More than $650 billion was erased from Asian equity markets over 24 hours as a semiconductor-led selloff intensified across the region. South Korea's KOSPI closed down 5.8%, wiping out roughly $235 billion, with Samsung Electronics falling 7.8% and SK Hynix sinking nearly 10%, together erasing an estimated $174 billion. Japan's Nikkei extended its own slide into a second straight day, dropping around 3% and wiping out roughly ¥36.7 trillion, or $232 billion.
The rout was triggered less by any single earnings miss than by a synchronized spike in global bond yields. The US 30-year Treasury yield touched its highest level in 19 years, Japan's 10-year yield climbed to a three-decade high, and Germany's 30-year yield reached levels last seen in 2011. Rising oil prices, driven by escalating Middle East tensions after reports that the US had halted diplomatic talks with Iran, added to inflation concerns and gave investors another reason to dump richly valued tech and chip stocks that had rallied hard on the AI buildout narrative.
SK Hynix Answers With a Record Buyback
Hours after the rout, SK Hynix's board approved a plan to repurchase and fully cancel 40 trillion won ($28.6 billion) of treasury shares between August 20 and November 19, the company said in an official release. It is the largest treasury-share cancellation ever conducted by a listed South Korean company. SK Hynix also raised its shareholder-return target from within 50% of cumulative free cash flow to more than 50%, funded by record profits from AI memory chip sales, and said its net cash position stood at roughly 69 trillion won as of the end of the second quarter.
Related: US 30-Year Yield Hits 19-Year High, Sparks Stock Selloff
Investor Pressure Behind the Timing
The buyback follows growing pressure on SK Hynix and rival Samsung Electronics to return more of their AI-driven cash windfall to shareholders after both companies had offered limited detail on capital returns despite reporting record profits. The scale and timing, landing the same day chip stocks were hit hardest in the regional selloff, reads as a direct attempt to put a floor under the shares rather than a routine capital-allocation update.
Why Bond Markets Are Driving Tech Selloffs
The episode illustrates how sensitive AI-linked equities have become to the bond market rather than to company-specific news. With borrowing costs climbing simultaneously in the US, Japan and Germany, investors are discounting future AI infrastructure spending more aggressively, and semiconductor names with the richest valuations are absorbing the brunt of the repricing. Whether SK Hynix's buyback is enough to stabilize sentiment will likely depend on where yields settle over the next several sessions rather than on the buyback announcement itself.
