TechFlow Intelligence: SK Hynix Q2 Profits Hit Record Yet Miss Expectations, Triggering Korean Stock Circuit Breaker; Iran Seizes Oil Tanker in Strait of Hormuz, Oil Prices Surge in US After-Hours Trading

AI / Large Models

Anthropic Discovers New Vulnerability in Cryptographic Algorithms Using Claude Mythos Preview

Researchers used the model to discover improved methods for attacking encryption algorithms, potentially affecting the mathematical foundation of online data privacy protection. Anthropic

Moonshot AI Suspends New User Subscriptions Due to Surge in Kimi K3 Inference Demand

Registration paused within 48 hours of K3's release due to overloaded demand; inference requires at least 64 Nvidia H20 chips; the team is seeking more Blackwell chips for training the larger-parameter K4. Hot Topic: Chinese cloud providers suffer from insufficient compute power from single suppliers; Moonshot splices 8-card servers across multiple data centers for training. The Information

> Hot Take: K3 closed its doors to guests just after launch because it was too popular; this is probably the most humble-brag "production hell" of the AI era.

OpenAI and Anthropic Lobby Government to Include Meta Open-Source Models in Security Review

The two companies requested that when deciding which frontier AI models require government evaluation by August 1, open-source models from competitors like Meta be included on the list, and warned that Chinese open-source models suspected of using their outputs for training pose security risks. The Information

Sam Altman Says Compute Oversupply May Occur Within 2 Years

The OpenAI CEO believes that if AI model efficiency improves enough to handle most tasks and human attention becomes the bottleneck, compute supply may become oversupplied within two years; if the industry encounters scaling bottlenecks and costs stop falling, the risk of oversupply will be higher. TechCrunch

Crypto / Web3

Iranian Revolutionary Guard Seizes Three Oil Tankers in Strait of Hormuz

Iranian state TV reported that the Revolutionary Guard "intercepted and seized" three oil tankers in the strait hours ago because the tankers ignored warnings; oil prices surged over 3% in a single day after US market hours. Reuters | State TV

US-Saudi Coalition Air Strikes Iranian Revolutionary Guard Targets in Iraq

US Central Command stated the attack was retaliation for drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities this week, striking multiple "terrorist logistics and weapons sites" in eastern Iraq. Iran previously launched multiple ballistic missiles at US troops stationed in the Middle East, all of which were intercepted. Hot Topic: Reignited geopolitical tensions pushed Brent crude to end a three-day decline; market refocuses on transit risks in the Strait of Hormuz. CENTCOM | AFP

Iran Rejects Oman Proposal to Share Strait of Hormuz

The Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister stated that if Oman rejects Tehran's proposal, Iran will not recognize the southern channel of the strait, the channel will remain closed and prepared to resume war; Iran demands full control of one channel and partial control of another, accepting no other proposals. WSJ

Tether Signs Tokenization Agreement with Nairobi Securities Exchange

Cointelegraph

Bithumb Adds RLUSD and AEON KRW Trading Pairs

Bithumb Announcement

Chips / Hardware

Philadelphia Semiconductor Index Falls Below Key Support at 11,200 Points

All 30 components of the SOX index fell below the 50-day moving average for the first time since April, down 18.9% so far in July, on track for the worst single-month performance since 2008; semiconductor ETF SMH has seen outflows of $1.3 billion this month, approaching the second-largest monthly outflow record in history. Hot Topic: Market worries that the AI boom driving the semiconductor industry is cooling down. Wallstreetcn

> Hot Take: In early June, everyone was cheering above the 50-day line; in less than two months, they collectively fell—this round of chip stocks looks just like a breakup dinner.

Apple Market Cap Breaks $5 Trillion for First Time, Surpassing Nvidia

Apple retakes the throne of the company with the largest market cap globally. Hot Topic: The market cap battle between the two tech giants at the end of the month becomes the market focus. Decrypt

AMD Confirms 4GB VRAM Version of Radeon RX 9050 Only for OEM Channels

ITHome

Tech Companies

Apple Replaces iPhone Upgrade Program with Apple Upgrade

Apple | Hacker News Discussion

Cyera Acquires Oasis Security for $1 Billion

The deal aims to protect the security of surging AI agents. TechCrunch

Huawei HarmonyOS PC Ecosystem App Count Breaks 19,000

Covers core scenarios such as office, entertainment, creation, and gaming; the new HarmonyOS foldable computer MateBook Fold Ultimate Design is first equipped with the Kirin X90 Plus processor. ITHome | ITHome

US Stocks

SK Hynix Q2 Operating Profit Breaks Record but Misses Expectations, Korean Stocks Circuit Breaker for Two Consecutive Days

Q2 operating profit surged 557% year-on-year to $41.6 billion, a historic high, but lower than the market expectation of $44.2 billion; revenue of $54.4 billion also missed the expectation of $57.7 billion. Mainly because its high-end HBM chip proportion is high, it failed to fully benefit from the conventional memory chip price increase cycle. South Korea's KOSPI index fell another 8% on Wednesday, cumulative drop over 30% in July creating the worst single month in history; SK Hynix market cap evaporated about one-fifth in two days. Hot Topic: Investor concerns about whether the AI boom is cooling down intensify. Wallstreetcn

Seagate Q2 Revenue Exceeds Expectations with Nearly 50% Increase, Gross Margin Breaks 50%

Exploding AI storage demand drove strong performance, driving Western Digital up 6.5% and Micron up 0.8% after hours. Wallstreetcn

S&P 500 Rises, Equal-Weight S&P Hits Historic High

Falling oil prices offset the impact of chip stock sell-offs, Dow up 1%, but Nasdaq 100 close to technical correction; chip stocks on track for worst performance this month since 2002. FirstSquawk

Corning Plummets 15% Pre-Market

Q2 revenue and profit both exceeded expectations, but Q3 revenue guidance missed market expectations. Wallstreetcn

Retail Investors Bet Heavily on Tech Stock Call Options, Creating Record

US large-cap tech stock call options account for 55% of retail investors' new positions (20-day average), close to historic high; up 10 percentage points from the market low at the end of March, only lower than the 57% peak during the 2020 pandemic rebound. FirstSquawk Citing Data

Finance / Macro

ADP Data Shows US Private Sector Hiring Slows for Five Consecutive Weeks

As of July 11, average weekly new jobs were only 15,000, less than half the 35,800 weekly average in early May; Visa plans to lay off 7% (about 2,600 people), signals of cooling labor market strengthen. FirstSquawk Comprehensive

US Central Command Says It Intercepted Iranian "Surprise" Ballistic Missile Attack

All missiles were successfully intercepted, US military remains on high alert; oil prices rose 5% after hours due to this, previously fell 4% during the day due to reports of Egypt, Qatar, and Pakistan efforts to restore the original US-Iran memorandum of understanding. CENTCOM

Today's Undercurrent

SK Hynix's record profits instead triggered an epic crash in Korean stocks, retail investors wildly betting on tech stock call options hitting new highs, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index lost all technical support—behind this fragmented picture lies the market's deep anxiety about the sustainability of the AI boom. When Sam Altman starts publicly talking about "compute oversupply", Moonshot closes registration due to surging inference demand, and OpenAI turns around to request government regulation of competitors' open-source models, one signal is clear enough: the AI arms race is quietly shifting from "unlimited expansion" to "limited game". And the oil tanker seizures and missile interceptions in the Strait of Hormuz have buried an unexpected variable in this tech narrative—reignited energy geopolitical risks may rewrite the market script for the next few months.