Shares of major Asian Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) suppliers rose sharply on Thursday, tracking an overnight rally in the graphics card maker on strong first-quarter results and a positive outlook on chip demand. Japan’s Advantest Corp (TYO:6857) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (TW:2330) both jumped over 3%, while South Korea’s SK Hynix Inc (KS:000660) surged nearly 5%. Optimism over Nvidia spilled over into other Asian chipmaking stocks, helping the benchmark Nikkei 225 rise back towards 33-year highs.
Nvidia logged a better-than-expected first-quarter profit and posited a stronger-than-expected second-quarter revenue forecast, citing increased demand from AI development. The firm is seeing increased demand for its data center chips, which play a key role in powering the AI technology that saw a significant jump in popularity this year. Increasing demand from AI offers a respite to chipmakers, which were otherwise facing a slowdown in demand this year amid worsening global economic conditions.