On September 14, Nvidia shares fell by approximately 3.7% at the market open, approaching the 50-day moving average of $212–213. This decline followed an essay by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who proposed a pause in the development of advanced AI models to prioritize safety research. Sam Altman of OpenAI and Elon Musk expressed support for this initiative.
The broader market reacted to the news, with Nasdaq 100 futures dropping by 1.4–1.5%. Stocks linked to the AI sector experienced declines ranging from 3% to 6%, impacting companies such as Intel, AMD, and Micron. Micron is noted for its high-bandwidth memory supply, while AMD faces uncertainty regarding its market share in AI accelerators.
Despite the market sentiment, Nvidia reports an order backlog valued in the trillions of dollars, with demand exceeding current production capacity. Major cloud providers, including Microsoft and Amazon, have not canceled or renegotiated existing GPU orders. Nvidia’s data center revenue has maintained triple-digit year-over-year growth for several quarters.
Industry analysts suggest that a shift toward safety research may not necessarily reduce demand for computing power. Tasks such as red-teaming and alignment testing require significant GPU resources, potentially redirecting rather than eliminating the need for hardware. Investors are currently monitoring the $212–213 support level for Nvidia stock.
