7 ms·

Chip stocks slide in US and Asia as AI jitters rattle investors

74 points by yogthos 3mo ago

apparent 3mo ago
So is this good news for the companies that have taken a hit as AI stocks have climbed, and semiconductor shortages have rattled investors?
- benrutter 3mo ago
  I'd be cautious describing market sell offs as good news for anyone since the fall out could be pretty bad (that's a "worst case" scenario, so far nothing like that) There's some winners though, people dumping AI stocks are mostly buying stocks elsewhere, Apple being an obvious winner[0]. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/28/apple-second-ever-5tn-company-as-investors-flee-ai-stocks?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/28/apple-sec...
  - apparent 3mo ago
    I wasn't referring to the purely financial angle. I meant that whatever news is driving this apparent valuation change could have impacts on other companies (like ones that are having to cope with the chip shortages).
sandworm101 3mo ago
And now they will complain that they need loans guarentees due to a lack of equity to finance new investments. I await the announcement of fresh price rises. Every stick of DDR5 should come with a share, so future dividends go back to the people who financed this insanity.
- profsummergig 3mo ago
  > Every stick of DDR5 should come with a share, so future dividends go back to the people who financed this insanity. This will only lead to hyperscalers getting wealthier.
- dylan604 3mo ago
  If a bottle of Scotch can come with a deed to land, I'm okay with RAM coming with stocks
elliotec 3mo ago
I'm cautiously optimistic that this is the beginning of a much needed correction toward sobriety with regards to AI investment. The macro effects of all the money going into AI are apocalyptic. Maybe we can take some deep breaths and move forward a little smarter if the hype fest slows down a tad. And if we're lucky, eventually be able to afford RAM again.
- cautiouscat 3mo ago
  I hope you’re right. It does seem like we’re finally coming down off the peak of the hype cycle. I use Claude Code daily, but man I am just tired of hearing about AI. I’m tired of holding off on backing up my home server because disks are so expensive. I’m tired of HN being 50% articles about AI.
  - BLKNSLVR 3mo ago
    > holding off on backing up my home server because disks are so expensive I think there are so many people in this same situation, not just with disks (and RAM), but all of the components because of bottlenecks of upgrading one without others, that there's going to be this on-going surge in demand starting from corporate and then trickling through decreasingly sized businesses and then finally the consumer market and this could keep prices higher for longer than most people are expecting. I recently bought some second hand ex-terminal servers to run homelab stuff. I'd have preferred to get one big-ish thing to run it all, but it was more cost effective to get a handful of smaller, lower-spec devices since that's not what people are trying to get their hands on at the moment.
  - greesil 3mo ago
    Or written by AI. Or commented on by AI.
    - broodbucket 3mo ago
      I'd love a flag for "Show HN"s that indicate the author actually wrote it themselves so I can go back to being impressed by them
teaearlgraycold 3mo ago
Snap back to reality, ope, there goes gravity
crystal_revenge 3mo ago
I feel like I've seen this headline (followed a week later by its inversion) countless times in the last 6 months. I have little doubt this is a bubble, but also very little certainty as to when or how it will "correct". The KOSPI is almost not worth talking about as any serious signal. It has a circuit breaker drop almost weekly (again followed in no time with an equally high rebound) and basically has come to represent how insanely the South Korean market has become pure gambling (with retail investors absurdly leveraged). Sure , it's hard to image this doesn't lead to some disaster in the long run, but these fluctuations have become par for the course.
- ChuckMcM 3mo ago
  In terms of parallel headlines we're in the 1998 :-). This was market behavior during the last 18 months of the dot com bubble, then it burst. Plan accordingly? Always hard to time these things.
klodolph 3mo ago
I’m wondering if this is leveraged investors in KOSPI, where retail > institutional traders. More leverage = more volatility. If it actually IS a correction, I’m hoping that some of these data center projects, the ones that are REITs wearing a funny hat, can stop.
- Good4boothee 3mo ago
  Both Samsung and SK Hynix had record earnings and stocks dropped 15%. It might be localized leverage craze, I am not sure it will have any impact on actual RAM production/data center construction.
vatsachak 3mo ago
I think that a gpt 5.6 level model might sustain the growth. We're seeing talented users squeeze non trivial math and code out these tiers of models.
torginus 3mo ago
There is undoubtedly a bubble in the sense that AI is crazy overfinanced, and there's a semiconductor shortage - chip makers usually have like mid to low two digit margins for manufacturers of complex chips like NVIDIA, and single digit for ones commodities like memory. The fact that these companies are either selling these things at multiples of their previous prices, and even then, their P/E ratios are often 10,20,40 shows there's a bidding war for these chips. It's too much money chasing a fixed amount of product, and the only way to scale the industry is by scaling the entire supply chain, which is a long and expensive process, and certainly isn't fixed by throwing more money at companies. If existing hardware was sold at the usual margins, all this stuff would cost a tiny fraction of the current price. This is clearly a precarious position.
- grey-area 3mo ago
  There are also circular deals and self-financing happening from the likes of Nvidia.
wanda 3mo ago
I do not work in finance, perhaps someone here can tell me if I have the wrong impression on the situation here: Tech giants with AI interests, hyperscalers, have used "special purpose vehicles" — shell companies — to quietly issue credit to AI companies, and these AI companies have used this line of credit to purchase/lease compute hardware/infrastructure primarily from their creditors, inflating the demand and price of said hardware. And much of the future infrastructure has yet to be constructed, and the hardware available now will at some point become obsolete or at least decrease in collateral value. But the credit doesn't actually come from the hyperscalers themselves, as it exceeds their actual cashflow, so it comes from investment banks and/or private investors/lenders... who actually absorb the majority of the risk then? And the big banks are currently offloading their loans at discounted rates, while simultaneously trading in swaps against hyperscalers? I presume the reason for the shell companies/private funding shadiness, is to keep debt off-the-record and perhaps avoid regulation / exceed risk tolerance limits. Just how exposed are the banks and the hyperscalers in all this?
throwa356262 3mo ago
Cheng Chye Hsern [...] said Apple is one the few tech firms "not taking part in the AI race" They certainly did take part in the AI race. It's just that their public attempts so far have not been very successful
- shaunkoh 2mo ago
  They didn’t spend capital anywhere close to what their peers did on AI.

