Market Steadies as Big Tech Earnings Reaffirm the AI Capex Cycle

Iran Risk and a Hawkish Fed Rattle the Open

The KOSPI slipped about 0.2%, hovering between the 6,660 and 6,670 levels, while the KOSDAQ fell more than 1%, barely holding the 1,200 line. The won weakened to around 1,486 per dollar, opening at an uncomfortably high level.

A report from Axios said US Central Command is preparing a short, intense strike on Iranian infrastructure, sending WTI crude above $108 a barrel and erasing gains in US futures. Japan's Nikkei and Hong Kong's Hang Seng each fell about 1.2%, reflecting a broader risk-off mood across Asian markets.

Samsung's Final Results and HYBE's Hidden Beat

Samsung Electronics confirmed its earlier preliminary results, reporting operating profit of roughly 57.2 trillion won. Its semiconductor (DS) division accounted for the bulk of that at 53.7 trillion won, with an operating margin of 66%. The company said memory supply is falling short of demand at the lowest fulfillment rate on record, with next year's volumes already being contracted; first-quarter DRAM shipments rose about 10% and NAND about 20%, while prices climbed roughly 90%.

Samsung signed binding multi-year supply contracts with some customers and said it plans to ship first samples of its most advanced HBM4E chips in the second quarter. Its long-struggling foundry business also showed signs of improvement, running at maximum utilization, and the company said an ongoing strike would not disrupt production.

HYBE surprised the market with an operating loss of about 196.6 billion won, but the loss stemmed from a one-time accounting charge tied to employee stock grants. Stripping that out, adjusted operating profit came to 58.5 billion won, beating both the market estimate (51.1 billion won) and the year-earlier figure. Still, rising renewal costs each time its artists' contracts come up remain a structural weak point for entertainment stocks' profitability.

April FOMC Holds for a Third Straight Meeting, but Sounds Hawkish

The Federal Reserve held its benchmark rate at 3.75% for a third consecutive meeting in April. The hold itself matched expectations, but four dissents — the most since 1992 — exposed a widening rift among policymakers. One Trump-appointed governor dissented in favor of a cut, while three others dissented because they objected to language suggesting further easing.

Chair Powell said he intends to keep his seat on the Board even after his term as chair ends, citing an unresolved investigation into the Fed's building renovation pushed by the Trump administration and the need to safeguard the central bank's independence. President Trump renewed his social-media criticism of Powell for cutting rates too slowly. Markets read the decision and the dissent lineup as hawkish, pushing Treasury yields higher and weighing on risk appetite.

US Big Tech Earnings Reaffirm the AI Capex Buildout

After the close, memory and power-semiconductor names rallied in after-hours trading. A US-listed memory maker (believed to be SanDisk) posted better-than-expected results and jumped 18%, while legacy/power semiconductor maker NXP Semiconductors gained 16%. The rally helped calm the AI value-chain worries that had shaken the market the previous session.

Google, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft all reported earnings. Google delivered strong results across profitability, margins and Cloud/Gemini growth, surging more than 7% after hours, while Amazon rose 2.7% on strong sales of its in-house Trainium AI chip. Meta, by contrast, tumbled about 7% as spending growth outpaced revenue growth, and Microsoft ended roughly flat amid lingering uncertainty over its relationship with OpenAI.

Investors focused less on the earnings themselves than on spending plans. Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta guided for capex growth of 100%, 89%, 77% and 47% year-over-year, respectively, with Google and Microsoft each planning roughly $190 billion and Meta about $145 billion. Amazon said on its earnings call that capex growth could outpace revenue growth again in 2026. Goldman Sachs framed the moment as a clash between current earnings and long-term growth expectations — in a race where the eventual winner is hard to call, the companies supplying the chips and equipment stand to benefit regardless of who wins.

Metrics for an 'AI Top-3' Korea, a Data-Center Power Bill, and Security Gaps

Rep. Lee Hae-min (Rebuilding Korea Party) said the government's goal of making Korea one of the world's top three AI powers still lacks clear metrics. She argued the government needs measurable indicators across three areas — public satisfaction with the AI transition, globally benchmarked corporate value, and efficiency and security in public-sector operations — for the goal to function as a real policy agenda rather than a slogan.

On data-center power supply, she said Korea Electric Power Corp's transmission grid alone cannot handle the scale of demand AI data centers require, and that she has introduced a bill allowing data centers to sign direct power purchase agreements (PPAs) with nearby power plants. The bill has passed the National Assembly's science and ICT committee but remains stuck in the Legislation and Judiciary Committee; she warned that as countries across Asia compete to attract data-center investment, unresolved power supply and pricing issues could cost Korea that opportunity.

On security, she cited assessments that Anthropic's latest model can breach existing defenses, prompting emergency security reviews in the US and UK. Noting that access to such capabilities is currently limited to a handful of US and UK firms — including in high-impact sectors like finance — she urged the Korean government to diversify partnerships rather than rely on a single vendor and to build demand-driven cloud and AI security governance quickly.

The OpenAI Bubble Debate and a 'Highway' Lens on AI Investing

Reports believed to be based on internal OpenAI documents suggested the company is far short of its goal of one billion users and is carrying heavy debt, fueling speculation it could run out of cash within three years. The news briefly rattled US markets overnight, but sentiment recovered quickly after the close as investors concluded that fears about the broader AI ecosystem had been overblown.

The host compared the situation to the early-20th-century US highway-building debate, when critics argued too many roads were being built for too few cars — only for the infrastructure itself to create the demand for automobiles. AI infrastructure investment should be viewed the same way, the host argued: rather than hesitating because current demand looks thin, investors should recognize that infrastructure itself generates future demand.

The discussion also revisited an earlier segment on restricted stock units (RSUs), first raised in the context of Samsung Electronics' labor-shareholder tensions. Rep. Lee Hae-min noted that US Big Tech firms vest RSUs over several years based on performance, aligning employees' and shareholders' interests while encouraging long tenure and value creation — a structure she said Korea needs instead of pitting workers against shareholders.