AI-Linked Stocks Slump After CEOs Call for Slowdown — SkimNews
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- AI-linked stocks slumped Monday after CEOs of the US's most advanced AI developers warned the pace of advancement must slow to prevent threats to humanity, with Nasdaq e-mini futures falling 1.3% during Asian trade.
- Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published a lengthy essay on X Saturday urging AI companies to slow capability advances, warning that within 6–12 months AI agents could take over the internet and cause hundreds of billions of dollars in damage; Elon Musk and Sam Altman publicly agreed.
- OpenAI's Sam Altman said the company would not pursue an IPO this year, citing safety concerns, while Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned asserting that AI builders believe the technology could kill humanity by the end of the decade.
- Chip stocks across Asia posted heavy losses — SoftBank (SFTBY) dropped as much as 13.2%, Kioxia 9.8%, SK Hynix 5.3%, Tokyo Electron and Samsung 3.7% each, and TSMC 1.2% — reflecting investor fears that the AI capex cycle could decelerate.
- President Trump on Sunday dismissed AI critics as "very negative forces" and pledged to keep the US the industry leader, while China's state-backed Global Times labeled Amodei's essay a "Cold War playbook" aimed at curbing Chinese tech development.
- Michael Burry countered the warnings on X, calling them "hype and puffery" and "cover for real uncontrollable slowing growth," while Saxo Bank's Charu Chanana noted AI valuations "assume both strong demand and a relentless pace of technological progress."
- The U.S. and Chinese governments are expected to hold AI safety talks this month as part of bilateral discussions, according to two people briefed on the plans.
Why it matters: Investors who piled into AI-related equities had priced in relentless progress; a single Asian trading session wiped billions off SoftBank and chipmakers on CEO warnings that the technology itself is becoming dangerous. AI labs now face a credibility bind: justifying continued capex depends on the same trajectory their leaders publicly describe as an existential risk.
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