AI Chip Concept Stocks Insight | SMIC (00981.HK) down 6.29%, Samsung's 8-inch fab halt tightens mature-node supply

NewTimeSpace News, on 22 October 2026, AI chip stocks pulled back, and SMIC (00981.HK) weakened. As of 13:17, the company quoted HKD 46.820, down 6.29%.

On the news front, the company has no recent news of its own; within the sector, on 21 October 2026 an industry review showed that SMIC's 8-inch capacity utilisation reached 95.8% in the third quarter, and that the company and another foundry have raised prices on 8-inch BCD platforms by about 10%, with order visibility on 8-inch capacity generally close to six months.

In addition, the same review noted on 21 October 2026 that Samsung Electronics will shut its Giheung 8-inch fab from the second half of 2026, cutting 50,000 wafers of monthly capacity at a stroke, while TSMC plans to retire its 6-inch Fab2 and 8-inch Fab5 in 2027; AI rack power has risen from about 12 kW in conventional server racks to about 132 kW, lifting the power-management bill of materials for a single 8-GPU AI server from about USD 80 to more than USD 1,000.

CAITONG SECURITIES believes that SMIC's multi-site expansion and high utilisation are driving a steady recovery, with monthly capacity up from 520,800 wafers at end-2020 to 1.0965 million 8-inch equivalent wafers in the second quarter of 2026 and utilisation held at 93.7%; AI demand spillover combined with localisation of the supply chain is bringing structural growth to mainstream and mature nodes, with China accounting for 90.2% of second-quarter 2026 revenue.

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.