Anadolu Ajansı reported Friday that South Korea's Kospi fell sharply enough to trigger a 20-minute trading halt, while Japan's Nikkei 225 had shed more than 20% since its June high amid doubts about artificial intelligence (AI) spending.
The agency put the Kospi's early decline above 8% and said it was down more than 6%. The Nikkei had passed the 20% fall from a recent high commonly used to mark a bear market, the report said.
Anadolu Ajansı reported that chip-linked shares led losses across the region. Japan's Advantest fell 12%, while SoftBank Group and Kioxia Holdings each dropped 11%; Tokyo Electron declined nearly 9%. South Korea's SK Hynix fell 9% and Samsung Electronics lost 5.6%. Taiwan's Taiex dropped 4.51%, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. fell 4.7%.
The backdrop included a 12.2% fall in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index and a 5.5% decline in the Nasdaq Composite on Thursday, the agency reported. EconoTimes previously covered U.S. chipmaker losses after the midterm election.
Anadolu Ajansı said investors were considering whether Democrats' midterm victory might bring new limits on U.S. data-center construction, with possible effects on demand for AI chips and related equipment. The agency also cited doubts about whether large investments in computing capacity will earn enough to justify their scale.
