TMT/Internet

• There are 3 stocks in Korea that could be deleted from a global index in August and that will result in large selling from passive trackers.
• Short interest has increased in all 3 stocks since the resumption of short selling. Cumulative excess volume is higher in all stocks over the last couple of months.
• Given the increase in shorts and positioning, there could be short covering in two of the three stocks. The third could still drop over the next couple of weeks.

• Infomedia Ltd (IFM AU), a automotive software firm, has entered into a Scheme Implementation Deed with PE-outfit TPG.
• TPG is offering A$1.72/share, a 30% premium to last close. The transaction requires FIRB signing off. The Offer has the unanimous backing of Infomedia’s boards.
• As discussed in Infomedia (IFM AU): Now A Three-Way Hunt, Infomedia fielded various indicative Offers (including TA Associates/Viburnum, Battery Ventures, and Solera) in 2022, none of which went the distance.

• We believe game revenue will continue to recover in 2Q25, riding on the policy easing.
• We also believe the operating margin will improve slightly due to the usage of AI.
• We expect the stock has an upside of 23% for year end 2025.

• Infomedia Ltd (IFM AU) entered a scheme implementation deed with TPG Inc (TPG US) at A$1.72, a 30.3% premium to the undisturbed price of A$1.32 (5 August).
• The scheme is conditional on FIRB and shareholder approval. Shareholders should be supportive, given a reasonable offer and Infomedia’s history of non-binding bids. 
• At the last close and for an end-of-November payment, the gross/annualised spread is 2.4%/7.5%.

• Context: Tencent (700 HK) is set to release Q2 earnings on 13 April 2025. In the lead-up, options strategies on the Hong Kong Exchange showcase a variety of approaches.
• Highlights: Recent option trades show a mix of bullish and bearish sentiment. Calendar Spreads, Strangles, and Spreads using weekly options are explored.
• Why Read: This review offers real-market insight into how sophisticated participants are positioning around Tencent’s earnings — providing actionable reference points for structuring trades or assessing market expectations.

• Context: Tencent (700 HK)is set to release Q2 earnings on 13 August 2025, 8:00pm HK time. The stock is in a low-volatility phase, but options traders are watching closely.
• Highlight: Option prices imply a post-earnings move near the top of Tencent’s historical range.
• Why Read: Gain insight into how historic patterns and option pricing shape risk and opportunity ahead of Tencent’s earnings release.

• Expansion of Microsoft Research to Singapore as a regional research and development frontier
• Focus on AI research in Singapore, including foundational AI, embodied AI, and AI in health
• Importance of tapping into local talent and culture for AI development

This content is sourced through publicly available sources and has been machine generated. Information displayed is for general informational purposes only.

• Microsoft reported a strong finish to fiscal year 2025, delivering financial results that surpassed Wall Street’s expectations and underscored its continued momentum in cloud and AI-driven services.
• For the fiscal fourth quarter, Microsoft posted adjusted earnings of $3.65 per share on revenue of $76.4 billion, handily beating the consensus estimates of $3.37 per share on $73.9 billion in revenue.
• This marked a notable improvement over the prior year’s fourth-quarter figures of $2.95 per share on $64.7 billion in revenue.

• Meta Platforms delivered a standout performance in the second quarter of 2025, with shares surging 12% to $779.70, just shy of its all-time high.
• The company significantly exceeded Wall Street expectations, reporting earnings per share of $7.14 versus the expected $5.88 and revenue of $47.5 billion, up 22% year-over-year.
• This strong financial showing was driven by growth in daily users, ad impressions, and price-per-ad across Meta’s platforms.

• An executive at Kuaishou Technology has identified Google as the No. 1 rival to its artificial intelligence (AI) video generator Kling AI, as the short-video specialist tries to capitalize on growing public interest in the tools.
• “Google is a very strong competitor to Kling AI in areas ranging from technology to AI infrastructure and talent, with co-founder Sergey Brin personally overseeing the research and development of its video generation models,” Wan Pengfei, head of Kuaishou’s visual generation and interaction center, said in an interview with Caixin on the sidelines of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference held in Shanghai from Saturday to Monday.
• Riding the AI video wave sparked by OpenAI’s text-to-video model Sora in early 2024, Kuaishou in June that year launched Kling AI, which can create short videos from written prompts and images.

• There should be big passive inflows to Horizon Robotics (9660 HK) over the next 6 weeks and that could take the stock higher in the short term.
• Southbound Stock Connect investors have bought more than 10% of the Class B shares outstanding since the stock was added to the link a couple of months ago.
• Short interest jumped following the Stock Connect inclusion but there has been covering over the last few weeks. Short-term direction for the stock price looks to be higher.

