AI slowdown fears knock global tech shares

Technology shares fell around the world after prominent AI figures called for a slower pace of development, unsettling investors who have treated ever-faster AI progress as the basis for years of heavy spending on chips, data centers and software. The selling hit companies most exposed to that build-out, including Nvidia, other chipmakers and Japan’s SoftBank, whose portfolio is closely tied to AI. A call to slow down is not the same as a halt in investment, but it raises an awkward question for richly valued tech stocks: what happens if the expected demand boom arrives later or grows less quickly than markets assumed? Higher oil prices and worries that interest rates could stay elevated added to the pressure.