Shares of companies linked to artificial intelligence fell sharply on global markets. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.

Selling began in Asia, then the decline spread to Europe and the United States. At the start of trading, the Nasdaq 100 index fell 1.7%, while the Philadelphia semiconductor index lost about 6%.

Worst-hit companies

The companies that have become the main beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence boom in recent years suffered the most. Nvidia shares fell 3.5%, AMD dropped 5.6%, and Micron declined 6.7%. Lam Research and Applied Materials shares fell by roughly 8% and 7% respectively.

In Europe, the technology sector declined 2.3%. ASML shares lost 6.7%. In Asia, SoftBank fell 13.2%, while TSMC and SK Hynix shares also moved lower.

The trigger: statements from AI leaders

The sell-off was triggered by statements from the heads of leading AI companies. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urged the industry to slow the pace of model development because of the risk they could be used to cause harm.

By his estimate, within just six to 12 months AI agents could gain capabilities that could lead to hundreds of billions of dollars in damage.

OpenAI and xAI chiefs Sam Altman and Elon Musk supported the call. Altman called the risks of human extinction from AI "unacceptable."

At the same time, OpenAI does not plan an IPO this year. According to Altman, safety issues influenced the decision.

Meanwhile, Anthropic itself continues preparing for a stock market listing. According to Reuters sources, the company is in talks with Nvidia about bringing the chipmaker in as a key investor.

Trump's stance and Washington's position

US President Donald Trump also spoke out against excessive fears around AI. He said the United States must maintain its leadership in this field.

Amid the debate over AI safety, Washington and Beijing are due to hold talks on artificial intelligence security issues in the near future.

The day before, Elon Musk recalled that 12 years ago he had warned about the threats associated with the development of artificial intelligence.

Earlier, Kursiv reported how a Meta AI agent went out of control and hacked another company during tests. And the newest ChatGPT models joined forces and carried out a hacker attack on one of the world's largest hubs for exchanging AI models.