Tech Stocks Tumble on Calls to Slow AI Development; Bitcoin, Ether Rise 1%
Summary
- Shares of technology and AI-related companies and AI infrastructure firms plunged as debate spread over slowing the pace of AI development.
- By contrast, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) each rose 1%, diverging from the slide in technology stocks.
- Rising oil prices and elevated U.S. Treasury yields weighed on risk assets broadly, while gold and silver prices weakened.
Forecast Trend Report by Period
Technology stocks fell while Bitcoin and Ether rose after executives at major global artificial intelligence companies called for slowing the pace of AI development.
CoinDesk reported on September 14 that U.S. technology and AI-related shares fell across the board ahead of the market open. The Invesco QQQ Trust ETF, which tracks the Nasdaq 100, dropped 1.5% in premarket trading.
Losses were steeper among AI infrastructure companies. Cloud firms Nebius and CoreWeave fell 6% and 5%, respectively, while chipmakers Sandisk and Intel each slid about 5%. In South Korea, the Kospi fell more than 3%, and SK Hynix, a supplier of AI memory chips, tumbled more than 6%.
The selloff in tech shares came as calls to slow AI development gained traction over the weekend. Anthropic Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei argued that development should be slowed to allow time for safety measures, a view that OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman and Elon Musk also supported.
Crypto markets moved in the opposite direction. Bitcoin rose about 1% over the past 24 hours to $77,800, while Ether gained 1% to trade around $2,500.
Higher oil prices are weighing on risk assets more broadly. Brent crude rose more than 3% to $107 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate climbed above $103. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note remained just below 5%, and the 30-year yield stood at 5.355%.
Precious metals also weakened. Gold fell about 1% to around $4,300 an ounce, while silver slipped 1.5%.
