AI stocks hammered by midterm shock as data center buildout becomes a ‘war of attrition’

Democrats’ strong midterm gains unsettled investors and raised questions about whether a new balance of power in Congress could slow plans to build AI data centres across the US. The resulting sell-off shows how political uncertainty and possible changes to technology regulation could affect companies and investors tied to the AI boom.

On Thursday, Nvidia shares fell 9.3%, AMD 17.3%, Microsoft 3.6%, Micron 17.5%, Broadcom 10.4%, Tesla 10.8% and SpaceX 9.1%. Data centre-focused “neocloud” companies also dropped: Nebius by 15%, Iren by 17% and CoreWeave by 10%; US tech stocks were showing signs of recovery by Friday morning.