AI stocks rise despite broader market downturn as spending fears ease

AI stocks staged a quiet comeback on September 15, shrugging off a brutal selloff the day before and climbing even as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq slipped further into the red. The rebound came just 24 hours after some of the biggest names in artificial intelligence spooked Wall Street by suggesting the industry should maybe, possibly, slow down a little.

The S&P 500 closed down 0.48% on Tuesday while the Nasdaq fell 0.56%. But names like Qualcomm, AMD, and Marvell moved in the opposite direction, posting gains that defied the broader market’s sour mood.

What triggered the panic, and why it faded

The trouble started with an essay. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published a piece urging the AI industry to pump the brakes on developing frontier models, citing safety concerns that he argued deserved more serious attention. Sam Altman of OpenAI and Elon Musk echoed similar sentiments.

On September 14, the Nasdaq Composite fell as much as 1.3% intraday before settling at a loss of roughly 0.56% to 0.6%. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index took it worse, dropping between 5% and 5.9% in a single session. Nvidia shed 3.4%. Micron lost between 5% and 6%.

But by Tuesday, the panic started looking overcooked. Investors stepped back and asked a reasonable question: would a few essays and tweets actually derail hundreds of billions of dollars in committed capital spending? Some market analysts labeled Monday’s selloff as transient noise rather than a structural shift.

The spending wall that won’t move

Hyperscaler capital expenditures are projected to reach nearly $795 billion in 2026, with estimates for 2027 pushing that figure toward $1.08 trillion. Amazon alone raised its 2026 spending target to $220 billion. Microsoft’s recent earnings showed robust cloud growth and either maintained or increased capital expenditure guidance.

Valuations remain the elephant in the room

Valuations across the sector remain stretched by historical standards, and the market’s tolerance for premium pricing depends entirely on those massive spending plans translating into actual revenue growth. Recent earnings from Amazon and Microsoft both reported solid demand trends, suggesting that enterprise customers are actually using and paying for AI-powered services.

The Amodei episode also revealed something about market psychology. AI stocks have become so central to the post-2022 equity uptrend that any perceived threat to the narrative can trigger violent price swings. Stocks that drop 5% on Monday can bounce right back on Tuesday, but the volatility itself becomes a feature investors need to price in.

What investors should watch next is whether the safety conversation evolves from essays into policy. If Amodei’s call for restraint gains traction with regulators in Washington or Brussels, the spending calculus could genuinely shift. But for now, $795 billion in committed capital expenditures speaks louder than any blog post.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.