Global stocks plunge as AI rout spreads to Asia and London
Trillions of dollars were wiped off technology shares after the Nasdaq fell 5.5% on Thursday, the S&P 500 4.36% and the Dow 3.44%, on fears that the new Democratic Congress will curb data-centre building. Japan’s Nikkei closed 6% lower on Friday, South Korea halted trading after the Kospi fell more than 8% before ending down 6%, and the FTSE 100 was 1.9% lower by mid-morning, heading for its worst day since March.
Nvidia lost more than 9% on Thursday, AMD and Micron more than 17% and SanDisk 22%; the seven largest US technology companies shed a trillion dollars between them in one session, and the Vix volatility gauge jumped by more than 60%. The trigger was political. Bernie Sanders posted: “Americans don’t want Big Tech oligarchs wrecking the environment, gutting jobs and threatening humanity’s future. NATIONAL DATA CENTER MORATORIUM NOW.” Texas, home to 27% of planned American data-centre capacity, has elected a governor, Gina Hinojosa, who promised “a moratorium, a ban, on all data center approvals”, and a CNBC voter poll found 56% of voters called AI and data centres a crucial or major factor in how they voted. Donald Trump blamed the “Dumocrats”: “So sad to see, you only have yourselves to blame!” In Asia, SoftBank fell about 11%, Taiwan closed down 4.5% for a 12.2% weekly loss, its worst since 1991, and Chinese state funds bought shares to steady the market. Goldman Sachs’s Timothy Moe said: “The market’s tendency is always to shoot first and ask questions later.” The Nasdaq remains about 4.6% up on the year. Watch the US jobs report at 13:30 GMT.