Nvidia may still be tech’s king, but Micron just stole a scene

Hello, this is Hui Jie writing to you from Singapore. Welcome to another edition of CNBC’s Daily Open.

It was a blockbuster day for chip stocks. Micron and Qualcomm both surged after delivering upbeat outlooks, with Micron claiming an unlikely crown: Wall Street’s new margin king, ahead of Nvidia and Meta.

But a new challenger enters the fray: South Korea’s SK Hynix, which filed for a massive $29.4 billion Nasdaq ADR listing, making it the second-largest U.S. listing on record after SpaceX.

Meanwhile, oil prices continue to retreat as tensions between the U.S. and Iran ease. However, political sticking points still remain, with Trump administration officials claiming that Iran will use unfrozen assets to buy U.S. goods, a claim that Iran has not confirmed or agreed to.

Read on!

Memory chipmaker Micron reported a gross margin of 84.9% in its latest quarter, up from 74.9% in the prior period and 39% a year earlier, sending its shares up 15% on Wednesday.

That tops every major U.S. tech company, surpassing social media giant Meta‘s latest gross margin of 81.9% and Nvidia‘s 75%.

The AI infrastructure buildout continues to fuel demand for high-bandwidth memory, allowing Micron to set profitability records almost as quickly as customers can snap up its chips.

Another company that saw its shares jump 15% was Qualcomm, after the chipmaker raised its forecasts for non-handset revenue in fiscal 2029 to $40 billion, nearly doubling its previous projection of $22 billion.

The company is making an aggressive push into data centers as it revealed a central processing unit for data centers called Dragonfly C1000, and said that Meta would use it when production begins in 2028.

The new processor is designed for agentic AI applications while emphasizing energy efficiency.

Another AI winner across the Pacific will soon head to Wall Street. South Korea’s SK Hynix, which recently briefly surpassed Samsung Electronics as Seoul’s most valuable firm, has filed for a Nasdaq ADR listing that could be worth up to $29.4 billion, reportedly the second-largest share sale after SpaceX. Its shares popped as much as 11% in Thursday trading.

But while Wall Street has fun in the sun, shadows of the Middle East conflict loom over the White House.

Oil prices extend their declines after at least 20 oil tankers stranded in the Persian Gulf with 35 million barrels have exited the Strait of Hormuz since the U.S. and Iran agreed to open the sea lane. U.S. crude futures fell below $70 for the first time since March.

U.S. President Donald Trump claimed that Iran had informed him there would be no tolls, insurance costs, or charges of any kind for ships looking to pass through the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz.

He also said unfrozen Iranian assets would be used to purchase U.S. agricultural products, a claim echoed by Treasury Secretary…