Global stock markets mostly traded lower on Monday. Anthropic’s CEO had previously called for a slowdown in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) due to safety concerns. As a result, stocks related to AI saw declines, including investors in OpenAI such as SoftBank.
In early trading in Europe, the UK’s FTSE 100 index rose by 0.6% to 10,717.84 points, while France’s CAC 40 index dropped by 0.8% to 8,118 points, and Germany’s DAX index fell by 0.6% to 25,405 points.
On Monday, both the Shanghai Composite Index and the Shenzhen Component Index saw slight declines, with AI-related company stocks experiencing larger drops, including Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (-2.89%), Hikvision (-2.99%), and JCET Group (-5.72%).
Hong Kong stocks were mixed with the Hang Seng Index slightly rising. Chip stocks and major AI players saw collective declines, with companies like MediaTek, Landing.AI, and Hua Hong Semiconductor all falling, with Zhpfall declining by 9% and MINIMAX by over 6%.
South Korea’s Kospi index plunged by 3.3% to 6,684 points. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index also fell by 0.8% to 63,492 points.
SoftBank Group, a core investor in OpenAI, saw its stock price plummet by 10.7%. Prior to this, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, expressed support for Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei’s call to slow down AI development over the weekend to ensure safety.
In an interview published in Fortune magazine last Saturday, Altman stated that his AI company is currently focusing on security issues and will not conduct an initial public offering (IPO) this year.
Both OpenAI and Anthropic are currently private companies, but it is expected that both companies will go public and start trading in the coming months.
According to reports from the Associated Press, Dan Baker, a senior analyst at investment research firm Morningstar, stated that SoftBank’s stock decline “may reflect regulatory concerns or a slowdown in AI development to avoid the worst-case scenarios discussed by Anthropic and OpenAI.” He also mentioned that “if there are further cases of uncontrolled AI models in the new generation, it could further impede the development of the AI industry.”
Other AI-related stocks also saw declines on Monday. South Korean memory chip giant SK Hynix dropped by 6.4%; Samsung Electronics fell by 4.1%; Japan’s chip equipment manufacturer Tokyo Electron decreased by 1%; and Japan’s memory chip maker Kioxia Holdings plummeted by 6.4%.
Taiwan’s Taiex index dropped by 0.7%. Taiwan’s leading AI chip manufacturer, TSMC, experienced a decline of 1.2% in its stock price.