Mieszane nastroje w Azji: Korea Południowa odrabia straty, Japonia wciąż pod presją

South Korea — partial recovery. News that broke Thursday night / Friday morning that Anthropic had begun early-stage work on a custom AI chip and held talks with Samsung Electronics as a potential manufacturing partner provided a positive catalyst for Samsung shares . The Information reported on July 2 that Anthropic is discussing a potential foundry partnership with Samsung, sharpening competitive pressure on Nvidia . Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix had already taken strategic stakes in Anthropic in late May as part of a $65 billion Series H round that valued the AI company at $965 billion, with Samsung named as a "strategic infrastructure partner" . This gave Samsung an edge: on Friday, South Korea's KOSPI led a regional rebound in chip stocks, with Samsung shares recovering some of Thursday's losses, while the broader KOSPI had been severely battered in prior weeks — plunging 10% on June 23 and triggering a circuit breaker .

Japan — continued weakness. Japan's Nikkei 225 fared worse. Chip-related stocks in Japan had fallen 3.9% in early June when the AI rally first lost steam , and the Friday session saw continued selling pressure on Japanese semiconductor names without a comparable positive catalyst. The Nikkei 225 had been dragged lower repeatedly by tech weakness that spread from the Magnificent 7 into Asian markets .

Anthropic—Samsung talks: key role

The Anthropic-Samsung talks are the most important factor explaining the intra-regional divergence on Friday. Key details:

• Anthropic has begun early-stage work on developing its own AI chips and is discussing a potential manufacturing partnership with Samsung .
• The talks remain preliminary — the chip's use, performance specs, and server integration have not been decided .
• Samsung joined Anthropic's $65 billion Series H funding round as a strategic infrastructure partner alongside SK Hynix and Micron . As the only one of the three that manufactures logic chips, Samsung is positioned to win foundry orders .
• Samsung had already shipped samples of 12-layer HBM4E memory chips to key customers earlier in June, strengthening its AI chip credentials .

Broader context: U.S. chip declines and AI demand concerns

The Asia selloff was part of a wider global rotation out of tech and AI-linked stocks. U.S. chip stocks had been declining since mid-June, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index tracking toward its worst week since March 2025 . The S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed lower on June 8-9 as a chip stock rebound failed , and by June 23 the tech rout had deepened, with Nvidia and Tesla falling sharply and the KOSPI plunging 10% . Deutsche Bank strategists noted that tech weakness extended from the Magnificent 7 and Apple into Asian markets, weighing on risk sentiment and U.S. equity futures . The core worry was that AI infrastructure spending might be peaking, with investors increasingly concerned that valuations had outrun fundamentals .

Year-to-date performance note

The available search evidence does not contain precise H1 2026 year-to-date percentage returns for the KOSPI and Nikkei 225 as of July 3. What is clear: both indices had reached record highs in mid-June, with the KOSPI surging on AI enthusiasm and the Nikkei lifted by BOJ policy expectations , before the June-July tech rout erased significant gains. The KOSPI was the more volatile of the two, suffering a 10% single-day plunge on June 23 that triggered a circuit breaker , while the Nikkei 225 experienced more moderate but sustained declines .