The logo of Japanese company SoftBank Group is seen outside the company’s headquarters in Tokyo on January 22, 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kazuhiro Nogi | Afp | Getty Images<\/p>\n
A sector-wide pullback hit Asian chip stocks Friday, led by a steep decline in SoftBank<\/a>, after Nvidia<\/a>‘s sharp drop overnight defied its stronger-than-expected earnings and bullish outlook.<\/p>\n SoftBank<\/a>\u00a0plunged more than 10%\u00a0in Tokyo. The Japanese tech conglomerate recently offloaded<\/a> its Nvidia shares but still controls British semiconductor company Arm<\/a>, which supplies Nvidia with chip architecture and designs.<\/p>\n SoftBank is also involved in a number of AI ventures that use Nvidia’s technology, including the $500 billion Stargate project for data centers in the U.S.<\/p>\n South Korea’s SK Hynix fell nearly 10%. The memory chip maker is Nvidia’s top supplier of high-bandwidth memory used in AI applications.\u00a0Samsung Electronics<\/a>, a rival that also supplies Nvidia with memory, fell over 5%.\u00a0<\/p>\n Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company,<\/a> the world’s largest contract chipmaker and manufacturer of Nvidia’s chip designs, was down over 4% in Taipei.\u00a0<\/p>\n Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry<\/a>, also known as Foxconn, which manufactures server racks designed for AI workloads, dipped 4%.<\/p>\n The retreat in major Asian semiconductor giants comes after Nvidia fell over 3% in the U.S. on Thursday, despite beating Wall Street expectations in its third-quarter earnings the night before.\u00a0<\/p>\n The company also provided stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter sales guidance, which analysts said could lift earnings expectations across the sector.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, smaller chip players in Asia were not spared either.<\/p>\n In Tokyo, Renesas Electronics<\/a>, a key Nvidia supplier, fell 2.3%. Tokyo Electron<\/a>, which provides essential chipmaking equipment to foundries that manufacture Nvidia’s chips, was down 5.32%.\u00a0<\/p>\n