STORY: The Trump effect is rocking Asian chip stocks, including Taiwan chip giant TSMC.
On Thursday the world's biggest contract chipmaker reported a 36% jump in second-quarter profit.
That beat market forecasts, and was driven by a surge in demand for AI products.
And yet shares in the firm - Asia's most valuable listed company - closed down by 2.4%.
Markets were focused on earlier comments by Donald Trump, who said Taiwan had taken "100%" of America's chip business.
He said the island should pay the U.S. for its defense in return, adding geopolitical alarm to the tech tensions.
?
Taiwan's foreign ministry felt compelled to respond on Thursday, with a spokesman saying it was committed to boosting defense spending and working with Washington.
But Trump's comments added to existing tensions over U.S.-China relations.
Reports in recent days have said the Biden administration could step up curbs on chip exports, prompting a big sell-off for tech stocks.
Thursday saw South Korea's SK Hynix lose around 4%, while Japan's Tokyo Electron was off more than 8%.
That followed a big drop on Wall Street, where tech stocks saw $500 billion wiped off their market value.
