The logo of Japanese company SoftBank Group is seen outside the company’s headquarters in Tokyo, January 22, 2025.
Kazuhiro Nogi | AFP | Getty Images
A sector-wide pullback hit Asian semiconductor stocks on Friday. Softbankafter NvidiaThe overnight plunge belied better-than-expected earnings and a bullish outlook.
Softbank plunged more than 10% in the Tokyo market. The Japanese technology conglomerate recently sold its stake in Nvidia, but still controls British semiconductor company Arm, which supplies Nvidia with chip architecture and designs.
SoftBank is also involved in a number of AI ventures using Nvidia technology, including the $500 billion Stargate project for U.S. data centers.
South Korea’s SK Hynix fell nearly 10%. The memory chip maker is Nvidia’s top supplier of high-bandwidth memory used in AI applications. samsung electronicsThe rival company, which also supplies memory to Nvidia, fell more than 5%.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, The company, which is the world’s largest contract chipmaker and makes chip designs for Nvidia, fell more than 4% in Taipei.
Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision IndustryThe company, also known as Foxconn, which makes server racks designed for AI workloads, fell 4.86%.
The decline in the Asian semiconductor giant’s stock price came after Nvidia Corp. fell more than 3% in the U.S. on Thursday, even though the company reported third-quarter results the night before that beat Wall Street expectations.
The company also provided better-than-expected fourth-quarter sales guidance, which analysts said could boost profit expectations across the sector.
Billy To, regional head of retail research at CGS International Securities Singapore, said NVIDIA is a victim of a combination of Bitcoin’s decline, the possibility of a postponement of the Fed’s interest rate cut, and generally difficult financial conditions.
“When you add in the ongoing talk of an AI bubble, it’s going to trigger a broader risk-off rotation, and naturally Nvidia is one of the first pressure points,” he told CNBC.
Asia’s smaller chip players were no exception. In Tokyo, Nvidia’s main supplier Renesas Electronics fell 3%. Tokyo Electron, which provides essential chip-making equipment to the foundries that make Nvidia’s chips, fell 6.6%.
Fellow Japanese chip equipment maker Lasertec fell 5.2%.
