China, AI-Spending Fears Fuel Continued Slide in Chip Stocks

By Elias Schisgall

Semiconductor stocks continued to slide on Tuesday, fueled by persistent concerns about competition from China and the financing of the artificial-intelligence data-center buildout.

Shares in Micron Technology were down 8.2%, to $826.60, as of midday Tuesday. Marvell Technology was down 5.4%, to $178.92, while Advanced Micro Devices slid 6.7%, to $462.04. SanDisk, Western Digital, and Seagate Technology, whose stocks have rallied this year amid a shortage in memory technology, were down 13%, 7.6%, and 8%, respectively.

The iShares Semiconductor ETF, also known as SOXX, was down 4.5% and has fallen 23% so far in July, putting on pace for its worst month since December 2002, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Some of the investor concern was sparked by the initial public offering of Chinese memory-chip maker CXMT, which catapulted to become the most valuable company listed in mainland China on Monday.

CXMT's chips compete with South Korean company SK Hynix, which recently listed American depositary receipts in the U.S., and Micron. The latter company is clashing with Apple, which is asking the Trump administration to let it use Chinese chips in Apple products sold outside the U.S., according to The Wall Street Journal.

SK Hynix ADRs were off 6.6%, at $135.96, down 32% from their peak earlier this month.

The slide in chip stocks also reflects a backdrop of increasing concern about the returns from heavy spending on AI infrastructure. Both Tesla and Alphabet last week said their free cash flow turned negative, prompting a sell-off that extended through the Magnificent Seven technology stocks.

Nvidia, which is in talks to provide a roughly $250 billion backstop for an OpenAI data center according to the Journal, was roughly flat as of Tuesday afternoon after sliding Monday.

Write to Elias Schisgall at elias.schisgall@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 28, 2026 13:24 ET (17:24 GMT)