AI safety warnings rattle tech stocks: Should Singapore investors worry?

Warnings from AI experts have caused tech stocks in the US and Singapore to fall due to fears of AI posing existential risks and slowing development.

Published Sep 21, 2026, 05:00 PM

Updated Sep 21, 2026, 06:47 PM

Singapore tech stocks are less vulnerable to AI sentiment shifts as they serve diverse sectors beyond AI, helping them withstand volatility.

Investors should focus on company fundamentals, valuation, and safety governance amid market volatility, preparing for potential demand resets in AI hardware and semiconductor sectors.

SINGAPORE – Tech stocks in the US and Singapore have come under pressure after warnings from prominent artificial intelligence officials last week revived fears that the rapid development of increasingly powerful models could pose an existential threat to humanity.

The shift in sentiment followed warnings from researchers on Sept 10 that AI could threaten humanity within the decade, prompting rare calls for restraint from industry leaders. Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei proposed slowing AI development in an essay endorsed by OpenAI founder Sam Altman and SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk.

Fears about the consequences of AI development are not new, but the latest warnings, which put a numerical probability on the risk of human extinction, have raised fresh concerns about the pace and safety of the technology’s development.

Analysts told The Straits Times that although the initial sell-off is unlikely to significantly undermine the performance of AI-related stocks in the near term, AI safety could become an increasingly important consideration for investors over the longer term.

“Even as the training pace slows, inference demand remains tight, and competition among companies and nations make it hard for the industry to collectively hit pause. So a single statement is unlikely to change AI’s trajectory,” said Michael Chen, general manager of the Hong Kong office of Noah ARK, a Singapore-based wealth management firm.

The latest shift in sentiment could ultimately spur new capabilities and safeguards in AI products, helping companies win market share and wider acceptance, said Gene Lai, equity research analyst at OCBC.

Chen added that while AI development costs could rise further, opportunities for firms providing cybersecurity, safety testing and AI-agent monitoring could also emerge.

Still, investors will be watching more closely to see whether safety concerns lead to independent evaluations, delayed model launches and increased spending on monitoring and cybersecurity, he said.

Cusson Leung, chief investment officer of financial services firm KGI Asia, said security, social acceptance and regulatory constraints have “received too little weight” in forecasts for AI hardware demand.

The recent calls for an AI development slowdown “challenges the assumption that demand for AI semiconductors will rise indefinitely, and a sharp reset in market expectations could trigger a de-rating of semiconductor companies”, Leung said.

Impact on Singapore stocks

While Singapore technology stocks along the semiconductor value chain initially fell last week, analysts said they are less exposed to shifts in AI sentiment and valuation-driven corrections than their Wall Street counterparts.

Although their growth is partly tied to demand from the semiconductor and AI industries, many are not pure AI plays and also serve other sectors, giving them a more diversified earnings base.

For instance, Frencken Group and UMS Integration supply components and modules mainly to front-end equipment manufacturers supporting the semiconductor industry. However, they also serve sectors such as automotive, medical technology and life sciences, noted Alfie Yeo, senior research analyst at RHB Singapore.

Meanwhile, CSE Global provides communications, electrification and automation services to customers across sectors such as oil and gas, urban infrastructure, manufacturing and events, besides helping Amazon with the electrification of its data centres, which power the use of AI.

Other Singapore Exchange stocks linked to the AI cycle include InnoTek, which manufactures components used in Nvidia products.

While AI is a significant growth driver for the company, it accounts for only around 10 per cent to 15 per cent of revenue, noted SAC Capital’s head of research, Matthias Chan. With automotive and office automation remaining its key revenue drivers, InnoTek should be able to withstand further volatility in the AI sector, he said.

Still, some companies like AEM Holdings have more concentrated exposure to AI.

AEM provides semiconductor testing equipment and services mainly to chipmakers. In 2026, it disclosed that a new unnamed customer, which outsources chip production to a foundry, had overtaken Intel as its largest revenue contributor in the first half of the year.

Analysts said this concentrated exposure makes AEM among the companies most susceptible to negative AI sentiment and any resulting market sell-off.

But graphics card manufacturer PC Partner, which has expanded into enterprise and industrial AI servers, appeared largely unaffected by the shift in global AI sentiment. Its share price, already on an upward trajectory since the beginning of September, climbed further last week.

KGI analyst Leung said that AI exposure offers PC Partner good growth opportunities, but warned that the company’s resilience will depend on whether it can protect the profitability of its existing business and turn its server push into sustainable earnings and cash flow.

Other companies such as AvePoint, which provides data protection and AI management services, saw its share price jump last week amid the increased focus on AI governance.

What to consider amid market volatility

While the latest AI safety concerns have added to the unease, a potential slowdown in model development does not necessarily mean less use of existing models, with demand for inference remaining strong, said OCBC’s Lai.

