Micron Technology (MU) fell roughly 3% and SanDisk (SNDK) lost about 5% in premarket trading on Monday, as a selloff in memory stocks extended across the sector. In Seoul, SK Hynix dropped around 3% and Samsung Electronics plunged 9%, weighing on one of 2026’s strongest semiconductor groups.
The immediate trigger was Samsung’s record shareholder-return plan, which failed to meet elevated investor expectations. Samsung said it expects to return between 90 trillion and 110 trillion Korean won to shareholders in 2026, but the market wanted clearer commitments to immediate share repurchases and cancellations. JPMorgan analysts cited the absence of an immediate buyback and the unchanged return framework as potential disappointments.
However, analysts largely framed the declines as sector-wide profit-taking rather than evidence that AI-memory demand has weakened. Mizuho analyst Daniel O’Regan told MarketWatch that recent semiconductor weakness felt “less like a fundamental reset and more like a positioning unwind,” adding that AI spending, data-centre demand and adoption remained intact. Nasdaq-100 futures were down about 0.6% as investors reduced technology exposure before Nvidia’s earnings and the Federal Reserve’s Jackson Hole gathering later in the week.
Separately, China’s Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) filed for a $4.9 billion initial public offering in Shanghai, adding competitive pressure. YMTC’s NAND flash market share rose from 8% to 13% in one year, nearly matching Micron in that segment, according to Counterpoint Research. NAND accounts for roughly a quarter of Micron’s revenue, while YMTC has no DRAM overlap. YMTC reported first-quarter revenue of about $7 billion, compared with Micron’s most recent quarterly revenue of $41.5 billion.
Micron executives spoke Sunday at the Hot Chips conference at Stanford, emphasizing high-bandwidth memory as the company’s primary edge over Chinese rivals. Each HBM unit requires roughly three times the wafer capacity of standard memory, which limits supply and supports pricing. Micron’s next earnings report is estimated for Sept. 22, with analysts projecting revenue of $50.78 billion and earnings of $31.26 per share. The stock carries a Buy consensus, with price targets including $1,250 from New Street Research, $1,150 from Citigroup and $1,750 from KeyBanc.
Technical levels show Micron around $933, about 64% above its 200-day moving average of $571.10, with resistance near $1,012 and support around $891.50.
