Global AI stocks fall as industry chiefs call for slowing development

According to The Express Tribune, technology shares slid across world markets on Monday after the chief executives of several leading artificial intelligence firms urged a slower pace of model development. The Nasdaq 100 fell 1.2% to a six-week low in early trading, with chip stocks leading the decline as the Philadelphia semiconductor index lost 5.1%. Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and Micron were among the heavier fallers, while ASML and SoftBank also dropped sharply in Europe and Asia.

The sell-off followed an essay by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, shared on X, in which he asked AI companies to slow how quickly they advance model capabilities amid fears of misuse. Elon Musk of xAI and Sam Altman of OpenAI said they agreed with him, and Altman added that OpenAI would not pursue an IPO this year because of safety concerns. Amodei also warned that AI agents could within six to 12 months be capable of taking over the internet, and Altman called the risk of human extinction from AI unacceptable.

Some investors dismissed the warnings, and Michael Burry described them as hype. Deutsche Bank said a slowdown in the AI investment cycle seemed unlikely for now, while Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers cautioned that any cut in AI spending could affect the broader economy and parts of equity markets.