Nvidia dropped 2.9%, AMD declined 3.9%, while Micron Technology lost 4.8% and Broadcom fell 4.3%. The Nasdaq 100 also retreated as investors questioned whether AI spending was growing faster than the revenue supporting it.
According to financial information reported by Bloomberg, OpenAI's annualized revenue approached $50 billion at the end of September, compared with the nearly $70 billion figure circulated only days earlier.
However, the apparent shortfall may have more to do with accounting differences than weakening demand.
Why OpenAI's $20 Billion Revenue Gap Shook AI Stocks
The discrepancy stems largely from how OpenAI and rival Anthropic calculate revenue generated through cloud partners.
Anthropic includes certain sales made through Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud in its reported revenue, while OpenAI records only its share of comparable transactions.
Earlier estimates reportedly adjusted OpenAI's figures to make the two companies easier to compare, creating a higher revenue number.
Importantly, annualized revenue represents a projection based on a shorter period's sales rather than revenue already earned over 12 months.
The concern nevertheless spread across semiconductor companies because OpenAI is a major customer and financial driver of the AI infrastructure expansion.
Nvidia's proposed OpenAI infrastructure partnership involves potential investments of up to $100 billion, while AMD is expanding its own AI chip business through agreements with major technology companies.
Nvidia and AMD Face Growing AI Spending Questions
The selloff highlights growing investor sensitivity to the relationship between AI revenue and infrastructure spending.
OpenAI's existing CoreWeave compute agreement illustrates how AI developers are committing billions to secure computing capacity.
Meanwhile, Nvidia has explored additional data center financing arrangements as infrastructure requirements increase.
