The Shanghai Composite Index rises above 4,200 points, hitting a new high in over 10 years, with storage chips leading the semiconductor industry chain to surge.

Ask AI · How will AI computing power demand trigger a super cycle in storage chips?

On May 11, A-shares opened higher and kept climbing. The Shanghai Composite Index gained more than 1% to above 4,200 points, while the ChiNext Index surged more than 3%, with both reaching new highs in nearly 11 years. Storage chip and semiconductor sectors surged across the board, becoming the market’s strongest main storyline, and stocks within the sector saw a wave of daily limit-up moves. The CSI Semiconductor Materials & Equipment Theme Index jumped more than 6.9%. Constituent stocks such as Changchuan Technology and China National Shipbuilding Corporation (CSDC) Special Gas hit daily limit-ups of 20%. Companies like Tuojing Technology and North Huachuang ranked among the top gainers. Among the products tracking this index, GF Semiconductor Equipment ETF (560780) also rose accordingly, with daily trading value exceeding 260 million yuan, indicating active trading by market participants.

On the news front, the surge in AI computing power demand is pushing the storage chip industry into a “super cycle.” TrendForce data shows that in Q2 2026, the contract price of general-purpose DRAM is expected to rise 58%-63% quarter-over-quarter, and the contract price of NAND flash is expected to increase 70%-75% quarter-over-quarter. The sharp price increases directly expand companies’ profit margins. SK Hynix’s operating profit in Q1 2026 was 37.6103 trillion won, up 405% year over year. Samsung Electronics’ operating profit in the same quarter rose 756.1% year over year to 57.2328 trillion won, setting a new record for two consecutive quarters. At the same time, global storage giants’ share prices have continued to hit new highs. SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics have recently rallied one after another to break historical records, and US-listed Micron Technology and SanDisk have also moved higher in tandem. The global semiconductor industry is entering a phase of synchronized explosive growth, further boosting sentiment toward domestic sectors.

Global storage industry supply and demand remain tight. From the demand side, according to SEMI data, in 2025, global semiconductor equipment sales reached $135.1 billion, up 15% year over year, marking the third consecutive year of record highs. Goldman Sachs has significantly raised its forecast for global wafer fab equipment spending, increasing the expected global market size for 2026-2028 to $141 billion, $186 billion, and $208 billion, suggesting that the upcycle for semiconductor equipment may last longer than previously anticipated by the market.

Goldman Sachs’ research report indicates that the market is on the verge of the most severe storage chip supply shortage in the past 15 years. In 2026, the global DRAM supply-demand gap will reach 4.9%, the NANDFlash gap will be 4.2%, and the shortage for AI core component HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) will be as high as 5.1%, all reaching the highest levels since 2011. A research report by CITIC Securities points out that since March, storage prices have been raised again, demonstrating that industry conditions have remained at a high level. The imbalance of supply and demand is expected to persist until 2027, with price increases running throughout 2026. The storage industry trend remains a strong positive.

Looking ahead, Huafu Securities believes that localization of semiconductor materials is accelerating, downstream wafer fabs are expanding capacity rapidly, and the industry dividend advantage of leading companies is expected to be maximized. The photoresist sector is a key core link on China’s path toward self-reliance and controllability, and related companies are viewed as having strong prospects for fast progress in import substitution. In terms of electronic chemicals, as downstream wafer fabs gradually come online, chip capacity is expected to continue being released. Driven by downstream demand, the industry is advancing toward upgrading and innovation and is entering a period of rapid development. With China continuing to push manufacturing upgrades, demand for high-standard, high-performance materials will be gradually released, and the new materials industry is expected to grow quickly.

GF Semiconductor Equipment ETF (560780, OTC link A/C classes 020639/020640) tightly tracks the CSI Semiconductor Materials & Equipment Theme Index. The index selects 40 listed companies whose business involves fields such as semiconductor materials and semiconductor equipment as constituents. Wind data shows that as of May 10, this index’s gain over the past year reached 100.60%. It not only significantly outperformed major broad-based indices such as CSI 300 (26.67%) and STAR 50 (63.02%), but also outperformed theme indices on the same basis, such as the semiconductor industry index (80.33%) and the semiconductor sector index (78.75%). In terms of index distribution, as of the end of April, the weight of the semiconductor materials and equipment industry within the index’s CSI Tier 3 industry classification is 100%. Constituent stocks include leading equipment companies such as SMIC, North Huachuang, Changchuan Technology, and Tuojing Technology.

With over 17 years of experience in index-related business, GF Fund. As of the end of Q1, its ETF product lineup included 76 ETFs. They cover six major themes: mainstream broad-based indices, industry themes, dividend strategies, cross-border markets, as well as bonds and commodities. It encompasses end-to-end sub-segments across popular tracks such as power, AI, and commodities, including cross-border series. It is among ETF managers with a relatively well-developed product layout. As of the end of Q1, GF Fund’s total ETF AUM exceeded 250 billion yuan, with 8 ETFs in the “billion-yuan” category. Of these, 12 cross-border ETFs had combined AUM exceeding 1100 billion yuan, and there were 4 cross-border ETFs in the billion-yuan category, ranking first in the industry by number.

Daily Economic News