MONEY MASTER

Chairman  Chey Tae-won  of SK Group pledged to ramp up production of AI memory chips as global demand from data centres continues to surge. The commitment underscores how critical  high-bandwidth memory (HBM)  has become in the artificial intelligence supply chain. “Monster Chip” Driving Record Profits Chey described HBM as a  “monster chip”  generating enormous profits for  SK Hynix . Key developments: SK Hynix shares have  more than quadrupled  over the past year 2026 capital expenditure will rise significantly 2026 HBM production is already  fully sold out HBM chips are essential for AI accelerators designed by firms like  Nvidia Corp , enabling large-scale model training and inference. AI Spending Wave Fuels Chip Shortage US tech giants including  Microsoft Corp  and  Meta Platforms Inc  are collectively spending about  US$650 billion  this year on AI infrastructure. This spending spree has: Trigger...

  Massive Tech Investments in the U.S. Major tech firms, including Apple, OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon, have committed over $1 trillion in U.S. investments. President Trump took credit for the pledges , though many plans were already in motion before his administration. Key Investment Announcements 1. Apple: $500 Billion Focus:  AI server production, supplier expansion, and new jobs. Jobs:  20,000. Locations:  Houston & Detroit. 2. OpenAI, SoftBank & Oracle (Stargate JV): Up to $500 Billion Focus:  AI infrastructure, massive data center projects. Jobs:  “Hundreds of thousands.” Initial Investment:  $100 billion. Location:  Texas (first project in Abilene). 3. SoftBank: $100 Billion Focus:  AI, semiconductors, and data centers. Jobs:  100,000. Key Investment Area:  Texas. 4. Meta: $65 Billion Focus:  AI computing, large-scale data centers. Location:  Louisiana. 5. Microsoft: $40+ Billion Focus:  AI and c...

Nvidia Corp's CEO, Jensen Huang , who pioneered the technology behind the rise in artificial intelligence (AI) computing , highlighted nuclear power as a viable solution to support the increasing energy needs of data centers. In an interview with Bloomberg Television on Friday, Huang remarked, “ Nuclear is wonderful as one of the sources of sustainable energy . It won’t be the only one. We are going to need energy from all sources and balance the availability, cost, and sustainability over time.” As global tech giants invest heavily in AI infrastructure , the demand for electricity has surged, making it challenging to find locations with sufficient power to build new data centers. This is leading to strategic decisions on the placement of these “AI factories” , with some data centers operating below capacity or being built far from urban areas. Despite Nvidia’s latest-generation chips consuming over a kilowatt of power, Huang argued that they are more efficient because they accel...

BlackRock Inc sees significant growth opportunities in Asia's infrastructure sector, driven by the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) , which is also increasing energy and water demands across the region. Over the next five years, the demand for data centers in Asia is expected to double , according to Brad Kim, BlackRock’s head of Asia-Pacific diversified infrastructure. In addition, water infrastructure will need to nearly double to meet the cooling needs of these data centers, while overall energy consumption is projected to rise by about 50% across the Asia-Pacific region in the next decade. As AI technology proliferates, the global surge in electricity demand is straining available power supplies, particularly in data center-dense regions. Asia is no exception, with major tech companies such as Amazon and Microsoft committing billions to build data centers in Southeast Asia . Despite the rapid development, Asia still lags behind other regions in infras...