Singapore Chip Stocks Surge as AI Trade Confidence Returns, AEM Leads

Singapore's semiconductor suppliers are riding the latest swing of the global AI trade. Shares of AEM, a supplier to Nvidia, Intel and AMD, rose as much as 12.5% to S$8.52 in early trading on Friday (Jul 31), while Applied Materials supplier UMS gained as much as 7.4% to S$2.33 — the biggest movers in a broad rally for locally listed chip and tech counters as confidence returned to AI investment.

The rebound reversed part of Tuesday's slide, when a global memory-chip rout that sent Applied Materials' shares tumbling spread to Asia and dragged down Singapore tech stocks. Frencken, another Applied Materials supplier that suffered on Tuesday, recovered as much as 6.8% to S$2.50. The local gains followed a Wall Street surge on Thursday, when US chip stocks soared and Microsoft logged the largest one-day gain on record for any company — nearly US$450 billion in market value — after giving a stronger-than-expected forecast that eased fears of AI infrastructure overspending.

Sentiment turned positive across Asia on Friday morning, with South Korea's tech-heavy Kospi soaring more than 14% and memory manufacturers SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics surging. Investors had spent much of the year worried that big technology firms were spending too aggressively on AI infrastructure; Microsoft's earnings reset that narrative, at least for now, and Singapore's semiconductor supply chain — which feeds directly into global test, packaging and equipment demand — moved in sympathy.

The STI itself still fell, weighed down by bank stocks, which is a reminder that the AI trade is now a distinct market within Singapore's exchange rather than the whole story. The volatility of the past week also shows how exposed local chip counters are to global AI capex sentiment: when the trade turns, they feel it first.

Why it matters for Singapore: AEM, UMS and Frencken are among the few pure plays on the AI hardware cycle listed here, and their moves track the health of the global AI investment boom that Singapore is positioning itself around. For investors and observers alike, they are the most direct daily read on whether the demand that is filling Singapore's data centres and chip fabs is still growing.