South Korean stocks plunged for a fifth consecutive trading session Tuesday, with the benchmark KOSPI falling as much as 7.4% to 5,914.35 as investors sold semiconductor shares amid growing concerns about the sustainability of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The Korea Exchange suspended automated sell orders for five minutes in the morning after futures tracking major Korean stocks fell more than 5%.

The sell-off followed reports of technological advancesby Chinese memory manufacturer ChangXin Memory Technologies and warnings about the financing needed to sustain AI infrastructure investment. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix led the losses despite Samsung’s preliminary third-quarter operating