The AI trade just got a reality check, and it echoed across the Pacific. Japanese and South Korean semiconductor stocks cratered on June 23 after US technology shares dropped sharply, dragging Asia’s most important chip companies into a broad, painful correction.
SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics each fell more than 12% on the day. Japan’s SoftBank plunged 15%. The Kospi index in South Korea dropped as much as 10%, triggering two trading halts over the course of the week. Japan’s Nikkei 225 slid roughly 3.6%.
What happened in the US that caused this
The selloff started where most semiconductor selloffs start these days: Nvidia’s neighborhood. A measure of US chip stocks dropped 6.3% on the day that kicked off the rout, with Micron Technology falling 13%.
Semiconductor stocks had been riding a historic rally fueled by AI demand for memory and logic chips. Record highs were hit earlier in 2026. Then profit-taking set in across Nasdaq-listed chip names, and the question shifted from “how high can this go” to “wait, is this overheated.”
