Overview
- A rapid selloff on Thursday erased roughly $2.5 trillion to $3 trillion in market value as the Nasdaq fell sharply and Nvidia declined about 8–9%, extending a mult-week slide.
- Markets moved after Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress, creating new uncertainty about tighter oversight and local limits on data‑center permits that fuel demand for AI hardware.
- Leverage and margin‑call selling by hedge funds and other borrowers amplified the drop, forcing further stock sales and spreading losses from the US to Asian and European markets.
- The rout produced large paper losses for major tech founders and suppliers, with reports that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang lost about $15 billion in a day and Elon Musk lost roughly $113 billion over two days.
- Analysts are split on the outlook: some call the reaction overdone and expect AI capital spending to resume, while others warn of near‑term capex slowdowns; upcoming CPI data and tech earnings will be key signals to watch.