Samsung, Other Tech Stocks Crash After Google Unveils 6x More Efficient AI Tool

The world’s leading memory stocks like Samsung, Micron Technology and Sandisk fell sharply this week after Google unveiled its new TurboQuant algorithm which significantly shortens AI memory requirements.

Micron dropped 7 percent while Sandisk plunged nearly 10% on Thursday. Samsung lost between 6-8 percent of its value at close on Friday. Apparently Google’s Tuesday blog on TurboQuant triggered a big sellout from big tech chip stocks.

TurboQuant compresses data in AI models’ “key-value caches”, reducing memory size by up to six times and increasing processing speed up to eightfold without losing accuracy.

While impressive, investors panicked that AI’s demand for memory chips like DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) and NAND (Negated AND) could slow.

Many tech enthusiasts on X said TurboQuant is essentially path toward materially reducing memory intensity in AI workloads. They said its launch would put pressure on long-term memory demand if widely adopted.

Some techies urged everyone not to overreact. If it were so revolutionary and in wide-scale use at Google, they would not publish it, one user wrote.

Regardless, improved memory efficiency could ultimately boost hardware demand, as seen in China’s 2025 DeepSeek AI development, which initially triggered market panic but ultimately attracted huge investments in efficient AI systems.

Sandisk CFO Luis Visoso said TurboQuant could increase the return on hyperscale infrastructure spending and increase demand.

Wells Fargo analyst Aaron Rankers said TurboQuant is another example of the AI industry’s drive to unlock greater efficiency gains.

Despite the negative headlines and chip stocks dipping, TurboQuant is unlikely to derail the momentum of AI-driven memory demand in the long-run.