US Tech Stocks Shed About $2 Trillion as AI Spending Doubts Grow

US equity markets closed October with a steep decline centred on technology companies. Roughly $2 trillion in market value vanished from the Nasdaq-100 index over the period, as investors weighed whether the heavy spending tied to artificial intelligence could generate returns large enough to justify it.

The losses were uneven across the sector. Chipmaker Intel dropped nearly 29% on Friday alone, while social media platform Reddit also fell about 29%. Alphabet, the parent company of Google, lost more than $500 billion in value, making it one of the largest individual contributors to the drop.

Concerns over AI costs

The selloff reflected a broader shift in sentiment. Companies have committed huge sums to data centres, chips and computing capacity to build AI products, and some investors have begun asking when those outlays will translate into revenue and profit. Doubts about the timing and size of that payoff prompted many to reduce exposure to the largest technology names.

The move highlights how concentrated recent market gains have been. Because a small group of heavyweight tech firms carries significant weight in the Nasdaq-100, pressure on those stocks quickly feeds through to the index as a whole.

Crypto market impact

No cryptocurrency market data was available for this report, so its effect on digital assets cannot be measured here. Traders will be watching whether technology-sector volatility spills over into crypto prices in the coming sessions.