For instance, OpenAI paused new Pro 20X subscriptions after overwhelming demand for its Astra model strained its infrastructure, reflecting capacity constraints rather than deterioration in sentiment.

But he noted that the sector will continue to see “continued headline-driven volatility”, and the recent sell-off illustrates how quickly expectations can adjust when the assumptions behind AI investments are questioned.

“Therefore, it is important to focus on the financial fundamentals and valuations of AI bottleneck stocks, as well as the supply-demand dynamics for compute,” said Lai, noting that AI hardware, for example, remains a “bottleneck trade” because of supply constraints.

One key fundamental that investors should consider is the primary revenue drivers for AI companies – whether it is training, inference or safety governance – as these segments have different sensitivities to a potential slowing of frontier models, said Noah ARK’s Chen.

Investors should also assess whether company valuations depend on continual increases in capital expenditure forecasts and whether they would hold up if AI spending were delayed while costs continued to rise.

He cited other important factors such as a company’s customer concentration, its portfolio concentration and liquidity, and the prevailing regulatory environment.

“High volatility in the AI era may not stem from the industry trend disappearing. It may instead come from the market redistributing who bears the cost of safety and who captures the revenue from it.”

Singapore tech companies would also have to secure more orders on the AI value chain and demonstrate consistent quarter-on-quarter or year-on-year growth to boost investor confidence so that their valuations can be maintained or increased, noted Jarick Seet, head of small- and mid-caps research at Maybank Securities Singapore.

KGI’s Leung recommended that investors focus on position sizing, concentration and valuation for their portfolios, as owning several AI-related stocks does not necessarily provide meaningful diversification if they all depend on the same customers and infrastructure-spending cycle.

He also cautioned investors to prepare for lower valuations assigned to semiconductor companies should there be a reset in AI hardware-demand expectations.

“I think investors should prepare for that scenario rather than assume that strong long-term demand will protect them from sharp share-price movements. The question is how well an investment holds up when growth falls short of expectations, not just how it performs when everything goes right.”

AI/artificial intelligence

人工智能专家发出警告，称人工智能可能带来生存风险并减缓发展，导致美国和新加坡的科技股下跌。

发布于2026年9月21日下午5:00

更新于2026年9月21日下午6:47

新加坡科技股受人工智能市场情绪变化的影响较小，因为它们服务于人工智能以外的多元化行业，这有助于它们抵御市场波动。

在市场波动的情况下，投资者应关注公司基本面、估值和安全治理，为人工智能硬件和半导体行业的潜在需求重置做好准备。

新加坡——上周，一些知名人工智能官员发出警告，称快速发展的、功能日益强大的模型可能会对人类构成生存威胁，这再次引发了人们的担忧，受此影响，美国和新加坡的科技股承压。

9月10日，研究人员发出警告，称人工智能可能在十年内威胁人类，此番言论引发了业界领袖罕见的呼吁，要求他们保持克制。随后，舆论风向发生转变。Anthropologie首席执行官达里奥·阿莫迪在一篇文章中提议放缓人工智能的研发速度，这篇文章得到了OpenAI创始人萨姆·奥特曼和SpaceX首席执行官埃隆·马斯克的支持。

对人工智能发展后果的担忧由来已久，但最新的警告，即对人类灭绝风险给出的数值概率，引发了人们对该技术发展速度和安全性的新担忧。

分析师告诉《海峡时报》，虽然最初的抛售不太可能在短期内严重损害人工智能相关股票的表现，但从长远来看，人工智能的安全性可能会成为投资者越来越重要的考虑因素。

“即使训练速度放缓，推理需求依然旺盛，而且企业和国家之间的竞争使得整个行业很难集体停下脚步。因此，单一声明不太可能改变人工智能的发展轨迹，”总部位于新加坡的财富管理公司诺亚方舟香港办事处总经理陈先生表示。

华侨银行股票研究分析师赖建表示，这种最新的市场情绪转变最终可能会推动人工智能产品出现新的功能和安全措施，帮助企业赢得市场份额并获得更广泛的认可。

陈补充说，虽然人工智能开发成本可能会进一步上升，但为网络安全、安全测试和人工智能代理监控提供解决方案的公司也可能出现机会。

不过，他表示，投资者将更加密切地关注安全问题是否会导致独立评估、车型发布延迟以及在监控和网络安全方面增加支出。

金融服务公司KGI Asia的首席投资官梁国胜表示，在人工智能硬件需求预测中，安全性、社会接受度和监管限制“受到的重视程度太低”。

梁先生表示，最近要求放缓人工智能发展速度的呼声“挑战了人工智能半导体需求将无限增长的假设，市场预期的急剧调整可能会引发半导体公司估值下调”。

对新加坡股市的影响

尽管新加坡半导体价值链上的科技股上周最初下跌，但分析师表示，与华尔街同行相比，它们受人工智能情绪变化和估值调整的影响较小。

虽然它们的增长部分与半导体和人工智能行业的需求有关，但许多公司并非纯粹的人工智能公司，它们也服务于其他行业，从而使其收入基础更加多元化。

例如，Frencken Group 和 UMS Integration 主要向半导体行业的前端设备制造商供应元器件和模块。但 RHB 新加坡高级研究分析师 Alfie Yeo 指出，它们也服务于汽车、医疗技术和生命科学等行业。

