Chip manufacturers face a new wave of sell-offs, South Korean stock market plunges 8%

Golden Ten Data reported on June 26 that the South Korean stock market saw a sharp decline as chip stocks were once again sold off, highlighting their high sensitivity to fluctuations in global artificial intelligence investment sentiment. The KOSPI index dropped by more than 8% during intraday trading on Friday, wiping out all of the previous session’s gains and triggering the market circuit breaker mechanism. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix both saw their share prices fall by about 9%. Foreign investors sold 2.5 trillion won (approximately $1.6 billion) worth of KOSPI stocks during the morning session. This steep drop marks a rapid reversal from Thursday’s surge, which had been driven by Micron Technology releasing an optimistic earnings outlook and news that SK Hynix planned to list in the US, temporarily boosting optimism regarding the sustainability of the AI investment boom. However, as investors digested reports that Apple had raised prices due to a memory chip shortage, and that OpenAI may postpone its listing to next year, market sentiment quickly deteriorated. Fabien Yip, a market analyst at IG International, stated: “If Apple, as one of the world’s largest component buyers, cannot even absorb rising costs, this indeed triggers questions about demand elasticity and the sustainability of memory chip profit margins.” He added that the postponed OpenAI IPO also reflects how tech stocks are vulnerable to swings in retail investment enthusiasm.