Samsung Electronics (SSNLF) posted its worst single-day performance in three weeks, falling more than 13% in Seoul trading amid a broad unwinding of leveraged AI-related investments.
The steep decline was part of a wider rout across Asian memory and semiconductor stocks, dragging down nearly every major name in the sector.
SK Hynix (HXSCL), South Korea’s second-largest memory chipmaker, closed 14.65% lower despite having recently reported record earnings that nonetheless fell short of investor expectations.
Together, Samsung and SK Hynix represent more than half of the KOSPI’s total market value, amplifying the index-level damage caused by their simultaneous declines.
The immediate catalyst originated in the United States, where SanDisk guided fiscal Q1 2027 revenue to a midpoint near $10.55 billion, well below the roughly $10.8 billion analysts had expected.
That guidance miss triggered a sharp selloff in Western Digital and its peers overnight, and the pressure transferred directly into Asian memory names when markets opened.
The damage extended well beyond Samsung and SK Hynix, with Samsung SDI dropping 11.37%, LG Innotek falling 16.29%, Seoul Semiconductor declining 8.78%, and LG Chem losing 7.5%.
Japanese semiconductor stocks were hit equally hard, with Tokyo Electron dropping 10.96% and Advantest sliding more than 10% by the close of trading.
Kioxia, Japan’s computer memory manufacturer, saw the steepest single-session loss in the region, with shares plunging more than 18% as investors exited memory-related positions aggressively.
SoftBank Group was not spared either, falling 4.43% as the broader AI investment theme came under pressure across the Japanese market.
Taiwan’s TSMC, widely viewed as a bellwether for global semiconductor demand, closed almost 3% lower, signaling that the anxiety was not limited to memory-focused companies.
The scale and speed of the selloff underscored how tightly correlated AI-linked stocks have become across Asian markets, leaving little room for individual companies to escape sector-wide sentiment shifts.
