AI Rout: Nasdaq Falls 2.6% and Chip Index 6.7% After Meta's Results; Solidigm Halts Its IPO Review

Updated October 23, 2026: The Nasdaq fell 2.6% and the Philadelphia Semiconductor index 6.7% on Thursday, October 22, and SK hynix said on Friday that Solidigm has halted its IPO review. The new section directly below covers this; earlier updates follow unchanged.

October 22–23: Nasdaq falls 2.6%, the chip index 6.7%, and Solidigm halts its IPO review#

Reuters cast Thursday's selloff as the bill for the next phase of AI spending coming due, and the day's other accounts point at financing rather than demand. On Thursday, October 22, the Nasdaq Composite lost 694.00 points, or 2.60%, to 26,008.86, its steepest daily drop since early June, Reuters reported in a market story carried by CNA. The S&P 500 fell 1.21% to 7,663.43 and the Dow rose 0.02% to 52,867.98. The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index fell 6.7%, its biggest daily percentage drop since June 23, leaving it more than 26% below its June 22 record close but still up 51.5% for the year, according to the same report.

Meta fell 7.0% after posting its first cash outflow in more than a decade and announcing plans for non-voting shares to raise money for AI, Reuters reported via CNA. In a separate story carried by Investing.com, Reuters called it Meta's largest drop since July and said Meta's credit default swaps hit a record on Thursday. That story also said SpaceX declined 9%, Nvidia fell 4% and Lam Research dropped 12% after its results. The CNA-carried report said Intel, AMD, Sandisk and Marvell each fell more than 8%, and that Tesla fell 3.1% even though it posted positive free cash flow and cut its 2026 capital spending plans. We cover Meta's results and its Class C shares separately.

Neocloud stocks fell with them. Nebius dropped 7% after announcing a $3.5 billion credit line from Citigroup, and CoreWeave fell 10%, Reuters reported, adding that CoreWeave's unsecured bond yields had reached 15% during last week's selloff. Bank of America analyst Tal Liani kept a buy rating and a $140 price target on CoreWeave but said he believes the company will need to raise $20 billion to fund its commitments to customers, according to Reuters. Thomas Hayes of Great Hill Capital told Reuters that return-on-investment worries were central to the selling, and cited remarks by Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang about a financing bottleneck for smaller AI companies. Huang told CNBC at Nvidia's GTC conference in Berlin on Thursday that demand for neoclouds is "off the charts" but that "there's a scarcity of capital." He added: "The demand of the capital is much greater than the availability of the capital. That's going to get solved."

In Seoul on Friday morning, SK hynix said in a regulatory filing that Solidigm, its US NAND unit, had halted its review of a pre-IPO round and an initial public offering after considering capital market conditions, Seoul Economic Daily reported. "This is not because Solidigm's growth potential or the need for investment has changed," SK hynix said in a separate statement, according to the paper, adding that it needed to reexamine whether an IPO now was the most advantageous choice for the company and its existing shareholders. The paper noted that Financial Services Commission chairman Lee Eok-won had said the previous day that a US listing for Solidigm was "subject to the duplicate-listing guidelines." In Nextrade pre-market trading at about 8:07 a.m. on October 23, before the Korea Exchange session, SK hynix was down 1.72%, Samsung Electronics 3.73% and Samsung Electro-Mechanics 4.72%, according to the same report. Solidigm's IPO plans came up in our report on SK Hynix's Dalian licence request, where one source told Reuters it was weighing a listing as early as next year.

Read together, these accounts put financing at the centre of Thursday's moves. Huang says demand is strong and capital is short, Meta is creating a new share class to help pay for AI spending, Bank of America's analyst expects CoreWeave to need $20 billion more, and SK hynix has paused a listing over market conditions.

