AI-related stocks fell across global markets on Monday after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for slowing down the pace of AI development. Some other major technology figures also supported the idea. Investors are worried that a slowdown in AI development could hurt companies linked to the sector. This includes chipmakers, data centre companies, software firms and large cloud players.In Asia, South Korean chip stocks were hit hard. SK Hynix fell more than 6%, while Samsung Electronics dropped more than 4%. SoftBank, which is one of OpenAI’s biggest investors, fell 10% in Japan. European AI and semiconductor stocks also came under pressure. ASML fell more than 5%, Nokia dropped about 8%, and Infineon lost more than 7%. Companies linked to data centre expansion, such as Siemens Energy and Schneider Electric, also traded lower.US technology stocks also weakened in premarket trade. Micron fell about 5%, Intel dropped nearly 6%, and Nvidia was down almost 3%. Other semiconductor stocks also declined. Big cloud and AI-linked companies such as Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet were slightly lower.The fall came as concerns over AI safety grew stronger last week. Jacob Coxon, a researcher at Anthropic who previously worked at OpenAI, resigned, saying he was worried that Anthropic and OpenAI were “gambling with our lives.”Anthropic safety researcher Evan Hubinger also said he believes there is more than a 10% chance that AI could “kill all humans” within the next decade.These comments triggered a major debate on social media and drew responses from AI industry leaders. On Saturday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wrote an essay calling for slower development of advanced AI systems.“We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models,” Amodei said.Analysts said the concern is that the AI-led equity rally has been built on expectations of strong growth and productivity gains. Zoe Gillespie, senior director at RBC Brewin Dolphin, told CNBC that if this growth story starts to derail, it could affect equity performance.She said much of the expected return from AI stocks is already built into future earnings growth. If that comes under threat, markets could become unstable.Disclosure: This article has been written by Podishetti Akash, who is not a SEBI-registered Research Analyst or an Investment Adviser. Podishetti Akash and her ‘relative(s)’ (as defined under Section 2(77) of the Companies Act, 2013) do not hold any financial interest in the companies mentioned in this article as of the date of publication. The views/recommendations mentioned in this article, wherever applicable, are those of the respective SEBI-registered Research Analyst/brokerage and have been reproduced/reported with due attribution. They should not be construed as the views or recommendations of The Economic Times Digital or the journalist. Readers are advised to consider the original research report and make their investment decisions based on their own assessment.