Jensen Huang: "AI investment isn’t excessive"… Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix jump about 5%

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are showing strong gains. The move comes after Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, said concerns about excessive investment in artificial intelligence (AI) are overblown.

As of 10:12 a.m. on the 9th, Samsung Electronics was up 8,000 won (5.04%) from the previous session at 166,600 won. The stock touched 170,000 won intraday, setting a new record high.

SK Hynix was trading up 45,000 won (5.36%) at 884,000 won. It rose as high as 899,000 won intraday (per Korea Exchange data).

With fears of AI overinvestment easing, investor sentiment toward semiconductor stocks appears to have improved. In a CNBC interview on the 6th (local time), Huang said, "Building AI infrastructure will continue for the next 7–8 years," adding, "Demand for AI is unbelievably strong." He also stressed, "AI is already useful and a technology with very high capabilities," and that "the pace of adoption is also moving very quickly."

Recently, as global big-tech companies such as Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft have continued massive investment in AI infrastructure, investors have raised concerns about the burden of capital expenditures following earnings announcements. The combined market capitalization of the four companies has fallen by nearly $1 trillion over the past few days.

Huang explained that AI is already generating tangible returns for adopting companies and that performance will improve further as more data centers are built. He also dismissed the possibility of an industry-wide glut in tech capacity. Unlike the early days of internet infrastructure buildouts, there is currently little idle infrastructure, he added, noting that AI companies such as Anthropic and OpenAI are already generating profitable revenue.

Jin Young-gi, Hankyung.com reporter young71@hankyung.com