Anxiety Over A.I. Spending Returns to Global Markets

 

Anxiety Over A.I. Spending Returns to Global Markets

 

A sharp reversal in Asian stocks, after a rally fueled by Nvidia’s strong earnings, underscores how fears of an A.I. bubble are driving broad market swings.

 

River Akira Davis

By River Akira Davis

Reporting from Tokyo

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/business/stocks-ai-global.html

Published Nov. 20, 2025

Updated Nov. 21, 2025, 2:00 a.m. ET

 

Stocks in South Korea, Taiwan and Japan tumbled on Friday, reversing gains from a rally the previous day, as investor anxiety about a potential investment bubble in artificial intelligence bled over to Asia from the United States.

 

Benchmark indexes in South Korea and Taiwan fell nearly 4 percent in Asia on Friday. The losses were driven by declines in chip companies, including South Korea’s SK Hynix, which plummeted more than 8 percent. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company shed more than 4 percent.

 

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index declined 2 percent. Advantest, a Japanese manufacturer of semiconductor equipment, was down more than 12 percent, while shares of SoftBank, a big investor in A.I. companies including OpenAI, sank almost 11 percent.

 

In recent weeks, investors have been increasingly concerned that tech companies’ lavish spending on A.I. hardware like semiconductors and data centers — which has helped to fuel a rally in A.I.-related stocks over the past three years — might be outpacing actual demand. That has prompted a slump in the shares of many large global technology firms.

 

On Thursday, global tech stocks briefly surged after the chipmaker Nvidia unveiled strong earnings, signaling to investors that demand for chips essential to A.I. projects had not abated. The Nikkei 225 index in Japan saw its strongest performance in a week, thanks to surges in the prices of many of the country’s semiconductor-industry companies.

 

But the relief was short-lived, and investors began to lose their nerve again.

 

In the United States on Thursday, Nvidia opened more than 5 percent higher but lost those gains by the afternoon, ending the day down more than 3 percent. The S&P 500 tumbled after climbing as much as 1.9 percent in morning trading, closing the day 1.6 percent lower.

 

The market rally and subsequent reversal underscore how investor jitters about potential overvaluation in the A.I. sector are prompting swings in technology stocks, which sway the overall performance of global indexes.

 

During Asia hours, futures trading on the S&P 500, for which Nvidia is the largest component, edged higher, suggesting that the index might open slightly up on Friday in the United States.

 

River Akira Davis covers Japan for The Times, including its economy and businesses, and is based in Tokyo.