Coverage spread: 2 sources — 1 left · 1 center
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What happened
A sharp, worldwide selloff in semiconductor and memory-chip stocks intensified on Tuesday, driving the Nasdaq-100 index briefly into correction territory — a decline of at least 10% from its most recent record high — before it closed down 1% for the day. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fared worse, sinking into bear-market territory with a drop of 20% or more from its peak. The rout began overnight in Asia and rolled through Europe before hitting U.S. markets.
In South Korea, SK Hynix closed down roughly 14.65% and Samsung Electronics fell more than 13% (NBC News put both companies’ declines at “more than 15%”). Other Korean AI-linked names were hit hard too: Samsung SDI dropped 11.37%, LG Innotek fell 16.29%, Seoul Semiconductor lost 8.78%, and LG Chem slid 7.5%. Japan’s Kioxia, a computer storage maker, plunged more than 18%, while Tokyo Electron fell nearly 11%, Advantest slid over 10%, and SoftBank Group — a major AI-investment proxy through its stake in Arm — dropped 4.43%. Taiwan’s TSMC lost almost 3%, and mainland China’s ChiNext 300 index fell 6.49% while the Hang Seng China Semiconductor Chips Index dropped 7.02%. South Korea’s broader Kospi index has now fallen more than 30% from its recent record over just 25 trading days, according to Bespoke Investment Group, a stunning reversal after the index had rallied roughly 300% between April and late June 2025.
In the United States, Sandisk ended the day down 14%, while AMD, Arm Holdings, Micron and Seagate all fell more than 8%; CNBC specifically cited AMD’s loss at 8% and Micron and Seagate above 8% as well, with Western Digital down nearly 7%. Dell Technologies, a major buyer of chips and memory for data-center servers, fell 8.1%, and Intel dropped between 5.8% and nearly 6%. Nvidia dipped at the opening bell but recovered to close roughly flat. In Europe, ASML — which dominates deep ultraviolet lithography equipment — fell more than 8% on Monday and continued lower Tuesday, alongside declines of 2-3% for ASM International and BE Semiconductor. Canon and Nikon shares, also chipmaking-equipment producers, fell as well.
What triggered it
Both outlets tie the acute selloff to a report — first surfaced by The Information, per CNBC — that a Chinese, state-backed firm has begun mass-producing domestic chipmaking tools, including an immersion deep ultraviolet lithography machine in an area ASML has long dominated. NBC News notes the report did not name the company involved and that NBC News itself could not independently verify the claim, even as markets reacted as though the threat were credible, hammering shares of ASML, Canon and Nikon.
How the coverage compares
NBC News frames the selloff as the latest episode in “monthslong jitters” over AI, memory and chip valuations, and places heavy emphasis on the Kospi’s historic volatility, quoting Bespoke Investment Group’s characterization of the index’s rise and fall as one of the most parabolic rallies and among the fastest bear-market drops on record. NBC also foregrounds the coming earnings reports from Meta, Amazon and Microsoft as a pivotal near-term test, referencing Alphabet’s prior 7% stock drop after it raised planned capital spending to as much as $205 billion, and citing Evercore analyst Mark Mahaney’s view that Alphabet’s spending increase raises the odds of similar hikes from Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure — while also noting Mahaney’s observation that underlying cloud demand still appears strong.
CNBC’s account is more granular on the mechanics of the global selloff, providing a fuller list of specific percentage moves across Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese and Chinese names, and gives more attention to the ASML lithography report as the proximate spark. CNBC also brings in a market-structure explanation absent from NBC’s piece: Acadian Asset Management’s Owen Lamont argues that fundamental uncertainty about how AI will ultimately affect the economy makes volatility inevitable, and separately suggests that leveraged exchange-traded products in Korea, Hong Kong and the U.S. may be amplifying price swings, including in SK Hynix, even if they aren’t the sole cause.
Why it matters
The two outlets agree the selloff reflects deepening unease about whether the enormous capital spending by U.S. hyperscalers and chipmakers on AI infrastructure is sustainable, and both note how tightly intertwined Asian chip and memory makers — chiefly Samsung and SK Hynix, key suppliers of high-bandwidth memory for AI servers — have become with the U.S. AI trade. With Meta, Amazon and Microsoft’s earnings due later in the week, investors are watching closely for signals on capital-expenditure plans that could either calm or further rattle a market already grappling with a rapid reversal of one of the most dramatic rallies in a major global stock index in recent memory.
Sources
Featured photo by Vishnu Mohanan on Unsplash