Micron Technology (MU) stock fell 5.2% in pre-market trading Monday, dropping to $924.90. That puts it roughly 26% below its 52-week high of $1,255.
The move is part of a broader memory chip sell-off that pulled in SanDisk, SK Hynix, and Western Digital, all down more than 5% before the open.
The trigger was a set of comments from top AI executives over the weekend. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for a slower pace of development for advanced AI models. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman backed that view, and Elon Musk supported it too.
That spooked investors in memory and storage stocks. Micron and SK Hynix are major suppliers of high-bandwidth memory used in AI accelerators. SanDisk and Western Digital supply NAND flash and data-center storage.
The concern isn’t that demand has fallen off now. It’s that a slower AI development cycle could reduce how quickly companies need to expand their computing infrastructure, which would eventually hit new orders for memory chips.
The sell-off spread well beyond U.S. markets. South Korea’s KOSPI dropped more than 3% as semiconductor stocks led the decline. SK Hynix fell more than 6% during Monday trading. Samsung Electronics and Kioxia were also among the decliners.
Wall Street still rates Micron, SanDisk, and SK Hynix as Strong Buys. Western Digital holds a Moderate Buy rating. Analyst consensus price targets remain well above current trading levels.
Micron is also facing a patent lawsuit from Netlist targeting its DDR5 memory products, adding a layer of legal uncertainty. A technical sell signal that triggered around September 9 has added extra downside momentum.
The company’s next earnings report is due September 30. Some investors are trimming exposure ahead of the print, even though the fundamental story around AI-driven memory demand remains intact.
Macro conditions aren’t helping. Brent crude climbed above $100 a barrel after energy infrastructure disruptions in the Middle East. Higher oil prices can fuel inflation and make it harder for the Federal Reserve to cut rates.
The 10-year Treasury yield has also moved toward 5%, weighing on high-growth tech stocks. Hotter-than-expected U.S. core inflation data raised concerns about a possible rate hike at the September 15-16 FOMC meeting.
The broader market reflected the pressure. The Nasdaq declined 1.8% and the S&P 500 fell 0.75%.
The Trump administration is also actively considering semiconductor tariffs that could extend to downstream products like servers and laptops, which technology companies warn could raise AI infrastructure costs.
Industry research has flagged that Micron’s capital expenditure intensity is at historically elevated levels as the memory sector moves from order-growth expectations to actual revenue realization.
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