Tech stocks tumble 2.1% as AI spending jitters return

On Thursday, the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.1%, erasing hundreds of billions of dollars in market capitalization across major technology stocks. The decline was driven by two overlapping concerns: a resurgence of oil-price anxiety and renewed skepticism about artificial intelligence spending by the largest cloud providers. Oil prices settled above $100 a barrel for the first time in two months, driven by escalating tensions in Iran—a geopolitical development that had previously generated market complacency but which suddenly reasserted itself as a pricing force. Simultaneously, ongoing investor jitters about whether hyperscalers are spending excessively on AI infrastructure buildout intensified the selloff. The combination of these factors created a perfect storm for technology equities, which are most exposed to both energy-cost pressures and the scrutiny of artificial intelligence capital allocation decisions.

The sharp market correction reflects a collision of two distinct risk narratives. First, geopolitical escalation in Iran pushed oil prices above $100 a barrel—a level not seen in two months—injecting energy-cost uncertainty into growth outlooks. Second, and more directly damaging to the tech sector itself, investor anxiety over hyperscaler capital allocation has resurfaced. The market has long wrestled with whether the trillions being deployed into AI infrastructure buildout—data centers, chips, computational capacity—will generate commensurate returns or instead compress margins and waste shareholder capital. Thursday's selloff suggests that this skepticism, which had been dormant, is back at the forefront of trading decisions. The $889 billion（約140兆円） in erased market cap signals that even the largest technology firms are not immune to a pullback when growth assumptions are questioned.

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