Those losses dragged the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lower. The index had fallen by more than 5% at one point in early trading.
Fears that vast sums poured into AI infrastructure may not deliver the returns investors have been banking on are now colliding with the prospect of a sharp slowdown in data centre building.
The market reacted to the prospect of tougher scrutiny of data centre construction and the AI industry after Democrat wins in key data centre states, including Texas.
Alongside the immediate impact of the midterms, some investors have become concerned that AI shares could be in a bubble due a correction.
Following the election, some have acknowledged they need to improve communication around data centres and the benefits of AI.
“A lot of our shift over the course of this year has really been to realise that from San Francisco trying to build infrastructure in Texas, Georgia, and other places, you can’t just tweet and say: ‘This is going to be good.’ You need to be in those communities,” Brockman said at the WSJ Tech conference in Napa, California, on Wednesday evening.
OpenAI president and co-founder Greg Brockman said he believed everyone had been surprised by the reaction to data centres, and that more work was needed to ensure communities were on board. Some tech leaders have said they were caught off guard by the backlash against data centres in the midterms.