Asian stocks rebounded Friday as technology shares recovered from a steep selloff.
The recovery was helped by Nvidia chief Jensen Huang's defense of CoreWeave and Federal Reserve chief Kevin Warsh's upbeat assessment of artificial intelligence.
Seoul gained more than 2 percent and Tokyo rose about 1.8 percent, according to the source.
The advances followed losses of 7.6 percent in Seoul and 4.9 percent in Tokyo on Thursday.
Chipmakers SK hynix and Kioxia helped lift the two markets.
Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Taipei, Mumbai, Bangkok and Manila also advanced, while Frankfurt rose in morning trading and London and Paris declined.
AI Selloff and CoreWeave Concerns
The previous session's technology selloff was driven partly by stronger-than-expected US inflation data, which increased expectations for Federal Reserve interest-rate hikes.
Investor concerns also focused on CoreWeave's heavy debt burden.
CoreWeave, a New Jersey-based data center operator, had borrowed heavily to finance purchases of semiconductor chips from Nvidia.
Its shares fell 15.5 percent on Wednesday as yields on some of its bonds surged, according to the source.
Huang sought to reassure investors by defending CoreWeave's financial position and outlook.
"CoreWeave's strength is improving every day. I'm optimistic.
Their cost of capital is actually decreasing," said Jensen Huang, Nvidia chief.
CoreWeave shares subsequently climbed almost 6 percent.
The move helped lift broader AI-related equities after concerns about the financial structure supporting the sector intensified.
SPI Asset Management's Stephen Innes said Huang's comments helped stabilize AI-related shares and the wider market.
"One moment the market was pricing the possibility that the AI financing machine had started eating its own tail, the next it was listening to the high priest of the boom explain that the patient was getting stronger.
AI Jesus had entered the trading room and, for a while at least, the machines found religion again," wrote Stephen Innes, SPI Asset Management.
Warsh separately described AI as a major economic development while warning that its effects would not be immediate or uniform.
"Most consequential change" to the global economy in my lifetime, predicting its effects would be positive but the path forward "bumpy" said Kevin Warsh, Federal Reserve chief.
At an event during the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok, Warsh said the AI investment boom could push prices higher in the short term.
"There really is, I think, a huge benefit to the global economy, to the US economy over the horizon" said Kevin Warsh, Federal Reserve chief.
Warsh also repeated his view that economies adopting the technology effectively could become more productive.
"Make economies and countries that put it to good use more productive" said Kevin Warsh, Federal Reserve chief.
