AI chain sell-off cools down! Japanese and South Korean stock markets see a significant rebound, with South Korean stocks up over 3%

Glonghui July 3rd｜The AI chain sell-off shows a turnaround as the three major US stock index futures all rise. Nasdaq 100 index futures are up 0.6%, indicating that the market is more rapidly absorbing the large-scale sell-off of tech stocks from the previous day. Industry insiders believe that the sharp fall of the AI chain caused by “Meta selling computing power” is a misunderstanding—Meta selling computing power does not mark the end of AI capital expenditure, but rather signals the maturity of the AI infrastructure business model. In addition, Industrial Securities also believes that news regarding Meta renting out its computing power should not be interpreted too pessimistically as a sign of computing power surplus or a comprehensive slowdown in Capex, because (1) this is not new information— there were similar reports in May this year; (2) Meta is a special case among hyperscalers, as its consumer-focused business means its AI monetization mainly depends on advertising, and its exploration of cloud services can improve shareholder returns and cash flow; (3) Meta still faces a gap in computing power, as just this week it was reported that Google restricted its access, and Meta has signed an agreement with Crusoe; (4) hardware demand is driven by inference rather than inflation on the training side.