Wall Street sell-off continues as investors question returns on massive AI spending

Wall Street braced for another steep day of losses Friday, with futures falling after the latest earnings from Big Tech reignited concerns that the massive spending on AI may not deliver the returns that investors expect.

Nasdaq 100 futures were down 2.5% and futures tied to the S&P were lower by 1%. Futures on the Dow, which has less exposure to tech, edged higher.

Intel plunged 25% in premarket trading Friday morning after issuing weaker guidance for the fourth quarter, citing weakness in the PC market and manufacturing bottlenecks. Amazon shares also tumbled, falling 7% following an earnings report that indicated another increase in AI spending.

This comes after shares of Alphabet sank by more than 12% Thursday, wiping half a trillion dollars off the market value of America’s fourth-largest company. Investors were concerned about a slowdown in Google’s search advertising business and a ramp-up in AI spending.

Friday marks the final trading day of a bruising month for AI stocks as investors continue to scrutinize the enormous cost of the AI boom and demand evidence that those investments will eventually translate into profit.

“The AI trade is down, but not out,” said Paul Stanley, managing director at Arca, in a note Friday morning. “This is not the first tech and AI correction, and it won’t be the last. We are still in the very early stages of AI development, and pullbacks are par for the course.”

“The midterm elections are the next big test for markets, but once they pass, uncertainty will decrease regardless of the outcome, which is positive for stocks,” he wrote.

This is a developing story and will be updated.