• From a trading view, no confirmed new ETFs under the National Growth Fund yet; market expects existing ETFs to be the main liquidity and sector play tools instead.
• Out of the KRW 150tn, ETF flows likely come from the 100tn private pool—conservative case: ~3% (KRW 4.5tn), base case: 5–7%, aggressive: up to 10% (KRW 15tn).
• Even conservatively, about KRW 3 trillion could flow into sector ETFs, a signficant AUM boost, mainly concentrated in AI, defense, aerospace, and biotech—driving notable inflow impact.

• Reuters reports that the Ministry of Finance of Japan reclassified Shibaura Electronics (6957 JP) from a Type 1 (non-designated business sector) to Type 3 (core designated company).
• Reportedly, Yageo’s application was made with a view to Shibaura’s businesses falling under the core category. A blocked deal would set back Prime Minister Ishiba’s goal to improve China relations. 
• The change to Shibaura’s designation to core helps explain the elongated approval process, as the Ministry of Finance and Yageo need time to agree on acceptable undertakings. 

• AEM (AEM SP) announced a new CEO, Samer Kabbani, would take over with immediate effect.
• The previous CEO, Amy Leong, had only been in the job for about a year. The rapid change of CEO does not instill confidence going into 2Q25 results next week.
• New CEO’s frequently kitchen sink upon their appointment, will Samer continue this trend?

• Microstrategy Inc Cl A (MSTR US) became eligible for inclusion in S&P500 following its quarterly earnings of $10bn on 31 July.
• Robinhood Markets (HOOD US), Microstrategy Inc Cl A (MSTR US), and AppLovin (APP US) are the main candidates for addition from TMI at the September 2025 review.
• Interactive Brokers Group, Inc (IBKR US) and Emcor Group Inc (EME US) are the main candidates for addition from MidCap at the September 2025 review.

• On the 1st August, HKBN Ltd (1310 HK) announced China Mobile (941 HK) had satisfied all pre-cons. The Offer Doc is now out.
• The First Close is the 3rd September with payment potentially on or around the 12th September – if the Offer turns unconditional on the First Close.
• There is no IFA opinion in this Doc. That will be present in the Response Doc, which is expected to be dispatched on or before the 20th August. 

• Softbank Group (9984 JP) is about to release its earnings on August 7th. 
• The stock pulled back last week but this week is rallying. The rally can easily reach Q2 (12416) and Q3 (13003) resistance zones, if the earnings are good.
• If the earnings are disappointing, look for initial support at 11145 (Q3).  If earnings are really disappointing, look at 10086 (outliers zone).

• Tesla & Samsung just inked an eight year, $16.5 billion foundry deal set to run from July 24, 2025 through December 31, 2033.
• Had Intel snagged this deal, it would have been a lifesaver for the company. Not getting it likely triggered the updated “Risk Factors” section in their latest 10K.
• This isn’t Intel playing politics, there’s no point. It’s LBT laying it on the line for investors. Continued investment in 14A is no longer a given. It’s that simple…

• KPIT reported a decent Q1FY26 considering the tough macro environment faced by its global auto OEM clients, who are struggling due to tariff uncertainty and intense competition from China OEMs.
• KPIT announced new deal wins worth $241mm vs typical run-rate of $170mm. Q1FY26 revenue grew 4.9% YoY and -3.2% QoQ in constant currency terms, led by Powertrain and Connected domains.
• A key highlight of Q1FY26 was KPIT announcing partnership with JSW for its new EV vehicle program. EBITDA margin stayed steady at 21% led by operational efficiency and currency gains.

• Q1 consolidated revenue reached JPY22.4bn, a 7.1% YoY increase, marking the 13th consecutive quarter of growth.
• Operating profit surged approximately 2.2x YoY to JPY1.1bn, with an OPM increase of 2.4pp to 4.8%.
• Orders increased by 8.9% YoY to JPY34.5bn, while the order backlog decreased by 3.0% YoY to JPY39.5bn.

• SoftBank Group (9984 JP) reports Q1 FY2025 earnings on 7 August at 15:30 JST, with a conference call at 16:30 JST.
• Highlights: SoftBank’s post-earnings moves are often sharp and unpredictable — with outliers above ±12%. Options markets flag the results day as a high-volatility event to watch.
• Why Read: Essential for investors or options traders focused on Japan: Understand how timing, historic patterns and current volatility pricing shape both opportunity and risk around SoftBank earnings.

• STAR 50 Index is a tech-focused, blue-chip index in Mainland China which tracks the top 50 largest and most liquid names in the STAR market of the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
• STAR 100 index tracks the next 100 names (51st-150th ranks) and it represents the mid-cap segment of the STAR market.
• In this insight, we have presented our final predictions for the STAR 50 and STAR 100 indices for the September 2025 index rebal event.

• Antfin (Netherlands) Holding B.V. (Antfin) is looking to raise up to US$434 via a cleanup of its remaining 5.8% stake in Paytm (PAYTM IN).
• Antfin has been selling off its stake in PayTM since it pared around 12% in Nov 2021 IPO. It last sold a 4% stake to raise upto US$242m in May2025.
• In this note, we run the deal through our ECM framework and comment on deal dynamics.

