Muse-fueled rally lifts Korean chip stocks

On September 22, 2026, trading in global technology shares was influenced by the early reception to Meta Platforms’ (META) new AI agent, Muse. The application climbed to the top of Apple’s (AAPL) free App Store rankings in the United States shortly after launch. This visible user traction coincided with a sharp move higher in Meta’s (META) stock, which rose about 11% in U.S. trading.

The strength in Meta’s shares occurred alongside broader gains in AI-linked and semiconductor names. The Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index rose about 4.3%, underscoring renewed investor interest in chipmakers tied to advanced computing and AI workloads. These moves in U.S. markets set the stage for trading in Asia in the following session.

The positive sentiment around AI and semiconductors extended into South Korea, where major chip and equipment stocks advanced. Samsung Electronics rose as much as 3.5%, while SK Hynix gained about 3.3%. The performance of these large-cap names contributed to an increase of about 2.3% in the benchmark Kospi index.

The gains in Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix highlighted how developments in global AI applications can quickly feed through to hardware suppliers. Investors linked the momentum around Muse and AI-related demand to prospects for continued investment in memory and processing capacity. This connection helped support a broad move higher in Korea’s technology complex during the session.

The rally across U.S. and Korean markets reflected expectations that successful AI applications may require greater compute and infrastructure spending. Muse’s rapid ascent to the top of the U.S. App Store placed a spotlight on potential growth in AI usage. In turn, this emphasized the role of semiconductor manufacturers and equipment providers that enable large-scale AI inference and data processing.

While the immediate moves were driven by short-term trading and sentiment, the day’s price action showed how quickly AI software developments can influence valuations along the hardware supply chain. The combination of Meta’s share surge, a higher Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, and notable gains in Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix illustrated the tight linkage between AI platform adoption and semiconductor market performance.