GoKawiilCANADA - 2025/08/07: In this photo illustration, the SoftBank Group (Soft Bank) logo is seen displayed on a smartphone screen. (Photo Illustration by Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Asian tech stocks tumbled on Friday as a fresh rout in U.S. semiconductor shares spread across Asia, underscoring growing worries about AI spending.
Shares of SoftBank dropped 9.2%, while chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron lost 9% and Advantest slid 9.4%, tracking steep overnight losses on Wall Street.
Japanese memory chipmaker Kioxia plunged over 14% after a federal jury in Texas on Thursday ordered the firm to pay $229 million in damages after finding it infringed a Viasat patent related to computer memory technology.
South Korea's markets were closed for a public holiday. On Thursday, shares of SK Hynix closed over 11% lower.
Taiwan's TSMC fell 3.64% on Friday, a day after the company posted a sharp jump in profit, topping market expectations.
Chinese technology stocks also weakened. Hong Kong-listed shares of Tencent slipped 1.3%, Meituan fell 2.4% and Kuaishou lost 3.3%, while Baidu and Alibaba eased 0.7% and 1.3%, respectively.
The declines followed another weak session for U.S. technology stocks, with the Nasdaq Composite falling 1.47% as semiconductor shares came under renewed pressure.
The VanEck Semiconductor ETF fell almost 4%, with Arm Holdings dropping more than 5%. Micron Technology , Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom each lost more than 5%, while U.S.-listed shares of SK Hynix slumped over 13%.
TSMC raised its full-year capital expenditure forecast to between $60 billion and $64 billion, up from $52 billion to $56 billion, but investors focused instead on concerns that the industry's aggressive investment cycle might be becoming increasingly difficult to justify.
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