MU, SNDK, INTC, AMD, Other Chip Stocks Extend Slide – Retail Traders Still Buying The Memory Theme

• SNDK declined 6%, leading the pullback, while MU fell 4.4%.
• The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) is heading for its worst weekly performance in over a year.
• Among the market’s hottest themes, retail traders see the memory space as the strongest area to stay invested in, according to a Stocktwits poll.

Semiconductor stocks fell sharply in early premarket trading on Friday, extending the previous session’s losses and deepening a tech rout that has investors worried the reversal after the past year’s red-hot rally may be underway.

SanDisk stock declined 6%, leading the pullback, while Micron declined 4.4%. Intel and Advanced Micro Devices fell just over 4%, and the chip sector benchmark, the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX), fell 3.6%.

Until Thursday’s close, SOXX declined 8.8% and is heading for its worst weekly performance since March 2025. The Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1 (QQQ) was down 2.7%, while the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) slipped 0.6%, underscoring how the chip selloff is weighing on the broader market.

AI-linked companies such as Marvell Technology and CoreWeave fell around 4.6% and 3.7%, respectively. Marvell designs chips and networking hardware that power AI data centers, cloud computing, telecom networks and enterprise infrastructure, while CoreWeave is the leading neocloud firm in the U.S.

Tech Rotation

A tech rotation appears to be underway, with investors closely watching chip stocks after their slide from June highs, along with daily developments in the U.S.-Iran standoff and the second-quarter earnings season for direction.

The current tech rotation is a shift away from high-flying AI chip stocks and toward relatively cheaper Big Tech software and internet names, following an extended semiconductor rally.

The move is being driven by profit-taking in richly valued chipmakers, rising uncertainty around AI spending, and geopolitical risks, with many betting that companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet, and Meta offer a better near-term risk-reward than semiconductor stocks after their massive run-up.

Retail Remains Bullish On Memory Stocks

Among the market’s hottest themes, retail traders see the memory space as the strongest area to stay invested in. In a Stocktwits poll with about 12,000 votes, 44% said they are most interested in investing in memory stocks, while 29% picked neoclouds such as Nebius and CoreWeave and 27% picked space stocks including Rocket Lab and SpaceX.
 

The view on Micron remained particularly upbeat. “MU is the only real company on that list, that I own, that is the most profitable critical to AI and is a US company, and the rest are overvalued or not profitable enough or aren't a US company,” a trader wrote. 

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment was ‘bullish’ for Micron and SanDisk, while Intel and AMD drew ‘neutral’ sentiment, with traders looking ahead to Intel’s earnings next Thursday, the first major chipmaker to report.

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.

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