Shares in South Korea’s semiconductor sector fall sharply, extending a recent selloff as investors react to heightened uncertainty around artificial intelligence-related spending and intensifying competition from China.
Financial Times and Bloomberg report that remarks attributed to Broadcom’s chief executive—described as suggesting AI spending may be excessive or on a “casino”-like footing—help drive the declines. Bloomberg adds that the selloff coincides with renewed worries that the AI trade has already run ahead of fundamentals.
Separately, Investing.com highlights concerns tied to China’s ability to compete, framing the drop as partly driven by fears that Chinese rivals will pressure margins and demand. Across outlets, the common theme is a broader reassessment of the pace and scale of AI investment alongside concerns about competitive pressure, which leads to steep declines for major Korean memory and chip-related names including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix in Seoul trading.
