Seoul chip stocks fell more than 13% as DRAM contract prices rose

Chip stocks are crashing. Memory prices are rising. Both are true at once.

Seoul takes the hit

On July 28, 2026, the semiconductor selloff turned brutal in Seoul: Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix each fell more than 13%, Japan’s Kioxia dropped 18%, and the Kospi closed down nearly 11%, triggering its eighth circuit breaker of 2026. It was the fourth straight losing session for chip stocks, with the Nasdaq-100 down 9.7% from its record high.

Three things spooked investors:

• A report that a Chinese state-backed company has begun mass producing deep ultraviolet lithography machines
• Growing unease about circular financing in AI infrastructure deals
• Stretched valuations after a year of AI-driven gains

The China angle hits Korean names hardest. SK Hynix and Samsung sit at the top of the memory market precisely because advanced chipmaking has been hard to replicate; any sign that China is cracking the equipment problem chips away at that moat.

The paradox: falling stocks, rising prices

Here is what makes this selloff strange. While the stocks fall, the product gets more expensive. Third-quarter DRAM contracts settled 20 to 30% higher during the month. Demand for AI memory is so strong that prices keep climbing even as equity investors panic.

In a normal downturn, collapsing share prices and collapsing product prices travel together, both signaling weak demand. This time the physical market and the financial market are telling opposite stories: customers are paying more for memory than they did last quarter, while shareholders price in a bleaker future.

Repricing risk, not demand

The cleanest way to read the split: markets are repricing the risk, not the demand. At least so far. The DRAM contracts prove the AI buildout is still consuming everything the memory makers can produce. The share prices say investors no longer trust that this lasts, or that the financing behind it is sound.

Healthy correction or the start of the AI bubble deflating? Six months of DRAM contracts will answer better than any single trading day.