Limits of the October 23 update#

• Index closes, the semiconductor index's record comparison, Meta's 7.0%, Tesla, and the Intel, AMD, Sandisk and Marvell moves are from Reuters' market report via CNA. SpaceX, Nvidia, Lam Research, Meta's credit default swaps, Nebius, CoreWeave and the Bank of America note are from a separate Reuters story via Investing.com. We did not open Reuters.com, and neither syndication gives a time zone for its timestamps, so we date them only.
• Seoul Economic Daily's account of the US session matches Reuters' index figures and Meta's roughly 7% fall.
• The Nextrade figures are pre-market prices on an alternative trading venue at about 8:07 a.m. local time, not Korea Exchange closing prices. The won prices printed with them match the October 22 Korea Exchange closes reported by Yonhap, so we leave them out.
• Seoul Economic Daily's English text is AI-translated from Korean by the outlet, which says quotes may not reflect the exact original wording. We did not open SK hynix's regulatory filing.
• That Huang's remarks contributed to the selling is Hayes's view, as reported by Reuters.

Updated October 22, 2026: The KOSPI fell 3.52% on Thursday as chipmakers gave up the previous day's gains. The new section directly below covers the October 22 close; earlier updates follow unchanged.

October 22 close: KOSPI falls 3.52% as Samsung and SK hynix slide after Meta's results#

Meta's quarterly results did not ease Seoul's doubts about the returns on AI spending, by the account of the analysts Yonhap quoted. On Thursday, October 22, the KOSPI fell 201.8 points, or 3.52%, to 5,533.77, Yonhap reported. The index opened down 1.14% and briefly turned positive, reaching an intraday high of 5,740.28, before its losses deepened. Yonhap attributed the fall to profit-taking in major chip shares after the previous session's rebound, amid concerns over investment in the AI value chain. By our comparison of Yonhap's figures, the close was below the October 20 close of 5,552.74.

Samsung Electronics fell 4.03% to 214,500 won and SK hynix 5.49% to 1,223,000 won, while SK Square, which holds SK hynix shares, fell 3.59% to 751,000 won, Yonhap's Korean service reported (our translation). Decliners outnumbered advancers 706 to 174, according to Yonhap's English report. On the main board, institutions were net sellers of 46.3 billion won, while foreigners and individuals were net buyers of 6.1 billion won and 38.1 billion won. In the two chipmakers, institutions sold a net 264.3 billion won of SK hynix and 85.6 billion won of Samsung, while foreign investors sold 125.1 billion won of Samsung and bought 45.7 billion won of SK hynix, the Korean report said.

Yonhap's Korean report said the chipmakers could not extend the previous day's rally despite Meta's strong results, released before the open, and pointed to profit-taking and to Meta's free cash flow turning negative without capex guidance for next year. Lee Kyoung-min of Daishin Securities said Meta's third-quarter revenue of $64.6 billion beat market expectations, but that with free cash flow in deficit because of heavy capital spending, "the need to verify the profitability of AI investment remained" (our translation). He told Yonhap's English service: "Although Meta and Tesla reported earnings that exceeded market expectations, their results failed to ease concerns over profitability amid massive AI investments." He added that "the KOSPI's losses widened as the end of SK hynix's share buyback program reduced a source of support for market demand." We cover Meta's results and its new Class C stock separately.

Kiwoom Securities analyst Han Ji-young told Yonhap that share prices have become more sensitive because expectations for AI-related stocks remain high, and that a wait-and-see market may persist while major big-tech companies report through next week (our translation). Overnight, the Nasdaq Composite had risen 1.05% on October 21 as AI-related shares rebounded following SpaceX's quarterly results, Yonhap reported.

Limits of the October 22 close update#

• Index, market-wide flow and advancer-decliner figures are from Yonhap's English report. SK hynix's won close, SK Square and the per-stock flows are from Yonhap's Korean report, in our translation. Yonhap's English report rounds SK hynix's close to 1.22 million won.
• The explanations for the fall are Yonhap's and the analysts'. Lee's free-cash-flow comment is our translation from the Korean report; his Meta-and-Tesla and buyback quotes are from the English report.
• The KOSDAQ close and other Asian markets were not in the reports used and are omitted.

Updated October 21, 2026 (Seoul close): The KOSPI closed 3.29% higher and Elice ended at its daily upper limit. The new section directly below covers the close and supersedes the early-trade Seoul figures in the October 20–21 section, which is kept below; earlier updates follow unchanged.

