SoftBank Group shares fell as much as 13% in Tokyo on Monday, their steepest drop since July 17, as AI-linked stocks sold off worldwide. The selloff followed a Saturday essay by Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei, who called for the pace of AI development to slow, a sentiment echoed by Elon Musk and OpenAI's Sam Altman.

Over the weekend, the heads of Anthropic and OpenAI had called on the industry to slow the development of more capable models, citing safety concerns. This warning was not limited to these companies, as the Philadelphia semiconductor index fell more than 5% on Monday, with major players like Nvidia, AMD, and Micron each dropping 3% to 4% or more.

SoftBank had secured an $11.87 billion loan to fund its OpenAI investment, according to a Bloomberg report citing people familiar with the matter. The company declined to comment on the report, and the details have not been independently verified. This loan is part of SoftBank's larger plan to invest close to $65 billion in OpenAI by October, with the company having already raised about $37 billion from bonds and loans this year.

The borrowing continues, with SoftBank meeting investors in New York this week about a potential dollar-denominated junk bond sale that could raise $10 billion to $20 billion. Earlier this year, the company held a record retail bond sale in Japan, demonstrating its aggressive fundraising efforts. SoftBank is also set to pay off the rest of its $40 billion bridge loan on September 15, having announced it would prepay the $25.9 billion still outstanding.

Not all tech stocks were affected equally, with cybersecurity shares like CrowdStrike, Zscaler, and Palo Alto Networks seeing significant gains, up 12%, 12%, and 11% respectively by late morning in New York. The varied market response reflects the complex and multifaceted nature of the tech industry, where different sectors can move in opposing directions based on specific factors.

Some investors, however, dismissed the warnings about AI development as 'hype and puffery,' suggesting they might be used as a cover for real, uncontrollable slowing growth. Deutsche Bank questioned whether companies would voluntarily pull back on AI development, given the competitive landscape. The sentiment reflects a broader debate about the future of AI and its implications for the tech industry and beyond.

This article was written with the assistance of AI.
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