Nvidia fell 8% over the past week while Meta Platforms, Alphabet and Microsoft climbed, after Anthropic, OpenAI and xAI's chief executives called for slowing the pace of AI model development. The selloff hit chip and data-center suppliers hardest, while enterprise software names rose instead. The rotation now hinges on this week's Federal Reserve decision and on whether any hyperscaler revises its capital spending.
Nvidia shares fell 8.38% over the past week to $210.82. The stock also slid 3% in early Monday trading, extending the decline after a weekend call from three AI industry leaders to slow the development of frontier AI models.
Meta Platforms, Alphabet and Microsoft moved the opposite direction on the same news. Meta climbed 7.12% over the past week to $660.71. Alphabet added 2.09% and Microsoft held roughly flat at $499.83.
Three AI chiefs call for slowing the pace
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wrote that AI companies "must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models", citing risks including loss of control over AI systems and misuse for cyberattacks. OpenAI's Sam Altman and xAI's Elon Musk each voiced agreement on social media. Altman later clarified that pacing does not mean stopping, and no company has announced any change to its development plans.
Selling hits chips, buying hits software
The selloff concentrated in the AI buildout chain. Corning fell 7.5%, while Arm Holdings, Marvell and CoreWeave each slid 6%, and ASML fell 9.5% and SoftBank Group dropped 10.7% in Tokyo. Meanwhile, Workday, Adobe, Intuit and Autodesk each rose more than 2% premarket, after being pressured earlier this year on fears AI would disrupt their businesses.
Capex and margin pressure raise the stakes
Nvidia's own execution is also under scrutiny. Its Blackwell Ultra chip is ramping up and the Rubin platform is entering production, even as supply constraints and rising capital commitments test the bullish case. Markets price an 85% chance of a Federal Reserve rate hike this Wednesday, after hotter-than-expected core inflation data on Friday. The 10-year Treasury yield sits near 4.95%, a multi-decade high, raising borrowing costs for hyperscalers funding data centers.
Any hyperscaler capex revision would also move the needle. Meta's capital spending plan currently runs $130 billion to $145 billion. Microsoft's runs roughly $175 billion. A weekend essay and two social media posts moved the market — a revised capex line would keep it moved.
Sources: 24/7 Wall St., Fool (snippet-based)
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