*J.P. Morgan Asia FTM 18 May 26 Trump-Xi summit; Global Memory: Decomposing LTA contract details, raise SEC/SK hynix/KIOXIA PTs; TSMC: CoWoS updates; D/G Tata Steel to N; and MORE

Research evidence excerpt

*J.P. Morgan Asia FTM 18 May 26 Trump-Xi summit; Global Memory: Decomposing LTA contract details, raise SEC/SK hynix/KIOXIA PTs; TSMC: CoWoS updates; D/G Tata Steel to N; and MORE

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Asia First to Market 18 May 2026

Top Stories

Trump-Xi summit: “Make it work and never mess it up”, China (Feng Zhu)

President Xi stressed stability and sustainability, re-positioning the US-China relationship as a “constructive

relationship of strategic stability”

The White House suggested agreed positions on the Strait of Hormuz, China stressed the importance of the

Taiwan issue

Global Memory Market, South Korea, Japan (Jay Kwon)

Decomposing LTA contract details: Favorable LTA paves the path for a new valuation framework for

memory makers

LTA status quo update. Since early-26, we believe the the impact of LTA on the memory industry has been

one of the fiercest debates: the bull camp arguing a strong earnings visibility that allows memory makers to

escape cyclicality and potentially re-rate vs. the bear camp arguing a weak business model with lack of

enforceability. Throughout the 1Q26 earnings season, we saw LTA deals crystallizing with multiple AI

component makers within our coverage flagging LTA opportunities (i.e. memory and SEMCO), which was

echoed by US tech peers including INTC ( report). Within the memory industry, we have so far witnessed

three LTA cases: 1) MU disclosing a 5-year LTA with limited details (report); 2) NYT’s third-party private