Will Wall Street crash today? Nasdaq futures tumble nearly 2% as AI stocks plunge

Wall Street may be heading for a rough start today after OpenAI and Anthropic leaders called for a slowdown in AI development to manage risks and protect humanity, triggering a sharp selloff in global AI stocks.

Nasdaq futures dropped more than 510 points or 1.7% to trade at around 29,170, as seen at around 5 am EDT. S&P 500 futures fell nearly 0.7%. Shares of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI's investor SoftBank crashed as much as 13% in Japan.

South Korea’s Kospi, which was seen as the face of the seesaw AI trade, plunged more than 3%, while Japan’s Nikkei fell around 1%. This came after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei in a long X post on Saturday, ‌called on AI companies ⁠to slow ⁠the rate at which they advance model capabilities amid mounting fears of misuse of artificial intelligence.



The Anthropic CEO wrote that in nearly a year, AI agents "could be capable of taking over the entire internet, potentially causing hundreds of billions of dollars in damage."

Also read | From OpenAI's Altman to Anthropic's Amodei, industry leaders call for slowdown in AI development

World’s richest man Elon Musk, who runs xAI, as well as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that they agree with Amodei. “Dario is right…I have been sounding the alarm on AI for a long time,” Musk said in a streak of posts.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in a series of posts noted that AI companies should pace the AI frontier, and that this has been the primary topic of discussions at the ChatGPT-maker in the recent weeks. “There are two ways AI progress could go very badly and that we must avoid. First, we could lose control of the future to AI…Second, we could end up in a world with too much concentration of power…Avoiding these two threats requires walking a narrow middle path; for example, one country could gain too much power. Another example is one lab ending up with too much power,” he wrote.

Michael Burry says nothing in AI to slow down

‘Big Short’ fame Michael Burry took to X to react to the AI leaders comments. Like always, he delivered a contrarian view to the developments. “Let's all take a moment to understand how self-serving it is for OpenAI, Anthropic and other execs of big hyperscalers to talk of slowing things down,” he wrote.

The American investor who became popular after correctly predicting the 2008 financial crisis explained that LLMs are not AI and won’t be AGI. Additionally, competition is coming up fast, and slowing benefits for incumbents.

IPOs need hype and puffery, Burry said, hinting at ill-intention of the executives both whose companies are heading towards going public on Wall Street. “‘We are so awesome it could become dangerous’ is hype & puffery,” Burry said. Notably, OpenAI will not go public in 2026, Chief Executive Sam Altman said on Saturday, citing safety concerns over artificial intelligence. Anthropic’s mega IPO meanwhile draws closer.

Also read | Michael Burry pulls back on risk, says he’s happy to sit on cash. Is Big Short investor reversing his bearish AI bets?

Burry further said that the executives' statements about the dangers of AI cover for real uncontrollable slowing growth as IPOs look to be pushed out.

What lies ahead for Wall Street?

In the short term, these AI warnings could still weigh on AI and chip stocks, Reuters quoted Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxo Bank in Singapore, as saying. "Their valuations assume both strong demand and a relentless pace of technological progress…When expectations are this high, even a possible delay can trigger profit-taking,” she said.

“There is little doubt that AI will change the world…But that does not necessarily mean every investment being made today will generate an attractive return,” the report quoted Sebastien Mallet, portfolio manager at T. Rowe Price in London.

(With inputs from agencies)
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