AI funding fears spark Asian market rout

Asian markets fell sharply on July 28, 2026, led by chipmakers, amid concerns over the massive funding demands of the AI boom. South Korea's KOSPI plunged over 8% to a three-month low, triggering a circuit breaker, and Japan's Nikkei slid 4%. The selloff followed a 2.2% drop in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index. Nvidia shares fell 5% after reports it is in talks to provide roughly $250 billion in financing guarantees for OpenAI for a data center project. Meanwhile, China's ChangXin Memory Technologies surged 466% on debut, highlighting investor enthusiasm for China's semiconductor sector. China also began manufacturing domestically developed immersion deep ultraviolet lithography machines, a tool long dominated by ASML, whose shares fell 8.5%. Other major losers included SK Hynix (-11%), Samsung Electronics (-9%), Kioxia (-18%), and Tokyo Electron (-9.8%). Separately, Brent Crude fell to $87.55 amid a lull in US-Iran hostilities after the US suspended air strikes. US Treasury yields dipped, and traders priced a 38% chance of a Fed rate hike on Wednesday. The yen remained near four-decade lows, with markets on alert for possible Japan — Bank of Japan intervention.