A sharp selloff hit U.S. semiconductor stocks and high-flying memory names on Tuesday, with shares of SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ:SNDK) and Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) plunging double digits. The slump came after a top South Korean official floated a proposal to redistribute the AI profits of Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc. directly to the Asian nation’s citizens.
The proposal was a Facebook post. The market response was a six-figure global repricing.
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The iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (NYSE:EWY) fell 9.8% by 1 p.m. trading in New York, on pace for its worst day since March 3, 2026.
The Roundhill Memory ETF (NASDAQ:DRAM) — which had rallied over 90% in slightly more than a month — collapsed 11.8%, its worst day since the fund launched in April 2026.
The iShares Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SOXX) shed 6.9%, the steepest one-day drop since April 10, 2025, when the post-Liberation Day tariff selloff cratered chip names.
The damage inside the chip complex was concentrated in memory and adjacent storage names.
SanDisk Corp. fell 11.12%, Micron Technology Inc. dropped 10.30%, Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ:WDC) lost 9.30%, and Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:STX) fell 7.77%.
Broader semiconductor names linked to the AI-infrastructure trade also suffered heavy losses: Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) tumbled 14.87%, Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd. (NASDAQ:CRDO) fell 12.64%, and Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) dropped 10.97%.
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