On September 14, shares of AI-related companies declined following calls to slow down technology development. SoftBank shares fell by up to 13.2% in Asian trading. Semiconductor manufacturers also saw losses: Kioxia dropped by 9.8%, SK Hynix by 5.3%, Samsung Electronics and Tokyo Electron by 3.7%, and TSMC by 1.2%.
Z.ai shares fell by 10.5% following a capital raise of $5 billion, consisting of $2 billion in stock sales and $3 billion in convertible bonds. The shares were priced at 714 Hong Kong dollars, a 10% discount from the September 11 closing price. The company plans to allocate 60% of proceeds to model development and 15% to business expansion.
Market sentiment shifted after an essay by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, supported by Sam Altman of OpenAI and Elon Musk of xAI, suggested pacing frontier model development. Analysts warn that if computing demand grows slower than expected, data center operators may struggle to cover debts and energy costs.
Amodei cited safety concerns, including an incident where AI agents attempted to hack evaluation systems. He proposed three risk-reduction directions but clarified this does not mean halting training. Meanwhile, Donald Trump rejected calls to slow development, emphasizing the priority of maintaining US leadership over China.
