Cost to insure AI debt reaches record high amid Asian semiconductor tumble

Seoul’s historic two-day crash and widening hyperscaler credit spreads suggest the AI trade’s leverage is starting to bite — in equities and in bonds.

Key points:

Korean equities saw the second day of a historic sell-off on Wednesday with market-wide circuit breakers again halting trading. Combined with Tuesday’s drop, the KOSPI has now shed nearly 17%, wiping out $620 billion in market capitalization. This has prompted the government to convene an emergency meeting of its financial authorities.

The initial trigger for the sell-off was SK Hynix’s Q2 earnings miss. The stock was down another 4% today, extending Tuesday’s 15% drop. Taken together with Samsung Electronics, the company makes up nearly half of the Korean index.