US tech stocks lose more than $2 trillion as investors weigh Democratic wins on AI
The Nasdaq Composite fell 5.5% on 5 November 2026, its worst day since April 2025, as chipmakers led a sell-off driven by fears that a Democratic Congress will slow the data-centre build-out behind the AI boom.
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US technology shares had their sharpest fall in more than 18 months on Thursday 5 November 2026. Investors were reacting to Democratic victories in the 3 November midterm elections and to the prospect of tighter rules on artificial intelligence and on the data centres that power it.
How this story was sourced.
4 sources from 4 organisations.
News organisations 4
Reports by other newsrooms. Where a story was carried by another outlet, both are named.
- NPR via KPBS Fears about an AI crackdown after midterms sparks a $2 trillion rout in tech stocks kpbs.org
- Fox Business Nasdaq tumbles 5%, Dow plunges more than 1,800 points foxbusiness.com
- Investopedia via Yahoo Finance Markets News, Nov. 5, 2026 finance.yahoo.com
- The Irish Times Tech stocks plunge on AI regulation fears irishtimes.com
The sources as the story lists them
The story so far. More on Markets, AI and Semiconductors.
- Wall Street has its worst day since April 2025 as chip stocks lead a post-election sell-off The Nasdaq Composite fell 5.5% on Thursday 5 November and entered a correction as AI and semiconductor shares tumbled, and the selling spread to Asian markets on Friday.
- Oil swings after US midterms as traders weigh Iran war and Hormuz disruption Brent crude fell 8.7% on 4 November on hopes the election result would speed an end to the war with Iran, then rose back towards $100 a barrel after new tanker attacks.
- AMD reports record $13.4bn quarter as data-centre sales nearly double AMD's revenue rose 45% in the third quarter of 2026 and it forecast about $17 billion for the fourth, but its shares fell 17% two days later in a broad chip sell-off.
- OpenAI releases GPT-6 Cyber to vetted security teams after rating it 'Critical' risk OpenAI's new model for finding and exploiting software flaws went to a small group of approved customers on 5 November 2026. The company says it found 81 previously unknown high-severity bugs in Firefox.
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