South Korea’s Kospi Index slid as shares of chipmakers plunged on concern that a strong showing by Democrats in the US midterms would lead to greater scrutiny of the artificial intelligence industry.
The benchmark slumped as much as 3.7%, erasing an early gain. Shares of Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc. were down at least 4% each to be the biggest drags.
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Investors see a strong performance by Democrats as a potential setback for high-growth technology and AI firms amid concern it could create hurdles for US data-center expansion. That would cloud the demand outlook for chipmakers and other hardware suppliers in South Korea, Taiwan and Japan, key players in the American AI buildout.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 3.6% while Taiwan’s stock benchmark lost about 2.5%.