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Asian tech stocks extended their sell-off Monday, as investors sour on global AI-linked plays with the U.S. tech-heavy Nasdaq declining more than 4.5% last week.<\/p>\n
Memory chip behemoths and heavyweights on South Korea’s Kospi Index Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix fell 5% and 2%, respectively. The Kospi plunged as much as 8% as the two companies make up over 40% of the index. <\/p>\n
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co<\/a>, or TSMC, was down 2.1%, while\u00a0Hon Hai Precision, also known as Foxconn, fell 5.1%. <\/p>\n Japanese tech investor Softbank Group<\/a> plunged 7.5%, while\u00a0Tokyo Electron<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Advantest<\/a> were down 6.7% and 5%, respectively.<\/p>\n The share price declines follow a recent rally in Asia tech stocks that was supported by investor optimism on AI demand. Last month, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix each crossed a $1 trillion<\/a> market valuation, while SoftBank recently became<\/a> the most valuable company in Japan. <\/p>\n The sell-off in tech names was triggered after Broadcom<\/a>‘s revenue for\u00a0fiscal second quarter missed<\/a>\u00a0market estimates last week, plunging its shares and causing a cascading impact on the tech sector.<\/p>\n The\u00a0VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH)<\/a>\u00a0lost over 9% Friday; Softbank’s British chip firm\u00a0Arm Holdings<\/a>\u00a0had dropped nearly 13%, while Micron Technology<\/a>\u00a0declined more than 13%.<\/p>\n “The tech-led rout erased approximately $1.8 trillion in S&P 500 market cap,” according to a UOB note on June 8. <\/p>\n UOB, however, said that tech and software companies will remain in focus with “the debut of a space exploration\/AI\/tech company on the Nasdaq on Fri (12 Jun), in what may be the largest IPO ever.”<\/p>\n Broader Asia markets were also lower Monday, as a fresh escalation in Iran war signals that the conflict is far from over.<\/p>\n