AI stocks drop after hot inflation report fuels bets for rate hikes

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High-flying technology stocks are taking a bruising this week, as investors grow more skeptical about whether the AI boom will live up to expectations.

Stocks dropped on Wednesday, led by declines in the tech sector, after a hotter-than-expected inflation report . The S&P 500 fell 1.11% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.88%, each posting their worst day since July.

Shares of companies involved in the AI data center buildout — the “picks and shovels” of the AI boom — stumbled, from semiconductor chipmakers to cloud providers. Marvell ( MRVL ), a chipmaker, fell 8.7%, Oracle ( ORCL ) sank 8.8% and Dell ( DELL ) dropped 11.3%.

A benchmark index tracking semiconductor stocks fell 4.3%, putting it down roughly 12% over the past week. Nvidia ( NVDA ) fell 3.2%, leaving it down roughly 7.5% since hitting a record high earlier this month.

Investors are digesting a range of concerns that are shaking sentiment around AI. Higher bond yields and sticky inflation have led to elevated borrowing costs, making the data center buildout more expensive. That’s raising concerns for the riskier, debt-heavy corners of the AI ecosystem.

Meanwhile, chip stocks have had a rocky week after Chinese semiconductor company CXMT announced progress on advanced memory chips. That’s stoking concern about competition with US and South Korean manufacturers that have outlooks that are “priced to perfection,” according to analysts.

Semiconductor stocks have soared on expectations that companies will lock in hefty profits because of the AI boom’s insatiable demand for chips. But a slowdown due to higher rates, or an increase in competition from China, could knock expectations for chipmakers’ future revenues and growth.

The fate of the “picks and shovels” of the AI boom matters because tech and AI stocks have propelled the market to record highs this year. With other sectors of the market continuing to struggle under the pressure of higher bond yields, the stakes are higher for how these stocks perform.

Stocks opened lower after inflation data released Wednesday morning showed hotter-than-expected price increases in September, bolstering the case for the Fed to raise interest rates to tamp down inflation.

“There’s just so much good news priced into the chip sector right now that you’re going to find it’s susceptible to meandering without some fresh catalysts,” Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, told CNN.

After strong rallies earlier this year, Wall Street keeps raising the bar for expectations for chipmakers’ earnings, leaving room for disappointment or profit taking.

“Trees don’t grow to the sky,” Sosnick said. “You can’t just go up forever and ever and ever, assuming that nothing is going to go wrong.”

Investors are also watching riskier corners of AI. CoreWeave ( CRWV ), a so-called neocloud that is backed by Nvidia and leases compute power for the AI boom, plunged 15.5% on Wednesday after commentators raised concerns about a surge in the company’s bond yields.

The company has tens of billions of dollars of debt on its balance sheet as it borrows money to try and expand its business and market share. As interest rates rise, it’s getting more expensive to finance that debt.

The market is increasingly coming around to concerns about how companies taking on enormous debt are going to pay for it all, especially given concerns about delays to data center projects and uncertainty about the timeline of Anthropic’s and OpenAI’s initial public offerings, according to Sosnick.

“There’s just so much money being thrown at this, and a lot of it has to be borrowed, and borrowed at increasingly high interest rates,” Sosnick said. “It’s an interesting conundrum.”

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本周，备受瞩目的科技股遭遇重挫，投资者对人工智能热潮能否达到预期越来越持怀疑态度。

周三，受通胀报告高于预期的影响，科技板块领跌，股市下跌。标普500指数下跌1.11%，纳斯达克综合指数下跌1.88%，均创下7月以来最大单日跌幅。

参与人工智能数据中心建设的公司——也就是人工智能热潮的“基层力量”——股价纷纷下跌，从半导体芯片制造商到云服务提供商无一幸免。芯片制造商Marvell（MRVL）下跌8.7%，甲骨文（ORCL）下跌8.8%，戴尔（DELL）下跌11.3%。

追踪半导体股票的基准指数下跌4.3%，过去一周累计下跌约12%。英伟达(NVDA)股价下跌3.2%，较本月初创下的历史新高累计下跌约7.5%。

投资者正在消化一系列动摇人工智能市场信心的担忧。债券收益率上升和通胀居高不下导致借贷成本高企，数据中心建设成本也随之增加。这引发了人们对人工智能生态系统中风险较高、负债累累领域的担忧。

与此同时，中国半导体公司CXMT宣布在先进存储芯片领域取得进展后，芯片股本周表现动荡。分析师认为，这引发了人们对与美国和韩国制造商竞争的担忧，这些制造商的前景“已被完美定价”。

由于人工智能热潮对芯片的需求持续旺盛，市场预期半导体公司将获得丰厚利润，因此半导体股票大幅上涨。但利率上升导致的经济放缓，或来自中国竞争加剧，都可能打击人们对芯片制造商未来营收和增长的预期。

人工智能热潮中那些“基层科技从业者”的命运至关重要，因为科技和人工智能股票已推动市场在今年创下历史新高。在其他市场板块持续受到债券收益率上升压力的影响而举步维艰之际，这些股票的表现更显重要。

周三上午公布的通胀数据显示，9 月份物价上涨幅度超出预期，这进一步支持了美联储提高利率以抑制通胀的观点，受此影响，股市开盘走低。

Interactive Brokers 首席策略师 Steve Sosnick 告诉 CNN：“目前芯片行业的利好消息太多，如果没有一些新的催化剂，你会发现它很容易出现波动。”

今年早些时候股市强劲上涨之后，华尔街不断提高对芯片制造商盈利的预期，这给投资者留下了失望或获利回吐的空间。

索斯尼克说：“树木不会长到天上去。你不能一直往上长，以为这样就不会出任何问题。”

投资者也在关注人工智能领域风险较高的部分。CoreWeave (CRWV) 是一家所谓的“新云”公司，由英伟达支持，为人工智能热潮提供计算能力租赁服务。周三，该公司股价暴跌 15.5%，此前有评论人士担忧该公司债券收益率飙升。

该公司资产负债表上背负着数百亿美元的债务，因为它不断借贷以扩张业务和市场份额。随着利率上升，为这些债务融资的成本也越来越高。

索斯尼克表示，市场越来越关注那些背负巨额债务的公司将如何偿还所有债务，尤其是考虑到数据中心项目延期以及 Anthropic 和 OpenAI 首次公开募股时间表的不确定性。

索斯尼克说：“投入到这个项目中的资金太多了，其中很多都是借来的，而且借款利率越来越高。这真是一个有趣的难题。”