AI bubble concerns sweep the globe! SoftBank's market value evaporates over $50 billion in a single week, while tech stocks collectively "cool down".

The stock price of Japan's Softbank Group resumed its decline on Friday, primarily due to investors' renewed caution about the high valuations in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector, leading to a collective drop in related stocks. As a major investor in AI infrastructure, semiconductors, and applications, Softbank saw its stock price in Tokyo fall by over 8%. Prior to this, Softbank's stock price plummeted by 10% on Wednesday, marking its worst single-day performance since April, followed by a slight rebound of nearly 3% on Thursday. If the decline on Friday remains unchanged, the group's market value will shrink by approximately $53 billion this week. "The decline in Softbank's stock price is because many investors see it as the only alternative investment target to the public listing of OpenAI," said David Gibson, senior research analyst at MST Financial. He added that this pullback reflects the market's growing caution towards the AI industry, with investors gradually realizing that most of OpenAI's collaborations are still in the early stages and have not yet materialized, leading to uncertainty about the financial outlook. Reportedly, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has been in discussions with the US government about federal loan guarantee programs to encourage chip factory construction. Previously, the company's CFO expressed a desire to receive federal chip financing support. Other technology stocks in Japan also declined. Semiconductor testing equipment manufacturer Advantest fell by over 6%, chipmaker Renesas Electronics dropped by nearly 4%, and chip manufacturing equipment company Tokyo Electron fell by about 1.5%. Softbank Group's British chip design company Arm (ARM.US) holds a key position in the global mobile and AI processor market, with its stock listed on Nasdaq falling by 1.21% overnight. The share price of the world's largest chip foundry, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR, also fell by 0.6%. Furthermore, NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA.US) supplier SK Hynix fell by over 1%, and South Korean storage chip competitor Samsung Electronics fell by 0.5%. The weakness in Asian tech stocks was also affected by the overnight decline in US stocks related to AI concepts. Despite strong quarterly performance, Qualcomm (QCOM.US) saw a nearly 4% drop in its stock price due to warnings of potential loss of future Apple Inc. (AAPL.US) business. On Wednesday, the previously strong performing AMD (AMD.US) fell by 7%, while Palantir (PLTR.US) and Oracle Corporation (ORCL.US) each fell by approximately 7% and 3%, respectively. NVIDIA Corporation and Meta Platforms (META.US) also closed lower. The market excitement caused by the AI craze has raised concerns about the formation of a technology bubble. Some experts point out that the current valuations of AI companies are starting to resemble the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s, with stock prices far exceeding actual profit expectations. Nuveen global investment strategist Laura Cooper said that the economic impact of AI is undeniable, but market fluctuations are inevitable. "But it is too early to claim that a bubble is forming. Today's AI capital expenditures are mainly borne by cash-rich, strong balance sheet companies, rather than cheap credit or speculative behavior," she noted. "The bigger risk is not a bubble bursting, but valuation fatigue - investors becoming tired of paying increasingly high premiums for AI returns that are not materializing promptly."