Memory Stocks Slide on Report Apple May Source Chinese Chips: SanDisk Down 9%, Micron and Western Digital Down 7%

David Moadel

Mon, August 24, 2026 at 6:29 PM GMT+3 4 min read

Quick Read

SanDisk dropped 9% and Micron fell 7% after reports the Trump administration may let Apple source memory from Chinese suppliers ahead of Xi's U.S. visit.
KC Rajkumar calls the selloff an overreaction, noting that CXMT can't qualify for Apple iPhones and YMTC has committed its newest NAND to domestic customers.
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Memory stocks are sliding Monday morning after weekend reports that Washington may permit Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) to source memory chips from Chinese suppliers. The policy shift would land squarely on the U.S. and Korean players that dominate the group.

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SanDisk (NASDAQ:SNDK) stock is down 9% to $1,458.29, leading the group lower. Meanwhile, Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) stock is down 7% to $897.86 in early Monday trading, the cleanest read-through to any shift in Apple's DRAM sourcing.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) stock is down 7% to $429.49 on similar sector-wide pressure, and SK Hynix (NASDAQ:SKHY) stock is down 5% to $154.48 as the selling spans geographies. The Roundhill Memory ETF (CBOE:DRAM) is down 7% to $53.62, matching the individual names almost exactly and signaling that traders aren't sorting between NAND and DRAM exposure.

The uniformity is the tell. This looks like a policy-headline shock landing on a sector that had already run enormously, with SanDisk stock up 572% year to date through Friday's close and Micron Technology stock up 239% YTD through Friday's close. Gains like that invite exactly this kind of gap risk (we wrote a free handbook on riding a mania and planning the exit here: The Bubble Survivor's Handbook).

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Weekend Report on Chinese Memory Sourcing

Reports circulating over the weekend said the Trump administration may permit Apple to source DRAM from China's CXMT and NAND flash memory from YMTC. The move is described as a possible diplomatic gesture ahead of President Xi Jinping's planned U.S. visit, expected on or around September 24. Apple has said it is "evaluating all options" on memory supply and that Chinese sourcing "could help us on the supply side and perhaps the pricing side."

The stakes concentrate at Micron. As the dominant U.S. supplier of the high-density lpDDR5x DRAM Apple uses in iPhones and Macs, Micron Technology shares carry the most direct read-through to any shift in Apple's memory sourcing decision.

Analyst Calls It an Overreaction

KC Rajkumar of Lynx Equity Research called Monday's selloff "an overreaction" in a note, arguing supply constraints and qualification gaps make the China memory threat far smaller than the headlines imply. His channel checks found CXMT qualified for only one low-volume Mac product and not qualified for iPhones at all, with poor yield on the high-density lpDDR5x DRAM Apple requires.

Rajkumar wrote that "CXMT supply is unlikely to dent the shortage Apple is facing in DRAM, nor could CXMT supply improve Apple's negotiation position at traditional suppliers such as MU." On YMTC, he found Apple has not qualified its NAND for any product, and that YMTC has allocated its latest-generation NAND to domestic customers including Android smartphones, electric vehicles and Lenovo notebooks.

Both CXMT and YMTC remain on the Pentagon's Section 1260H list of companies with alleged ties to China's military-industrial base, which could complicate any procurement arrangement. On August 17, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told the Wall Street Journal that "it's not great American companies using Chinese memory," and Micron and SanDisk shares rose sharply that session.

Position Sizing Into Xi Visit Headlines

For investors already long the memory complex, today's move should reinforce basic position discipline given how much beta these names now carry into any China-related headline. The Roundhill Memory ETF's mirror-image drop with the underlying stocks says that trimming a diversified fund doesn't soften the sector risk here.

Investors adding on this weakness should size to the possibility that further Xi-visit-related headlines produce more single-day gaps in both directions across the group. No policy decision has actually been announced, and Washington's own Commerce chief publicly opposed the arrangement last week, yet the tape is trading as if the risk is real and near-term.

Keep an eye on Micron stock for follow-through selling and additional analyst notes on qualification and yield at CXMT and YMTC. Any official readout from either capital as the September summit window approaches could drive the next share-price moves.