The global retreat from artificial intelligence stocks widened on Monday, dragging down semiconductor shares across Asia and rippling through markets that had ridden the AI boom hardest.
South Korea took the worst of it. According to EconoTimes, the benchmark KOSPI tumbled nearly 5%, with Samsung and SK Hynix leading the decline. That drop extended what the outlet described as the index's worst monthly fall since the 2008 global financial crisis. There are already signs some investors see a floor: BeInCrypto reported that Morgan Stanley upgraded South Korean stocks following a roughly 30% KOSPI crash.
China followed the same script, with a twist. A Bing News-indexed market report said Chinese equities fell on Monday as the AI selloff weighed on semiconductor shares — but Hong Kong's technology sector outperformed after Alibaba unveiled its latest AI model, a reminder that company-specific news can still cut against the tide.
In the United States, coverage syndicated to outlets including FOX 44 and WSB-TV described the sell-off for "AI stars" worsening while oil prices jumped. The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported that Wall Street's rotation out of AI stocks and into other sectors was accelerating, with oil prices easing. The Hartford Courant later reported Wall Street holding steadier as AI stocks recovered some of the previous week's sharp losses — a sign of volatility rather than a one-way slide.
The turbulence extends beyond public markets. ETEnterpriseai.com reported that Ken Griffin stepped in as a rescue buyer after an AI hedge fund rout.
Why it matters: chipmakers like Samsung and SK Hynix are the physical backbone of the AI build-out, so when investors lose conviction in AI, the pain lands first on the companies making the hardware — and on national indexes, retirement accounts, and economies that have staked their growth on that single trade.