On Friday, the US stock market behaved like a memecoin market: the S&P 500 fell 1.8% (its worst day since June) and the Nasdaq dropped 2.9%. The market lost around $1.8 trillion in value in a single day. October became the Nasdaq’s worst month since March 2025.
Tech earnings were one of the main drivers. The market started to doubt whether massive AI investments will pay off. Demand for technology keeps growing, but companies are spending more and more on data centers, servers and chips. Investors worry that profits aren’t keeping up with spending.
• Alphabet: -12%
Its worst day since going public in 2004, wiping out nearly $500 billion in market value. For the first time in almost four years, the company missed revenue and profit forecasts. At the same time, its spending on AI infrastructure more than doubled over the year and exceeded the cash flow from its business.
• Intel: -28%
Its worst day since the 1970s. The quarter was strong, but the outlook for the next one disappointed: the PC market is shrinking because of expensive memory, and server chip production is held back by manufacturing problems. AMD, Qualcomm and Dell followed Intel down, each losing more than 10%.
• Apple: −1.2%, but back ahead of Nvidia
Apple stock fell too, but less than Nvidia. As a result, Apple reclaimed the title of the world’s most valuable company, worth around $5 trillion. Investors now seem to be looking toward companies with lower AI infrastructure spending. Apple has been far more restrained in this area than its rivals.
• What’s next?
Demand for AI keeps growing, but investors are paying closer attention to the cost of that growth. The next earnings from tech giants will show how quickly their investments turn into profit.
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