Nasdaq 100 sheds record $2.3 trillion as chip rout deepens

The sell-off marks a sharp reversal for AI-chip stocks, which had been among the market's strongest performers. Thursday's session erased a record $2.3 trillion from the Nasdaq 100, with the Philadelphia semiconductor index falling 12% — a scale of one-day decline that underscores how concentrated investor exposure to AI hardware has become.

The immediate trigger was the midterm election outcome, which investors read as a threat to AI data-center buildouts. Voters passed data-center restrictions in 40 of 41 local ballot measures across 10 states, a signal that local opposition to large-scale computing facilities is gaining political force. That matters because the AI-chip rally has rested on expectations of continued data-center expansion.

Nvidia's roughly $450 billion single-day loss illustrates how much of the market's AI premium sits in a handful of names. With AMD, Micron and Applied Materials also posting double-digit losses, the rout was broad across the semiconductor supply chain rather than confined to one segment.