Jensen Huang stood in Seoul on Monday and told the world's most anxious semiconductor market to buy.

Nvidia's stock rose Monday after the CEO called the worst single-session chip selloff since March 2020 a buying opportunity, framing last week's $1.8 trillion wipeout as a positioning event rather than a structural signal [1]. The sell-off was triggered by Broadcom's underwhelming AI chip guidance and a May jobs report showing 172,000 new payrolls — more than double analyst expectations — which stoked fears the Federal Reserve could raise rates [2].

But the setting matters more than the soundbite. Huang was in Seoul to meet with SK Hynix, Samsung Electronics, LG, Hyundai, and Naver — the same partners at the center of South Korea's sovereign AI factory push, a policy framework the paper covered in its June 7 edition. The KOSPI tumbled more than 8% that session, extending a three-day decline to 13.5%, before narrowing losses as Samsung and SK Hynix rebounded from session lows [3]. Huang was physically present at the concentration point the market was re-pricing, declaring the market wrong.

"We are at the outset of the AI revolution," Huang said, framing the selloff as near-term positioning rather than a demand-side problem [1]. Wells Fargo Chief Equity Strategist Ohsung Kwon echoed the thesis, calling the sector "way overbought" and not signaling the end of the semi bull market [1]. UBS Global Wealth Management CIO Mark Haefele struck a similar note: business fundamentals remain strong [1].

Not everyone agrees. Analysts cited by Fortune warned the Nasdaq's slide echoes 1999-style bubble dynamics, with one describing 2026 as looking uncomfortably like that era and questioning whether AI valuations can hold without imminent rate cuts [1]. S&P 500 futures are up 0.9% and Nasdaq 100 futures up 1.9% ahead of the open, with Nvidia, Broadcom, and Micron gaining 2.7%, 3.3%, and 8.3% respectively in premarket trading [1].

The divergence between Huang's physical presence in Seoul and the market's digital panic tells the story. When the CEO of the world's most important chip company is in the city where sovereign AI factories are being built and the market is selling, the signal is that deal-making is accelerating regardless of sentiment. The $1.8 trillion selloff priced uncertainty. Huang priced contracts.

-- DAVID CHEN, Beijing