GoKawiil
Tech News
Major Asian tech and chip stocks sold off sharply Friday after the Nasdaq Composite fell 5.5% overnight and entered correction territory. SK Hynix, Samsung, TSMC, SoftBank, Advantest and Tokyo Electron all posted double-digit or near-double-digit losses, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropping 12.2% in the prior session.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said SoftBank plans $50 billion in investments in Malaysia, covering AI, new technologies and data centers. Anwar said SoftBank's Masayoshi Son identified sites in Kuching, Sarawak and peninsular Malaysia after a video call between the two leaders. The move follows SoftBank's recent framework agreement with Grab and Petroleum Sarawak Berhad to explore AI and digital infrastructure in Sarawak.
SK Hynix shares fell more than 10% and Samsung Electronics dropped 7.1% as an Asian tech sell-off spread Thursday, hitting LG Innotek, Seoul Semiconductor, Samsung SDI, SoftBank, Advantest, Tokyo Electron and Renesas. The rout followed a Wall Street decline after stronger-than-expected U.S. inflation data raised fears of further Federal Reserve rate hikes, with the Nasdaq down 1.88% and the S&P 500 down 1.11%.
SK Hynix fell more than 8% and Samsung Electronics dropped 7.9%, both hitting their lowest intraday levels since August, as a US semiconductor sell-off spread to Asian markets. SoftBank Group shares sank over 8% in Japan, dragging down chip-related names including Tokyo Electron, Advantest, Lasertec, Disco and Renesas Electronics. The moves followed a 0.44% Nasdaq decline and a 3.9% drop in Micron Technology after China's ChangXin Memory Technologies reported progress on a new chip architecture.
IDC Frontier, a SoftBank Group subsidiary, reported that its IDCF Cloud service suffered a ransomware attack beginning October 7 at 3:40 AM local time, disrupting its East Japan Region 1 data center cluster. The company said 495 businesses and local government bodies using the cloud platform were affected, and it has disabled management console access across all regions while checking security.
SoftBank Group raised $11.1 billion through senior notes—$10 billion in dollar-denominated bonds and 1 billion euros in euro-denominated notes. The company said the proceeds will cover a $10 billion payment due for the third and final tranche of its $30 billion follow-on investment in OpenAI, expected to close October 1, with the remainder going toward general corporate purposes. SoftBank shares rose more than 7% when Japanese markets reopened after a three-day holiday.