AI Trade Stumbles as CEOs Talk Model Slowdown

AI Trade Stumbles as CEOs Talk Model Slowdown

Mon, September 14, 2026 at 5:40 PM GMT+3 2 min read

Key Takeaways

• AI-related hardware stocks, including Nvidia and AMD, fell as leaders called for slower AI development.

• Cybersecurity and software stocks like Palo Alto Networks and Adobe gained on hopes of benefiting from an AI pause.

• Broader markets declined, with the Nasdaq Composite leading losses amid concerns over AI safety and regulation.

Most of the AI trade is hitting the brakes this morning.

Shares of hardware makers like Nvidia (NVDA), Marvell (MRVL), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Intel (INTC) are falling early Monday after several prominent AI leaders over the weekend called to slow development of new models. While that may or may not happen, investors fretted that it could mean a pullback in spending on chips.

Shares of some tech companies seen as potentially benefiting from a development pause rose. That included cybersecurity and software firms that investors have feared could be disrupted by AI products. Palo Alto Networks (PANW), CrowdStrike (CRWD), Salesforce (CRM), and Adobe (ADBE) were all gaining recently.

Stocks broadly retreated after the open, with the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite leading the major U.S. indexes lower.

Dario Amodei, CEO of Claude maker Anthropic, over the weekend called on his company and its rivals to slow development to think more seriously about the models' safety implications. His post followed comments from a former OpenAI and Anthropic employee last week who posted on social media about his decision to resign over worries that the latest AI models are not being developed safely.

"Not building the technology deprives humanity of benefits or simply places AI in the hands of authoritarian powers, while building it too fast is reckless," Amodei wrote.

SpaceX (SPCX) CEO Elon Musk said on social media that Amodei's post is correct, while OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in an interview with Fortune over the weekend said the ChatGPT maker may not go public this year due to safety concerns. Altman also outlined OpenAI's views on regulation of AI and ways AI development could spin out of control in Sunday night social media posts.

Cybersecurity stocks have been boosted in recent months by recent developments with AI models, as a few high-profile hacking incidents have spurred hopes that companies will prioritize spending to protect their data.

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