The NASDAQ Dropped 3% as Micron, Intel, and AMD Tumble, but One Tech Name Is Bucking the Trend

U.S. tech shares sold off sharply, with the Nasdaq-100 proxy QQQ down 2.57% intraday as a memory-chip unwind hit Micron and dragged peers lower. Micron fell more than 10% despite strong recent fundamentals, and Seagate, Intel, and AMD also retreated in sympathy. Oracle declined after a regulatory filing showed 21,000 job cuts, about 13% of its workforce, raising questions about the cost of funding its large cloud buildout. IBM was the standout outperformer, rising about 5.4% after a JPMorgan upgrade, as investors rotated toward a more defensively valued AI name with steadier earnings and infrastructure exposure. The article frames the move as a sector rotation away from parabolic chip winners and toward broader, lower-beta tech exposure.