Hong Kong Stock Concept Tracking | Global semiconductor industry chain welcomes "July price surge" Chinese chip manufacturers welcome substitution opportunities (with concept stocks)

A price hike trend driven by AI demand is accelerating in the global semiconductor industry chain. According to incomplete statistics, more than ten leading semiconductor and related companies have announced or pre-announced price increases on their products starting from July 1, covering multiple key elements from upstream materials to end chips. Murata raised the prices of AI servers and automotive-grade MLCCs by 10%-40%, Japan Oxygen raised the price of ammonia gas by over 30%, MediaTek pre-announced an increase in chip prices, Infineon and Texas Instruments announced a second price hike within the year, and power semiconductor companies such as Yangzhou Yangjie Electronic Technology and Hangzhou Lion Microelectronics simultaneously increased prices by 10%-15%. It is reported that this round of price increases almost covers all IC design companies in China and Taiwan. Research indicates that the demand for AI is driving inflation, and the smooth transmission of price increases and its impact on end demand will be the focus of attention. Analysts believe that the price hikes by overseas leaders such as Infineon create two key opportunities for domestic power manufacturers: price space (after the price increase of overseas products, the cost-effectiveness advantage of domestic products becomes more prominent; customers are more willing to give domestic manufacturers the opportunity to validate and import products when facing supply shortages from overseas). It is worth mentioning that Apple is reportedly lobbying the US government for approval to purchase memory chips from Chinese manufacturer Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC). Apple has been negotiating with the US Department of Commerce over a month ago, as well as contacting other government officials in Washington, hoping to obtain approval. Samsung and SK Hynix, key suppliers of DRAM and NAND storage chips for Apple products, raised their supply prices by 80%-100% in the first quarter of this year. Micron is also one of Apple's storage chip suppliers, providing some DRAM memory and NAND flash chips for the iPhone, Mac, and iPad. Last week, in response to the unprecedented shortage of storage chips leading to cost increases, Apple took extreme measures and raised prices on multiple core products such as iPad and Mac by around 20%. Analysts point out that for a long time, global tech giants have relied on a few leading chip manufacturers, making end manufacturers appear passive when facing price fluctuations. Apple's collaboration with YMTC is aimed at diversifying its supplier channels to alleviate cost pressures from chip price increases. For Apple, this is not just a simple procurement decision, but a deep consideration of supply chain robustness in a complex macro environment. Shenwan Hongyuan Group stated that with limited new capacity added this year, storage prices continue to remain high, and Chinese manufacturers are emerging in this super cycle. In the super cycle of storage, domestic storage companies are entering the first echelon, and the listing of YMTC is expected to be a milestone in self-controllable technology. Related concept stocks: - Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (00981): The core products of SMIC cover multiple areas, including logic chips, storage chips, and analog chips. Sales revenue in the first quarter was $25.055 billion, an 11.5% year-on-year increase; net profit was around $197 million, a 5% year-on-year increase. In the second quarter, the company's revenue guidance is an increase of 14% to 16% on a sequential basis, with a gross profit margin guidance of 20%-22%. - GigaDevice Semiconductor Inc. (03986): GigaDevice is a leading NOR flash design company in China, with the second-largest global market share. The company actively develops a diverse product matrix, covering NOR Flash, SLC NAND Flash, niche DRAM, MCU, analog chips, and sensor chips. Central China believes that the company is a leading enterprise in niche memory and MCU in China, as the memory cycle continues to rise, the company's niche DRAM, SLC NAND, and NOR Flash products are rising in both volume and price, and the company is actively expanding into customized storage, making smooth progress in various customer fields, with potential income contribution in 2026. - Montage Technology (06809): Montage, as a leader in the memory interconnect chip market, is transitioning from a memory interconnect leader to a platform interconnect chip company. In the AI era, with its long-term focus on key high-speed interconnect chips between computing power and storage, the company has formed a rich product matrix and occupies a leading position in the global market. The PCle Retimer product has entered the volume stage, and the company is extending along the same path to the higher-value PCle Switch field, opening up new growth opportunities. As AI shifts from model training to inference, particularly with the development of AI agents, the demand for server CPUs is steadily increasing, making the company a major beneficiary of CPU demand. - Hua Hong Grace Semiconductor (01347): Hua Hong's storage business is divided into two main lines: embedded non-volatile storage eNVM (the highest revenue contributor) and independent NOR Flash (second high-growth curve). Sales revenue in the first quarter reached $660.9 million, a 22.2% year-on-year increase; net profit was $20.9 million, a 458.1% year-on-year increase and a 19.9% increase from the previous quarter.