Asian Tech Stocks Retreat as AI Leaders Urge Caution

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei recently argued that slowing the development of frontier models is essential to guarantee safety protocols keep pace with innovation. His sentiment aligns with OpenAI’s Sam Altman, who suggested that the current climate makes a public offering ill-advised. This regulatory caution spooked investors who had priced tech valuations on the assumption of a relentless development cycle.

The market volatility rippled through the semiconductor supply chain. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. fell 1.2%, while South Korean giants SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics dropped 4.5% and 2.4% respectively. Analysts at Saxo Markets suggest that because bond yields are already elevated due to Middle East tensions, the market has little appetite for disruptions to the AI narrative.

Despite the immediate downturn, some experts remain optimistic about the underlying infrastructure. James Ooi of Tiger Brokers noted that the next phase of AI demand will likely shift from training new models to intensive inference and agentic workloads, which could sustain hardware spending. However, concerns persist regarding potential oversupply. Samsung, SK Hynix, and Kioxia are currently pouring hundreds of billions into fabrication capacity, creating a scenario where supply could outpace demand if the industry’s momentum stalls.