AI spending fears wipe $2 trillion off America's Nasdaq in October as Intel suffers its worst plunge since 1974
A Google DeepMind promotional screen introducing Gemini, the AI brand whose new Gemini 4 Carbon model Sundar Pichai unveiled just before Alphabet's earnings call as its shares tumbled over 10%.A two-week Alphabet share-price chart, sourced from Yahoo Finance, showing the plunge that wiped $500 billion from the company's value after profit collapsed 25% to $26.2 billion.
Intel's stock cratered nearly 30% on Friday — its worst single-day collapse since 1974 — after CFO David Zinsner warned the PC slowdown will persist well into 2025 and forecast fourth-quarter revenue well below analyst expectations. Alphabet suffered its largest-ever one-day drop on Thursday, shedding more than $500bn in value after its AI summaries began cannibalising its core search advertising revenue.
Amazon burned through $42.4bn in free cash flow over 12 months while reaffirming a $220bn capital spending forecast, sending its shares down nearly 6%.
Reddit tumbled 30% despite strong earnings after its CEO warned Google's AI summaries are throttling its web traffic — the same problem hammering Alphabet.
Big Tech is distributing a smaller proportion of cash to shareholders than at any point in the past 15 years, with Meta planning a record $97.5bn fundraise that has spooked investors over dilution.
