US Pre-Market: Korean Memory Giants Samsung and SK Hynix's Combined Investment of Over $2.4 Trillion Boosts Chip Sector, as US Pensions' $30 Billion Selling Pressure Hits

TradingKey - On June 29 Eastern Time, in U.S. premarket trading, the three major stock index futures rose in tandem. As of press time, Dow Jones futures rose 0.46%, Nasdaq 100 futures gained 1.19%, and S&P 500 futures increased 0.85%.

[Source: CME Group]

In commodities, gold and silver prices edged lower. As of press time, spot gold ( XAUUSD) was trading at $4,036 per ounce, down 1.28%, while spot silver ( XAGUSD) was at $57.64 per ounce, down 2.59%.

International oil prices rebounded. As of press time, WTI crude oil futures stood at $69.75/barrel, up 0.75%, while Brent crude oil futures rose 0.47% to $72.94/barrel.

In the crypto market, Bitcoin (BTC) once again fell below the $60,000 threshold, trading around $59,931 as of press time, while Ethereum (ETH) was hovering around $1,572. The U.S. Dollar Index edged down 0.11% to 101.25.

Unusual Market Movements

Memory chip stocks were mixed in premarket trading. Boosted by the South Korean government's announcement of a massive semiconductor investment plan, U.S. memory concepts briefly climbed before giving up all gains, with some turning lower. As of press time, Micron Technology ( MU) was down 0.77%, SanDisk ( SNDK) fell 0.3%, Seagate Technology ( STX) rose 0.9%, Western Digital ( WDC) gained 0.78%.

The semiconductor sector generally moved higher, with Applied Materials ( AMAT) up nearly 4%, Marvell Technology ( MRVL) up 1.4%, Intel ( INTC ), Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD) both rising over 1%.

Tech stocks broadly rose in premarket trading. Qualcomm ( QCOM) rose nearly 2%, TSMC ( TSM) rose nearly 1.5%. Nvidia ( NVDA ), Google ( GOOGL) rose nearly 1%, Meta ( META) rose over 1%. SpaceX ( SPCX) rose over 2% in premarket trading, following confirmation that the company will be officially added to the Nasdaq 100 Index starting July 7.

Market Headlines

Samsung announces a 2,655 trillion won domestic investment plan, exceeding market expectations. On June 29, Samsung Electronics Chairman Jay Y. Lee formally announced at the "Three Super Projects" launch event hosted by South Korean President Lee Jae-myung that Samsung Group will invest a total of 2,655 trillion won domestically, exceeding the market's previous expectation of 2,000 trillion won. Of this, 2,030 trillion won will be directed to the capital region's semiconductor clusters (Pyeongtaek Campus and Yongin National Industrial Park), focusing on AI semiconductors, robotics, batteries, and IT component materials. The South Korean government also announced on the same day its goal to double DRAM production capacity over the next five years.

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won announced on the same day that SK Hynix will invest 1,100 trillion won to expand semiconductor supply. Of this, 600 trillion won will go to the Yongin semiconductor cluster, where the construction of the fourth fab—originally scheduled for completion in 2045—will be advanced by 12 years to be completed in 2033; 100 trillion won will go to the Cheongju production base to expand NAND flash memory and strengthen advanced HBM packaging capabilities; and 400 trillion won will be used to establish a new semiconductor cluster in southwestern South Korea. Chey Tae-won stated that the memory semiconductor market is already facing a severe supply shortage, which is expected to intensify in the future. Combined, the two conglomerates have committed to investments exceeding 4,800 trillion won.

A $30 billion passive sell-off from US pension funds is coming. As the first half of 2026 nears its close, large US pension plans are about to trigger their semi-annual asset rebalancing. Market estimates project a total of $30 billion in US equities will be forced into a concentrated sell-off on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Due to the extreme divergence between the US stock and bond markets in the first half of this year—with the S&P 500 up 7.43% year-to-date and the Nasdaq surging 8.84% while fixed-income assets remained virtually stagnant—pensions are significantly overweight in equities. The AI semiconductor sector is expected to bear the brunt of this passive divestment.

Google faces computing power shortage, limiting Meta's use of Gemini. According to media reports on June 28, Google has begun limiting Meta's use of its large AI model, Gemini, as Meta's demand for computing power has exceeded Google's current capacity. The restricted supply has directly disrupted the progress of several internal AI projects at Meta, forcing delays in related research and development. The reports noted that Google's move vividly exposes that computing power supply remains the core bottleneck for the development of the AI industry.

Musk: Grok 4.5 in internal testing, new AI models to be released monthly. On June 28 local time, Musk posted on the X platform that Grok 4.5 has initiated beta testing internally at SpaceX and Tesla ( TSLA) internally. According to him, early evaluation results show that the model's performance is close to, and may even surpass, Anthropic's Opus. Musk also stated that SpaceX plans to release a brand-new AI model "trained completely from scratch" every month for the remainder of this year.

QXO ( QXO) announces $17 billion acquisition of TopBuild ( BLD ), the latter plunging up to 12% in premarket trading. QXO Inc. announced its acquisition of TopBuild Corp. for $17 billion in cash and stock. Citi ( C) analysts believe the deal size exceeds expectations but has positive prospects, giving QXO a Buy rating. TopBuild shareholders can choose to receive $505 in cash or 20.2 shares of QXO stock per share. Impacted by this, TopBuild once plunged over 12% in premarket trading. As of press time, TopBuild was down 6.67%.

Upcoming Key Events

Samsung's 2,655 trillion KRW and SK Hynix's 1,100 trillion KRW investment plans have been implemented, providing a dual boost to the chip sector. Samsung's 2,655 trillion KRW and SK Hynix's 1,100 trillion KRW investment plans were implemented on June 29, covering three major areas: semiconductor manufacturing, AI data centers, and physical AI, with a goal to double DRAM capacity within five years. Boosted by the dual news, U.S. chip and memory stocks broadly gained in pre-market trading, with Nasdaq futures rising over 1%. However, the pressure of a $30 billion passive rebalancing by U.S. pension funds is set to be released during the first two trading days of this week, with the AI semiconductor sector expected to bear the heaviest pressure. Investors should remain alert to short-term volatility risks.