Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix stocks rebounded on Friday, as bargain hunters returned to South Korea’s biggest chipmakers after Thursday’s bruising sell-off.
The recovery looked less like a fresh fundamental reset and more like a correction in sentiment after investors appeared to overreact to Meta’s cloud-computing plans.
The bigger question now is whether this bounce can survive Samsung’s upcoming earnings update and the next round of AI spending signals.
Samsung, SK Hynix rebound
The rebound followed one of the sharpest one-day reversals in Korea’s AI-chip trade this year.
On Thursday, the benchmark KOSPI plunged 7.89% to 7,648, its lowest level in more than three weeks, as global selling of AI-related chip stocks weighed on Korean heavyweights.
The plunge was led by Samsung Electronics, down 8.90%, and SK Hynix, down 12.81%, alongside losses in SK Square and Hyundai Motor.
The numbers look starker when seen in a broader context, as SK Hynix ended Thursday down 15% and Samsung closed 9% lower after Meta’s plan to sell computing power raised questions over excess AI capacity.
By Friday morning, some of that panic had faded.
Samsung Electronics was trading at 3,05,500 won, up 6.82% from the previous session, while SK Hynix rose 4.6% to 2.289 million won. The broader KOSPI index rose nearly 3% to around 7,869.84 on Friday.
That makes the move a targeted chip-stock recovery, not a broad declaration that all risks have disappeared.
Why investors think Thursday was an overreaction
The trigger for Thursday’s rout was Meta’s reported push into selling AI computing capacity.
The fear was that if one of the world’s largest AI spenders has surplus capacity to sell, the entire AI infrastructure cycle may be closer to a peak than investors thought.
Several Korean brokerages pushed back against that reading.
Samsung Securities analyst Kim Joong-han told Korea Economic Daily that computing power remains in an “absolute shortage,” adding that the entire industry, including Meta itself, may still be short on capacity as AI demand keeps rising.
Samsung Securities analyst Cho A-in framed the volatility as a fight over interpretation rather than a new negative signal.
She said the latest swings reflect investor sentiment being shaken by conflicting readings of the same news, and that stronger-than-expected second-quarter earnings could ease doubts over the durability of AI investment.
Mirae Asset Securities analyst Kim Young-gun was more direct.
He said it was difficult to view the Meta issue as proof of a decisive reduction in AI infrastructure spending, calling the latest weakness “a valid window for bargain buying in semiconductor stocks.”
Numbers behind the confidence
The bullish case rests on spending as Mirae Asset estimates global big-tech capital expenditure will reach $806 billion this year, up 73% from a year earlier, based on the latest company guidance.
The brokerage also expects spending to rise more than 20% again next year, even off that higher base.
Order books also remain large as combined remaining performance obligations disclosed by global big tech companies in the first quarter totalled $2.1 trillion, up 24% from the previous quarter, according to Mirae Asset.
About $656 billion of that could be recognised as revenue within two years.
The next big test is also near, as Samsung is due to announce preliminary second-quarter results on July 7, which could decide whether the rebound develops into a stronger recovery or fades as another sentiment-driven bounce.
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