Baird doubles AMD's price target to $1,250, retains 'Outperform' rating.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and Axios co-founder Mike Allen held an extensive, in-depth discussion on the current state of artificial intelligence. Huang noted that despite the long-standing boom-and-bust cycles in the chip industry, "this time it’s different." Even when accounting for the sector’s historically extreme cyclical fluctuations, the current boom still has room to grow. When asked if the industry is on the verge of a downturn, Huang responded: "No, that won’t happen for a while. This time it’s different because this isn’t demand-driven. For a long time, consumer demand has been the main driver of this industry. But the current AI boom is industry-driven, meaning core computing technologies are undergoing transformation. We need to build an entirely new layer of infrastructure globally. We already have energy, the internet, roads, and railways; now we need to construct an AI 'intelligence layer'—an additional infrastructure layer built on top of these foundations. And this infrastructure layer relies on chips. I believe our semiconductor industry may need to be five to ten times larger than its current size... The industry’s current scale is far too small. All shortages stem not from cyclical issues or consumer demand, but from fundamental, infrastructure-related factors."

USDC issuer Circle minted an additional 250 million USDC on the Solana network two hours ago.

According to Kyodo News, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will consider a cabinet reshuffle.

According to official announcements, Ripple has launched Ripple Mint, a unified platform for institutional users to access, mint, redeem, and manage RLUSD. The platform offers both user interface (UI) and application programming interface (API) access, enabling institutions to automate stablecoin operations, integrate RLUSD into their existing systems, and manage cross-chain digital U.S. dollar liquidity. The service is now open to existing RLUSD users.

South Korea's Presidential Office Policy Chief Kim Yong-beom announced that during President Lee Jae-myung's Silicon Valley visit, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix will sign major deals involving "huge" funds with leading U.S. tech companies. The agreements may include new long-term memory chip supply pacts, strategic cooperative investment partnerships, and memoranda of understanding. Kim did not specify the exact amount. He added that President Lee Jae-myung's visit acted as a "catalyst" to help conclude long-running negotiations between South Korean and U.S. enterprises. Lee departed for the U.S. on Friday, and he will attend an artificial intelligence summit, holding separate meetings with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI founder Sam Altman, Anthropic co-founder Dario Amodei, and Broadcom CEO Hock Tan.

UBS Securities' China internet industry analyst Xiong Wei noted that Chinese cloud service providers have a more steady investment rhythm, focusing on ROI and sustainability, and does not see a "bubble" in China's AI sector. Meanwhile, as model capabilities continue to advance, inference demand keeps rising, investment in China's AI industry will gradually expand. (Securities Times)