Micron Technology shares dropped 17.46 percent on Tuesday to close at $656.39, the lowest level since May, as a broad retreat from semiconductor names gathered pace. The stock has now shed more than 30 percent from its October 28 peak near $990, with Tuesday's volume of roughly 75 million shares running at more than double the recent average.
The AI spending question
The move coincided with intensifying debate over the durability of data-center capital expenditure. Investors are pricing in the possibility that power constraints, water availability and regulatory friction could slow the build-out of new AI infrastructure, which would in turn curb demand for high-bandwidth memory, server DRAM and enterprise storage. Micron's exposure to those end markets makes it a proxy for the broader AI trade.
Taiwan plant pause adds to uncertainty
Separately, the company reportedly halted construction on a planned memory facility in Taiwan. The pause raises questions about the pace of capacity additions at a moment when the market is already questioning whether the industry is overbuilding. Management has not publicly tied the decision to demand signals, but the timing reinforces the cautious narrative.
Sector-wide contagion
The selling was not isolated. SanDisk fell more than 22 percent, while Advanced Micro Devices and Western Digital each lost over 17 percent. Seagate declined 16 percent and Nvidia dropped roughly 9 percent. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index slid 12 percent, its sharpest single-session decline since March 2020.
Technicals and the after-hours bounce
Micron's relative strength index fell to 27.05, placing it in oversold territory, and a bearish death-cross pattern has formed on the chart. Shares recovered 4.11 percent to $683.40 in after-hours trading, though thin post-market volume limits the signal. Technical analysts flag $650 as immediate support; a sustained break could open a path toward $500, with a further zone at $450-$470. On the upside, resistance sits at $700-$737.88 and the $752-$795 gap area.