Key facts
- US stocks declined on Monday amid concerns over AI development.
- Nvidia shares fell more than 3%.
- Chipmakers Arm Holdings, Marvell, Intel, AMD, and Micron Technologies saw significant declines.
- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said his company would not go public this year due to safety concerns.
- Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urged AI companies to slow down the pace of AI model improvement.
- The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plunged 6%.
Wall Street indexes fell on Monday, with technology and AI-related stocks leading the decline after prominent executives in the artificial intelligence industry called for a slowdown in development due to safety concerns. The Nasdaq 100 index sold off by 1.3% in early trading, while the broader Nasdaq Composite index fell 0.9% and the S&P 500 declined 0.6%.
Shares of Nvidia, the world's most valuable public company, fell more than 3%. Chipmakers Arm Holdings, Marvell, and Intel slid more than 5%, while Applied Materials and Micron Technologies sank 6%. AMD and Intel also tumbled by around 5.5%. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plunged 6%.
Further unsettling markets, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told Fortune magazine that his company would not be going public this year, citing safety concerns. He stated, “Given everything happening with safety, right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public.” OpenAI and Anthropic's eventual public offerings are anticipated to be among the largest ever.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei had previously written that AI companies "must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models." He warned of risks including "the risk of losing control of AI systems, misuse of AI for cyberattacks and bioterrorism, and serious economic disruption."
Elon Musk agreed with Altman and Amodei on X, while shares of Musk's SpaceX, which owns artificial intelligence developer xAI, fell more than 2% early Monday. Altman later clarified on X that "pacing" does not mean "stopping" and that progress will continue rapidly.
In Asia, South Korea's benchmark Kopsi index fell more than 3% overnight, primarily due to selling in AI memory firms like Samsung Electronics, which sold off by 5%, and SK Hynix, which plunged more than 7.3%. In Tokyo, shares of OpenAI investor SoftBank Group fell 10.7%.