AI investment cooldown: foreign investors pull $131B from Korean stocks
As the AI investment boom cools, foreign investors have net sold about $131 billion of Korean equities this year, the largest outflow among major Asian markets, while the KOSPI has fallen 22% since the second half of 2026 and trading volume has shrunk about 70% from its late-May peak. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix together account for more than 50% of the index's weight; Samsung's quarterly operating profit rose nearly ninefold year on year yet its shares still fell, and the two companies' combined 55 trillion won (about $41 billion) buyback programs are nearing completion. Retail participation is also fading, with margin loan balances down from a June peak of 38.6 trillion won to about 33 trillion won and broker customer deposits falling from near 140 trillion won to about 100 trillion won.
It shows how AI-infrastructure spending expectations now drive—and can abruptly reverse—a stock market concentrated in memory chips, making Korea a sensitive gauge of AI investment sentiment.