Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) announced the release of its new compression algorithm, TurboQuant, on October 3, 2023, which has sparked a sell-off in memory stocks. Sandisk Corporation (SNDK) plummeted by 11%, while Micron Technology (MU) fell by 7% shortly after the announcement. Other major players like Western Digital and Seagate also dipped over 7%, with Samsung and SK Hynix each dropping more than 5% in Seoul. As of October 4, these stocks are beginning to recover.
TurboQuant compresses key-value cache memory usage for AI models, achieving almost 6x reduction without losing accuracy, and demonstrates up to an 8x acceleration in attention computing on Nvidia H100 GPUs. Despite the immediate reaction, analysts suggest that the long-term impacts might not be as severe, as this algorithm primarily affects inference rather than training, leaving high bandwidth memory demand largely intact.
Recent earnings reports for both Micron and Sandisk show robust performance; Micron’s revenue nearly tripled year-over-year, and Sandisk reported a 61% increase in revenue for Q2 fiscal 2026. Both companies currently hold a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), indicating continued investor confidence despite recent stock fluctuations.
