Stocks of companies linked to artificial intelligence infrastructure experienced significant declines during Tuesday's pre-market trading. This movement followed reports that OpenAI failed to meet its internal growth expectations, raising fresh concerns about the sustainability of spending levels across the entire AI sector.
Shares of Oracle dropped approximately 7.5% in pre-market trading. The company has a five-year, $300 billion partnership with OpenAI to supply computational power for its AI operations.
Chip manufacturers, including NVIDIA, Broadcom, and Advanced Micro Devices, saw their stock prices fall between 2% and 5%.
Qualcomm's shares declined by 3.5%. This drop came after a minor increase on Monday, which was driven by news of its collaboration with OpenAI to develop smartphone chips related to the latter's hardware ambitions. The leveraged new cloud computing stock CoreWeave also fell by 7%.
In Asia, SoftBank Group, one of OpenAI's largest investors, saw its stock plunge by approximately 10%.
According to reports, OpenAI recently did not achieve its own user growth and revenue targets. This shortfall has sparked internal concerns about the company's ability to keep pace with the substantial financial commitments required for building data centers and securing long-term computing capacity.
The reports indicate that Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar has cautioned colleagues that if revenue growth does not accelerate, the company might face difficulties in funding its computational agreements in the future.
Adam Crisafulli, a trader at Vital Knowledge, commented in a morning report that the news "raises questions about the company's ability to fulfill its massive infrastructure obligations."
The report has amplified existing market worries that the stock prices of businesses involved in the AI construction boom—from data center operators to chip designers—may have already priced in growth expectations. This growth could be difficult to sustain if demand from key clients like OpenAI cools.
