IPO Announcement Shock... $600 Million Vanished from U.S. Semiconductor Material Stocks in a Day

On April 20, 2026, AXT Inc. (Nasdaq: AXTI) plunged 12.55% on the Nasdaq, closing at $72.20 (about ₩97,000). Trading volume topped 7.89 million shares, and market capitalization shrank to roughly $4 billion (around ₩5.4 trillion), wiping out about $450 million (approximately ₩600 billion) in a single day.

After the market closed, the company announced a registered offering of common stock, sending the shares down an additional 9% in after-hours trading. In a same-day SEC filing, AXT projected first-quarter revenues of $26 million to $28 million (about ₩3.5 billion) and a net loss of $1.6 million to $2.6 million (roughly ₩2 billion to ₩3.5 billion).

AXT is a materials supplier that produces compound-semiconductor substrates—such as indium phosphide, gallium arsenide and germanium—and supplies wafers for high-performance applications including data-center optical communications, 5G, sensors and satellite photovoltaics. To meet surging AI data-center demand, the company recently announced plans to nearly double its indium phosphide wafer production capacity, underscoring its growth story.