KOSPI crashes 8%, Nikkei plunges 5% as US election sparks AI stock rout

Asian stock markets crashed Friday as South Korea's KOSPI plunged nearly 9 percent, triggering a circuit breaker, and Japan's Nikkei fell over 5 percent amid a global selloff in AI and semiconductor stocks following the US midterm elections. The KOSPI fell below 5,000 for the first time in nine months, with Samsung Electronics plunging 10 percent and SK Hynix sinking 13 percent. Japan's Nikkei dropped 5.27 percent, while TSMC declined 8.5 percent and SoftBank slumped 11 percent. The rout followed the Democrats' sweeping victory in the US midterm elections, raising fears of tighter AI regulation and slowing data centre investments. Wall Street suffered its worst session since April 2025, with the Nasdaq entering correction territory and approximately $3 trillion wiped off S&P 500 companies.