US Memory Stocks Slide as South Korea AI Tax Remark Jolts $6 Billion ETF
Updated
Updated · Sherwood News · May 12
US Memory Stocks Slide as South Korea AI Tax Remark Jolts $6 Billion ETF
12 articles · Updated · Sherwood News · May 12
Micron, Sandisk, Western Digital and Seagate fell Tuesday after South Korean policymaker Kim Yong-beom floated a “national dividend” funded by AI-related tax revenue, rattling the memory-chip trade.
Kim later said he meant excess tax receipts from leading chipmakers rather than a new windfall tax, and South Korea’s presidential office said the comments were his personal view, helping Samsung, SK Hynix and the KOSPI recover from session lows.
The selloff still spread to US names because memory stocks have been trading closely with their South Korean peers and now sit together in the Roundhill Memory ETF, which Bloomberg Intelligence says was the fastest ever to top $6 billion in assets.
That linkage hit a group already on a near-parabolic run, leaving the sector vulnerable to a sharp reversal even on a policy comment that was quickly softened.
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