Memory chip pricing power is slipping
South Korean stocks opened lower on October 13, with Samsung Electronics down 7.29%, SK Hynix down 8.35%, and the KOSPI down 6.05%. The exchange briefly activated its Sidecar mechanism, suspending program trading for five minutes. Since the start of October, foreign investors have net sold more than $6 billion in South Korean stocks. The index has fallen below its 200-day moving average, retreating by about a third from its June peak.
ChangXin Memory Technologies’ progress in memory architecture has prompted investors to reassess the valuation premium enjoyed by South Korea’s two chip giants. Broadcom’s CEO said the supply-demand gap in computing power could persist through 2029 or even 2030. Investors are beginning to doubt whether this semiconductor upcycle can last through 2028, and the most heavily leveraged positions—where gains have been most concentrated—are being cut first.
South Korean stocks have been the most crowded trade among AI hardware bulls this cycle. As positions unwind, correlations across risk assets rise immediately, and high-beta AI computing tokens in crypto get hit by the resulting outflows. That’s par for the course.
Are you selling or adding to your computing-power tokens in this downturn? Are you still above your cost basis?
$BTC $ETH $RENDER
South Korean stocks opened lower on October 13, with Samsung Electronics down 7.29%, SK Hynix down 8.35%, and the KOSPI down 6.05%. The exchange briefly activated its Sidecar mechanism, suspending program trading for five minutes. Since the start of October, foreign investors have net sold more than $6 billion in South Korean stocks. The index has fallen below its 200-day moving average, retreating by about a third from its June peak.
ChangXin Memory Technologies’ progress in memory architecture has prompted investors to reassess the valuation premium enjoyed by South Korea’s two chip giants. Broadcom’s CEO said the supply-demand gap in computing power could persist through 2029 or even 2030. Investors are beginning to doubt whether this semiconductor upcycle can last through 2028, and the most heavily leveraged positions—where gains have been most concentrated—are being cut first.
South Korean stocks have been the most crowded trade among AI hardware bulls this cycle. As positions unwind, correlations across risk assets rise immediately, and high-beta AI computing tokens in crypto get hit by the resulting outflows. That’s par for the course.
Are you selling or adding to your computing-power tokens in this downturn? Are you still above your cost basis?
$BTC $ETH $RENDER