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By Nichiket Sunil

April 27 (Reuters) - Equities in South Korea and Taiwan hit record highs on Monday and were headed for their best month in more than three decades as renewed excitement about artificial intelligence eclipsed worries over the Middle East conflict.

Equity investors looked beyond stalled U.S.-Iran peace talks and the inflationary risks from a prolonged disruption of energy exports to an AI trend that is seen as unstoppable.

Chip stocks' demand was bolstered after Intel INTC.O forecast second-quarter revenue above Wall Street expectations last week, setting off the latest bout of enthusiasm for AI-related stocks.

Shares in Taipei .TWII soared as much as 3.2% to a record high. The benchmark, which houses TSMC 2330.TW, one of Asia's two listed companies with a trillion-dollar valuation, has advanced a whopping 26% in April, on track for its best since late 1993.

South Korea's KOSPI .KS11 clinched an all-time high of 6,630.35 points on the day. Chipmaker SK Hynix 000660.KS rose 6.4%, and rival Samsung Electronics 005930.KS touched a fresh all-time high.

The KOSPI index is also set for bumper gains in April, having soared about 31% so far this month, on track to be its best since January 1998.

The two tech-heavy equity benchmarks have sharply outperformed their emerging-market peers by a long shot and have also driven the MSCI EM Asia gauge .MIMS00000PUS to a record-high.

The MSCI EM Asia gauge is set to end April 20% higher - its best month since February 1998. It has gained more than 18% so far this year, slightly ahead of the 14% gain in the broader MSCI Asia-Pacific gauge .MIAP00000PUS.

"The good news for Asia is that the AI build-out globally remains very strong and if anything, seems to be accelerating, with Intel reporting better-than-expected results," MUFG analyst Michael Wan said.

Meanwhile, an Axios report said Iran wants to make a deal to open the Strait of Hormuz first and postpone nuclear talks until later, helping the risk appetite slightly.

In Southeast Asia, Thailand's benchmark .SETI rose 1.2% and was set for its best session since April 10.

The country's central bank will hold its policy meeting later this week and is expected to keep its interest rates unchanged after a shock 25-basis-point cut at its last meeting in February.

Stocks in Malaysia .KLSE rose to a one-month high, while Indonesian stocks .JKSE added 0.4%.

Most Asian currencies were stronger: the Malaysian ringgit MYR= rose 0.3%, while the Singapore dollar SGD= rose 0.1%.

The Indonesian rupiah =IDR, meanwhile, weakened to 17,225 per dollar.

The Philippine peso PHP= rose slightly but continued to trade near its four-week lows of 60.76 a dollar.

HIGHLIGHTS:
** Taiwan court hands out jail terms of up to 10 years in TSMC trade secrets case
** China's industrial profit growth quickens even as Iran war heightens risks
** Indonesia reaffirms it has no plan to impose tolls in Malacca Strait

Asia stock indexes and currencies at 0443 GMT
COUNTRY	FX RIC	FX DAILY %	FX YTD %	INDEX	STOCKS DAILY %	STOCKS YTD %
Japan	JPY=	+0.12	-1.59	.N225	1.93	17.44
China	CNY=CFXS	+0.04	+2.34	.SSEC	0.15	2.95
India	INR=IN	+0.10	-4.55	.NSEI	0.85	-7.77
Indonesia	IDR=	-0.17	-3.19	.JKSE	0.75	-16.93
Malaysia	MYR=	+0.30	+2.68	.KLSE	0.32	2.72
Philippines	PHP=	+0.06	-3.05	.PSI	-0.48	-2.28
S.Korea	KRW=KFTC	+0.37	-2.17	.KS11	2.80	57.97
Singapore	SGD=	+0.14	+0.90	.STI	-0.37	5.56
Taiwan	TWD=TP	+0.34	+0.09	.TWII	2.66	38.00
Thailand	THB=TH	+0.08	-2.62	.SETI	1.64	17.49