South Korea's KOSPI erased earlier gains of as much as 4% and turned negative on the session.

2012: SK Group acquired Hynix; Samsung's market value was more than ten times Hynix and it led global DRAM. SK Hynix targeted HBM (high-bandwidth memory), launching the world’s first HBM product in 2014 but suffering a setback on second‑generation chips that left it behind Samsung and prompted internal debate about halting R&D. The company nonetheless ramped R&D and capacity, betting on growing NVIDIA demand, and invested 880 bln won (about $640m) in a packaging plant and related assets that were underutilized after demand fell in 2019. The bet paid off after 2022: ChatGPT-driven AI demand sharply increased global need for HBM, which is a key component of NVIDIA data‑center AI accelerators, and SK Hynix is now a major HBM supplier to NVIDIA.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent said Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh delivered hawkish remarks on inf.