AI Stocks Slide After Major CEOs Unite to Urge Slowdown
AI sector rout signals markets now pricing in regulatory/slowdown risk, not just growth upside.
- 01A rare alignment among Anthropic, OpenAI, and Elon Musk on slowing AI capability development triggered a broad equity sell-off Monday.
- 02SK Hynix dropped over 6%, SoftBank fell 10%, and European chip names including ASML and Infineon shed 4–6%.
- 03The consensus follows an Anthropic researcher's public warning of existential risk, which went viral last week.
- 04If industry leaders are voluntarily pumping the brakes, the AI-driven capex supercycle underpinning valuations across semiconductors and data infrastructure faces a structural re-rating.
AI sector rout signals markets now pricing in regulatory/slowdown risk, not just growth upside.
A rare alignment among Anthropic, OpenAI, and Elon Musk on slowing AI capability development triggered a broad equity sell-off Monday. SK Hynix dropped over 6%, SoftBank fell 10%, and European chip names including ASML and Infineon shed 4–6%. The consensus follows an Anthropic researcher's public warning of existential risk, which went viral last week. If industry leaders are voluntarily pumping the brakes, the AI-driven capex supercycle underpinning valuations across semiconductors and data infrastructure faces a structural re-rating.
Watch: whether coordinated CEO messaging translates into concrete capability freezes—or functions as reputational cover with no operational impact on training runs.
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SoftBank, a major investor in OpenAI, fell sharply, along with global chip stocks from SK Hynix to ASML. The sell-off comes amid the growing debate over the risks posed by rapidly improving AI model capabilities that hit a crescendo last week. In this article ASML-72.30 (-4.26%) NOK-0.97 (-8.72%) IFX-DE-3.87 (-6.61%) 9434.T-JP+3.90 (+1.58%) SPCX-3.34 (-2.21%) SKHY-11.79 (-6.20%) Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of Anthropic, during the company’s Builder Summit in Bengaluru, India, Feb. 16, 2026. Samyukta Lakshmi | Bloomberg | Getty Images Global AI-related stocks fell on Monday after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for a slowdown of the development of AI capabilities, with other major tech figures backing the proposal. In Asia, South Korean heavyweights SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics closed down more than 6% and 4%, respectively. Shares of SoftBank, one of the biggest investors in OpenAI, fell 10% in Japan. In Europe, semiconductor and other AI-related stocks also fell sharply in early trading. Chip equipment giant ASML fell more than 4%, Nokia was down around 5% and Infineon dropped more than 6%. Other companies with business ties to the buildout of data centers, such as Siemens Energy and Schneider Electric, were also lower. The sell-off comes amid the growing debate over the risks posed by rapidly improving AI model capabilities that hit a crescendo last week after Jacob Coxon, a researcher at Anthropic who also previously worked at OpenAI, said he resigned out of concern that Anthropic and OpenAI are “gambling with our lives.” That led to Anthropic safety researcher Evan Hubinger responding, saying he believes that there is a greater than 10% chance AI will “kill all humans” within the next decade. The posts caused a firestorm on social media and led to a response from major AI leaders. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Saturday penned an essay calling for a slowdown in the pace of development of AI capabilities. “We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models,” Amodei said. cnbc.comTech leaders support a slowdown Amodei’s essay sparked rare consensus among leaders from Anthropic’s rivals. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Saturday said he agrees with Amodei that AI companies need to “pace the frontier.” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who has been sounding the alarm on the risks posed by AI for several years, posted on X: “Dario is right.” Investors are concerned that an industry-wide slowdown in the pace of development of AI could have ripple effects across various companies as it impacts the adoption of the technology. watch now VIDEO 8:23 08:23 Anthropic’s Dario Amodei calls for slower pace of AI development Squawk Box Europe “The kind of equity market rally has been based on AI growth and productivity gains … so if we do see that start to derail then it could have an impact on equity performance going forward,” Zoe Gillespie, a senior director at RBC Brewin Dolphin, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Monday. “Certainly, a lot of what we are looking into with equity returns is baked into the future earnings growth of these companies and if that comes under threat then we may see this destabilize.” This is a breaking news story. 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