Key facts
- Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for AI labs to slow capability gains.
- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and xAI owner Elon Musk agreed with the call for an AI slowdown.
- Nvidia fell as much as 3%, Intel dropped more than 5%, and AMD sank about 6% on Monday.
- The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell nearly 6%.
- Bitcoin climbed as high as $78,280, up nearly 2% since midnight UTC.
- The odds of Congress passing the Clarity Act in 2026 jumped to 31% on Polymarket.
Bitcoin climbed as much as 2% to $78,280 on Monday, while shares of major chipmakers like Nvidia, Intel, and AMD fell sharply amid growing calls from within the AI industry for a deliberate slowdown in the pace of capability gains.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay arguing for a slower pace of AI development, citing recursive self-improvement and an incident involving an OpenAI-Hugging Face agent swarm as warning signs. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and xAI owner Elon Musk publicly agreed with Amodei's stance.
In response, Nvidia fell as much as 3%, Intel dropped more than 5%, and AMD sank about 6%. Marvell Technology lost as much as 7.5%, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, a key gauge of the sector, declined nearly 6%.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin's upward movement continued, with Ethereum and XRP also posting gains. The cryptocurrency's strength has been attributed partly to relief from potential interest rate hikes and progress on U.S. crypto legislation. The odds of Congress passing the Clarity Act in 2026 increased to 31% on Polymarket over the weekend following President Trump's agreement to updated ethics provisions.