Foreign and institutional investors stepped up purchases of chip stocks Monday, helping lift the KOSPI near 7,000 as renewed optimism over artificial intelligence (AI)-driven memory demand fueled a semiconductor rally. The benchmark KOSPI closed at 6995.39, up 4.61 percent from the previous session. The index opened 3.34 percent higher and extended its gains. Foreign and institutional investors net purchased 2.59 trillion won ($1.93 billion) and 2.63 trillion won worth of shares, respectively, while retail investors net sold 6.82 trillion won. SK hynix rose 8.26 percent to close at 1,783,000 won, while Samsung Electronics gained 5.68 percent to finish at 270,000 won. OpenAI's new GPT-6 Astra model, which has drawn positive reviews for its performance, fueled expectations for increased token usage and further expansion of AI infrastructure. Nvidia's announcement that it would acquire Hugging Face also reinforced expectations for stronger memory demand. Brokerages are increasingly calling for a revaluation of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix after their shares fell about 38 percent from the