The stock prices of companies linked to artificial intelligence are registering declines this Monday, after a weekend marked by messages from high executives who have warned of the dangers of the rapid progress of AI and have called for limits on its development.
In the Asian markets, now closed, the main indicators have ended with widespread losses. The Japanese Nikkei has retreated nearly 0.6%, the Seoul Kospi has fallen around 3.25%, and the Shanghai Stock Exchange has given up almost 0.1%, while the Hong Kong index has advanced 2.5% in the opposite direction.
In South Korea, the semiconductor giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have finished the session with declines of 4.05% and 6.35%, respectively. The technology index Kosdaq has dropped 1.70%.
In Tokyo, SoftBank, heavily exposed to the AI business and with a significant stake in OpenAI, has plummeted 10.72%, after its CEO, Sam Altman, decided this Saturday to delay the company's IPO. The memory producer Kioxia (-6.37%), the chemical company Resonac (-5.98%), and Fujikura (-2.97%) have also recorded significant cuts.
The Taipei Stock Exchange (Taiwan) has closed with a decline of 0.70%, with drops in its main tech stocks: TSMC (-1.24%), Foxconn (-3.90%), and MediaTek (-0.55%).
Europe and Wall Street catch the fear of a slowdown in AI
In Europe, the major indices have started the day with slight cuts, dragged down by the fear of a halt in the artificial intelligence sector.
At midday, the Ibex 35 was down 0.82%, to 19,676.70 points, with Solaria leading the declines (-7.03%), followed by ACS (-5.39%). In the rest of the markets, the French Cac 40 was down 0.79%, the German Dax 0.68%, the Italian FTSE MIB 1.24%, and the Euro Stoxx 50 1.11%, while the British FTSE 100 stood out with an increase of 0.54%.
Among the most punished stocks on the Old Continent was ASML Holding, a Dutch manufacturer of chip machinery, which lost almost 6%. The Finnish Nokia (-8%) and the German Siemens (-2%) also suffered corrections.
With Wall Street still closed, the major U.S. firms linked to AI were pointing to a bearish session. Nvidia, the largest company in the world by market capitalization and a leader in chips, was down 2.5% in pre-market trading.
In the same time frame, Intel (-6%), Micron (-5.31%), Qualcomm (-4.5%), Oracle (-3.85%) and Broadcom (-3.25%), all linked to the semiconductor business, were moving in "red numbers".
Despite this, the big tech companies showed a more stable behavior. The Nasdaq, benchmark index for the sector, advanced by 1.5%. Apple (+0.48%), Meta (+2.51%), Microsoft (+0.28%) and Amazon (-0.4%) maintained a relative calm in their pricing.
AI executives call for moderating the pace of development
In recent days, the top executives of the main AI companies have agreed that the progress of this technology entails significant risks for humanity and that its development should proceed at a more controlled pace.
The resignation last Wednesday of Jacob Coxon, a researcher at the startup Anthropic, triggered a wave of testimonies about the fear of AI, after warning about the risk that this technology could "end the human race before 2030 due to AI." In this climate, the CEO of Anthropic, Dario Amodei, published an open letter this Saturday in which he called for a halt to the advancement of AI.
"We must slow down the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models," Amodei stated in the letter published on his website, referring to the risks of misalignment and potential security incidents.
Amodei argues that, in recent months, he has become convinced that properly managing these dangers requires "more caution" and that, although it is necessary to continue increasing investment in prevention, that strategy alone is not enough and it is necessary to dose the progress.
"My main concern is that, since this summer, AI has advanced at a dizzying pace, driven mainly by its growing ability to create the next generation of AI. This dynamic is called recursive self-improvement and is beginning to manifest across the industry, including Anthropic, as we and others have already described. If not controlled, it could surpass our ability to understand and control these systems, so it must be addressed with utmost caution, if it is to be addressed," the letter states.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, and Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, have publicly supported Amodei's position and agreed on the need to hit the brakes.
"I agree with Dario that we need to moderate the pace at the border. This has been a main topic of the discussions we have had at OpenAI in recent weeks. Committing to having independent evaluators with similar access to that of employees is a great idea, and we will do the same. We will have more to share soon," Altman indicated on social media.
The head of the company that owns ChatGPT has also advanced that the company will not debut on the stock market this year due to doubts surrounding the safety of advanced AI models. "It would be an unwise time to go public," he has stated.
Elon Musk has expressed himself in shorter terms: "Dario is right that there should be some oversight. Peer review of AI by competitors is the right way to start this," he responded to the warnings from the CEO of Anthropic.
The geopolitical pulse adds pressure to the sector
In his letter, Amodei points out that one of his major fears regarding the imposition of limits on AI development is the possibility of China getting ahead, something he considers "a serious danger to the United States and the world."
For this reason, he argues that the pace of AI advancement should be set at a midpoint: fast enough for U.S. companies to maintain leadership, but without the technological race getting out of control. He also calls for restrictions on AI-related trade with the Asian giant.
Beijing has replied that it rejects the position of U.S. firms. "Inciting fear, confrontation, and fierce competition will only disrupt the global governance process of AI, which benefits no one," a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has stated.
For his part, U.S. President Donald Trump has also dismissed the proposal from tech companies regarding AI and has reiterated his push for the country to maintain its offensive to become a global leader in artificial intelligence.
"We can establish safeguards, we can do this and that, but I think there are many negative forces raising the issue -when they shouldn't be- and bringing up things that are not going to happen. But whoever wins in AI, wins," the president has emphasized.