HMM: The world’s hottest AI stock market has gone cold.

South Korea’s stock market has gone from the world’s hottest to its coldest in just a few months.

The Kospi, the world’s best-performing major stock benchmark in the first half of 2026, has since fallen about 24%, making it the worst-performing major market in the second half. It’s still more than 50% higher this year.

The AI trade isn’t losing its appeal. But investors are increasingly looking beyond South Korea’s memory-chip giants to companies with broader exposure to the AI hardware boom.

Every time a headline seems to say that, yes, there’s a bubble and it’s finally deflating, it turns out just to be another bump in the road.