Asian technology stocks posted sharp losses on Friday, dragged down by a new wave of selling in United States semiconductor stocks. The move rekindled market concerns about the elevated pace of spending on artificial intelligence.
SoftBank was one of the main decliners and fell 8%, reflecting the weight of the Japanese group's exposure to the technology and AI sector. The drop followed the broad negative sentiment that took hold of Asian markets.
In Japan, shares of Tokyo Electron, a chip equipment maker, fell about 9%. Advantest followed the plunge with a 9,4% drop, tracking the losses posted the previous day on Wall Street.
Kioxia, a Japanese memory chip producer, plunged more than 14%. The pressure came after a federal jury in Texas ordered on Thursday the payment of US$ 229 milhões to Viasat for patent infringement related to memory technology.
South Korea's markets remained closed due to a national holiday. In the previous session, SK Hynix shares had already closed down more than 11%.
In Taiwan, TSMC fell 3,64%, even one day after reporting a sharp jump in profit and beating projections. In China, declines also appeared: Tencent lost 1,3%, Meituan fell 2,4% and Kuaishou shed 3,3%, while Baidu and Alibaba posted losses of 0,7% and 1,3%.
The negative tone followed another weak session in the U.S., with the Nasdaq Composite down 1,47%. VanEck's semiconductor ETF fell nearly 4%, while Arm, Micron, AMD and Broadcom each lost more than 5%.
TSMC raised its investment estimate for the year, now between US$ 60 bilhões and US$ 64 bilhões. Even so, investors remained focused on doubts about the sustainability of the sector's aggressive investment cycle.