South Korea's KOSPI Crashes 6.5% Today - AI Crypto Down 10%

South Korea’s KOSPI crashed 6.5% on October 13, sliding to around 6,002 as investors dumped semiconductor stocks. The sell-off followed an announcement from China’s CXMT about a new memory chip design, heightening fears of tougher competition for South Korean leaders such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. The index fell about 400 points and is down more than 13% over five days, now over 35% below its June record high. After KOSPI 200 futures dropped more than 5%, South Korea’s exchange used a “sidecar” safety mechanism to slow algorithmic trading. Semiconductor shares in South Korea, Japan and even SoftBank (via Japan) declined, while AI-related crypto tokens also fell.