SpaceX and OpenAI are about to go public; Asian investors are "selling chips and buying bottlenecks," betting on a "new round of capital expenditure"

The listing plans of SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic are reshaping the logic of investors’ allocation in Asian tech stocks.

Market consensus anticipates that the new wave of capital expenditures triggered by funding for these three companies will provide a strong catalyst for Asia's hardware supply chain, propelling the AI-themed trades to spread from leading chip stocks to broader segments such as electronic components, cooling equipment, and power infrastructure.

According to estimates by Fabien Yip, market analyst at IG International, the listings of these companies could collectively drive an additional $70 billion in AI spending. Coupled with over $750 billion in capital expenditures already committed by major hyperscale cloud service providers, concerns over the sustainability of AI infrastructure financing may be alleviated to some extent.

The data center construction boom has already made Asian hardware companies core beneficiaries of this round of AI rally, but after the rapid surge, valuation pressures are building for some mainstream stocks.

Ken Wong, Asia equity portfolio specialist at Eastspring Investments in Hong Kong, said:

AI IPOs may further fuel the capital expenditure boom just as Asian chip stock valuations appear stretched.

He revealed that his team is currently underweight semiconductors in their Asia tech strategies, shifting focus to electronic component manufacturers.

Concentration limits and single-stock position caps are also objectively prompting fund managers to extend downstream in the supply chain.

Sam Konrad, portfolio manager at Jupiter Asset Management, favors the server assembly businesses of Hon Hai Precision and Quanta Computer, as well as chip designer MediaTek, for the following reason:

The AI capital expenditure cycle will last several years, and investors tend to seek beneficiaries whose valuations remain relatively low.

As semiconductor shortages spread downstream from chips, the supply-demand imbalance is intensifying, attracting capital to position early.

Since the start of the year, leading performers in the MSCI Asia broad index, including Samsung Electro-Mechanics of Korea and Ibiden of Japan, both represent major players in the server electronic components sector.

Yip from IG also mentioned Japanese sanitary ware brand Toto, which supplies ceramic materials for chip manufacturing equipment and is a "distant" beneficiary in the AI investment chain.

Song Zhe from BNP Paribas Asset Management believes that the next phase will be "a differentiated stock market, not indiscriminate buying of semiconductors".

His team is focusing on Chinese companies involved in advanced packaging, substrates, testing, optical interconnects, power, cooling, and server-related fields, "where earnings revisions can still support valuations".

The rapid expansion of data centers is making power supply the next significant bottleneck.

Nuclear and renewable energy are therefore getting more attention, especially as the war in Iran drives up oil prices and further strengthens the logic for clean energy alternatives.

The Korean market leads the world this year, with solar company HD Hyundai Energy Solutions and nuclear engineering firm Daewoo Engineering among the top gainers.

In India, the Adani Group is advancing the deployment of green-powered data centers, boosting its energy segment and making it one of the few AI beneficiaries in the Indian market.

Jian Shi Cortesi, fund manager at GAM Asset Management, regards power as "the most under-allocated bottleneck segment," while also warning of risks: The second stage of the AI rally is more uncertain than the first stage.

If actual AI demand fails to support current investment scales, companies might cut back on capital expenditures, and the market could then face the risk of infrastructure oversupply and significant valuation corrections.

Brian Ooi, portfolio manager at Swiss-Asia Asset Management, maintains his focus on power equipment fields such as transformers, fuel cells, cables, and gas turbines, and sees the funding activities of SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic as positive signals to continue holding AI-related stocks. He said:

This will provide them with ample liquidity to further invest in capital expenditures, and Asian suppliers will benefit as a result.