Nathaniel Whittemore

Again, a massive beat on estimates.

Numerous comments from analysts noted that the current memory shortage isn't likely to see relief anytime soon.

Richard Claude of Janus Henderson said, there are no easy wins in levers from a supply perspective to meet this new demand driver.

Compared to consumer electronics companies, he added, hyperscalers and AI customers are looking at what they are willing to pay for memory through a very different lens.

Now, both memory companies are keeping CapEx relatively restrained.

Samsung reported that their CapEx had actually declined slightly in 2025, commenting that they are maintaining a conservative investment approach.

They did state they expect to ramp up investments this year but declined to give full guidance.

SK held their guidance steady at around 30% of revenue.

However, increase in revenue means they'll be spending quite a bit more, but they don't seem to be looking to stand up extra capacity in any great hurry and risk overbuilding.

Citigroup analysts expect the cost of DRAM to rise by 120% this year and NAND chips to increase by 90%, so no one is expecting the shortage to be rectified in the short term.

Remarking on the nature of tech spending in this cycle, Sanjeev Rana, the head of research at CLSA Securities Korea commented,

The companies are spending real money on real stuff.

We're in uncharted territory in terms of valuations, share prices, the demand cycle.

Everything is unprecedented.

Overall, from this first glance at what the bubble narrative might be in 2026, it feels like the big takeaway from this early round of tech earnings is that there is still pretty much a full-on gold rush in AI.

Yes, bubble fears are present.

And yes, we're seeing how markets are going to want to see translation of AI spending into something resembling increased growth, either in cloud business or in ad sales when it comes to meta.

But the market seems to be rewarding firms not only for taking part in the boom, but for where their place in the narrative is.

So that's the story from here.

And that's going to do it for today's AI Daily Brief.