Asia tech stocks extend sell-off with SoftBank down over 7% as investors sour on AI-linked names

Sinology | Moment | Getty Images Asian tech stocks extended their sell-off Monday, as investors sour on global AI-linked plays with the U.S. tech-heavy Nasdaq declining more than 4.5% last week. Memory chip behemoths and heavyweights on South Korea's Kospi Index Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix fell 5% and 2%, respectively. The Kospi plunged as much as 8% as the two companies make up over 40% of the index. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co , or TSMC, was down 2.1%, while Hon Hai Precision, also known as Foxconn, fell 5.1%. Japanese tech investor Softbank Group plunged 7.5%, while Tokyo Electron and Advantest were down 6.7% and 5%, respectively. The share price declines follow a recent rally in Asia tech stocks that was supported by investor optimism on AI demand. Last month, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix each crossed a $1 trillion market valuation, while SoftBank recently became the most valuable company in Japan. The sell-off in tech names was triggered after Broadcom 's revenue for fiscal second quarter missed market estimates last week, plunging its shares and causing a cascading impact on the tech sector. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) lost over 9% Friday; Softbank's British chip firm Arm Holdings had dropped nearly 13%, while Micron Technology declined more than 13%. "The tech-led rout erased approximately $1.8 trillion in S&P 500 market cap," according to a UOB note on June 8. …