analyzed that AI's growth momentum is now moving beyond memory semiconductors to power infrastructure. "Nuclear power and energy are directly taking on the AI momentum, and their prices are quite cheap," he said.

He believes that with the confirmation of a bottom in the memory semiconductor sector, nuclear power and energy-related stocks are likely to rise together as essential foundations for AI industry growth. He emphasized that these sectors are currently undervalued, making them highly attractive for investment.

The recent news of SK Hynix's failure to reach a labor-management agreement has been identified as a major cause of increased market volatility. CEO Choi Hyun-deok mentioned, "Our market today saw strong morning volatility due to news that Hynix's labor-management agreement failed," analyzing that this affected overall market sentiment.

He added that the market's excessive anxiety about rising interest rates has further dampened investor sentiment.

Expectations are growing that the U.S. Treasury will move to stabilize interest rates by utilizing the Treasury General Account (TGA), an emergency fund account opened at the Federal Reserve. CEO Choi Hyun-deok emphasized the existence of these massive funds, stating, "This is an account managed by the Treasury opened at the Fed, and it holds about $950 billion."

The Treasury is expected to implement a policy to curb short-term interest rate increases by buying back bonds in the market using these TGA funds. This is expected to supply liquidity to the market, alleviate interest rate burdens, and improve the investment environment.

This Treasury policy is projected to play a crucial role in mitigating rapid market volatility even amid an interest rate hike trend.

Stablecoin issuance is structurally increasing demand for U.S. Treasuries. CEO Choi Hyun-deok explained, "To issue stablecoins, you either have to buy and hold an equivalent amount of dollars or buy and hold U.S. Treasuries," emphasizing that stablecoins are issued with a 1:1 linkage to dollars or U.S. Treasuries.

This means that as the stablecoin market grows, demand for U.S. Treasuries naturally increases, which is analyzed to have a positive impact on the strategy of stabilizing interest rates through Treasury purchases.

CEO Choi Hyun-deok analyzed that the Trump administration's pressure to ease cryptocurrency regulations aims to stabilize demand for U.S. Treasuries through stablecoin activation. He suggested that the growth of the cryptocurrency market could positively impact the Treasury market, stating, "They can stabilize U.S. Treasury demand by activating stablecoins."

This approach is interpreted as a dual strategy aiming to promote the growth of the cryptocurrency market while also contributing to U.S. fiscal health.

The Trump administration is aggressively promoting stablecoin activation as a strategy to expand demand for U.S. Treasuries. CEO Choi Hyun-deok emphasized the government's commitment to passing related legislation, stating, "They are currently pushing for Trump's CREATES Act to activate stablecoins."

The stablecoin market is projected to grow to $4 trillion in the future, which is expected to secure demand for short-term Treasuries and contribute to interest rate stabilization. This is because large-scale stablecoin issuance inevitably involves the purchase of U.S. Treasuries as collateral.

Signs of improved relations between Iran and Pakistan are signaling significant changes in the Middle East's geopolitical landscape. CEO Choi Hyun-deok highlighted recent positive developments, stating, "Pakistan's Interior Minister said they were exchanging very constructive opinions, and Pakistan's Foreign Minister spoke with Trump and visited Tehran."

The Pakistani Interior Minister's statement suggests progress in dialogue between the two countries, and the Pakistani Foreign Minister's visit to Tehran can be interpreted as a signal that Iran may return to the international negotiation table. Such changes could lead to a de-escalation of tensions and the formation of new dynamics in the Middle East region.

The SK Hynix union rejected the tentative agreement with 50.1% of votes against, leading to the failure of the labor-management agreement. CEO Choi Hyun-deok explained the impact of this news on the market, stating, "Hynix's tentative agreement failed because 50.1% of the union's votes were against it."

This failure to reach a labor-management agreement increases management uncertainty, including shareholder return policies, and could bring volatility to SK Hynix's stock price. The market is expected to focus on the direction of labor-management relations and the resulting changes in corporate value.

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are pursuing different shareholder return methods to enhance corporate value. CEO Choi Hyun-deok analyzed the strategic differences between the two companies, explaining, "It's advantageous for Hynix to buy back its own shares, and for Samsung, it's advantageous to pay dividends."

While it's beneficial for SK Hynix to secure equity and boost its stock price through share buybacks, Samsung Electronics tends to prefer dividend policies due to regulations under the Financial Industry Structure Act. These differences stem from each company's governance structure and legal environment, and investors should consider these factors when formulating investment strategies.

With an impending meeting between Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and President Yoon Suk-yeol, discussions on amending the Financial Industry Structure Act are expected to be a major agenda item. CEO Choi Hyun-deok emphasized the importance of this meeting, stating, "Chairman Lee Jae-yong and President Yoon Suk-yeol are meeting tomorrow, and I looked into the Financial Industry Structure Act regarding this."

