The mood was also dampened by a fresh lift in oil prices, extending Thursday's gains after crude had plunged on the midterm results amid hopes for an end to the Iran war.
The midterm outcome compounded already heightened fears about the hundreds of billions of dollars firms had poured into the sector and when they would see a return. A recent spike in borrowing costs also fuelled concerns about their financial position.
Investors had already been questioning how quickly the vast capital committed to computing capacity would pay off. Election pledges to curb data-centre development added a policy overlay to those doubts.
The combination of political risk to infrastructure spending, higher financing costs and a broader risk-off tone left little support under technology shares that had led the earlier rally.
Asian markets absorbed the first wave of selling as the uncertainty spread from US politics to a sector that had been central to the previous advance.
The session left markets searching for a floor after a sharp reversal in the same names that had powered records earlier in the year.
Data centres have faced broad opposition from US voters across the political spectrum. Many winning candidates pledged to put the brakes on such projects.
Oil's rebound after the midterm-driven drop added another headwind for risk assets even as diplomacy around Iran remained in focus.
Traders kept an eye on that crisis after US and Iranian leaders had indicated progress earlier in the week.
Market commentary captured the anxiety. One remark said the fear was a total momentum unwind as Democrats paced the frontier and kiboshed data-centre buildout. Another said the selloff looked totally overdone but that the sell-everything nature of the market meant traders needed to look for some stability first.