The rush to invest in AI has been pushing share prices in South Korea and Taiwan to records this year

Asian shares were mostly higher on Wednesday, while oil prices dropped.

Kospi climbed nearly 5 per cent and Taiwan’s benchmark also surged as the boom in artificial intelligence drove heavy buying of computer chipmakers and other technology companies.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 also was lifted by gains for tech-related shares, jumping 1.3 per cent to 65,816.62. It topped 66,000 for the first time in intraday trading.

Computer chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron’s shares climbed 5.9 per cent and testing equipment maker Advantest added 5.7 per cent.

The latest rally in tech shares comes amid a 19.3 per cent advance for Micron Technology, which was the strongest force lifting the S&P 500 after analysts at UBS led by Timothy Arcuri raised their 12-month price target for the stock to $1,625 from $535. Micron closed at $895.88.

The analysts are forecasting continued strength in demand for computer memory. Micron’s stock has more than tripled so far this year and it has become the latest technology company to top an overall value of $1 trillion, joining Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft, which have each surpassed $3 trillion.

The rush to invest in AI has been pushing share prices in South Korea and Taiwan to records this year.

The Kospi in Seoul added 4.9 per cent to 8,457.09, an all-time high, as Samsung Electronics’ shares soared 7 per cent.

In Taiwan, the Taiex surged 2.7 per cent.

Elsewhere in Asia, Hang Seng shed 0.7 per cent to 25,426.92 and the Shanghai Composite index dropped 0.2 per cent to 4,136.87.

S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.1 per cent to 8,662.10.