The meeting is expected to focus on potential exceptions to the Financial Industry Structure Act, such as excluding Samsung Electronics from equity ratio regulations when it cancels its own shares. Amendments to the Financial Industry Structure Act could significantly impact Samsung Electronics' governance structure and shareholder return policies, drawing keen market attention.

Samsung Electronics has secured strong growth momentum by being commissioned to foundry produce Nvidia's AI agent inference chip, 'Grok 3 LPX.' CEO Choi Hyun-deok emphasized the importance of this contract, stating, "Samsung Foundry is mass-producing commissioned inference accelerators. This could be a major boon."

The market is making positive forecasts, with Samsung Foundry's yield expected to reach over 80%. This suggests that Samsung Electronics' foundry business can strengthen its position in the AI semiconductor market through collaborations with global leading companies like Nvidia.

As the AI market's focus shifts from training to inference, demand for AI accelerators, particularly Language Processing Units (LPUs), is rapidly increasing. CEO Choi Hyun-deok explained the role division between training GPUs and inference LPUs, stating, "It's the same data center, but when training, GPUs are used, and when inferring to provide answers, Grok chips are used."

Nvidia's 'Grok' chips are configured into rack-unit systems by bundling 256 units, offering overwhelmingly superior inference speed and efficiency compared to existing GPUs. The emergence of such efficient, inference-dedicated chips is essential for the spread of AI services and the increase in data processing, and it is expected to drive explosive growth in the related market.

Amid heightened market expectations ahead of Nvidia's earnings announcement, a strong market rebound is anticipated for Thursday. CEO Choi Hyun-deok mentioned the positive impact Nvidia's earnings could have on the market, stating, "There's a high possibility of a fairly significant rebound starting Thursday morning, because Nvidia's earnings will be announced early Thursday."

Strong earnings from major tech companies like Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon are expected to underpin Nvidia's robust performance. In particular, as the shortage of computing power in data centers intensifies, there is speculation that Nvidia might raise its guidance.

CEO Choi Hyun-deok emphasized that the outcome of AI competition depends not on model capabilities but on 'the power grid and readily available computing power.' He highlighted the importance of power infrastructure, stating, "What determines victory is not the model's ability, but computing power that is connected to electricity and always available."

The current computing power shortage is a bottleneck that is difficult to resolve in the short term, and OpenAI's usage restrictions are also evidence of this infrastructure deficit. This means that infrastructure expansion is lagging behind the pace of AI technology development.

Consequently, hyperscalers (large-scale cloud service providers) and related infrastructure providers are expected to emerge as major beneficiaries of AI competition. The value of companies providing essential infrastructure for AI operation, such as power grids, data centers, and cooling systems, is projected to increase significantly.

This structural change will create new investment opportunities across the AI industry, particularly accelerating the growth of infrastructure-related sectors such as power generation and supply, semiconductor equipment, and network solutions.

CEO Choi Hyun-deok assessed that Hanmi Pharmaceutical, currently with a market capitalization of 6 trillion won, has sufficient value to reach over 10 trillion won. He suggested a target stock price of 700,000 to 800,000 won, stating, "I think Hanmi Pharmaceutical should go at least to 10 trillion won. If so, it's currently 500,000 won, so I think it will go to 700,000 or 800,000 won."

Comparing it to Alteogen's market capitalization of 16 trillion won, he mentioned the possibility of Hanmi Pharmaceutical being undervalued and foresaw greater potential for stock price increase if interest rates stabilize. Hanmi Pharmaceutical is continuously securing core pipelines and maintaining growth momentum, indicating high investment value from a long-term perspective.

Even amidst intensifying global new drug development competition, Hanmi Pharmaceutical's technology and pipeline value are expected to be steadily re-evaluated.

CEO Choi Hyun-deok identified nuclear power, power infrastructure, and energy as the new leading sectors in the AI era, suggesting promising investment stocks. He mentioned specific stocks, stating, "In the nuclear power sector, I already mentioned Doosan Enerbility and Hyundai E&C. Next, you should look at BHI, for example."

He advised paying attention to Doosan Enerbility, Hyundai E&C, BHI, and Daewoo E&C in the nuclear power sector. For the power infrastructure sector, he emphasized focusing on the 'core three' stocks, and for the energy sector, he saw Hyundai Energy Solutions and HD Hyundai Holdings as promising.

These stocks are expected to be direct beneficiaries of increased power demand and infrastructure expansion due to AI development, and are assessed to have high investment attractiveness from a long-term perspective.