AI Warning Sends Chip Stocks Lower; Analysts Call It Noise

Chip stocks continued their decline on Monday after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned of an AI slowdown, pushing the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index down as much as 5.9%.

Shares of Nvidia dropped 3.4%, Broadcom declined roughly 5%, and Micron and AMD both fell over 4%, dragging the Nasdaq 100 down as much as 1.3% and renewing debate over whether AI-related valuations face a sharper downturn.

AI-Led Selloff Hits Asian Markets

In Asia, South Korea's SK Hynix dropped around 7.6% in line with US counterparts, linked to the AI infrastructure buildup, according to Seoul Economic Daily.

Amodei's essay contended that without careful limits, cutting-edge AI systems could slip beyond control. Both OpenAI's Sam Altman and xAI's Elon Musk supported that view.

Is a Crash Genuinely on the Horizon

Some analysts see this as background noise rather than the start of a larger downturn. Bank of America semiconductor analyst Vivek Arya described the selloff as noise.

"We view these events as noise relative to a secular market where AI-capex could surge 3x to $3tn+ by decade-end."

Arya noted the chip index trades at about 19 times forward earnings, roughly in line with the S&P 500, even though earnings growth is about seven times faster than the broader market. The index is still up 67% year to date in 2026, making Monday's drop look modest.

Some market participants see more fragility. BeInCrypto previously raised concerns about circular financing issues related to Nvidia's dual role as chip supplier and financier for its AI clients, a setup likened to vendor financing before the dot-com crash.

The divide between the two camps rests on a single question: is AI monetization keeping pace with the spending it has already justified?

If Nvidia and its customers report strong earnings, the current pullback could prove temporary. But a weaker order book or a confirmed case of AI models exceeding expected boundaries would quickly test that view.