Tech Giants Stumble in an Instant, the Impact Spreads Everywhere
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - Global financial markets were shaken by a wave of massive selling on Monday (14/9). Artificial intelligence (AI)-based shares across the world plunged suddenly.
The trigger came from turmoil in the United States (US). The bosses of tech giants behind AI projects issued stern warnings about the existential risks of the technology.
This danger signal immediately eroded market confidence in the sector that has been the driving force behind the record highs of world stock exchanges.
Pressure mounted further because the massive expansion of AI infrastructure has been underpinned by piles of debt and circular financing schemes, amid a global interest rate trend that remains at elevated levels.
‘Emergency Brake’ Signal from the AI Bosses
The panic began with a lengthy essay posted by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on platform X over the weekend. He called on the AI industry to immediately rein in the pace of developing system capabilities amid increasingly uncontrolled concerns about misuse.
This moral appeal was met with a united response from other AI ‘kings’, from Elon Musk (owner of xAI) to Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI). Altman even announced that OpenAI was forced to postpone its planned initial public offering (IPO) this year on safety grounds.
Amodei estimated that within the next 6 to 12 months, AI agents risk “taking over the entire internet and triggering damage worth hundreds of billions of dollars,” quoted from Reuters, Tuesday (15/9/2026).
In a separate interview, Altman even said the threat of human extinction from AI is now at a point demanding concrete action from governments and corporations.
Semiconductor and Chip Shares Become the ‘Main Casualties’
The horror sentiment drew an immediate negative response from capital markets:
Wall Street: The Nasdaq 100 technology index (.NDX) plunged 1.2% to a six-week low in morning trading, before slightly paring its fall to minus 0.4%.
Chip sector: The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (.SOX) dropped 5.2%. Nvidia (NVDA.O) fell 3%, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O) shed 4.5%, and Micron (MU.O) sank 5.4%.
Manufacturers & utilities: Semiconductor equipment giants Lam Research (LRCX.O), Applied Materials (AMAT.O) and energy utility Bloom Energy (BE.N) all fell more than 6%.
European & Asian exchanges: In Europe, ASML dropped 6%, dragging the regional technology index down 2.2%. Meanwhile in Asia, SoftBank collapsed more than 10%, followed by sharp weakness in TSMC and SK Hynix.
“If this narrative ends in a rerun of the AI spending race, the impact will be systemic on the real economy. Our stock market has been ‘overheating’, driven by AI infrastructure spending,” said Steve Sosnick, Chief Market Analyst at Interactive Brokers.
Between Doomsday Threats and ‘Political Drama’
This AI commotion has also seeped into public policy. In Washington, US Senate negotiators are reportedly working on a new bill that would require AI companies to demonstrate their risk mitigation measures.
However, resistance has come from the highest leadership. US President Donald Trump publicly dismissed such concerns as a ‘sick conspiracy’ to hobble the AI and data centre industry, which has begun to be weaponised as a hot commodity in domestic political issues.
Meanwhile, from the other side, Beijing reacted sharply. Through a Global Times editorial, the Chinese government accused the Anthropic essay of being a “Cold War-style handbook” designed to trip up the pace of the Middle Kingdom’s technology, amid pricing pressure from cheap Chinese AI models such as Kimi K3 (Moonshot AI), Qwen (Alibaba) and DeepSeek.
On the other hand, sceptics on Wall Street chose to ignore it. Legendary investor Michael Burry, who famously predicted the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis, judged the AI bosses’ warnings to be nothing more than “hype and puffery to cover up growth deceleration that is becoming uncontrollable.”
Morgan Stanley also noted that global AI spending projections could reach US$1.3 trillion by 2027.