Finance1 min read

Nasdaq faces $2 trillion wipeout in October as AI spending fears deepen

By · Published by Everything Blog

In short

Investors are scrutinizing aggressive artificial intelligence infrastructure outlays by firms such as Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon amid rising debt-financing costs. Microsoft is reportedly preparing a $25 billion bond sale, marking its first U.S. investment-grade offering in more than nine years. Despite the market downturn, fundamental revenue trends remain resilient, highlighted by accelerating growth at Amazon Web Services and stronger-than-expected sales at Meta. Upcoming earnings reports from Apple next week and Nvidia in mid-November will provide crucial insight into industry health.

Key points

  • Growing anxiety over massive artificial intelligence expenditures is expanding beyond sto…: Growing anxiety over massive artificial intelligence expenditures is expanding beyond stock valuations and impacting corporate credit markets.
  • Even as equity prices fall, core tech revenues remain strong with notable operational gro…: Even as equity prices fall, core tech revenues remain strong with notable operational growth at Amazon Web Services and Meta.
  • Positive financial results from Microsoft and SpaceX demonstrate that initial investments…: Positive financial results from Microsoft and SpaceX demonstrate that initial investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure are starting to yield returns.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

Oct 30 : More than $2 trillion in market value is set to be wiped from the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 this month, as Big Tech earnings intensified investor scrutiny of whether the billions being poured into artificial intelligence can generate returns quickly enough.

The wipeout would amount to slightly more than SpaceX’s entire market value. The index has fallen over 5.8 per cent so far in October as the AI trade ran into turbulence, with hyperscalers Meta Platforms, Alphabet and Amazon.com raising spending forecasts further as they race to expand AI infrastructure.

The prospect of ever-bigger AI outlays has unnerved investors, particularly as rising borrowing costs threaten to make debt-funded investment more expensive and harder to justify.

Here's a roundup of megacap earnings so far, with Apple set to report next week and AI bellwether Nvidia due mid-November.

TECH WIPEOUT

Alphabet suffered its biggest one-day percentage drop on record on Thursday after disappointing results in the core business of search advertising and a massive acceleration in cash burn.

Meta's plans for a record $97.5 billion fund raise heightened concerns about…

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