Asian tech stocks tumbled Friday as a U.S. semiconductor sell-off spread across the region, with SoftBank closing 9% lower, Tokyo Electron down over 8%, and Advantest sliding 7.2%. Kioxia plunged over 16% after a Texas jury ordered $229 million in patent damages to Viasat.

South Korea markets were closed for a holiday; SK Hynix fell over 11% Thursday. TSMC dropped 7.29% despite raising full-year capital expenditure to $60 billion and $64 billion. Chinese tech weakened: Tencent -4.8%, Meituan -4.6%, Kuaishou -7%, Baidu -3.7%, Alibaba -3.9%.

U.S. tech weakness continued: Nasdaq -1.47%, VanEck Semiconductor ETF -almost 4%, Arm Holdings -5%+, Micron, AMD, and Broadcom each -5%+, U.S.-listed SK Hynix -13%. Investors question whether aggressive AI spending is justifiable.

"Another wipe out for U.S. tech and AI..." said Andrew Jackson, Ortus Advisors strategist. The sell-off reflects unwinding crowded AI momentum trades, not fundamental deterioration. Global AI shares are reversing after months of gains as investors question lofty valuations amid accelerating infrastructure spending.