First Cracks: AI Bubble Fears Crash Asian Memory Manufacturer Stocks

Warnings from financial regulators (such as the Bank of England) have begun to materialize as a market correction. On July 8, 2026, a wave of sell-offs hit the Asian technology sector: shares of South Korean giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix sharply dropped amid a global cooldown on Wall Street.

The reason lies in macroeconomic doubts. Investors are beginning to realize that the explosive demand for server HBM memory may prove unsustainable if LLM developers do not show a multiple increase in profit in the coming quarters. A financial paradox is evident: while AI startups are dumping prices (as China's Z.ai is doing), their business margins fall, threatening the purchase of new hardware. The fear of capacity oversupply is forcing markets to dump overheated infrastructure vendor assets. The phase of blind faith in artificial intelligence is over; a strict audit of return on investment (ROI) has begun.

Source: Samsung Electronics / SK Hynix / Financial Times / Reuters