An electronic board showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index at a dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul on Thursday. (Yonhap)
An electronic board showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index at a dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul on Thursday. (Yonhap)

South Korean stocks opened sharply lower Thursday as artificial intelligence valuation concerns reemerged.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index lost 53.8 points, or 1.33 percent, to 4,002.6 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Overnight, major U.S. stock indexes lost ground on renewed AI bubble fears, following reports that a primary investor of Oracle pulled out from the company's data center project.

The S&P 500 closed 1.2 percent lower, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.47 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq tumbled 1.8 percent.

Oracle dropped over 5 percent and other AI-related stocks, such as Broadcom and Nvidia, also declined.

In Seoul, most large cap shares were trading lower.

Market top-cap Samsung Electronics fell 0.65 percent, while its chipmaking rival SK hynix rose 1.09 percent.

Battery maker LG Energy Solution fell 6.74 percent on the cancellation of a massive supply deal, portal operator Naver slid 0.87 percent and top car maker Hyundai Motor dipped 1.05 percent.

The Korean won was trading at 1,478.5 won against the U.S. dollar, up 1.3 won from the previous session's close. (Yonhap)