Chipmaker X-FAB surges in retail-driven rally as chip frenzy builds

GDANSK/MILAN, May ⁠27 (Reuters) - Shares of European chipmaker ​X-FAB jumped as much as 76% on Wednesday, driven by retail buying ​amplified ‌by a viral social media post, the latest sign of chip ⁠sector frenzy. There was no obvious specific ⁠news behind the surge, ​but traders cited a post on platform X from the handle Serenity that highlighted X-FAB as an "interesting long idea" tied to photonics and ​power ‌semiconductors.

"It's being pushed on X," said Stephane Ekolo, equity strategist at TFS Derivatives in London.

X-FAB was not immediately available for comment. The same handle, also known as @aleabitoreddit, has previously been ​linked to sharp gains in UK computer hardware firm Raspberry ‌Pi in February. Since then, its followers have grown to more than 411,000 from around 58,000.

Retail ‌flows appeared to dominate activity, with X-FAB among the most traded stocks on Germany's Tradegate platform, ranking second behind U.S. chipmaker ​Micron Technology and ahead of Germany’s Infineon.

Paris-listed X-FAB pared gains after briefly reaching ‌a market capitalisation of around 2.06 billion euros ($2.4 billion), roughly three times its value at the start of 2026. By 1127 GMT, ⁠the ⁠stock was up 35%. The spike comes ‌against a strong broader rally in semiconductor stocks, fuelled by expectations that AI ​will drive ​sustained demand.

SK Hynix topped $1 trillion in market value for the ‌first time on Wednesday, joining its memory chip peers Samsung Electronics and Micron.

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