Nasdaq falls 2.2% as investors demand AI profit proof

What happened

The Nasdaq Composite fell 2.2% on Tuesday, marking a second straight day of losses. Semiconductor and cloud companies including Nvidia (down 4.2%), Broadcom (down 3.1%), Meta Platforms, and Microsoft have all entered bear market territory—a 20% drop from their recent peaks. SpaceX shares fell after the company's June IPO sent them above $200; they have since retreated amid concerns about whether the company can justify its valuation exceeding $2 trillion（約320兆円）.

Why it matters

For months, Wall Street bet heavily that AI investments would drive faster revenue growth and higher profits. But new data from the Bank of America Institute shows only about 3% of its customers—mostly those with more than $125,000 in annual income—pay for AI services, spending a median of $20 per month. Investors are now demanding concrete evidence that the enormous spending on AI will translate into actual returns, rather than accepting the technology's potential on faith alone.

What to watch

The number of households paying for AI services jumped 38% since 2024, and Bank of America Global Research expects the U.S. market could scale to $75 billion（約12兆円） annually as AI becomes embedded across productivity, search, entertainment, and personal assistant use cases. At the same time, anxiety over potential Federal Reserve rate hikes later in 2026 is also weighing on the market, with traders betting on a nearly 90% chance of at least one rate increase by year-end.