Data center stocks are in freefall as the AI boom's biggest winners become losers.
Companies that build the physical backbone of artificial intelligence — manufacturers, services and miners associated with building data centers — have shed $4.2 trillion in market value since June, the Financial Times reports.
That wipes out nearly half of the $9.4 trillion they added over the previous 12 months.
The hardest hit: Caterpillar lost $214 billion in market value, down 44% from the record. Oklo, Comfort Systems and Corning were each down about 49%-50%.
Investors are re-examining the AI trade amid concerns about debt-financed hyperscale spending and growing political opposition to new data centers in the US.
Midterm victories by data center opponents put moratoriums and bans on the table in several states, and the cheap money that fueled construction is getting more expensive.