Key Highlights

● The Kospi fell about 4% to around 5,701.71 in Friday afternoon trading.

● SK hynix dropped 8.3% in Seoul and Samsung Electronics fell 5.9%.

● SanDisk beat its guidance and announced an 8-for-1 split, yet fell about 8% pre-market.

● Intel's CFO expects PC weakness to last at least through the first half of 2027.

The AI chip selloff that started with Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and spread through Intel (NASDAQ:INTC)'s guidance hit South Korea hardest overnight. The Kospi fell about 4% to around 5,701.71 in Friday afternoon trading, according to market data, and another source said the index led Asian losses. Market reports showed SK hynix down 8.3% in Seoul and Samsung Electronics down 5.9%. In Tokyo, Tokyo Electron fell more than 5%.

The selling followed SK hynix into U.S. trading. A pre-market table, updated at 8:23 a.m. ET, listed a U.S.-traded SK Hynix line, symbol SKHY, at $149.80, down 7.58%. The listing venue for that line couldn't be verified. An auto-generated news summary attributed the drop to profit-taking after record third-quarter results and an abandoned IPO for Solidigm, SK hynix's U.S.-based NAND flash and SSD unit. That explanation comes from an automated summary and couldn't be confirmed against company statements.

Why the Solidigm detail matters

Companies often pull IPOs when they think market conditions won't support a strong valuation. If SK hynix has stepped back from listing Solidigm, it would fit a growing concern among investors: that memory and storage pricing may be near a peak.

That concern showed up clearly in the U.S. on Thursday night. SanDisk (NASDAQ:SNDK) reported fiscal first-quarter Revenue of $11.03 billion, above its own guidance, with adjusted EPS of $49.51 and an 85.1% adjusted gross margin. It also announced an 8-for-1 stock split. The stock still fell about 8% pre-market. Market commentary tied the decline to "concerns that memory pricing may be nearing a peak," and a brokerage lowered its price target on valuation, according to one headline. Another report said Micron (NASDAQ:MU), SanDisk and SK Hynix were "falling again" despite SanDisk's strong numbers.

There's a twist. High memory prices are now hurting other parts of the chain. Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan said that "our customers began signaling a PC slowdown based on the memory prices and availability." Intel's CFO expects PC weakness to last at least through the first half of 2027. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) also warned of weaker Windows OEM revenue on the memory shortage, according to market context on HP (NYSE:HPQ). When memory costs start reducing Demand for PCs, investors begin to question how long memory makers can keep raising prices.

The U.S. read-through

For U.S. investors, Korea is a guide to how memory stocks may trade. Micron is a Nasdaq-100 member and SanDisk trades on the Nasdaq. Both are exposed to the same pricing cycle. Media reports showed declines of 2% to 9% pre-market across AMD (NASDAQ:AMD), Arm (NASDAQ:ARM), Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM), Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) and Micron. Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) was down 7.61% in the pre-market table. Nasdaq-100 futures were down about 2.6%.

The bull case remains intact for some analysts. SanDisk's datacenter revenue rose 61% from the previous quarter, and the company guided next-quarter revenue to $12.2 billion to $12.6 billion. Its CEO expects PC, smartphone and data-center NAND demand to grow next year, according to market commentary. A peak in pricing isn't the same as a collapse in demand.

Trade policy adds a layer. Korea's U.S. Tariff deal rate is 15%, and Section 232 tariffs of 25% apply to certain advanced chips, according to a tariff tracker.

Watch for any official comment from SK hynix on Solidigm, Samsung's response to the selloff, and Micron's trading after the U.S. open. AMD and Qualcomm report next week, and their comments on memory costs will show how far the squeeze has spread. For now, Seoul's slide is a warning about crowded positioning in memory.