October 21 close: KOSPI ends 3.29% higher; Elice closes at the daily limit#

On Wednesday, October 21, the KOSPI closed up 182.92 points, or 3.29%, at 5,735.66 after rising as high as 5,816.43, Yonhap reported. The Korea Exchange activated a buy-side sidecar shortly before 11 a.m., suspending program buying for five minutes after KOSPI 200 futures rose more than 5%; Yonhap said it was the first such activation in two months. Samsung Electronics rose 5.67% to 223,500 won and SK hynix 5.81% to 1.29 million won. Foreign investors were net buyers of 659.96 billion won, while individuals and institutions were net sellers of 1.13 trillion won and 72.22 billion won.

Yonhap said "better-than-expected earnings" from Super Micro Computer eased worries over AI investment; those figures are preliminary, unaudited revenue and margin estimates, which we cover separately. Kiwoom Securities analyst Han Ji-young told Yonhap the market "rebounded on bargain hunting after the previous session's sharp sell-off, buoyed by easing concerns over oil prices and interest rates and upbeat earnings from Super Micro."

Elice closed at 79,900 won, up 29.92% at its daily upper limit, after opening 13.01% higher and reaching the limit around 9:12 a.m., SBS News reported (English, AI-translated). It had closed its debut a day earlier at 61,500 won, 32.04% below its 90,500-won IPO price. SBS also said CoreWeave closed up 1.65% in the October 20 US session after falling more than 6% in early trading.

Limits of the October 21 close update#

• KOSPI, share and investor-flow figures are Yonhap's. Elice's close and CoreWeave's October 20 move are from SBS, which is AI-translated.
• The KOSDAQ close was not in the reports used and is omitted.

Updated October 21, 2026: The Nasdaq ended Tuesday flat; Seoul rebounded nearly 3% in early Wednesday trade. The new section directly below covers October 20–21; earlier updates follow unchanged.

October 20–21: US flat close, then Seoul rebounds in early trade (Seoul figures superseded by the close above)#

On Tuesday, October 20, the Nasdaq Composite closed down 0.02% at 26,424.82, while the S&P 500 rose 0.28% to 7,712.57 and the Dow rose 1.02% to 52,495.88, Reuters reported (via Euronext Live). Reuters said 3M jumped 5.8% after expanding a data-centre partnership with Amazon, and cited Elice Group's 32% debut drop as reflecting investor nervousness ahead of Meta results due Wednesday, October 21. SBS News (English, AI-translated) put Nvidia down 0.29%, Micron 0.98% and SK hynix ADRs 2.16% in that US session.

In Seoul on Wednesday, October 21, the KOSPI opened 2.05% higher at 5,666.34 and was up 158.88 points, or 2.86%, at 5,711.62 as of 9:15 a.m. local time, Yonhap reported — early intraday levels, not a close — after a nearly 4% drop the prior session. Samsung Electronics rose 4.14% and SK hynix 5.89% in that snapshot. SBS, also AI-translated, said that by 9:20 a.m. the KOSDAQ was up 2.49% at 801.47, with foreign investors net buyers on the main board, and that Elice was trading at its daily upper limit a day after closing 32% below its IPO price.

Limits of the October 20–21 update#

• Seoul figures are early-trade snapshots (9:15–9:20 a.m. KST), not closes, and are superseded by the October 21 close section above. Where both outlets overlap, figures are Yonhap's; SBS is AI-translated and is the sole source for Elice's upper-limit trade and the chip ADR list.
• SOX and CoreWeave closes for October 20 were not fetched and are omitted. (Added October 21: CoreWeave's October 20 move, from SBS, now appears in the October 21 close section above.)

Updated October 20, 2026: The week closed with a chip bounce on October 19, then Asia resumed selling on October 20. The new section directly below covers October 16 to 20; the earlier updates and report follow unchanged.

October 16–20: week close, chip bounce, then Asia sells again#

The Nasdaq Composite fell 2.14% on Friday, October 16, for a weekly loss of roughly 4.5%, its worst week since June, CNN reported. The S&P 500 fell 1.09%. The SOX chip index dropped 3.8% for an eighth straight decline and 11.4% on the week, its worst week since April 2025, and CoreWeave fell almost 12% on the day and lost a quarter of its value on the week, according to CNN. Brent crude touched $110, and the KOSPI lost 14.5% on the week, its worst week since 2008, CNN said.

