Semiconductor stocks trim losses as investors buy the dip
The sector faced heavy selling pressure earlier in the session after a Chinese startup released powerful new AI model.
Ines Ferré· Senior Business Reporter
Updated Sat, July 18, 2026 at 2:11 AM GMT+5:30
2 min read
What happened: Semiconductor stocks trimmed losses on Friday as investors bought the dip. However, for the week, the PHLX Semiconductor Index (^SOX) declined more than 9%
AI chip heavyweight Nvidia (NVDA) dropped 2% on Friday, while AMD (AMD), Broadcom (AVGO), and Intel (INTC) closed lower but off session lows
Marvell (MRVL) and Qualcomm (QCOM) also trimmed losses, closing above the flatline
(SOXX)
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521.81-8.69(-1.64%)
At close: July 17 at 4:00:01 PM EDT
SOXXMUSNDK
Meanwhile, memory and storage highfliers Micron Technology (MU) and Sandisk (SNDK) flipped between positive and negative territory
Among semiconductor equipment makers, Applied Materials (AMAT) and Lam Research (LRCX) declined more than 5% and 2%, respectively
Going into Friday’s trading session, global semiconductor stocks had shed $3.3 trillion in market value since June 22
What’s behind the move: Semiconductor stocks have been volatile in recent weeks over concerns that investors will want to see a return on investment from big spenders on AI infrastructure
Artificial intelligence costs have been rising. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSM) this week guided to higher-than-anticipated capital expenditures, in part due to higher tool prices
Growing global competition in AI is also weighing on sentiment after Chinese startup Moonshot unveiled Kimi K3, believed to be the world’s largest publicly available AI model that developers can download and run themselves
The launch highlights the rapid progress of China’s open AI ecosystem, coming a month after the US withdrew Anthropic’s (ANTH.PVT) Fable and Mythos models over security concerns
Meanwhile, on Thursday, Bloomberg reported that Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) was behind schedule in delivering Gemini 3.5 Pro, its most powerful AI model
What else you need to know:Semiconductor companies have been a key beneficiary of the artificial intelligence build-out
Wall Street is still positive on the AI trade but will be looking toward earnings to drive the sector and overall market higher. Particularly, whether spending on AI will continue and is justified
“What we definitely need to see continue, though, is hyperscalers’ capex,” Principal Asset Management chief global strategist Seema Shah told Yahoo Finance earlier this week
“Their earnings need to be strong,” she added. “They are really the foundation for the entire AI ecosystem.”
Ines Ferre is a senior business reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on X at@ines_ferre
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