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Investing.com-- Shares of Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) supplier SK Hynix Inc (KS:000660) slumped on Friday as trade in South Korean markets resumed after nearly a week-long holiday, with the stock largely catching up with declines in its global peers on concerns over China’s DeepSeek.
SK Hynix slid as much as 11.4% to 194,800 won, and was by far the biggest weight on the KOSPI benchmark, which fell 0.9%. Trade in South Korean markets resumed after a week-long holiday for the Lunar New Year.
Losses in SK Hynix were driven chiefly by concerns over DeepSeek, whose artificial intelligence models, released last week, sparked questions over U.S. dominance in AI, and just how justified the billions of dollars being invested in AI infrastructure were.
DeepSeek claimed to match the performance of rivals such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT while using older hardware and a fraction of its budget. This also sparked concerns that companies could adopt leaner, more efficient AI models, lessening the need for advanced AI processors.
Market darling Nvidia wiped out nearly $600 billion in value earlier this week, while broader U.S. tech valuations slumped by about $1 trillion.
Demand for advanced AI processors has been a key driver of SK Hynix’ earnings, with the company clocking a record profit in the fourth quarter. It is the only supplier of advanced fifth-generation, 12-layer high-bandwith memory chips, which it supplies almost entirely to Nvidia.
A Bloomberg report on Friday showed that Nvidia approved HBM3E chips from SK Hynix rival Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (KS:005930), although they were slightly less advanced than SK Hynix’ offerings.
Samsung shares fell 2.4% on Friday.