By Kwanwoo Jun


Hanmi Semiconductor's shares climbed following media reports of a possible deal to supply chip-making equipment to Micron Technology.

Shares of the South Korean chip-packaging and testing equipment maker rose as much as 22% to 139,100 won ($102.99) in late trade Thursday, outperforming the benchmark Kospi's 0.3% fall.

Hanmi's shares have been up for the fourth consecutive day, riding the artificial-intelligence wave that has led to investor bets on strong demand for AI chips like the high bandwidth memory products from Micron and SK Hynix.

Hanmi's latest rally comes in the wake of South Korean media reports overnight that the company is negotiating a deal to supply high bandwidth memory packaging equipment to Micron, which could place an initial order as early as the second quarter.

Both Hanmi and Micron weren't immediately available for comment on the media reports.

A Hanmi-Micron deal, if finalized, would help the South Korean company expand its Asia-focused customer base to the U.S. Hanmi last week secured a KRW21.48 billion contract from SK Hynix--the latest in a series of recent deals valued around KRW200 billion in total.

Market analysts expect Hanmi to benefit from strong HBM demand in the U.S., as Washington pushes for an onshore AI-chip supply chain, which also involves SK Hynix.


Write to Kwanwoo Jun at kwanwoo.jun@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

03-28-24 0230ET