Sept 14 (Reuters) – Futures tracking the Nasdaq 100 index led losses early on Monday, dragged by a selloff in AI heavyweights after top U.S. executives said development of the technology should be slowed due to safety concerns.
Shares of Nvidia fell more than 2% in premarket trading, while its Magnificent Seven peers Meta and Amazon were down over 1% each.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Saturday called on artificial intelligence companies to slow the pace at which they advance model capabilities. Elon Musk, who runs xAI, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said they agreed with Amodei.
The declines reflect more cautious expectations after a frenzied race to develop increasingly capable AI models. Billions of dollars poured into AI have powered a stratospheric rise in some technology and semiconductor stocks and have been critical to strong equity market gains over the past few years.
At 04:46 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis shed 97 points, or 0.18%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 53.25 points, or 0.70%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis fell 505.5 points, or 1.72%.
Chipmakers fell, with Intel, AMD and Marvell Technology down nearly 6%, 5% and 6%, respectively.
Shares of U.S. software stocks, which have been dampened by concerns that AI could disrupt their businesses, climbed. ServiceNow, Adobe and Workday were up 3%, 2.5% and 2.5%, respectively.
SKEPTICS CHALLENGE WARNINGS
Concerns about the potential harm from AI intensified when Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned last week, citing that the “people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”
Still, some investors urged skepticism toward such doomsday warnings.
Michael Burry, known for his successful bets against the U.S. housing market in 2008, posted on X that the warnings were an attempt by major players to stifle smaller competitors.
Annex Wealth Management Chief Economic Strategist Brian Jacobsen also questioned the credibility of the warnings.
“The strongest arguments for caution are those grounded in evidence, not fear. We should be wary both of incumbent firms seeking to protect their position and of confident predictions about outcomes that no one can reliably quantify,” he said.
Still, losses in technology stocks could set the tone for markets ahead of a potential interest rate hike later this week.
Traders are pricing in a nearly 89% chance of a rate increase by the Federal Reserve, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
Sentiment had already weakened after data last week showed inflation was accelerating. Oil prices are also trading at levels not seen since May.
Brent crude futures rose 3.6% to $108.31 on Monday, while U.S. West Texas intermediate crude futures advanced 3.3% to $103.35.
(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
