Tech selloff wipes nearly $1 trillion off Nasdaq in a single week

The sell-off began in early October 2026 and intensified as major US technology companies reported earnings. According to The Guardian, US markets fell sharply on October 31, with hundreds of billions of dollars wiped off in a single day; the tech-heavy Nasdaq shed nearly $1tn in value over the week and about $2tn over the month. The outlet attributed the decline to investors questioning whether the billions being poured into AI can generate returns quickly enough.

A Reuters report on October 30 quantified the damage further: the Nasdaq 100 fell more than 5.8% in October, with roughly $2tn of market value potentially evaporated. If that scale of loss is confirmed, it would exceed the entire valuation of SpaceX. At the company level, Alphabet's core search advertising business missed expectations and cash burn accelerated sharply, pushing its stock to its largest single-day percentage drop ever on Thursday. Meta, meanwhile, announced plans to raise funds through a record $975bn financing round, triggering investor concerns about equity dilution. At the same time, Meta, Alphabet and Amazon continue to race to expand AI infrastructure and raise spending expectations, even as higher borrowing costs make debt-financed AI investment more expensive and harder to justify.

With Apple scheduled to report next week and Nvidia, the AI sector leader, not until mid-November, the market's next move hinges on how earnings actually land. No single cause has been confirmed as yet — reporting so far points to a mix of ROI skepticism, rising capital costs and disappointing results from some of the biggest spenders.