Asian semiconductor shares extended their slide on Tuesday, with SK Hynix closing 14.65% lower in Seoul and Samsung Electronics down more than 13%. South Korea’s Kospi halted trading before finishing 10.8% lower, and the selling carried through Japan and China into European chipmakers. Analysts tied the moves to uncertainty over the AI investment cycle and reports of China’s advances in memory chips and lithography equipment.
SK Hynix plunged 14.65% at the close in Seoul on Tuesday, deepening a rout in semiconductor shares that followed another weak session on Wall Street. Samsung Electronics fell more than 13% alongside it.
Other AI-linked Korean names sold off with them: Samsung SDI dropped 11.37%, LG Innotek fell 16.29% and Seoul Semiconductor lost 8.78%. The wider market moved with them: trading on the Kospi was paused temporarily on Tuesday morning after sliding by 8%, and the index fell further once the 20-minute halt was lifted, closing 10.8% lower.
Japan, Taiwan and China chip names follow Seoul lower
Japan’s chip stocks declined too. Tokyo Electron dropped 10.96% at the close and Advantest slid over 10%. Memory manufacturer Kioxia plunged more than 18%.
SoftBank Group, a major AI investment proxy through its stake in Arm, fell 4.43%. The tech-dominated Nikkei 225 closed almost 4% lower.
Elsewhere in Asia, TSMC closed almost 3% lower in Taiwan. Mainland China’s ChiNext 300 index was down 6.49%, while the Hang Seng China Semiconductor Chips Index fell 7.02%.
Selling reaches European chipmakers
Then the selling followed through to Europe in early trade. ASML shares were slightly lower after The Information reported that a Chinese company is manufacturing an immersion deep ultraviolet lithography machine, an area ASML dominates. The stock had fallen more than 8% on Monday. ASM International and BE Semiconductor fell between 2% to 3% in early trading.
Wall Street set the tone on Monday
The Asian rout followed another weak session for U.S. semiconductor stocks on Monday. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF lost more than 2%, adding to its Friday losses. AMD and Teradyne dropped 5% and 4% respectively.
Nvidia also fell by 5% in New York on Monday, losing its position as the world’s most valuable listed company to Apple.
Analysts point to AI uncertainty
Sharp swings in SK Hynix shares underscore the uncertainty surrounding the AI investment cycle, said Acadian Asset Management senior vice president Owen Lamont, who argued that investors still have little visibility into how the technology will affect the economy. He told CNBC: “Right now we’re facing an incredible uncertainty,”. Lamont also said leveraged exchange-traded products could be adding to market swings, even if they are not solely responsible for SK Hynix’s recent volatility.
Standard Chartered’s chief investment officer for equities, Sundeep Gantori, also tied the sell-off to a broader deterioration in sentiment toward semiconductor stocks after recent media reports highlighted China’s ambitions in memory chips and lithography equipment. He pointed to broker reports around a memory price peak in 2027 as another reason behind the weakness in Korea. Gantori said the long-term outlook remains intact, and that at current valuations risk-reward has improved.
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