SoftBank sinks as Asia chip stocks track Wall Street AI rout
CANADA – 2025/08/07: In this photo illustration, the SoftBank Group (Soft Bank) logo is displayed on a smartphone screen. (Photo Illustration: Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
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Asia Technology stocks fell on Friday as a fresh decline in U.S. semiconductor stocks spread across Asia, underscoring growing concerns about AI spending.
shares SoftBank Chip equipment maker down 8.8% Tokyo Electron We lost 9% and cutting edge It lost 9.4%, following sharp losses overnight on Wall Street.
Japanese memory chip manufacturer Kioxia It fell more than 14% after a federal grand jury held in Texas on Thursday. The company was decided to pay compensation of 229 million dollars after finding that it infringed a Viasat patent related to computer memory technology.
South Korean markets were closed for a public holiday. SK Hynix shares closed down more than 11% on Thursday.
Taiwan’s TSMC It fell 3.64% on Friday, a day after the company beat market expectations with a sharp increase in profits.
Chinese tech stocks also weakened. Shares listed in Hong Kong Tencent fell 1.3 percent Meituan fell 2.4% and kuaishou lost 3.3 percent baidu And Alibaba’s fell 0.7% and 1.3% respectively.
The declines follow another weak session in US tech stocks; Nasdaq Composite fell 1.47% as semiconductor stocks came under pressure again.
VanEck Semiconductor ETF It fell almost 4%, while Arm Holdings fell more than 5%. Micron Technology, Advanced Micro Devices And broadcom While each lost more than 5%, U.S.-listed stocks SK Hynix fell to over 13 percent.
TSMC raised its full-year capital spending forecast from $52 billion to $56 billion to between $60 billion and $64 billion, but investors instead focused on concerns that the industry’s aggressive investment cycle could become increasingly difficult to justify.
“It’s another debacle for US tech and AI as recent momentum gains take a step lower after TSMC’s gains in Asia yesterday were not seen as strong enough to justify further bullishness for the sector, raising concerns about overspending,” said Andrew Jackson, strategist at Ortus Advisors.
Jackson said the sell-off reflected an unwinding of crowded AI momentum transactions rather than a deterioration in the industry’s long-term fundamentals.
The latest losses have prompted a sharp reversal in global AI stocks after months of big gains, with investors increasingly questioning whether lofty valuations can be sustained as spending on AI infrastructure accelerates.
