"Foreign Investors Dumped 7 Trillion Won"... Can Broadcom Rescue Battered Samsung Electronics and SK hynix?

[Financial News] Market attention is focused on whether Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, South Korea’s two leading semiconductor companies battered by external headwinds, can reverse course ahead of earnings from Broadcom, a leading U.S. maker of custom artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors.
According to the financial investment industry on the 3rd, Broadcom will release its third-quarter results for fiscal 2026, covering May through July, after the market closes on the 2nd U.S. Eastern Time, or the morning of the 3rd in South Korea. Broadcom designs application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for global technology giants such as Google and Meta, as well as data-center networking chips. Along with NVIDIA, it is considered a key indicator of the sustainability of AI investment by global technology companies.

South Korean semiconductor stocks have recently taken a direct hit from external macroeconomic factors, including escalating geopolitical risks stemming from the Middle East and a sharp rise in the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds. In the previous session, Samsung Electronics closed at 250,500 won, down 4.02%, while SK hynix ended at 1,613,000 won, down 4.73%, on the KOSPI market.
Foreign investors sold a net 10.1659 trillion won in KOSPI-listed stocks during August alone. Of that amount, 7.13 trillion won came from the semiconductor sector—approximately 6.4 trillion won in SK hynix and 820 billion won in Samsung Electronics—putting pressure on share prices. When Broadcom previously issued third-quarter AI revenue guidance of $16 billion, below the market expectation of $17.2 billion, the share prices of the two leading South Korean semiconductor companies also plunged 6.4% and 9.92%, respectively. As a result, this earnings release is expected to serve as a test that could determine short-term fund flows.

The market’s greatest interest lies not only in the current-quarter results but also in whether Broadcom raises its AI revenue guidance for fiscal 2026 and 2027. NVIDIA previously said, alongside strong second-quarter results, that bottlenecks in AI supply would continue. Broadcom must likewise demonstrate sustained, robust demand to dispel concerns that AI investment has peaked.
Optimism prevails on Wall Street. JPMorgan Chase maintained its $580 price target, estimating that Broadcom’s AI revenue will exceed $56 billion in fiscal 2026 and reach $130 billion in fiscal 2027—well above the company’s target of $100 billion.
Park Jae-hwan, a researcher at Eugene Investment & Securities, noted, "The key points in these results will be whether AI revenue guidance for fiscal 2026 and 2027 is raised and whether the company has secured the supply chain needed to support it." Kim Jun-young, a researcher at iM Securities, likewise assessed, "Foreign net buying could return when a strong growth narrative is reaffirmed in the AI sector."

As Broadcom expands production of custom AI chips, demand for essential components such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and advanced packaging is expected to rise accordingly. This is fueling expectations of medium- to long-term benefits for South Korea’s two leading semiconductor companies. Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have both established close partnerships with Broadcom and are building a robust AI ecosystem.
Samsung Electronics expanded its alliance with Broadcom in July by signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the development of next-generation AI infrastructure. The two companies agreed to pursue large-scale cooperation worth a combined $200 billion, or approximately 275 trillion won, in memory and foundry businesses over the next five years through 2030. Under the agreement, Samsung Electronics will supply cutting-edge memory solutions, including HBM, on a full scale and play a key role in enhancing the performance of Broadcom’s AI accelerators.
SK hynix has also further strengthened its ‘one-team’ partnership with Broadcom. In February, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won met Hock Tan, Broadcom’s CEO, at the company’s headquarters in San Jose, the United States, and shared medium- to long-term memory supply strategies and technology road maps. The two companies agreed to work closely together, applying SK hynix’s cutting-edge HBM technology from the early stages of Broadcom’s chip design.
A securities industry official said, "The ties between Broadcom and South Korea’s leading semiconductor companies are growing stronger by the day." The official added, "If Broadcom’s forward guidance and order trends meet market expectations, recently weakened foreign investor sentiment could quickly recover and become a catalyst for a powerful rebound in the country’s leading stocks. "

[email protected] Moon Young-jin Reporter