MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Big Tech loses a trillion dollars in a day after the Democratic win

Trump blamed the opposition. “The Stock Market suffered one of the Worst Days in History based on the results of the Election. Remember, it wasn’t Republicans,” he wrote on social media

Shares in major technology companies plunged on Wall Street on Thursday and in Asian markets on Friday, in a sell-off that wiped hundreds of billions of dollars of market value, on fears that the Democratic victory in the US midterm elections will slow the expansion of data centres and artificial intelligence. The so-called magnificent seven, including Apple, Nvidia and Tesla, together lost a trillion dollars in a single session, according to the BBC.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq closed down more than 5.5%, losing an estimated US$2.5 trillion in market value, according to Dow Jones data, and entered what analysts call correction territory, a fall of at least 10% from its recent high. The S&P 500 fell 4.4% and the Dow Jones more than 3.4%, their worst days since 2025. Nvidia dropped more than 9%, losing more than US$400 billion; AMD and Micron fell more than 17%, and Intel 10.3%. Tesla and SpaceX, the companies of Elon Musk, who spent heavily backing Republican candidates, together lost more than US$300 billion.

The sell-off spread to Asia on Friday. Seoul’s Kospi index plunged more than 8.5%, triggering a temporary trading halt; Japan’s Nikkei fell 6% and Taiwan’s Taiex more than 8.3%. Chipmakers suffered the steepest losses: SK Hynix lost more than 11.5%, Samsung nearly 10% and Taiwan’s TSMC about 8.5%.

Democratic candidates across the country campaigned to curb the spread of data centres, criticised for their water and electricity consumption and their impact on local bills, and dozens of local ballot measures sought to restrict them. Texas Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa pledged a moratorium on their construction. “Fresh panic over the AI trade has hit Wall Street hard,” said Susannah Streeter of Wealth Club, for whom doubts about the returns on those investments “are now colliding with the prospect of a sharp slowdown in data centre construction”. “There is a difference between supporting AI development and allowing infrastructure to expand at any cost or pace,” said Charu Chanana of Saxo.

President Donald Trump blamed the opposition. “The Stock Market suffered one of the Worst Days in History based on the results of the Election. Remember, it wasn’t Republicans,” he wrote on social media. Senator Bernie Sanders, by contrast, called for a “national data center moratorium”. OpenAI president Greg Brockman admitted the backlash had surprised the industry: “You can’t just tweet and say: ‘This is going to be good.’ You need to be in those communities.”