Asia’s chipmakers led a tech selloff that roiled global markets on Monday, adding to concerns about the sustainability of the AI investment boom.
“It’s global risk off,” a BNP Paribas analyst said. Samsung fell 10%, and SK Hynix sank 15% in Seoul — a record drop that helped trigger a market-wide trading halt.
The selloff coincided with chipmaker TSMC reporting a 36% jump in quarterly sales, signaling that global demand for AI computing remains robust.
Chipmakers now comprise large shares of both US and Asian indexes, and that concentration ends “one of two ways,” a markets analyst argued: “Either demand comes down and prices collapse, or supply comes in and prices collapse.”
