The Era of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) Begins... KOSPI Reclaims 6,900 Mark

OpenAI Unveils 'Astra' and Declares Dawn of AGI Era
Rising Expectations for Increased Memory Semiconductor Demand
KOSPI Reclaims 6,900 Level for the First Time in Ten Days

On the 7th, employees are monitoring the stock market and exchange rates in the dealing room at the Hana Bank headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

On the back of growing optimism over Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), the KOSPI has once again approached the 7,000 mark. Shares related to semiconductors, such as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, surged on expectations that OpenAI's new artificial intelligence (AI) model 'Astra' will usher in the AGI era and drive up demand for semiconductors.

As of 10:12 a.m. on September 7, the KOSPI was trading at 6,888.31, up 3.01% from the previous trading day. At one point in the morning, it climbed as high as 6,923.64, breaching the 6,900 threshold within the session for the first time in ten days. At the same time, the KOSDAQ was up 1.52% at 825.86.

Market expectations were reflected at home and abroad after OpenAI released its new AI model, 'GPT-6 Astra,' on September 3 (local time). Despite declines in major indices on the New York Stock Exchange last Friday—such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (-0.51%) and the Nasdaq (-0.29%)—memory semiconductor shares surged. Strong gains were recorded by Micron (+6.10%), SanDisk (+11.90%), Seagate (+6.34%), and Western Digital (+5.86%), driving the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up by 3.38%.

As of 10:14 a.m. that day, Samsung Electronics was trading at 264,500 won, up 3.52% from the previous session, while SK hynix jumped 5.71% to 1,741,000 won. Most of the top market-cap shares were also on the rise, including SK Square (up 5.38%), Samsung Electro-Mechanics (up 1.36%), LG Energy Solution (up 0.42%), Hyundai Motor (up 1.83%), and KB Financial Group (up 1.63%).

OpenAI 'Astra' Released—Declaration of AGI Era

OpenAI declared the arrival of the AGI era as it unveiled Astra. AGI refers to AI that can independently learn, reason, and perform any intellectual task at a human level. Greg Brockman, President of OpenAI, stressed that this model "can do anything a human can do on a computer" and described it as "an early version of AGI capable of performing most tasks at a superhuman level."

The surge in related stocks is attributed to widespread expectations that Astra will boost semiconductor demand. Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, stated on X (formerly Twitter) that "GPT-6 Astra was trained on more than 100,000 NVIDIA Grace Blackwell NVLink72 systems" and declared, "The AGI era has arrived."

The securities industry is watching to see whether the Astra-driven momentum can relieve the selling pressure on semiconductor stocks. Han Jieong, a researcher at Kiwoom Securities, noted, "Just as last Friday's rally in U.S. semiconductor stocks suggests, it is increasingly likely that persistent selling pressure on both domestic and international semiconductor stocks is being exhausted."

There are also predictions that the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) for August, which will be announced on September 11, will determine the near-term direction of the stock market. Yonggu Kim, a researcher at Yuanta Securities, commented, "It will be important to watch whether the yield on U.S. 10-year Treasury bonds breaks above 4.78% following the release of the August CPI. If inflation data pushes back the timing of a rate cut, it could become a burden for the stock market."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.