Readers can now see exactly why AI-linked chip shares dropped across Asia this week, what signals a broader valuation reset, and which on-page signals a site audit should check as the AI trade recalibrates. The selloff hit memory and AI-infrastructure names hardest, with South Korea’s KOSPI falling more than 6% in a session and Japan’s Kioxia plunging 13%, extending a five-session losing streak.
What the latest move actually looks like
The declines were the steepest since a similar rout in late July, according to reporting from Reuters. South Korean chipmakers fell for a fifth straight session, the KOSPI entered its longest losing streak in more than two years, and the index has now lost roughly a quarter of its value from its July peak. China’s technology-focused STAR Market has shed more than a third of its value from the same July highs. The pressure carried into US semiconductor names: the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell 2.7% on Monday, while Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix dropped 10% and 8% respectively in Seoul.
Even with the slide, Kioxia flagged a positive on its own balance sheet. Kioxia Holdings Corporation said on October 13, 2026 that S&P Global Ratings upgraded its long-term issuer credit rating to “BBB” with a “Positive” outlook, citing high profitability from AI-driven flash memory and SSD demand and a move to a net cash position where cash and deposits exceed debt.
Why rising bond yields are squeezing AI valuations
Concrete signs of that financing pressure are already visible. Guidance for Tencent Holdings’ 10-year dollar notes was around 1.15 percentage points above US Treasury yields, with those Treasuries standing at approximately 5.2%, showing how much more expensive long-dated borrowing has become for large technology issuers. SoftBank, a major technology investor, completed a record-sized high-yield bond sale last month, offering investors returns of as much as 9.75% on $4.5 billion of bonds with a 7.5-year maturity. Higher coupons signal that lenders now want greater compensation for risk on AI-adjacent credit.
Major allocators are also repositioning. The research arm of BlackRock downgraded its view on US equities to neutral on Monday, citing potential volatility around the AI buildout, and turned bullish on short-term US Treasuries. The International Monetary Fund, in its latest financial stability report, acknowledged AI’s contribution to economic growth but warned that a correction in AI-related investments could have global consequences, noting that investment and its eventual economic benefits might fall short of expectations.
Where the funding squeeze is showing up first
Capital-market signals are tightening in three specific places:
- IPO pipeline. Firmus, an Australian data centre operator backed by Nvidia, shelved its planned $5 billion initial public offering last week after investor interest weakened.
How the selloff shows up on a website and in a site audit
Three audit-level checks are worth running while the AI trade resets:
What to do now
- Re-audit AI visibility this week. Run a fresh AI-readiness check on the site and confirm that the bots behind ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity can reach, render, and cite the top revenue pages.
- Lock down the top 20 pages. Pull the pages that drive the majority of organic and AI-referred sessions, then check that each one has a current date stamp, working internal links, accurate schema, and a clear answer in the first 100 words.
- Track AI citations as a KPI. Add a weekly log of where the brand is cited or linked by AI assistants.
- Reduce single-vendor AI dependencies. If the site relies on a single AI provider for content, embeddings, or chat, document the fallback.
- Refresh the AI-overview content. Update the top comparison, how-to, and FAQ pages with the latest numbers, dates, and primary-source citations.
Is this a pause or the start of a broader reset?
Damien Boey, portfolio strategist at Wilson Asset Management in Sydney, told Reuters that rising bond yields and increased volatility in the bond market were beginning to influence asset prices across financial markets. Marc Velan, head of investments at Lucerne Asset Management in Singapore, told Reuters that the sharp decline in South Korean shares reflected investor positioning and the rising cost of capital more than a fundamental deterioration in AI demand, and that markets were entering a phase in which investors would pay closer attention to the commercialisation of AI technology and the returns companies generate.
The split between those two views, a macro-driven technical selloff versus the start of a tougher return-on-capital phase, is the core question. Meta Platforms’ 3.4% gain on Monday after the company released a new AI model showed that positive developments in the sector can still attract buyers.
FAQ
Try the AI visibility report
SEOScanPro runs a full technical audit of a site and shows the measured result behind every check. Open the AI visibility report.