Retail investors who bought the dip in the U.S. semiconductor leveraged ETF (SOXL) suffered heavy losses. The ETF attracted a record $6.1 billion in inflows last week, but fell another 10.8% this week, with a cumulative decline of over 43% since October.

The ETF aims to provide amplified returns by tracking 300% of the daily movements of the semiconductor index, making it one of the highest-risk leveraged instruments on the market. Last week, investors attempted to buy the dip in continuously falling chip stocks, injecting a record $6.1 billion into SOXL in a single week. However, the decline in chip stocks intensified this week, with SOXL plummeting 20.5% on Thursday alone, marking its largest single-day drop since June 23. Market doubts about the return on investment in AI infrastructure are the core reason for the pressure on the semiconductor sector.