The stock market plunge
According to the South China Morning Post's Tech section, the quarterly results just released did not shield Intel, Amazon and Alphabet, Google's parent company, from a heavy wave of selling on Wall Street. The figures are clear: Intel lost about 23% in Thursday's extended trading, Amazon fell 7.3%, while Alphabet fell 12.6% in the regular session, recording the worst day in its history. The move dragged the Nasdaq Composite lower, down 1.4%, with a further slight decline after the close.
The AI contradiction
The paradox highlighted by the source is that AI-related revenue is growing strongly but is not enough to offset investors' concerns. The market is looking above all at two elements: the increase in capital expenditure and the delay in the economic return on these investments. The quarterly reports have therefore exposed what the newspaper calls the precarious economics of the AI boom.
Large-scale cloud companies are racing to build advanced computing capacity before these assets generate enough cash to finance the next wave of infrastructure. It is a dynamic that weighs on the financials and that analysts seem to be assessing with growing caution, as shown by the selling concentrated in the three stocks.
What remains to be understood
The available material does not clarify whether the decline reflects a judgment on the sustainability of the business model or a temporary reaction to disappointing quarterly results. It does not indicate the details of the results, future guidance or statements from company leaders, elements that would be necessary to assess how the situation evolves. The immediate picture remains confirmed: a bad day on the stock market for three major technology names, with double-digit losses for Alphabet and Intel and an impact on the Nasdaq index.
The source also does not specify whether the losses were recovered in subsequent sessions or what measures the companies intend to adopt to reassure investors. A comparison of the data shows that the reaction was more severe for Alphabet, whose 12.6% decline is described as its worst ever, while Amazon kept losses to 7.3% and Intel recorded the largest drop, about 23%, but in after-hours trading.
