Chip Stocks Hit by Data-Center, AI Regulation Fears -- WSJ

By Robbie Whelan

Nvidia isn't the only chipmaker feeling a post-midterms chill. Chips stocks took a bath Thursday as the market digested a wave of election wins by critics of AI and data centers. Qualcomm's weak earnings report contributed to the carnage.

Nvidia's biggest one-day drop since March of 2025-its shares fell 8.6% to $182.94 by early afternoon-was enough to erase all its year-to-date gains. Rival Advanced Micro Devices, fresh off an impressive earnings report this week, snapped a two-day winning streak, falling 15% to $415.63.

Other big names in the chips space, including Broadcom (-8.7%), Micron (-15%), Qualcomm (-10%) and Intel (-7%) saw big declines as well. Marvell and Lumentum, two other companies that design chips and network connectivity hardware and had announced an $80 billion merger this week, were slammed by double-digit percentage declines. Both companies have lost about half their market values in the past month.

Behind the rout is a growing, two-pronged sense of anxiety about the future of AI, incorporating both fears that elected leaders or ballot measures will put new limits on building data centers, and the worry that new regulations will force AI developers to slow the pace of model training, lessening their demand for new chips.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 05, 2026 13:52 ET (18:52 GMT)