US midterm 'blue wave' puts pressure on memory chip demand

With the U.S. Democrats taking control of Congress in the midterm elections, the "blue wave" is expected to cool memory chip prices and demand, casting doubt on whether Samsung Electronics and SK hynix can sustain their record-breaking earnings streaks. In the New York trading session that ended Wednesday (local time), shares of CoreWeave and Nebius fell 9.9 percent and 6.7 percent, respectively. Both are neo cloud providers that rent out artificial intelligence (AI) computing capacity. Data center operators IREN and Hut 8 also plunged 11.2 percent and 23.2 percent, respectively. Memory chip and storage companies also suffered steep losses. SK hynix’s American depositary receipts declined 5.1 percent, while Sandisk fell 7.9 percent, Micron Technology 7 percent and Western Digital 6.8 percent. Chip designers Nvidia and Broadcom also dropped. The drops appear to reflect investors’ concerns that the election of Democratic governors in states such as Texas, Ohio and Georgia could turn growing local opposition to data center construction into tighter regulations and delays in project appr