News from China upset U.S. markets Monday and disrupted the frenzy that had built up around artificial intelligence.
A company called DeepSeek said it had developed a large language model that can compete with U.S. AI giants but at a fraction of the cost. DeepSeek had already hit the top of the chart for free apps on Apple’s App Store by Monday morning, and analysts said such a feat would be particularly impressive given how the U.S. government has restricted Chinese access to top AI chips.
Nvidia, Broadcom and Google’s parent company Alphabet were among the high-flying stocks that fell to earth, at least for now. The noise in the tech sector obscured some solid gains in other parts of the market.
Here’s a look at DeepSeek’s impact on the financial markets, by the numbers:
5.6%
Monday’s decline in the S&P 500 tech sector, the biggest drop in the index since September 2020. Nvidia was one of eight stocks in the tech sector to post double-digit losses on the day. The decline for the index would have been worse if not for a gain of more than 3% in shares of Apple.
$590 billion
The approximate decline in Nvidia’s market value. That decline is more than the combined market value of home improvement giants Home Depot and Lowe’s. Nvidia still carries a market value of about $2.9 trillion.
$27.6 billion
The drop in Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s net worth after the selloff, according to Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list. Ellison’s net worth jumped last week after President Donald Trump said a new partnership formed by OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank would spend up to $500 billion for infrastructure tied to AI. Forbes says Ellison is still worth $200 billion. Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, saw his net worth drop $20.8 billion to $103.6 billion.
28.3%
The decline in Vistra Corp., the biggest drop for any stock in the S&P 500. Vistra isn’t a tech company — it’s an independent power producer. Its shares soared last year on expectations that the build out of AI infrastructure in the US. will require enormous amounts of power.
351
The number of stocks in the S&P 500 that actually rose Monday. That the index dropped sharply on a day when better than three-fifths of its component stocks rose demonstrates the outsized influence of tech stocks such as Nvidia. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which has much less of an emphasis on tech than the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, closed with a modest gain.
Originally Published:
