This content was published on
September 14, 2026 - 18:00
5 minutes
(Bloomberg) — A selloff in chipmakers dragged down stocks as leaders of artificial-intelligence giants proposed slowing the technology’s development, with a rally in oil also weighing on sentiment.From the US to Europe and Asia, semiconductor shares came under heavy pressure. American powerhouses Nvidia Corp. and Broadcom Inc. slumped. A key industry gauge sank 5%. The Nasdaq 100 fell nearly 1%. Brent crude hit $107, raising concern about inflationary pressures ahead of the Federal Reserve decision. Treasury 10-year yields briefly topped 5%. The dollar rose.A 3,800-word missive by Anthropic PBC Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei — which was endorsed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceXAI CEO Elon Musk — said development of the most-advanced systems must be slowed in order to prevent AI slipping beyond human control and inflicting catastrophic harm.Microsoft Corp.’s AI researchers have released a new set of guiding tenets that place limits on the company’s development of cutting-edge AI models. The 15,000-word manifesto boils down to five words: People matter more than AI.President Donald Trump attacked Anthropic’s chief for urging a slowdown in AI development, intensifying his opposition to new guardrails. He blamed a “SICK conspiracy” for voter backlash on AI data centers and increased concern about frontier models and added that “the only one that is happy about it is China.”“What really happened? Surely something big enough to spook Dario, Sam, and Elon into rare agreement,” said Giuseppe Sette at Reflexivity. “Whatever it was, it was probably stopped at the last minute, just before disaster struck. With China in the race, though, we don’t expect any major slowdown.”“As for any retracement in AI stocks, that’s simply a buying opportunity,” Sette added.While US industry leaders are not advocating a full pause, the latest commentary suggests that safety considerations could, and should, slow the pace of frontier AI development, according to Justin Post and Nitin Bansal at Bank of America Corp.“We believe concerns on AI deployment could be a sentiment negative for the AI value chain,” they wrote. “Despite potential concerns, we continue to believe AI capacity will have strong multi-year demand.”At HSBC, Max Kettner says calls for a slower AI buildout and resulting fears for the tech sector are “overblown.” This could actually help profitability of AI companies eventually, he said.“Whether calls to pace advanced model development will gain traction across the industry remains uncertain, but we believe they are more aimed at shaping a regulatory framework acceptable to leading AI labs,” said Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi at UBS Chief Investment Office. “We therefore expect AI investment to continue.”Corporate Highlights:Elon Musk’s xAI and X Corp. said they resolved an antitrust lawsuit against Apple Inc. that accused the iPhone maker of favoring OpenAI’s ChatGPT over other chatbot makers. Anthropic PBC has picked Nasdaq as its listing venue ahead of a potential record-setting initial public offering, according to a person familiar with the matter. OpenAI won’t go public in this year as the AI company focuses on addressing safety-related concerns around the technology, Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman told Fortune in an interview. SpaceX is set to get a larger weighting in the Nasdaq 100 later this month, a change that could trigger billions of dollars of buying by passive funds tied to the benchmark. Michael Dell’s family office and Sequence Holdings teamed up to acquire Baldwin Insurance Group Inc. in an all-cash deal valued at $7.7 billion. What Bloomberg strategists say…“Resilient economic growth and rock-solid corporate profits can cushion the impact from higher rates and valuation compression, but with that foundation now in question, the effect of tighter financial conditions on stocks will be more severe.”—Tatiana Darie, Macro Strategist, Markets Live. For the full analysis, click here.Some of the main moves in markets:StocksThe S&P 500 fell 0.3% as of 12 p.m. New York time The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.7% The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1% The Stoxx Europe 600 fell 0.5% The MSCI World Index fell 0.4% CurrenciesThe Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.4% The euro fell 0.4% to $1.1549 The British pound fell 0.2% to $1.3493 The Japanese yen fell 0.5% to 154.42 per dollar CryptocurrenciesBitcoin rose 1.6% to $78,556.1 Ether fell 0.1% to $2,508.71 BondsThe yield on 10-year Treasuries declined two basis points to 4.94% Germany’s 10-year yield advanced one basis point to 3.52% Britain’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 5.36% CommoditiesWest Texas Intermediate crude rose 2.9% to $102.98 a barrel Spot gold fell 1.3% to $4,290.95 an ounce ©2026 Bloomberg L.P.
