US Close Oct 22: SOX Falls 6.72% as Lam Research and Texas Instruments Beat — 8 Reads for Oct 23

Start with the conclusion. At the US close on October 22, 2026, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) fell 6.72% to 10,731.98 and the Nasdaq fell 2.60% to 26,008.86. The earnings printed the other way. Lam Research beat with revenue of USD 8.22 billion and EPS of USD 2.20 and raised its next-quarter guide. Texas Instruments posted EPS of USD 2.62 as data center revenue rose 95% year over year. Western Digital grew revenue 55% year over year to USD 4.381 billion. Earnings confirmed demand; prices marked down valuation. Here are 8 reads for today.

Market Snapshot — 10:29 KST, October 23, 2026 Markets are lower again intraday after yesterday's down close, though losses have narrowed. US close (Oct 22): SOX -6.72% · Nasdaq -2.60% · S&P 500 -1.21% Korea close (Oct 22): KOSPI -3.52% · Samsung Electronics -4.03% (KRW 214,500) · SK hynix -5.49% (KRW 1,223,000) US futures (as of 10:29 KST): Nasdaq-100 futures -3.04% · S&P 500 futures -1.41% Korea intraday (as of 10:29 KST): KOSPI -1.72% · Samsung Electronics -2.56% · SK hynix +0.16% — can change until the close. The web version is updated after the close.

8 reads for today

1. Lam Research beats with USD 8.22B revenue and guides the next quarter higher

Lam Research earnings call transcript (Seeking Alpha), Oct 21, 2026 · Startup Fortune, Oct 22, 2026

• Lam Research reported fiscal first-quarter revenue of USD 8.22 billion and non-GAAP EPS of USD 2.20 on October 21, ahead of consensus revenue of about USD 8.13 billion and EPS of USD 2.18.
• Guidance for the next quarter was USD 8.2 billion to USD 9.0 billion, with the midpoint above the quarter just reported.
• Lam does not make chips. It sells the etch and deposition tools that TSMC, Samsung, Micron and SK hynix use to build them. Equipment orders are commitments to chips that ship years later, so a raised guide reads as a signal that the capex cycle has not rolled over.

Chase's take: A guidance raise in the middle of a bubble debate carries weight. Beating a finished quarter is one thing; saying the next one will be bigger is another. Equipment makers see the future half a step before the rest of the market.

2. Texas Instruments EPS USD 2.62 — data center revenue up 95%

Zacks, Oct 22, 2026 · CoinCentral, Oct 22, 2026

• Texas Instruments reported Q3 revenue of USD 6.06 billion (+28% YoY) and EPS of USD 2.62 (+77% YoY), both ahead of estimates.
• Analog revenue rose 32% to USD 4.91 billion. Data center revenue grew about 95% and now accounts for roughly 13% of total revenue.
• Q4 guidance of USD 5.8 billion to USD 6.3 billion in revenue and EPS of USD 2.45 to USD 2.79 also topped forecasts. The stock still slipped about 0.5% after hours.

Chase's take: The tell is a 95% jump at a company that makes no AI accelerators. Power management and analog are the quiet beneficiaries of AI infrastructure, and this print shows demand spreading beyond the accelerator itself.

3. Western Digital revenue USD 4.381B — next-quarter guide USD 5.0B to 5.2B

KuCoin News (Western Digital results), Oct 22, 2026

• Western Digital reported fiscal Q1 revenue of USD 4.381 billion (+55% YoY, +17% QoQ), GAAP net income of USD 1.779 billion and EPS of USD 4.63.
• Non-GAAP gross margin reached 58.1%. Operating cash flow was USD 1.604 billion and free cash flow USD 1.377 billion.
• Guidance for the next quarter: revenue of USD 5.0 billion to USD 5.2 billion (+66% to +72% YoY), non-GAAP gross margin of 60% to 61% and EPS of USD 5.60 to USD 6.00. The quarterly dividend rose 17% to USD 0.18.

Chase's take: Storage has now confirmed the same story. When memory, equipment, analog and storage all print demand in the same week, the open question is price and valuation, not demand.

4. Samsung and SK hynix earnings are next — DRAM pricing is the swing factor

eToday, Oct 22, 2026

• SK hynix reports on October 28 and Samsung Electronics confirms results on October 29. Broker previews credit HBM4 volume growth plus rising conventional DRAM and NAND prices.
• Estimates put Samsung's Q3 conventional DRAM ASP up about 21% QoQ and SK hynix's DRAM ASP up about 22%. NAND ASP estimates are about +22% for Samsung and +15% for SK hynix.
• Samsung's HBM shipments are estimated up about 25% QoQ with ASP up about 13%.

Chase's take: Next week's Korean prints turn on price, not volume. A quarter where HBM4 mix and conventional pricing improve together is rare. What moves the stocks is not the beat itself but how strong the Q4 pricing commentary sounds.

