#KOSPI指数日内暴跌9% South Korea’s stock market plunges by more than 9%, panic over AI spending spreads across Asia

The South Korean KOSPI index plunged by more than 9%, with a staggering drop.
The direct trigger is that concerns about AI spending are spreading worldwide—US tech stocks had already retreated sharply earlier due to issues with capital efficiency, and Asian markets then made up the shortfall after the market open.
South Korea’s stock market structure is highly dependent on the semiconductor sector: Samsung Electronics and SK hynix carry extremely high weights in the KOSPI. The market is uneasy about the scale expansion of investments in AI infrastructure—news that Nvidia’s $250 billion guarantee for OpenAI data centers is beneficial for Nvidia, but for other chip companies it means Nvidia’s dominance will be further entrenched, leaving competitors under greater pressure.
There is a paradox here: growth in AI demand is broadly positive for the chip industry, but if that growth is mainly monopolized by Nvidia, other chip companies would instead be harmed as their market share is squeezed. Although SK hynix is working closely with Nvidia on HBM4, the market is more concerned that Nvidia will further expand ecosystem barriers by locking in major customers such as OpenAI, compressing the space available to other suppliers.
The plunge in South Korea’s stock market could also trigger a flight-to-safety sentiment among emerging markets—investors may pull out of Asian markets, returning to the US for safe-haven assets, which would further weaken the won and keep foreign capital flowing out.
If the KOSPI cannot stop falling and stabilize today, it may weigh on risk appetite across the entire Asian market. In terms of execution, the selloff in the South Korean stock market reflects that the market’s repricing of the AI sector is still ongoing, and in the short term, related chip stocks may continue to face pressure. It is recommended to wait until sentiment has fully cooled before considering positioning, and not rush to buy the dip during the selloff. $SKHY ‌