South Korean Stock Market Falls Sharply as Tech Giants Samsung and SK Hynix Plunge

On July 28, 2026, South Korea's stock market fell 10.84% — its worst day since early March. Samsung and SK Hynix, two of the world's biggest chipmakers, dropped over 13%, briefly halting trading twice to calm panic. The damage reached Wall Street, where Intel, AMD, and Seagate each fell over 4%. Two triggers: China making its own chip-making machines, and Nvidia's reported $250bn OpenAI datacentre talks.