5. SEDEX 2026 split the next round — Samsung stacks up, SK hynix builds sideways

Mail Business News, Oct 22, 2026 · Vibe Times, Oct 16, 2026

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• At SEDEX 2026 Samsung showed zHBM, which stacks HBM directly on the compute chip, and zNAND-O, a vertically stacked NAND design. Both shorten the distance data travels, cutting latency and power.
• SK hynix showed 3D-stacked DRAM and High Bandwidth Flash (HBF), targeting about 10x the capacity of same-generation HBM at about half the bandwidth. A final HBF specification with partners including SanDisk is targeted for January 2027.
• The push comes as China closes in: CXMT has started trial production of HBM3E, and YMTC took a 38.5% share of China's NAND market in Q2 to rank first.

Chase's take: The contest moved from speed to distance and hierarchy. The moment a new memory tier exists, whoever owns its specification divides the market. Samsung answered with stacking; SK hynix with a standards alliance.

6. Samsung to use TSMC 3nm for Nvidia next-generation HBM base dies, report says

Reuters, Oct 18, 2026

• Per the Seoul Economic Daily via Reuters, Samsung will build base dies for Nvidia's next-generation custom HBM, NVHBM, on TSMC's 3nm process — reported as the first Samsung-TSMC collaboration at the HBM manufacturing stage.
• Nvidia reportedly asked Samsung, SK hynix and Micron to use TSMC base dies with sixth-generation (1c) DRAM core dies. NVHBM, unveiled in August 2026, puts Nvidia's custom memory controller in the base die.
• Samsung reportedly keeps in-house foundry production for standard HBM and other customers, and is assessing whether its own foundry could also make NVHBM base dies if TSMC capacity runs short. None of the three companies has confirmed the report.

Chase's take: The standard was set by the customer, not the competitor. Once the base die becomes a logic process, HBM stops being a memory-only contest. It stings for Samsung Foundry — and simultaneously gives it the second-source seat if TSMC fills up.

7. Three roads on 4F² DRAM — CXMT bets, Micron declines

Sammy Fans, Oct 22, 2026 · Aephel Research, Oct 22, 2026

• CXMT said on October 10 in Shanghai that it plans to unveil a 4F²-cell server DDR5 RDIMM by year-end. Samsung and SK hynix are developing the same layout on later mass-production timelines, per reports.
• Micron said in an October 21 webinar that it will not pursue 4F², citing complexity and cost, and will instead extend its 6F² leadership and develop 3D DRAM.
• Separately, Aephel notes more than 75% of Micron's 2027 output is already committed and DDR5 contract prices are up 83% since March — a sell-off that did not touch the fundamentals.

Chase's take: One cell layout, three strategies. The winner is decided by manufacturable yield, not by who announces first. A roadmap that has not shipped moved stocks for a week — that gap is next earnings season's volatility.

8. Omdia: the top 10 suppliers took two-thirds of a record market

Evertiq, Oct 22, 2026

• Omdia puts 2025 semiconductor revenue at about USD 831 billion, up 23.3%, with the top 10 suppliers at USD 562.1 billion — 67.6% of the total.
• Nvidia ranked first at USD 150.3 billion (18.1% share, +54.3%), Samsung second at USD 85.8 billion, and SK hynix third at USD 67.2 billion (+42.3%). Micron was fifth at USD 45.6 billion (+56.3%).
• Nvidia plus the three memory makers went from 24% of industry revenue in 2023 to 42% in 2025. Intel fell to fourth at USD 48.5 billion, down 3.7%.

Chase's take: The AI cycle's real map is the share table. The gains pass through a narrow gate, and both Korean memory makers are inside it — which is exactly why next week's earnings matter beyond Korea.

Semiconductor stocks roundup

Basis: US closes on October 22, 2026; Korea closes on October 22, 2026 (daily bars via market_snapshot.py). KOSPI and KOSDAQ use the snapshot's latest confirmed bars, the October 21 close.

Next up: SK hynix earnings Oct 28, Samsung confirmed results Oct 29, Intel earnings Oct 29.

FAQ

Q: Why did US chip stocks fall on October 22 despite strong earnings? A: The SOX fell 6.72% at the October 22 US close. Lam Research, Texas Instruments and Western Digital all beat estimates and guided constructively in the same window, so the decline cannot be pinned on demand alone. Prices reflected valuation and the height of forward guidance rather than the reported numbers.

Q: What were Lam Research's key September-quarter numbers? A: Revenue of USD 8.22 billion and non-GAAP EPS of USD 2.20, ahead of consensus of about USD 8.13 billion and USD 2.18. Next-quarter revenue guidance was USD 8.2 billion to USD 9.0 billion (reported October 21, 2026).

Q: Why does Texas Instruments' data center growth matter? A: TI's Q3 data center revenue rose about 95% year over year to roughly 13% of total revenue. A near-doubling at an analog maker that builds no AI accelerators shows AI infrastructure demand spreading beyond accelerators into power and analog.

Q: When do Samsung and SK hynix report? A: SK hynix reports on October 28, 2026 and Samsung Electronics confirms results on October 29, 2026. The swing factors are HBM4 shipment growth and the size of conventional DRAM and NAND ASP increases.

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