The AI euphoria that has driven markets higher received sharp setbacks over the weekend, spilling into a broad selloff across technology and AI-linked stocks on Monday.
OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman confirmed that the chatbot company will not pursue its initial public offering this year, citing the ongoing debate over the risks posed by advanced artificial intelligence. The delay dented sentiment toward one of the most highly valued private companies in the world.
The unease was compounded by remarks from Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei, who warned that a swarm of AI systems could potentially seize control of the entire internet within six to twelve months, inflicting up to hundreds of billions of dollars in damage. He called for a slowdown in the pace of AI development.
In Tokyo, SoftBank shares — one of OpenAI's largest investors — fell more than 13 percent on Monday, marking their steepest decline in nearly three months. "The market is on alert because we still do not know how much the pace of AI development will slow," said Yugo Tsuboi, chief strategist at Daiwa Securities, according to Bloomberg. "There is concern that the value of OpenAI may not be as high as previously expected."
The ripple effect reached the Swiss exchange, where AI-related exposure weighed on several names despite a broadly positive market backdrop. ABB fell 3 percent to 76.40, having benefited from surging demand for its energy-supply, cooling and automation products in data centers. Semiconductor names faced steeper losses: AMS OSRAM dropped 6 percent, Comet slid 5 percent, while VAT and Inficon each declined 4 percent. Accelleron and Huber+Suhner, both of which had also benefited from the data-center boom, gave up 2 percent each.
Traders and analysts were gauging whether the weekend's warnings would translate into sustained selling pressure or merely a short-term correction in the aftermath of the broader AI rally.
