AI-linked stocks fell across Asia, Europe and US premarket trading on Monday after Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei called for a slowdown in the development of AI model capabilities.
Amodei wrote in an essay titled “We Must Pace the Frontier” that “we must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models.” OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said he agreed on the need to “pace the frontier.”
In Japan, shares in SoftBank, a major backer of OpenAI, fell 10%. South Korean chipmakers SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics closed down more than 6% and 4% respectively, and the Kospi index dropped 3%. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company fell 1.2%.
The selling extended into Europe. ASML, the Dutch chip-equipment maker and Europe’s most valuable company, fell as much as 5.4% in early trading. Nokia dropped around 5%, Infineon fell more than 6%, and Siemens Energy and Schneider Electric, both tied to data-center construction, were also lower.
US premarket moves pointed downward, with Nasdaq futures indicating a 1.3% fall at the open. Micron dropped around 5%, Intel nearly 6%, and Nvidia more than 2%. Investors are pricing in a slowdown that could curb the hundreds of billions of dollars in planned AI infrastructure spending, echoing an earlier chip-sector selloff driven by AI financing doubts.
Not all shares fell. WPP, the advertising group, rose 3.1%, and analytics firm Relx gained 4.2%, both having faced pressure from the rise of AI tools.
Anthropic is on track to be profitable this quarter, with adjusted operating income expected to be positive for a second consecutive quarter as it prepares to list in the US this year.