South Korea stocks fall over 5% as tech heavyweights follow plunge in Wall Street's AI-linked names
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- Kospi closed 5.54% lower at 8,160.59, the steepest drop among major Asian indices.
- Samsung Electronics fell 6.40%, and fellow chipmaker SK Hynix slid 9.92%, deepening the market slump.
- South Korea's labor minister urged the country’s biggest tech firms to share more AI‑driven semiconductor profits with workers and suppliers, warning that record gains could widen income inequality.
- Broadcom dropped more than 12% after its fiscal second‑quarter revenue missed estimates, sparking a rotation out of AI‑linked chip stocks across global markets.
- Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.73% to a record 51,561.93, while the Nasdaq slipped 0.09%, reflecting a divergent U.S. market response to the chip sell‑off.
Why it matters: Investors in South Korean tech stocks face steep losses, with the Kospi down 5.5% and chip makers shedding up to 10%, while the labor minister’s profit‑sharing push could tighten margins for semiconductor giants and boost wages for workers.
