South Korea's Kospi plunges another 4%, crashes 9% in 3 days. What's spooking investors?

South Korea's Kospi fell around 4% to 7,352.89 on Wednesday, the lowest since late May, dragged by Samsung Electronics which had plunged nearly 10% the previous day despite forecasting a 19-fold surge in Q2 operating profit, as investors questioned the durability of the AI-driven chip boom. Foreign investors turned net sellers, offloading 471.7 billion won (about $311.68 million), while US tech stocks also sold off sharply with the Nasdaq falling more than 1% and Intel, Micron, and AMD declining up to 10%. Despite the correction, Kospi remains the world's best-performing major index in 2026, up 74% year-to-date on AI-linked semiconductor gains.