• Taiyo Yuden underperformed its peers in electronic components by 29% over the past year, but its change in operating profit margin should outperform peers by 68% in the current year.
• Exposure to the U.S. is less than 7% of direct sales, but probably 25% including indirect exposure. Still, based on supply/demand analysis, we think Yuden is probably tariff proof.  
• While rivals have prioritized high-margin device modules to offset component sales declines, Yuden doubled down on its core capacitor and inductor strengths and appears to be coming out ahead.

• China Mobile (941 HK) / China Mobile (600941 CH) will release 2024 interim results on Thursday, 7 August 2025. The stock is a key constituent of the HSI and HSCEI.
• Highlights: Past earnings moves have been modest, but the options skew hints at potential for surprises. Dividend decision also due.
• Why Read: Helps time exposure and evaluate short-term risks ahead of results and dividend announcement for cash investors and option traders.

• U.S. 2nm Production May Begin Sooner Than Expected — Is TSMC Responding to Unprecedented N2 Demand?
• Hyperscalers 2Q25: Revenue Growth Accelerates, Cloud Revenues Accelerate, Capex Higher 
• TechChain Insights: Taiwan’s Battery Cell Moment? USA & EU Supply Chain Under Strategic Pressure 

• ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. delivered a robust performance in the second quarter of 2025, with advancements in several key business segments contributing to the company’s overall growth.
• The company reported an unconsolidated revenue increase of 9% year-over-year and 2% on a sequential basis, expressed in new Taiwan dollars.
• On a U.S. dollar basis, revenues grew by 7% sequentially and 11% annually.

• WhiteFiber is offering 7.8 million shares at $15-$17 equating to a potential market cap of $523m-$593m.
• Insiders are buying in this offering which adds to the bullish thesis.
• They expect revenue to come between $17.7m-$19.6m for Q2 2025 after posting revenue of $16.8m in Q1 2025. 

• Revenue reached JPY8.0bn (+32.3% YoY), with HENNGE One contributing JPY7.5bn (+34.3% YoY) and Professional Service JPY506mn (+8.1% YoY).
• Operating profit was JPY1.6bn (+72.3% YoY), with a margin of 19.7% (+4.6pp YoY); gross profit was JPY6.9bn (+35.7% YoY).
• SG&A expenses rose to JPY5.3bn (+27.6% YoY), including JPY618mn in advertising (+34.1% YoY) and JPY2.0bn in personnel (+21.9% YoY).

• Cellebrite is a quality business in digital forensics, a market leader in the industry
• Cellebrite has strong financials, including high margins, free cash flow conversion, and a bootstrap structure

This content is sourced through publicly available sources and has been machine generated. Information displayed is for general informational purposes only.

• TSMC: +23.9% Premium; Continued Opportunity to Short the ADR Premium
• UMC: -0.4% Discount; Wait for More Extreme Levels Before Going Long or Short
• ASE: -1.5% Discount; Historically Rare Discount Presents Opportunity to Long the ADR Spread

• Battery cells are the new chokepoint in the global clean energy supply chain, with China still controlling 75%+ of global capacity and exporting under increasingly restrictive terms.
• Taiwan is emerging as a high-trust, high-precision hub for advanced cell manufacturing, applying its semiconductor model to batteries.
• With pouch cells gaining traction across drones, robotics, and compact mobility, Taiwan’s lab-to-fab advantage positions it as a future anchor of the U.S. and European energy ecosystems.

• Teradyne, Inc. reported second-quarter results that showed a sequential and year-over-year improvement in its core business areas, led by strong demand in AI compute-related segments.
• The company posted secondquarter revenue of $652 million and non-GAAP EPS of $0.57, both above the midpoint of guidance.
• Semi Test revenue was $492 million, including $397 million from System-on-Chip (SOC) testing and $61 million from Memory.

• PayPal Holdings, Inc. delivered mixed results for the second quarter of 2025, displaying both strong growth in certain key segments as well as some challenges.
• The positive highlights from their results include continued profitability and expanding transaction volumes, driven by strategic initiatives across their platforms.
• PayPal’s transaction margin dollars increased by 8% excluding interest on customer balances, marking their sixth consecutive quarter of profitable growth, and non-GAAP earnings per share surged by 18% year-over-year.

• Seagate Technology reported a strong performance for the fiscal fourth quarter and the entire fiscal year 2025, characterized by significant year-over-year growth in key financial metrics.
• The company’s results highlighted a 30% year-over-year increase in quarterly revenue and record gross margins, marking the ninth consecutive quarter of gross margin improvement.
• This performance was attributed to increased adoption of Seagate’s heatassisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology and a robust demand for nearline products in global cloud markets.

• LRCX reported FY 25Q4 revenues of $5.17 billion, + 10% QoQ, + 33% YoY and up $170 million from the guided midpoint.  
• For FY 2025 as a whole, revenue amounted to $18.44 billion, up 23% YoY and their highest ever annual revenue, exceeding the previous record by roughly $1 billion.
• China revenues are climbing once again and now represent 35% of sales and are on track to go even higher in the current quarter. That’s a concern..

