Seagate Technology PLC's stock plummeted 6.40% during the pre-market session on Friday, as the memory and storage sector faced intense selling pressure.
The sharp decline followed a sector-wide rally driven by Micron Technology's stellar quarterly results the previous day. However, investors engaged in aggressive profit-taking amid mounting concerns over high valuations in the artificial intelligence sector. The sentiment was further dampened by a report suggesting OpenAI might delay its initial public offering until 2027, which triggered synchronized selling across semiconductor and memory stocks.
Adding to the negative catalysts, Apple's indication that it was struggling to absorb soaring memory chip costs—leading to price increases for its hardware—raised concerns about demand and cost pressures within the supply chain. This combination of factors led to a broad tech sector retreat, with Seagate and its peers giving back gains from the prior session's Micron-inspired rally.
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