Taiwan's stock market crashed hard today, and it's bad news for TSMC investors and anyone exposed to the global chip trade.

• TSMC shares briefly crashed to their daily limit-down at the open before buyers stepped in, trimming the loss; a brokerage firm cut its rating from "Buy" to "Trading Buy," citing fears that new US political leadership could tighten rules or cut tax breaks for AI data centers, which could slow big tech's AI spending and hit TSMC's long-term growth.
• Taiwan's main stock index crashed nearly 9% at the open, falling over 3,700 points in a single session, the worst intraday point drop in the market's history, and broke below its key long-term support level.
• The selloff followed a brutal overnight crash in US chip stocks, which dragged down other Asian markets too: South Korea's market fell over 8% and had to pause trading, and Japan's Nikkei also dropped sharply.
• The Taiwan dollar fell to its weakest level in over a year, and despite the chaos, retail investors piled into leveraged Taiwan stock funds, betting on a rebound.
• Separately, crypto exchange Binance suffered a massive hack in late October, with its founder warning that AI will fuel more cyberattacks on banks and other financial firms.

Outlook: Analysts remain divided — some see TSMC's fundamentals as still solid long-term, but at least one well-known bearish analyst warns the selloff may just be starting and could drag Taiwan's index down much further.