AI Chip Concept Stocks Watch | SMIC (00981.HK) up 4.03%, capital expenditure by memory and advanced logic suppliers is accelerating

NewTimeSpace (newtimespace.com) News, on 16 September 2026, AI chip stocks strengthened, with SMIC (00981.HK) strengthening as well. As of 13:36, the company quoted HKD 63.200, up 4.03%.

On the news front, In addition, on 15 September, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly released the "15th Five-Year Plan" for the Development of the Electronic Information Manufacturing Industry, proposing that by 2030 the operating revenue of industrial enterprises above designated size exceed RMB 30 trillion, with R&D investment intensity reaching 3.5% and a number of strength-defining technologies and products emerging in fields including integrated circuits and advanced computing; the plan sets out 17 key tasks covering areas such as shoring up the industry's foundational capabilities, and calls for advancing full-chain breakthroughs in integrated circuits and enhancing the supply capacity of special electronic equipment and measuring instruments.

Meanwhile, data from SEMI showed that global semiconductor equipment billings reached USD 40.53 billion in the second quarter of 2026, up 23% year on year and up 11% quarter on quarter, setting a record high for a second consecutive quarter, as investment in advanced manufacturing capacity continued to be driven by AI infrastructure demand. Several Japanese photoresist suppliers announced that, from 1 October 2026, new pricing for photoresists to global customers will be raised by 15% overall, with long-term agreement quotations for high-end ArF series rising by 16% to 22%.

Goldman Sachs noted that driven by generative AI and local demand, capital expenditure by memory and advanced logic suppliers is accelerating, and China's semiconductor industry capital expenditure is expected to grow 10% to 15% annually from 2026 to 2030, reaching USD 82 billion by 2030. GUOSEN SECURITIES stated that as AI-driven R&D automation accelerates, computing demand no longer depends only on the scale of a single frontier pre-training run, and the joint expansion of training and inference demand will continue to raise the ceiling for computing demand.

SMIC (00981.HK) Provides IC wafer foundry and related technical services. It is the largest pure-play wafer foundry in China by capacity and offers the broadest coverage of process nodes. Its mature and select advanced process lines address applications including smart terminals, IoT, and computing chips. Based on its periodic disclosures, wafer shipments, capacity utilization, and revenue are at historically high levels.

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