According to BlockBeats, on August 15th, the semiconductor sector regained buying interest after a sharp drop in July, and Bank of America's latest assessment further reinforces this rebound logic. The bank believes that demand for AI computing and memory is stronger than previously expected, and the growth path of the AI server chip market still has room for upward revision. AMD and Nvidia remain the most representative preferred stocks.

Bank of America's core view is that the market was previously overly concerned about cloud vendors cutting AI capital expenditures, but recent earnings reports and guidance show that AI infrastructure investment is continuing. Cloud vendors such as Microsoft and Amazon continue to signal strong demand, and the server, GPU, network, storage, and power supply chains are all showing signs of recovery. The bank is bullish on AMD because its AI accelerator and server CPU portfolio will benefit from customer diversification; it remains bullish on Nvidia because its product ecosystem, supply chain control, and next-generation platform will maintain its industry-leading position.

According to BlockBeats, on August 15th, this week's global markets focused on cooling inflation, Federal Reserve policy, the Middle East situation, and the AI investment boom. US July CPI and PPI both declined, significantly reducing market expectations for interest rate hikes this year, but long-term US Treasury bonds remain under pressure from fiscal constraints. US tech stocks rebounded, and the South Korean stock market rose over 20% in two weeks, with the AI industry chain once again becoming a major investment theme.

The US CPI rose 3.4% year-on-year in July, core CPI rose 2.5% year-on-year, and PPI rose 4.7% year-on-year, with market expectations for a Fed rate hike in September declining significantly. However, the yield on the 30-year US Treasury note rose to 5.22%, a new high since 2001, as investors worried that the widening US deficit would push up long-term financing costs.

Tensions in the Middle East continue to escalate. Trump stated that the US would declare the Strait of Hormuz "US territory" after "defeating Iran," and threatened further economic strikes against Iran. Iran responded that the opening and closing of the strait is solely its decision. The US military continues to strengthen its regional deployment, with the USS Washington aircraft carrier deployed to the Middle East to relieve the US.

The AI capital market continues to expand. Nvidia, in conjunction with BlackRock, Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, and other institutions, plans to mobilize over $500 billion in capital to support the construction of AI data centers. Jensen Huang stated that AI computing is becoming a new type of infrastructure similar to energy and transportation, but the market is also beginning to pay attention to the risks of AI financing models.

South Korea's KOSPI index rebounded strongly this week, rising nearly 22% from its low at the end of July and re-entering a technical bull market. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix led the gains, driven by increased demand for AI servers and HBM (Hellenistic Machine Tool).

AI company valuations continue to rise. Anthropic is reportedly planning an IPO, with market expectations suggesting a potential valuation of $2 trillion. OpenAI, meanwhile, is accelerating its commercialization efforts, with annualized revenue reportedly exceeding $40 billion.

Among tech giants, Apple has reportedly partnered with Alibaba to train a large-scale AI model specifically for the Chinese market, adjusting its AI localization strategy. Meanwhile, the future of Apple's 20th-anniversary "all-glass iPhone" project remains controversial.

In the market, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq continued to rise this week, as investors re-bet on the "interest rate cut expectations + AI profit realization" logic. However, Bank of America warned that current market bullish sentiment is approaching extreme levels since 2021, and geopolitical risks and valuation pressures should be noted.

According to BlockBeats, following SanDisk's Investor Day on August 15, several Wall Street firms have reinstated the company in the AI infrastructure sector, citing the demand for KV cache, enterprise-grade SSDs, and high-bandwidth flash memory for large-scale model inference, which will make NAND flash memory more than just a price-driven product in the consumer electronics cycle.

JPMorgan Chase has reinstated its coverage of SanDisk with an "Overweight" rating and a target price of $2,250. The bank believes that SanDisk's signing of multi-year new business model agreements with major customers will improve demand visibility and support profit margins amid tight NAND supply.

Citigroup maintains its "Buy" rating with a target price of $2,100, focusing on the revenue stability from long-term contracts and the structural pull of flash memory demand from AI data centers.

Morgan Stanley, on the other hand, is more cautious, believing that the company's high profit margin target is difficult to achieve, but also acknowledging that SanDisk has the opportunity to maintain above-average profitability levels in the coming years due to the combined effects of supply shortages and AI demand.

This revaluation has already been directly reflected in the market. SanDisk rose about 6.5% on Friday, with a cumulative rebound of nearly 35% this week and a gain of over 60% in just over two weeks; Micron, Western Digital, Seagate, and other storage chain companies have also been boosted.