Stock futures fell sharply Monday morning, led by tech stocks, after leading artificial intelligence CEOs called for a slowdown in the pace of developing the revolutionary technology.In early Monday morning trading, Nasdaq 100 futures slid by 1.5%, while S&P 500 futures tumbled 0.8%.Leading those losses were shares of technology companies.
If the Nasdaq 100’s moves held through the remainder of the day’s trading session, it would be its worst day in about 6 weeks.Nvidia, the world’s most valuable public company, fell 3%.Chipmakers Arm Holdings and Marvell slid 6%, as did cloud computing provider CoreWeave.
Intel and Hewlett Packard shares tumbled more than 5%.Corning, a key supplier for data center components, fell 7.5%.
Shares of Amazon, the leading cloud computing company, fell almost 2%.Microsoft shares fell almost 1% and Google parent Alphabet’s shares dropped about 0.8%.Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell only slightly, but Dow component Caterpillar, which is involved in the buildout of AI data centers, tumbled 3%.
Further rattling markets, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told Fortune magazine on Saturday that his company would not be going public this year.“Given everything happening with safety, right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public,” Altman said.
OpenAI and Anthropic’s eventual public offerings are expected to be among the largest of all time.“For markets, the key question is whether this is the first sign that the extraordinary AI investment cycle might eventually moderate,” said Deutsche Bank global head of macro research, Jim Reid.“For now, that seems unlikely.
The competitive race between companies and countries remains intense, and it’s difficult to imagine firms voluntarily stepping back while rivals continue to push ahead.”Overnight, worries about slowing the AI industry hit South Korea’s benchmark Kopsi index, which sharply fell more than 3%.That fall was primarily due to selling in AI memory firms.
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