AI Stocks Tumble as Anthropic CEO Calls for Capability Slowdown

Global markets react to AI safety concerns

Global AI-related equities experienced sharp declines on Monday following a weekend call from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to slow the pace of AI capability development. The sell-off extended across Asia, Europe, and U.S. premarket trading, hitting semiconductor manufacturers, cloud infrastructure providers, and AI investors.

In Asian markets, South Korean memory chip giants SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics closed down more than 6% and 4%, respectively. SoftBank, a major OpenAI investor, dropped 10% in Japan. European semiconductor stocks followed suit, with ASML falling over 4%, Nokia down approximately 5%, and Infineon declining more than 6%. Data center infrastructure companies including Siemens Energy and Schneider Electric also posted losses.

U.S. premarket trading showed similar weakness. Micron fell around 5%, Intel dropped nearly 6%, and Nvidia declined more than 2%. Major cloud providers Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet traded slightly lower.

Rare consensus among AI leaders

Amodei's Saturday essay came in response to escalating debate over AI safety risks. The discussion intensified after Jacob Coxon, a researcher who worked at both Anthropic and OpenAI, resigned citing concerns that the companies are "gambling with our lives." Anthropic safety researcher Evan Hubinger subsequently stated he believes there is a greater than 10% chance AI will "kill all humans" within the next decade.

In his essay, Amodei wrote: "We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models." The statement drew support from typically competitive industry figures. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman agreed that AI companies need to "pace the frontier," while SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted on X: "Dario is right."

Market implications

Investors fear an industry-wide development slowdown could dampen AI adoption and impact companies across the technology stack. Zoe Gillespie, senior director at RBC Brewin Dolphin, told CNBC that equity market gains have been predicated on AI-driven growth and productivity improvements.

"A lot of what we are looking into with equity returns is baked into the future earnings growth of these companies, and if that comes under threat then we may see this destabilize," Gillespie said.

Why it matters

The coordinated response from competing AI leaders represents a significant shift in an industry that has prioritized rapid capability advancement. If major players genuinely slow development, the timeline for AI-driven revenue growth at chip manufacturers, cloud providers, and infrastructure companies could extend considerably—forcing investors to reassess valuations built on aggressive adoption curves. The market reaction suggests investors are taking the possibility seriously.

These details were first reported by CNBC.