Artificial intelligence and semiconductor stocks fell before the opening bell on Friday, as weakness in Japan’s technology sector and new competition from Chinese AI developers weighed on investor sentiment.
Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average fell 4.03%, its biggest weekly decline since April 2025, while the broader TOPIX fell 2.72%. Technology stocks led the decline, with memory maker Kioxia down nearly 16% and Tokyo Electron and Advantest down about 8% and 7%, respectively.
In US pre-market trading, Nvidia 
NVDA Advanced Micro Devices down about 2% 
AMD and the cerebrum 
CBRS Each company fell about 3%, with Micron Technology (MU) dropping nearly 2%. western digital 
WDC and seagate technology 
STX Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing fell about 3%. 
TSM The stock fell nearly 4% despite announcing better-than-expected quarterly results the previous day.
Meanwhile, Alibaba-backed Moonshot AI has introduced Kim K3, which it describes as a 2.8 trillion parameter open-weight AI model designed to compete with leading US systems. The announcement highlighted growing competition from Chinese AI developers as investors assess the prospects for AI-related semiconductor companies.
