Nasdaq faces $2 trillion wipeout in October as AI spending fears deepen

FILE PHOTO: A screen displays trading information outside the Nasdaq Market site in New York City, US, October 15, 2026. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo

(Corrects designation of John Bilton in paragraph 8)

Oct 30 (Reuters) - More than $2 trillion in market value is set to be wiped from the tech-heavy Nasdaq ⁠100 this month, as Big Tech earnings intensified investor scrutiny of whether the billions being poured into artificial intelligence can ‌generate returns quickly enough.

The wipeout would amount to slightly more than SpaceX’s entire market value. The index has fallen over 5.8% so far in October as the AI trade ran into turbulence, with hyperscalers Meta Platforms, Alphabet and Amazon.com raising spending forecasts further as they race to expand AI infrastructure.

The prospect of ever-bigger AI outlays has unnerved investors, particularly as rising ​borrowing costs threaten to make debt-funded investment more expensive and harder to justify.

Here's a ⁠roundup of megacap earnings so far, with Apple set to ⁠report next week and AI bellwether Nvidia due mid-November.

Alphabet suffered its biggest one-day percentage drop on record on Thursday after disappointing results in ⁠the ‌core business of search advertising and a massive acceleration in cash burn.

Meta's plans for a record $97.5 billion fund raise heightened concerns about shareholder dilution and whether mounting AI spending could force other Big Tech companies to increasingly tap capital markets.

Microsoft and SpaceX broke from the gloom, ⁠with results that showed AI spending starting to pay off.

"It may be that we've ​overestimated how strong the growth might be, ‌but they're not going negative in aggregate," said John Bilton, global head of strategic research, multi-asset solutions at JPMorgan Asset Management.

"We have ⁠an insatiable and growing ​demand for data."

Microsoft is reportedly planning to raise about $25 billion through its first US investment-grade bond sale in more than nine years. Among other hyperscalers, Meta, Amazon and Alphabet have issued hundreds of billions of dollars in bond sales over the past four years, worrying investors about overreliance on the medium for raising capital.

Morgan ⁠Stanley forecast capital spending on AI infrastructure overall will surpass a trillion dollars ​next year.

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AI companies’ growing reliance on debt funding is emerging as a new risk for investors, challenging the view that the companies at the heart of the boom are insulated from macroeconomic pressures.

The concern is spreading beyond stocks to credit markets, where investors are starting to ⁠price in the possibility that rising financing costs, combined with slower returns on AI spending, could squeeze companies previously viewed as relatively insulated.

Revenue across the "Magnificent Seven" has remained strong since ChatGPT's launch in 2022, showcasing insatiable demand and perhaps why investors were initially willing to back the spending, even as the timeline of payoffs remains uncertain.

Amazon's cloud computing cash cow, Amazon Web Services, continued to accelerate, while Meta offered better-than-expected revenue growth and ​an upbeat outlook. Microsoft also forecast strong cloud growth in its latest earnings report.

Big Tech has ⁠historically spent heavily on infrastructure to build and expand businesses such as cloud computing, online advertising and e-commerce, but the AI boom has pushed capital expenditure ​to dizzying levels.

J.P. Morgan expects global AI capex to reach $5.5 trillion by 2030, and sees $900 ‌billion being spent in 2026 alone.

This year's AI capex by Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, ​Oracle and Microsoft would likely equal their cumulative spend since the November 2022 launch of ChatGPT, J.P. Morgan analysts noted.

(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan, Johann M Cherian and Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Medha Singh and Amanda Cooper; Editing by Joyjeet Das)

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资料照片：2026年10月15日，美国纽约市纳斯达克市场外，屏幕显示交易信息。（路透社/Shannon Stapleton/资料照片）

（更正第 8 段中约翰·比尔顿的称谓）

10 月 30 日（路透社）——由于大型科技公司的盈利情况加剧了投资者对数十亿美元投入人工智能能否快速产生回报的审视，本月科技股为主的纳斯达克 100 指数市值预计将蒸发超过 2 万亿美元。

此次损失将略高于SpaceX的全部市值。由于人工智能交易遭遇动荡，该指数10月份迄今已下跌超过5.8%，而超大规模数据中心巨头Meta Platforms、Alphabet和Amazon.com正竞相扩大人工智能基础设施，并进一步提高支出预期。

人工智能领域不断扩大的支出前景令投资者感到不安，尤其是不断上升的借贷成本可能会使债务融资的投资更加昂贵且更难证明其合理性。

以下是目前为止大型科技公司财报的汇总，苹果公司将于下周发布财报，人工智能领头羊英伟达将于 11 月中旬发布财报。

周四，Alphabet 股价遭遇有史以来最大的单日跌幅，原因是其核心业务搜索广告业绩令人失望，且现金消耗速度大幅加快。

Meta计划筹集创纪录的975亿美元资金，这加剧了人们对股东权益被稀释的担忧，以及不断增长的人工智能支出是否会迫使其他大型科技公司更多地利用资本市场。

微软和 SpaceX 摆脱了悲观情绪，业绩表明人工智能方面的投入开始获得回报。

摩根大通资产管理公司多元资产解决方案战略研究全球主管约翰·比尔顿表示：“我们可能高估了增长的强劲程度，但总体而言，它们不会出现负增长。”

“我们对数据的需求永无止境，而且还在不断增长。”

据报道，微软计划通过九年多来的首次美国投资级债券发行筹集约250亿美元。过去四年里，Meta、亚马逊和Alphabet等其他超大规模数据中心运营商已发行了数千亿美元的债券，这引发了投资者对过度依赖债券融资的担忧。

摩根士丹利预测，明年人工智能基础设施的整体资本支出将超过一万亿美元。

应对债务违约风险的保险成本激增

人工智能公司对债务融资的日益依赖正在成为投资者面临的新风险，这挑战了人们认为处于繁荣核心的公司能够免受宏观经济压力影响的观点。

这种担忧正从股票市场蔓延到信贷市场，投资者开始将融资成本上升，加上人工智能支出回报放缓的可能性计入股价，这可能会挤压以前被认为相对不受干扰的公司。

自 ChatGPT 于 2022 年推出以来，“七大巨头”的收入一直保持强劲，这表明市场需求旺盛，或许也解释了为什么投资者最初愿意支持这项支出，尽管回报的时间表仍然不确定。

亚马逊的云计算摇钱树——亚马逊网络服务（AWS）持续加速增长，而Meta的营收增长超出预期，前景也十分乐观。微软在最新的财报中也预测云计算业务将强劲增长。

大型科技公司历来在基础设施方面投入巨资，以构建和扩展云计算、在线广告和电子商务等业务，但人工智能的蓬勃发展已将资本支出推至令人瞠目结舌的水平。

摩根大通预计，到 2030 年，全球人工智能资本支出将达到 5.5 万亿美元，仅 2026 年一年就将支出 9000 亿美元。

摩根大通分析师指出，亚马逊、Alphabet、Meta、Oracle 和微软今年在人工智能领域的资本支出可能相当于自 2022 年 11 月推出 ChatGPT 以来的累计支出。

（班加罗尔 Shashwat Chauhan、Johann M Cherian 和 Niket Nishant 报道；Medha Singh 和 Amanda Cooper 补充报道；Joyjeet Das 编辑）

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