Shares of semiconductor companies in the U.S. and Europe declined on Tuesday as a broader selloff in stocks exposed to AI deepened, dragging down the technology sector. Investors are weighing whether current levels of AI investment are sustainable while monitoring intensifying rivalry from Chinese memory makers.
In U.S. premarket activity, Micron fell 2.3%. Marvell Technology and SanDisk were also down more than 2% as of 04:28 ET (08:28 GMT). Western Digital dropped nearly 4%, while AMD and Broadcom each fell by roughly 1%.
European chipmakers recorded larger moves in some cases. STMicroelectronics dipped 2.6%; Soitec and Infineon each fell by more than 1%. Chip-testing firm Technoprobe slid 2.6%. Other European names that moved lower included Siltronic, which slipped 1.4%; Aixtron, down 1.9%; and ASM International, off 2.4%. Equipment suppliers ASML and BE Semiconductor each lost more than 1%.
The European and U.S. declines followed a sharp drop in Asian memory names. SK Hynix plunged 10%, Samsung Electronics fell 7.4%, and Tokyo-listed Kioxia tumbled as much as 13.3%. In Japan, SoftBank Group - which has sizable exposure to the global AI industry - sank 8.5% and led a wider retreat among the country’s semiconductor and electronics shares.
Those developments came after an earlier weak session for technology on Wall Street. The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.44% on Monday, and Micron slid 3.9% as investors digested mounting competition from China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT). CXMT over the weekend said it had achieved significant progress on a new chip architecture designed to increase memory density by packing more data into a smaller space.
Market context and movement
- AI-linked equities saw intensified selling pressure across regions, contributing to broader tech sector weakness.
- Memory stocks in Asia were particularly hard hit, amplifying losses for related suppliers and equipment makers.
- Investors cited both questions about the sustainability of AI spending and competitive advances from Chinese memory firms as catalysts for the moves.
The market reaction encompassed names across the semiconductor value chain - from memory producers to equipment manufacturers and chip testers - reflecting the interconnected nature of demand expectations and competitive shifts in the industry.