What Happened?
A number of stocks fell in the afternoon session after federal prosecutors charged a Super Micro Computer co-founder with conspiring to smuggle billions of dollars in AI chips to China.
The news of federal export control violations triggered a sharp selloff, with Super Micro's shares cratering over 28%. The charges created broader anxiety across the AI semiconductor industry, contributing to declines in other major chip stocks like AMD. This development exacerbated a wider downturn in the tech-heavy Nasdaq, as investors reacted to the serious allegations and the potential for stricter regulations on advanced technology exports.
The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks.
Among others, the following stocks were impacted:
- Semiconductor Manufacturing company Amtech (NASDAQ: ASYS) fell 4.1%. Is now the time to buy Amtech? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Semiconductor Manufacturing company Nova (NASDAQ: NVMI) fell 3.5%. Is now the time to buy Nova? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Semiconductor Manufacturing company Amkor (NASDAQ: AMKR) fell 3.9%. Is now the time to buy Amkor? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Semiconductor Manufacturing company Semtech (NASDAQ: SMTC) fell 3.6%. Is now the time to buy Semtech? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Memory Semiconductors company Micron (NASDAQ: MU) fell 3.7%. Is now the time to buy Micron? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
Zooming In On Amtech (ASYS)
Amtech’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 61 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 24 days ago when the stock gained 3.6% on the news that the semiconductor sector received a major boost as Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) secured a deal to sell up to US$60 billion in artificial intelligence chips to Meta Platforms over five years.
This landmark agreement, which also allows Meta to purchase as much as 10% of the chip firm, is one of the latest blockbuster deals in the artificial intelligence space, signaling massive investment by tech giants. The news prompted a significant rally in AMD's shares, which jumped more than 10% in premarket trading. The deal not only highlights the immense demand for specialized AI hardware but also contributed to a broader rebound in technology stocks, helping to ease recent investor fears about the disruptive impacts of AI.
Amtech is down 14.4% since the beginning of the year, and at $11.09 per share, it is trading 39.3% below its 52-week high of $18.28 from January 2026. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Amtech’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at only $963.51.
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