Global technology and data names slid again on Friday as investors weighed the potential business impact of powerful new AI models alongside reports of sizable capital spending plans from major cloud providers. The drop in values followed the release of a new plug-in from Anthropic’s Claude and came as some hyperscalers disclosed plans to spend in excess of $600 billion on AI-related rollouts this year.
Amazon paced early pressure on markets, with shares falling about 8% in premarket trading after investors reacted to the company’s sizeable capital expenditure guidance. In London, data and analytics firm RELX dropped nearly 5%, while accounting software group Sage fell almost 4% and credit bureau Experian declined more than 2%.
London Stock Exchange Group shares extended recent weakness and were positioned for a second consecutive week of sharp losses, the stock having fallen about 7% over the week. Other European names felt the strain as well - Capgemini eased about 3% and Wolters Kluwer slid close to 4%.
The sell-off in AI-sensitive equities has also weighed on broader markets. Global shares were on track for their weakest week since November, down roughly 1.6% as the broad S&P 500 index fell about 2% on the week. U.S. software and data services companies have seen approximately $1 trillion of market value evaporate since January 28.
Commentators highlighted investor unease around ballooning capital expenditure commitments from large cloud platforms. One market strategist noted that fresh AI bubble fears have followed after big tech companies markedly raised capex plans for the year - amounting to near $650 billion across the four hyperscalers that reported earnings in the past fortnight.
The rout has been especially pronounced in India, where software exporters dropped another 2% on Friday and were set to finish a turbulent week that erased about $22.5 billion of market value. India’s IT index had declined close to 7% over the week, reflecting heightened investor concern about potential AI-driven disruption.
Alphabet also increased its spending plans midweek, which at one point pushed its stock down as much as 8% intraday, though it finished Thursday relatively unchanged and was trading flat in premarket activity on Friday. Analysts observed a recurring pattern: both Alphabet and Amazon reported robust underlying business performance, including stronger-than-expected cloud growth, but that did not counterbalance investor focus on their expanding capital investment agendas.
Overall, the market reaction combined unease about technological disruption from new AI capabilities with anxiety over the scale of near-term spending by cloud infrastructure leaders. That combination has translated into noticeable valuation losses across a range of software, data and IT services names globally.