UBS: Agent-based AI will drive further upside in semiconductors and hardware.

UBS recently released a research report on technology strategy in the Asia-Pacific region. The report discusses topics such as "Agent-based AI is the key turning point in 2026," "Whether the uptrend in memory semiconductor continues," and "Revisiting semiconductor equipment." UBS believes that agent-based AI is developing rapidly and is increasingly seen as a major turning point in the adoption of AI. This is leading to a significant increase in CPU demand, as sequential calculation cycles are needed to access multiple resources, followed by output arrangement and priority sorting, thereby driving the growth of CPU main nodes in independent general servers and AI servers. It is expected that by 2027, the proportion of main node CPUs will increase from 29% in 2025 to 41%. Compared to the memory sector, stocks of wafer front-end equipment are expected to rise. The reason is that AI continues to drive up DRAM capital expenditure, the Chinese market and the NAND memory sector show growth momentum, and equipment delivery cycles are expected to normalize by mid-2027, thereby easing the bottleneck issue of capacity deployment to some extent.