NEW YORK, JOURNALARTA.COM – AI stocks sold off sharply on Wall Street after investors began pressing a harder question: when will the billions poured into chips, data centers, and power generation turn into real profit? The Nasdaq fell 1.5% and the S&P 500 dropped 0.5% as the market reassessed the scale of 2026 spending, which is now estimated at more than $725 billion.
The pullback hit big technology names and exposed how dependent the recent rally has been on faith in future AI earnings. IBM was among the hardest-hit stocks, with shares plunging 25.2% in a single day after the company said some clients shifted IT budgets toward AI infrastructure and delayed software deals.
Why AI stocks lost momentum
The first trigger is simple. Investors no longer want headlines about ambition. They want proof that the money will come back. Four of the largest U.S. AI players are expected to spend more than $725 billion in 2026 on computing hardware, new facilities, and electricity, a level of capex that dwarfs earlier spending cycles.
That scale has started to unsettle the market. For months, traders treated heavy investment as a sign of strength. Now the same spending is being read as a risk: if revenue growth does not keep pace, margins can shrink fast and valuations can reset even faster.
The second pressure point came from corporate customers. IBM said its business slowed because clients diverted budgets toward AI infrastructure rather than traditional software and services. That shift hurt deal flow and dragged the stock lower in a move that analysts said marked the company’s worst one-day drop since 1968. ServiceNow and Workday also came under pressure as investors worried the budget rotation could spread across enterprise software.
China’s AI push added more pressure
Sentiment weakened further after China’s new open-source model Kimi K3 entered the market. Investors took that as another warning that U.S. AI valuations may be too rich, especially if rivals can offer capable models at lower cost and with faster adoption.
Chipmakers felt the hit. Nvidia slipped 1.3%, while SK Hynix fell 14% and Sandisk dropped 13%. The Semiconductor Index is now about 20% below its June peak, a sign that the correction has moved beyond a single stock or one weak earnings print.
Hedge funds have also been trimming AI exposure over the past five to six weeks, according to market tracking cited in trading desks. That matters because it suggests the unwind may not be a one-day panic. It looks more like positioning is being rebuilt around a new rule: show the returns, or pay the price.
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