Japan's Nikkei 225 was up 1.33% at the midday close on Thursday after Meta
unveiled a small handheld device, Meta Charm, designed to run its new Muse AI
assistant, boosting demand expectations for computing components and lifting
CPU-related names. TOPIX rose 0.12%. Socionext, Meiko Electronic and Ushio each
jumped more than 10%; chip tester Advantest gained 4% and SoftBank Group added
0.52%. Analysts said chip-related stocks have recently shown resilience to
rising yields.