• Figma Inc. has successfully completed its US IPO in July and sold ~36.9M Class A shares at $33.00 per share, above the marketed price range.
• The company’s partial early lock-up release to occur on the second trading day immediately following public release of earnings for the second quarter of FY25.
• I expect certain share price and other conditions will be satisfied for a lock-up release of some ~11.4M Class A shares held by Figma’s current employees and other service providers.  

• Corning Incorporated delivered solid results for the second quarter of 2025, showcasing both challenges and opportunities that suggest a nuanced outlook for investors.
• The company achieved record sales of $4 billion, representing a 12% growth year-over-year, and an earnings per share (EPS) increase of 28% to $0.60.
• The operating margin expanded by 160 basis points to 19%, contributing to a return on invested capital of 13.1%.

• Spotify’s recent performance demonstrated both progress and challenges, outlining a mixed yet strategic path forward.
• The company’s impressive growth metrics in user engagement and subscription numbers stood out, particularly in Europe, where Spotify surpassed 100 million subscribers.
• The total Monthly Active Users (MAUs) reached nearly 700 million, with the subscribers exceeding expectations by 3 million.

• GBL’s discount to NAV is compressing but remains wide versus peers — buybacks, portfolio moves, and dividends hint at a valuation shift.
• Rio Tinto’s Australia-UK dual listing still trades at a premium — mean reversion potential remains as unification chatter simmers beneath the surface.
• Vivendi’s looming mandatory offer from Bolloré reshapes stub trade dynamics — a narrowing discount points to accelerating corporate resolution.

• Almost exactly eight months after HKBN Ltd (1310 HK) announced a pre-conditional Offer, China Mobile (941 HK) has now satisfied all pre-cons. 
• The Offer Doc will be dispatched on or around the 12th August, at which time the Offer will be open for acceptances.
• This could turn unconditional early September. Trading tight at a gross spread of 1.5%. Keep in mind a basket of peers are up 23% since the Offer was announced.

• The precondition for China Mobile (941 HK)’s HK$5.075 offer for HKBN Ltd (1310 HK) is satisfied. The offer is final. The offer document must be despatched by 8 August.
• The HKBN CEO has commented that the China Mobile offer is not good enough, suggesting a possibility that the Board does not recommend the offer.
• Nevertheless, there is a clear pathway for the offer to satisfy the 50% minimum acceptance condition and be declared unconditional. The gross/annualised spread for a 13 September payment is 1.5%/13.0%.

• Samsung’s playing its old game—sacrificing margins to shake rivals—aiming to disrupt DRAM and win HBM4, assuming it clears NVIDIA’s HBM3E qual test soon.
• Local intel says no official word from Samsung yet, but the street thinks qual’s done—hence Samsung’s bold HBM3E tone and oversupply warning on the call.
• There’s urgency—Samsung’s undercutting Hynix now to stop them from reinvesting cash into DRAM fab expansion, a playbook Samsung once dominated with.

• Handset and edge networking demand powered a strong QCT beat, but licensing growth underwhelmed, and margins declined sequentially.
• Apple modem revenues will fade by 2026, and the management conspicuously avoided commentary on China auto; both adding to uncertainty.
• Snapdragon X’s monetisation has been deferred,  while XR design momentum was a rare bright spot beyond mobile.

• I tally 40 – mostly firm, mostly Asia-Pac – arb transactions currently being discussed and analysed on Smartkarma.
• Three new deal was discussed on Smartkarma this week: Joy City Property (207 HK), Hogy Medical (3593 JP), and Nihon Chouzai (3341 JP).
• Key updates/news took place on MAC Copper (MAC AU), PointsBet (PBH AU), Ainsworth Game Technology (AGI AU), Piedmont Lithium (PLL AU),Pacific Industrial (7250 JP), and Topcon (7732 JP) .

• Plover Bay Technologies (1523 HK) reported 9.9%/13.4% YoY revenue/net profit growth, led by growth from customers in the EMEA and Asia (with the US being a drag).
• Earnings were more or less in line with our preview, Plover Bay (1523 HK): Preview On Earnings For H1 2025, but revenues were slightly weaker, and margins were stronger.
• The stock trades at 21.5x PE FY25e (assuming 15% growth), with a 4.4% dividend yield (assuming an 80% payout), but we acknowledge there could be upside to our earnings. 

• Institutional investors are turning to AI to analyze SEC filings and earnings call transcripts, with Fintool offering a quicker and more efficient solution.
• The biography of Larry Ellison, focusing on Oracle during the dot com crisis, provides insight into Ellison’s leadership style and business strategies.
• Despite some mixed feelings about Oracle and Ellison’s personality, his vision for the future of computing, such as using commodity hardware and smartphones, has proven to be accurate in hindsight.

