AI Hardware Stocks Retreat on Friday: Optical Communication, Memory Shares Drop 5-13% on OpenAI IPO Delay Concerns

According to MarketWatch, optical communication stocks and memory chip shares slid sharply on Friday, June 26, as gains from the AI boom hit a wall. Lumentum (LITE) and Coherent (COHR) fell over 5% and 6% respectively, while SoftBank plummeted over 12% following reports that OpenAI may delay its IPO to next year. Storage stocks also declined: Western Digital (WDC) dropped 13%, Seagate (STX) fell 12%, and SanDisk (SNDK) fell 10%.

The selloff reflects broader market concerns over AI commercialization pace, component cost inflation, and delayed model deployment timelines. Apple and Microsoft announced price increases for devices due to surging memory and storage costs. According to The Information, the U.S. government has also requested OpenAI to phase out its next-generation GPT-5.6 model rollout, initially limiting access to government-approved partners.