Evening Scan

Memory chips had a big day — SK Hynix crossed $1T in market cap, hot on Micron's heels, and the AI inference funding machine kept spinning. Nvidia servers were smuggled through Japan again, a recurring sentence in recent months.

900%+ — SK Hynix's share gain over the past year, tracking where AI infrastructure spending is actually landing. (Bloomberg)

SK Hynix Joins the $1T Club on AI Memory Dominance

Shares jumped 11% today, making it the third Asian company ever to hit the milestone — and the memory chip sector's second trillion-dollar moment in 48 hours. (Bloomberg)

Taiwan Suspects Nvidia Chips Were Smuggled to China via Japan

Three suspects — including a Super Micro SVP — allegedly used false documents to route restricted US servers through a Japanese transshipment scheme. Export controls are generating creative workarounds faster than enforcement can keep up. (The Next Web)

Fireworks AI in Talks to Raise at a $15B Valuation

That would be nearly a 4x jump from its $4B valuation seven months ago. Baseten is reportedly negotiating a similar leap to $11B. AI inference infrastructure is surging alongside the broader AI funding wave. (Bloomberg)

Charter Confirms Data Breach After ShinyHunters Extortion Threat

ShinyHunters claims 40 million customer records pulled from Charter's Salesforce instance — confirmation came after the threat went public, not before. (BleepingComputer)