A hedge fund was pushed to the brink by a liquidity crunch after a steep drop in semiconductor shares, as global chip stocks lost $3 trillion in market value in July. Citadel stepped in to buy $16 billion of the fund’s public equity holdings at a 10% discount, a deal intended to prevent an uncontrolled wave of selling. The fund had previously been chosen to play a leading role in SK Hynix’s $27 billion U.S. IPO. The episode underscored systemic risks in the semiconductor sector and weighed on the Nasdaq semiconductor index.