Chip and AI-infrastructure stocks fell far harder than the broader Nasdaq indices on Monday after Anthropic, OpenAI and xAI leaders warned about the risks of unchecked AI development. Cybersecurity names rallied on the same news, and OpenAI shelved its IPO plans for the year.
Semiconductor and AI-infrastructure names sank on Monday, far outpacing modest declines in the broader Nasdaq indices. The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.35% and the Nasdaq 100 dropped 0.60%, but names tied directly to the AI buildout lost far more ground.
Chip stocks lead the decline
Coherent dropped 11.70% and Astera Labs fell 10.78%. Lumentum fell 9.88%, Arm Holdings dropped 9.01% and Lam Research lost 7.72%. SK Hynix, Credo Technology, ASML, Marvell Technology, Applied Materials, CoreWeave, KLA Corp., Nebius and Micron also declined between 4.94% and 7.67%. Nvidia held up better, slipping 2.85% to $211.36, trading near its 100-day moving average after touching an all-time high of $236.54 on September 4.
Why: weekend warnings from AI leaders
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay on September 14 warning that AI agents could become capable of seizing control of the entire internet within six to twelve months. Sam Altman of OpenAI and Elon Musk of xAI both echoed his concerns.
According to CNBC, Amodei wrote: "We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models." Altman said on X that pacing does not mean stopping.
Cybersecurity rallies, OpenAI shelves IPO plans
The same warnings lifted cybersecurity stocks. Palo Alto Networks jumped 14% and CrowdStrike rose 15% as investors bet companies will spend more on AI-related security. Separately, Sam Altman confirmed that OpenAI will not pursue an IPO this year, citing safety concerns as the primary reason.
What to watch next
Investors are watching capital-spending plans from the largest hyperscalers for signs of whether the pullback is temporary. Microsoft, Meta and Alphabet all gained on the day, rising 2.32%, 2.87% and 3.08% respectively, suggesting the Nasdaq selloff so far is concentrated in chip and infrastructure names rather than broad tech.
Sources: Investinglive, CNBC, Crypto Briefing
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