From Bloomberg:
Wall Street concerns about business disruption caused by artificial intelligence are turning into a boon for Asian stock markets, fueling demand for the region’s leading chipmakers that dominate the industry’s supply chain.
The MSCI Asia-Pacific index rose more than 12% in 2026, while U.S. benchmarks fell amid a sell-off on concerns that artificial intelligence models could threaten the businesses of software, legal and real estate services providers. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) is down 0.2% this year, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (^NDX) is down about 2%.
The divergence underscores the global fund’s shift in preference from artificial intelligence pioneers saddled with huge spending to hardware producers with strong pricing power, many of which are based in Asia. The surge in memory chip prices has been a boon to the region’s heavyweights such as Samsung Electronics Co (005930.KS, SSNLF), while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSM, 2330.TW)’s irreplaceable position as the world’s leading contract chipmaker has also provided support for Taiwan’s stocks.
“The main concern for the U.S. is very large spending,” said Richard Tang, head of research at Julius Baer in Hong Kong. “Most of Asia’s tech sector is upstream. No matter who ultimately wins, upstream will still get revenue from downstream players.”
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