Dow Jones Today: Stock Futures Plunge on Concerns About Chinese AI Advances; Nvidia Leads Tech Shares Sharply Lower

Stocks futures are pointing to a sharply lower open on Monday as technology stocks tumble on concerns about the competitive threat that China poses in the race to develop artificial intelligence. 

Futures tied to the tech-heavy Nasdaq were down 3.6% in recent trading, while those linked to the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 2.1% and 0.7%, respectively. Stocks are coming off of two consecutive winning weeks that have pushed major indexes to record-high levels amid investor optimism about the new Trump administration, generally strong corporate earnings reports and the prospects for AI-fueled growth.

The optimism has been dented by the release of an AI model from Chinese startup DeepSeek that performs well against models made by U.S. companies, and does so at a lower cost. The progress that DeepSeek is making raises questions about whether the U.S. will remain at the forefront in the AI race and heightens concerns about the massive amounts that major technology companies are spending to develop AI.

Chipmakers Nvidia (NVDA) and Broadcom (AVGO) were each down more than 11% in premarket trading to lead broad-based selling of chip stocks. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) fell 6.5%.

Other large-cap technology stocks were mostly lower. Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOGL) and Amazon (AMZN) each were down more than 3%, while Meta Platforms (META) and Tesla (TSLA) slid 2% and Apple (AAPL) was slightly higher. Apple, Microsoft, Meta and Tesla are all due to release their quarterly results later this week.

Several of the stocks that rode last week’s wave of AI enthusiasm—after the announcement of a $500 billion joint venture between software giant Oracle (ORCL), OpenAI and SoftBank to develop AI infrastructure—were sliding before the bell on Monday. Oracle was down 8%, while analytics software maker Palantir (PLTR) and Constellation Energy (CEG) fell 4% and 12%, respectively.

On the earnings front this morning, AT&T (T) shares were up 2.5% after the telecommunications giant reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury was at 4.52% this morning, down from 4.62% on Friday afternoon and at its lowest level in more than a month.

Bitcoin was around $101,200 in recent trading, down from its weekend high around $107,000 but up from an overnight low of below $98,000.

Gold futures were down 0.5% at $2,765 an ounce this morning, while crude oil futures fell about 1%.