{"slug": "seoul-shares-crash-over-10-on-heavy-tech-selloff-amid-ai-skepticism", "title": "Seoul shares crash over 10% on heavy tech selloff amid AI skepticism", "summary": "South Korea's KOSPI index crashed 10.84% to close at 6,023.66 on Tuesday, its lowest since April 14, driven by a heavy tech selloff amid growing skepticism over large-scale AI infrastructure investment. Foreign investors offloaded a net 4.97 trillion won worth of local shares, while Samsung Electronics plunged 13.39% and SK hynix fell 14.65% ahead of their earnings reports. The selloff followed a Wall Street downturn triggered by doubts about tech giants' AI spending, with the PHLX chip index dropping 2.2%.", "body_md": "South Korean stocks crashed more than 10 percent Tuesday as investors sold off tech shares on intensifying doubts over the future of large-scale investment into artificial intelligence infrastructure. The local currency strengthened against the US dollar.\n\nThe benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index lost 732.09 points, or 10.84 percent, to close at 6,023.66, after plunging to 5,830.39 at one point.\n\nIt marked the lowest closing since April 14, when the index finished at 5,967.75.\n\nAfter opening 5.26 percent lower, the KOSPI extended losses throughout the session, plunging more than 8 percent in the morning. At 10:14 a.m., the bourse operator activated a marketwide circuit breaker to halt trading of KOSPI-listed shares for 20 minutes.\n\nThe massive dumping followed an overnight selloff on Wall Street, triggered by rising skepticism about tech giants' heavy spending on artificial intelligence. The PHLX chip index, a gauge of US semiconductor giants, extended its recent selloff, falling 2.2 percent.\n\nTrade volume was light at 324.2 million shares worth 33.69 trillion won ($23 billion), with losers sharply outnumbering winners 875 to 36.\n\nForeign investors offloaded a net 4.97 trillion won worth of local shares, while individuals bought a net 4.33 trillion won and institutions purchased a net 630.1 billion won.\n\n\"Today's heavy loss was not because of new negative factors, but because of issues that have long been talked about in the market, coupled with contracted investor sentiment ahead of the releases of big tech firms' quarterly reports,\" said Seo Sang-young, an analyst from Mirae Asset Securities.\n\nSK hynix Inc., the world's second-largest memory chipmaker, is set to announce its earnings report on Wednesday, followed by Microsoft, Meta and Amazon later this week.\n\nInvestors want to see potential benefits from the tech companies' large-scale investment into AI infrastructure, he added.\n\nIn Seoul, most shares finished lower across the board, led by tech heavyweights.\n\nMarket bellwether Samsung Electronics plummeted 13.39 percent to 220,000 won, and SK hynix nosedived 14.65 percent to 1.55 million won.\n\nSK Square, the parent of SK hynix, plunged 15.6 percent to 925,000 won, and Hanmi Semiconductor, a leading chip equipment manufacturer, slumped 12.22 percent to 179,500 won.\n\nTop carmaker Hyundai Motor tumbled 9.68 percent to 364,000 won, and its sister Kia sank 6.6 percent to 121,800 won.\n\nInternet giant Naver slid 6.67 percent to 210,000 won, and energy firm Doosan Enerbility dipped 8.74 percent to 64,700 won.\n\nMajor banking group KB Financial Group dropped 4.29 percent to 165,200 won, and defense giant Hanwha Aerospace retreated 2.67 percent to 875,000 won.\n\nThe Korean won was quoted at 1,462.5 won against the US dollar as of 3:30 p.m., up 6 won from the close of stock trading the day before. (Yonhap)", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/seoul-shares-crash-over-10-on-heavy-tech-selloff-amid-ai-skepticism", "canonical_source": "https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10823152", "published_at": "2026-07-28 07:13:21+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-28 07:25:16.571399+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-infrastructure"], "entities": ["KOSPI", "Samsung Electronics", "SK hynix", "Mirae Asset Securities", "Seo Sang-young", "Microsoft", "Meta", "Amazon"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/seoul-shares-crash-over-10-on-heavy-tech-selloff-amid-ai-skepticism", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/seoul-shares-crash-over-10-on-heavy-tech-selloff-amid-ai-skepticism.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/seoul-shares-crash-over-10-on-heavy-tech-selloff-amid-ai-skepticism.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/seoul-shares-crash-over-10-on-heavy-tech-selloff-amid-ai-skepticism.jsonld"}}