Micron stock rebounds 5% after 17% crash on US data-centre fears

Shares of US memory chip makers swung sharply in two days last week. On Thursday, 5 November 2026, Micron Technology fell 17.46% and SanDisk 22.26%, while Western Digital lost more than 17% and Seagate Technology about 16%, as investors worried that new political opposition could slow the building of US data centres, the biggest buyers of memory for artificial intelligence (AI). On Friday, 6 November, the stocks bounced: Micron rose as much as 8.06% to $709.31 in morning trade and closed at $690.00, up 5.12%, according to a market wrap.

Memory chips, the DRAM that holds data while a computer works and the NAND flash that stores it, have been among the biggest winners of the AI boom. AI data centres need huge amounts of fast memory, and that demand has pushed memory prices and memory company profits to records. It has also raised the cost of memory for phones and laptops. That is why a political worry about data-centre construction can knock a sixth off a memory maker's value in a day: investors are betting on how many data centres get built, and any sign of fewer is priced in at once.

The swing shows how crowded the AI trade has become. When many investors hold the same stocks for the same reason, a single new risk can send them all to the exit together, and a modest bounce follows once selling runs out. Friday's rise recovered only part of Thursday's loss.

For India, the moves matter in two ways. Indian investors who buy US shares through overseas investment platforms hold these names, and the global chip mood spills into Asian markets: South Korea's KOSPI index, home to Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, also fell sharply that week. And memory prices feed straight into the cost of smartphones and laptops sold in India, where several brands have cited memory costs for recent price increases.

Peepals calculation: Micron's Friday gain did not undo Thursday's fall. A 17.46% drop followed by a 5.12% rise leaves the stock about 13% below its Wednesday close (0.8254 × 1.0512 ≈ 0.868). Working back from the $690.00 close, Thursday's close was about $656.39 ($690.00 ÷ 1.0512) and Wednesday's about $795 ($656.39 ÷ 0.8254). Our calculation from the reported figures.

Short-term: Memory stocks are likely to stay volatile while investors watch for any concrete moves by newly elected US officials on data-centre permits.

Long-term: If data-centre building does slow, memory demand growth could cool, which may eventually ease the memory cost pressure on phones and PCs; if building continues, the sell-off may prove brief.

Who is affected: Shareholders of memory and storage companies, including Indians investing in US stocks, chip-heavy Asian markets, and consumers buying memory-intensive devices.

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