Wall Street and official global bourses closed in the red on Friday, gripped by a wave of large-scale panic selling in the technology sector. The fall was triggered by an exclusive New York Times report that artificial intelligence giant OpenAI is now planning to postpone its IPO plans until next year due to SpaceX's lackluster post-IPO performance and extreme volatility in the digital sector in 2026.
The news of the delay has raised serious concerns about the sustainability of corporate capital injections into the exorbitant operating costs of AI data centers. A strategic note from JPMorgan traders confirmed that OpenAI's delay in raising additional cash from the public market risks forcing the industry to reduce or slow down server infrastructure orders, thus affecting the technology giant's earnings forecasts.
The impact of the report immediately paralyzed shares of memory chip and semiconductor manufacturers in the US, with Micron Technology shares plunging 5%, while Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Intel fell 4% and 3% respectively. Meanwhile, cloud software giant Oracle also slipped more than 1% on concerns that it could cancel large-scale computing infrastructure lease contracts during the second quarter.
Short-selling pressure was reportedly much higher in Asian markets on Friday. Conglomerate SoftBank Group, which is OpenAI's largest single investor, led the decline, plunging more than 12%. South Korea's Kospi index fell 5.81% to 8,411.21, while Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 4.15%.
Julia Hermann, global market strategist at New York Life Investment Management, warned that the 2026 tech equity landscape led by semiconductors is far more fragile and volatile than the heyday of the Magnificent Seven stocks a few years ago, especially when it comes alongside a drastic shift in the Fed's interest rate outlook to a rate hike.