This content is sourced through publicly available sources and has been machine generated. Information displayed is for general informational purposes only.

• Q425 revenues of $76.4 billion, up 5.5% QoQ, 18% YoY and handily beating guidance of $73.8 billion.
• Azure surpassed $75 billion in revenue in FY25, up 34% YoY, driven by growth across all workloads.
• Contracted backlog grew by $53 billion QoQ to reach $368 billion. Wow!

• Soft World International has an integrated value chain/sizeable moat for its game development, distribution, payments, content, and events in Taiwan. 
• The company is trading at attractive valuations. It is trading at EV/EBITDA of 3.7x, P/E of 13.4x, and P/B of 1.5x based on recent prices and LTM financials.
• Net cash as a percentage of market cap is 79%. The company’s dividend yield remained steady at 6% in FY23 and FY24.

• In Q1 FY03/26, the company reported revenue of JPY549.6bn, operating profit of JPY144.7bn, and net income of JPY117.8bn.
• The revised FY03/26 forecast projects revenue of JPY2.35tn, operating profit of JPY570.0bn, and net income of JPY444.0bn.
• The company plans aggressive R&D investments, increasing from JPY250.0bn in FY03/25 to JPY295.0bn in FY03/26.

• 3Q25 saw an acceleration in revenues (+10% YoY) and EPS (+12%), after a long period of stagnation (2022-23-24 at ~3% growth). 4Q guidance is 5% above Consensus. 
• Impact of US import tariffs is negligible. Services is the major growth driver and Apple has few answers on critical questions (Epic ruling, DoJ rulings against Google, AI roll out). 
• The stock is expensive, as always  (27x FY26 EPS, 25x FY27 EPS) for sub-10% growth. Some people love the buybacks, the brand and dominant market position.

• Samsung Electronics (005930 KS) 2Q earnings have been somehow disappointing for investors.
• We don’t dissect the earnings details, as market reactions—regardless of headlines—almost always fall within the behavioral range defined by our model.
• What we see right now is FEAR: Samsung Electronics was rallying hard, reached the tails area in our model, then retreated back sharply after the earnings.

• Booz Allen Hamilton’s first quarter fiscal year 2026 results reflect a dynamic environment influenced by shifting government priorities and procurement processes.
• Overall, the company’s financial performance aligned with expectations, showing resilience amidst a challenging backdrop with a 2% year-over-year growth in revenue, excluding billable expenses, despite an overall revenue decline of roughly 1%.
• Positively, Booz Allen Hamilton recorded a high quarterly book-to-bill ratio of 1.42x, contributing to a record backlog of $38 billion, suggesting future revenue streams are solid.

• Figma Inc., a product design leader with strong financial profile, priced its IPO at $33.00/share and raised ~$1.2B.
• The company raised the price range to $30.00-$32.00. The stock opened at $85.00 and closed on Thursday at $115.50, up ~250% vs. IPO offer price.
• The offering was priced above the marketed range. Figma had a ~$67B market cap at the close, implying a ~62x EV/2025E sky-high multiple on my 2025 revenue estimate of $1056M.

• Record royalties now make up over half of Arm’s revenue, with Compute Subsystems (CSS) earning nearly 2x more than conventional designs.
• Hyperscaler CPU share jumps to ~50%, as Neoverse powers AI infrastructure at NVIDIA, AWS, Google, and Microsoft.
• Custom silicon stickiness deepens, with multigenerational GPU deals and CSS design wins spanning cloud, PC, and automotive verticals.

• Samsung confirmed PRA sign-off for 1c HBM4, shipped samples to NVIDIA, went full redesign on base die, and is in talks with vendors like Hanmi for hybrid bonding gear.
• From a trading POV: Samsung pivoting to Hanmi signals “speed over pride”—a clear tell they’re serious about ramping HBM4 fast, even if it means breaking from vertical integration.
• For the move to stick, yields and customer wins matter — but Hanmi’s stepping up, and this could give Samsung’s HBM4 story a real leg up if it plays out.

• The slide in Ricoh Company Ltd (7752 JP)‘s stock price over the last few months could lead to the deletion of the stock from a global index in August. 
• Ricoh Company Ltd (7752 JP) has underperformed its peers over the last couple of months and trades cheaper than the average of its peers.
• There are indications of positioning in the stock. However, positioning is likely smaller than the estimated passive selling and there could be more downside for the stock near-term.

• OP pre-announced, the details aren’t inspiring. Margins decline in TV, Semi. Only Smartphone is resilient. 2H25 demand outlook is weak for TV, Smartphone.
• Confident tone on HBM growth, qualifications, ASP increase. Several contradictions: Samsung endorses theory of HBM price pressure (how’s that positive?); HBM3E is already 80% of HBM revenue (where’s the upside?)
• Consensus is revising up slowly, stock is going up sharply. This assumes a large turnaround in memory / HBM / Foundry. 

