AI and chip stocks lose more than $1T this week as financing worries and rate hikes bite

CNBC reported that 20 of the most valuable global AI and semiconductor stocks have shed more than $1 trillion so far this week. Advantest, a chip testing equipment maker, dropped almost 14%, Tokyo Electron fell 6.45% and TSMC slipped 1.81% in Asian trading. CNBC attributed the selloff to interest rate hikes, AI financing concerns and rising competition. On Monday, the chief executives of Broadcom and Intel warned that financing could become a major headwind for the AI buildout. Broadcom's Hock Tan said it could be a bigger obstacle to expansion than chip or electricity shortages. That fits the IMF warning this week about circular revenue commitments in the sector. For founders and investors, the practical risk is the cost and availability of capital for compute-heavy plans. Data center projects, GPU-backed debt and vendor financing are the pressure points. Startups that depend on a lab or cloud partner to fund capacity should stress-test runway against slower funding, and fundraising narratives built on pure growth may meet tougher questions.