Tech Stocks Shudder in Response to Calls to Slow A.I. Progress

Technology stocks around the world fell on Monday, after a chorus of senior executives at artificial intelligence companies called for slowing down the rapid pace of development of the transformative technology.

The Nasdaq Composite index, which is made up of many of the technology companies that have driven the broader stock market higher in recent years, fell 0.6 percent. Nvidia, Intel, Oracle and other companies at the forefront of the A.I. build-out all posted declines.

The Philadelphia Stock Exchange’s semiconductor index, a benchmark for the companies involved in designing and manufacturing the computer chips that power A.I., fell almost 6 percent.

South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI index, which is heavily influenced by two chip suppliers for A.I. data centers, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, fell more than 3 percent. Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s largest chipmaker, fell 1.2 percent. Japan’s main stock index also declined, with SoftBank, a major tech investment firm, shedding more than 10 percent.

In Europe, semiconductor stocks like ASML of the Netherlands and Infineon of Germany fell sharply.

The tech industry has been the engine powering global markets to repeated new highs in recent years as advances in A.I. have moved faster than investors initially expected.

Dario Amodei, chief executive of Anthropic, published a long blog post on Saturday calling on industry leaders to now slow A.I. development for fear of losing control of rapidly advancing models at the so-called frontier of development.