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Nasdaq Suffers Worst Month Since March 2025 as Intel and Reddit Lead AI Selloff

October ended with a reckoning for the AI trade: the Nasdaq’s worst month since March 2025, a near-30% fall for Intel, and hyperscalers’ spending under open revolt.

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Highlights

  • The Nasdaq 100 fell 3.5% on Friday, putting it on the brink of correction, in its worst month since March 2025
  • Intel and Reddit both fell about 29%; AI chip beneficiary SanDisk dropped 13%
  • The Nasdaq Composite is down 7.8% from its closing high after October’s rout
  • Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and Alphabet have been responsible for more than a third of all S&P 500 capital spending over the past 12 months, Capital Economics said
  • Gold fell 3.5% and silver 6% on Friday in a broad pullback from risk

October ends with a thud

October ended with a thud for the AI trade. A fresh test of this year’s technology rally sent the Nasdaq Composite on Friday to its biggest decline since June, with chipmaker Intel and social media firm Reddit both falling about 29%, and SanDisk, a chipmaker that has been one of the great beneficiaries of the AI capital-spending boom, dropping 13% Reuters.

This is market news reporting, not investment advice.

The Nasdaq 100 fell 3.5% on the day, putting it on the brink of a correction — a 10% decline from its recent high — while the Nasdaq Composite is down 7.8% from its closing high after its worst month since March 2025 Reuters. The rout built through the week, as the results covered in our reports on Amazon’s Q3 and the Asia AI selloff turned a valuation debate into a stampede.

The spending question at the centre

Friday’s selloff came after a bruising week for the big tech firms at the centre of the AI buildout — Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Amazon and Google parent Alphabet — whose shares dropped a further 1% to 2% on Friday following significant declines earlier in the week Reuters.

The four hyperscalers have been collectively responsible for more than a third of all the capital spending undertaken by the current constituents of the S&P 500 over the past 12 months, Capital Economics said, and their share seems likely to rise further — a prospect investors are struggling with Reuters.

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Beyond tech

The damage went well beyond technology shares, reflecting a broad pullback from risk as Treasuries rallied: silver dropped 6%, gold fell 3.5%, financial stocks were hit hard with Goldman Sachs down 4% and Jefferies off 6%, oil rose 2%, and Bitcoin fell 3% after hackers took more than $6 billion from Binance Reuters — the breach itself is covered in our report on the Binance hack and Bitcoin’s six-week low.

November now opens with a clean question for the market: the AI buildout’s spending is real and rising — what has changed is that investors want to see the revenue side of the ledger before they fund the next leg.