Why did Asian tech stocks suffer a sudden sell-off?

Selling pressure began in New York following hotter inflation data, triggering Wall Street's worst day since July before spreading overseas to pummel technology shares across Seoul and Tokyo.

South Korea took the hardest hit, where the benchmark Kospi index tumbled by 8 percent as investors raced out of leading memory chip manufacturers.

Heavy losses followed growing doubts about how the artificial intelligence build-out is financed as debt and borrowing costs mount. Market strategist Charu Chanana explained: The selloff in Asia looks less like a sudden deterioration in technology fundamentals and more like a repricing of the cost of capital.

Yet market fundamentals remain firm for now, supported by strong earnings from equipment maker ASML and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which grew quarterly revenue by 50 percent.