Chip shares slumped across Asia and the U.S. as investors reassessed the payoff from the industry’s breakneck AI spending. South Korea’s Kospi triggered a 20-minute circuit breaker after an 8% slide and finished down 10.8%, led by double-digit drops in Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed nearly 4% lower. The rout followed a 5% fall in Nvidia, which ceded the world’s most valuable-company title to Apple amid concerns about ballooning data-center outlays, including reported talks to back a large OpenAI infrastructure project. Fund managers said Korea’s tech-heavy, retail-driven market amplified the pullback, while others pointed to rising competitive pressure from China. In Shanghai, CXMT surged almost 470% on debut, underscoring investor appetite for domestic chip champions even as global AI jitters spread. Major European indexes edged higher, reflecting their lighter AI exposure.
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Technology news and analysis on AI, chips, and data centers (CNBC topic page)
