A deepening sell-off in semiconductor stocks dragged U.S. equity futures lower on Tuesday, as investors reassessed the durability of the artificial intelligence boom that has powered markets for much of the year. S&P 500 futures fell 0.3% and Nasdaq 100 futures declined 0.2% in early Asian trading, extending a rout that has now gripped the chip sector for three consecutive sessions.
The pressure originated in Asia, where South Korea’s Kospi index plunged as much as 10.5% intraday, hitting a low of 6,051.19 points. The decline triggered a 20-minute circuit breaker after the index breached its 8% threshold, marking the eighth such halt this year. Memory chip giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix led the collapse, tumbling as much as 12% and 12.7% respectively.
The sell-off was not confined to Seoul. Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 3.51%, while chip-related names across the region suffered heavy losses. Tokyo Electron fell 10.96%, Advantest slid over 10%, and SoftBank Group lost 4.43%. In mainland China, the tech-heavy ChiNext 300 index was down 6.49%, and the Hang Seng China Semiconductor Chips Index fell 7.02%.
The rout followed a weak session on Wall Street on Monday, where the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.18% to 24,932.08 and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped 2.2% to its lowest level since May 19. More than $1 trillion was wiped from U.S. stocks, with over half of the losses concentrated in just six memory-related names that together erased approximately $541 billion in market capitalization.