SoftBank fell 6.1% Monday as Asia’s AI-linked tech stocks sold off after last week’s steep Nasdaq decline and renewed rate concerns.
SoftBank Group fell 6.1% on Monday as a technology sell-off accelerated across Asia, hitting some of the region’s biggest AI-linked and semiconductor stocks after a sharp drop in U.S. tech shares last week.
The pressure followed a more than 4.5% decline in the tech-heavy Nasdaq last week and added to investor concern that a recent rally in artificial intelligence-related names had run ahead of near-term market conditions. A UOB note cited by CNBC said the U.S. tech rout wiped out about $1.8 trillion in S&P 500 market value.
South Korean chip heavyweights were among the hardest hit. Samsung Electronics ended Monday down 10.18%, while SK Hynix lost 7.68%. The Kospi fell as much as 8% during the session, reflecting the outsized influence of the two companies, which together account for more than 40% of the index.
Losses spread across other major Asian tech names. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. dropped 2.96%, Hon Hai Precision, also known as Foxconn, fell 5.27%, Tokyo Electron declined 7.45% and Advantest was down 5.72%.
The downturn came after Broadcom’s fiscal second-quarter revenue missed market expectations last week, setting off a wider pullback in chip and AI-related stocks. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF fell more than 9% Friday, while SoftBank-owned Arm Holdings, which trades in New York, dropped nearly 13%. Micron Technology also lost more than 13%.
Rate expectations added to the risk-off mood. Goldman Sachs said in a Friday note that it was pushing the final two rate cuts in its Federal Reserve forecast to June and December 2027 because the labor market had been stronger than expected. Higher-for-longer rates can weigh on growth stocks by pressuring valuations and reducing appetite for risk.
European chip stocks initially followed Asia lower but later turned positive in midday trading as U.S. peers also moved higher. BE Semiconductor, ASML, Infineon and STMicroelectronics were all trading higher around 9 a.m. ET, while ASM International was roughly flat to slightly lower.
The Asia move also came as broader regional markets traded lower after a fresh escalation in the Iran war. For investors, the next test is whether the pullback remains concentrated in richly valued AI and semiconductor names or spreads more widely across global equities.
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