Tech trade troubles

It’s a story we’ve seen over and over again: Investors rabidly guzzle AI stocks, realize they’re overvalued, start to question everything, and spiral.

Just look at SpaceX, which tumbled 20% over the last five days, following a $20 billion bond sale. The carnage soon spread to semiconductor stocks, including memory chipmakers SK Hynix and Samsung, which both lost roughly 12% on Tuesday. And AI heavyweight Alphabet continues to sink as researchers depart for competitors.

Investors were hoping that today would be a new day, and memory chip company Micron would single-handedly turn the narrative around after reporting blowout numbers for Q3:

• Revenue quadrupled from $9.3 billion a year ago to $41.26 billion.
• The company is now projecting revenue of $50 billion for the current quarter, a wildly steep jump from the $11.3 billion it reported last year.
• Micron popped 15.81% today.

The stellar quarter was thanks to AI titans’ massive rush to build datacenters: Micron continues to capitalize on the huge demand for a small supply of memory chips, its core product. The good news also provided a boost to fellow memory maker Sandisk, which soared 22% today.

The flipside

But despite a fantastic report from one of the key players in the AI industry, tech stocks took a bearish turn this afternoon. The problem is that even as certain corners of the AI trade boom, the same shortage that’s making chips more lucrative is also making end-products more expensive.

Just take a look at Apple, which plummeted 6.15% today for its worst day since April 2025, after the company announced it was raising prices on the MacBook and iPad. The culprit, of course, is the soaring costs of memory chips and storage—the very same supply and demand equation that’s reinvigorating the AI infrastructure trade and boosting Micron.

Apple didn’t rule out raising prices on more products, either: “The rapid expansion of AI data centers has created an extraordinary surge in demand for memory and storage. We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly,” the company said in a statement.

Things aren’t all blue skies for memory chip makers, either. SK Hynix is planning a $30 billion listing on the Nasdaq next month, making the stock more accessible to US traders, which could ultimately hurt its competitor Micron.

It’s beginning to seem like the AI trade is less like a rising tide that lifts all boats, and more like a battle to the death.—LB