South Korea's Kospi slumps as SoftBank rout drags Asia down
South Korea's Kospi slumps as SoftBank rout drags Asia down
Huileng TanFri, June 26, 2026 at 4:09 AM UTC
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Wild swings in South Korea's Kospi and Japan's Nikkei underscore investor jitters over AI valuations and semiconductor demand.Bloomberg/Getty Images -
Asian tech stocks sank on Friday as South Korea's Kospi and Japan's Nikkei slumped after a brief rebound.
Softbank crashed 14%, Samsung Electronics, and SK Hynix plunged 9%.
Apple's chip-driven price hikes are fueling fresh doubts over the AI boom and memory chip profits.
A tech rout swept through Asian markets on Friday, with South Korea's Kospi and Japan's Nikkei 225 leading losses, renewing concerns over the durability of the AI-driven chip rally.
South Korea's Kospi index was over 8% lower at 12.45 p.m. local time, with chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix both down around 9%.
Japan's Nikkei 225 was around 5% lower as SoftBank Group slumped 14% after The New York Times reported that OpenAI, one of the Japanese conglomerate's biggest AI investments, could delay its initial public offering until next year.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost over 2%. Alibaba extended its recent sharp losses, tanking another 5% after Anthropic accused the Chinese tech giant of exploiting its advanced AI models.
The sell-off came as investors reassessed the outlook for memory chip demand after Apple raised prices across its Mac and iPad lineup, citing an unprecedented shortage of memory chips driven by AI data center demand.
"The fact that Apple — one of the most powerful buyers in the industry — cannot absorb the cost surge and must pass it on to consumers raises serious questions about demand elasticity and the durability of memory chip margins," wrote Fabien Yip, a market analyst at IG, in a Friday note.
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She added that any slowdown in consumer demand would cast doubt on whether current memory chip margins are sustainable, potentially weakening one of the key pillars of the AI investment story.
The retreat came after a relief rally on Thursday, when stronger-than-expected earnings from Micron Technology briefly lifted sentiment around AI-related demand.
South Korea has been among the world's top-performing equity markets this year, driven by a rally in semiconductor and AI-related stocks. That strong run has also left it vulnerable to sharp reversals.
Japan's stock market, too, has been on a roll this year thanks to the AI boom.
Friday's losses are capping a volatile week in the markets. South Korea's Kospi plunged about 10% earlier this week before rebounding over the following two sessions. Japan's Nikkei also swung sharply as investors rushed in and out of semiconductor stocks.
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Source: “AOL Money”
