AI-linked stocks dropped sharply across Asia on Monday after the CEOs of Anthropic, OpenAI, and xAI warned that the pace of advanced AI development must slow to address threats to humanity. Nasdaq e-mini futures fell 1.3% during Asian trade, while shares in SoftBank, a major OpenAI investor, tumbled as much as 13.2% in Japan.
Weekend warnings trigger sell-off
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published a lengthy essay on X on Saturday calling on AI companies to slow the rate at which they advance model capabilities. He wrote that in six to 12 months, AI agents "could be capable of taking over the entire internet potentially causing hundreds of billions of dollars in damage." Both Elon Musk, who runs xAI, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said they agree with Amodei.
Altman also said OpenAI would not proceed with an IPO this year, citing safety concerns. The warnings followed an Anthropic threat intelligence report released Thursday that detailed how several actors had used its Claude AI models for weapons development, cyber operations, surveillance, and fraud.
Chipmakers and AI firms hit across the region
In Japan, memory chipmaker Kioxia plunged 9.8% initially, while Tokyo Electron fell 3.7%. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company slipped 1.2% in Taipei. South Korea's SK Hynix slid 5.3% and Samsung Electronics fell 3.7%.
In Hong Kong, Zhongji Innolight shed as much as 6.7%, while Minimax dropped as much as 7.8%. Shares of Z.ai, the developer of the GLM AI series, tumbled as much as 10.5% after making a discounted share placement. In Shanghai, memory chipmaker CXMT dropped as much as 3.6%, while Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation fell 2.6%.
Takayuki Miyajima, senior economist at Sony Financial Group, said in a note that "selling pressure is likely to hit AI and semiconductor-related stocks in Tokyo following a series of weekend comments calling for a slowdown in the pace of AI development."
Growing alarm over AI risks
Concerns about potential harm from AI intensified when Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned, stating that the "people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade." Altman said in an interview that risks of human extinction posed by AI were "unacceptable."
The U.S. and Chinese governments are expected to hold AI safety talks as part of bilateral discussions this month, according to two people briefed on the plans. China's state-backed Global Times criticized the Anthropic essay in an editorial, calling it a "Cold War playbook" intended to curb the country's technological development.
Some investors dismissed the warnings. Michael Burry, known for his prescient bets against the U.S. housing market before the 2008 financial crisis, said in a message on X the warnings were "hype and puffery" and "cover for real uncontrollable slowing growth."
Valuation concerns and capital spending questions
Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxo Bank in Singapore, said the warnings could still weigh on stocks. "Their valuations assume both strong demand and a relentless pace of technological progress," she said. "When expectations are this high, even a possible delay can trigger profit-taking."
Sebastien Mallet, portfolio manager at T. Rowe Price in London, pointed to a larger question around who would ultimately earn returns on the capital being spent building new AI capacity. "There is little doubt that AI will change the world," he said. "But that does not necessarily mean every investment being made today will generate an attractive return."
AI-related trades have powered much of the gains in global equities since OpenAI released ChatGPT in 2022. More recently, cyberattacks by rogue AI agents and public discontent with data center construction have raised opposition to the industry's development. For professionals working with Generative AI and LLM systems, the weekend's events signal that the leading labs are now publicly acknowledging risks they previously discussed mainly in private.
Why this matters for IT and development professionals
When the CEOs of the three most advanced AI labs simultaneously call for a development slowdown, project timelines and tooling roadmaps across the industry face uncertainty. Teams building on top of these models should track whether safety commitments translate into slower model releases, changed API access policies, or new compliance requirements. The sell-off also reflects market skepticism about whether current infrastructure spending levels are sustainable - a dynamic that could affect hiring, budgets, and procurement decisions throughout the AI for IT & Development ecosystem.
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