Market / Stocks

Chip stocks lost about $2 trillion in eight days. Monday was a bounce, not a verdict.

The Philadelphia chip index fell 11.4 percent last week, its worst week since March 2025, then buyers stepped back in on Monday. Meta reports on Wednesday, and that is where the argument gets settled.

New York, United States · October 20, 2026

Eight straight days of falling wiped about $2 trillion off chip stocks, according to Reuters. The Philadelphia chip index, known as the SOX, dropped 11.4 percent last week, its biggest weekly decline since March 2025. Hot inflation data, which raises the odds of Federal Reserve rate hikes, and a harder question about whether heavy AI spending ever pays for itself did the damage.

Monday brought buyers back. The iShares Semiconductor ETF climbed 3.6 percent in premarket trade after falling almost 12 percent last week, and Intel rose 4.2 percent after JPMorgan upgraded the stock to neutral from underweight. Nvidia, AMD and Micron all clawed back ground too, helped by lower Treasury yields and easing crude prices. By the close the SOX was up 1.6 percent on the day, a real bounce, though a small one set against a 15.7 percent fall across the eight sessions before it.

Context matters here, and Reuters supplied it in the same report: even after the rout, the chip index is still up 57.2 percent so far this year. This was a wobble on top of a monster run, not the end of one. Investors are not doubting demand, because chips are still flying into data centres. They are doubting the bill, and whether the revenue arrives fast enough to justify it.

That is why Wednesday matters more than Monday did. Meta reports that day, and Reuters notes it needs $62.5 billion of revenue just to hit the midpoint of its own guide, while already expecting to spend $130 billion to $145 billion on capital projects this year. Clear the guide and Monday's buyers look early and smart. Miss it, raise the spending bill again, and the two trillion starts to look less like a dip and more like a warning.