The Nasdaq dropped over 2% on June 23, marking the sharpest single-day decline for tech stocks in weeks. After nine consecutive weeks of gains, the tech-heavy index ran headfirst into a wall of skepticism about the staggering amounts of money being poured into AI infrastructure. Nvidia and Alphabet each fell nearly 3%, while chipmakers got hit even harder, with Intel, Marvell, and AMD dropping between 5.5% and 7.5%.
The $527 billion question
Goldman Sachs projects that hyperscaler AI-related capital expenditures will reach approximately $527 billion in 2026. To put that in perspective, it’s more than the entire GDP of countries like Sweden or Argentina.
Analyst Nigel Green captured the sentiment shift, emphasizing that the market is transitioning from a phase of unquestioning positivity toward AI capital deployment to a rigorous assessment of return on investment.
The Fed factor made things worse