Investing.com put the SOX close at 11,137.29, its longest losing streak since October 2008 and down 16% since its last advance on October 6, with all 30 members lower and CoreWeave's bond yields above 15%.

On Monday, October 19, the SOX rose 1.61% to 11,316.34, ending the streak, and the Nasdaq gained 1.11% to 26,430.89, according to Reuters and Yahoo Finance closing data compiled by Invested Alpha. Indexes finished well off their highs. CoreWeave closed down 0.44% at $61.12 despite an upgrade from Goldman Sachs, the site said.

October 20: Asia resumes the sell-off; Elice closes 32% below IPO#

On Tuesday, October 20, Seoul's KOSPI closed down 215.27 points, or 3.73%, at 5,552.74 after touching 5,493.24, Yonhap reported. Samsung Electronics fell 2.98% and SK hynix 4.23%. Foreign investors were net sellers of 535.4 billion won and institutions of about 1 trillion won. Yonhap notes the index had already fallen about 21% over seven sessions from October 6 through the prior Thursday. AFP put the Nikkei down 1.3% at 64,075.52, SoftBank down about 6% and Kioxia more than 4%, a day after the SOX broke its eight-day losing streak.

AI-cloud firm Elice Group closed its first Kosdaq session at 61,500 won, 32.04% below its 90,500-won IPO price, after falling as low as 56,500, Yonhap reported (our translation of the Korean text). It had opened at 75,700 won. CNBC says Elice raised 201.1 billion won (about $150 million) and priced on October 6, before the sell-off, and notes that Firmus, AirTrunk and SoftBank's SB Energy have shelved listing plans this month.

Limits of the October 16–20 update#

• Weekly declines use different bases: CNN's 11.4% is the calendar week; Investing.com's 16% runs from October 6. The October 19 closes come from an aggregator citing Reuters and Yahoo Finance data. Elice's close is from Yonhap's Korean report; the morning's intraday "last" of 66,600 won (about −27%) is superseded here.

Updated October 16, 2026: CoreWeave rebounded on October 15 while chip stocks slipped again, and the KOSPI opened higher on October 16. The section directly below covers it; the earlier close update and report follow unchanged.

October 16 update: CoreWeave rebounds, chips slip, Seoul opens higher#

CoreWeave reversed early losses on Thursday, October 15 to close up 5.94% at $69.69, after an intraday swing of 15.58%, TradingKey reported. NVIDIA chief executive Jensen Huang said in Stockholm that CoreWeave's "cost of capital is falling" and that he saw no need for NVIDIA to provide financial guarantees, according to the outlet. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell another 0.88%, NVIDIA 1.84% and TSMC's US shares 1.80%, while the Nasdaq edged up 0.08% and the Dow rose 1.08%, TradingKey said. It attributed the moves to a rotation into defensive sectors after September producer prices rose 1.3% on the month.

In Seoul, the KOSPI opened higher on Friday, October 16 and was up 1.54% at 5,639.84 at 9:15 a.m. Seoul time, Yonhap reported, with Samsung Electronics up 1.55% and SK hynix up 0.48%. These are early intraday levels, not closes.

Limits of the October 16 update#

• US figures are from TradingKey, a translated market wrap; Seoul figures are Yonhap's 9:15 a.m. snapshot. Huang's remarks are as TradingKey relays them; Bloomberg's report was not read.

Updated October 15, 2026: The KOSPI closed down 7.57% after its first circuit breaker since late July. The section directly below covers the close; the earlier report follows under a dated section.

October 15 close: KOSPI ends 7.57% lower after a circuit breaker#

The KOSPI closed on Thursday at 5,554.22, down 7.57% from the previous close of 6,008.81, its lowest close in six months, Businesskorea reported. The decline exceeded 9% during the session, pushing the index to the 5,450 level at one point, the outlet said.

Stage-one circuit breakers were triggered on the KOSPI and KOSDAQ shortly after noon, halting all trading for 20 minutes before a 10-minute single-price auction, Seoul Economic Daily reported, citing the Korea Exchange. The KOSPI was down 8.02% at 5,527.12 at that point. The paper said it was the first circuit breaker in 51 trading sessions and the KOSPI's 10th this year.

