A sharp wave of selling shakes Wall Street... and artificial intelligence stocks suffer huge losses

(CNN) - Wall Street witnessed a sharp selling wave on Thursday, which pushed the Nasdaq index, which is dominated by technology stocks, to decline by 5.52%, recording its worst daily performance since April 2025, amid losses amounting to about $2.5 trillion in stock market value.

This decline came amid investors' fears that Democratic gains in the US midterm elections would lead to restrictions on the expansion of artificial intelligence data centers, which increased pressure on shares of technology companies and electronic chips.

The Nasdaq index suffered its biggest daily loss since April 2025, when US President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on imports. The selling wave extended to the rest of Wall Street's main indices, as the S&P 500 and Dow Jones indexes recorded their worst daily performance since the same period.

These losses came one day after strong gains following the midterm elections, during which the Dow Jones index jumped by 1,569 points, and the Nasdaq rose by 1.44%. But the markets quickly reversed direction, as Dow Jones closed Thursday's session down 1,833 points, completely erasing the previous day's gains.

Nvidia, one of the most prominent beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence boom, was at the forefront of declining stocks, as its stock fell by 9.3% during Thursday’s session, after losses of more than 20% during the past month, declining by 2.6% since the beginning of 2026.

The pressures extended to the semiconductor sector, as one of the main indicators for chip manufacturing companies fell by 12.3%, recording its worst daily performance in about six and a half years. The Nasdaq 100 index, which includes the largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, also fell by 6.36%, its largest daily decline since March 2020.

Losses affected other companies, including Tesla and SpaceX, with declines of 11% and 9%, respectively, while Qualcomm's stock fell by 9.5%, amid pressures related to the company's business results and the rise in memory chip costs.

The selling wave coincided with a jump of about 70% in the VIX volatility index, known as the “fear index” on Wall Street, to reach its highest levels in seven months. The losses included all eleven sectors included in the S&P 500 index.

The losses were not limited to Nvidia, but extended to companies related to artificial intelligence infrastructure, amid mounting concerns about the feasibility of huge spending on this technology.

Shares of cloud computing companies CoreWave and Nebios fell by about 10% and 15%, respectively, during Thursday's session, in light of increasing selling pressure on companies related to artificial intelligence.

Market data since early October show CoreWave shares fell by 50%, Micron by 38%, and SpaceX by 28%, compared to a decline in the S&P 500 index of about 5% during the same period.

These declines reflect a shift in investors' mood towards the artificial intelligence sector, with increasing questions about companies' ability to transform their huge investments into sustainable profits, after a period of strong rises led by technology stocks.