Wall Street sees biggest market cap drops ever after midterm bloodbath for GOP

S&P 500 firms shed $2.9 million in market value and Nasdaq companies lost $2.5 trillion – both single-day records – on Thursday as investors panicked over a looming data-center reckoning in the wake of Democrats’ midterm sweep.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 1,833 points, or 3.44%, completely wiping out its post-election rally as industry leaders grew convinced the new Congress will slow the pace of projects – potentially tanking revenue at top AI labs. 

The Magnificent 7 stocks — Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla — lost nearly $1.04 trillion total Thursday. 

Jensen Huang’s chipmaker Nvidia shed a jaw-dropping $374 billion. Tesla and Microsoft were worth $161 billion and $117 billion less, respectively, by the end of the day. 

Apple, Meta, Amazon and Alphabet saw their market values fall by roughly $59 billion, $58 billion, $55 billion and $42 billion, respectively. 

Broadcom and Nvidia fell 10% and 9%, respectively. Qualcomm slumped 9% after it issued a weak forecast due to rising costs, even after its earnings beat Wall Street estimates. Software giant Oracle fell 7%. 

The iShares Semiconductor ETF – a leading AI chip fund – plummeted more than 12% for its worst day since March 2020 during the pandemic. 

“Neocloud” firms – which buy AI compute and lease it to other companies – like CoreWeave and Nebius plunged 10% and 15%, respectively. Data-center operators like Iren and Applied Digital fell 17% and nearly 15%, respectively, while equipment maker GE Vernova dropped nearly 7.5%.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.