Meta Platforms announced that it will double its AI‑driven computing capacity from 7 gigawatts in 2026 to 14 gigawatts in 2027, with an expected spend of up to $145 billion on AI infrastructure this year. The company’s custom AI chip, codenamed “Iris,” completed a six‑week test program without issues and is slated for production in September. Meta is collaborating with Broadcom on the chip design, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) will fabricate it. Multi‑year supply agreements have been secured with Samsung for memory chips, SanDisk for flash storage, and Sumitomo Electric for fiber‑optic components.
Following the Meta news, U.S. semiconductor equities rebounded sharply on Thursday. Advanced Micro Devices rose 5.7%, Micron Technology gained 4.4%, Broadcom increased 3.2%, Marvell Technology jumped 5.0%, SanDisk rose 7.6%, Applied Materials added 3.2%, and Lumentum Holdings surged 11.1%. The sector’s recovery helped chip stocks close near their session highs after earlier losses.
In China, Changxin Memory Technologies (CXMT), the world’s fourth‑largest DRAM producer with a 7.7% global market share in the prior year, began book‑building for a Shanghai IPO on July 15. The offering targets 29.5 billion yuan (approximately $4.34 billion) and lifted the CSI Semiconductor Index 8.8%.
Separately, Samsung Electronics reported second‑quarter operating profit of 89.4 trillion won (about $58.44 billion), roughly 19‑times its profit a year earlier and well above the LSEG SmartEstimate of 87.3 trillion won. Revenue is projected to jump 129% to 171 trillion won. Despite the earnings beat, Samsung’s share price fell sharply, with analysts attributing the move to the news being largely priced in and lingering concerns over the sustainability of AI‑driven demand in the chip sector.
The article also notes that memory‑chip prices have risen sharply, prompting investor questions about whether demand can keep pace with elevated pricing. Earlier this week, a Bloomberg report suggested Meta might create a “neocloud‑like” arm to sell data‑center capacity, which initially sparked a sell‑off in AI‑related stocks; the current announcement of continued infrastructure build‑out has reversed that sentiment.