AI stocks rise despite broader market downturn as spending fears ease

AI stocks staged a quiet comeback on September 15, shrugging off a brutal selloff the day before and climbing even as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq slipped further into the red. The rebound came just 24 hours after some of the biggest names in artificial intelligence spooked Wall Street by suggesting the industry should maybe, possibly, slow down a little. The S&P 500 closed down 0.48% on Tuesday while the Nasdaq fell 0.56%. But names like Qualcomm, AMD, and Marvell moved in the opposite direction, posting gains that defied the broader market’s sour mood. What triggered the panic, and why it faded The trouble started with an essay. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published a piece urging the AI industry to pump the brakes on developing frontier models, citing safety concerns that he argued deserved more serious attention. Sam Altman of OpenAI and Elon Musk echoed similar sentiments. On September 14, the Nasdaq Composite fell as much as 1.3% intraday before settling at a loss of roughly 0.56% to 0.6%. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index took it worse, dropping between 5% and 5.9% in a single session. Nvidia shed 3.4%. Micron lost between 5% and 6%. But by Tuesday, the panic started loo...