Tech darlings lead a global jolt
Global investors in AI and chip stocks got a rough wake-up call as global stock markets shuddered, with the sharpest hit in South Korea. The Kospi index dropped 10% in a single session, briefly triggering a 20-minute trading halt. The country had been the world’s best-performing stock market since early 2025, largely on the back of its memory-chip giants.
Shares of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, whose chips power many artificial intelligence systems, each fell more than 12%. As these stocks surged over the past year, retail investors piled in, helping drive big and sometimes unpredictable moves. A strategist at brokerage CLSA described this kind of swing as “unnerving” and increasingly treated as a regular feature of today’s market.
The turbulence was not limited to Asia. Some of the biggest U.S. tech names, including Alphabet and Amazon, were lower in premarket trading, extending losses from the prior day.
SpaceX, which only recently listed and briefly became the world’s fourth most valuable public company, has been a focal point of the shakeout. In the broader selloff, the stock has already shed more than 20% over three trading sessions while still trading above its IPO price, and SpaceX stock rebounded slightly on Tuesday after dipping below its $150 market offering level.
For investors in the new listing, several numbers now matter at once:
- The stock is only about 11% above its $135 IPO price, after a prior run to roughly $225 per share.
- At recent levels, SpaceX has given up an estimated $400 billion in market value and is close to slipping under a $2 trillion market cap.
- A basket of space-sector stocks that had doubled on average year-to-date is now down about 17% since SpaceX priced its offering.
- Only 4.2% of SpaceX’s shares were initially floated, and upcoming insider share unlocks later this summer are another weight on the stock.
For anyone exposed to concentrated AI, chip, or space bets, the past few sessions have shown how quickly market leadership can shift after record highs.
