By Joe Stonor, Fabiana Negrin Ochoa and Kimberley Kao
Stocks tied to artificial intelligence fell across the globe after OpenAI missed its own targets for new users and revenue, as investor faith in the AI boom wobbled.
Shares in Japanese tech investment group SoftBank, which has invested heavily in OpenAI, closed close to 10% lower, while other stocks in the company's orbit also slumped. Oracle--which has a data-center deal with OpenAI worth $300 billion--traded 7.3% lower.
Chip makers Nvidia and AMD--which have both signed multibillion-dollar partnerships with the ChatGPT-owner--slid 2.6% and 5.8%, respectively, premarket.
OpenAI's Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar told others in the company that a slowdown in revenue growth could lead to the company being unable to fulfill future computing contracts, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources.
The stumble spread across other companies in the AI supply chain. In Europe, lithography machine maker ASML--which supplies memory chip makers including SK Hynix and TSMC--fell 2.3%. Fellow Dutch companies ASM International and BE Semiconductor tumbled 3.4% and 6.7%, respectively.
Chip designer Arm Holdings tumbled 8.5% premarket, while futures tied to the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 1.2%.
"OpenAI is the poster child for AI and its capabilities and ambitions," XTB research director Kathleen Brooks said.
Uncertainty around the company's performance "may threaten the AI investment theme that has driven U.S. stock markets to record highs," she said.
Concern around the AI investment narrative is justified given its foundation in two names--OpenAI and Anthropic--due to the circular deals forming around them, Swissquote's Ipek Ozkardeskaya said.
"SoftBank, Oracle and leading chipmakers are closely tied to OpenAI's success story, so the domino effect is straightforward," the analyst said.
Tech investors are on alert ahead of a clutch of earnings announcements for megacap stocks Wednesday. Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon.com and Meta Platforms are all due to publish earnings after market close.
Write to Joe Stonor at josephmichael.stonor@wsj.com, Fabiana Negrin Ochoa at fabiana.negrinochoa@wsj.com and Kimberley Kao at kimberley.kao@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 28, 2026 08:37 ET (12:37 GMT)
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