Tech stocks slide as Wall Street chip rout spreads. SK Hynix, SoftBank and ASML slump — SkimNews
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- SK Hynix plunged more than 10% and Samsung Electronics shed 7.4%, with both South Korean chipmakers hitting their lowest levels since August amid the global AI-driven sell-off.
- ASML dropped 3.3% in early European trade, while STMicroelectronics and Infineon each fell 5% and BE Semiconductor and ASM International slipped roughly 4%.
- SoftBank Group sank 8.5% in Japan, dragging Tokyo Electron down 7.2%, Renesas Electronics 5.9% and Disco 4.7% as Japanese semiconductor and electronics shares retreated broadly.
- Micron Technology slid 3.9% on Monday after China's ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) announced weekend progress on a new chip architecture designed to pack more data into a smaller space; CXMT shares were down over 2%.
- UBP's Vey-Sern Ling said investors are "looking for excuses to take profit" on AI-related stocks that have outperformed this year, arguing CXMT still faces short-term technology hurdles in advanced memory like HBM.
- Rayliant Global Advisors' Phillip Wool said the sell-off reads as a sign of "how vulnerable AI sentiment is," calling the market reaction disproportionate given CXMT has yet to demonstrate large-scale production and lags Samsung and SK Hynix in market share.
- Intel and Broadcom CEOs warned that access to capital could emerge as a major headwind to the AI boom, even as demand for computing infrastructure continues to outstrip supply, with investors now eyeing a heavy week of earnings and U.S. inflation data.
Why it matters: A single Chinese technical milestone erased double-digit percentages from SK Hynix and triggered heavy selling across European and Japanese chip stocks — exposing how fragile AI-driven valuations have become. Analysts note Korean memory makers still dominate HBM with negligible Chinese competition, meaning the rout reflects jittery sentiment rather than a fundamental competitive shift, leaving chip stocks hostage to every incremental headline until this week's earnings and inflation prints.
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