Chipmaker Nvidia loses 279 thousand mdd

Shares of Nvidia plunged 9.5 percent on Tuesday, the biggest one-day loss in market value by a U.S. company, as investors tempered their optimism about artificial intelligence (AI) in a broad market sell-off following tepid economic data.

Nvidia lost $279 billion in market capitalization, a major sign that investors are becoming more cautious about the emerging AI technology that has driven much of the stock’s gains this year.

The PHLX chip index plunged 7.75 percent, its biggest one-day drop since 2020.

The renewed jitters about AI come after Nvidia on Wednesday issued a quarterly outlook that fell short of lofty investor expectations that have fueled a blistering rally in its shares.

“There has been so much money poured into technology and semiconductors over the past 12 months that the market is completely skewed,” said Todd Sohn, ETF strategist at Strategas Securities.

Intel fell nearly 9 percent after Reuters reported that Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger and top executives are expected to present a plan to the company’s board to eliminate unneeded businesses and revamp the chipmaker’s capital spending.

Concerns about slowing returns from massive AI investments have dogged Wall Street’s most valuable companies in recent weeks, with shares of Microsoft and Alphabet trading lower following their July quarterly reports.

“Some recent studies have cast doubt on whether AI revenue alone justifies this investment surge. When evaluating individual companies’ AI capex, investors should consider whether they are making the best use of their balance sheets and capital,” BlackRock strategists wrote in a note to clients.

At its all-time high in July, Nvidia had nearly tripled in value to $3 trillion by 2024. Its recent losses leave it up 118 percent so far this year.

Nvidia’s record loss was bigger than the $232 billion drop suffered by Facebook-owner Meta Platforms on February 3, 2022, when the media company issued grim forecasts, according to LSEG data.

Antitrust investigation

After markets closed, Bloomberg reported that the U.S. Justice Department has issued a subpoena to Nvidia to deepen its investigation into the artificial intelligence chip giant’s antitrust practices.

The antitrust authority had already submitted questionnaires and has now sent legally binding requests to Nvidia, the report said, adding that other companies have also been subpoenaed.

Authorities are concerned that the chipmaker is making it difficult to switch to other suppliers and penalizing buyers who do not exclusively use its artificial intelligence chips, the report said.