New York, April 30, 2026, 07:56 EDT
- Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF felt the weight from both Palantir and Micron across two straight sessions.
- Palantir’s earnings report due May 4 turns into a key gauge for how much runway is left in AI software valuations.
- There’s a bigger risk here: AI-linked stocks have enough sway to pull even diversified funds when sentiment sours.
This week, Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF stumbled amid renewed swings in AI-linked names. Palantir Technologies and Micron Technology dragged the broad-market fund down, with Palantir’s first-quarter earnings on deck for next week.
This shift is notable—AI stocks now weigh heavier, even on broad portfolios. On April 29, VTI slipped 0.3% after Palantir tumbled 3.4%, according to Quiver Quantitative. Nvidia, Microsoft, and Apple joined Palantir as the biggest drags on the fund that day.
The pressure came right after a steeper drop on April 28, when Quiver reported VTI slipped 0.8%—Micron tumbled 5.7%. Nvidia, Broadcom, Applied Materials, AMD, and Lam Research all made the list of laggards, underscoring how a chip rout can hit a total-market ETF like VTI.
Palantir slipped again ahead of Thursday’s bell, last seen at $137.97—off 2.3% from where it finished previously. VTI hovered near flat at $350.21. Micron caught a 2.8% lift early, moving up to $518.46.
Investors are pulling back from AI-related stocks again, recalibrating after Tuesday’s drop sparked by doubts over OpenAI’s growth and revenue aims—right as big cloud-computing earnings loom. “More food for thought” is how Chuck Carlson, Horizon Investment Services’ CEO, described it to Reuters, pointing to the fresh questions swirling around growth and capex—the long-term spending on assets like data centers. Reuters
Florian Muller, a contributor at Seeking Alpha, pointed out Palantir’s 31% drop had softened what he called an “extreme” valuation in his model. Still, he argued the company must top the 74% revenue growth expected this earnings season to make the case for the stock. Muller noted he holds no current position but could go long Palantir within 72 hours. Seeking Alpha
Palantir plans to release its first-quarter numbers after the U.S. market shuts on Monday, May 4, with a webcast set for 5 p.m. ET. That leaves just a handful of sessions for the stock to settle before investors get their next look at whether appetite for its AI and data-analysis tools can keep pace with questions around valuation.
Palantir’s latest numbers didn’t disappoint. The company posted a 70% jump in fourth-quarter revenue, hitting $1.41 billion, while U.S. commercial revenue soared 137% to $507 million. Looking ahead, Palantir put its 2026 revenue target between $7.18 billion and $7.20 billion.
Micron’s position is distinct but still wrapped up in the AI story. The chipmaker supplies memory—think high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, the speedy variety paired with cutting-edge AI chips. On March 18, Micron reported fiscal second-quarter revenue of $23.86 billion, nearly triple last year’s figure. For the third quarter, it’s projecting $33.5 billion in revenue, give or take $750 million.
Still, the pace of growth hasn’t erased concerns over spending. Micron shares dropped after the company announced a $5 billion increase to its 2026 capital spending plan; Sumit Sadana, Micron’s chief business officer, told Reuters that construction activity was fueling the surge in capex. Mike O’Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading, saw the ramped-up spending as a sign that any memory shortages could be short-lived once new capacity comes online.
Competitive pressure is intense. In HBM, Micron faces off with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Nvidia, AMD, and Broadcom are still key names in the AI-chip rally that’s driven market leadership upward this year. As Reuters reported, chip stocks dragged the Nasdaq lower on April 28 after climbing more than 40% in 2026.
Strong earnings may not cut it if investors start balking at the cost or pace of AI investments. Early Thursday, U.S. stock-index futures showed little direction—tech earnings delivered a beat, but inflation concerns tied to oil kept traders on edge. Meta and Microsoft both slipped in premarket hours after the two disclosed their latest capital spending plans.
