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The world’s most valuable chip stocks have seen more than $1 trillion wiped from their market caps this week as investor jitters swept through the sector.
The selloff was led by Nvidia, which saw a $238 billion rout since market close on Friday. SK Hynix, Samsung Electronics and Micron — all key players in the memory space — lost $176 billion, $173 billion and $113 billion, respectively.
The chip sector has been one of the main beneficiaries of the AI boom, with investors piling into stocks as they looked to capitalize on the huge sums being funnelled into the sector.
The Philadelphia semiconductor index (SOX) — which tracks the 30 largest U.S.-traded companies involved in the chip sector — has risen 92% over the past 12 months, despite a nearly 20% drop over the past month.
In total, 20 of the world’s most valuable chip stocks lost $1.3 trillion since market close on Friday, according to a CNBC analysis using FactSet data.
AMD also shed around $110 billion and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. lost $119 billion.
“This decline appears to be driven largely by sentiment rather than fundamentals,” said Michael Field, chief equity strategist at Morningstar.
“Simply put, it’s loss of confidence,” he added. “We continue to see upside in many AI names, but these are growth stocks, and, as such, much of their value comes from cash flows expected far out into the future, which requires a lot of faith from investors.”
The sharp sell-off reflects concerns that AI infrastructure spending may be “peaking faster than expected,” said Charlie Dai, VP principal analyst at Forrester. Alphabet said it would boost its 2026 capex forecast as it rushes to build new AI infrastructure.
“Investors are reassessing whether near-term revenues can justify unprecedented AI spending levels, while some also worry about growing competition in chips and AI infrastructure,” said Dai.
But, he added, the sell-off is “less about weakening AI demand and more about a repricing of expectations after an exceptionally strong rally.”
Wednesday moves
Technology stocks in Asia and Europe extended their sell-off on Wednesday, with semiconductor names leading declines after another weak session in the U.S.
In South Korea, SK Hynix closed 9.61% lower after dropping over 15%. The chip giant missed analysts’ estimates despite posting record quarterly profit and revenue.
Samsung Electronics lost more than 5%, while LG Innotek fell 10.89% and Seoul Semiconductor dropped 8.89%.
In Europe, chip stocks were mixed. ASML fell 1.77%, ASM International fell 3.28% and BESI rose 1.67%.
The latest weakness in Asian chip stocks reflects “the ongoing deleveraging process in Korea and softer sentiment towards global technology stocks,” said Kieron Poon, investment director of Asian equities at Aberdeen Investments, in a Tuesday note. However, he added that the recent volatility “has not changed our long-term positive view.”
Japanese chip names also declined. Japan’s computer memory manufacturer Kioxia was down 13.85%. Tokyo Electron fell 10.59%, while SoftBank Group, a major AI investment proxy through its stake in Arm, lost 6.95%.
Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s largest contract chip manufacturer, was 3.51% lower.
Mainland China’s tech-heavy ChiNext 300 index gained 1.43%, while the Hang Seng China Semiconductor Chips Index fell 2.5%.
The declines in Asia came on the heels of another weak session for U.S. semiconductor stocks overnight.
Nvidia sank at the open but closed the session flat. Intel dropped nearly 6% and AMD lost 8%. Memory space names Micron and Seagate lost more than 8%, Western Digital sank nearly 7% and Sandisk shed 14%. SK Hynix U.S. shares dropped 9%.
Despite the sharp pullback, Aberdeen sees the sell-off as an opportunity rather than a deterioration in fundamentals. “The recent market pullback has brought valuations to more attractive levels, creating opportunities for us to add exposure to high quality businesses at more reasonable prices,” Poon said.
The recent pullback in AI-related chip stocks reflects investors “giving back a little bit of the froth that was in the AI market,” David Riedel, founder and president of Riedel Research Group, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Wednesday.
While concerns over AI financing and rising Chinese competition have weighed on sentiment, “the market is healthy,” he said, adding that memory chipmakers “will be fine” but “just have to give back some of those sudden gains.”
Chinese internet stocks listed in Hong Kong bucked the broader regional weakness with Tencent and Meituan up 4.29% and 2.05%, respectively as of 3.26 a.m. ET. Alibaba, Baidu and Kuaishou all traded higher.
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