Saul Van Beurden, co-CEO of consumer banking and head of AI at Wells Fargo, and Brett Taylor, co-founder of Sierra and chairman of OpenAI, speak at the CNBC AI Forum in Dallas, Texas on October 1, 2026.
Carla Thorpe | CNBC
Hello, my name is Hui Jie from Singapore. Welcome to another edition of CNBC’s Daily Open.
There’s a line from Netflix’s BoJack Horseman that says, “When you look at people through rose-colored glasses, all red flags just look like flags.”
For much of this year, investors have viewed AI trading through a rose-tinted lens. This week they put down their glasses, and what they saw was decidedly unpleasant.
CoreWeave credit stress, concerns about corporate AI spending, and yet another inflation report wiped out more than $1 trillion from 20 of the world’s largest AI and semiconductor stocks this week.
What you need to know today
Caution seems to be the name of the game in the AI space right now, as investors are concerned about the amount of money companies are spending on AI.
As an example, Coreweave Inc. is facing spiraling credit stress, which has been highlighted amid a broader decline in AI stocks.
Yields on Coreweave bonds continue to rise, with a 9.75% bond due in 2031 now yielding 15.78%. Generally, when investors decide that a bond is risky, yields will rise.
Meanwhile, the spread on five-year credit default swaps, which provide insurance against default, soared to more than 1,140 basis points (bp) at one point.
Gavan Nolan, executive director of fixed income pricing at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said spread levels of 1,000 basis points or more are generally a sign of credit concerns.
Concerns over AI funding led to a rotation in the sector, with big AI companies like NVIDIA down 1.84%, AMD down 1.5% and Intel about 2.8%. Dell Technologies fell 6.8%.
The world’s 20 most valuable AI and semiconductor stocks have collectively lost more than $1 trillion in value so far this week, as rising interest rates, AI funding and increased competition weighed on prices.
AI safety
Funding was not the only concern. Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang also reiterated his warnings about AI safety, saying chipmakers “absolutely must collaborate” with Chinese AI companies on monitoring risks related to “potentially dangerous” technology.
“We absolutely must work together to advance technology safely,” he told CNBC at a media briefing in London on Wednesday night.
Debate over the safety of AI has intensified in recent months, after researchers at AI institutes such as OpenAI and Anthropic called for a slowdown in technology development and warned of existential risks to humanity.
hardware demand
Despite these concerns, the sector’s thirst for chips appears undiminished, as evidenced by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s record quarter.
TSMC on Thursday reported record profits for the sixth consecutive quarter, and said it expects fourth-quarter sales to rise 58% from a year ago on strong demand for its advanced chip manufacturing technology.
TSMC announced last year that it has the capacity to manufacture more than 17 million 12-inch equivalent wafers. But customers want more than that.
“Competition is extremely fierce,” said Mizuho Securities analyst Jordan Klein. “It’s a game of who can get the most influence and supply.”
inflation concerns
At the heart of all these developments is inflation.
A day after U.S. consumer inflation data for September beat expectations, producer price growth also beat expectations, highlighting continued energy-driven inflationary pressures amid the U.S.-Iranian war.
PPI rose 6.3% year-on-year, the highest growth rate since December 2022, and well above the 5.5% expected by economists compiled by Dow Jones.
In Bangkok, Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh appeared on Friday morning with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva in his last scheduled public remarks before the central bank’s blackout period ahead of its Oct. 27-28 policy meeting.
Any signal on the interest rate path could ripple through stocks, bonds and currency markets as inflation flares up again and traders consider the Fed’s next move.
— Lim Hui Jie, Anique Bao
And finally…
Netflix Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria steps down, replaced by Peter Rice
Netflix announced Thursday that former Disney executive Peter Rice will replace Bela Bajaria as its chief content officer, effective October 26.
Mr. Rice most recently oversaw coverage of Disney’s cable channels, news programming and major sporting events.
In his new role, Rice will oversee the company’s global content organization, including scripted and unscripted series, films and live events.
Prior to joining Disney, Mr. Rice held positions at 21st Century Fox and Fox Searchlight Pictures. In a statement, Netflix called him “one of the most respected creative executives in the entertainment industry.”
— Raya Neelakandan