• BSE SENSEX represents the 30 largest stocks listed in the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) of India.
• In this insight, we take a look at the Potential ADDs/DELs for the BSE SENSEX index in the December 2025 index rebal event.
• As things stand, there are no index changes expected for the BSE SENSEX index. However, if there are strong relative price swings, ADDs/DELs could be triggered.

• GigaDevice Semiconductor (603986 CH) (GD), an IC design house, aims to raise around US$1bn in its H-share listing.
• GD is a leading specialty memory chip and MCU company in mainland China.
• In this note, we look at its past performance and other deal dynamics that might impact the listing.

• There will be an end of lock up of 67.5% of LG CNS (064400 KS)’s shares starting 5 August (6 months post IPO).
• The shares subject to the release are those held by the largest shareholder LG Corp (003550 KS) and Crystal Korea (Macquarie).
• We would emphasize on positive developments on LG CNS (solid operating results and stablecoin rollout in Korea) which could be bigger factors than potential selling by the second largest shareholder.

• 3Q25 guidance (Assuming US$1 = NT$29.2.): Consolidated US$ revenue: +12-14% QoQ; NT$ revenue: +6-8% QoQ; Gross margin: -1 to -1.2ppts QoQ; OPM: -0.1 to -0.3ppts QoQ.
• Still keep US$1bn advanced packaging guidance despite AI boom (TSMC revised up).
• Long-Term success definition for ASE: Transition from OSAT model to foundry-aligned scale.

• With Korea’s revised Commercial Act live, investors ask who’ll be the first test case — all eyes are on Wonik Holdings amid chatter on new shareholder litigation angles.
• Looks like a typical holdco, but Horizon—a paper company owned by the chairman’s kids—controls Wonik, hiding real power and raising new direct shareholder legal risks under revised rules.
• July 1 triggered Wonik’s 13% surge as bipartisan support for the Commercial Act locked in, with activists quietly gearing up despite fading momentum since.

• Nvidia’s smooth return to China hits turbulence as regulators question the H20 chip’s security.
• AMD stays below the radar; less political baggage, and could be better positioned if Nvidia is slowed.
• AMD also gets a lift from its Threadripper 9000 launch and a bullish analyst price upgrade.

• TSMC has been operating as a monopoly, raising prices without consequence and controlling pricing in the industry.
• Intel’s CEO’s recent comments about not investing in the next process without an external customer have raised concerns about the future of Intel’s Foundry business.
• The lack of commitment to future processes has led to suggestions that Intel should shut down fabs and secure capacity at TSMC, potentially impacting CPU competitiveness.

This content is sourced through publicly available sources and has been machine generated. Information displayed is for general informational purposes only.

• Today after the close, a Nikkei article said Denso Corp (6902 JP) had recently lifted its stake in ROHM Co Ltd (6963 JP) from “about 0.3%” to “just under 5%.”
• Given the recent buy of 28mm shares of Rohm into the Nikkei 225, that means ~11.5% or perhaps more has been taken out of the public’s hands. 
• Some may have come from cross-holders, but it’s not clear there are that many. This renders the stock more squeeze-able going forward. Rohm reports next week.

• Magnificent 7 positioning remains elevated across global funds, but momentum has clearly stalled, with recent activity pointing to consolidation rather than renewed conviction buying. 
• Growth and GARP funds are near fully allocated, while Value and Yield managers remain structurally underweight— potentially limiting the potential for broad-based participation from here. 
• Microsoft leads with cross-style appeal; Tesla lags with minimal support. Apple is the conviction underweight, while NVIDIA’s benchmark surge has left it at a record active underweight.

• Google: increased 2025 Capex ($75bn -> 85bn). Capex will increase in 2026. Higher capex is justified by “strong demand for Cloud products and services“.
• Meta: last quarter increased 2025 Capex ($62.5bn -> 68bn). This quarter, more modest $1bn increase to $69bn. Meta expects “another year of similarly significant capital expenditures dollar growth in 2026”.
• Microsoft: FY26 Capex growth will moderate compared to FY25 (FY25 Capex increased 58% YoY).

• Q25: inline with a GP one-off.  3Q25: FX impact but still revenue decline QoQ. Add margins compression and 3Q guidance is a large miss: OP -20% below Consensus.
• Management continues to provide very bullish “indications” on growth from 2026-27: AI ASIC, collaboration with Nvidia, Automotive. Multiple analysts questions on risk of hyperscalers projects delayed or cancelled.
• Mediatek is entering very large markets (AI ASIC, Auto) that will provide new growth beyond the exhausted Mobile market. You want to buy into this after a ~20% correction.

• Hon Hai Precision Industry (2317 TT) and Teco Electric & Machinery (1504 TT) held a joint press conference this afternoon to announce the formation of alliance through a share swap.
• Teco (1504) TT and Hon Hai (2317 TT) stated their target markets extend beyond Taiwan and Asia, to include substantial business opportunities in the U.S. and the Middle East.
• Foxconn Chairman Mr. Young Liu also noted that as AI data centers scale up rapidly and demand surges, modular design is increasingly favored.  

