Thursday, November 5 was a brutal day for tech stocks. The Nasdaq 100 fell 6.4% and lost about $2.3 trillion in market value, which Bloomberg says is the index’s biggest one-day loss in dollar terms on record. In percentage terms, it was its worst day since March 2020.
The numbers
- Nasdaq 100: −6.4%, roughly $2.3 trillion wiped out.
- Nasdaq Composite: about −5.5%, its worst day since April 2025.
- S&P 500: −4.4%. Dow: −3.5%.
- Individual stocks: Nvidia fell around 9%, while Apple slipped only about 2%, one of the better performers.
Why it fell so hard
The trigger was the midterm elections the Tuesday before. According to Bloomberg, investors fear the new Democratic majority in Congress will tighten AI rules and slow data center construction, hurting chipmakers and infrastructure providers. Trend-following systematic funds made it worse: once prices started to drop, they sold automatically and amplified the slide.
Bloomberg points to another front too: the new Congress wants Jensen Huang to explain whether Nvidia is doing enough to keep its AI chips out of China.
Why it matters even if you don’t trade stocks
Plenty of 401(k)s, IRAs and index funds hold a big slice of US tech, so a day like this shows up in everyday retirement accounts. There’s also a less visible effect: if data center construction slows, sooner or later it shows up in the AI services we use every day. An early sign was Microsoft pulling back from neocloud deals.
My take
No law has changed; the market reacted to what might happen. That shows how fragile confidence in the AI business is after two years propped up by huge spending on chips and data centers. Ironically, Apple, so often criticized for being late to AI, was one of the stocks that fell least: depending less on that infrastructure protected it this time. This isn’t investment advice, just my read on what happened.
A one-off scare, or the start of an AI slowdown? Let me know in the comments or on social media.
Sources: Bloomberg (systematic funds and the $2.3 trillion rout), Bloomberg (Nvidia chip exports), 24/7 Wall St. (index close, Nvidia and Apple), Economies.com (S&P 500, Dow and Composite). As of November 9, 2026.
