Kioxia Holdings, one of the world’s largest NAND flash memory manufacturers, saw its shares plunge as much as 12% on June 26, dragging down a stock that had been one of the most spectacular performers in the semiconductor space over the past year.
The trigger was familiar to anyone who’s watched the AI trade unravel before: a single report about OpenAI potentially pushing its IPO to 2027, and suddenly every stock within three degrees of separation from artificial intelligence started bleeding.
The AI sell-off spreads to memory chips
Kioxia’s intraday drop brought shares to around ¥77,500, roughly $480 per American depositary share equivalent.
The company wasn’t alone in the carnage. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, two other major memory chip producers tied to the AI infrastructure buildout, both fell more than 6%. SanDisk, which shares deep historical ties with Kioxia through their joint NAND ventures, dropped over 10%.
