Taiwan's stock market fell sharply after AI executives called for slowing down AI development, a bad day for chip investors but a possible pause for a market that had run hot on AI hype.

• Executives at several US AI companies urged the industry to slow down over safety worries, and Wall Street sold off — the Philadelphia semiconductor index dropped almost 6%.
• Taiwan's main index lost 322 points and slipped below the 46,000 mark, with TSMC falling and trading volume at its lowest since April.
• Foreign investors were heavy sellers, pulling out tens of billions of Taiwan dollars in a single day.
• Chip packaging suppliers like Unimicron, Nan Ya PCB and Kinsus all fell as big institutions cut their holdings.
• Despite the drop, Cathay Financial raised its Taiwan growth forecast for the year to 11.6%, pointing to rising AI use and heavy cloud spending, and expects the central bank to hold rates steady this month.

Outlook: The AI trade looks shaky in the short term, but strong demand forecasts suggest this is a pullback rather than the end of the boom.