At the close, Samsung Electronics was down 9.48% at 210,000 won and SK hynix down 11.06% at 1,262,000 won, according to Businesskorea. Foreign investors net sold about 3.62 trillion won on the main board, while retail and institutional investors were net buyers, it reported. The KOSDAQ closed down 7.65% at 760.82, and the won weakened to 1,344.6 per dollar at the 3:30 p.m. close.

Seoul Economic Daily said TSMC's results, due that afternoon, were seen as a key test; TSMC reported a record quarter after the circuit breaker. Businesskorea attributed the fall to hotter US inflation, rate expectations and doubts about AI investment returns, and cautioned that a single day's decline does not establish a trend.

Limits of the close update#

• Closing figures are from Businesskorea; the circuit-breaker details are from Seoul Economic Daily. The earlier report's note that no closing levels were included predates this section.

Earlier report: the October 14 selloff and the Seoul open#

Investors are now repricing the AI trade through its funding, not its demand, according to Reuters' Jamie McGeever, who wrote on Wednesday, October 14 that sentiment toward AI financing "is souring. Rapidly." US stocks fell sharply that day on surprisingly strong September inflation data and those financing worries, Reuters reported, with the Nasdaq down 1.9%, its biggest fall in three months. The inflation figures put a Federal Reserve rate hike later this month back on the table, according to Reuters.

Wall Street on October 14#

The Nasdaq Composite closed down 1.88% at 26,692.87 and the S&P 500 fell 1.11% to 7,718.94, CNBC reported. Reuters said the SOX chip index fell 4.2%, down for a sixth day in its longest losing streak in nearly two years. CoreWeave fell 15.5%, Dell 11%, and Oracle and Marvell 9%, according to Reuters.

US AI-related corporate bonds fell sharply, many to new lows, Reuters reported. CoreWeave's 9.75% bond maturing in 2031 yielded 16% and fell to a new low in price, and Oracle's 4.9% bond maturing in 2033 registered a record low, according to the column.

The same day, Gartner forecast that more than $3.5 trillion of AI infrastructure spending could be exposed to impairment by the end of 2030 if AI providers keep their current pace of capital spending. It also predicted that cost pressure and a lack of a differentiating business model will force over 80% of neocloud providers to cease independent operations by 2030. Those are Gartner's projections.

Dan Ives of Yorkville Ives argued in a note that "rates are a financing question, not a demand question," CNBC reported. "What would change our view is a demand signal, not a rate signal," he said.

Seoul and Tokyo on October 15#

The KOSPI opened 5.59% lower at 5,673.01 on Thursday and was down 7.77% at 5,539.51 as of 10:30 a.m. Seoul time, Korea JoongAng Daily reported. Sell-side sidecar curbs were triggered at 9:07 a.m. on the KOSPI and 9:12 a.m. on the KOSDAQ, according to the paper. Foreign investors were net sellers of 1.92 trillion won ($1.4 billion) of shares as of 10:30 a.m., it said. The BBC put the KOSPI 7.6% lower in morning trading. These are intraday levels, not closes.

Stock moves varied by outlet and time. JoongAng Daily, in a report published at 11:34 a.m. Seoul time, had Samsung Electronics down 9.05% and SK hynix down 10.71%. CNBC reported SK Hynix down more than 10% and Samsung down 7.1%, and SoftBank Group down 7.9% in Tokyo, along with Advantest down 6.9%.

JoongAng Daily also cited concern about memory supply from China's CXMT and US consumer prices that rose 3.7% from a year earlier in September. Park Yeon-ju of Mirae Asset Securities told the paper the biggest factor was concern over AI returns, "as Anthropic's third-quarter revenue growth slowed from the previous quarter." She added that the fall was "excessive relative to earnings." We cover the Anthropic figures attendees reported separately.

Broadcom's Hock Tan had warned on October 12 that capital may be AI's biggest constraint. Seoul's index had rebounded early on October 14 after five sessions of chip selling.

