GUSH

Memory stocks absorbed the heaviest damage in Thursday’s chip selloff. SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ:SNDK) led the way down.

Shares of the flash storage maker extended their decline Thursday as investors continued cutting exposure to AI-linked semiconductor and memory stocks after the U.S. midterm elections. 

SanDisk stock was down 19.75% at $832.50 at 1:45 p.m. ET, according to Benzinga Pro data. 

Election Results Shake the AI Trade

Investors spent much of 2026 betting on an open-ended data center buildout. Tuesday’s vote cast doubt on that assumption. AI and data center stocks fell sharply Thursday on concerns that the sweeping Democratic victory could create obstacles to the industry’s rapid expansion. 

The pressure started overseas. Asian chip stocks dropped overnight on worries a Democratic-controlled Congress could bring tighter limits on data center development, hurting demand for AI infrastructure and chips. 

Morgan Stanley expects AI infrastructure spending to top $1 trillion next year, according to Reuters, yet Big Tech’s October earnings sharpened investor doubts about how fast those billions can produce returns, with the Nasdaq 100 on track to shed more than $2 trillion in market value for the month. 

Reuters also reported that some U.S. data center capacity scheduled to come online in 2028 could be at risk from construction pauses. Citi Research piled on, flagging what it described as an "exponential" new threat to data centers as it tracked increasing pauses and cancellations on data center construction. 

Micron, Seagate and Western Digital Follow

Hard drive makers found no shelter. SK Hynix Inc. (NASDAQ:SKHY), Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ:WDC) and Seagate Technology Holdings Plc (NASDAQ:STX) came under fresh selling pressure Thursday after sliding about 5% to 8% on Wednesday. 

Both drive makers sell heavily into hyperscale cloud customers, so any slowdown in new facility construction would ripple straight into their order books.

Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) also took a beating. Micron and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) each fell 16% at one point, while Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) lost 9%, per Benzinga Pro data. 

Micron carried an extra burden. The company halted plans for a $4.5 billion memory chip plant in Taiwan because of a prolonged labor dispute, Reuters said, which could not immediately confirm the report. 

Wall Street Splits on What Comes Next

Analysts disagree on how much further the slide can run. Tech analyst Dan Ives said semiconductor stocks could drop another 10% to 12% during the current pullback. 

Fundstrat’s Tom Lee sees it differently. Lee described the AI selloff as an overreaction and said tech stocks could climb about 20% if hedge funds rotate back into the group before year-end. 

The Bottom Line

Memory names ran further than almost any other corner of the market this year, which leaves them most exposed when sentiment flips. 

Investors will watch Congress and statehouses for whether campaign pledges on data centers become actual policy or fade once new officials take office.

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