Asian Chip Stocks Drop As SK Hynix Earnings Disappoint

Jul 29, 2026 07:23 PM - 2 hours ago 2

Topline

South Korean stocks faced a 2nd consecutive time of losses Wednesday, led by SK Hynix, arsenic the representation chipmaker’s grounds AI-fueled net fell short of the market’s precocious expectations and were further dampened by concerns astir chipmaking advancements successful China.

SK Hynix shares slumped astir 10% aft an net miss.

Key Facts

South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI scale fell astir 13% connected Wednesday—triggering a halt successful trading—before closing 6% down.

The KOSPI scale has fallen by much than 15% successful the past 2 days amid concerns astir the AI-fueled rally, which has boosted Korea’s apical chipmaking stocks.

SK Hynix reported a adjacent sixfold summation successful operating profit to a grounds KRW 60.5 trillion ($42 billion) successful the 3 months ending successful June, but this fell short of marketplace forecasts of astir KRW 64 trillion ($44 billion).

This triggered a 2nd consecutive time of selloff successful SK Hynix shares, which tumbled astir 19% earlier ending the time astatine KRW 1.4 cardinal ($964)—down much than 9.6% from Tuesday’s close.

SK Hynix’s representation chipmaking rival Samsung Electronics’ shares besides took a tumble connected Thursday—falling 5.2%.

The sell-off deed different awesome chipmakers successful Asia, including Japanese representation chipmaker Kioxia—whose banal fell 13.85% connected Wednesday—and Taiwanese semiconductor elephantine MediaTek, which fell astir 5%

News Peg

Aside from SK Hynix’s net miss, the selloff comes amid concerns astir advancements reported by Chinese chipmaking and AI companies. Memory chipmaker CXMT, which made its marketplace debut earlier this week, saw its banal value soar an further 12.6% connected Wednesday, pursuing a 466% summation connected Monday aft going public. Along pinch American semiconductor elephantine Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix power astir 90% of the world RAM spot market, which is successful precocious request owed to the ongoing build-out of AI infrastructure. CXMT, reportedly being courted by Apple arsenic an replacement RAM supplier, is seen arsenic a awesome emerging threat to the trio. China has besides reportedly made major strides successful precocious chip-making machines, which could frighten Dutch semiconductor elephantine ASML and Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC. ASML’s shares person fallen much than 11% successful the past week, while TSMC’s banal has dropped much than 6.5%.

What To Watch For

Despite the selloff successful Asia, U.S. banal futures remained mostly flat. Memory chipmaker Micron’s banal remained somewhat beneath the closing value of $820 aft plunging much than 8.8% connected Tuesday. Chipmakers AMD, Intel and Qualcomm inched up somewhat successful early trading connected Wednesday aft declines of 8.1%, 5.8% and 4.2%, respectively, connected Tuesday. Shares of AI chipmaking elephantine Nvidia—which ceded the title of the world’s astir valuable institution to Apple earlier this week—were besides level connected Wednesday.