Sandisk Shares Slide as TurboQuant Cuts AI Memory Needs Sixfold
On March 24 Google unveiled TurboQuant, compressing AI model key-value caches by over sixfold without precision loss. Shares of memory chip makers plunged this week, with Samsung down 5%, SK Hynix 6%, Kioxia nearly 6% and Sandisk sliding in U.S. trading.
1. Google Unveils TurboQuant AI Compression
On March 24 Google published TurboQuant, an algorithm that compresses the key-value cache in AI models by over sixfold during inference without degrading performance on tasks such as code generation, question answering and summarization.
2. Memory Stocks Tumble
In response, shares of major memory chip manufacturers slumped this week, with Samsung down 5%, SK Hynix off 6%, Kioxia nearly 6% and Sandisk sliding in U.S. trading after a period of sustained growth.
3. Analyst Perspectives and Future Outlook
Analysts caution that TurboQuant addresses only inference-stage memory and could ultimately boost demand for higher-performance hardware as AI models expand, with full implementation details scheduled for presentation at the ICLR 2026 conference in April.