• Meta (META US) will report its earnings today July 30th, after the Close.
• If the earnings are positive, we predict a rally that could last up to 3 weeks and bring Meta (META US) at 758, above its recent all time high peaks.
• The rally could last up to 3 weeks – this is a short-term tactical forecast, it doesn’t offer a view of where the stock could be several weeks from now.

• 3Q25 Guidance: Sales: NT$130.1–140B, down 7–13% QoQ / down 1% to up 6% YoY; (In USD: down 1–8% QoQ / up 8–18% YoY).
• Strong flagship sales expected in 3Q25, and market demand for Smartphone (SP) expected to remain healthy, while Flagship model ramp-up being expected from 3Q25 to 1Q26.
• ASIC business scale may impact chip lifespan, affecting post-2027 sales.

• 2Q25 was good QoQ: utilization up 7 pct-points, wafer shipments up 6%, US$ ASP up 8%, US$ revenue up 15% QoQ. But NT$ appreciated 13%, cancelling out the operating recovery.
• 3Q25 guidance: slow US$-revenue growth, NT$-revenue decline. FX leads to both 2Q and 3Q below Consensus by mid-teens%. Big miss despite improving operations: utilization higher, mix better, ASP higher.
• The stock is cheap. Outlook is positive in terms of mix improvement, specialty process. But many unknowns (US tariffs, macro overall, NT$) will cloud the outlook for another 2-3 quarters. 

Over the last year, Freelancer has optimised its cost base, invested in AI tooling for internal use and to enhance freelancers’ skills, and focused on product quality to improve demand for its services. In H125, revenue was up 8.0% y-o-y even while gross marketplace volume (GMV) was down 2.4%, as the business improved the take rate in Escrow.com and Loadshift. The company was net cash flow positive in H125 and reported a year-on-year increase in adjusted operating profit. With the cost base right-sized and cash being generated at this level of revenue and GMV, we see scope for significant operational leverage if the company can stimulate GMV growth.

• Alphabet’s second-quarter 2025 earnings report marked a pivotal moment in the company’s pursuit of AI-driven growth, delivering strong results alongside escalating investment challenges.
• The company posted a 14% yearover-year revenue increase, reaching a record $96.4 billion, bolstered by significant gains in its cloud, search, and YouTube businesses.
• Earnings per share rose to $2.31, beating Wall Street expectations of $2.18 and up from $1.89 a year ago.

• The split’s cancellation caught event-driven traders off guard, squeezing shorts and sparking short-covering flows, likely boosting the stock near term and removing governance overhang for a potential rerate.
• Passive flow shifts as spinco’s planned KOSDAQ 150 inclusion is canceled, reversing early index rebalancing and pre-positioning by passive investors.
• Hana Micron stays in the index, so no major passive outflows—just some trimming. Trade the short-cover pop, watch for passive cleanup dips as potential re-entry points.

• MediaTek Reportedly Wins Meta’s 2nm AI Chip Order Over Broadcom
• Memory Monitor: SK Hynix Vs. Micron — Different Speeds & Focus, Same Structural Shift 
• Semi Key Indicators Q2 2025: PC, Smartphone Unit Shipments, Global Semi & WFE Sales All Looking Good 

• 2Q is inline, revenue and margins look like a beat but that’s weaker JPY and higher utilization as the firm is increasing inventory, expecting a better 2H25. 
• 3Q guide is flat QoQ, the YoY recovery continues (2Q -9%, 3Q -4%). For 4Q, management expects a “modest” flattish or slight increase QoQ, which implies at least +13% YoY
• The stock is cheap, but “overall demand for automotive, we still have no clue as to how that will unfold” and short-term, Auto growth depends on China

• 3Q25 Outlook (based on USD/TWD = 28.7): Wafer Shipments: +7–9% QoQ; ASP: +1–3% QoQ; Gross Margin: 25–27%.
• Revenue Mix (Industrial, Auto, 3C): Industrial + Automotive: 40%+ (majority industrial; automotive in teens) ; Communication & Computing: 20%+ each ; Consumer: 10%+.
• 2025 Dividend Policy : Will maintains NT$4.5 per share dividend.

• 2Q25 Results Summary: Reports Broad-Based Growth with Specialty Margin Strength  
• Yageo Inventory Recovery Marks a Demand-Led Inflection for Hardware Components
• Update on Shibaura Acquisition: Still on Track, Strategic Synergy in Focus

• We remain near-term bullish since our 4/22/25 Compass, and our intermediate-term outlook remains bullish as well (as of our 5/14/25 Compass).
• We will maintain our bullish intermediate-term outlook as long as market dynamics remain healthy and SPX is above 6028-6059 (up from 5700-5785 as it is highly unlikely to be tested).
• Some will point to August seasonality as a reason to be cautious; we simply are not seeing any signs that suggest a meaningful pullback is imminent.

