Taiwan’s stock market surged past the 40,000-point mark on Monday as easing tensions in the Middle East boosted risk appetite, lifting a broad range of heavyweight names to the day’s limit-up threshold. Semiconductor and networking shares were among the strongest performers, with several stocks that have recently attracted higher target prices from foreign brokerages opening sharply higher and hitting the upper trading band early in the session.
MediaTek was the standout. Goldman Sachs, according to a report published by TechNews, has lifted its 12-month target for the chip designer to NT$5,000 and kept a buy rating, arguing that the company is only at the beginning of an artificial intelligence ASIC growth cycle. That followed a separate upbeat view from Morgan Stanley in April, which named MediaTek a top semiconductor pick and raised its target range to NT$2,588 to NT$2,988 on expectations that custom AI chip work, including projects linked to Google TPU, could materially improve earnings. TrendForce has also said MediaTek expects ASIC revenue to exceed US$1 billion in 2026 and that custom AI chips could account for as much as 20% of sales by 2027. The stock rose to a record NT$2,870.
Creative Technology also rallied after Morgan Stanley upgraded its outlook, citing potential upside from future demand for Google-designed CPUs and Tesla’s AI5 chip, which is intended for autonomous driving systems and Optimus humanoid robots. The bank raised its target to NT$4,888 from NT$3,288 and kept an overweight rating. That helped drive the IC design company to the limit-up level in morning trade.
In networking, Asia Vital Components advanced as investors continued to focus on AI infrastructure spending. The company is seen benefiting from new customer demand, including Amazon’s Trainium 3 programme and an ongoing shift in data-centre switching from 400G to 800G, with 1.6T products also in development. Macquarie and Morgan Stanley both recently raised their earnings forecasts and targets, while Morgan Stanley called the stock its preferred AI networking play. ASE Technology Holding was another major mover after reporting stronger first-quarter results, with higher revenue, profit and earnings per share, prompting several foreign houses to lift their price targets sharply. More broadly, the rush into advanced packaging has pushed capital expenditure across the sector to record levels, reinforcing the view that AI chip competition is now being decided as much by manufacturing capacity as by design.
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Source: Noah Wire Services