Asia's AI Chip Stocks Shed $550B in One Day as Bitcoin Climbs 4%

Asian chip stocks got hammered today, and roughly $550 billion vanished from the region's equity markets in a single session. South Korea, Taiwan and Japan took the brunt, with semiconductor names leading the slide. Bitcoin went the other way, climbing more than 4% to around $80,242 — and Coinpedia pegged it as high as $81,000.

Seoul bled the most. The KOSPI dived 5.28%, landing near 5,383, and the Korea Exchange slammed on a five-minute halt to program sell orders after KOSPI 200 futures losses blew past 5%. That benchmark is now down almost 24% over the past month. SK Hynix fell 9.46% and Samsung Electronics slid 7.57%.

Taiwan shed about $182 billion, with the TAIEX dropping 3.28% to 42,314 — a three-month low. MediaTek lost 6.86%, Delta Electronics gave up 7.38% and ASE Technology dropped 9%. TSMC slipped 2.5% as investors trimmed semiconductor exposure.

Japan gave up another $160 billion. The Nikkei 225 fell 3% to roughly 61,077, dragged by SoftBank Group's 7% decline. Tokyo Electron, Kioxia Holdings and Advantest cratered 9.42%, 13.14% and 14.71%. Not everything sank: Fast Retailing rose 4.72%, and Toyota Motor and Mitsubishi UFJ finished higher.

The trigger is political. Democrats now control both chambers of Congress, and investors fear stricter rules on AI companies and data centers could stall projects, inflate power infrastructure costs and slow AI spending. That feeds straight into worries about weaker chip demand across Asia's export-heavy markets. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped 3.1% to a six-month low, piling on the pressure.

Chinese tech dodged the wreckage. Moore Threads gained 3.29% and Shanghai Biren Technology added 2.5%, while the Hang Seng Tech Index jumped 4.5% on Alibaba and Meituan strength — their lighter reliance on US AI infrastructure spending kept them standing. Elsewhere, gold and silver recovered, up 1.7% and 1%, while Brent crude slid 8.7% to $94.68 a barrel.