A brutal sell-off swept through Wall Street on Thursday, led by stocks tied to the buildout of AI data centres. The wipeout more than erased the US stock market’s gain from the day before, which was its best in three months.

The S&P 500 fell 4.4 percent for its worst day since US President Donald Trump shook markets worldwide in April 2025 with his “Liberation Day” tariffs.

The Dow sank 3.4 percent, while the Nasdaq tumbled 5.5 percent.

The Nasdaq, which is full of AI-related and other tech stocks, sank 11.9 percent below its all-time high set last month. Stock geeks call a loss of more than 10 percent a “correction.”

Stock markets around the world felt pressure from continued drops for companies that had benefited from the boom in the artificial-intelligence technology industry, and South Korea’s Kospi index tumbled 5.3 percent.

Such stocks have been swinging for months on worries that the construction of further AI data centres may slow because of how expensive it’s become to borrow money. Critics also said AI stock prices had shot too high and were in a bubble.

Tuesday’s US midterm elections added another challenge. The nationwide victories for Democrats raised the possibility that governments could force pauses in construction of more data centres.

Voters across political parties say they’re wary about AI and don’t like the increases to power bills caused by data centres.

Any slowdown in construction of AI data centres would mean fewer purchases of AI chips, not to mention electricity and other products and services that are getting vacuumed up in the AI frenzy, which is driving much of the US economy’s growth .

Nvidia, the chip company that quickly became the face of the AI boom, fell 9.3 percent and was by far the heaviest weight on the S&P 500.

It’s now down 2.6 percent for the year so far following annual gains of roughly 39 percent, 171 percent and 239 percent in the last three years.

Advanced Micro Devices tumbled 17.3 percent. CoreWeave, a company that rents access to AI chips to customers over the cloud, fell 9.8 percent. GE Vernova, which has been helping to power data centers, sank 7.5 percent.

The Nasdaq fell 5.5 percent, to 24,315, the S&P 500 fell 4.4 percent, to 7,353, while the Dow fell 3.4 percent, to 51,523. (AP)



Edited by Robert Kemp