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United States and European markets saw sharp declines in semiconductor shares after reports that Anthropic has begun early-stage development of its own artificial intelligence chips and entered talks with Samsung Electronics about potential manufacturing using its 2-nanometer process and advanced packaging. Anthropic has not yet determined the processor’s precise use case, performance targets, or how the chip will be integrated into servers, and the company said Amazon’s Trainium chips, Google’s TPUs, and Nvidia’s GPUs will remain core components of its computing strategy. The move follows OpenAI’s release last month of its first custom AI chip, developed in partnership with Broadcom, as major AI developers seek to diversify supply and improve computing efficiency. New York trading on Thursday, July 2, saw a broad sell-off in semiconductor and related technology stocks, with the Nasdaq 100 falling 1.3% and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropping 4.3%, extending the index’s two-day decline to 12% and pulling the Nasdaq 100 down nearly 2% over that period. SanDisk shares plunged more than 14% in a single day and are now down 27% from their recent peak, while Western Digital fell 7.5%, Micron 4.3%, AMD 3.9%, Intel 2.9%, and Nvidia 1.3%. Semiconductor equipment and design names also slid, including Teradyne, which dropped about 13.6%, KLA about 11.5%, Marvell Technology 9.84%, Arm 6.58%, Broadcom 2.41%, and TSMC’s ADR 2.27%. European chip-related stocks retreated as well, with ASML, ASM International, BE Semiconductor Industries, and Aixtron each losing more than 3%, and Nokia dropping 4.1%, amid growing market concerns about the durability of AI-driven chip scarcity that has supported valuations for the past two years.

By Lauren Mitchell | JQJO News