Korea's $1 Trillion Stock Market Crash and What It Means for the Global AI Race

South Korea's KOSPI fell into a bear market from June 22 to July 16, 2026, losing nearly $1.1 trillion in market capitalization as SK hynix and Samsung dropped 38% and 29%. The two memory makers held 83% of the global HBM market and over half of KOSPI's total capitalization as of Q2 2026, so the index functions as a leveraged bet on AI memory demand. The author argues that single-stock leveraged ETFs, the persistent Korea discount and the rise of China's CXMT leave Korean capital markets exposed to further shocks that could spread across the AI supply chain.