Micron Technology Inc.’s post-results selloff has sent a stark reminder to global investors about the risks inherent in bets on artificial intelligence (AI) chipmakers. Just days after leading AI chipmaker Nvidia Corp. experienced a dramatic slump, shedding nearly half a trillion dollars in market value, Micron’s shares fell about 8% in extended trading following a forecast that did not meet the highest expectations.
Micron, which produces high-bandwidth memory that can be used alongside Nvidia’s industry-leading chips for training large language models, had seen its shares more than double in the year leading up to its recent report. Despite issuing an outlook roughly in line with the average of analyst estimates, the company was penalized for not exceeding the elevated expectations held by the market.
“The market is holding totally unrealistic expectations, as many names who are beating street estimates by a wide margin are still being sold down,” said Andrew Jackson, head of Japan equity strategy at Ortus Advisors Pte in Singapore. “But I think the street is very well aware of the fact that these US names are pretty overcooked. Too many paper hands chasing the fast easy money.”
The recent volatility in AI stocks underscores the precarious nature of the sector’s spectacular growth. Nvidia’s shares entered correction territory earlier this week before bouncing back, illustrating the vulnerability of these stocks to rapid market shifts. A global gauge tracking semiconductor shares has fallen about 5% since reaching an all-time high earlier this month. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., a key producer of Nvidia’s most valuable chips, has slipped more than 2% since its June 19 high.
Micron’s news also triggered drops in South Korea’s two biggest companies, memory makers Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc., though they managed to recoup their losses by the close on Thursday. For these businesses, whose traditional output of supplying memory for PCs, smartphones, and conventional data centers is still recovering from a slump last year, this means a greater degree of share price uncertainty.
The US chipmaker’s briefing fell short of what SK Hynix offered earlier, when it announced that its HBM production capacity is largely sold out through 2025, said Tom Kang, director at Counterpoint Research. Micron lacks the dominant position in AI memory that SK Hynix enjoys or Samsung’s lead in the broader memory industry, he added.
“This brings a reality check to the AI sector, which looks bubblish,” Kang said.
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