South Korean markets experienced a significant sell-off on Thursday, with semiconductor giants Samsung Electronics and SK hynix seeing their share prices plummet, dragging the benchmark KOSPI index to a recent low.

By the market close, Samsung Electronics had plunged 9.06% to 286,000 won, while SK hynix shares plummeted 14.57% to 2,187,000 won. This sell-off pressured the KOSPI index down by 7.89% to 7,648.09 points, marking its lowest closing level since June 8. The secondary Kosdaq index also fell in tandem, declining 6.74%.

The sharp decline was primarily influenced by weakness in U.S. technology stocks and ongoing volatility in the AI chip sector, with selling pressure spreading from Wall Street to Asian markets. Reports suggesting that OpenAI might postpone its IPO plan due to market volatility and valuation pressure have sparked concerns over the demand outlook for AI chips. As core suppliers of AI infrastructure, Samsung and SK hynix were directly impacted.

Despite the short-term sell-off, the fundamental positions of both companies in the AI memory chip sector remain robust. SK hynix recently announced a medium-to-long-term investment plan totaling 1,100 trillion won to expand its AI memory production capacity. Both companies had previously seen their market capitalizations surpass the 1 trillion dollar mark, reflecting strong demand for AI infrastructure development. In other regional markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 2.47%, with other Asian markets also broadly facing downward pressure.