More than $2 trillion in market value was expected to be wiped from the Nasdaq 100 during October, Reuters reported on October 30, as doubts about the return on artificial-intelligence spending deepened. At the time of the report, the index had already dropped more than 5.8 percent for the month, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.9 percent on Friday alone, its largest one-day percentage decline since June 5.
The Nasdaq Composite closed at 25,437 on October 30, down 2.86 percent from the previous session, while the Nasdaq 100 fell 3.46 percent and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plunged 7.20 percent, according to market coverage of the session. Individual losses were steeper: Intel plummeted 28.58 percent, AMD fell 10.88 percent and Nvidia dropped 4.22 percent in the same session’s reporting.
Alphabet’s record fall set the tone
Alphabet’s fall set the mood a day earlier, with the Google parent dropping more than 12 percent, its worst day on record, wiping out about $500 billion in market value, according to Reuters-based coverage. Alphabet’s third-quarter capital expenditure came to $51.355 billion, up 114 percent from a year earlier, while free cash flow posted a deficit of $9.065 billion.
Amazon and Intel deepened the selloff after their quarterly results highlighted different financial pressures, with Amazon’s trailing-12-month free cash flow deteriorating to negative $42.4 billion and Intel guiding fourth-quarter revenue to $15-16 billion, below the roughly $17 billion the market expected, according to the coverage. Together, the two companies initially threatened approximately $300 billion in market capitalisation losses.
A month, not a day
The wipeout figure is a projected loss tied to October’s closing bell, not a finished tally at the time of reporting, and the final number depends on the last trading session. Even so, the scale matters: the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 together lost nearly $3.3 trillion across October, according to one summary, and the S&P 500 was on track to erase its gain for October despite setting an all-time high during the same month.
JPMorgan expects global AI capital expenditure to reach approximately $900 billion in 2026 and $5.5 trillion cumulatively by 2030, according to the coverage, while Morgan Stanley separately forecasts annual AI infrastructure spending exceeding $1 trillion next year. The market’s question is whether that spending path can be funded without repeatedly wiping out equity value along the way.
