A sell-off in artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductor shares has wiped out more than $1 trillion in market value from 20 of the world’s most valuable technology companies in less than five days, a report has said. It attributes this to a combination of interest rate hikes, increasing AI infrastructure costs and intensifying competition. Adding to the anxiety, Chinese chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) announced plans to accelerate its memory chip manufacturing capabilities, putting fresh pressure on an already rattled global market. Elon Musk reacted to the news saying that China will be making “a LOT of RAM in 2028”, a view that could add to that pressure.The billionaire’s commentary arrives as investors grapple with growing anxiety over an impending global memory chip oversupply as early as 2029, spurred by chipmakers worldwide aggressively building out production capacity to meet AI workloads. CXMT recently said that it achieved a major architectural breakthrough to boost memory density by packing more data into tighter spaces.
Here’s how much Nvidia , AMD, Micron and other companies lost
US semiconductor giants and specialised cloud infrastructure providers continued to slide in premarket trading on Thursday (October 15) following a punishing Wednesday session on Wall Street.Nvidia fell 1.8%; Micron Technology dropped 4.4%; AMD slipped 3.5%; Oracle traded down 2%; Neocloud providers took sharp hits, with CoreWeave falling 5.3% and Nebius retreating 4%.Notably, the rout was not confined to US exchanges, deepening across major trading hubs in Asia and Europe. South Korean memory chip giant SK Hynix plummeted more than 10%, while rival Samsung Electronics dropped 8.73%. Related tech and component suppliers saw steep declines as well, with LG Innotek sinking 8.95%, Seoul Semiconductor sliding 9.28%, and Samsung SDI down 6.26%.In Japan, technology investment firm SoftBank Group tumbled 7.9%. Testing equipment supplier Advantest plunged nearly 14%, Tokyo Electron lost 6.45%, and Renesas Electronics fell 8%. Similarly, in Taiwan, leading contract foundry TSMC slipped 1.81%. When it comes to Europe, advanced lithography supplier ASML traded down 6.6%, ASM International sank 9.6%, Germany’s Infineon Technologies lost 9.4%, and Nokia dropped 5%.
Why AI and semiconductor stocks are selling off
Market analysts and investors point to a convergence of macroeconomic headwinds, financing bottlenecks, and long-term supply threats that are eroding sentiment across the sector. Inflation has raised concerns that elevated interest rates will increase the cost of capital needed to finance massive data center and AI infrastructure deployments.Top industry leaders have voiced caution regarding capital access. On Monday, the chief executives of Broadcom and Intel warned that financing could soon become the primary headwind facing the AI boom.