Global Chip Stocks Sell Off Amid Rising AI Infrastructure Cost Concerns

Chip stocks sold off on Friday amid mounting concerns over the rising cost of artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Intel shed 3%, Sandisk fell 6%, Arm lost 3% and Marvell dropped 4%. Micron, which had seen its stock surge on Thursday following blockbuster third-quarter earnings, fell 3%.

The Magnificent Seven stocks largely bucked the downtrend, with all but Alphabet and Nvidia trading in positive territory. Across the board, the megacaps are having a bad month, with each stock down at least 8% in June.

In Europe, key chip stocks were also down as the market opened. ASML was down 2%, Infineon fell 5% and ASM International dropped 3%, ST Microelectronics shed 4% and Be Semiconductor was 3% lower.

SoftBank Group, which plunged more than 12%, led losses across the region.

The Japanese conglomerate could remain under pressure after its chip designer Arm Holdings also fell, underperforming the broader semiconductor sector even as AI-related stocks rebounded sharply.

Andrew Jackson, an equity strategist at Ortus Advisors, said investor enthusiasm for SoftBank may also be capped by reports that OpenAI could delay its initial public offering until next year as it struggles to secure demand at a $1 trillion valuation.

Qualcomm's new AI data center chip deal with Meta is ultimately positive for Arm through royalty payments, Jackson added. However, Arm also faces growing competition as Qualcomm expands more aggressively into the central processing unit market.

The weakness also spilled into Asia's semiconductor sector. South Korea's SK Hynix fell more than 8%, while Samsung Electronics lost around 9%. Technology-focused investment holding company SK Square was down around 9.43%, while LG Electronics was 3.5% lower.

Japan's Advantest declined nearly 10%, while Tokyo Electron was down 5%. Taiwan's TSMC fell 1%, while Hon Hai was 3% lower.

The selloff extended across Greater China's technology sector. Hong Kong-listed Tencent fell around 2%, while Alibaba dropped more than 6%, Baidu lost over 4% and Xiaomi slid 3.7% in the final hour of trade. Chip stocks were among the hardest hit, with Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp tumbling more than 6.9%.

Apple climbed 1% on Friday, a day after posting its worst slide in over a year following the announcement of price increases for its MacBook and iPad products, citing higher component costs, including chips.

This has fueled concerns that soaring semiconductor prices could eventually squeeze the margins of major technology companies.