74 points by yogthos 3mo ago

So is this good news for the companies that have taken a hit as AI stocks have climbed, and semiconductor shortages have rattled investors?

benrutter 3mo ago
I'd be cautious describing market sell offs as good news for anyone since the fall out could be pretty bad (that's a "worst case" scenario, so far nothing like that) There's some winners though, people dumping AI stocks are mostly buying stocks elsewhere, Apple being an obvious winner[0]. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/28/apple-second-ever-5tn-company-as-investors-flee-ai-stocks?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/28/apple-sec...
- apparent 3mo ago
  I wasn't referring to the purely financial angle. I meant that whatever news is driving this apparent valuation change could have impacts on other companies (like ones that are having to cope with the chip shortages).

sandworm101 3mo ago

And now they will complain that they need loans guarentees due to a lack of equity to finance new investments. I await the announcement of fresh price rises. Every stick of DDR5 should come with a share, so future dividends go back to the people who financed this insanity.

profsummergig 3mo ago
> Every stick of DDR5 should come with a share, so future dividends go back to the people who financed this insanity. This will only lead to hyperscalers getting wealthier.
dylan604 3mo ago
If a bottle of Scotch can come with a deed to land, I'm okay with RAM coming with stocks

elliotec 3mo ago

I'm cautiously optimistic that this is the beginning of a much needed correction toward sobriety with regards to AI investment. The macro effects of all the money going into AI are apocalyptic. Maybe we can take some deep breaths and move forward a little smarter if the hype fest slows down a tad. And if we're lucky, eventually be able to afford RAM again.

