Global AI stocks fall as industry chiefs call for slowing development
Baku, September 14, AZERTAC
AI-linked stocks across the globe plunged on Monday after leaders of the biggest AI companies warned of risks from rapid development, the starkest threat yet to the billions of dollars being poured into the industry that have pushed world markets to record highs, Reuters reported.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, in a lengthy essay shared on X on Saturday, called on AI companies to slow the rate at which they advance model capabilities amid mounting fears of misuse of artificial intelligence. Both Elon Musk, who runs xAI, and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said they agree with Amodei.
Altman also said the company would not proceed with an IPO this year, citing safety concerns.
The CEOs' comments deepened the scrutiny on AI-related sectors, triggered by companies increasingly relying on debt and circular financing to fund their AI ambitions, while also raising spending forecasts at a time when global yields, an indication of borrowing costs, have soared to multi-year highs.
"If the AI race slows materially, the key question becomes: who pays for all that infrastructure? The leases, debt and power commitments remain even if expected compute demand and revenue growth slow. And that could bring credit risk increasingly into the AI story," said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote.
Futures tracking Wall Street's Nasdaq e-mini futures fell 1.9%, with chip stocks, which have led the AI sugar rush, down the most.
Nvidia fell 3%, Advanced Micro Devices slid 5.7% and Musk's SpaceX dropped 2.6%. Hyperscalers such as Meta and Amazon.com dropped over 1.4% each.
European tech stocks tanked 2.5%, weighed by chip equipment giant ASML's 5.8% fall. Chip maker Infineon slid 8.4%, while AI equipment maker Siemens Energy lost 7.4%.
Across Asia, ChatGPT-maker OpenAI's investor SoftBank tumbled as much as 13.2%, Taipei's Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company slipped 1.2% and South Korea's SK Hynix slid 6.3%.
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