Asia chip stocks slide as OpenAI capacity pause reignites AI slowdown fears

Chip stocks across Asia fell in the September 27 session after news that OpenAI had paused part of its buildout plans reawakened fears that the AI spending boom underpinning chip demand could be slowing. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, the two companies whose memory-chip businesses have been the biggest beneficiaries of AI-related orders, both declined. The sell-off matters because these two stocks have been treated as a proxy for how durable AI infrastructure spending really is. Any sign that a major AI buyer like OpenAI is dialing back commitments raises the question of whether chipmakers' capacity expansion plans, including TSMC's push into 2nm production, are running ahead of actual demand. What is unresolved is whether the OpenAI pause reflects a genuine pullback in AI capital spending or a one-off adjustment. TSMC has separately reported that its 2nm wafer capacity will exceed earlier estimates, a data point that cuts against the slowdown narrative and suggests the picture is not uniform across the chip supply chain.