Affected by the weakening of Asian and European stock markets, the semiconductor sector of U.S. stocks fell collectively before the market opened on Tuesday. Nvidia fell about 1.2% before the market opened, Intel and AMD both fell more than 3%; memory chip maker Micron Technology fell nearly 5%. This round of decline in U.S. stocks originated from large-scale selling in Asian markets.
Corporate logo of SK hynix office area in Seongnam, South Korea, June 30, 2026. The South Korean government supports companies such as Samsung and SK Hynix to invest a total of at least 1,350 trillion won (equivalent to US$880 billion) in chips and data centers in the future to consolidate industrial advantages in the AI era.
The Korean stock market closed: SK Hynix plummeted 14.65%, Samsung Electronics fell more than 13%; a number of AI industry chain stocks suffered simultaneous sell-offs: Samsung SDI fell 11.37%, LG Innotek fell 16.29%, Seoul Semiconductor fell 8.78%, and LG Chem closed down 7.5%.
The Japanese chip sector also fell: Tokyo Electronics closed down 10.96%, Advantest fell more than 10%; SoftBank's stock price fell 4.43% as its heavy position in ARM became an important benchmark for the AI track; Japanese storage company Kioxia fell more than 18%.
Taiwan's TSMC closed down nearly 3%; Mainland China's ChiNext Index fell 6.49%; the Hang Seng China Semiconductor Index fell 7.02%.
European markets weaken simultaneously
The decline spread to Europe, where mainstream chip stocks fell in early trading. Previously, "The Information" reported that Chinese companies have achieved mass production of immersion deep ultraviolet lithography machines, and this equipment field has been monopolized by ASML for a long time. ASML has fallen by more than 8% on Monday, and its stock price continued to decline on Tuesday.
Other chip equipment companies such as ASM International and BE Semiconductor fell between 2% and 3% in early trading.
Meiya chip market is highly bound
The trigger for this round of slumps was the overall weakening of the U.S. semiconductor sector on Monday. Van Eyck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) fell more than 2% in a single day, continuing last Friday's decline; AMD and Teradyne fell 5% and 4% respectively, and Micron Technology fell by about 2%.
This round of general decline intuitively reflects the deep connection between Asian technology stocks and the US AI industry chain. Samsung and SK Hynix are core suppliers of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for global AI servers, and their stock prices are extremely sensitive to the capital expenditure expectations of the U.S. cloud giant.
Owen Lamont, senior vice president of Arcadia Asset Management, said that the sharp fluctuations in SK Hynix's stock price reflect the market's uncertainty about the outlook for the AI industry cycle, making it difficult for investors to see clearly the true impact of artificial intelligence on the macroeconomy.
He said in the interview: "The current market uncertainty is extremely high. No one can predict how AI will affect the overall economy. Market fluctuations are inevitable." Lamont added that leveraged ETFs will amplify market fluctuations, but they are not the only cause of SK Hynix's recent dramatic rise and fall. "On the whole, leveraged ETFs in South Korea, Hong Kong, and the United States are prone to exacerbating market fluctuations and amplifying the range of rises and falls."
Sandeep Gantori, chief investment officer of Standard Chartered Bank's equities, analyzed that many media have recently reported that China is accelerating breakthroughs in the fields of memory chips and lithography equipment, and the overall market sentiment towards the semiconductor sector has turned cold, which has triggered this round of selling.
He believes that the long-term logic of the industry has not changed: "The track space is broad enough for multiple companies to coexist and win-win. Continued investment in AI still supports the growth of leading technology companies."
Gantoli interpreted another reason for South Korea’s current decline: multiple brokerage reports predict that memory chip prices will peak in 2027, and Standard Chartered’s view is similar. The bank also expects storage prices to peak next year, but he said: "The core of investment is the risk-return ratio. Judging from the current stock price valuation, the risk-return performance-price ratio has improved."