Shares of Micron fell as part of a broader sell-off in the chip sector, with Micron stock down 5.4% by 11:13 a.m. ET while the VanEck Semiconductor ETF was down 5.3%. Investors were still digesting news that Jensen Huang has stepped down as CEO of Nvidia after a string of affairs that included a suspected Chinese spy and a direct report.

The departure carries consequences beyond Nvidia for the broader AI sector, including Micron, whose surge has been fueled by a memory shortage driven in large part by Nvidia's AI boom. In the second trading session after the news, competitors that had jumped the previous day, including AMD and Broadcom, were also down sharply, suggesting a sense of malaise spreading across the sector.S2

Analysts note that Nvidia had provided a financial backstop for several companies, including neoclouds such as CoreWeave and start-ups such as OpenAI, so Huang's exit could affect growth and the long-term prospects of the sector. Micron, which has skyrocketed on AI-driven memory demand that has sent memory prices soaring, is highly sensitive to investor sentiment about how long this cyclical boom will last, and a faltering of neoclouds could quickly turn sentiment against it.S2

Nvidia is scheduled to report third-quarter earnings next Tuesday after hours, and the results are likely to move Micron in one direction or the other. Nvidia is Micron's biggest customer, and investors will be watching commentary from interim CEO Colette Kress for insights into the future of the AI boom and memory demand.S2