KOSPI sinks below 8,000 on fears over slowing AI chip demand

Seoul shares plunged Thursday, with the benchmark KOSPI falling below the 8,000 mark for the first time in about 15 trading sessions, as chip heavyweights tumbled on growing concerns over weakening demand for artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors. According to the Korea Exchange, KOSPI closed at 7,648.09, down 7.89 percent from the previous session. The index opened at 7,933.10, marking the first time in about 15 trading sessions that it had fallen below 8,000 during intraday trading. At around 9:07 a.m., KOSPI futures also fell by more than 5 percent, briefly triggering a sell-side sidecar. Foreign investors drove the decline, net selling 5.46 trillion won ($3.5 billion) worth of shares on the main bourse, marking a 10th consecutive day of net selling. Institutional investors also sold a net 114.6 billion won, while retail investors purchased a net 5.39 trillion won. The sharp decline came after reports said Meta may enter the cloud computing business by using its surplus computing capacity. The news raised concerns that AI demand may be weaker than expected and that the AI inves