The Nasdaq plunges 5% — toward correction territory — as election results spook AI and chip stocks

I'm glad Cornelius Vanderbilt isn't alive to see this. It's downright unpatriotic.

The Spritzler Center for Gargantuan Computing will be a contributor towards the economy of Arlington Heights and is more appropriate than the previously planned Bear Stadium.

The Nasdaq plunges 5% — toward correction territory — as election results spook AI and chip stocks

The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average also fell sharply as investors weighed a possible slowdown in data center construction

By Cris Tolomia, Quartz Media

Updated November 5, 2026

The Nasdaq Composite fell more than 5% on Thursday and was on pace to enter correction territory as investors sold AI-related chip and data center stocks after the midterm elections.

The tech-heavy index was on pace to stand over 10% beneath the record level it reached last month. The S&P 500 slid 4%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gave up 1,639 points, a 3% drop, wiping out most of Wednesday's post-election gain.

Investors worry that Democrats taking the House and Senate, combined with victories in pivotal governor's contests, may slow construction of new data centers. Stocks tied to chips and data centers fell for a second day.

Broadcom $AVGO -10.43%, Nvidia $NVDA -9.26%, and Oracle $ORCL -6.93% each fell 6%. Qualcomm $QCOM -9.49% stock fell after the chipmaker's earnings beat estimates but its outlook disappointed.

The iShares Semiconductor ETF fell as much as 11%, a move that would mark its steepest one-day drop since March 2020, according to CNBC. Cloud providers CoreWeave, Nebius and Iren lost 9%, 13% and 14%. Tesla $TSLA -10.77% stock and SpaceX stock, both tied to Elon Musk, fell 9% and 7%.

Tim Holland, chief investment officer at Orion, told CNBC that investors are "stepping away until they get a better sense of the implications of the midterms around the AI capex cycle in particular."

Keith Buchanan, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments, linked the drop to Qualcomm and the rotation out of AI. "Yesterday was a relief rally, and today's more about investors being disappointed in Qualcomm earnings and the continuation of the rotation trade away from AI," he told The Wall Street Journal.

In South Korea, Samsung Electronics stock dropped 7.5% and SK Hynix stock lost 9.5% on Thursday, extending the AI selloff abroad.

Democrat Gina Hinojosa defeated Republican Gov. Greg Abbott $ABT -1.65% in Texas and has called for ending data center development in the state. Wells Fargo $WFC -3.03% estimates Texas holds 27% of planned U.S. data center gigawatts. Republicans hold the majority in the Texas Legislature, which limits how much Hinojosa can change policy.