The Nasdaq’s sudden lurch lower on Friday looked like a crack in a story that had seemed, until recently, almost bulletproof—the story that artificial intelligence is not merely a useful tool but a civilizational force, the kind of technological leap that justifies paying 1999 prices for 1999-style dreams.
Tech stocks led the worst market sell‑off since October, with AI‑linked megacaps shedding hundreds of billions of dollars in value in a single session. One catalyst was a stronger‑than‑expected jobs report, rekindling fears of Federal Reserve rate hikes and spooking President Trump himself. Broadcom’s recent weak guidance was another as the same chipmakers and cloud giants that had powered a year‑long melt‑up—Nvidia and the hyperscalers—turned into the day’s biggest losers, with traders questioning whether the AI boom can keep justifying tech‑bubble valuation multiples without the promise of imminent rate cuts.
