Aftermath of the US midterm elections, the value of tech stocks has plummeted around the world amid fears of a slowdown in AI development
It comes after the US midterm elections, won by the Democrats, where data centres became a key issue for voters – BBC Verify looks at polling data
US President Donald Trump has restated his support for the AI sector in a social media post, saying only “foolish leadership” would “say no to the riches they bring”
The US president has this morning criticised “foolish leadership” that would scale back AI development – after successful Democrats including Texas’s Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa campaigned with promises to halt construction of data centres in her state.
“As President, I am 100% in favor of Super Intelligence (SI), and will work with the many States in the U.S. that want to become RICH by having them. They are GOLD, and only foolish leadership will say “NO” to the riches they bring! President DJT”.
“Super intelligence” is the phrase the president uses when referring to artificial intelligence’.
Just over a month before the midterms, Trump insisted the term artificial intelligence (AI) makes the technology “sound fake” and instead wants it to be called “super intelligence” (SI).
“From this point forward, all of United States’ documents, and hopefully the world’s, will be changed to use the more accurate term ‘super’ as opposed to ‘artificial’. So it’s ‘super intelligence’,” Trump said in remarks to the United Nations General Assembly.
Trump has also called fears around the safety of AI a “hoax” after campaigners called for more guardrails to be placed on leading AI firms.
After arguing the only safeguards required are a “strong and smart” president, Trump wrote in September: “There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China. WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS!”
Tech bosses and investors have dominated the AI narrative for so long – could voters now prove to be the pin that bursts the bubble, asks our technology and AI editor
The Nasdaq index, of the largest tech firms listed in the US, was down by more than 5.5% on Thursday; Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 6.3% earlier; and the UK’s FTSE 100 index has fallen by around 2.2%
Despite its dramatic drop, Nasdaq is still higher now than it was last year – all eyes will be on the US markets when they reopen at 09:30 ET / 14:30 GMT
Tudor Brown, a UK tech founder, tells the BBC there were “jitters” around “infinite AI growth” before the midterms. He says there’s “a lot of money still being made in these companies and we’ll start to see it coming back a bit”
