DeepSeek's new model sparks memory-demand concerns, Asian chip stocks tumble Monday

Asian chip stocks opened sharply lower on the 19th after DeepSeek released a cheaper new model on the 17th. South Korea's KOSPI fell as much as 3.2% intraday, with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix down more than 4% at one point; Japan's Nikkei 225 fell about 2%, led by chip equipment maker Advantest. According to Bloomberg data, the Bloomberg Asia Semiconductor Index fell more than 2%, hitting its lowest level since July, with TSMC, SK Hynix and Advantest the main drags. Market concerns center on two points: DeepSeek says its new model requires only a quarter of the high-bandwidth memory and one-eighth of the SSD storage of the previous generation during inference, potentially reducing memory demand; and pressure on AI infrastructure financing continues, with US chip stocks having logged eight straight declines last Friday. The KOSPI last week posted its biggest weekly drop since October 2008 but is still up more than 30% year to date.