Korean Stocks Under Pressure, Jensen Huang in Seoul

The more important signal is not the headline move in Korean equities, but the tightening of the AI trade’s funding backdrop. When the market stops rewarding every incremental capex and supply-chain lever to AI, the weakest link is usually high-beta beneficiaries with stretched positioning and limited near-term earnings proof. NVDA itself is not where the first-order damage shows up; the pressure is more likely in adjacent “AI proxy” baskets, Asia hardware suppliers, and local champions that trade on narrative rather than order conversion.

This looks like a classic positioning reset rather than a fundamental demand shock, which matters for timing. Over the next few days, volatility should stay elevated as systematic and retail flows de-gross from crowded AI exposure; over the next few months, the key catalyst is whether hyperscaler capex guidance and data-center demand re-accelerate enough to re-anchor the trade. If not, the market will keep rotating from multiple expansion to earnings delivery, and the highest-duration AI names will underperform even if the sector stays intact.

The contrarian setup is that the selloff may be broad enough to create a better entry in the actual monetizers while punishing the enablers. A social signal like a high-profile tech dinner can briefly improve sentiment, but it does not change the math on inventory risk, lead times, or how quickly AI spend converts into profits. The market may be misreading this as a demand problem when it is more likely a valuation and positioning unwind, which tends to reverse faster than a true earnings deterioration.