[Edaily Reporter Kim Kyung-eun ] Forecasts indicate that competitive investment in data centers by Big Tech (major technology companies) will continue. Analysts suggest that the sentiment surrounding semiconductor stocks could reverse next month, as Big Tech’s trend toward expanding capital expenditures (CAPEX) becomes evident.

Ko Young-min, an analyst at Daol Investment & Securities, stated in a report on the 22nd, “Starting with Google’s earnings announcement on the 23rd, we expect to see a common trend of expanded investment across major Big Tech companies’ earnings announcements in the final week of this month,” adding, “A turnaround in the semiconductor sector is anticipated, and it is highly likely that the sector will move through a clear bottoming-out phase.”

Daol Investment & Securities maintained its recommendation to increase exposure to the semiconductor sector and identified SamsungElectronics(005930) and SK hynix(000660), along with the materials, parts, and equipment (MPE) sector VM(089970), as its top picks.

He analyzed, “Unlike the past Web era, the monopolistic dominance of Big Tech in the AI era is expected to diminish,” adding, “In this process, the sector that can sustain a monopoly-centric business model is cloud services, where competitive investment in data centers will continue and Chonbang demand for memory will remain robust.”

In the early days of the internet industry, after an initial period of competition, a few major players came to dominate the platforms, creating a structure where users accessed various services through a single platform. In contrast, he explained that for AI services, performance—rather than the convenience of the platform—is the primary factor influencing user choice.

In particular, as new competition arises every time the service scope expands, the “winner-takes-all” structure of Big Tech could weaken. This is because it is difficult to assume that a company holding a high market share in the chatbot market will necessarily maintain its dominance in future markets for AI agents or physical AI.

It was noted that as competition in the AI services sector intensifies, investment in the data centers that support these services may actually expand. This is because expanding proprietary AI services requires securing computing power, and competition for market share must also continue in the cloud business, which provides data center computing power to external operators.

Regulations and power supply are cited as factors that could constrain data center investment. However, the report assessed that most U.S. data center regulations are conditional—requiring the use of renewable energy, the adoption of water-saving technologies, and compliance with power efficiency standards—rather than completely blocking new construction.

The outlook for power supply has also improved. Based on an analysis of approximately 200 publicly disclosed data center construction projects, Daol Investment & Securities projected that the available power supply for servers would increase from 11.8 gigawatts (GW) this year to 14.0 GW next year and 15.7 GW in 2027. Compared to previous forecasts, the projections have been revised upward from 7.0 GW to 11.8 GW for this year, from 13.4 GW to 14.0 GW for next year, and from 15.2 GW to 15.7 GW for 2027.

Researcher Ko predicted that this trend of expanding data center investment will be confirmed through the earnings announcements scheduled for later this month by major Big Tech companies and domestic semiconductor firms. He believes it is highly likely that U.S. Big Tech companies, including Google, will present outlooks indicating they will maintain or expand their capital expenditures.

He said, “The supply-demand imbalance that had been concentrated in the sector has been partially resolved by recent adjustments,” adding, “Once the investment direction of big tech companies and the terms of long-term memory contracts are confirmed, the sector’s sentiment could shift to a positive outlook in August.” He also emphasized, “At current stock price levels, there is no risk in implementing a strategy to increase exposure to the semiconductor sector.”