AI Development Slowdown Shakes Semiconductor Market, Plunges Tech Stocks
On Monday, September 15, 2026, the global semiconductor markets experienced a significant shock. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei had released a pivotal essay over the weekend, urging AI companies to intentionally decelerate the advancement of their most potent models due to severe safety concerns. This essay sparked an immediate and widespread selloff across tech stocks globally.
Nvidia experienced a drop of as much as 3.7%, reaching its lowest point in three weeks. Intel saw a sharp decline of nearly 6%, while AMD and Marvell Technology fell by 5–6% and more than 7% respectively. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, which serves as the benchmark tracker for chip stocks, also took a hit, collapsing by approximately 6% on the day. The Nasdaq Composite followed suit, closing down by around 1–1.3%.
The impact of the selloff was not confined to the United States. South Korean powerhouses SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics saw declines of more than 6% and 4% respectively. SoftBank, one of OpenAI’s largest investors, tumbled by 10% in Tokyo. European chip stocks also suffered, with ASML down by more than 4% and Infineon falling by over 6%.
In the midst of this uncertainty, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman separately expressed that an IPO in 2026 would be “ill-advised.” However, analysts have pointed out that Nvidia’s order backlog reportedly remains in the trillions of dollars. Piper Sandler recently set a $300 price target on Nvidia, dubbing it the “outright leader in AI compute with 80% market share.”
Source: Fortune — Wall Street’s AI doomsday trade is here | CNBC — Stocks slide as AI slowdown fears weigh