与此同时，CSE Global 为石油天然气、城市基础设施、制造业和活动等行业的客户提供通信、电气化和自动化服务，此外还帮助亚马逊实现数据中心的电气化，从而为人工智能的使用提供动力。

与人工智能周期相关的其他新加坡交易所股票包括 InnoTek，该公司生产英伟达产品中使用的组件。

SAC Capital研究主管Matthias Chan指出，虽然人工智能是该公司重要的增长驱动力，但仅占其营收的10%至15%左右。他表示，由于汽车和办公自动化仍然是其主要营收来源，InnoTek应该能够抵御人工智能领域进一步的波动。

不过，像 AEM Holdings 这样的一些公司对人工智能的投资更为集中。

AEM主要为芯片制造商提供半导体测试设备和服务。2026年，该公司披露，一家未具名的新客户（该客户将芯片生产外包给代工厂）在上半年超越英特尔，成为其最大的收入来源。

分析师表示，这种集中投资使得AEM成为最容易受到人工智能负面情绪和由此引发的市场抛售影响的公司之一。

但显卡制造商PC Partner已将业务拓展至企业和工业人工智能服务器领域，似乎并未受到全球人工智能市场情绪转变的影响。该公司股价自9月初以来一直呈上升趋势，上周进一步攀升。

KGI分析师梁表示，人工智能领域为PC Partner提供了良好的增长机会，但他警告说，该公司能否保持韧性取决于其能否保护现有业务的盈利能力，并将服务器业务的扩张转化为可持续的收益和现金流。

其他公司，例如提供数据保护和人工智能管理服务的 AvePoint，由于人们越来越关注人工智能治理，其股价上周也出现了上涨。

市场波动中需要考虑哪些因素

华侨银行的赖先生表示，虽然最新的人工智能安全问题加剧了人们的不安，但模型开发速度可能放缓并不一定意味着现有模型的使用量会减少，对推理的需求依然强劲。

例如，OpenAI 在其 Astra 模型需求过大导致基础设施不堪重负后，暂停了新的 Pro 20X 订阅，这反映的是容量限制，而不是市场情绪恶化。

但他指出，该行业将继续面临“受新闻头条驱动的持续波动”，而最近的抛售表明，当人工智能投资背后的假设受到质疑时，预期会以多快的速度进行调整。

“因此，关注人工智能瓶颈股票的财务基本面和估值，以及计算领域的供需动态至关重要，”赖表示，并指出，例如，由于供应限制，人工智能硬件仍然是一个“瓶颈行业”。

Noah ARK 的 Chen 表示，投资者应该考虑的一个关键基本面是人工智能公司的主要收入驱动因素——无论是训练、推理还是安全治理——因为这些领域对前沿模型可能放缓的敏感度各不相同。

投资者还应评估公司估值是否依赖于资本支出预测的持续增长，以及如果人工智能支出延迟而成本继续上升，公司估值是否还能维持。

他还列举了其他一些重要因素，例如公司的客户集中度、投资组合集中度和流动性，以及当前的监管环境。

“人工智能时代的高波动性可能并非源于行业趋势的消失，而是源于市场重新分配了安全成本的承担者和安全收益的获取者。”

马来亚银行证券新加坡中小市值公司研究主管 Jarick Seet 指出，新加坡科技公司还必须在人工智能价值链上获得更多订单，并展现出持续的季度环比或年度环比增长，以提振投资者信心，从而维持或提高其估值。

KGI的梁先生建议投资者关注投资组合的仓位规模、集中度和估值，因为如果所有人工智能相关股票都依赖于相同的客户和基础设施支出周期，那么持有多只人工智能相关股票并不一定能提供有意义的多元化。

他还提醒投资者，如果人工智能硬件需求预期发生调整，半导体公司的估值可能会降低，投资者应该为此做好准备。

我认为投资者应该为这种情况做好准备，而不是想当然地认为强劲的长期需求就能保护他们免受股价剧烈波动的影响。关键在于，当增长不及预期时，一项投资的表现如何，而不仅仅是当一切顺利时它的表现如何。

人工智能