#夏日创作营 Next week, SK Hynix, Samsung Electronics, and Kioxia will release their latest financial reports, which may affect the next leg of the chip stocks’ trend

#夏日创作营 Next week, SK Hynix, Samsung Electronics, and Kioxia will release their latest financial reports, which may affect the next leg of the chip stocks’ trend

Next week, the three storage leaders—SK Hynix, Samsung, and Kioxia—are set to report their latest results. Amid market doubts about the sustainability of AI investment and the reliability of storage long-term contracts, these earnings reports will also serve as a “test stone” for gauging the profitability of the giants in this round of the cycle.
Whether the three reports can prove that AI demand is still translating into HBM, DRAM, and enterprise-grade solid-state drive orders—or whether it will influence the next phase of chip stock performance.
SK HynixSK Hynix will disclose its Q2 earnings on Wednesday, July 29. The company’s CEO, Kwak Noh-Jung, expects that tightness in the supply of memory chips will persist beyond 2030 to meet the rapidly growing demand for AI. Thanks to rising average selling prices for DRAM and NAND flash, market expectations are that both businesses could achieve at least the fastest revenue growth rate since 2010.
SamsungSamsung will officially release its full Q2 earnings on Thursday, July 30. With rising DRAM and NAND flash prices and increasing HBM shipment volume, Samsung’s Q2 performance is also expected to receive support. Analysts also expect that, as AI-related orders increase, utilization of capacity in Samsung’s semiconductor foundry business will continue to improve, while stronger demand for HBM4 will further drive the company’s profit growth in the second half of the year. Earlier on July 7, Samsung had already released preliminary performance data. In Q2, revenue grew 129% year over year to 171 trillion won (about $1.71M). In the same period, operating profit was 89.4 trillion won (about $116.6B), surging 18 times year over year, setting the highest single-quarter record in history. But back then, the impressive performance did not lift the stock price. The day after the preliminary results were released, Samsung’s share price actually fell by more than 7%. Analysts believe the market has already fully priced in strong earnings, and investors are “buying expectations, selling facts.”
KioxiaKioxia will publish its Q1 fiscal quarter results for fiscal 2027 on Friday, July 31. The market expects its quarterly profit could more than double compared with the previous quarter. As a leading flash memory player in Japan, in mid-June Kioxia’s market value surpassed Toyota and briefly became Japan’s most valuable company, but its share price was then cut in half over the following month.

How long can storage keep rising
From the three earnings reports above, what the market wants to verify is how long this current upswing cycle in memory chips can last, and whether the storage industry can truly break free from cyclical characteristics.
The bullish camp believes that AI-driven storage demand has structural rather than cyclical characteristics; as cloud providers keep raising capital expenditures, storage chips are moving beyond the cycle.
The bearish camp believes that “a cycle is always a cycle.” One analyst said the pricing power stemming from tight supply may not be sustainable in the long run. Overly high storage prices could also squeeze data center project returns, creating a “storage tax.” If there is excessive investment in AI compute capacity buildout, both cloud providers’ capex and market sentiment could cool. Another analyst added that although global HBM wafer capacity will continue to increase, new capacity will mainly be used to ease the existing supply gap. HBM capacity may remain tight at least through 2027, and supply oversupply may not become a major risk before 2028. Further widespread adoption of AI agents could also keep expanding compute and HBM demand.
Morgan Stanley analyst Joseph Moore viewed the recent weakness in storage concept stocks as a “great buying opportunity.” In a report released on July 20 local time, he said, “After conversations with data center procurement managers, we confirm that the situation of memory shortages has not eased at all,” and he predicted that “third-quarter memory prices will rise by at least 25% quarter over quarter.” “Although a near-term correction in the memory industry is unavoidable,” he said, “the weak stock prices today are actually a buying opportunity… memory shortages are likely to persist not only until 2027, but also until 2028.”
So, going into next week, the market will focus on three points: how much of cloud providers’ capex can translate into real storage orders; whether the upward trend in HBM, DRAM, and NAND prices can continue; and whether leading manufacturers can maintain supply as they expand production.
Market analysis suggests that if the three companies continue to deliver strong order and pricing guidance, chip stocks may see short-term pullbacks with profit-taking next week, but the long-term trend looks promising. However, if management signals that price increases are slowing, customer inventories are rising, or pressure from new capacity builds is emerging, concerns about AI investment returns could spread further from cloud providers to the chip manufacturing side.