The AI memory trade has flipped from Wall Street’s hottest bet to one of its biggest wealth destroyers.

Since peaking in late June, the world’s largest memory and storage companies have erased more than $2 trillion in combined market capitalization

  • Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (OTC:SSNLF) has lost about $546 billion
  • Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) roughly $440 billion

Kioxia Holdings Corp. (OTC:KXIAY) SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ:SNDK), Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ:WDC) and Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) have also suffered sharp declines.

CompanyMarket Cap Lost From High
Samsung Electronics$545.73B
SK Hynix$501.83B
Micron Technology$439.72B
Kioxia Holdings$218.99B
SanDisk$181.88B
Western Digital$98.72B
Seagate Technology$77.56B
Total$2.06 Trillion
Source: Koyfin

The rout accelerated this week after China’s memory giant ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) went public in Shanghai, prompting investors to shift their focus from booming AI demand to the risk that surging Chinese capacity could spark a new price war across the memory industry, despite hyperscalers continuing to ramp up AI spending.

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