AI stocks plunge as Anthropic CEO calls for industry slowdown

Global AI stocks tumble on slowdown proposal

AI-related equities dropped sharply across Asian, European, and U.S. markets Monday following a weekend call from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to deliberately slow the pace of artificial intelligence capabilities development. The proposal drew public backing from OpenAI's Sam Altman and Elon Musk, triggering investor concerns about the trajectory of the AI boom.

Nvidia shares fell nearly 3% in premarket trading, while Intel declined close to 6% and Micron dropped around 5%. Asian semiconductor manufacturers bore significant losses, with SK Hynix ending down more than 6% and Samsung Electronics shedding over 4%. SoftBank, a major OpenAI investor, plunged roughly 10% to 11% in Tokyo trading. South Korea's Kospi index fell 3.3%.

European chip equipment maker ASML lost between 5% and 6%, Nokia dropped approximately 8%, and Infineon retreated more than 7%. Major cloud providers Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet all traded lower in premarket sessions, alongside data-center infrastructure companies Siemens Energy and Schneider Electric.

The 'pacing the frontier' framework

Amodei published an essay Saturday outlining a three-step plan he termed "pacing the frontier." The framework would embed independent third-party evaluators inside AI companies, establish shared safety benchmarks with agreed limits on capability advancement speed, and eventually coordinate with governments including China. "We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models," Amodei wrote.

Altman posted his agreement with the pacing concept on X Saturday, while Musk wrote that "Dario is right," according to CNBC. In a follow-up post early Monday, Altman clarified that pacing "not mean 'stopping,'" adding that "no amount of American competitive pressure should justify recklessness."

Why it matters

The coordinated call for slower AI development from three industry leaders represents a potential inflection point for the sector that has driven much of the recent stock market rally. If major AI companies implement meaningful guardrails or capability caps, analysts will need to reassess earnings projections and valuations across the semiconductor, cloud infrastructure, and AI application stack. The debate also highlights mounting tension between safety concerns and competitive dynamics, particularly regarding China.

Industry turbulence drives safety debate

The proposal emerged during a contentious period for AI companies. Jacob Coxon, a researcher who resigned from Anthropic last week, wrote that AI companies are "gambling with our lives" in a post that drew more than 150 million views on X and prompted over 20 lawmakers to call for stricter regulation. Anthropic safety researcher Evan Hubinger stated publicly he believes there is greater than a 10% chance AI will "kill all humans" within the next decade.

Altman told Fortune in an interview published Saturday that OpenAI would not pursue a public offering in 2026, citing the safety environment.

President Donald Trump rejected any development slowdown Sunday, arguing it would erode U.S. competitive advantage over China. China's Foreign Ministry characterized the warnings as "fear mongering," according to CNBC.

Neil Wilson, U.K. strategist at Saxo investment bank, warned in a Monday note that a coordinated pullback would leave analysts "scrabbling around to assess likely impact on earnings and valuations" if companies were to "coordinate a material slowing in development and erect guardrails," according to CNN.

These details were first reported by Quartz.