Stocks Fall as AI Slowdown Worries Hit Chipmakers: Markets Wrap
(Bloomberg) — A selloff in chipmakers dragged down stocks as leaders of artificial-intelligence giants proposed slowing the technology’s development, with elevated oil prices also weighing on sentiment.
The rout in powerhouses like Nvidia Corp. and Broadcom Inc. sent a semiconductor gauge down by 5.9%. The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.8%. Bank of America Corp. led losses in financial shares on chief Brian Moynihan’s trading revenue warning. Brent crude topped $105, raising concern about inflation before the Federal Reserve decision. Treasury 10-year yields hovered near 5%.
A 3,800-word missive by Anthropic PBC Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei — which was endorsed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceXAI CEO Elon Musk — said development of the most-advanced systems must be slowed in order to prevent AI slipping beyond human control and inflicting catastrophic harm.
Microsoft Corp.’s AI researchers have released a new set of guiding tenets that place limits on the company’s development of cutting-edge AI models. The 15,000-word manifesto boils down to five words: People matter more than AI.
President Donald Trump attacked Anthropic’s chief for urging a slowdown in AI development, intensifying his opposition to new guardrails. He blamed a “SICK conspiracy” for voter backlash on AI data centers and increased concern about frontier models and added that “the only one that is happy about it is China.”
If the latest developments push out the timing of promised AI returns, it makes sense that investors would become less enthusiastic, according to Matt Maley at Miller Tabak.
Are We Losing Control of AI? What’s Driving Fears: Explainer
“What really happened? Surely something big enough to spook Dario, Sam, and Elon into rare agreement,” said Giuseppe Sette at Reflexivity. “Whatever it was, it was probably stopped at the last minute, just before disaster struck. With China in the race, though, we don’t expect any major slowdown.”
As for any retracement in AI stocks, Sette noted that’s simply a buying opportunity.
“Concerns on AI deployment could be a sentiment negative for the AI value chain,” said Justin Post and Nitin Bansal at Bank of America Corp. “Despite potential concerns, we continue to believe AI capacity will have strong multi-year demand.”
At HSBC, Max Kettner says calls for a slower AI buildout and resulting fears for the tech sector are “overblown.” This could actually help profitability of AI companies eventually, he said.
“Whether calls to pace advanced model development will gain traction across the industry remains uncertain, but we believe they are more aimed at shaping a regulatory framework acceptable to leading AI labs,” said Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi at UBS Chief Investment Office. “We therefore expect AI investment to continue.”
Corporate Highlights:
Bank of America Corp. Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan said trading revenue will be “relatively flat” compared with last year’s third quarter, a break from the surge that Wall Street saw in the first half. Elon Musk’s xAI and X Corp. said they resolved an antitrust lawsuit against Apple Inc. that accused the iPhone maker of favoring OpenAI’s ChatGPT over other chatbot makers. SpaceX is set to get a larger weighting in the Nasdaq 100 later this month, a change that could trigger billions of dollars of buying by passive funds tied to the benchmark. Anthropic PBC is pitching financial advisers on a version of Claude that blends the chatbot with financial analytics and risk management technology run by BlackRock Inc., Vanguard Group Inc. and other firms. OpenAI won’t go public in this year as the AI company focuses on addressing safety-related concerns around the technology, Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman told Fortune in an interview. What Bloomberg strategists say…
“Resilient economic growth and rock-solid corporate profits can cushion the impact from higher rates and valuation compression, but with that foundation now in question, the effect of tighter financial conditions on stocks will be more severe.”
—Tatiana Darie, Macro Strategist, Markets Live. For the full analysis, click here.
Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
The S&P 500 fell 0.5% as of 4 p.m. New York time The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.8% The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3% The MSCI World Index fell 0.5% Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.4% The euro fell 0.5% to $1.1545 The British pound fell 0.2% to $1.3497 The Japanese yen fell 0.5% to 154.41 per dollar Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin rose 2.2% to $79,034.54 Ether rose 1.3% to $2,544.25 Bonds
The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced two basis points to 4.99% Germany’s 10-year yield advanced one basis point to 3.52% Britain’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 5.37% Commodities
West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.7% to $101.75 a barrel Spot gold fell 1.4% to $4,286.19 an ounce ©2026 Bloomberg L.P.
