The semiconductor trade is facing its worst reckoning in decades. The industry that led the market all year has lost more value in 30 days than in any month since 2001.
The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX), which tracks the largest U.S.-listed chipmakers and equipment suppliers, has fallen 27.43% in July with one session left. That is on pace for its worst month since September 2001.
The damage left nowhere to hide. Not one of the fund's 34 holdings is on track to finish the month in the green. And the names that fell hardest produced moves unseen in decades. Some of them had never happened at all.
The Records Nobody Was Positioned For
The three worst performing semiconductor names in July were Astera Labs Inc. (ALAB), down 48.30%, Marvell Technology Inc. (MRVL), which lost 45.15%, and KLA Corp. (KLAC), down 43.59%.
For Astera Labs it was the worst month since the connectivity chipmaker went public in April 2024. Nothing in its short history is close. The previous mark was 27.55%.
For Marvell it was the worst month since February 2001, when the dot-com unwind took 49.68% out of a stock that had listed seven months earlier. Twenty-five years sit between those two prints.
KLA has been public since 1980. July was the worst month in its recorded trading history, eclipsing October 1987, the month of Black Monday, when the stock lost 39.24%.
Intel And Micron Suffered Crisis-Style Selloffs
Intel Corp. (INTC) shed 41.36%, from $139.63 at the end of June to $81.88. That is its worst month since September 2000 and the third worst since 1972.
Micron Technology Inc. (MU) fell 35.98%, from $1,154.29 to $739, its worst month since November 2008. No month in the 17 years since has come close.
The AI Trade Itself Never Cracked
Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) fell 5.04% in July. Broadcom Inc. (AVGO) fell 1.97%. AI's two largest beneficiaries were almost untouched while memory, equipment and custom silicon were cut by a third to a half.
This was not a verdict on AI demand. It was a verdict on everything sold into it.
