Investors in chip stocks around the world are growing increasingly nervous about AI spending – and the South Korean SK Hynix, which specialises in manufacturing dynamic random-access memory chips and flash memory chips, is caught in the eye of the storm.

Matt Britzman, an analyst at the broker Hargreaves Lansdown, says:

SK Hynix could hardly have picked a tougher moment for its Nasdaq debut. Just weeks after entering the US market, investors are grappling with virtually every AI concern imaginable, from questions about hyperscale spending and model efficiency to worries that the sector’s extraordinary growth is beginning to slow.

Against that backdrop, a set of results that largely reinforced the long-term investment case, but fell marginally short of elevated expectations, was enough to trigger a sharp reaction.