The AI sector of U.S. stocks suffered a sell-off, Asian chip stocks weakened simultaneously, and Soft Bank fell more than 9%
A new round of plunge in U.S. semiconductor stocks was transmitted to the Asian market, and Asian AI concept stocks fell sharply across the board on Friday. The U.S. technology sector closed down again the previous trading day, dragging down Asia-Pacific market sentiment. South Korea's stock market was closed for a public holiday. Asian technology stocks collectively fell sharply on Friday, dragged down by a new round of slumps in U.S. semiconductor stocks, as market concerns about artificial intelligence-related capital expenditures continued to heat up. The sharp decline in U.S. stocks overnight was transmitted to the Japanese market: The group closed down 9%; semiconductor equipment leader Tokyo Electronics fell more than 8%; Advantest fell 7.2%. Japanese memory chip maker Kioxia fell more than 16%. A federal jury in Texas ruled on Thursday that Kioxia had infringed on Viasat's computer storage-related patents and had to pay $229 million in damages. The South Korean stock market was closed that day due to a public holiday; on the previous trading day, SK Hynix's stock price closed down more than 11%. It fell 7.29% on Friday, a day after the company reported a huge jump in profit and beat market expectations. Chinese technology stocks also weakened. Hong Kong stock Tencent's decline widened to 4.8% in the last hour; Meituan fell 4.6%, and Kuaishou fell more than 7%; fell 3.7% and 3.9% respectively. This round of decline stemmed from another weakening of U.S. technology stocks on the previous trading day: The composite index fell 1.47%, with the semiconductor sector again under pressure. Van Eyck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) fell nearly 4%; Arm Holdings fell more than 5%; , Chaowei and Broadcom all fell more than 5%; SK Hynix plunged more than 13% in the US stock market. TSMC raised its full-year capital expenditure forecast to US$60-64 billion from the previous US$52-56 billion, but investors' attention has turned to industry concerns: the investment cycle of the semiconductor industry's aggressive expansion of production, and the rationality of its returns is constantly being questioned. Andrew Jackson, a strategist at Optus Consulting, said: "Yesterday, TSMC's Asian earnings report was not strong enough to support the sector's continued upward trend. Instead, it triggered market concerns about over-investment in the industry. Popular U.S. stocks such as AI and technology were sold off again, and the losses of early leading stocks further expanded." Jackson said the sell-off was more a flight from the crowded AI trend trade than a deterioration in the industry's long-term fundamentals. Global AI-related stocks have risen sharply for several consecutive months, and now they are experiencing a sharp correction; as investment in AI infrastructure continues to increase, investors are increasingly questioning whether the current high valuations can be sustained.