Tech stocks fell for a second day on Wednesday as investors sold off a slew of tech names amid concerns over the sustainability of the AI boom and a recent market rotation away from some of this year’s biggest winners.
Among the Magnificent Seven Big Tech stocks, Amazon (AMZN) and Apple (AAPL) fell nearly 2%, while Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOG) stock fell around 1%. Nvidia (NVDA) pared losses to end the day down fractionally after dropping 3.5% Tuesday.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) also recovered from an earlier decline Wednesday, ending the trading session down less than 1%, while fellow chip stock Broadcom (AVGO) dipped more than 1%. Micron (MU) shares plunged roughly 4%.
CoreWeave (CRWV), the AI data center company that rents computing power to Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta — making it essentially an AI pure play — dropped over 1%, putting the stock down more than 20% over the past five trading sessions.
Palantir (PLTR), a defense tech stock that’s seen a major upswing from the AI boom, sank 1%, extending its recent losing streak.
The rotation out of AI-linked stocks comes as sentiment soured this week on the market for artificial intelligence, fueled in part by a recent report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and commentary from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Researchers for MIT’s Project NANDA authored a report released this week that said 95% of companies it studied are getting no return on AI. The findings of the report were first detailed by Fortune on Monday.
That report followed commentary from OpenAI’s Altman shortly after the ChatGPT-maker finished out its latest multibillion-dollar funding round, with the CEO telling reporters that he believes there’s an AI bubble, a diversion from his prior characterizations.
“When bubbles happen, smart people get overexcited about a kernel of truth,” he said. “Are we in a phase where investors as a whole are overexcited about AI? My opinion is yes.”
DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria likened the changing market sentiment to a pendulum.
“This is really just pendulum swinging back,” he told Yahoo Finance on Wednesday.
AI stocks have taken off in recent months after a rocky start to the year. A new, cost-effective AI model from Chinese firm DeepSeek released in January cast doubt on the massive sums of money Big Tech was spending to build out AI infrastructure to power the technology — and sent tech stocks tumbling.
Two rounds of earnings updates from some of the biggest AI plays in the market and more clarity on Trump’s trade policies have since quelled those fears.
Investors applauded recent quarterly reports from Big Tech firms Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon, which surpassed Wall Street’s expectations as the companies said AI boosted their underlying businesses. That news overrode the fact that those companies also raised their forecasts for spending on AI infrastructure.