• MSFT is set to report Q4 earnings after the market close on Wednesday, July 30.
• We examine the implied volatility and projected earnings-day move following a near 30% rally since the last report.
• Volatility metrics and historical earnings reactions are analyzed to help frame expectations.

• AAPL has been an underperformer since its last earnings report which stands out against the backdrop of a stock that rarely misses earnings expectations.
• We take a closer look at implied volatility and the earnings-day move priced by the options market.   
• Volatility metrics and historical earnings reactions are analyzed to help frame expectations.  

• WhiteFiber is offering 7.8 million shares at $15-$17 equating to a potential market cap of $523m-$593m.
• They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bit Digital. They intend to sell approximately 22.4% of their issued and outstanding Ordinary Shares to the public as part of this offering.
• They expect preliminary unaudited revenue from cloud services for the three months ended June 30, 2025 will be $16.1 million to $17.8 million, an increase of  28.7% to 42.3%, respectively.

• LG CNS (064400 KS) raised around US$825m in its Korea IPO in February 2025. LG CNS is a South Korean information technology company.
• The shares didn’t do much at listing and have only recently moved higher to trade above its IPO price.
• In this note, we will talk about the lock-up dynamics and updates since our last note.

• In December-2024, this deal was mooted and it came out as expected. But the implied growth in management forecasts was higher than expected so the price came in quite light.
• In March when the deal was announced, it seemed like a tough call, but three weeks later Value Act decided they would tender, but would reinvest in the back end.
• The deal is now approved, and launches tomorrow. It gets done, I expect, but it is not a model deal other than being one showing the loopholes available to buyers.

• The A16 chip Samsung fabs is mainly for real-time inference in Tesla’s FSD cars, not data-center training, which remains dominated by Dojo and NVIDIA hardware.
• If Tesla’s deal includes AI chips with HBM, it’s a major catalyst; if just A16, it’s not proof HBM yield issues are solved.
• Tesla’s deal isn’t a sure sign Samsung’s HBM4 passed NVIDIA’s qual tests, but it’s a key reference boosting market hype—time to consider a Samsung long, SK Hynix short setup.

• On 28 July, it was reported that Samsung Electronics (005930 KS) clinched a huge chip contract worth $16.5 billion from Tesla (TSLA US). 
• This is a major win for Samsung Electronics since it is one of the largest foundry orders for the company from a single customer in the past decade.
• Samsung Electronics is trading at attractive valuations. It is trading at P/E of 12.3x, P/B of 1.0x, and EV/EBITDA of 3.6x in 2026, based on consensus estimates.

• Figma increased its range from $25-$28 to $30-$32 on Monday morning. The company is still offering 36.9mm shares  and is scheduled to debut on July 31st.
• One of our sources stated that the amount of orders in this software IPO exceed 30-times the offering size. 
• The large customer base, excellent margins and revenue growth in combination with management that continues to reinvest in the business gives us strong conviction on this IPO.

• The company is forecasting a slow-down in growth based on moving a large portion of its business away from mainland China. 
• While order flow has come in steady for this IPO, some of our sources are taking a ‘wait-and-see’ approach. 
• The valuation is not aggressive, the smaller cash raise is manageable but there are still many questions about this company as they enter the public markets.

• From Cycles to Systems: Memory’s Pivot to Strategic AI Infrastructure
• SK Hynix Leads in HBM4 Execution Thus Far; But How This Next HBM Advancement is Carved Up Remains to Be Seen
• Conclusion: Memory Market Becoming Less Commoditized and More Specialized into Advanced Categories

• Orders increased by 4.4% YoY to JPY7.4bn, with Measuring Equipment orders at JPY2.2bn and Custom Order Test Equipment at JPY5.2bn.
• Sales rose 24.8% YoY to JPY6.3bn, despite project postponements, with a gross profit margin decline of 1.1pp to 43.0%.
• Operating loss narrowed by JPY398mn YoY, while net loss expanded by JPY1.0bn due to absence of extraordinary gains.

• Manhattan Associates delivered a robust performance in the second quarter of 2025, with financial results surpassing expectations.
• The company reported total revenue of $272 million, representing a 3% increase from the previous year.
• A key driver was the impressive 22% growth in cloud revenue, which reached $100 million.

• Pegasystems reported its second-quarter 2025 financial performance, showing several positives and some challenges.
• The company has illustrated a promising trajectory with the implementation of its AI strategy and its effects on both revenue and customer engagement.
• A key highlight is the company’s annual contract value (ACV) growth, which increased by 16% year-over-year as reported and 14% in constant currency.

• ReadCloud Limited (ASX:RCL) services the education sector through the provision of digital learning content, proprietary interactive technology, and support for students and educators.
• The company delivered a solid June quarter, recording a 35% increase in cash receipts over the previous corresponding period (pcp) to $4.6m and maintaining disciplined cost control at the operating level.
• Its VET-in-Schools segment continues to grow strongly with a 27% revenue uplift and high gross margins (>90%) to date in FY25.