Micron is expanding its chip manufacturing plant in western Japan by $9 billion, with production and shipments expected to begin around summer 2028.
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Apple invests over $30 billion to deepen its partnership with Broadcom and expand its domestic chip manufacturing operations in the United States.
According to ChainCatcher, citing CNBC, Apple announced on Wednesday a multi-year partnership with chipmaker Broadcom, expected to exceed $30 billion. This is Apple's largest commitment to U.S.-made manufacturing to date. Under the agreement, Broadcom will continue to develop and supply customized ASIC chips (increasingly used in AI workloads) and wireless components for cellular networks, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth connectivity for multiple generations of Apple products until 2031. The report indicates that the partnership is expected to facilitate the production of more than 15 billion U.S.-made chips and includes a $1.5 billion expansion of Broadcom's Fort Collins, Colorado factory. Outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook stated that this move is the largest single project in Apple's $600 billion U.S. investment plan announced in 2025, aimed at responding to the Trump administration's call to promote domestic manufacturing and helping to establish an end-to-end silicon supply chain in the United States.
South Korean think tank: Chip boom offsets manufacturing weakness, South Korean economy still on recovery track
According to Odaily Odaily, a South Korean official think tank stated on Wednesday that the South Korean economy remains on a recovery track, with the booming chip industry offsetting the overall slowdown in manufacturing. The Korea Development Institute (KDI), in its monthly economic assessment report, noted that South Korea's exports continued their "strong" expansion, driven by robust demand related to artificial intelligence. South Korea's monthly exports surpassed the $100 billion mark for the first time in June, reaching $102.25 billion, a year-on-year increase of 70.9%, setting a new record. KDI stated, "Although the growth rate of semiconductor exports has slowed, export value remains strong, supported by continued price increases." Driven by surging demand for memory chips, semiconductor exports nearly tripled to $44.82 billion, marking the first time monthly exports have exceeded $40 billion. However, KDI noted a slight decline in manufacturing output as "the rapid growth momentum in the semiconductor sector has slowed, and other sectors remain sluggish." KDI added that high oil prices and a weakening Korean won against the US dollar could "continue to exert upward pressure on prices, increasing the risk of further interest rate hikes and thus dragging down the recovery in consumption." (Jinshi)
US-listed chip, optical communication, and storage stocks rallied across the board, with CRDO rising over 11% and Western Digital gaining over 9%.
According to BlockBeats data, on July 6th, US chip stocks collectively rallied, with AMD (AMD) up 8.13%, Broadcom (AVGO) up 5.48%, Arm (ARM) up 5.39%, Qualcomm (QCOM) up 5.15%, TSMC (TSM) up 4.81%, Intel (INTC) up 3.79%, and Marvell Technology (MRVL) up 3.70%. Optical communication concept stocks led the gains, with Credo (CRDO) up 11.14%, Astera Labs (ALAB) up 10.08%, Ciena (CIEN) up 4.57%, Coherent (COHR) up 4.53%, Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI) up 4.19%, and Corning (GLW) up 3.90%. Storage stocks rose across the board, with Western Digital (WDC) up 9.11%, Seagate Technology (STX) up 5.90%, SanDisk (SNDK) up 2.41%, and Micron Technology (MU) up 1.72%.
Chip startup SambaNova raises $1 billion, valuing the company at $11 billion.
Mars Finance reported on July 8th that SambaNova Systems, a chip startup backed by Intel's venture capital arm, has completed a $1 billion Series F funding round, valuing the company at $11 billion. The company is scheduled to officially announce the news on July 8th local time. (Wide Angle Observation)
Citigroup predicts a mixed outlook for US chip stocks: bullish on Micron Technology, bearish on Qualcomm.
According to Mars Finance, Citigroup analysts stated in a research report: "Given the expected rise in DRAM chip prices in the second half of 2026, Micron Technology is on the 'upside catalyst' watchlist; meanwhile, Qualcomm is on the 'downside catalyst' watchlist due to weak smartphone sales growth." The analysts added, "Fundamentally, the demand for AI computing remains in a state of supply shortage, as reflected in the recent 20% price increase of AWS EC2 GPUs. DRAM shortage is currently the biggest constraint on computing power supply." (Cailian Press)
UBS raises Marvell Technology's target price to $340: AI network chips are a key catalyst; CXL high-speed interconnect opens up a multi-billion dollar market.
According to Mars Finance, UBS analysts have significantly raised their target price for Marvell Technology from $230 to $340, while maintaining a "buy" rating. The new target price implies an upside of nearly 39% from the recent closing price of approximately $276.70. The company launched the Teralynx T100, the industry's first 102.4 Tbps switching chip specifically designed for the AI era. UBS considers this product one of the core drivers of the company's future growth. UBS expects the global CXL market to reach a total potential size of approximately $4.5 billion by 2027, and is expected to further expand to $7 billion to $10 billion by 2030; Marvell's revenue from CXL-related businesses is expected to reach approximately $1 billion by 2027. (Cailian Press)