New York Meeting Marks a New Phase for AI Chips

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang met with Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and SK Chairman Chey Tae-won in New York for the first time in two months. The meeting shows that the main topic of the AI chip market is expanding from high-bandwidth memory (HBM) to packaging technology.

As competitors emerge, Nvidia is pursuing HBM supply chain diversification along with cost reduction and efficiency strategies. Nvidia aims to strengthen its position in the AI chip market through new partnerships.

Ways to maximize investment efficiency by sharing technology from the design stage were discussed. This gives Korean chip companies an opportunity to participate more deeply in Nvidia's AI ecosystem.

Semiconductor prices are expected to remain firm through next year, making a hit to corporate earnings unlikely. Chips are unlikely to change significantly as the market's leading sector.

However, foreign investors are selling chip stocks, and a stock-by-stock differentiated market is unfolding. This suggests that market energy may spread to other areas.

Concentrating an investment portfolio only on semiconductors could be risky. It is necessary to consider market trends and trading volume comprehensively and pay attention to other sectors as well.

Nvidia is expanding its AI technology in autonomous driving through collaborations with Korean companies such as LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics, and Hyundai Motor. This can be seen as a model in which Nvidia cooperates to secure real-world data.

AI deployment is moving beyond traditional data centers to B2C devices, automobiles, robots, and more. To deliver AI performance in these devices, a connecting link capable of processing vast amounts of data is essential.

As demand for data processing grows, the importance of telecom equipment and 6G technology investment is becoming prominent. Telecom infrastructure serves as the 'expressway' needed for AI technology to expand into various fields.

Intel's shortage of packaging capacity presents a new opportunity for Samsung Electronics. Samsung can offer turnkey packaging, making it an attractive option for Nvidia.

Samsung's competitiveness lies in creating new demand in non-memory and telecom equipment beyond its memory performance. In particular, the telecom equipment business is likely to become another growth engine for the company.

As fluctuations in power load at AI data centers grow, stable supply has emerged as an essential challenge.

AI data centers have large swings in power load, making stable power supply essential. The role of energy storage systems (ESS) is increasing to mitigate sudden frequency fluctuations in the power grid.

ESS functions as a key storage device that prevents power overloads in data centers, and the related market has the potential to grow more than expected.

Outages at data centers often result more from sudden frequency fluctuations than from power shortages. Such sudden frequency swings cause serious shocks to data centers.

To minimize outage damage, supercapacitor systems that can supply power instantly, alongside ESS, are essential. The rise in stock prices of supercapacitor-related companies appears to reflect these market expectations.

Interest is growing in companies that can quickly produce LFP batteries.

Korean companies such as LG Energy Solution face issues around in-house materials sourcing and domestic production. In the materials sector, the moves of LNF and POSCO Future M are drawing attention.