Asian semiconductor stocks dropped sharply on Friday after Nvidia’s decline in U.S. trading triggered a broad sector retreat. The pullback came despite Nvidia’s strong quarterly results and upbeat guidance.
SoftBank led losses, falling more than 10 percent in Tokyo. The company no longer holds Nvidia shares but remains exposed through Arm, the British chip designer whose architecture powers Nvidia products, and several AI infrastructure ventures including the Stargate data center project.
SK Hynix slid nearly 9 percent. The company is Nvidia’s largest provider of high bandwidth memory used in AI systems. Samsung Electronics, another memory supplier to Nvidia, fell almost 6 percent. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which produces Nvidia’s chip designs, ended the session down nearly 5 percent.
Other hardware manufacturers were also hit. Hon Hai Precision Industry declined about 5 percent, while Japan’s Renesas Electronics, Tokyo Electron, Lasertec, and Advantest posted losses ranging from 2 to 12 percent.
The selloff followed Nvidia’s more than 3 percent drop on Thursday, a move analysts attributed to macro pressures including tighter financial conditions and risk aversion despite the company’s strong earnings and upbeat fourth quarter outlook.
