Memory chip stocks Micron, SanDisk, fall up to 7% after remarks by Seagate CEO

Shares of memory chip manufacturers Seagate fell over 7% on Monday, May 18, triggering a group-wide sell-off, after its CEO Dave Mosely raised concerns that the company may not be able to meet the soaring demand courtesy the Artificial Intelligence build-out.

Speaking at a JPMorgan conference, Mosely said that if they started building new factories or bringing up new machines, it "would just take too long", adding that they would end up with more capacity but slow the rate of growth on that particular technology.

Mosely's remarks triggered a sell-off in Seagate's chipmaking peers as well. Micron's shares dropped 6%, while those of SanDisk and Western Digital also fell between 5% to 6% on Monday.

Memory stocks have had a gravity-defying rally this year, with all of these stocks highlighted above gaining anywhere between 120% to as high as 380% so far in 2026. Seagate itself is still up 140% for the year, despite Monday's correction.

The Chip production cycle stretches over many quarters for a single unit and investors are now starting to question for how long these companies can capture the demand.

"We know what’s coming out a year from now," he said. "And we’ve basically gone to the customers and said, Look, if you want to plan this really well, which it should be for your data centers, we know what’s coming out. You can buy this stuff up to a certain period," Mosely said at the conference.

The fall in these chipmaking names also pressured the Nasdaq on Monday, which underperformed its peers for the second day in a row, with a 0.5% decline.