Tech stocks go into free fall as it dawns on traders that AI has the ability to cut revenues across the board

Until very recently, the narrative around AI was that the $600 billion of annual corporate capital expenditure (“capex”) fuelling it was good for stocks in the short term. The companies receiving that money as new revenue (AI model makers, data center constructors, and the energy companies supplying them) would be the immediate beneficiaries. The efficiencies delivered by AI would be good for tech and non-tech companies alike. The Big Tech hyperscalers have always argued that the demand from their...