Global AI stocks fall as industry chiefs call for slowing development

Shares of artificial intelligence-linked companies sold off sharply worldwide on Monday, Dawn reported, after leaders of major AI firms voiced concern about the speed of development. The decline posed the most serious challenge yet to the large sums investors have channelled into the sector, which has helped push global equity markets to record levels. Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei, in a long essay posted on X on Saturday, urged AI developers to slow the pace at which their models gain new abilities.

Early trading saw the Nasdaq 100 lose 1.7 per cent, with semiconductor shares, which had led the AI rally, falling most. The Philadelphia semiconductor index dropped 6 per cent, Nvidia lost 3.5 per cent, Advanced Micro Devices fell 5.6 per cent and Micron declined 6.7 per cent. In Europe the tech sector shed 2.3 per cent, weighed down by ASML, while in Asia SoftBank at one point plunged 13.2 per cent.

Not every investor accepted the warnings. Michael Burry, known for wagers against the US housing market ahead of the 2008 crisis, described them as hype that masked an uncontrollable slowdown in growth. Deutsche Bank, however, judged a pullback in AI investment unlikely for now, pointing to an intense race between companies and countries.