A weeks-long selloff in chipmakers from Seoul to Silicon Valley has investors rethinking the payoff from the AI boom. Korean leaders SK Hynix and Samsung have shed as much as 46% and 35% in a month after meteoric gains, while U.S. tech heavyweights briefly stumbled as they vowed to pour billions more into AI despite meager near-term returns. The Nasdaq has slipped about 9% from June’s high as skepticism grows that runaway spending on data centers and cutting-edge chips will generate commensurate cash flows. A reported Chinese manufacturing advance threatens to reshape supply chains, while mounting political and environmental pushback against data centers complicates growth plans. Even so, some see a needed cooldown rather than a bust, with investors poised to scrutinize Big Tech earnings and AI capex payback with post-euphoria discipline.
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