# Global stocks plunge as AI panic and US election uncertainty wipe out $3.2tn > Over $3.2tn was erased from the US stock market as investors fled AI and tech stocks after the midterm elections. Nvidia dropped more than 9% and Japan's Nikkei fell nearly 6% in a rout fueled by fears of Democrat-led regulatory slowdowns. - Type: AI news - Page: https://completeaitraining.com/news/global-stocks-plunge-as-ai-panic-and-us-election/ - Published: 2026-11-07 - Updated: 2026-11-06 - Author: Jeroen Erne - Jobs: Executives and strategy, Finance, Government, PR and communications, Real estate and construction - Reading time: 2 min More than $3.2tn was wiped off the US stock market on Thursday as investors fled AI and tech stocks following the midterm elections. The sell-off spread across Asia-Pacific markets Friday, with Japan's Nikkei dropping nearly 6% and South Korea's KOSPI falling 6.7% in a broad rout that has markets questioning the future of the AI investment boom. Memory chip makers led the declines. SanDisk fell 22%, while Micron and AMD each lost 17%. Nvidia, the chip giant that has become synonymous with the AI buildout, dropped more than 9% and led fallers on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which itself lost 1,833 points, or 3.44%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq slumped 5.5%. #### Democrat control raises regulatory fears Investors are pricing in a new reality where a Democrat-controlled Congress could slow the rollout of data centres and AI infrastructure. Kyle Rodda, senior financial market analyst at Capital.com, described it as a "brutal sell-off" driven by fears about what Democratic oversight means for tech regulation and the broader AI trade. Public opposition to data centres has been building, and Democrats have been more critical of the sector's energy demands and community impact. Christopher Forbes, head of Asia and Middle East at CMC Markets, called the market action "a bit of a disaster" and said the scale of the shift had caught clients off guard. "All night, all day - we had client margin calls, client complaints," he said. "It's basically a whole policy and six-year structural shift that says we're now going to pause, we're now going to cool AI, we're now going to cool data centres, approvals and equity capital markets." #### Earnings disappointment already weakening the trade The political shock arrived when the AI trade was already on unstable ground. Earnings season has underwhelmed, with Magnificent Seven results undershooting growth expectations and showing signs that the pace of AI spending is slowing. After months of warnings that AI valuations had detached from fundamentals, the election outcome gave investors a concrete reason to head for the exits. The sell-off was broad. Taiwan's TAIEX dropped 4.5%, and markets across the Asia-Pacific region traded deep in the red. The [AI Finance Leadership Courses](https://completeaitraining.com/learningpath/ai-for-vice-presidents-of-finance/) page tracks how financial executives are navigating these valuation shifts, but the immediate picture is one of forced selling and margin calls. Forbes noted that clients "were long index, long stocks, and they all got carried out." #### Why this matters for finance and strategy executives The speed of the reversal changes the capital allocation conversation. A structural policy shift that cools AI investment, data centre approvals, and equity capital markets means assumptions about AI-driven growth need to be stress-tested. For executives who have been building budgets around AI infrastructure spend, the question is no longer about growth rates but about whether the funding environment itself has changed. The US jobs report due Friday afternoon will provide the next signal on whether this is a sector rotation or something broader. --- This is the Markdown form of https://completeaitraining.com/news/global-stocks-plunge-as-ai-panic-and-us-election/. The whole site is mapped at https://completeaitraining.com/llms.txt.