AI and semiconductor stocks lose $1 trillion in market cap in 4 days

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Joo-ho Jeong = Global AI and semiconductor stocks are continuing to plummet due to concerns about interest rate hikes, concerns about the burden of artificial intelligence (AI) investment, and the prospect of Chinese memory companies catching up.

According to the U.S. CNBC broadcast on the 15th (local time), the market capitalization of the top 20 AI and semiconductor stocks in the world by market capitalization evaporated more than $1 trillion (approximately 1,340 trillion won) over four trading days this week (12th to 15th).

AI leader Nvidia's stock price fell 5.3%, reducing its market capitalization by about $291 billion (about 391 trillion won). SK Hynix (USD 243.8 billion) and Samsung Electronics (USD 237.3 billion) followed.

The decline of the three memory companies (Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron) accounted for about 40% of the total.

According to the U.S. securities media outlet Benzinga, the market capitalization of six memory and storage companies, including Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, Micron, Kioxia, SanDisk, and Western Digital, has evaporated $1.09 trillion (approximately 1463 trillion won) since the 2nd.

On this day, Nvidia (-1.8%), Intel (-2.8%), and AMD (-1.5%) fell on the New York Stock Exchange, and Dell Technologies fell 6.8%.

Even TSMC's good performance could not reverse the downward trend. TSMC predicted fourth quarter sales to reach up to $54.3 billion (approximately 72.9 trillion won), exceeding market expectations.

However, TSMC's stock price fell 2.0% on the Taiwan Stock Exchange that day, and its stock depository receipt (ADR) listed on the New York Stock Exchange also fell 1.8%.

Speculation that the 'super cycle' of AI demand may end is shaking the market, but there are many counterarguments that there will not be a price crash like in the past.

There were concerns that the cost of financing AI data center construction would increase due to the Federal Reserve's prospect of further interest rate hikes, and China's Changxin Memory (CXMT) recently announced a new structural technology that increased memory density, raising concerns about competition.

Regarding the theory of memory oversupply in 2029 that was raised accordingly, Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded to X by saying, "China will produce a huge amount of RAM in 2028."

There is also a view that the impact from China could be concentrated on Korean companies.

“If there is an impact, it will be on SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, not Micron,” D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria told CNBC.

In fact, on this day, Micron continued to fluctuate and closed up 1.9%.