AI Infrastructure Trade Weakens as Chip Stocks Face Reality Check

The AI infrastructure trade showed fresh signs of fatigue Tuesday as semiconductor and memory stocks sold off despite Samsung Electronics reporting record second-quarter profit. Samsung shares fell nearly 7% after the company missed revenue estimates, while Micron Technology and Sandisk also came under pressure.

The move matters because AI chip and memory makers have been among the market’s strongest trades, supported by expectations that hyperscalers will keep spending heavily on data centers, GPUs and high-bandwidth memory. The latest weakness suggests investors are starting to question whether those expectations have become too aggressive.

The pullback follows a sharp rally in AI infrastructure names this year. According to CoinDesk, Sandisk had gained more than 525%, Micron was up over 120%, and SK Hynix had risen roughly 225% in 2026 before the latest reassessment. SK Hynix is now down 25% from its all-time high ahead of a U.S. listing this week, a deal CoinDesk said is also drawing investor capital away from existing chip stocks.

Another pressure point is the rise of lower-cost AI ecosystems. China’s Zhipu AI is exploring a custom AI chip as demand grows for its open-source GLM models, highlighting a possible shift toward domestic hardware and more efficient models rather than reliance on the most advanced U.S. chips.

For crypto markets, the issue is capital allocation. CoinDesk noted that bitcoin and the broader crypto market have suffered from the AI trade over the past year; if enthusiasm for AI infrastructure continues to fade, crypto bulls may watch for signs that capital rotates back toward digital assets.