On September 14, shares of companies tied to artificial intelligence took a hit in Asian trading after Sam Altman and Dario Amodei called for a slowdown in AI development. The sell-off hit both investors in the AI ecosystem and chip manufacturers hard.

Asian Semiconductor Stocks Under Pressure

Early in the session, SoftBank—one of OpenAI’s backers—fell as much as 13.2%. Chipmakers followed: Kioxia dropped 9.8%, SK Hynix slid 5.3%, Samsung Electronics and Tokyo Electron were down 3.7%, and TSMC slipped 1.2%. The move was broad across the sector, showing a quick market rethink of risks around the pace of AI progress.

Z.ai Tanks After New Share Offering

Shares of GLM model developer Z.ai plunged 10.5%. On top of the sector-wide selloff, the drop followed a discounted new share offering. The company announced its fundraising on September 13, which added more pressure on the stock.

What Triggered the Drop

Traders reacted fast to talk of slowing the AI race: the market priced in the risk of a more cautious rollout of new tech—and a possible drop in demand for chips and supporting infrastructure. The biggest losses hit stocks most exposed to the AI narrative and those with recent share offerings.