CoreWeave Earnings Lift Samsung, SK hynix; Nvidia Diverges After Hours

Samsung Electronics and SK hynix opened over 1% higher on December 12 after CoreWeave (a U.S. artificial intelligence cloud provider) reported third-quarter revenue of $3.661 billion, beating the $3.55 billion consensus. The beat eased funding concerns that had weighed on AI-linked shares.

What moved before the open?

On the Nextrade premarket platform, Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) traded at 208,500 won at 8:10 a.m., up 2,500 won or 1.21%. SK hynix (000660.KS) rose 16,000 won, or 1.25%, to 1.29 million won. The gains extended to affiliates:

• SK Square (402340.KS): up 2.01%
• Samsung Electro-Mechanics (009150.KS): up 1.84%

Wall Street set the tone overnight. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index jumped 5.66%. Micron gained 11.89% and SanDisk surged 13.69%.

What did CoreWeave actually report?

Revenue beat the forecast by roughly $111 million. The company raised its full-year revenue guidance to $13.3 billion from $13 billion. It also said it expects about $9 billion in prepayments over the next three months. That cash-flow claim matters most; prepayments would directly address the funding doubts that triggered the earlier selloff. The source does not specify which customers will pay.

Sentiment also drew support from reports that institutional orders in the bookbuilding (the pre-listing order collection process) for Anthropic's initial public offering reached several times the offering size. Demand strength at IPO stage does not guarantee post-listing performance.

Why did Nvidia fall after hours?

Nvidia closed regular trading up 2.9% at $173.73. It then dropped 8.1% to $159.59 in after-hours trading as of 5:45 p.m. local time. The Wall Street Journal, citing sources, reported that Nvidia's board is preparing to remove Chief Executive Jensen Huang. Neither Nvidia nor Huang has confirmed the report. No successor was named.

How firm is the Korean rally?

The KOSPI closed 2.60% higher at 5,375.36 the previous day, driven by Samsung Electronics (up 3.57%) and SK hynix (up 5.36%). That prior surge raises the bar for follow-through.

Seo Sang-young, managing director at Mirae Asset Securities (006800.KS), said the index is likely to pare gains after a higher open. "The KOSPI already rose 2.60% the previous day, so the CoreWeave news has largely been priced in, and with options expiry arriving, the unwinding of options positions that bet on short-term gains, profit-taking and program trading could all expand," he said.

What are the buy-side signals?

Han Ji-young, an analyst at Kiwoom Securities (039490.KS), noted that foreign investors bought a net 1.1 trillion won on the main bourse over the past two days. They returned to previous market leaders such as semiconductors and information technology hardware.

"We put more weight on the possibility that stocks could become more responsive to positive news, given that both the KOSPI and the KOSDAQ remain in oversold territory," Han said.

Two-day inflows and oversold conditions describe positioning, not fundamentals. The CoreWeave beat covers one quarter. Nvidia's after-hours reversal shows how quickly AI sentiment can flip on a single unconfirmed report.