South Korea's Market Falls as AI Bets Sour

South Korea's stock market had a really bad day on Monday.

The main market index, called the KOSPI, dropped nearly 5%.

This happened because people were worried about investments they made in companies that make chips for artificial intelligence (AI).

These investments had been doing well, but now they're not, and people are losing money.

Two big companies, SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, which make a lot of these chips, also saw their stock prices fall by about 6%.

Another company, Hyundai Motor, dropped 7% because of a worker strike.

The market is also worried about higher oil prices and inflation.

Even though some foreign investors bought shares, the overall mood was very negative.

The Korean won, the country's money, actually got a little stronger against the dollar.

The interest rates on Korean government bonds also went up a bit.