SMIC raises wafer prices as AI demand surges

China’s top foundry, SMIC, crossed $3 billion in quarterly revenue as AI-related orders lifted wafer shipments 14% and average selling prices 5.7% sequentially. In Reuters’ account of SMIC’s earnings call, management said third-quarter wafers will carry higher prices, with fabs already running at 93.7% utilization. The signal for SK hynix’s US HBM buildout is upstream: AI scarcity is repricing the supporting chips and foundry capacity around the accelerator, not only the accelerator itself.