Overview
- A sharp, sentiment-driven selloff that accelerated on July 29 erased tens of billions in market value, with SanDisk losing nearly $49 billion over two sessions and major memory names posting steep declines.
- Investor fears were stoked by China-linked moves such as CXMT’s big Shanghai debut and by SK Hynix’s guidance to raise 2026 capex to about $31 billion, which traders read as a signal of faster future supply growth.
- Micron and SanDisk have pushed back with strong near-term guidance and large multi‑year customer or supply agreements, and Micron says its 2026 HBM output is fully committed, giving companies near-term revenue visibility.
- Markets swung quickly: a late‑July rebound on July 30 lifted many memory stocks double digits after Samsung warned supplies could tighten, underscoring how fragile sentiment has become.
- What matters next are concrete signals — upcoming earnings, HBM and DRAM pricing data, capex plans and capacity reports — because memory is cyclical, capital‑intensive, and a rapid supply build could erase current margin gains.