South Korea’s main stock market, the Kospi, dropped by about 8% on Tuesday after many investors sold shares in large technology companies. This sharp fall happened even though Samsung Electronics, a well-known technology company, reported a big increase in its quarterly profit from higher demand for advanced memory chips. Trading had to stop for a short time because of an automatic safety rule.

The main reason for the fall was that investors are worried about the high amount of money the artificial intelligence (AI) industry is now spending. These companies are investing a lot before they are sure how much money AI will earn in the future.

Because of this concern, many investors sold shares to secure their earlier gains. This caused not only Samsung and SK Hynix shares to fall, but also affected the entire Kospi stock market.