South Korea’s Kospi and Japan’s Topix record highs dominated Friday’s session across Asia-Pacific, as investors focused on surging technology shares and Wall Street’s fresh closing records rather than renewed military activity near the Strait of Hormuz. The Kospi jumped more than 3% to close at 8,476.15, while Japan’s Topix climbed 1.41% to an all-time closing high of 3,957.17.
| Index / Asset | Move | Level |
|---|---|---|
| South Korea Kospi | +3.0%+ | 8,476.15 (record) |
| Japan Topix | +1.41% | 3,957.17 (record) |
| Japan Nikkei 225 | +2.53% | 66,329.5 |
| Australia S&P/ASX 200 | +1.62% | 8,731.7 |
| S&P 500 (Thursday close) | +0.58% | 7,563.63 (record) |
| Nasdaq Composite (Thursday close) | +0.91% | 26,917.47 (record) |
What Drove Kospi and Topix to Record Highs
The two biggest catalysts were Samsung Electronics and Snowflake. Samsung surged more than 5% after announcing it had begun shipping samples of its latest high-bandwidth memory chip to customers globally. The chip in question is HBM4, built on a 6th-generation 10nm-class process and capable of a sustained processing speed of 11.7 GB/s, roughly 46% faster than the current 8 Gb/s industry standard. Throughput is scalable up to 13 GB/s, which positions the chip squarely for the next wave of AI accelerator demand.
That is a meaningful step. Semiconductor customers building AI infrastructure have been pressing suppliers hard on bandwidth. Samsung’s ability to ship HBM4 samples now keeps it in the race against SK Hynix, which has moved aggressively on earlier HBM generations.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 added 2.53% to close at 66,329.5. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.62% to 8,731.7. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.55% in the final hour, while China’s CSI 300 slipped 0.45% to 4,892.12. India’s Nifty 50 dipped 0.5%, the one regional outlier.
Snowflake’s Numbers Behind the AI Optimism
Thursday’s Wall Street session gave Asia-Pacific the tailwind it needed. Snowflake shares soared 36.5%, their best single day ever, after the company beat on both revenue and earnings and issued strong fiscal second-quarter guidance. The print carried weight: Q1 FY2026 product revenue came in at $997 million, up 26% year-over-year, with a net revenue retention rate of 124% and 451 net new customers added in the quarter. A 124% NRR means existing customers are spending meaningfully more, not just staying put.
Alongside the earnings, Snowflake formalized a Strategic Collaboration Agreement with Amazon Web Services, committing $6 billion over five years. The majority of Snowflake’s customers already run on AWS, so the deal codifies an existing concentration rather than a new bet. But the scale of the commitment stands out: at Snowflake’s IPO in 2020, its AWS spending commitment was $1.2 billion. It grew to $2.5 billion in 2023. The jump to $6 billion includes use of Amazon’s custom Graviton processors to power AI and agentic applications.
Snowflake also moved on the acquisition front, signing a definitive agreement to buy Natoma. Natoma builds an enterprise Model Context Protocol platform for AI agents, extending Snowflake’s governance reach from data assets to AI actions across the enterprise. That is the direction the entire data infrastructure sector is moving: from storing and querying data to governing what AI does with it.
Iran Tensions Take a Back Seat
The geopolitical backdrop remained complicated. Iran’s armed forces reportedly fired missiles at unspecified targets late Thursday, according to state media outlet Fars. The Pentagon had already said Tehran fired a ballistic missile toward Kuwait and deployed attack drones in and around the Strait of Hormuz. Oil surged on the news earlier in the week.
But a White House official confirmed Thursday that the U.S. and Iran had reached a tentative ceasefire extension, easing fears of a near-term escalation around the Strait. That was enough for traders to look past the missile activity and back toward the earnings calendar. Oil prices pulled back from Wednesday’s spike, removing the inflation overhang that had weighed on tech sentiment earlier in the week.
The setup heading into next week is straightforward. Samsung’s HBM4 customer feedback will test whether the chip’s 46% speed advantage translates into actual design wins against SK Hynix. Snowflake’s $6 billion AWS commitment locks in five years of infrastructure spend that the market is now pricing as accretive, but execution on the Natoma integration and the agentic AI rollout is what holds the multiple. And if Iran tensions flare again, oil moves first and the Asia-Pacific tech bid gets tested. For now, the Kospi and Topix record highs say the bid is winning.
