Investors dump semiconductor stocks amid peak-out fears as SK hynix Nasdaq debut soars 13%

"I sold all my SK hynix shares at a loss — I had bought them at 2.5 million won ($1,660) each," one investor said.

"I cleared out my Samsung Electronics position on Friday," another investor said.

Fears of a semiconductor peak-out — the point at which an industry or share price peaks and begins to decline — have been mounting, driving many investors to sell their Samsung Electronics and SK hynix shares. Those fears have deepened as both stocks have fallen nearly 30 percent from their highs in a sharp correction.

Despite those concerns, SK hynix surged 13 percent on its first day of trading on the Nasdaq, a debut widely seen as dispelling peak-out worries. A peak-out refers to a situation in which an industry or share price turns lower after reaching its highest point.

SK hynix's American depositary receipts closed their first trading session on the Nasdaq on Friday at around $168, above the IPO price of $149 — a gain of about 13 percent from the offering price.

Speaking to CNBC that day, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won was asked how he would convince investors they were not buying at the top. "In the old days, one might have said that," he replied. "But this is the AI era. That makes a really big difference, because the demand structure is different."

An SK hynix advertisement is displayed on the exterior of a building in New York on Friday (local time), the first day of the company's Nasdaq listing. [Reuters]

Chey also said he had met with many partners and customers, all of whom wanted more semiconductors. "Even when I announced I would double production capacity within five years, every customer said, 'That's not enough — we need more,'" he said.

Earlier, Kiwoom Securities cut its target price for Samsung Electronics amid peak-out concerns, lowering it from 430,000 won to 390,000 won. The brokerage said fears that rising memory chip prices would dampen demand were materializing.

BNK Investment Securities set a target price of 1.85 million won for SK hynix, below the current share price of 2.18 million won. Analyst Lee Min-hee wrote in a report that hyperscalers' competitive infrastructure investment "is no longer a reliable driver" and that "momentum is slowing." Lee added that the recent sharp drop in the share price reflects weakening demand and that earnings momentum is expected to fade after year-end.

By contrast, Kim Dong-won, head of research at KB Securities and a well-known semiconductor analyst, said recent concerns about AI "appear to be nothing more than noise."

Kim forecast that memory chip demand would grow 150-fold driven by the diversification of AI applications. He added that the spread of AI agents is expected to triple memory demand, autonomous driving to increase it fivefold, and robotics to expand it more than tenfold, and predicted semiconductor share prices would have greater upside in the second half of this year.

park@heraldcorp.com