cautiouscat 3mo ago
I hope you’re right. It does seem like we’re finally coming down off the peak of the hype cycle. I use Claude Code daily, but man I am just tired of hearing about AI. I’m tired of holding off on backing up my home server because disks are so expensive. I’m tired of HN being 50% articles about AI.
- BLKNSLVR 3mo ago
  > holding off on backing up my home server because disks are so expensive I think there are so many people in this same situation, not just with disks (and RAM), but all of the components because of bottlenecks of upgrading one without others, that there's going to be this on-going surge in demand starting from corporate and then trickling through decreasingly sized businesses and then finally the consumer market and this could keep prices higher for longer than most people are expecting. I recently bought some second hand ex-terminal servers to run homelab stuff. I'd have preferred to get one big-ish thing to run it all, but it was more cost effective to get a handful of smaller, lower-spec devices since that's not what people are trying to get their hands on at the moment.
- greesil 3mo ago
  Or written by AI. Or commented on by AI.
  - broodbucket 3mo ago
    I'd love a flag for "Show HN"s that indicate the author actually wrote it themselves so I can go back to being impressed by them

teaearlgraycold 3mo ago

Snap back to reality, ope, there goes gravity

crystal_revenge 3mo ago

I feel like I've seen this headline (followed a week later by its inversion) countless times in the last 6 months. I have little doubt this is a bubble, but also very little certainty as to when or how it will "correct". The KOSPI is almost not worth talking about as any serious signal. It has a circuit breaker drop almost weekly (again followed in no time with an equally high rebound) and basically has come to represent how insanely the South Korean market has become pure gambling (with retail investors absurdly leveraged). Sure , it's hard to image this doesn't lead to some disaster in the long run, but these fluctuations have become par for the course.

ChuckMcM 3mo ago
In terms of parallel headlines we're in the 1998 :-). This was market behavior during the last 18 months of the dot com bubble, then it burst. Plan accordingly? Always hard to time these things.

klodolph 3mo ago

I’m wondering if this is leveraged investors in KOSPI, where retail > institutional traders. More leverage = more volatility. If it actually IS a correction, I’m hoping that some of these data center projects, the ones that are REITs wearing a funny hat, can stop.

Good4boothee 3mo ago
Both Samsung and SK Hynix had record earnings and stocks dropped 15%. It might be localized leverage craze, I am not sure it will have any impact on actual RAM production/data center construction.

vatsachak 3mo ago

I think that a gpt 5.6 level model might sustain the growth. We're seeing talented users squeeze non trivial math and code out these tiers of models.

torginus 3mo ago

There is undoubtedly a bubble in the sense that AI is crazy overfinanced, and there's a semiconductor shortage - chip makers usually have like mid to low two digit margins for manufacturers of complex chips like NVIDIA, and single digit for ones commodities like memory. The fact that these companies are either selling these things at multiples of their previous prices, and even then, their P/E ratios are often 10,20,40 shows there's a bidding war for these chips. It's too much money chasing a fixed amount of product, and the only way to scale the industry is by scaling the entire supply chain, which is a long and expensive process, and certainly isn't fixed by throwing more money at companies. If existing hardware was sold at the usual margins, all this stuff would cost a tiny fraction of the current price. This is clearly a precarious position.

grey-area 3mo ago
There are also circular deals and self-financing happening from the likes of Nvidia.

wanda 3mo ago

I do not work in finance, perhaps someone here can tell me if I have the wrong impression on the situation here: Tech giants with AI interests, hyperscalers, have used "special purpose vehicles" — shell companies — to quietly issue credit to AI companies, and these AI companies have used this line of credit to purchase/lease compute hardware/infrastructure primarily from their creditors, inflating the demand and price of said hardware. And much of the future infrastructure has yet to be constructed, and the hardware available now will at some point become obsolete or at least decrease in collateral value. But the credit doesn't actually come from the hyperscalers themselves, as it exceeds their actual cashflow, so it comes from investment banks and/or private investors/lenders... who actually absorb the majority of the risk then? And the big banks are currently offloading their loans at discounted rates, while simultaneously trading in swaps against hyperscalers? I presume the reason for the shell companies/private funding shadiness, is to keep debt off-the-record and perhaps avoid regulation / exceed risk tolerance limits. Just how exposed are the banks and the hyperscalers in all this?

throwa356262 3mo ago

Cheng Chye Hsern [...] said Apple is one the few tech firms "not taking part in the AI race" They certainly did take part in the AI race. It's just that their public attempts so far have not been very successful

shaunkoh 2mo ago
They didn’t spend capital anywhere close to what their peers did on AI.