SK Hynix Plunges 10% as Asia Tech Rout Deepens on Fed Fears — SkimNews
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- SK Hynix plunged more than 10% in Seoul as Asian chipmakers tracked Wall Street's Wednesday losses, with Samsung Electronics falling 7.1% alongside it
- SoftBank Group dropped 7.9%, while Tokyo Electron, Renesas Electronics, and Advantest each lost between 5.4% and 6.9% in the Japanese leg of the rout
- Broader Korean chip-related losses piled up, including LG Innotek down 8.1%, Seoul Semiconductor off 7.7%, and Samsung SDI declining 6.8%
- The Asian sell-off followed Wednesday's Wall Street decline, where the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.88% to 26,692.87 and the S&P 500 shed 1.11% to 7,718.94 after hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation data stoked Fed rate hike fears
- Broadcom CEO Hock Tan warned Monday that financing could become a bigger obstacle to AI expansion than chip or electricity shortages, with Intel's chief echoing similar concerns about capital access
- Dan Ives of Yorkville Ives called the pullback a buying opportunity, arguing AI infrastructure demand remains robust and that only a demand signal — like falling GPU rental prices or canceled hyperscaler contracts — would change his bullish outlook
Why it matters: South Korea and Japan — the backbone of global chip supply — sold off sharply as investors priced in the real cost of financing AI's infrastructure buildout. Broadcom's Hock Tan flagged financing as a potentially larger constraint than chip or electricity shortages, shifting the AI debate from demand strength to balance sheet pressure.
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