Stock markets are crashing worldwide, led by Asian chipmakers, in what looks like the start of an AI-bubble pop — bad news for investors, especially anyone loaded up on borrowed money.

• Korea's market is having repeated "Black Monday" crashes, down 25% in a few weeks as chip giants Samsung and SK Hynix get hammered.
• The AI boom got too big — data-center and chip stocks became too much of the market, and now people are dumping the risky bets.
• The US-Iran conflict is making it worse, pushing oil up and scaring investors into selling.
• A lot of the buying was done with borrowed money, so the losses are doubling as prices fall.
• It's all connected: if US AI projects get cancelled, Asian chip factories lose orders, jobs go, and no one buys American products either.

Outlook: With too much hype, too much debt, and a shrinking pool of new buyers, the sell-off looks set to keep spreading from Korea to the rest of the world.