Limits#

• Seoul and Tokyo figures are intraday snapshots at different times and were still moving when this was written; no closing levels are included.
• Reuters' McGeever column is analysis; the attribution of the selloff to AI financing versus inflation is the outlets' and analysts' framing.
• Gartner's impairment and neocloud figures are forecasts.
• Korea JoongAng Daily says its article was translated from Korean with AI tools and edited by its newsroom; quotes are as published in English by the paper.
• AP and Yonhap market pages were not used; the Bloomberg and Financial Times pages could not be opened.

Sources#

• Reuters via CNA: S&P 500, Nasdaq end sharply lower as revived AI doubts ignite tech selloff (October 22, 2026)
• Reuters via Investing.com: Steep bill for AI buildout punishes Meta, other tech favorites (October 22, 2026)
• CNBC: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says neocloud demand is 'off the charts' (October 22, 2026)
• Seoul Economic Daily (English, AI-translated from Korean): SK hynix Falls Less Than Samsung After Halting Solidigm Listing (October 23, 2026, 08:25 KST)
• Times of AI: SK Hynix seeks US licence for more Dalian fab equipment (October 15, 2026)
• Yonhap: Seoul stocks slide over 3 pct on profit-taking amid persistent AI woes (October 22, 2026)
• Yonhap (Korean; our translation): Samsung and SK hynix fall 4–5% as doubts over AI investment returns persist (October 22, 2026)
• Times of AI: Meta Q3 results and non-voting Class C stock (October 22, 2026)
• Yonhap: Seoul stocks rebound over 3 pct on eased AI spending woes (October 21, 2026)
• SBS News (English, AI-translated): Elice Surges to Daily Limit Up Just One Day After 32% Plunge on Market Debut (October 21, 2026)
• Times of AI: Supermicro preliminary fiscal Q1 revenue (October 21, 2026)
• Reuters via Euronext Live: Stocks mostly rise as oil, US yields ease (October 20, 2026)
• Yonhap: Seoul shares open sharply higher ahead of Meta earnings (October 21, 2026)
• SBS News (English, AI-translated): KOSPI rebounds 3% on bargain hunting (October 21, 2026)
• Yonhap: Seoul stocks slide nearly 4 pct on AI jitters (October 20, 2026)
• Yonhap (Korean): Elice closes 32% below IPO on Kosdaq debut (October 20, 2026)
• AFP: Tech firms bear brunt of selling as Asian stocks drop (October 20, 2026)
• CNBC: South Korea's Elice plunges in market debut (October 20, 2026)
• CNN: Nasdaq sinks more than 2% as investors raise questions about AI debt (October 16, 2026)
• Investing.com via Yahoo Finance: Chip index SOX posts longest losing streak since 2008 (October 17, 2026)
• Invested Alpha: Chip stocks broke their longest losing streak since 2008 (October 19, 2026)
• TradingKey: US stocks gain as Dow rises over 500 points; CoreWeave reverses losses (October 15, 2026)
• Yonhap: Seoul stocks open higher after 7-day losing streak (October 16, 2026)
• Businesskorea: [Closing Market] KOSPI Plunges 7.57%, Retreating to 5,500 Level (October 15, 2026)
• Seoul Economic Daily: Korea Halts Trading as KOSPI, KOSDAQ Plunge 8% (October 15, 2026)
• Times of AI: TSMC record Q3 (October 15, 2026)
• Reuters via Investing.com: Trading Day: Tech melt (October 14, 2026)
• CNBC: SK Hynix shares plunge 10% amid Asia tech rout (October 14, 2026 ET)
• Korea JoongAng Daily: Kospi plunges over 7% as AI doubts, U.S. rate fears hit Seoul (October 15, 2026)
• BBC News: Anthropic flags revenue surge to investors ahead of stock market debut (October 14, 2026)
• Gartner: Over $3.5 Trillion of AI Infrastructure Spending Could Be Exposed to Impairment by the End of 2030 (October 14, 2026)
• Times of AI: Anthropic Q3 revenue, attendees say (October 15, 2026)
• Times of AI: Broadcom's Hock Tan on capital (October 13, 2026)
• Times of AI: KOSPI chip selloff and rebound (October 12–14, 2026)