The closing loss followed an even sharper drop shortly after the opening bell: The Kospi sank 8.78% to 4,911.28 before recovering some ground. The plunge triggered a circuit breaker and a separate sell-sidecar trading curb in quick succession, The Korea Herald reported.
Samsung Electronics closed down 6.35% at 188,700 won, while SK hynix lost 10.44% to finish at 1.132 million won. The benchmark had already fallen 5.28% the previous session.
Data center regulation concerns
The Korea Herald linked the selling to fears of tighter U.S. regulation of AI data center investment after the midterm elections. Jin Min-ji of Korea JoongAng Daily reported that Democratic gains had raised concerns about slower infrastructure spending, which could push back demand for chips.
That report described a different calculation for the companies buying those chips. Slower data center expansion could ease capital spending pressure on large cloud operators such as Amazon and Meta, even as it delays business for their semiconductor suppliers.
Korea JoongAng Daily also reported that Texas Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa said on Nov. 5 that “we need to stop what we are doing with data centers” until laws protect residents. Her call was conditional, not an announcement that a construction ban had taken effect.
Construction outlook
Lee Kyung-min, an analyst at Daishin Securities, argued that investors were overstating the threat.
“The likelihood of AI data center construction coming to a complete halt is limited, and we believe market concerns are overblown,” Lee said, as quoted by The Korea Herald.
Lee estimated the probability of new-project suspensions in Texas, Georgia and Ohio at 15% to 30%, with actual risks more likely to involve rising costs and construction delays. Those figures were his assessment, not a guarantee that projects would proceed.
The distinction did not eliminate the prospect of further pressure on chip shares. Hwang San-hae, a market strategy analyst at LS Securities, told Korea JoongAng Daily that the election-related overhang was likely to persist through year-end, making a sustained rebound difficult.
